Board of Directors

Mara currently serves as Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Organizational Performance for Human resources at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest Federal agency with over 175,000 employees.

She began her 19- year career in Federal service as Director of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) the largest workplace giving campaign in the country and internationally. During her tenure, the CFC experienced record levels of fundraising exceeding $400M distributed annually to participating charities.

Prior to that, she was a Special Assistant to the President of Independent Sector, a non-profit corporation of national foundations and non-profit charities dedicated to strengthening and mobilizing the nonprofit and philanthropic community.

Before returning to Washington D.C., she was the founding Director of the New York-based Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation where she established the grant-making operations focused on civil rights, gun control, and the arts.

She also directed grant-making initiatives for national HIV/AIDS prevention and multilingual health outreach for the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Baruch College in New York City and is a former National Urban Fellow.

Mara began her career in San Juan, Puerto Rico as the service coordinator with the City of San Juan Office on Aging.

Oscar is currently the Vice President of the board of directors for Vida Senior Centers, the oldest Hispanic organization in Washington DC. Recruited to Hamel in 2007, Oscar was promoted within a year to Project Manager. Within four years, he led the completion of 1,427 units worth nearly $100 million. In 2012 he was again promoted, to Director of Business Development. Before rising to his current senior role, Oscar served as Director of Preconstruction Services for several years. Currently, Oscar is a Vide-President in Hamel Builders Inc.

Oscar has a passion for affordable, sustainable housing that people can take pride in. He is a board member for the Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED). and is a member of the Program Committee for the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND).

Oscar quickly progressed from the field to project manager with a real estate development consulting firm. There, he was involved in a wide range of projects, expanding the company’s footprint across the Mid-Atlantic region. In addition to three golf courses, Oscar led the execution of 723 units funded through the LIHTC affordable housing program.

Oscar was born, raised, and educated in Argentina and moved to the DC area as a young man in 1996. He immediately launched a career characterized by hard work, consistently high performance, and a steady rise from roofer to project manager to senior executive two decades later.

John F. Deeds, ‘Jack’, is serving as Chair of the Financial Committee at Vida Senior Centers. ‘Jack’ is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is a member of the Greater Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants. Jack is an entrepreneurial financial thought leader in emerging business solutions, including the building of rigorous financial tools and models, strategic/business plans, automated processes, and business metrics and tracking mechanisms that provide evaluation and timely decision support.

During his career, Jack has provided CFO, VP Finance, Controller, Management Consultant, and Auditor services to diverse industries including service organizations, distribution, manufacturing, construction, banking, real estate, government, non-profits, and trade associations.

He utilizes his diverse business experience and superior business acumen to develop and align strategic finance initiatives with overall business strategy. He has advised key senior executives in multi-million-dollar organizations in managing their finances and operations and to help them create value.

He has the ability to accomplish goals through formal channels and the informal networks and staying on top of the latest technologies and innovations.  Jack is a creative force that helps others to see the possibilities while working in a collaborative manner to influence positive outcomes.

Jack is an effective communicator with experience in conflict management and resolution. Jack lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Medora, and has a daughter who works in television in New York.

Wilson Badillo Jr. has worked in the banking industry for over 23 years. His career started in New York City as a bank teller working his way up to Branch Management. As the Branch Manager of multiple branches, he consistently led his teams to success by empowering them to execute the banks’ vision.

After building his last branch from last in its class to the number two spot, he decided to move into the business banking role, building relationships with local business owners and providing business cash flow solutions for their continued growth and operation. Currently, he works with M&T Bank as a Business Banking Relationship Manager Vice President.

Dr. Sara Melendez has over 30 years of experience in the education and nonprofit sector.

She has been a teacher, professor, dean and vice-provost, and CEO of two national nonprofit organizations. In the independent sector, she led efforts to strengthen the nonprofit sector.

Dr. Melendez taught in the nonprofit management program at the George Washington University, where she conducted research on foundation giving to Hispanic nonprofit organizations.

She has worked with nonprofits, corporations, foundations, and government officials in Eastern Europe, Israel, and Latin America to build nonprofit organizations’ capacity.

Her work has encompassed strategic planning, fundraising, message development, developing partnerships and collaborations, building board capacity and governance policies. Dr. Melendez has consulted on multicultural issues and diversity in the corporate sector.

Sonia Patricia Gutierrez is aware of the need for education in the Hispanic and immigrant community about fair housing rights. She has proven a remarkable ability to successfully engage the community, collaborate with stakeholders in the government and private sector actors while using civil rights laws to ensure diversity and inclusion in the delivery of programs and services, as well as manage competing programs.

Sonia is an effective liaison with local governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, the federal government, private sector industry, and advocates on policy issues relating to civil rights in housing, disability, employment, limited English proficiency, and aging. She understands how one sector impacts and interacts with another.  In addition to promulgating fair housing laws and regulations for residents and industry, Sonia had also focused on the built environment for persons with disabilities and the elderly in any project where the District serves an active or passive partner.

In ensuring compliance with accessibility laws, Sonia ensures that the elderly population and persons with mobility, hearing, and visual disabilities can have a home that will address their specific needs.

Working in civil rights requires passion, and that passion is what Sonia offers the staff and Board of VIDA.

As an adult child of an aging parent with now No English Proficiency, Sonia believes that giving back to the community can be accomplished by affording her time and experience at VIDA.

Mr. Jose Nuñez is a former housing advisor to the DC Department of Housing and Community Development.

