Global Guidance Initiativetm

David Arnold, Executive Director

David Arnold’s métier―his calling―is to service organizations. A professor and sometime adjunct faculty member both locally and in the Philippines, he is passionate about marketing, training, curriculum development, and knowledge exchange. His focus, however, has been on service, first through the Jaycees, then with four Rotary Clubs: Moorpark, CA, (where he was Event and Service chair, board director, and Rotarian of the year 1996); at United Nations Manila, Philippines, where he was a founding member; in Sherman Oaks, CA, as a charter member; and now as a board member of the Rotary Club of the Greater San Fernando Valley. He has also served as the Campus Director for the valley campus of LA ORT, a public benefit ESL and vocational school. David also serves as co-advisor to a valley-based Interact club; as a reader for Koreh LA, a volunteer children’s literacy program; and as a volunteer with Rotary, Lions, Care Harbor and Chevrah Special Needs Youth, as opportunities permit.  

 

Wilma Redler Peterson, Vice President

Wilma Peterson has spent much of her life crusading to “fix the world”. A Certified Dental Technician, she arrived in Manila, Philippines, in 1999 to head an out-sourced dental laboratory and soon saw a need to found the first international Dental Technology Institute in the Philippines, in partnership with the Emilio Aguinaldo College of Dentistry in San Marcelino, Manila. She was the founding President of the Rotary Club of United Nations Manila, where she raised funds to provide water supply and educational, medical, and dental services to some of the downtrodden Mangyan tribes of Mindoro, and for a bridge over a Mindoro river where scores of children trying to get to school were annually killed by floods. As a forthright advocate for better treatment of animals, especially wild ones, she co-founded the Feathered Friends Society of the Philippines, managed the Endangered Animal Species Compound on Corregidor Island, co-founded the Bio-Diversity Compound at the Laguna Wildlife Park and Rescue Center, and served as a watch-dog activist, with frequent TV appearances, to protect children, homeless people, pets, birds, and wild animals. Since returning to the U.S. in 2011, she has helped develop on-site dental labs for community medical support at Care Harbor, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The author of Essential Guide to Prosthodontic Laboratory Procedures, she was selected in 2013 as one of the top 25 women in Dentistry by Dental Products Report and was named CDT of the Year 2014 by the National Association of Dental Laboratories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barry Horwitz, CPA, Director and Advisor

Barry Horwitz is a member of the California Society of CPAs and ran his own public accounting firm for 40 years. A serious, no-nonsense kind of guy who happens to have a wonderful sense of humor, he is equally dedicated to fiscal responsibility and youth leadership, having served in positions of high responsibility on numerous boards; these include board member for 20 years and Treasurer 15 years for Camp Ramah in California, member for 15 years and Vice President 8 years for Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue, member for 10 years and Treasurer for Los Angeles Hebrew High School, and board member for 2 years for Kadima Day School.

 

Advisors

 

Sara Collins Medina

In a career spanning five decades and two continents, Sara Medina has been a New York City journalist (Time), educational materials creator (Time, Inc., now Time Warner), and business communications specialist (Philip Morris, now Altria); and a Manila, Philippines editor/desktop publisher (Asian Development Bank, 18 books, 200-plus articles), public relations specialist (Great Wall Advertising), weekly newspaper editor (Expat News), book reviewer and reporter (Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce), and for 11 years editor/publisher of a scholarly journal on Philippine-U.S. history (Bulletin of the American Historical Collection). 

 

Moises Cisneros  

Moises has 12 years of professional experience in international trade, overseas marketing, foreign direct investment, and economic development. At present he is principal at a firm providing international market-entry solutions and value-added propositions to globally minded clients. Moises is certified as an SBA Export & Trade Advisor. He holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in Leadership, both from the University of Southern California.   

 

 

 

Dennis Washburn, Advisor         

Dennis Washburn is a consummate strategist and advertising, branding and marketing guru. A popular elected official, successful in electioneering, organizational development, public affairs, and community building, he is a founder, 5-term Council Member, and 4-time Mayor of the City of Calabasas, CA (retired). He also is a past Director, and President of the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (retired after 28 years of service); a Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commissioner; a 7-term Regional Councilmember of the Southern California Association of Governments; founder and 4-term President of the Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments; and Division Representative to the State Board and Past President of the 88-city LA County Division of the League of California Cities. He continues to Chair the Watersheds Council of the Santa Monica Mountains and is President of the Board of the Santa Monica Mountains Fund in support of the National Recreation Area. As Executive Director of the Foundation for Pierce College (retired) he helped establish and support the Pierce Farm Center from 2005-2011 and its highly successful "agri-tainment" and "edu-tainment" festivals and programs.