Guerrilla Community Movement
GCM believes that the power and responsibility to solve community challenges lies within the community. Imbalances in our social values and connections perpetuate inequalities of opportunity. By fostering unity, we embark on a mission to facilitate the healing of our communities. With leaders from diverse backgrounds, we craft innovative projects and services, like heartfelt recipes, to empower and uplift our local communities on an inspiring journey of transformation.
Our founding story
Where it all began
We started as GMM; Guerrilla Mask Movement, laser-focused on quality control, sourcing, and delivery of quality medical grade masks to frontline workers in need during the initial phases of the Covid pandemic when the mask supply chain in the US was faced with one of the worst supply chain disruptions its ever faced in history. Quickly we were joined by people from all walks of life to share important information impacting social and commercial concerns alike, months before they hit mainstream news, creating a brain trust of leaders with a passion to get ahead of our community problems.
Today we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the name Guerrilla Community Movement taking our initial grassroots, entrepreneurial approach to serving local communities.
GCM’s membership programs and enrichment programs further educate disadvantaged youth and empowered them to have a better community in the future, and at the heart of all these initiatives is a focus on bringing a community together and helping those most in need.
Meet the GCM Team
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Henry Park
Henry is a technology entrepreneur with 18+ years experience building teams and networks of high impact individuals globally. He has a creative passion in what can be achieved by getting people and resources together to solve problems. Rooted in the kundalini yogic framework of existence, he looks at personal, family, business, spiritual and philanthropic efforts as one integrated way of living. He has a BS in Economics and a minor in Psychology from UC Irvine and an Executive MBA from Tuck University.
Jennifer Lakhmi Chand Kelly
Eric Speicher
David M. Meyer
David has over 30 years of legal experience and over 40 years of business experience to draw from. David is V.P., Chief Legal Officer with Aurora Spine, a publicly-traded medical device company.
David operates his own law firm and has practiced with large and small law firms and as in-house general counsel. David also spent time on the client-side of the table, serving as Chief Operating Officer for the Anthony Robbins Companies during a period of rapid growth for the company headed by peak performance speaker, Tony Robbins.
David specializes in business transactions, corporate formation and operations, real estate matters, including acquisition, sale and leasing and licensing matters. David has represented clients such as Ross Dress for Less, Gymboree, Chevy’s, Pulte Homes, the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum and Carruth Cellars.
Laura Wittcoff
Laura Wittcoff is the principal of the Intrinsic Group and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. She consults with organizations and presents at business conferences in the areas of strategic thinking, creative problem solving, change and culture. Laura has developed a method, Gamifying Engagement®, for organizations to capitalize on better understanding and delivering their message to increase their visibility and more recently, developed a podcast, Small & Gutsy to support nonprofits and social impact organizations in their efforts to spread their message. Laura previously served as the Associate Director for JRI Health’s Realize Resources, a capacity and leadership building practice. In this role, she designed and directed all areas of organizational capacity development, focusing on strategic planning and change management where she values building and coaching internal teams to lead change efforts.
Laura received her doctorate from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, her master’s degree in Social Work from Boston University, and a post-graduate fellowship in Organization Development from the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. She is also certified to administer the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Laura was a key contributor to the team that was awarded the Brandon Hall Award recognizing advances in Learning and Development and was honored as the recipient of the Jane Addams Award from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, recognizing the faculty member selected by graduating students as providing academic, administrative and moral support.
Dave Brisbois
Dave is a professional kid at heart, infusing fun into brands for 30 years. He has developed packaging, products, merchandising programs, and retail concepts for Universal Studios, Knott’s, and once operated his own local toy & candy stores.
Given the moniker “VPOF” (Vice President of Fun), at Funko Dave helped create a community around pop culture collectibles. He can be seen in the documentary “Making Fun: The Story of Funko” and is proud to have helped plant the seeds that grew into millions of fans worldwide.
As “Brand Sheriff” (VP, Marketing) for Popcornopolis, Dave helped grow the brand from a small retail operation into a large-scale manufacturer, culminating in a sale to Grupo Bimbo in late 2021.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Gabe Cortina
As CTO of Bunim/Murray Productions (BMP), Cortina focuses on creating and executing technology solutions to protect, optimize, scale, and innovate the business. Having worked in 3 startups and 4 Fortune 500 companies, Cortina brings over 20 years of experience in business and technology leadership roles. Cortina has a track record leading the development of international products for people with chronic diseases, earning a President’s Award and a Product Innovation Award. In 2013 Gabe was nominated CIO of the Year by LA Business Journal and CTO of the Year in 2017. Cortina holds a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and a Bachelor’s of Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Cortina reports to the Chief Financial Officer.
Hellen Norris
Helen Norris is Vice President of information technology and CIO at Chapman University where she is responsible for leading the university’s information technology strategy and services and oversight of the University Library. Previously, Helen was the Associate CIO at California State University, Sacramento. Before that, Helen spent twelve years at UC Berkeley where she held progressive information technology management roles at both the departmental and central levels. She also previously worked as VP for IT for an advertising agency and a law firm, both in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kevin Gray
Kevin Gray is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Burbank California. His vision and leadership drives the City’s Digital Government Initiatives, ensuring effective and efficient utilization of digital technology to improve city services, create new efficiencies, enhance public safety, promote and enhance economic development, improve transportation and mobility, improve sustainability and enhance the quality of life for the City’s residents, day-time population and visitors.
