Michael Chihak, Executive DirectorEmari Dimagiba, SPIN Program DirectorAndrik Cardenas, Director of OperationsKristen Grimm, FounderBoard Members Michael ChihakMichael A. Chihak is Executive Director of the Communications Leadership Institute, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that includes The SPIN Project. CLI and The SPIN Project provide communications consulting and training to other nonprofit organizations across the United States and globally. Chihak has held the position since July 2008.
He serves as CLI’s chief strategist, lead trainer and fund-raiser. He has expertise in communications and media relations; marketing and public relations; fund development and endowment building. He has extensive experience as a corporate and nonprofit trainer for strategic planning, leadership and managerial development, communications and diversity in the workforce.
Before his work for CLI, Chihak spent more than three decades in the news and media industry, including eight years as editor and publisher of the Tucson (Arizona) Citizen and www.tucsoncitizen.com. He previously was executive editor and then publisher of The Salinas Californian newspaper and the Spanish-language newspaper El Sol de Salinas. He worked as an assistant national editor at USA Today for eight years and as a correspondent for The Associated Press for 10 years. He began his career as a photographer and reporter.
Chihak has volunteered for numerous nonprofit and educational endeavors, including as chair of the fund-raising board for the University of Arizona's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; the boards of two community foundations – in Tucson, Arizona, and Monterey County, California; as chair of the board of the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce; as founding president of the Monterey County Business Council; and on the board of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He has been a Big Brother and was co-chair of the Hispanic Mentoring Initiative at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson.
(Phonetic pronunciation: CHEE-hock)
Michael can be reached by email or phone at "michael at communicationsleadership.org" or 415.227.4200 x222.
Emari Dimagiba, SPIN Program DirectorEmari Dimagiba’s health advocacy and communications career spans 20 years of public speaking, professional trainings, meeting facilitation, and consultation in the areas of reproductive health, sexual violence prevention, youth development, and social marketing.
Her previous positions in health communications involved strategic planning, managing an award-winning $650,000 statewide public education campaign, and website development. As a policy advocate and health educator in the 1990s, Emari organized and led an unprecedented coalition of over 50 educational, religious, health, social service, and other community-based organizations across Minnesota. The Coalition for Responsible Sex Ed remains an active and successful outreach and lobbying effort to support comprehensive sexuality education and youth access to confidential health care services.
Leveraging her expertise in community organizing as well as broadcast and electronic media, Emari has trained educators, health professionals, social service providers, parents, and youth, to build their capacity as media spokespeople, advocates and peer educators.
Most recently, Emari served as Grants Manager for Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, where she wrote detailed reports and persuasive proposals to funders, articulating to funders the unique needs of homeless and runaway youth. She continues to serve in an advisory role to the Healthy Youth Development Prevention Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
She has her M.A in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in Communication Arts and French from the University of San Francisco.
Andrik Cardenas, Director of OperationsAndrik Cardenas has nearly ten years of experience working with nonprofit organizations. He has dedicated this time to ensuring that those without a voice in our society are empowered to express themselves freely and achieve personal fulfillment. His projects have included organizational development, leadership development and training, recruiting and mentoring.
As an engineer at Ford Motor Company, he worked to earn recognition for minority employees as the elected president of the Engineering Steering Committee. In this capacity, he served as a critical liaison between front-line employees, upper management and Human Resources. To address structural gaps in the committee, he led the creation of the group’s first mission statement, business plan and the establishment of formal roles and responsibilities. He also participated in national recruiting events targeting underrepresented minority candidates.
In 2004, Andrik founded and facilitated the McCormick Leadership Conference for executive committee members of undergraduate student organizations. This annual conference continues to help group executives improve on operational issues, leadership styles, the communication of mission/vision statement and clear goals.
In collaboration with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, he spearheaded the creation of a new college prep curriculum for underrepresented inner city high school students in the Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) Program. He was also a professional adviser to several student chapters of the society. Additionally, he gave motivational speeches to minority students at several Detroit area high schools.
Andrik came to CLI as part of the transition team that coordinated the creation of the new strategic plan, the hiring of new personnel, implementation of the 2008 SPIN Academy and an overhaul of the organization's internal structures and operations. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Kellogg School of Management.
Kristen Grimm, FounderKristen Grimm has extensive experience conceiving, implementing and managing strategic communications campaigns. She is the president of Spitfire Strategies, which provides communications solutions to support positive social change.
Prior to founding the Communications Leadership Institute and Spitfire Strategies, she was a fellow at the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), where she worked on issues including banning landmines, reforming the death penalty and criminal justice systems, and reducing the threat of nuclear war.
Before her fellowship, Grimm was the president and chief operating officer of Fenton Communications, where she oversaw a professional staff of 65, as well as managed client accounts including The Justice Project, Align Technology, World Wildlife Fund, the Aspen Institute, NRDC, and Youth Service America. While at Fenton, she wrote “NOW HEAR THIS: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications” (with generous support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation). More than 10,000 copies of the booklet were distributed in the nonprofit and foundation sectors.
She has conducted many capacity building communications trainings for nonprofits, foundations and corporations including the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Arsalyn Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. Grimm is a frequent speaker on communications and successful advocacy strategies, and has recently addressed annual conferences for the Independent Sector, Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Council on Foundations, the Communications Network, and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals.
In 1999, she won the Silver Anvil for her work on SeaWeb’s ‘Give Swordfish a Break’ campaign, which successfully mobilized hundreds of chefs across the country to stop serving swordfish until the U.S. government adopted a sustainable fisheries management plan. Prior to Fenton, Grimm was a senior account executive with Millennium Communications Group where her clients included: The Benton Foundation, the California Nurses Association, Public Allies, and Rock the Vote.
Board of Directors Troy Petenbrink
Board President
Principal, Caduceus Marketing
Washington, DC
Ludovic Blain III
Board Secretary
Director, Spotlight on Race, Center for Social Inclusion
Oakland, CA
Akilah Monifa
Board Treasurer
Director of Communications,
CBS 5/The CW 44 Cable 12 (KPIX/KBCW Televisions)
San Francisco, CA
Piper Kerman
Chairperson, Strategic Planning Committee
Vice President, Spitfire Strategies
New York, NY
David Brotherton
Chairperson, Personnel Committee
President and Founder, Brotherton Strategies
Seattle, WA
