Our team
BYTE STAFF
Charlie Cutler
Founder, Executive Director and Board President
Charlie comes to BYTE with a Masters degree from the University of San Francisco in International Studies and Human Rights. His concentration was Central American trade politics and immigration with thesis work on refugee asylum processing. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Charlie competed in professional tennis circuits all across the globe, achieving an ATP world singles ranking of #1420.
After ending his competitive career, Charlie spent four years coaching tennis professionally in the Bay Area as an associate instructor at the California Tennis Club, a regional training coach for the USTA Northern California Section, and as assistant coach for the University of San Francisco Men’s Team. During this this time Charlie coordinated the inmate tennis program at San Quentin State Prison, where he also taught college prep writing in the Prison University Project. While completing Masters work Charlie interpreted refugee asylum cases for the San Francisco Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
Jacksubeli Gonzalez
BYTE Academic Director
Originally from the city of Nogales, Sonora (MX), Jacksubeli has a broad range of experience working with non-governmental organizations that promote the arts, culture and education in her community. Jacksubeli collaborated with the Municipal Institute of Research and Planning of Nogales, facilitating the creation of the Municipal System to Prevent, Attend, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women. She also coordinated the project, "Preventive Support Program to Women: Creation of Women's Networks in Nogales, Sonora", which was part of the Comprehensive Program for Social Prevention of Crime, with Citizen Participation, of the Subsidy for Public Safety of the Municipalities. She has been honored by numerous organizations for her contributions, including the Sonoran Institute of Culture and the organization Jóvenes Libres por Sonora (Free Youth for Sonora).
Jacksubeli's personal mission is to design and propose strategies that help to improve her community.
Roberto Burboa
Assistant Tennis Instructor
Originally from Ciudad Obregon, Roberto Burboa attended university at El Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora- LCEF. He began playing tennis at the age of four and progressed through the ranks of Mexican junior players, achieving the national ranking of #1 from ages 15-18. Roberto play ITF and Challenger professional circuits all through Mexico and South America and has since coached high performance athletes in Mexico and the Phoenix AZ area.
Roberto is excited to develop players in his new home, Nogales Sonora, where he hopes to provide new educational and athletic opportunities to vulnerable and under-resourced children.
Hugo Gonzolalez Platt
BYTE Assistant Acidemic Instructor
Hugo González Platt is a licensed psychologist, teaching at the University of Sonora. He has participated in a diverse range of organizations and events that benefit vulnerable groups and develop youth leaders. Specifically, Hugo has worked as part of Circle K International, UNISON, Rompiendo Fronteras (Breaking Borders) and as a Sonoran Citizen Observer of Human Rights.
Hugo’s objectives are to educate university students on ethics and compromise, using his work in psychology to improve the quality of life for children and young adults. He also hopes to help fortify the presence of young professionals and leaders in the border region.
Carolina Iniquez
Assistant Academic Instructor
Carolina Iniquez is a Nogales Sonora native. She is trained in psychology from Universidad de Sonora, where she has taught classes in guitar, photography and created a cinematography & culture club. Her work promoting art & culture at UNISON led her to a passion and career in teaching, which she has continued at La Univerdidad del Desarrollo Profesional (UNIDEP). She currently teaches ethics.
Outside of her teaching career Carolina is a community activist and volunteer with humanitarian and human rights organizations that focus on border issues. She has worked extensively with the the organizations Kino Border Initiative, No More Deaths, and the Network for Victims of Border Patrol. Much of her work has focused on documenting violations of the human rights of migrants, for which she received a 2016 Municipal Youth Award in the category of Human Rights.
Carolina’s mission in life is to use arts, sports, and science to empower youth to confront the challenges in their lives and to mentor them to create a reality at the border based on friendship and community.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BYTE's Board of Directors consists of Charlie Cutler (President & Secretary), Stefanie Tanenhaus (Vice President & Treasurer) and the following members:
Stefanie Tanenhaus
Vice President and Treasure
Stefanie Tanenhaus is co-founder of Border Youth Tennis Exchange as well as an experienced energy professional, currently working at E3: Energy and Environmental Economics in San Francisco, CA. She has extensive technical and policy knowledge of the clean energy sector and a Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to E3 Stefanie worked as a Renewable Energy Analyst at Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), one of the largest combination natural gas and electric utilities in the United States.
Christopher Teal
Board Member
Christopher is a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department. Recently serving as the Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Mexico, he oversaw programs on bilateral security, economic and trade promotion and cross-border exchanges between the United States and Mexico in the Sonora-Arizona region.
Christopher is currently on a faculty assignment at the Inter-American Defense College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. He teaches graduate level classes to senior level Latin American officials on diplomacy, military/civilian relations; and defense/security policy development. He recently completed a sabbatical fellowship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is directing a documentary on the first African-American diplomat, Ebenezer D. Bassett. The film, A Diplomat of Consequence, tells the story of this ground-breaking diplomat and examines the legacy of racial diversity today, nearly 150 years after his appointment.
Gail Emrick
Board Member
Gail is the Executive Director of the Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC), a health workforce development agency serving rural and underserved communities and health service agencies in three border counties of Arizona. She also serves as Adjunct Faculty of the University of Arizona, College of Public Health.