Mr. Gray’s prior experience includes over 20 years in technology, first working at DreamWorks as head of the data center operations and systems administration. Then serving as Vice President of IT Infrastructure and Operations for Paramount Pictures following the merger of DreamWorks with Paramount Pictures in 2006. Mr. Gray stayed on for another seven years ending up at Viacom in 2013, Paramount’s parent company as Vice President for Global Media and IT Infrastructure Technology where he led the Global Technology Infrastructure Services Consolidation and Transformation Program integrating information technology and media infrastructure for Viacom, Viacom International Media Networks and Paramount Pictures.
Much of Mr. Gray’s career has been spent driving IT strategy and transformational digital change to align with business strategy and to help organizations achieve their business goals and objectives.
Dave Ruedger
Dave Ruedger is the Chief Information Security Officer for Risk Management Solutions based out of Newark, CA. RMS is a premier provider of catastrophe risk models for the insurance industry that help organizations forecast losses for hurricane, earthquake, flood, wildfire, pandemic, terrorism and cyber risk for both on prem and cloud hosted SaaS environments. Dave holds CISSP and CRISC certifications and has over 25 years of experience developing and managing security programs for organizations as diverse as pre-IPO startups to large Fortune 500 enterprises. Prior to joining RMS, Dave was a co-founder of a company that provided a hosted marketing platform with full service ecommerce and data analytics capabilities to drive higher engagement and customer retention for globally distributed users in 23 languages, and he has been a strong advocate of data protection and privacy rights throughout his career.
Joe Pensiero
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Lindy Bostrom
Lindy has been helping businesses create, communicate and leverage their brands for over 25 yrs. Over the last 10 years she has built Bostrom Graphics as an outsourced brand and marketing department for small businesses.
Lindy lived and worked in New York City for 20 yrs at several ad agencies and design studios, ran a national magazine as Design Director, and started Bostrom Graphics around 1998. In 2003 she relocated to California where she served as Creative Director for several companies in health and beauty. Bostrom Graphics’ focus is on the health and sustainability sectors while maintaining strong ties in public speaking and entertainment businesses.
When she’s not immersed in Bostrom Graphics, Lindy practices and teaches Yoga and follows Ayurvedic medicine. “The practice informs my business relations not only in my constant thirst to learn about health & wellness, but also regarding personal integrity and accountability in building trusting, growth-oriented relationships.”
GCM PRODUCERS
Kyli Millender
Kyli is a born problem solver with a natural ability to cut through the clutter. With her vocal, no-nonsense approach and inability to stand on the sidelines, she jumps at opportunities to use her talents to help dreamers do. Whether with paint, fabric or computer code, she loves to make something out of nothing and leverages this creative background to guide others into their full potential. What's more, she maintains a professional modeling career and is acting mother to one equally vocal, (not-so-small anymore) furry feline.
Gugo Martikyan
Gugo is a passionate entrepreneur and a dedicated technologist deeply committed to creating, supporting, and promoting science and technology solutions aimed at benefiting our communities. His two decades of experience in leadership span a multitude of industries, including aerospace, energy, supply chain management, bioscience, software, and finance. He has been an instrumental business and technology leader in a spectrum of companies, ranging from startups to established Fortune 500s, two of which resulted in major acquisitions: one by VMWare in a 100+ million-dollar transaction, and another in a multibillion-dollar transaction by TPG Capital. Gugo is experienced in leading technical due diligence efforts in other M&A’s.
Currently, Gugo is the co-founder and CTO/COO of BrandLens Inc., cutting-edge content development and curation platform; the cofounder of CogniCoder, an online computer science education program for kids. He is also the co-founder and executive partner at NetGenix Inc., Los Angeles-based company with a mission to guide and support startups with US and global market entry.
Gugo holds a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as numerous certifications and awards. He loves working with brilliant people and thrives in fast-paced and challenging environments; his hobbies include various outdoor activities as well as travelling with his wife and two children.
Mary Jacobson
Mary Jacobson is Content Coordinator for the INlighten Community. She has been teaching yoga and meditation in Los Angeles since 2008, with a focus on seniors with dementia and other severe impairments. Before taking up a kundalini yoga practice, Mary was a professional print and online journalist. She has a BA in Humanities from the University of Louisville and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University as well as Kundalini Level 1 & 2 certifications, 200-hour RYT certification, and Accessible Yoga training. Her two professions intersected in 2018 after she learned of her kundalini yoga community's involvement in human detention at the US southern border through corporate contracts with ICE. She created a petition and website to bring attention to the issue and then worked with a group of activists to demand change. But when the chronic abuse, corruption, and hypocrisy at the root of kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan was exposed in 2020, Mary knew it was officially time to move on. She is pursuing a new approach to her teaching and practice, one that better reflects her values of integrity, transparency, and authenticity.
April McCowan
She is a mother, aunt, sister, and daughter. She is a seasoned IT Professional & Project Manager working for 3GC Group & Pandoblox with a Secret Clearance. She does volunteer work with Youth Motivation Task Force, Special Olympics, Feeding the homeless, Jewish Women’s League, Human Trafficking and helps people along the way.
Kiomi Sison
Through the years, Kiomi volunteered in several corporate programs like outreach to a care facility for mentally challenged children, donation program for a children’s hospital, tree planting activity for a watershed dam, and similar drives. As part of GMM initiatives, she coordinated the group’s effort for the needs of Union Station Homeless Shelter, Leisure Court Nursing Center, Para Los Niños, and Grenada mask assistance. She is glad to be a part of GCM as it evolved. Partaking in the behind-the-scenes effort and actual activities which helps out other people and nature, are ways for her to give back thru service.
OUR PARTNERS
