STAFF

Sarah Heffron, Executive Director - Sarah Heffron came on as half time executive director in December 2008. She previously founded and directed the Youth Garden Project, and has served on non-profit boards and in leadership roles in community organizations both locally and abroad. She has lived in Guatemala, Borneo, and most recently Nepal where she and her husband adopted their daughter. She is committed to helping create a community where people of diverse cultures come to understand and appreciate their differences, where diversity is a cause for celebration rather than tension and separation. She has a passion for peace, being present, and growing food. Sarah has a B.A. in Environmental Studies, speaks French, Nepali and some Spanish. She has been a certified nutritionist since 2006.


Leticia Vazquez Bentley, Program and Outreach Director – Leticia is a native of Paracho, a guitar-making center in the state of Michoacán, México, where she was trained as a school teacher and taught 1st through 3rd grades there. In 1985, she married Scott Bentley and moved to Moab, where they opened the Lazy Lizard Hostel. Once she had learned sufficient English, she began volunteering in the schools, was hired as a teacher's aide and eventually earned her Utah teaching certificate. She has taught ESL and Spanish at Grand County High School and Middle School. Over the last 20 years, Leticia has been increasingly called upon to interpret and translate for Moab’s Spanish speaking community and has become one of their strongest advocates, providing her interpretation services in the courts, the schools, doctors' offices, for businesses and employers, and many government entities. She is an integral part of the running of the multicultural center.

Sarah Bauman, Project Director - Sarah Bauman served on the original board of the Multicultural Center in 2007 and returned in 2009 to fill the role of Project Director, assisting the Multicultural Center with a range of projects including, development/fund-raising, program development/evaluation and staff/volunteer development and training, as well as Cultural Connections programming. Sarah brings to the Multicultural Center a wealth of nonprofit management experience -- she was the co-founder and Executive Director of WabiSabi as well as the co-founder and Director of the BEACON Afterschool Program and the founder of the Moab Free Health Clinic. In addition to her work with MVMC, Sarah currently serves on the Moab City Council, as the board President of the Moab Free Health Clinic and as a Prevention Specialist for Four Corners Community Behavioral Health. Sarah has a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of the South. Internationally, she lived in Monthey, Switzerland with a French speaking family, and studied abroad at Melbourne University in Melbourne, Australia.  Sarah is a travel enthusiast and has travelled internationally to Egypt, Poland, Germany, Italy, and France. She is passionate about the Multicultural Center's mission to build cultural awareness and understanding between Moab's diverse ethnic groups and ensure that all members of the Moab community are able to access the resources that are critical to health, happiness and quality of life.

Valerie Jones, Tutor Club Coordinator - Valerie Jones graduated from Grand County High School. She graduated cum laude from the University of Utah in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She was one of the founding members of the Open Classroom Program in the Salt Lake School District. Valerie was the coordinator for the Child Development Lab at a community college on the Oregon Coast where she taught parenting classes and students in the child development program. She got her masters from Oregon State University in Human Development and Family Studies. She was the Program Director for a community mediation program. She is a Master Mediator on the Utah Court Roster. Valerie is a travel enthusiast and has recently traveled to Bhutan, China, Thailand and Loa. She has been civically and politically active throughout her adult life. Valerie was an elector for Oregon in the 1992 presidential election.

Chessie Woodruff, Front Office Manager - Before arriving in Moab, Chessie Woodruff worked with youth in the Salt Lake School District, Valley Mental Health and other positions of employment that have put her into direct contact with the public.  Since becoming bilingual, speaking English and Spanish, she has reveled in the opportunities to meet new people, shake it to Cumbia rhythms, and watch telenovelas on Spanish television.   She enjoys interacting with people from all walks of life, especially interacting on a personal level, helping folks become empowered, and also improve their skills of communication and expression.  Hobbies include yoga, hiking, creating art, reading and writing poetry and fiction.  Her young son, Phoenix, husband Marty and pet animals also bring her much joy.  Her favorite all-time places of travel include: Mexico, rainforests of Oregon and the red rock deserts of Southern Utah.   Chessie has long been an advocate for animals, children, and the environment.  Important life lessons have taught her the importance of remembering to breathe, and also, the importance of laughter.

Gabriel Woytek, Vista Volunteer - Gabriel recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Spanish and International Studies and is currently serving a one-year term in Moab as an Americorps VISTA, assigned to the Arches Adult Education Center.  Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gabriel attended two-way bilingual schools and has spent time serving and studying in places like the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru, where he cultivated his spanish language abilities and interest in Latin American cultures.


BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jose Tejada, President - Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Jose learned about social activism early, from his mother, who was a leader in the Puerto Rican community there. A successful businessman, Jose owns and operates the Griffith River Expeditions, a river rafting company in Moab. He speaks both English and Spanish. Jose has served on many boards over the past 20 years.




Jim Tendick - (the Rev.), Secretary - Co-founder/director of the center for "Friends of the Hopi" in 1977, working with Hopi elders, in Flagstaff, AZ, where he met and married Marcia. Jim is an ordained Episcopal Priest and has worked in congregations in Utah since 1988, including the last eight years with a Spanish-speaking congregation in Moab. He has served on a number of community and church-related boards and committees and currently serves on the Anti-racism Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. He has been a trainer and coordinator for the diocesan Prevention of Sexual Misconduct and Abuse program since 1996 and is a member of the Children’s Justice Center Advisory Board in Moab.


John Mc Queen, Treasurer - John is currently the manager of the bookstore in the Visitor Center at Arches National Park, having previously managed Music of Moab and Moab Outdoors. Originally from the Detroit area, John served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica from 1967-71, where he became fluent in Spanish. He lived in New York City until 1990, when he moved to Moab. Since arriving here, he has been involved in St. Francis Episcopal Church, where he served as treasurer and Senior Warden, and has particularly been active with the Spanish language services.


Marcia Tendick - Passionate about social justice and human rights, Marcia helped found and run the Flagstaff center for “Friends of the Hopi” in 1977, working with the Hopi elders. Marcia’s teaching from preschool through 8th grade for over 28 years has included teaching Hawaiian and Japanese students in Hawaii, black students in Oakland, CA and Hispanic and Tongan students in Salt Lake City. After moving to Moab in 1996, she taught English at the Grand County Middle School for ten years. She has served on the Seekhaven Board of Directors, the Grand County Steering Committee, and the Moab Citizens for Peace and Global Awareness.


Scott Bentley - Scott's most notable contribution to the Multicultural Center was finding Leticia in Mexico where he was studying guitar, bringing her to Moab and teaching her how to speak English! He does a variety of tasks, helping out with moving heavy objects, running errands, translating, interpreting, (Scott is a fluent Spanish speaker,) and doing some secretarial work. He also has volunteered for the last 16 years as a youth soccer and football coach and referee for Moab City Recreation. Scott, a Moab native, owns and runs the Lazy Lizard Hostel in Moab.


Ed DeFrancia - Born and raised in Colorado, Ed graduated from the University of Colorado - Boulder, with a degree in mathematics, and later earned an M.A. from the University of Northern Colorado. After having a variety of 'careers' in the ski industry, truck driving, construction, restaurants and the US Forest Service, Ed settled into teaching. He taught middle school for 11 years in Dolores, CO, and then moved his family to Moab in 1995 to work in outdoor education. After two years, he missed the classroom and went back to public schools. He teaches mathematics, coaches boys and girls tennis, and sponsors a variety of clubs at Grand County HS. He is part owner of Moab Rafting and Canoe Company, running one-day and multi-day river trips on the Colorado, San Juan and Green Rivers, "just to keep myself on the river." He enjoys anything outdoors, traveling and has taken numerous trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, both with family and students. He has been married for 23 years and is most proud of his wife (an archaeologist) and daughter, who is graduating from Westminster College in 2010.


Rick Klein - Since coming to Moab in 1987, Rick has been active in supporting the local youth through the school system, as a past PTA president of the middle school, as a member of the YES team that successfully promoted the building of a new high school and as one of the organizers of the soccer program at the high school. He was involved in the Moab Recreation Youth Soccer program for many years as a coach, organizer and referee. Rick has a B. S. in Geology and has worked in the mining industry in Kansas, Colorado and Utah for over thirty years. He currently works at Intrepid Potash. Recently, he was ordained a deacon in the Catholic Church serving the Diocese of Salt Lake City.


Gentry Medrano - Gentry has a Master of Arts in Journalism and worked for several years as a Public Information Officer for the Fort Mojave Police and also as a Community Relations liaison for the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe.She has worked as an office assistant for the City of Needles, California and as an Indian Education Counselor for the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. Gentry moved to Moab in 2006 and is currently the Site Coordination for the BEACON Adventure Ed after school program at Grand County Middle School.


Steve McClure - Steve is well-loved at the Grand County Middle School where he has taught for the last two years and also supervised the Student Council. He has the desire to help bridge the gap between ethnicities in Moab. In his earlier manifestation, upon receiving his Bachelors of Science in both Management and Information Systems, and in Finances and an additional Masters in Business Administration, he worked Internationally in Europe for seven years, managing computer systems.