LeSar Support Services Team
Maureen Richey has over a decade of experience working in affordable housing, homelessness, public health, community development, and more.
Prior to leading LSS, Maureen served as a Senior Associate with LeSar Development Consultants, working with cities and regional bodies across Los Angeles County on homelessness-related planning and implementation. Other projects of note include disaster recovery housing outreach for the State of California and community investment grants management for a large Medicaid Managed Care Organization.
Maureen has previously provided technical assistance through the Council of State Governments Justice Center in New York to communities across the country on creating strategies to address criminal justice recidivism among individuals with mental illness and housing instability. Prior to joining the Council of States Governments Justice Center, she was a policy analyst for the Alliance for Children and Families in Washington DC and also a Housing and Community Development Associate at ICF International.
She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a Masters of Public Policy from Duke University, and an Accelerated Management Development Certificate from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She has also completed two years of AmeriCorps service working at both a shelter for homeless youth and a community action agency in rural southwestern Oregon.
Amanda Wagner brings a diverse background in program and policy development related to city planning, community development, public health, food systems, and people-centered social enterprise to her role at LSS. In her decade-plus tenure as a program manager with the City of Philadelphia, Amanda was responsible for soliciting, implementing and monitoring several large federal and state grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Block Grant, and the Environmental Protection Agency supporting community health initiatives, institutional policy change, and community-driven development.
She designed and launched a community grantmaking program with a local community development financial institution to provide ~$1 million in gap funding for community-led food-based enterprises—serving as lead on the development of letters of interest, application and promotional material, outreach tools, applicant support and training, language translation, and selection committee facilitation. She also supported the co-creation and presentation of recommendations regarding federal food and farm policy to the Biden Federal Agency Transition Teams as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Food Policy Advisors Network.
As co-chair of the membership-based Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council, she supported policy development and program design informed by community residents centering anti-racism and social justice. Prior to her work in the City, she led regional stakeholder engagement and research with the local metropolitan planning organization and national farm bill advocacy as an Emerson National Hunger Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Wagner holds a bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College.
Fatima Juarez supports project outreach and data collection including the facilitation and coordination of stakeholder interviews in English and Spanish. Prior to joining the LeSar team, Fatima worked in direct service with low-income communities, former-foster youth, and domestic violence survivors.
As an Associate with LeSar Development Consultants, she worked in outreach and community engagement, stakeholder and key informant interviews, meeting facilitation, and document translation and remediation. Fatima has provided support in the California Health Needs Assessment for Gateways Hospital in Los Angeles, and worked on the RecoverCA 2017 and 2018 wildfire grant, a notable disaster recovery housing outreach project for the state of California. She has also aided in projects in Oregon, including the Douglas County Youth Homelessness Roadmap.
Ms. Juarez holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University of Fullerton in Human Services with a concentration in Mental Health and Psychology.
Chris Hardy works on grant writing projects, administration, and data research and collection. They worked for LeSar Development Consultants as a Case Manager and Lead on the ReCoverCA 2017 and 2018 wildfire grant for nearly two years before becoming an associate with LeSar Support Services.
Prior to Chris’ work with LeSar, they primarily worked in the mental health field coordinating services in a 24-hour long term care facility working with SMI population, as well as case management focused on the crossroads of post-incarceration and homelessness.
Chris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis campus in Psychology.
Brittany Halfhide is LeSar Support Services’ Community Outreach Associate working primarily with the ReCoverCA programs, a notable disaster recovery housing outreach project for the state of California, and the outreach related to these programs. Brittany has lived in Chico, CA for over a decade and knows how devastating wildfires can be with Paradise’s Camp Fire, only fifteen minutes away.
Prior to LeSar, Brittany spent eight years working as a paralegal and directly with over a thousand disaster survivors through the litigation process for over 10 wildfires. Brittany has extensive knowledge of client relations, damages related to wildfires, and helping survivors in their recovery by assisting with document preparation and submission.
Brittany holds an MBA and, more recently, obtained a Project Management Certificate. Some of her hobbies include roller blading, wood engraving, guitar playing, and trying new dinner recipes.
Executive Team
Jennifer LeSar is the founding CEO of LeSar Development Consultants, and the founder of both the Global Policy Leadership Academy and LeSar Support Services – three firms working together to grow thriving, healthy, and vibrant communities.
Jennifer combines a background of more than three decades in community development, real estate development, and investment banking with a deep working knowledge of eco-system change management and organizational strategy. Jennifer’s work supports clients in achieving impactful and scalable solutions to today’s most vexing policy challenges including addressing our global housing affordability crisis and ending homelessness in the United States.
Ms. LeSar received both her M.B.A. in real estate and finance and an M.A. in urban planning from UCLA and she received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in political science and economics. She also completed an executive program in social entrepreneurship at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and is a fellow at The Billions Institute.
Christina Mun is the Chief Strategy Officer of LeSar Holdings Inc. and brings 17 years of housing development and policy experience in California and New York to the LSS team. She most recently led the City of Oakland’s Housing & Community Development Department as Interim Director, where she co-authored the department’s 2021-2023 Strategic Action Plan, guided Oakland’s successful 2023-2031 Housing Element Update, drove agency policy and data initiatives, and oversaw the multifamily and small homeowner lending teams. Christina also led the City’s efforts to secure new sources of funding to meet the City’s urgent need for affordable housing, including nearly $70M in State Homekey and Local Housing Trust Fund awards since 2020.
Prior to Oakland, Christina worked in strategic planning and policy for the housing agencies of San Francisco and New York City, and she developed housing across the Bay Area with private and nonprofit developers. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley (master of City Planning) and UC San Diego (B.A. Urban Studies).
Rachel Ralston is LeSar Holdings’ Chief of Staff, overseeing the organization’s client-facing teams. Rachel’s prior work has focused primarily on project management, stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and strategic planning, including community outreach regarding homelessness and affordable housing issues statewide, homelessness plan development, and capacity building. She has extensive experience with stakeholder engagement, survey and experimental research design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and strategic plan development.
Ms. Ralston received a master’s degree and doctorate in communication from Ohio State University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
Rich Valdez is LeSar’s Chief Operations Officer, managing and overseeing the LeSar portfolio’s governance, contracting and procurement, marketing and communications, policies and procedures, and risk management. Rich was a civil litigation attorney handling a wide variety of complex business and commercial disputes, representing the largest of companies to small businesses, for over 30 years. He has over 25 years of experience teaching at the University of San Diego’s School of Law and Paralegal Program.
Rich was a member of the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission and has served on many public and nonprofit boards for almost three decades. He received his juris doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and his B.A. in political science from University of California, San Diego.
