Advisory Board

Click on a name to read Advisor Bio, or scroll down the page.

Ann Cook- Assistant Coach, Pennsylvania State University
Tim Cross- President, YouthBuild International
Manish Doshi- Partner and CFO, Meeta M Doshi DDS
Greg Lalas- Editor in Chief, MLSsoccer.com
Jeff McIntyre- Founder and President, Ruffneck Scarves
John O'Brien- Former Professional Player, US National and Olympic Teams/AJAX
Bill Price- Founder and President, Driva Solutions
Lissette Rodriguez- Director of Capacity Building, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Melissa Roth- Vice President and General Counsel, Global Rescue
Michael Sack- Education Director, Youth Empowerment Services (YES)

Ann Cook, Assistant Coach- Pennsylvania State University

A three-time All-American, Ann Cook played for the College of William & Mary from 1993-97, medically red-shirting the 1996 campaign. In the mix for the Hermann Trophy as well as the M.A.C. Player of the Year Award in both 1995 and 1997, she was the 1997 CAA Conference Player of the Year and CAA Conference Tournament MVP.  Active with the U.S. National Team programs, Cook was a member of the U.S. Under-20 team from 1993-95 and played with the full national team in 1998.  Professionally, Cook was a fourth-round draft pick (25th overall in the global draft) by the Bay Area CyberRays of the WUSA in 2000. A member of the team that won the WUSA's inaugural season championship in 2001, she was traded in December of that year to the Washington Freedom, which eventually finished as the 2002 league runners-up. Cook picked up coaching full-time when the WUSA folded after the 2003 season.   After her 2004-2005 stint at Missouri State, Cook moved her coaching talents to the University of Nebraska and the Big 12 Conference.  After two seasons with the Huskers, she left to coach alongside her college teammate and long-time friend, Erica Walsh as they took over a very successful soccer program at Penn State University.  Cook just finished her fourth season with the Nittany Lions, helping guide them to their 13th-straight Big Ten title in 2010.

Tim Cross, President- YouthBuild International

Tim joined YouthBuild in 1996, first acting as VP of Field Operations and later as COO before taking on the role of President of YouthBuild International. There are currently 273 YouthBuild sites, operating in 45 states and 15 countries.  As a result of its work, 82,000 YouthBuild students have produced 18,000 units of affordable housing in America’s poorest urban and rural communities. For the last 20 years, Cross has worked in the field of youth and community development, first as a line youth worker in community based organizations, city wide youth development efforts, national and international initiatives. He has consulted to the ImagineNations Group, International Youth Foundation, the World Bank and Open Society Institute on international initiatives focused on youth engagement, training and employment. He directed the ROCA Youth Center in Chelsea, Massachusetts, a comprehensive youth development program and was Executive Director of Youth As Resources in Boston. He was the lead organizer of efforts that led to the founding of YouthBuild Boston, the first YouthBuild program to replicate outside of East Harlem, New York. He has also worked as a foundation program officer focused on refugee and immigrant development efforts, and has consulted to several international grant making organizations seeking to build the capacity of youth workers. A former player and Varsity Captain at Colby College, Tim holds a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University and currently lives in Boston, MA.

Manish Doshi, Partner and CFO- Meeta M Doshi DDS

As Partner and CFO, Manish Doshi currently oversees the financial and marketing operations of Meeta M Doshi DDS in Berkeley, CA.   Prior to his current position, Doshi was the Operations Manager for Maharaja Imports.  Doshi earned his BS in Business Adminstration at the University of Phoenix.  Resident of the Berkeley, CA area, Doshi serves as the Director of Coaching for El Cerrito Soccer Club, along with countless other coaching and administrative positions in the Berkeley area.  Doshi served as the El Cerrito Soccer Club President from 2002-2008, and is currently the Saint Mary’s College High School Varsity Women’s Coach, the Berkeley High School Freshman Girls’ Coach, and the Berkeley High School Varsity Boys’ Advisor.  Doshi is the Coach and Administrator for the Outreach Program for Disabled Youth, serves as the Chair of El Cerrito Parks and Recreation Commission, and is the Past President of the Berkeley Athletic Fund for Berkeley High School.

