The Rising Team

BOARD of DIRECTORS

    Carmel Jud - President / Chief Executive Officer
    Judy Brose - Chairperson of the Board
    Alan Christenson - Vice Chairperson of the Board / Secretary
    Mark Wise - Board Member
    Phil Dixon - Board Member
    Margaret D'Arrigo-Martin - Board Member
    Jan Scholes - Board Member
    Nadia Hashimi - Board Member

RISING BOARD COMMITTEES

Human Resources Committee - Alan Christenson, Chairperson

This committee is responsible for making recommendations for Board and Advisory Board membership, reviewing all in-house training, assisting in recruiting Rising Representatives and serving as mentors for low-income and teen Rising Representatives.

Fundraising Committee - Carmel Jud and Michael Marcus, Co-Chairs

This committee is responsible for raising individual donations and for planning fundraising events.

AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL

This group is currently providing advisory counsel on an as-needed basis.

Janet Diamond - Work Force Development Consultant 

Janet Diamond has been involved with Rising from its earliest stages. Diamond has more than 28 years experience working with diverse groups and individuals in government, community and non-profit organizations. Her experience includes 19 years in the management of government and non-profit organizations, 15 years consulting for various community and government programs, 10 years of grassroots welfare-rights advocacy and two years in counseling and case management. These include the states of Massachusetts and Oregon and the City/County of San Francisco and the County of Santa Cruz. Janet has also started several non-profits.
Diamond has extensive expertise in the training arena, with a particular focus on working with low-income women. In addition, Diamond has designed, implemented and managed scores of programs, developed problem identification systems, written grants, developed and managed RFP processes, directed outreach campaigns, managed contracts, established short and long-term outcomes, developed and maintained partnerships, and evaluated programs.

Mary Male – Training Director

Mary Male is a recently retired Professor of Special Education at SJSU, where she taught for twenty-three years. She has been active in providing leadership development in schools focusing on technology and brain-based learning nationally and internationally.   She is a CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer, is active in the First Congregational Church (Habitat for Humanity, Women’s Jail Ministry, church council), and she is an Apple Distinguished Educator.  Male is active in the Smith Scholastic Society at UCSC and the CME Society at SJSU, which provides support services to former foster youth who have dreams of a higher education.  Male has a Ph.D. from USC, is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Meritorious Teaching Awards at SJSU, and has been published in over 25 books and journal articles.  She has consulted with over 100 schools districts nationally and internationally on teaching diverse learners and technology and presents regularly at conferences as an invited speaker.

Ricki Mazzullo – Former Executive Director of ACTION Council of Monterey County

Patrick McCabe – Attorney of Law and Partner, Morrison and Foerster

With respect to non-profits, Mr. McCabe has assisted dozens of charities to apply for and obtain tax-exempt status. He works on a regular basis with many charitable organizations on a variety of tax planning and compliance matters. He assists charitable trusts with questions concerning fiduciary responsibilities and duties to trust beneficiaries. Mr. McCabe associated with the firm in 1992 and has been a partner since 2000.

Lynn Humphreys joined Morrison & Foerster as an associate in the San Francisco office in 1996. For the past several years, her practice has focused on intellectual property concerns, such as trademark clearance in the United States and abroad, prosecution of trademark applications, monitoring and enforcement of trademarks, opposition proceedings, domain name disputes, copyright registration and infringement litigation. She also regularly counsels clients regarding advertising and promotional matters. Her litigation experience includes commercial disputes, antitrust, false advertising, and trademark and copyright infringement claims. Humphreys attended University of Virginia where she received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, with honors, in 1989, and her law degree, including election to Order of the Coif, in 1993. Upon graduation, she became an associate at Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May in Oakland, Calif., concentrating on intellectual property litigation.

Scott Reiber – Attorney of Law, Morrison and Foerster

Scott Reiber is an associate at Morrison and Foerster's San Francisco office. He joined the firm's State and Local Tax Group after receiving his J.D. in 2006 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar. Mr. Reiber also received a B.Comm, with great distinction, in International Business from the University of Alberta in 2003.

Mr. Reiber specializes in state and local tax controversies at the audit, administrative and judicial level. His practice focuses on sales and use taxes, property taxes, franchise and income taxes, gross receipts taxes, insurance taxes, and telecommunications taxes, among others.

Laurie Orlando – President and Partner of CPA Firm, Orlando, Mitts & Moore

Judy Sulsona – Former Exectutive Vice President/C.O.O. Community Foundation of Monterey Country

Judy Sulsona recently retired as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Community Foundation of Monterey Country. She had previosuly worked as an independent consultant for non-profit organizations, libraries and public agencies in the areas of program, technology and organizational development, and as senior manager of a technology company in California.

Mrs. Sulsona was born in Puerto Rico and is fully bilingual and bicultural. She has a degree in political sciences from University of Puerto Rico and participated in a two-year graduate program in international relations at University of Mexico at Mexico City. 

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

The poorer you are the less voice you have. In today’s world, the richest countries make decisions on behalf of the poorest. In contrast, Rising ensures the poor have a voice by creating a special board of international advisors from the world’s poorest nations. From the very beginning, these advisors have been a part of the policy and procedure development of Rising International. As Rising expands, so will this important group.     

