THEJONASPROJECT

Teri Kelsall

Over a span of 20 years, Teri as been serving her community through her employment with non-profit organizations.

Before co-founding The Jonas Project, she served as Vice President of Workforce and Career Development with Goodwill Southern California for 9 years.  She was instrumental in Goodwill meeting its mission of serving over 250,000 people who were vocationally disadvantaged and/or developmentally disabled by providing training, employment workshops, community job development and job placement, and case management.  During her tenure she supervised the successful operations of five One-Stop Centers; established over 80 collaborative partner agencies and community colleges; developed youth and Veteran programs; managed a staff of 188 workforce professionals; managed a budget of $21 million dollars; expanded from five service sites to 27 service sites; and developed a leadership-training course for the Workforce team.  Teri also completed the Goodwill Industries International two-year CEO training.

Immediately upon arriving in California as a transplant from Louisiana, Teri took a position with Best Buddies Jobs California where she worked to promote competitive employment and career development for people who were developmentally disabled.

Prior to moving to California, and in-between her stints with Goodwill, for 2 years Teri went into private consulting and training with a casino chain in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Indiana.  She was hired to train the entire staff of 2,300 employees on each riverboat in customer service, retention, and leadership.  The results of the training drove the casino’s rating from last among seven casinos to number one in customer service.  Employee turnover went from 300% to 43%; and she developed a management-mentoring program.

Teri held the position of Director of Training and Employment at the North Louisiana Goodwill Industries Rehabilitation Center, Inc. for six years, serving similar populations as with Goodwill Southern California, taking its fledgling programs and building out its services and reach into surrounding communities.  She took her budget from $300,000 to over $1.5 million, and worked closely with local politicians and State Department of Rehabilitation.

Teri’s earlier years had her running group therapy with youth being hospitalized for various behaviors, and she worked for a Youth Shelter as the liaison to the courts.

Teri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s in General Counseling.

John Kelsall

John has been President & CEO of The Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce in Lakewood, CA, since December 2005, where he has immersed himself in the community and in all aspects of job and business creation and growth. John is an active member and participant in several boards in the Lakewood community including the Board of Directors Lakewood Regional Medical Center, a founding board member for the LA County Business Federation (BizFed), Long Beach Small Business Development Center Advisory Board Member, Long Beach Education Business Advisory Council, Lakewood YMCA Board of Managers, Past President, Assistant District Governor and Advisory Board for the Rotary Club of Lakewood.

Before joining the Chamber, he served as the Vice President of Operations for Hank Player USA, a clothing designer located in Los Angeles.

John has spent much of his career in employment placement, education, and business development and growth. Before moving to California, he served as the Branch Manager and then Area Manager for AppleOne Employment Services, Qualifying and Managing Broker for Century 21 Real Estate Professionals, and had his own holding company for 18 years, where he focused on higher education development and training.

Elaine Mathews

Elaine has over 20 years of experience in building startups, with 11 of those being her own.  Since 2002 she has owned and operated Ventures Etc, a technology and business consulting agency.  Most recently she has been assisting others in starting and growing technology businesses through Labyrinth Business Solutions.

Elaine’s expertise includes software architecture, project management, business development, business analysis, and business planning.  Using these skills she follows her passion of helping others start businesses of their own.

Elaine will march up any mountain for someone who is working hard, and smart, for their dream, however she has little patience for those who aren’t willing to put in the work, and she doesn’t suffer a fool lightly.

Elaine has been a volunteer mentor with The Jonas Project almost since we started. She has mentored several VOBs, and then generously volunteered her time to help wrangle ALL of the mentors working with The Jonas Project to ensure consistent, strong and purposeful mentoring for each and every Veteran that joins The Jonas Project. She is an extremely valuable asset and we love working with her every day.

Oscar Ira

Oscar Ira, known around here as “Big O”, was born in the Philippines and came to America in 2003.