John O'Brien, Former Player, US National and Olympic team/AJAX

One of US Soccer's most famed players, John O’Brien has played in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as the 2000 Olympics in Sydney where he helped the US team to a distinguished 4^th place finish.  Currently O’Brien is on the ballot for the US Soccer Hall of Fame.  O’Brien played professionally for 10 years in Holland winning two national titles and one national cup with the clubs Ajax Amsterdam, FC Utrecht, and ADO Den Haag.  In 2006, after playing one year for the MLS franchise Chivas USA O’Brien retired from professional soccer.   As a Nike sponsored athlete and representative, O’Brien spoke at the 2002 Nike shareholders meeting in Portland, Oregon.  O’Brien was part of a coaching exchange through Relief International in Jordan where he coached Iraqi and Palestinian Refugee Youth, and also led coaching clinics for adult soccer coaches in the region. John currently lives in Venice Beach, CA and has volunteered at SWB programs in Oakland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

Bill Price, President and Founder- Driva Solutions

Bill founded Driva Solutions in September 2001 to help companies achieve the delicate balance between cost containment and greater customer loyalty. Subsequently, he co-founded the 10-country LimeBridge Global Alliance in early 2002, and formed and chairs the 37-organization Global Operations Council and the 10-company Chief Customer Officer Forum Americas.  Price was Amazon.com’s first VP of Global Customer Service, VP of MCI Enhanced Call Router and Call Center Services divisions, COO/CFO with ACP, and Senior Engagement Manager with McKinsey in San Francisco and Stockholm.  Price is a “Call Center Pioneer” (1997) and “CRM Guru” (2004), the lead author of The Best Service is No Service (Wiley/Jossey-Bass, March 2008), and frequent speaker across the 77 countries that he has been fortunate to visit.  Price received his BA from Dartmouth and his MBA from Stanford, and lives in Bellevue WA and Iowa City IA.

Lissette Rodriguez, Director of Capacity Building- Edna McConnell Clark Foundation

Lissette is responsible for planning, starting up and overseeing a new venture to support youth-serving non-profits at an early stage of organizational development. Before joining the Foundation in 2010, Rodriguez spent 12 years, the last six as Senior Vice President for Field Development, at YouthBuild USA, where she ran large-scale training and technical assistance programs and provided capacity-building support to early-stage organizations. At YouthBuild, Rodriguez also worked for the organization's international division, helping to launch YouthBuild pilots in Central America and leading planning efforts in other Latin American countries. Rodriguez acquired experience in grantmaking as a senior program officer and director of the Fund for the Homeless at the Boston Foundation.  She was also the founding executive director of Casa Nueva Vida, a shelter for homeless Latina women and their children.  Rodriguez holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s in organizational development from Fielding Graduate University, and currently lives in Miami, FL.

Melissa Roth, Vice President and General Counsel- Global Rescue

Global Rescue is a Boston-based company that provides best-in-class medical and security advisory, evacuation, and crisis response services worldwide. Melissa joined Global Rescue as General Counsel and Vice President in 2010 after spending three years as an attorney with Holland and Knight, LLP in the firm's corporate litigation practice. She began her professional career in the Institutional Client Group of Lehman Brothers, before attending the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she graduated with honors. A Dartmouth College undergraduate, Roth made her mark on the Ivy League conference garnering All-Ivy and All-Northeast honors during her collegiate career. Post-college, she was drafted by the WUSA's Atlanta Beat. Melissa currently resides in Boston, MA.  

Michael Sack, Education Director- Youth Empowerment Services (YES)

Michael Sack is an acknowledged expert in the fields of urban education, work-based learning and youth development.  He has more than 30 years’ combined experience as a teacher, administrator, trainer, program developer and curriculum designer.  At Public/Private Ventures, as director of technical assistance and field services, Sack led several national education demonstration projects aimed at improving the life chances of at-risk youth and young adults, and designed numerous exemplary work/learning and life-skills curriculum models.  He has been a frequent presenter at national, state and local conferences and has trained numerous groups of teachers and other professional staff.  Exemplary of this work is his ongoing support of the national YouthBuild model, a highly acclaimed construction training and education program for young adults, on both the national and local levels.  Concurrent with his speaking and consulting, Sack is the Education Director for Youth Empowerment Services (YES) in Philadelphia, an education, work and media arts engagement program for 17-21 year-old youth at-promise.