Denver Native, Manager of Supplier Diversity at Qwest Communications, Angela believes that she has a 'job with a purpose' and is dedicated to the economic development of minority/women businesses, as well as fulfilling the educational needs of students through support of their goals. Angela is an active community volunteer:
2007 AALI Sistah Pride/ETV Planning Committee
2007/08 District 11 Unity Event Planning Committee
2008 Juneteenth Celebration Planning Committee
2008 Alliance of Black Telecommunications Professionals member
2008 DPS Mile High Parent Ambassador
Rocky Mtn Minority Supplier Development Council Certification committee member
Collaborative School Committee (CSC) member -Park Hill Elem
PTA member - Park Hill Elem/ Maxwell Elem
Autism Society of Colorado member
Angela is a small business owner which also keeps her busy and she enjoys spending time with her 2 sons.
Sara Fuentes has been involved in various facets of private and public business administration for over 24 years. Ms. Fuentes ran the Denver Minority Business Development Center for the U.S. Department of Commerce, for 14 years. She served on the Board of Directors of Minority Enterprise and Educational Development until her selection as Executive Director of the organization; served on the board of the Small and Disadvantaged Business Opportunities Council (SADBOC), Partners For Colorado Small Business, member of the Denver Public Schools Business Diversity Outreach Program Council (BDOP), Past-Chair- Asian Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and past board member on the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. As part of MEED’s HOPE Scholarship Program, she has helped set up and given out over $400,000 in scholarship awards to deserving minority youth. Sara has received numerous awards for her efforts in the community.
RC has a degree in Technical Communications and Marketing from Metropolitan State College of Denver. In addition to the MEED Board of Directors, he is a member and Vice President of the Metropolitan State College of Denver Alumni Association Board of Directors.
RC is Vice President of Cable Operations for PlastiComm Industries, a telecommunication products company. He is also owner of Bighorn Multimedia, an audio/video production, internet marketing and publishing company. RC is also a public speaker who speaks to the college and corporate markets.
Shenia is an accomplished professional trainer and public speaker with a strong drive to coach and influence others in a number of ways. Strongly committed to helping others in personal and professional development with more than twenty- four years of experience in human resources and leadership roles. Believes each and every one of us should be life-long learners. Thrives in atmospheres where individual thoughts and contributions are welcomed and encouraged to become collaborative forms to launching success.
Shenia has been actively involved in the community participating and volunteering with Junior Achievement, Komen Race for the Cure, making Strides Against Breast Cancer, The HOPE scholarship committee, City of Aurora volleyball coach, Aurora Girl’s Softball Association board member, Dakota valley PTCO member, Sky Vista PTO member, Sharing Tree coordinator, and a Ronald McDonald House meal provider for more than four years. Shenia is a native of Denver CO who graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1985 and earned her MBA from Regis University in 2005 and was named in Manchester’s Who’s Who 2007. Shenia also teaches part-time at Regis University and Community College of Denver when she is not spending time with her husband and three children.
MEED STAFF
Yolanda Bell
Office Manager
"Impacting Disadvantaged Students & Minority Businesses for Success"
Todd Valencia is the Channel sales Director at Ciena Communications. He is responsible for all channel sales through the Qwest partnership. Todd has spent more than 17 years in the telecommunications industry. Prior to his current role at Ciena, he has held other roles in sales, product management and network engineering. Todd earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1992 with an emphasis in mechanical engineering. Todd has been actively involved in corporate diversity programs including training programs he facilitated while at US West.
In addition to MEED, Todd supports Lakota Outreach, a faith based organization focused on the families of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Todd is a lifelong learner and he enjoys traveling with his wife and two kids.
3405 Gilpin Street I Denver I CO I 80205 I 303.296.2969 I 303.592.1596 fax I info@meedcolorado.org
MEED is looking for volunteers to serve in our Board and to all of our various events. Please contact our MEED office for more information.
Sam Thomas is the Vice-President for Sales & Business Development for DatamanUSA. Sam is a lifelong Customer Care and Operations expert with several years of senior level Aviation, retail and policy advising experience.
Sam has been actively involved in the State wide and National political campaigns since 1992. He has served as policy advisor, on several different fund raising committees and most recently he served as the Surrogate Speaker for Senator Mark Udall on his recent campaign.
Sam has a long history of civic and charitable involvement. He has served on several community boards and currently serves on the board of a trust that operates an Orphanage. He also is on the leadership board of his church and on the Steering committee of Aurora Asia Pacific leadership council.
Sam holds his B.A from University of Denver’s GSIS program with major in International Politics and minor in Economics and MA in International Relations and minor in Economic Development. Sam was elected as the president of the International Student Organization at D.U and received the prestigious Pioneer award for outstanding service to the University and students.
Sam is a competitive Volley-ball player who has played in several national tournaments and currently serves as the head coach of his daughter’s school volley-ball teams. Sam is an outstanding public speaker and a motivational speaker.
Tony has over 17 years of experience in the banking industry here in Colorado. Tony is focused on developing “relationships” with his clients. He uses a consultative approach to determine which banking products and services are best suited for his clients needs after looking at their whole picture first.
Tony focuses on helping his clients with their depository accounts and also provides financing for their businesses through lines of credit, equipment financing, the purchase or refinance of commercial real estate, and SBA financing.
Tony enjoys gardening, landscaping and working at the farmer’s markets during the summer. He also enjoys spending “quality” time with his wife and 3 children.
