Center for Balanced Development

Ramses Rashidi, Board of Directors, Executive Director

Ramses is an innovator, artist and educator who has been on a lifelong mission of exploring possibilities to improve the quality of life. He has traveled extensively and for a period of 15 years he lived in China where he studied the language, culture and development trends while contributing as a consultant, journalist and educator. Inspired by the Baha'i Writings and the vision of world unity, Ramses has written numerous articles on “The framework for a balanced development model” which have been published in various newspapers and websites. He founded the Center for Balanced Development in the late 90’s and established it as a non-profit organization in the United States in 2007.

Wei Wu, Board of Directors

Wei Wu is a Certified Public Accountant with over 13 years of experience in financial accounting, consulting and international business field. She was born and raised in China and has been living in the U.S. since 1992 where she received her master degree in Accountancy. She has worked many projects throughout her career such as IPO service, financial audit, and financial reorganization for both U.S. fortune 500 companies and Chinese companies. Previously, she worked for one of the big 5 public accounting firm-Arthur Andersen, LLP. She was also the controller and senior management member for US public trade company as well as private owned company. Wei is also an educator. She received her bachelor's in education in China.

Randolph Dobbs, Board of Directors
Randolph Dobbs was born in Oakland, California, and raised in Salinas near Monterey, where he attended Hartnell College. He studied political science at King's College in London and is an amateur historian. Mr. Dobbs served as the editor of the Los Angeles Bahá’í Journal for over ten years and has been the secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Los Angeles since 1996. He is very active in the interfaith community, serving on the Advisory Board of the Valley Interfaith Council, the Executive Board of the Inter-Religious Council of Southern California and as Religious Director in the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. He and his wife, Chris, with their two grown children live in Southern California.

Qinghong Wei, Board of Advisors

Dr. Qinghong Wei is the Co-founder and President for the p.ART.icipate, an international social enterprise which aims to empower individuals and communities through the arts. Dr. Wei received her doctoral degree from Florida State University and has conducted breakthrough research on the arts and community empowerment. She has been invited to speak at the 2013 Euro-Asia Economic Forum, a summit of international leaders on economic and social development. Dr. Wei has a decade of diverse development planning experience working with governments and communities. She has crafted scores of community development plans for many municipalities and communities in Florida. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Wei had an exceptional opportunity to serve as the President & CEO of Overseas China Education Foundation (OCEF), one of the most influential nonprofit organizations in the Chinese American community with assets of over $1 million and over 5,000 registered volunteers worldwide.

Trav Williams, Board of Advisors

Trav Williams is the founder of Paradigm Financial Planning, which specializes in Socially Responsible Investing. He is an adjunct business professor and developed the course Sustainable Business Practices for Ashford University’s Forbes School of Business. Trav is also a member of the Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment, the Interfaith Council of South Orange County, and the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Orange County East.

Chitra Golestani Maghzi, Board of Advisors

Chitra Golestani Maghzi is an adjunct faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. She is an educational consultant, qualitative researcher, and a co-founder of the Paulo Freire Institute (PFI) at UCLA an organization committed to social justice education locally and globally. While at UCLA, Chitra worked as a researcher at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) on a nationwide study exploring 'student engagement’ and ‘professional development’ in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Oregon, and California public elementary schools. She has conducted research on social economic development projects in Latin America and Africa. Her dissertation, "Teaching for Social Justice and Global Citizenship," conducted in Los Angeles, explored how teachers employ best practices to effectively engage students in learning about social justice through dialogue in an integrative way. Currently, Chitra is writing grants with the Center for International Development and Education (CIDE) at UCLA for project development, teacher development, and research on peace and social justice, education, human rights, and global citizenship.

Susan Conforti, Board of Advisors

Rabbi Susan Conforti is a Board Certified Chaplain. After studying at the University of California, Berkeley, and Purdue University, she attended seminary in Jerusalem and Cincinnati. Her chaplaincy training and experience includes Trauma I centers and adult and pediatric hospitals and hospices. She is trained in perinatal loss and compassionate care of the dying. She also facilitates bereavement groups and provides individual pastoral counseling, and presents Judaism and End of Life seminars at conferences related to Ethics, Palliative Care, and Hospice. Susan has been a member of interdisciplinary palliative care and hospice teams, and is responsible for spiritual and religious care for those at the end of life. As lead chaplain at Hoag Hospital and as a board member of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council, she is active in promoting cooperation and celebrating diversity.

Michael Heinrich, Board of Advisors

Michael Heinrich was born and grew up in New York. He graduated from Fordham University in New York City and has tremendous experience in management, organizational development and marketing. He has worked with major US companies such as RCA records and Revlon. Michael has traveled throughout Africa, Europe, and Lived in Russia for a year during the reform period in the early 90’s. He is a veteran of the U.S. armed forces. Michael is currently working on water purification systems and innovative water filters for impoverished areas of the world. He has 3 daughters and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Sean Sanchez, Board of Advisors

Sean Sanchez has worked in the nonprofit field for 10 years mainly as a Fundraiser, Development Officer, Development Associate, and Outreach Director. He has worked with a variety of nonprofits including the ACLU of Southern California, the American Liver Foundation, and the Parents Television Council. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in his 10 years of experience and specializes in fundraising and fund development. Sean is currently in his 2nd year of a Master’s in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Capella University. He has experience with strategic development, grant writing, major gifts fundraising, special event coordination, volunteer management, budgeting, and business planning. Sean is also skilled in conflict resolution and mediation and is a certified mediator with 75 hours of training from Centinela Youth Services.

Bridgette Schnider, Artist, Mentor, Associate

Bridgette Schnider is an ornamental designer / artist who grew up in Idaho. She has studied industrial design and has live in China where she taught English and worked on a variety of projects including a project for teaching children virtues and high ideals through music, visuals and skits. She currently has her own art & design studio in Chicago where she lives with her husband.

Wu Qianying, Mentor, Translator, Associate

Wu Qianying has many years of experience in education, translation and marketing. She worked as an English teacher in Shanghai University and translated a book which was published in China. She has translated many articles about education and development. These articles were published in Chinese and overseas media. She also worked in a Fortune 500 company as marketing specialist in Shanghai，conducting market survey and analysis for investment decision making. During 2002-2004, she worked in Canada as a specialist making marketing programs for world famous companies such as Western Union and P&G. Wu Qianying holds a Advanced Interpreter Certificate and currently lives in Shanghai.

Lee Au, Mentor, Associate

Lee is a researcher, an environmental chemist, and an educator. He was born and raised in Westminster, California and received his Bachelors in Chemistry and Environmental Science from University of California - Irvine in 2009. He has done research in implementing microwave plasma torch to detect metal-containing aerosols and reconstructing past variations in rainfall and temperature as well as working as an environmental chemist analyzing water samples in accordance to EPA regulations. Lee is the founder and director of KNOW free public tutoring program for kids of all ages.

For more information about our team, please contact: info@cbdus.org