Gail has dedicated her professional life to promote the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities in Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border regions. With twenty five years of experience in program management, she has served in roles as Executive Director, Principal Investigator, Regional Technical Advisor and senior Program Officer for international and local non-profit organizations including Project Concern International and the United Nations World Food Programme, as well as US-based academic institutions including the University of Arizona.
Megan Pickett
Board Member
Megan is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. After graduating with dual degrees in English Literature and French from Mount Holyoke College, She spent 10 years as a magazine editor for a variety of lifestyle publications including Hong Kong Tatler, CS, Angeleno, and Bel-Air Magazine. In 2008, she chose to focus her on non-profit organizations, and developed a passion for childhood literacy. While she was Chair of the Board at Montessori Children's House, she established a writing workshop for elementary-age children, and partnered with local schools to improve policies for children with food allergies. When not writing or teaching kids, Megan tutors children in the SF public school system through Reading Partners.
Melody Buckner Ph.D
Board Member
Melody is the Interim Dean of the University of Arizona South. She is also the Director of Digital Learning and Online Education at the University of Arizona. In this role she oversees instructional design, graphic design, video production and quality assurance for the UA Online Campus. She came to UA eight years ago as an Instructional Designer to help faculty create online courses that reach out and engage students in an online UA experience. Before coming to the University, she served as an Instructional Designer in Professional Development and as an adjunct faculty for Pima Community College.
ADVISORY BOARD
Alma Cota De Yanez
Advisory Board Member
Alma is the Executive Director of Fundacion del Empresariado Sonorense (FESAC). A graduate of the Global Women’s Leadership Network program in 2005, she leads a Mexican community foundation that provides critical social services for poor families living in the border towns of Nogales, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona. Since 2006, she and a team of community leaders have provided training programs, nutritional services, self-employment guidance and support for people with disabilities, often working with migrant workers and their families. These experiences and the management skills she acquired enabled Alma to develop a strong collaborative network that includes academic, business and government partnerships. Under her leadership, FESAC also formed an endowment fund to support dozens of local non-profit organizations.
Jerry Haas
Advisory Board Member
Jerry is the current Executive Director and Board Chair of the Border Community Alliance. After ordination in the United Methodist Church, Jerry served as pastor of congregations in California and Arizona for twenty-five years. He completed his theological studies at the Pacific School of Religion as well as a masters in counseling at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. In 1999 he and his wife Donna moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he directed an international retreat ministry, The Academy for Spiritual Formation. In this position he worked alongside some of the brightest and best leaders in Christian spirituality from around the world. During his tenure in Nashville, Jerry successfully wrote grant proposals totaling almost a million dollars with the Lilly Endowment.
Orlando Bravo
Advisory Board Member
Orlando is a Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo and is responsible for the firm’s investments, operations and strategy. He has been with Thoma Bravo since 1998. Over the past 15 years, Orlando has overseen approximately 145 software and technology-enabled services acquisitions completed by the firm representing about $35 billion in enterprise value. Under his leadership, Thoma Bravo has consistently produced strong returns for the hundreds of limited partners in its funds, and it has grown to become one of the leading private equity firms in the technology sector.
Orlando currently serves on the Board of Directors of several Thoma Bravo companies including Compuware, Deltek, Hyland Software, LANDesk Software, Riverbed Technology, SailPoint Technologies, SolarWinds, and TravelClick.
Orlando previously worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions group of Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York. He received an MBA degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a law degree from Stanford Law School and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science from Brown University.
Robert Phillips
Advisory Board Member
Bob is the Founding Director for the Border Community Alliance and continues to serve as BCA’s Senior Consultant. He currently is Director for the Non-Profit Learning Institute (NPLI) based in Green Valley, Arizona and also runs a consulting firm for non-profit management. NPLI provides capacity building assistance to a wide variety of health, education, environmental and human service programs in the US/Mexico border region. He is currently a guest lecturer on border issues at Stanford University, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Political Development and International Relations.
Tony Sedgwick
Advisory Board Member
Tony is the President of the Board of the Santa Fe Ranch Foundation, which supports over twenty non-profit organizations and projects that operate locally in Santa Cruz County, AZ. Although his efforts are diverse, they concentrate on youth development and are committed to preserving and conserving the natural beauty and life of southern Arizona. Prior to his work with the Santa Fe Ranch Foundation, Tony received a JD from the University of Arizona and had an illustrious career in both criminal and international business law.
Kathleen Coll
Advisory Board Member
Kathleen is a political anthropologist whose research and teaching focuses on immigration politics and policies, cultural citizenship, and grassroots community organizing in the U.S., with special emphasis on the Bay Area. Her book Remaking Citizenship: Latina Immigrants and New American Politics (Stanford University Press, 2010) is an ethnography of San Francisco immigrant women’s experiences and activism in the context of hostile national immigration, welfare, and labor policies.
Prior to joining USF’s Department of Politics in Fall 2014, Kathleen was a lecturer at Stanford and Harvard Universities, a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, and a visiting scholar at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and Columbia University's Reid Hall in Paris.