Management Team
Shaina Gross
Vice President, Impact Strategies and Mobilization
Shaina has been with United Way since 2006 and was promoted to the VP of Impact Strategies and Mobilization position in September 2012. She oversees the development of community goals, strategies and tactics, and community collaborations and partnerships in the areas of Education, Income, Health and Homelessness. Shaina is responsible for the investment of City Heights Partnership for Children’s resources into the community and its overall mobilization efforts. Before coming to United Way, she spent several years doing health education and outreach to Latina and African-American women, as well as college-youth leadership development.
A native of New York, Shaina received her BA in Sociology and her Master’s in Public Health, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a LEAD San Diego Graduate and a nominee for the Herb Klein Visionary Award.
Tia Anzellotti
Facilitator of Collective Impact
Tia’s responsibilities include managing the Collaborative Action Networks, ensuring that they take a data-driven approach to impact and outcomes, and continually facilitating the aligning of existing resources and efforts with the Partnership’s community vision.
Tia began her career at Catholic Charities, Diocese of San Diego where she worked her way up from being a case manager to directing the agency’s three emergency food programs and leading its social policy efforts. Upon leaving Catholic Charities, Tia became the Executive Director of the San Diego Hunger Coalition (SDHC), where she established the agency as a leader in the effort to increase CalFresh (Food Stamp) participation in San Diego County. While at the SDHC, Tia developed and led strong collaborative efforts with traditional and non-traditional partners to fight hunger in San Diego County.
With some of these partners, she co-led a coalition of nonprofits, elected officials, businesses and local residents to establish the City Heights Farmer’s Market and took lead role in ensuring that it was the first CalFresh accessible market in the County.
After the birth of her two children, Tia established Anzellotti Consulting. Her clients have included 2-1-1 Los Angeles and 2-1-1 San Diego, each of whom she led through the process of renewing their professional accreditation status, the California Association of Food Banks, where she is spearheading the establishment of a state-wide certification program for CalFresh Application Assisters, the San Diego Hunger Coalition, where she returned as a grant writer, and the City Heights Partnership for Children.
Patricia Sinay
Organizational Consultant
Patricia assures that the Partnership has clear governance and operational models consistent with the mission and Collective Impact approach. She creates clarity and focus on objectives, roles, and possibilities, by facilitating the
Partnership planning processes; creating drafts of policies and reports; and assuring that data is accurate.
Patricia brings more than 20 years of experience working with nonprofits and foundations to Community Investment Strategies, a consulting firm she founded that connects nonprofits, corporations, government agencies and foundations’ passions to action. She has worked with civil society organizations and community leaders from the United States, Middle East, Central Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico, and Canada. Ms. Sinay lectures on public service at UC San Diego.
Prior to consulting, Ms. Sinay worked for The San Diego Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation for nearly seven years in addition to the American Cancer Society. Before focusing on community building, Ms. Sinay worked with various international development organizations in Washington D.C. In 2009, she was appointed to an advisory committee of First 5 San Diego and in 2011 she served on an advisory committee to Chicano Federation’s Headstarts in Encinitas and Solana Beach and Our Greater San Diego Vision effort. Further, Ms. Sinay was named to San Diego Metropolitan Magazine’s 2003 “40 Under 40,” an honor roll of young community leaders.
Ms. Sinay is an immigrant from Latin America and earned an M.A. in International Affairs from American University and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.
Torrey Albertazzi
Program Administrator
Torrey assists in guiding the efforts by meeting the team’s administrative, logistical and technological needs. Torrey brings her experience, knowledge and expertise as an executive assistant in the worlds of philanthropy and law. Torrey is a San Diego native and graduate of California State University San Marcos where she received a B.A. in Communications.
Erica Balakian
Data Integration and Effectiveness Manager
Erica Balakian is responsible for assisting the Community Action Networks with data needs. She also supports the Partnership team and action networks with continuous quality improvement initiatives. Erica has worked in the education sector in San Diego, CA and Los Angeles, CA since 2000. She earned her BA in Economics from California State University, San Marcos and her MBA from San Diego State University.
The Children’s Initiative
Data Manager
The Children’s Initiative provides this critical data management, analysis, synthesis, and leadership within the City Heights Partnership for Children.
Karen Sprigle
United Way Executive Leadership
Karen is Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer at United Way of San Diego County. Karen functions as adjunct program leadership to the Partnership at the senior level and within action teams. Karen has over 20 years of mid- and senior-level management experience in the banking industry where she held leadership positions at the district, region and state level in retail branch operations, sales, marketing, human resources and training. Since joining United Way in 2005, Karen has had responsibility for strategic initiatives, human resources, learning and organizational effectiveness.