OUR LEADERSHIP

Bill Bedrossian
President & CEO of Covenant House International (based in California)
BBedrossian@covca.org

Bill has served as the CEO of Covenant House California (CHC) since 2014, leading the site to quadruple in size in those eight years. Bill’s passion for working with youth came from his parents, who have been foster parents for over 30 years and have adopted 8 of his 11 siblings through the child welfare system. Bill began his career doing street outreach, residential care, and therapy in Chicago in the 1990s. He subsequently spent 13 years with the L.A. County Department of Child and Family Services, leaving in 2008 as the agency’s regional director of South County, where he helped reduce the number of children in out-of-home-care by close to 75% through an emphasis on risk mitigation, family and community support, and faith-based engagement.  In 2010, Bill became the executive director at Olive Crest’s Southern California operations overseeing the agency’s foster care, adoption, group home, transitional living, mental health services, and family support operations.

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Ami Rowland
Interim CEO & Chief Program Officer
ARowland@covca.org

Ami’s lives her life and leads her team with the conviction that “there is no such thing as someone else’s child.”  With more than 20 years of experience working in residential treatment programs for children and youth touched by the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, Ami now oversees all programmatic operations for CHC since 2014.  Ami and her family relocated to the Bay Area to provide increasing leadership and support for our expansion of programs and services in Northern California.  Prior to joining the team at CHC, she was the Southern California Regional Director of Residential services for children and transitional-age youth at Olive Crest. It was there that she handled all program guidelines, development, strategic planning, budgeting, supervision of management employees, and was an advocate for transitional housing programs and the extension of ‘Foster Care Until 21’ across the state.  Ami is a passionate voice for all youth experiencing homelessness, and currently serves as a member of the board of directors for California Coalition for Youth. When she’s not providing love, hugs and encouragement to our youth and staff at the Cov, you’ll find her soaking up time with her two sons and cheering them on in life!

Lailanie Jones
Senior Vice President, Southern California
ljones@covca.org

Lailanie has dedicated her life to improving the education and well-being of children in need. From her summers as a young girl, serving in orphanages all over the world, to her previous role in working with children and families experiencing homelessness, Lailanie is passionate about helping and empowering others. She comes to Covenant House CA with over twenty years of experience in early childhood education, most notably serving for fourteen years as Executive Director of Precious Lamb Preschool in Long Beach, California.  The school served children of parents who were experiencing homelessness, and provided support for the families.  Through her visionary leadership, Lailanie brought about a dramatic expansion in all areas of the organization.  Most importantly to her, she created and nurtured a diverse and inclusive culture centered around compassion, integrity, and dignity, for both her staff and for the families she served. Lailanie has received numerous awards and recognition for her leadership in the community of Long Beach, CA and LA County.  When not at work, you can find Lailanie cooking for and hosting friends and family, and most of all enjoying time with her husband Scott and their two beautiful girls, Juliana and Evelyn. 

Paida Ndemera
Senior Vice President, Northern California
pndemera@covca.org

Having started off her career as a Psychiatry Nurse Practitioner 20 years ago, Paida`s career trajectory shifted into healthcare administration where she has an impressive record of setting up and establishing health care facilities in London, Melbourne and the Bay Area. Over the last few years her focus has been working with marginalized communities and being an active advocate for the communities she serves. Paida is passionate about the concept of whole person care which is premised on the recognition that the best way to care for individuals with multifaceted needs is to consider their full spectrum of needs and Paida believes housing tops this list of needs .

Paida is a biological mother of 2 and also supports 18  children at an orphanage founded by her and husband, Simba.

Neeta Patel
Chief Operating Officer
NPatel@covca.org

For over 25 years, Neeta enjoyed a successful career as a leader in large Fortune 500 companies, most notably at Duke Energy (the largest utility in the nation) and later at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a major space propulsion company.  With a focus on clean energy technology development, Neeta has been at the forefront of innovation.  At Duke Energy, she led Strategic Planning and later championed a new focus on in-house clean energy technology development to help address the challenges of climate change.  She came to California in 2009 by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne where she led a team of rocket scientists to identify ways in which to repurpose space propulsion technologies for terrestrial clean energy applications.  In parallel to this career, Neeta and her husband have built a real estate business which has grown since 2010 to hold both residential and commercial assets across multiple states.  A firm believer in giving back, Neeta has held various non-profit board positions and was the Board Chair for Junior Achievement of Southern California (2014-2016).  She is the recipient of the Cincinnati Business Courier Top 40 under 40 Awards (2006) and the Women of Color in Technology Award (2002).  Of Indian descent, born and raised in Zimbabwe, educated in United Kingdom, and now more than 20 years in USA, she considers herself a true citizen of the World.

Heather Flynn
Senior Vice President, Development & Administration
HFlynn@covca.org

Heather has dedicated her career to uplifting programs serving young people who deserve, but have not always experienced, unconditional love, respect, and a sense of family. With this passion for youth, Heather leads the agency’s fund development and administration efforts with a commitment to excellence and ethical practices. With more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing fund development teams, Heather joined Covenant House California in 2014, and has served as a logistical anchor for the agency as it tripled its operational budget. Prior to her time at Cov, Heather spent six years as Director of Development Operations for Olive Crest, a high-volume adoption and foster care agency. Heather is a proud mom of two children who fill her with joy.

Amanda Sattler, CFRE
Chief Development & Communications Officer
ASattler@covca.org

Amanda is passionate about serving causes that support transformational programs for young people. With over 20 years of experience in non-profit leadership, Amanda has overseen all fund-development and external communications for Covenant House California since 2015.  The organization has more than quadrupled in size by intentionally “funding together,’ creating a culture of philanthropy and prioritizing ethical storytelling.  Before transitioning to CHC in 2015, she led all fundraising activities at Junior Achievement of Southern California, where she honed her skills in major gift cultivation, board development, strategic planning, communications, staff recruitment and management. Amanda has a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy & Management, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and an Executive Master of Leadership degree from the University of Southern California.  She’s currently pursuing a Doctorate in Philanthropic Leadership from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana Purdue.  When she’s not actively raising funds to end youth homelessness or studying philanthropic trends, Amanda loves to travel and spend time with loved ones … including several youth she mentors that have spent time in foster care.