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Management Team
Charity Guide's management team blends extensive entrepreneurial, non-profit, and internet experience:
Robert Blackwell Jr., Board of Advisors
Robert Blackwell Jr. is the founder and president of Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI) and Killerspin Table Tennis.
He volunteers as a motivational speaker and serves on several Boards, including US Bank, The Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, After School Matters, The Metropolitan Planning Commission, Perspectives Charter School, The Belle Center, and Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and the United States Association of Table Tennis.
Blackwell's memberships include: The Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs, The Executive's Club of Chicago, The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and Chicago United.
Robert Blackwell is working with Barack Obama's Presidential Exploratory Committee and was a member of Governor Blagojevich's and Todd Stroger's transition teams.
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Randy Dill, Director and Treasurer
For almost a decade, Randy Dill has been active in Chicagoland's non-profit community, with roles ranging from grassroots volunteering to Board service and organizing fundraising events.
Dill currently serves as the Executive Director of Chicago Non-Profit and is also President of Adiungo Consulting, which specializes in event management and development services.
Dill continues to volunteer as a mentor and serves on the Leadership Board of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Chicago.
In his Leadership Council role for Charity Guide, Dill oversees events that raise funds for Charity Guide's efforts to promote volunteerism.
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Beth Hering, Senior Editor – Health & Safety
Beth Hering has more than 15 years of editorial experience, writing for: Britannica Student Encyclopedia, Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia, Compton's Encyclopedia, Total Reader, iParenting Media, Chicago Parent, Catholic Forester, The Dollar Stretcher, Guideposts for Kids, and Private Ice Publications.
Hering is particularly well-suited for researching and writing Charity Guide service projects because she brings extensive experience from having researched and written more than 1,500 articles for the Britannica Encyclopedias and more than 2,000 articles for Compton's Encyclopedia.
Hering is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds a bachelor's degree in sociology.
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Gary Hood, Chairman of the Board
Gary Hood is currently the Vice President of Legal Affairs for Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, where he provides legal counsel for its leading brands, including Sharpie, Expo, Paper Mate, Parker, Waterman and Rolodex.
Before joining Newell, Hood was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Transora, a supply chain software and service provider owned by over 50 of the world's largest consumer products manufacturers including Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, The Coca-Cola Company and Nestle.
Gary Hood graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law, magna cum laude, in 1994, where he was an Associate Editor of the Law Review.
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Jamie Littlefield, Senior Editor -- Children's Issues
Prior to becoming a freelance writer, Jamie Littlefield worked with inner-city teens as a high school English teacher. She was also a member of the Student Success Team, an intervention committee designed to help at-risk students work with their teachers, families, and social workers to find ways to succeed.
In recognition of Littlefield's work as an educator, she was presented with the Peter Lincoln Spencer Fellowship award for excellence and innovation in teaching.
Littlefield received a M.A. in Education from Claremont Graduate University, a part of the Claremont Colleges Consortium. Prior to that, she was awarded a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University.
In addition to her work with Charity Guide, Littlefield develops textbook material and is an education writer for About.com.
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Deborah Mitchell, Senior Editor -- Environmental Protection
Deborah Mitchell has been a freelance writer and editor for more than twenty-five years. Mitchell has authored or coauthored dozens of books on health, nutrition, and medical topics, all with major publishers. She began her career while simultaneously attending Trenton State College for a bachelor's in English.
After spending several years working for Excerpta Medica, Veterinary Learning Systems, and Visual Education in New Jersey, she moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she combined full-time writing with various volunteer endeavors. Mitchell has served on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations, including the Food Conspiracy Cooperative, the Desert Waste-Not Warehouse, and the Vegetarian Resource Group of Tucson. Her other volunteer work has been with EarthSave, Environmental Education Exchange, the Literary Volunteers of America, the Hermitage No-Kill Cat Shelter, Handmaker Hospice, Adopt-A-Roadway, Ironwood Pig Sanctuary, and the Tucson Clean and Beautiful recycling program.
Mitchell returned to New Jersey in 2005 and is currently the senior editor for environmental protection volunteer opportunities for Charity Guide. She is also pursuing several book projects, including one for young people on how to make a positive difference for the environment.
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Katherine Noyes, Senior Editor -- Animal Welfare
Katherine Noyes has 15 years experience as a professional writer and editor in business and high-tech publishing, including senior editor roles at PC Week and CIO Magazine.
With an MBA and PhD studies in marketing, Noyes teaches college-level courses in business and journalism.
Noyes is a prolific animal rights activist, including writing assignments for the Humane Society. She is also an active volunteer, focused on rescuing stray animals.
At Charity Guide, Noyes is senior editor for animal welfare, promoting flexible volunteerism for the benefit of animals.
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Jenna Organ, Senior Editor -- Service Projects
Jenna Organ is a computer teacher and published author, earning her a nomination for the prestigious Nebula Science Fiction Award. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Columbia College and a Masters of Education degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a special certification in Language Arts.
At Charity Guide, Organ leverages her technology and education background in her role as senior editor of service projects, responsible for quality assurance, follow-up research, and content direction.
Jenna Organ inspired the coverage of Volunteer Vacations at CharityGuide.org, which has emerged as one of our most popular content areas. Organ is an active volunteer, with a wide range of volunteering experiences ranging from children's theatre to a volunteer vacation at a Romanian Children's Clinic.
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Michael Organ, Executive Director
Following a career in traditional direct marketing and advertising, Michael Organ became an internet marketing pioneer.
As co-founder of Mosaic Data Solutions, an internet and database marketing company, Organ helped build the 3rd highest-traffic internet-commerce presence in the world* (Nielsen NetRatings 2001). At Mosaic, Organ managed the development, implementation, and optimization of more than 10 billion online ads, including over 200,000 search engine listings, personalized to the needs, behaviors, and interests of over 100 million consumers, on behalf of more than 400 clients.
In 2007, Organ joined Obama for America to become the first full-time Director of Internet Advertising for a presidential campaign, where he advanced the use of internet ads for political fundraising, voter ID, get-out-the-vote efforts, and message-delivery. After the primaries, Organ moved on to Barack Obama's Paid Media and Polling Strategy group to pioneer additional alternative-marketing channels.
Organ began his 20-year marketing career at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, focused on television and print ads for American Express and Unilever. That was followed by co-founding College Financial Aid Service, a direct marketing company that transformed into FastWeb.com, now owned by Monster.com.
Organ also worked with Accenture for 9 years, in a variety of capacities, most recently as Vice President of Marketing for Accenture Procurement Solutions. While with Accenture, Organ specialized in developing marketing programs in pursuit of business arrangements ranging in size from $25 million to $1 billion+.
In addition to his current role as Charity Guide's Executive Director, Michael Organ is Vice President of Integrated Marketing at AKPD Message & Media as well as a Partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive.
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Scott Zelkin, Director and Corporate Secretary
As part of his 13 year career as a referee for the National Hockey League (NHL), Scott Zelkin was involved in many charity events.
Zelkin took that charitable spirit with him at his next career, selling real estate in New Hampshire. There, Zelkin pioneered a commission donation program where he donated part of the commission he received from every real estate transaction to a local charity.
When Zelkin returned to Chicago, where he was born and raised, he brought his innovative commission-donation program with him, now choosing Charity Guide as the beneficiary.
As Chairman of Charity Guide's Leadership Council, Zelkin works with other civic-minded leaders who apply their area of expertise to promoting volunteerism.
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