He attended Adamson University in Manila, where he completed his degree in Mechanical Engineering and was awarded as one of the top 10 Engineers of his graduating class.

His first job was as a line supervisor for Clarion Mitsuwa, a car stereo manufacturing company in Cavite. The company sent him to Japan for a six-month training program in the field of Injection manufacturing and pad printing. It was in Yokohama where he met his wife, Yasuko. After two years, he decided to work closer to home and got a job at Nestlé Philippines as a production supervisor of a Breakfast Cereals Manufacturing plant.

And in early 2000, Oscar made a career change and decided to study web programming. That same year, Oscar got an opportunity to come to work in US as a software engineer. By spring of 2001 he was working as a Front-End web programmer.

He was hired as a Java programmer at Leverage System Technologies and worked on the development of Admission and Pharmacy Inventory System of the Philippine General Hospital until the end of 2002.

In 2003, Oscar moved his family to the United States. He worked for HRN IT Solutions as a software engineer and then at All Source Container for more than 10 years as IT Incharge, handling databases, creating desktop applications, generating accounting reports and developing websites.

“It was a great blessing when the opportunity came to me to work at The Jonas Project late last year. This opened that door for me to use my skills and talent to serve veterans and help them become successful as business owners,” says Oscar.

“I consider The Jonas Project team as my family. It is a wonderful organization made up of wonderful people. Helping others and making a difference in other people’s lives changes a person’s perspective and makes him even more thankful.”

Now Oscar is developing website for The Jonas Project, our VOBs, helping build databases, and basically rocking all things web-related for our tiny organization.

David Hincapie

David joins The Jonas Project from a program called Mission Continues, which empowers Veterans facing the challenge of adjusting to life at home to find new missions. They redeploy veterans in the community, so that their shared legacy will be one of action and service.

David will be acting as the Capacity Builder for The Jonas Project, giving us an additional resource to reach out into the Veteran, non-profit, and business communities to create new partnerships and strategic alliances that will help our Warrior Entrepreneurs have access to the resources they need to be successful.

David was born and raised in Los Angeles and joined the Army in 2009 at the age of 38. He was stationed in Korea and at Fort Drum, NY, 10th Mountain, 1st BDE. When he separated from the Army, he was a Specialist.

His main focus in joining the military was to advance his career and education options. He’s been able to take advantage of the GI Bill and is now attending college at Long Beach College in Long Beach, CA, studying economics.

David became involved with the Mission Continues when he realized he would need to work while attending college, but wanted to earn money working for a cause that he cared about rather than a typical student job. He was starting to miss the comradery of the army when he heard about The Jonas Project. “I realized that was a cause I could believe in,” says David.

“My goal at The Jonas Project is to see some of these business ideas come to fruition. I joined The Jonas Project because I like the idea of helping veterans start businesses.

My satisfaction will come from helping at least one of these businesses open its doors successfully.”

Kim Kelsall

Kim has over 15 years of experience in marketing, public relations and advertising. She has worked in many industries fine-tuning her skills as a communicator.

Kim has spent the last year and half working for a late-stage tech start up in Austin, TX creating and building the brand. Prior to her time in tech, she worked at a small boutique advertising agency with several high-profile clients. She’s worked in the food industry, home building, public service and training and development.

Kim’s passion for communications and building a solid story for each brand she touches is a driver in her continued professional growth. “People are amazing, and I always find that if you can tell a story in a way that resonates with your audience, you can move them to positive action.”

Kim proudly claims the title of Big Sister to Jonas and works closely with John and Teri on The Jonas Project. “This organization is where I spend every free moment. Not only does it keep Jonas’ legacy alive, it gives us a chance to pay it forward for every kind word and deed that has ever been shown to our family. We truly believe in our mission and that we can build a stronger America when we support the kinds of men and women who have the potential to be successful business leaders.”

Kim holds a bachelors in communications from Louisiana State University in Shreveport, and a masters in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kim is responsible for all of the branding, marketing, advertising and public relations for The Jonas Project.