Leadership Team

Community and Workforce Development Experts

The Leadership Team at CRCD is guided in their interactions with the community, partners, clients, and each other by these firmly held core values – Collaboration, Accountability, Effectiveness, Stewardship, Empowerment, and Commitment.

Carolina Cortazar

Director of Housing & Support Services 

Carolina Cortazar has more than 15 years working with the special needs population as well as providing strategic leadership and programmatic oversight of organization programming and stakeholders. Carolina has successfully led and directed initiatives in permanent supportive housing (PSH), emergency shelter, bridge housing, recuperative care contracts, and affordable housing. 

Carolina has extensive experience in the mental health and housing sectors. During her past 10 years in senior management positions, she has focused on supporting executive leadership to expand and implement new projects. Carolina has served in multiple key leadership roles with HUD, DHS, VA, United Way, and Continuum of Care partner agencies. We believe Carolina’s experience will bolster the service delivery and scale of housing-based support services, homeless youth services in Service Planning Area 6 (SPA 6), and barrier reduction and removal for youth experiencing homelessness. 

Latea Davis

Associate Director of Youth Workforce Development

Born and raised in South LA, Latea Davis witnessed the everyday struggles of our service population and the barriers they are faced with daily. In August of 2012, Latea began her workforce development career with CRCD as an intake specialist, was promoted to youth advocate, later assumed a leadership role as the VCN YouthSource Center Manager, and most recently, stepped into the South Los Angeles YouthBuild Manager role.

As the Associate Director of Workforce Development for Youth, Latea leads a team of service providers and education professionals that work collectively to operate innovative workforce development and education programming for youth in the South LA area that face barriers when seeking education and employment. Latea oversees the daily operations of all youth workforce development and education programs while ensuring the implementation of CRCD’s client-focused service delivery model, confirming data entry, and safeguarding grant performance.

Latea’s leadership, youth development experience, and dedication to serving our South LA community exemplify CRCD’s core values. She holds a degree in Elementary Education/ English from Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas.

Kenta Estrada-Darley

Director of South LA All In

Kenta has been with CRCD since 2017, previously serving as the Associate Director of Education and Director of Youth Development Operations. In these roles, he led a dynamic team of workforce development providers and educational experts and was responsible for the implementation of policies, strategic partnerships, and holistic youth development interventions that supported the continuous improvement, innovation, and programmatic growth. Through the development of innovative service delivery models and cross-sector collaboration, Kenta has elevated CRCD’s client-centered approach to serving South LA’s most vulnerable youth, with a special focus on youth involved in the child welfare, justice, and homeless systems.

As Director of South LA All In, Kenta will lead the planning and implementation of a multi-year, collaborative initiative to address longstanding racial and socioeconomic inequities in South Los Angeles, with a focus on historically marginalized areas east of the 110-freeway.

Kenta has over 12 years of experience working in the social justice sector with a specialization in youth workforce development. He was part of the start-up team at Green City Force, a workforce development nonprofit in Brooklyn, NY that prepares young adults for careers in a green economy. After moving to California in 2014, Kenta joined John Muir Charter Schools, where he designed and built their Los Angeles Career Pathways program.

Kenta has a Bachelor of Arts from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study from New York University and a Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management from Antioch University Los Angeles.

Jose Guadron

Director of Workforce Development

As the Director of Workforce Development, Jose Guadron leads a dedicated team of workforce development, education, and economic development professionals to deliver innovative programming and services for youth, adults, individuals returning to society, and families in South Los Angeles.

Working closely with the Associate Director of Youth Workforce Development and the Associate Director of Adult Workforce Development, Jose strives to develop and implement services that eliminate barriers to employment, quality training, education, and high-touch case management. Jose Guadron previously served as the Director of Youth Development Programming at CRCD, where he provided oversight and guidance on the various education and workforce development programs for youth devoted to transforming the lives of young adults throughout South Los Angeles. As Director of Youth Development Programming, he supervised all workforce development and education programs’ daily operations while monitoring service implementation, data entry, and grant performance.

Jose has more than 15 years of nonprofit experience working to improve the lives of disconnected young adults through employment, training, and education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from California State University Northridge and a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Antioch University Los Angeles, where he also became a Certified Nonprofit Professional through the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.

Martha Lacomba

Controller  

Martha Lacomba has over 20 years of accounting experience and 10 years of account management. She joined CRCD in 2017 and currently leads the finance department as the Controller. Prior to joining CRCD, she worked as an Accounts Receivable Manager, Budget Analyst, and Senior Staff Accountant.  Martha holds an MBA with a concentration in accounting, and an BA in International Studies both from the University of La Verne.

She is a proud Angeleno and it brings her joy to be part of the CRCD family and witness the great things the organization provides to the South Los Angeles Community.

Elyce Martinez

Director of Learning & Evaluation  

Elyce Martinez joined CRCD in 2019 bringing her experience and enthusiasm for data inquiry to her new role as Director of Learning & Evaluation with CRCD. Elyce has dedicated her career to using data analysis to expose and improve inequities in opportunities for all youth, from her start in direct service delivery, working with at-risk high school students in San Francisco, to her current work in Los Angeles non-profits. She focuses on program evaluation, integrated data systems, and crafting compelling impact and advocacy reports. Before joining CRCD, Elyce served as Assistant Director of Research & Evaluation at Youth Policy Institute (YPI) where she managed the architecture and implementation of a new integrated data system and worked with cross-department leadership on data-driven performance management to assess and improve program outcomes for participants.

As the Director of Learning & Evaluation, Elyce leads a team in building an integrated systems architecture to track and monitor the progress toward achieving CRCD’s 5-year strategic plan goals and grant funder outcomes through analysis and data visualizations to measure overall effectiveness and impact of the organization.

Lisa Winkle

Director of Marketing & Communications

As the Director of Marketing & Communications at CRCD, Lisa serves as the agency’s marketing and communications professional to develop and implement effective strategies for CRCD and its programs in support of the organization’s strategic plan. Lisa joined CRCD in 2018 as the Marketing & Communications Manager; during her time at the organization, she has developed and implemented marketing & communications strategies to promote CRCD’s impact and services to the organization’s funders and supporters as well as increase the visibility of CRCD services.

Lisa brings more than 20 years of professional experience in the non-profit and for-profit industries. During her time in the non-profit sector, she helped grow the Valley Economic Development Center from a small non-profit organization servicing Los Angeles County to a leading national small business lender in 8 states. Before entering the non-profit arena, Ms. Winkle was Director of Marketing for Sony Pictures feature film division. As part of the creative advertising department, she served as the exclusive liaison from creative advertising to external approval sources working with advertising agencies to create campaigns that reflected the image of a film based on the director’s and producer’s vision and met MPAA, DGA, WGA, and network broadcast standards and practices.

Lisa specializes in storytelling through traditional design, press/public relations, digital, video, and social media. She holds a BA in Communications from the University of Arkansas.

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