Strategic Leadership Team
Sofía Martínez Álverez
Executive Director, Titín Foundation
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofia-martinez-alvarez-gonzalez-b1943617/
Executive Director, Titín Foundation
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofia-martinez-alvarez-gonzalez-b1943617/
Sofía Martínez-Álvarez González, Executive Director for Titín Foundation, a local foundation focused on initiatives that improve the quality of life for individuals and communities through projects that support education, promote access to the arts, and strengthen the nonprofit sector.
With over 15 years of experience, Sofía holds several leadership positions within the nonprofit sector of Puerto Rico, as well as having served as consultant, executive director, and board member for numerous nonprofit foundations and organizations. Graduating from the University of St. Louis with a Bachelor’s in Literature and Psychology, Sofía also holds a Juris Doctor from the Interamerican University Law School in San Juan. She began her career in philanthropy at Fundación Segarra Boerman e Hijos, Inc., where she served for nearly a decade as Executive Director. During this time, Sofía also worked as an Executive Consultant for Fundación Corazón Guerrero and Fundación Eduardo Méndez Bagur, and for the last eight years has been a Board Member of Filantropía Puerto Rico (formerly the Funders’ Network of Puerto Rico) and Colaborativo PR. Since 2014, Sofía has served as Executive Director of the Titín Foundation, which was originally founded as Fundación LF Segarra by Luis Felipe “Titín” Segarra Boerman in 1999, and later renamed as an homage to its deceased founder.
Professor Grisobelle Virella-Corujo
Chancellor’s Assistant for External Resources, University of Puerto Rico, Ponce
Chancellor’s Assistant for External Resources, University of Puerto Rico, Ponce
Professor Grisobelle Virella-Corujo is an experienced educator and university administrator having dedicated over 30 years in leadership roles related to sponsored programs, such as regional director, counselor, counseling component coordinator, trainer, grant writer and research administrator in private and public institutions. She has a BS in Mathematics from the UPR-Mayaguez Campus, a MSEd in Counseling from University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and 21 doctoral credits in Counseling from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Metro Campus.
Professor Virella-Corujo has been in charge of the Office of External Resources at the UPR-Ponce since 2002, making significant progress in promoting and supporting research projects. She was directly involved in developing several projects encouraging researchers, faculty and administrative staff to foster integrated competitive funding opportunities. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Society of Research Administrators for Puerto Rico, Inc. (SAIPR), showing the same outstanding commitment, while working and providing assistance and support to others. She has been the President of the Nominations Committee and of the Communications and Membership Committee, the SAI Webmaster and member of the Professional Education Committee and of the Communications and Membership Committee. She is the President Elect of SAIPR and the President of the Professional Education Committee.
A personal goal of Professor Virella-Corujo’s is to exploit untapped resources and inspire others to do the same. Under her leadership, UPR-Ponce was awarded over fourteen projects in a single fiscal year, the first time since its founding in 1970, receiving more than one million dollars, including external funds from federal, state and private sources. Currently, she is working towards the achievement of two proposals to strengthen the development of virtual education at UPR-Ponce by obtaining over $250,000 in funding from USDA-NIFA and $13 million in a proposal submitted to the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to develop the UPR-Ponce Smart Hub. She has been the Secretary of the Administrative Board of the Municipal Port of Ponce since 2009.
Eng. Oscar Misla Villalba
President, CIRACET Corporation
President, CIRACET Corporation
Engineer Oscar Misla-Villalba is the President of CIRACET Corp., an ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company that specializes in healthcare consulting and management. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI; a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, PR; and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. He completed a Clinical Engineering Internship at Yale University School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital and holds Post Graduate Certificates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT in Clinical Information Delivery Infrastructure, and Cardiovascular Concepts for Engineers.
Engineer Misla has 22 years of experience in the field of radiology and clinical engineering in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and the United States. He has developed several professional publications and currently serves as a clinical engineering consultant to over 32 medical institutions in Puerto Rico while also serving as a speaker in various health industry congresses.
He has been a speaker for the Pan American Health Organization as part of the Advanced Clinical Engineering Workshops. He was recognized by Ernst & Young as the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Health Care Sector in 2005, and by the Southern Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce in 2006 and 2017. In 2011 he was recognized as one of the best 60 Clinical Engineers in the U.S. by the "24 x 7 magazine” and in 2017 was admitted as a Biomedical Engineering Professor at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.
Engineer Misla is a licensed engineer and member of the Association of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation - "AAMI", the American College of Clinical Engineers - "ACCE", the "Biomedical Engineering Alliance Consortium – BEACON" and the Health Information Management Systems Society - "HIMSS".
Engineer Misla, was born in Ponce. He is married to the engineer Noris Torres and the father of three children who are 20, 17, and 10 years old.
Soraya M. Sesto
President, Casa Grande Interactive Communications
President, Casa Grande Interactive Communications
Soraya M. Sesto is president of Casa Grande Interactive Communications, a private enterprise dedicated to transformation and innovation through service, education and creativity. Graduated in 1987 from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Soraya holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Latin American Studies, and a master’s degree in Communications with a major in Public Relations. After working with international public relations firms, she founded Casa Grande where for 25 years she has developed strategies to integrate interactive technology for the improvement of our societies through training and development, communications and analytical evaluative processes. She originally focused on business and, for the past 15 years, has used her expertise to impact public education.