Epeti Bandau – Democratic Republic of Congo
Nadia Hashimi – Afghanistan
Joyce Laker – Northern Uganda
Mandjou Kone – Mali
Olara Otunnu – Uganda
Luz Pederos – Columbia

PARTY PLAN ADVISORY COUNCILS

These very special groups, which include a strong array of knowledgeable party-plan representatives and experts, as well as field representatives, advise specifically on the organization and management of businesses in the party-plan industry.  

Executive Advisory Council for Party Planning  

Jane Deuber – President of Profit Partners, and Former President of Direct Selling Women's Alliance

Jane Deuber is the President of Profit Partners, a consulting firm in Pebble Beach, California where Jane helps small business entrepreneurs work more effectively as they experience more joy and higher profits from their businesses. She is also the former President and cofounder of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance, an Internet-based organization that provides education and resources to direct selling professionals in over 12 countries. After earning her Masters Degree in International Business, Deuber founded a Party Plan company that operated in 22 states and touted one of the highest of retention and sales averages in the direct selling industry, which she sold in 1998. Deuber is one the few who has worn all hats, from distributor to company owner and brings her unique understanding of each roll to all she does.

Sandi Donaldson - President of Moriah Marketing Group

Sandi Donaldson is an experienced and motivated professional who is committed to excellence. She has spent 30 years in the direct selling industry working at the corporate level with such companies as Avon Products, L’Arome International, Matol Botanical International, Homemade Gourmet, and more. Sandi was also a Director with Mary Kay Cosmetics in the early 70’s. Sandi’s positions have ranged from Exectuve Vice President of Sales and Marketing, U.S. and International, to CEO of a $300 million dollar nutritional company in Montreal, Canada. As the founder of Moriah Marketing Group, Sandi specialized in Launch Plans for new companies as well as marketing to women.

Gerry Nehra - Nehra & Jensen

Gerry P. Nehra of Muskegon, Michigan, is an Attorney at Law, licensed in the states of Michigan, New York, Colorado, and the US Federal Courts. His 36 years of legal experience include 8 years on the IBM legal staff and 9 years as the Director of the Amway Corporation Legal Division. His private law practice was established in 1992 and exclusively services the legal needs of direct selling companies. Mr. Nehra is on retainer to both long term and start-up direct selling companies to protect their legal interests in his area of specialty. Mr Nehra is a Supplier Member of the U.S. Direct Selling Association and serves on its Government Affairs Committee and Lawyers Council. He is a support member of the Canadian Direct Selling Association, the Professional Association of Network Marketing and the Direct Selling Woman’s Alliance.  

Terrel Tanstrum - President & Founder of ServiceQuest

A respected advisor to MLM and Party Plan companies, Terrel has impacted the lives of customer service reps, exectuvies and hundreds of thousands of field reps in more than 135 companies thorugh training, mentoring, designing and implementing retention best practices. Terre’s career in MLM began with Melaleuca, wehre he served for five years in charge of customer service operations during the company’s growth cycle from $6 million in annual sales to over $220 million. He then served as VP of operations for Quorum International, when the company grew from $4 million mohtly to $18 million per month. Since then, he has launched, advised and developed companies, with an intense focus on service and field retention. Terrel earned an accounting degree from BYU, a law degree from the University of Idaho, and an LL.M (master's in Tax Law) from the University of Miami, Florida. 

Field Advisory Council for Party Planning

This group of professional party representatives provide a wide perspective of the business model and feet-on-the ground experience that helps Risings reps learn the ropes and benefit from the secrets of successful Home Party Representatives    

Vicki Benetua – Pampered Chef Sales Representative
Bridget O’Mally – Former PartyLite Sales Representative
Kerry Manning – Former Southern Living Sales Representative
Nancy Mulkey – Mary Kay Sales Representative                    

 RISING VOLUNTEER TEAMS

Cultural Team - Coutrney Cruzan and Kiersten Anderson, Team Leaders

This team is responsible for recruiting party speakers and other kinds of cultural talent, such as dancers and singers, from developing countries where Rising artisans work and live and compiling a list of available guest speakers for Rising Reps and party hosts. This team may work with videographers to develop videos to use at parties and other Rising events. This team is also charged with finding accommodations for artisans, speakers and performers when they are traveling on Rising’s behalf.

Product and Design Team - Lynda Sisk, Team Leader

This team is responsible for reviewing all inventory selections, establishing criteria for artisans, recommending pricing structure, working with graphic and copywriting professionals to design and write copy for catalogs, tags, product descriptions, artisan stories, and the website.

Monitoring & Evaluation Team - Jonathan Robinson and Katrina Makuch, Team Leaders

Grant Writing Team - Janet Diamond, Team Leader

Rising Representative Support Team - Nancy Mulkey and Ava Freiermuth, Team Leaders

This team is tasked with providing on-going support to our Rising Representatives. This includes holding monthly support meetings, developing policies and procedures, reviewing home party presentations and managing home party leads.

This team is responsible for acknowledging Rising's donors, volunteers and grantors for their generous contributions to help end world poverty.