Our Experts

At CompassPoint, our staff and affiliates are the top people working in the field today. Their backgrounds are as diverse as the nonprofit sector: they are former executive directors, development directors, and chief financial officers. Because of their experience, client-centered approach, and cultural diversity, our consultants are uniquely able to align growth and change with your mission. You can rely on CompassPoint to provide the guidance you need to support your efforts to achieve your mission.

On Staff 

Jeanne Bell, MNA, Executive Director
Jeanne Bell is the Executive Director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services--one of the country’s leading providers of training and consulting services to community-based organizations. She is the co-author of Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives: Guiding Your Organization to Long Term Success (Wilder). In addition to frequent speaking and consulting on nonprofit strategy and finance, Jeanne has conducted a series of research projects on nonprofit executive leadership, including Daring to Lead 2006: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership and Securing the Safety Net: A Profile of Community Clinic and Health Center Leadership in California. Jeanne serves on the Advisory Boards of the Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management at the University of San Francisco and The Nonprofit Quarterly.

Tim Wolfred, Ph.D., Senior Project Director, Leadership Services
Tim Wolfred is a Senior Project Director at CompassPoint and a nationally recognized pioneer and leader in the field of Executive Transitions. He is the author of Interim Executive Directors: The Power in the Middle, which is one in a series of monographs on best practices for executive transitions, and also co-author of three seminal studies of executive director tenure and experience: Leadership Lost (1999), Daring to Lead(2001) and Daring to Lead 2006.

Steve Lew, Senior Project Director
Steve Lew is a Senior Project Director at CompassPoint, specializing in fundraising, strategic planning, and leadership. His background as the former Executive Director of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and a past member of the President's Advisory Council on AIDS informs his work with community-based organizations and his leadership in national social justice movements.

Adriana Rocha, Practice Director
Adriana Rocha joined CompassPoint Nonprofit Services as Practice Director in January 2009 and leads CompassPoint’s program services group in developing and achieving the organization’s annual goals, the evaluation of the organization’s programs, and the marketing of CompassPoint’s services.

Liz Callahan, MA, ACC, Senior Project Director and Director of East Bay Services
Liz Callahan was the founding executive director of The CBO Center before joining CompassPoint in 2010 as the director of East Bay Services and Senior Project Director. Liz’s consulting work is in organizational and individual transformation. Her deep knowledge of nonprofits and the environment in which they do their work, along with her own experience as an executive director and her extensive and ongoing training in a variety of methodologies, give Liz an uncommon perspective on how to create change.

Sue Bennett, Accidental Techies, Technology Training Design and Delivery
Cristina Chan, MPP, Program Development
Marla Cornelius, MNA, Leadership Development, Governance & Boards of Directors, Performance Management, Training Program Design, Organization Development
Michelle Gislason, MA, Leadership Program Development, Executive Coaching
Byron Johnson, Fundraising Strategy, Boards of Directors, Organization Design & Development, Cultural Competence
Nelson Layag, Technology Program Development, Web Strategy
Marissa Tirona, J.D., Strategic Planning, Nonprofit Finance, Board Governance and Development
J.R. Yeager, Executive Transitions and Interim Executive Director Program Manager

Key Affiliates

Viveka Chen, Executive Transitions
Debbie Wu, Executive Transitions