The programs Casa Grande created include Operation Exito, an academic platform that for 10 years inspired students and teachers by integrating interactive web, gaming and internet technology to academic content, impacting more than 1 million students and 50,000 teachers in Puerto Rico and other countries. The Intensive Treatment intervention program was developed to support and change the future of schools at risk of closing. The New Virtual School, a comprehensive and interactive academic platform with a unique methodology, achieved a 25% improvement in academic results among participating students and made them more likely to study careers in science and mathematics.
This experience promoted the creation in 2012 of One on One, an intervention model based on the integration of mentoring, technology, tutoring and training aimed at students who are likely to abandon school. In its first year, this innovative program achieved an increase in graduation rates from 49% to 95% and has continued its success rate for the past six years expanding to nine communities.
Born and raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Soraya works with film director and husband Noel Quiñones. She has been a speaker at various conferences on public relations in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Toledo and Barcelona, Spain; Lima, Perú and Medellín, Colombia and has participated in multiple professional organizations including: the Board of Trustees of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico; the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism (AMERICORPS - appointed Commissioner since 2008); Public Relations Society of America; the American Society for Training and Development; the Organizational Development Network, Puerto Rico Chapter; the Society for the Marketing Executive, Puerto Rico Chapter; and the Association of Public Relations Professionals of Puerto Rico.
Gail Nolan CEcD
Chief Strategy Officer, Invest Puerto Rico
Chief Strategy Officer, Invest Puerto Rico
Ms. Nolan is the Chief Strategy Officer for Invest Puerto Rico. She is a nationally recognized subject matter expert in disaster recovery economic strategy development, sector targeted economic development strategies, economic public/private partnership strategies, university engagement and grant program administration. She brings over 35 years of experience in economic development, tourism, marketing and promotion related organizational management, personally directing programs at the corporate, local, regional, state and federal level.
Previously Ms. Nolan worked 10 years for the State of Wisconsin, where she served as the Chair of the Economic Subcommittee for the Governor’s Emergency Task Force and on the Governor’s Wisconsin Emergency Strategy Team leading economic strategies. She developed state and national recovery projects designed to mitigate economic damage resultant from federally declared disasters in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011, which dramatically impacted critical infrastructure in over half of the state, as well as responding to the simultaneous collapse of the regional auto industry and subsequent recession. During this time, she effectively managed a portfolio of over $250 million in Community Development Block Grant- Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding and over $50 Million in Economic Development Administration (EDA) funding.
Most recently she served as The Director of Sector Strategies with specific focus on aerospace, life sciences and information technology where she specialized in aligning regional assets to global market needs and creating unique competitive positions. Wisconsin metrics improvement included raising aerospace industry production by 54% in one year, raising aerospace sector exports by 18% four quarters in a row, and Madison being named the #1 attractor of Millennial talent. During this time Wisconsin rose in CNN’s ‘states for business’ ranking from 37th to 11th out of 50 states.
As part of this work she led the creation of a strategic action plan for the Transform Milwaukee Initiative, a comprehensive, public-private initiative that leveraged workforce, industrial strengths and transportation assets to expand community investments, increase business development, boost job creation and strengthen neighborhoods. The initiative was honored by the American Planners Association as a national best practice for innovative strategies. This combined experience provides her unique insight on how to successfully use distressed economic circumstances as an opportunity to transition toward technology-based, collaboratively fueled, globally competitive, growth strategies.
Gail has been the Chief Strategist for the Wisconsin Aerospace Partners housed at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in partnership with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and the CEO of Towers Nolan Consulting, providing tech-led solutions for strategic industry growth using public-private partnerships. In that capacity Ms. Nolan was the Chief Economic Advisor to Milwaukee 7 on the Midwest Industry Exchange project, a collaborative agreement with the Ohio Aerospace Space Institute, NASA and the Federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) designed to utilize federal lab technology resources to grow industry in distressed communities.
Ms. Nolan is a Certified Economic Professional recognized by the International Economic Development Council.
John Bozek has over a decade of experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors as an accomplished economic development and financial leader. Among his accomplishments, Bozek currently serves as Research & Strategy Analyst at Invest Puerto Rico, a non-profit economic development promotion organization that promotes Puerto Rico as a competitive investment jurisdiction to attract new business and capital investment to the Island.
He previously served as an Associate at V2A Strategic Management Consultants in San Juan, where he advised various government agencies on fiscal matters and economic development policy, and as the Senior Financial Analyst/ Project Underwriter for Empire State Development, New York State’s chief economic development agency. Prior to that, he led small business lending departments at non-profit community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in Long Island, Upper Manhattan, and Queens, and provided financial, grant-writing, and strategic planning support to various non-profits in the New York metro area. Additionally, he has provided business planning support to hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses and non-profits.
John Bozek earned his BA in History at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and subsequently his Master’s in Urban Planning, with a specialization in Economic Development, from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.