Who We Are

Staff Expertise

Urban Strategies staff and consultants have experience as direct service providers and managers, administrators, board members, and even as founding members of grassroots faith-based and community-based organizations. Furthermore, this knowledge and experience has been almost exclusively focused on communities of color and organizations indigenous to communities in need. Urban Strategies’ cultural competency is a significant factor in impacting the effectiveness of organizations served.

Core Team

Lisa trevino Cummins

President

Urban Strategies is led by Lisa Cummins, a social entrepreneur who is passionate about building on the strengths of grassroots faith-based organizations to affect change. Prior to founding Urban Strategies, Cummins served in numerous capacities for the White House Office for Faith-Based Initiatives. Cummins helped lay the foundation for many of the initiative's non-legislative strategies and was key to engaging the leadership of community-serving African-American and Latino faith communities. From 1988-2000, Cummins enjoyed a career in the private sector as Senior Vice President of Bank of America where she pioneered strategies aimed at improving inner-city neighborhoods throughout the country. Lisa resides in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and daughter age 9, and twin boys age 6.

Debbi Speck

Director of Program Design and Technical Assistance

Debbi provides leadership in Urban Strategies’ program design and training efforts. Debbi has a passion for working with communities that are the most difficult to serve. An educator by training, Debbi most recently completed ten years of service developing comprehensive initiatives to serve Latino youth most at risk. Debbi’s work has included the development of highly engaged partnerships with more than 50 public schools; holistic programs for adjudicated youth; creating curricula that are developmentally appropriate; and facilitated working partnerships between public and private sector communities including Head Start. Based in Phoenix, Debbi is a gifted speaker who is often called upon to motivate and mobilize individuals and organizations to service.

Kelly Cowles

Project Manager

Kelly serves as Project Manager for Urban Strategies, providing management leadership and guidance on projects throughout the nation. Prior to joining Urban Strategies, Kelly served as the Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Compassion Capital Fund (CCF), a $125 million community based grant funding program aimed to increase the capacity of grassroots organizations. She provided leadership and direction to all aspects of the program and was the recipient of the 2005 ACF Leadership Award. From 2002 to 2003, Ms. Cowles worked for a management consulting company that specializes in the development of new social ventures. Ms. Cowles holds a Master's in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School, a Master's in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelor's in Business Administration from Bucknell University.

Mark Orphan

Regional Director in Southern California

In the last twenty years of leadership Mark Orphan has gained a wealth of experience in non-profit leadership and faith-based service. As a youth pastor and then missions and outreach pastor in Southern California, he gained a passion for creating opportunities for the poor and for troubled youth. Since transitioning out of full-time church leadership, Mark has led local and regional coalitions of faith and community based organizations in Southern California. He has provided training and organizational coaching focused on leadership development and capacity building for several non-profit organizations. Mark is the founder chairman of the board of Mika CDC, an asset-based Christian Community Development organization serving poor neighborhoods on the west side of Costa Mesa, CA. He has also served as the Director of Local Outreach at Vanguard University of Southern California. He serves as Vice President of the board of Enlace US. Mark has served as an Associate Director at a local university where he has focused on bridging the resources of the university faculty and students with community needs and opportunities. In this and previous roles Mark has consulted with numerous non-profits around issues of leadership and organizational development. The issues of foster care and adoption have also been very close to the hearts of Mark and his wife, Kristin. They have brought two of their four children into their home through adoption and legal guardianship. Mark earned his BA in Christian Education and is finishing his MA in Church Leadership from Vanguard University. Mark and Kristin have been married 15 years and have four children... Jake 10, Cody 9, Sadie 8, and Kalia 4.

Senior Advisors

Juliet Caceres

PhD Candidate

Juliet is completing her doctoral practicum at Chicago’s Shiner Hospital. Juliet is completing her doctoral dissertation focused on the impact of shame in Hispanic marriages. Based in Chicago, Juliet is our primary trainer of Within My Reach, a relationship skills curriculum designed for low-income single parents. Urban Strategies is one of only two organizations in the country certified to provide Train the Trainer instruction in this curriculum.

Dr. Alicia La Hoz

Alicia has worked with Urban Strategies for almost two years in developing its marriage strengthening initiatives both in the community and with the federal policy makers. Dr. La Hoz is a Wheaton graduate, with her dissertation focused on the resiliency factors within Hispanic marriages. Alicia is based in Chicago.