Our Board
Felipe Godard
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Chair
Felipe Godard advises boards of directors and senior executives of family-owned businesses and multinational companies. He is a former Vice Chairman of the JPMorgan Private Bank, where for fifteen years he counseled prominent families across Latin America and Emerging Europe on their most important strategic and financial decisions.
Over a career spanning more than forty years, Felipe worked and traveled extensively throughout the Americas and Europe, helping to build some of the fastest growing wealth-management markets in the world.
He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City and is a citizen of Mexico, Switzerland, and Spain. Fully bilingual in English and Spanish, he is also
conversationally proficient in French and Portuguese.
Felipe joined Building New Hope in 2021, shortly after retiring from JPMorgan, fulfilling a long-held desire to work alongside communities facing difficult circumstances. He divides his time between New York, New Jersey, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
John Soluri
John is a professor of Latin American history and directs Carnegie Mellon University’s Global Studies program. His research and teaching focus on food, energy, environment, and social justice. He has lived and traveled throughout Central America. John
joined the board of Building New Hope in 2005 after teaching a seminar on Fair Trade coffee.
Vice-Chair
Eileen Kraus-Dobratz
Board Treasurer
Eileen has been involved with Building New Hope since the early years and was part of the 1994 steering committee when the organization incorporated as a 501(c)3. Eileen traveled with the early brigades to El Salvador. She traveled in subsequent years to the coffee cooperative. She has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, and holds graduate degrees in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Economic Development
and Latin America.
Bibi Al-Ebrahim
Bibi joined the board in 2017 and is the Education Director at Amizade Global Service-Learning. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Bibi spent over a decade working in Ecuador. Bibi was first able to go to Ecuador as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She then returned to the U.S. to complete a masters in International Public Health in 2008. Soon afterwards, Bibi re-located to Ecuador and began work as the Director for Manna Project International, a community development organization working just outside of Quito. In 2011, Bibi returned to Peace Corps/ Ecuador as the Program and Training Specialist for the Community Health program and then as the Training Manager.
Penny Zeisloft
Penny is the Commercial Lines and Human Resource Manager at White Insurance Agency in Mt. Pleasant, PA. Penny's passion for fair trade started in 2015, when she held a small fair trade sale in her home during the Christmas season. This event has grown to an annual event involving 20+ vendors and over 50 volunteers and has raised over $100,000 since its inception. Her desire is to spread fair trade geographically and to educate people in untapped markets about its benefits. She views fair trade as a market-driven partnership fueled by a heart change in the buyers. One of her primary motivations is Proverbs 3:27, which states, "Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act." She strives to encourage people to shop fair trade, whenever possible, and through this simple change, to impact lives around the world.
Lori Brodak
Lori has always had an affinity for the city of Pittsburgh: first as a graduate from Pitt University, then working for the last 25 years in the housewares industry for companies near the city. She also volunteers for 412 Food Rescue, aimed at eliminating food waste and reducing food insecurity. Joining the Building New Hope team is a natural fit, as one of her personal and professional goals is to lead a more sustainable life and help others to do the same. Lori and her husband own a hobby farm in Mt. Pleasant,
PA, and enjoy gardening, beekeeping and raising chickens.
Osman Mejía
Born in Nicaragua. Naturalized American. 50 + years experience in Financial and B2B sectors.
Retired and living in South Florida. Worked for Citibank 1979-2002 within the Latin American Division of the Corporate Bank at
locations that include Nicaragua, Mexico and South Florida, spanning Operations, Technology,
Financial Control, Global Business development, implementation and financial sustainability.
Free lance corporate banking services consultant 2002-2004. . Shareholder and managing
director at Sefisa, a company providing information security products and services for Central
American financial and corporate sectors until retirement in 2022. Key skills picked up along
the way: bringing to market new products and services, above average financial stability,
focused teams, brand recognition.
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