Jose is the Standing Director for the DHCD, on the Age-Friendly DC Mayor’s Task Force. He served as Chief Asset Management at HUD DC Field Office and Secretary to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency.

Over his 35 years of government services, Jose developed extensive experience in affordable housing, economic development financing, asset management of subsidized multifamily projects, and real estate public financing.

He also has a vast trajectory in DC and Federal Housing financial programs, community, economic, and real estate development.

 Jose is a subject matter expert in project management, financial planning, underwriting government loans and grants, development and financing of community nonprofit organizations, including management of Hispanic community relations.

In addition, Jose Nunez managed the asset of over 500 subsidized multifamily rental properties located in DC and MD and supervised a staff of 22 including 12 project managers.

Dr. Huerta was born in Perú, where he obtained his medical degree at the University of San Marcos in 1981. In 1987, he moved to the United States in 1987, where he completed a fellowship in oncology research at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in 1988.

In 1991, he completed his residency in internal medicine at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. Then, in 1992, Dr. Huerta received a master’s degree in public health at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

He completed his fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, in 1994. Dr. Elmer Huerta is currently director of the Cancer Preventorium at the Washington Cancer Institute at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., which he founded in 1994.

This low-income clinic accepts only people without symptoms for chronic diseases prevention and screening. There, in addition to his clinical duties in cancer prevention and screening, he continues his research and educational work with the Hispanic/Latino community.

Through his educational work, Dr. Huerta has developed a high degree of respect and trust in the Hispanic community at the local, national, and international level. Dr. Huerta was elected in 2007 as the first-ever Latino National President of the American Cancer Society. He is a prominent figure on Spanish-language radio and television, with shows that reach approximately 85 percent of Hispanic/Latinos in the United States and even extend into Latin America. He is currently Senior Medical Correspondent for CNN en Español. His one-hour, daily, radio show “El Consultorio Comunitario” (The Community Clinic of the Air) has been on the air since 1994 and reaches approximately 75 percent of Latinos living in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. In addition, Dr. Huerta hosted during 18 years, “Hablemos de Salud” (“Let’s Talk About Health”), a nationally syndicated, weekly, television shows on health promotion and disease prevention.

Dr. Huerta has repeatedly testified before the U.S. Congress on minority health issues and was appointed by President Clinton as member of the National Cancer Advisory Board in 1998. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, National Coalition of Cancer Survivorship, Research America, and the Intercultural Cancer Council, and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the American Legacy Foundation.

In 2008 Dr. Huerta was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States.

Dr. Fernando Castro Gómez is a Medical Doctor specialized in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery with over 14 years of experience in Health Program Administration, Disease Management, Program Coordination, and relationship building.  After years of working in the healthcare industry in Colombia and Brazil, Dr. Castro Gómez moved to the United States.

In 2015, Dr. Castro Gómez started his entrepreneurial journey. Since then, he has been dedicated to innovation, science, and biotechnology projects and collaborating with various donors, the private sector, governmental organizations, and NGOs.

In January of 2020, Dr. Castro Gómez took over DISC – Development Innovation System C- daily operations as Chief Operating Officer (COO) as well as the direction of the Biotechnology branch as Director. Under his leadership, the team developed the software “COVID-19 Watch”, a platform created to assist local and national government in mitigating the disease caused by the Coronavirus.

Along with his vast academic formation in the healthcare industry, Dr. Castro Gómez holds a Project Management for Development Certificate by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), a Cloud Practitioner Certificate by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Professional Certificates in Global Health Informatics and Collaborative Data Science for Healthcare by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Fernando Castro Gómez, M.D. was born in Cali, Colombia, where he obtained his medical degree from Universidad Libre in 2007. After working as the Emergency Room Lead Physician in Buenaventura, Colombia, he moved to Brazil in 2009.

In 2014 he completed his residency in Endovascular Surgery and a fellowship in Vascular Ultrasonography at Hospital Municipal Miguel Couto in Rio de Janeiro by the Carlos Chagas Institute of Medical Postgraduate Studies.

As a multilingual senior executive, he is proficient in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

Dr. McPhail has been in the healthcare industry for over 21 years and currently serves at Vida Senior Center as President & CEO. In her role, she is overseeing and supervising both sites (VIDA-Adams Morgan and VIDA-Brightwood). She has overall responsibility for grants management, contract management, personnel management, budget management, program reporting, evaluation, and organization operations.

She brings vast experience in the medical field. In El Salvador, she worked as a medical doctor and primary care physician at Hospital Nacional Zacamil and held positions of Public Health Coordinator and Community Medicine Director at Universidad Evangélica de San Salvador (UESS).

During the past ten years, she worked with a healthcare technology company and was instrumental in its growth from 16 employees to over 480, contributing to multimillion-dollar ROI revenue through the retention of existing clients and resource optimization, and identifying up-sales opportunities. She is an SME population health, utilization management, care coordination, appeals & grievances, member portals, provider portals, mobile clinician, diagnosis-based risk adjustment models.

Dr. McPhail is the founder of ProMethium Health Partners, a consulting firm that provides Medical Management, Advisory Business Development, and Coordination for Technology and Product Development Services.

Over the years, Dr. McPhail has gained vast experience in healthcare and technology, account management, client service, and service delivery.  She brings expertise in leadership, team management, operations, and marketing.

She was born in El Salvador (Central America) and has lived in the D.C. area for the past 12 years.

Dr. McPhail is bilingual in English and Spanish and is used to working in multi-cultural settings, including Central America, India, Vietnam, and the United States.