Please join us in welcoming CFR's newest team members!
Here at CFR, we are manifesting 2023 to be one of our best years yet–and what better way to begin the springtime than with the addition of three new full-time staff members! Each one brings unique experiences to the team and a desire to create a more equitable economy. CFR is a small but mighty group of people realizing change for low-income, low-wealth communities, and it just became mightier. Adding to our partners, products, and development operations, we are excited to introduce our new team members. Meet them below!
P.S. Tom Taggart has been with CFR for 9 months now, so while he’s not a newbie, we value him tremendously and have also included his bio.
Christian Govea, Partner Program Manager
Christian joins CFR bringing with him impressive experience in project management and exercising a DEI lens within everything he does. His background is in relationship management, stakeholder communications, strategic planning, retention, and workflow optimization. Prior to joining CFR, Christian was in Innovation and Technical Assistance at Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) where he planned, directed, and maintained continuous operations in various CEO programs.
In his role as Partner Program Manager, Christian will interface with all of CFR’s partners – developing and implementing work plans, enhancing partner and constituent facing materials, and providing training to program partners on CFR products, tools, and financial education.
In his free time, Christian attends Emo Nite whenever it's in Fresno, binge watches Netflix, checks out local food or drink festivals (his favs are Greek fest for the food and Pints and Pitties for local brews and the puppies), dances to Mexican music (which he likes to think he’s good at), and plans family events. He is currently planning an adult themed Easter hunt for his 13 first cousins. Christian has a rambunctious two-year old who never stops reminding him how dangerous a living room can be. Lastly, he used to compete in Speech and Debate and made it to Nationals in high school, has played soccer, water polo, cross country, and briefly was in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing. He can quote most comedies from the 2000s (voices and all). Two things he can't live without? Sushi and coffee.
Christian is pursuing a BBA in accounting from California State University, Fresno and has completed a “DEI in the workplace” certificate from the University of South Florida.
Amy Nguyen, Product Operations Manager
Amy brings rich experience to CFR, spending years becoming an expert at community management and customer engagement. Her background includes program management, strategic business development, quality assurance, CRM administration, and general operations. Before coming to CFR, Amy was a Content Operations Manager at Meta where she provided end-to-end, event content strategy guidance and worked cross functionally with tech and non-tech teams. She also recently worked at Possibility Labs, a social change platform.
In her role as Product Operations Manager, Amy will establish metrics for measuring velocity and success of product initiatives, build the processes and tools to allow the Product team to handle incidents, outages, and glitches that come up across our platforms, and write and execute Postgres SQL to obtain data information.
In her free time, Amy enjoys practicing self care, gardening, surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, volunteering, painting, attending concerts, and yoga. She really cares about sustainability, equitable capitalism, the new economy, animals, and the arts. Amy also is an avid non-fiction reader, her recent favorite being Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself by Bernie Marcus with Catherine Lewis. When she’s not outside or reading, Amy enjoys all things fashion, travel, television, and food.
Amy has a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Media & Culture Studies from UC Riverside and a certificate in software development and programming from UC Berkeley.
Cassidy Zehnder, Strategic Philanthropy & Marketing Manager
Cassidy comes to us with rich nonprofit experience, supporting institutional partnerships and development efforts within the social and economic sectors. Her background is in database management, fundraising marketing, strategic planning, funder stewardship, volunteer programs, and grant administration. Prior to CFR, Cassidy worked in strategic partnerships at Accion, an international organization committed to creating a financially inclusive world.
In her role as Strategic Philanthropy & Marketing Manager, Cassidy will support the management of a portfolio of funders and prospects, manage CFR’s website, blog and social media, and support writing grant proposals and reports.
In her free time, Cassidy spends time with her family, goes roadtripping, tries new restaurants, walks around her neighborhood, watches Jeopardy, and volunteers at the local shelter. She has lived in Guatemala and Costa Rica with dreams of one day traveling across all of Latin America. She is also an avid bookworm. Her favorite books she has read in 2023 so far are Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Cassidy’s favorite book of all time is The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. Lastly, at night time, you can find Cassidy scrolling through TikTok and cuddling her two rescue kitties, Zeni and Sparky.
Cassidy has a B.A. in Spanish from Indiana State University and an M.A. in Philanthropy from Indiana University.
Tom Taggart, Encore Fellow, Chief Operations Officer
Tom is a prized asset to CFR, joining us as an Encore Fellow. Encore Fellowships is an innovative program that matches seasoned professionals with non-profit organizations in flexible, high-impact assignments. He comes to us with decades of experience in the finance industry, so he has valuable insights on the predatory practices of traditional banking. He spent 34 years in financial services, with senior roles at Charles Schwab, Barclays, Franklin Templeton and MUFG Union Bank.
Tom’s primary responsibilities at CFR are partnership development and oversight; product development in collaboration with Product Operations; and communications support for the Executive Director.
He is an avid saxophonist playing in a horn section for the R&B band Just for Kicks, as well as two concert bands, performing in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an enthusiastic tennis player and swimmer. His family supports a German Shepherd rescue organization and they currently have a Shepherd named Tobi that rules the house!
Tom has an M.A. from San Francisco State University and a B.A. from Fresno State University.