LeSar Support Services Team
Rachel Ralston is LeSar Support Services’ Chief of Staff, overseeing the organization’s client-facing team. 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.
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 is an Associate who manages LSS’s software solution for its fiduciary services projects and supports on business development, grant writing, and data research and collection. Prior to this role, Chris served as a Case Manager and lead for the California Department of Community Development’s ReCoverCA Housing Programs.
Prior to Chris’s work with LeSar, they primarily worked in the mental health field coordinating services in a 24-hour long-term care facility working with the SMI population, as well as case management focused on the crossroads of post-incarceration and homelessness.
Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Davis campus.
Brittany Halfhide is an Associate and Project Manager for LSS’s fiduciary services projects, overseeing project contracting and execution and supporting on business development. She began her time at LSS as a Community Outreach Associate working primarily with the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s ReCoverCA Housing Programs, a statewide disaster recovery program.
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 rollerblading, wood engraving, guitar playing, and trying new dinner recipes.
Shena Service is LSS’s Funds Administration Analyst, processing funding requests and account reconciliations for LSS’s fiduciary management projects.
Prior to joining LSS, Shena worked as a Quality Assurance/Quality Control Lead for the California Department of Community Development’s ReCoverCA Housing Programs. Shena has more than 20 years of experience as a senior mortgage loan underwriter and a senior mortgage loan processor/document specialist. She holds a BA in English Literature from Brooklyn College CUNY in Brooklyn, New York, and several bookkeeping certificates from Intuit.
Executive Team
Jennifer LeSar 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.
She is the CEO/Founder of several systems change and sustainable communities-focused firms.
Her 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.
Jennifer received her M.B.A. in real estate and finance and an M.A. in urban planning from UCLA, as well as her B.A. in political science and economics from Bryn Mawr College. She also completed an Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a Fellow at The Billions Institute and a Lecturer at Stanford University on the California housing crisis.
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.
Francesca San Diego, LeSar Holdings’ contracted Chief Financial Officer, has almost 30 years of experience in finance and business management in a wide range of organizations, including three start-up ventures. Ms. San Diego’s areas of expertise include financial oversight, strategic planning, and business development. Her background includes projects in industries as diverse as entertainment, technology, computer software, sustainable energy, and nonprofit. She assists clients in developing and implementing sound accounting, finance, and administrative practices and manages multiple teams to accomplish their goals. Her experience includes key financial positions at Sony and The Wherehouse, serving as CFO of an Internet start-up and CFO and COO of a global entertainment business where she had full P&L responsibility. Ms. San Diego has also served on the boards of commercial and nonprofit organizations and is contracted to teach a Green Business Return-On- Investment Extension Class at Cal State San Marcos. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Sociology from Vanderbilt University.
