Board of Advisors

Capture the Dream, Inc. is pleased to introduce our Board of Advisors, who bring a variety of expertise and skills to compliment our growing Dream Team Family:

Laurie Vargas

Laurie comes to Capture the Dream, Inc. with a strong skill set in adolescent and youth development. She has a Bachelors in Human Development and a Masters in Counselor Education with a focus in Marriage & Family Therapy and School Counseling. An active advocator with a passion for social justice, Laurie is a social worker in a large urban school district where she works as district coordinator of their mentorship program. The program provides mental health and mentoring expertise to individual and group counseling efforts, case management, parent/guardian workshops and professional development training for the district. She has published articles on various social issues including Teen Dating Violence, and is an active presenter and member of several professional counseling organizations. Laurie joins Capture the Dream, Inc. as Chair of the Program Management Committee, which is working to grow each program to better support our clients.

Carrina Cappadona

Carrina Cappadona is excited to lend her operational and IT experience, along with her passion for education, to Capture the Dream as a member of the inaugural board. Raised between the Bay and Sacramento areas, Carrina graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Spanish. She returned to the Bay Area and built a career in both technology and for-profit education industries, that included Score Educational Centers, who assist Bay Area students and their families achieve academic success. Carrina then worked for the IT consulting firm, Taos Mountain, Inc., as a member of their Executive Leadership Team, managing the Office of the CIO consulting practice and developing her knowledge of IT. In 2013, Carrina joined Rafter, Inc. to unite her passions of technology and education, to provide a software platform for colleges and universities in an effort to reduce the cost of course materials for students.

Kelly McDonald

Originally from the Metro Detroit area, Kelly McDonald has lived and worked all over the country. Kelly has over a decade experience in operations and is currently the Vice President of Sales Operations at Movoto Real Estate, one of the largest online real estate brokerages in the nation. Previously, Kelly has successfully helped streamline the operations of many organizations both in the companies she has worked in and her through her own consulting firm Sales for Ninjas. Kelly’s passion for helping others achieve their potential runs deep and she is known for her ability to help groups come together to achieve a common goal. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kelly is excited to help Capture the Dream reach its targets and change lives for the better.

Jane Logan

Jane brings more than 20 years of experience in ecommerce, information technology, operations, and nonprofits to Capture the Dream, along with her longstanding passion for helping turn dreams into reality. As an engineering student at Stanford, she built a NASA-inspired curriculum called “How to Be a Rocket Scientist” to interest at-risk youth in East Palo Alto in STEM subjects through hands-on exploration. Currently the Vice President of Systems and Operations for Tea Collection, a children’s clothing company in San Francisco, Jane volunteers with a variety of nonprofits focused on helping kids discover their passions. As Chief Information Officer of Capture the Dream, Jane is excited to build and support a technology roadmap that enables Capture the Dream and its clients achieve their goals.

Eric Thacker

Eric is a 25-year marketing veteran of Silicon Valley, with experience in a variety of industries and company types. He has a strong passion for public service and community enrichment. He has served on the San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission, as president of Preservation Action Council of Silicon Valley, and the board of the Northside Neighborhood Association. He is also an active foster/adoptive parent of three school-age children, and is active in the foster parent community. Currently and independent marketing consultant for a variety of companies, Eric has Master’s degrees in economics and business from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor’s in physics from Cornell University. He is responsible for providing guidance on all areas of marketing and PR for our organization.

Lawrence Patrick

Lawrence Patrick is a senior strategy consultant with Jupiter KSA. A pioneer in digital media, he published his first web site in 1994 and is co-founder of NewsLibrary.com, the largest online newspaper archive in the world.A longtime charter school advocate, Mr. Patrick has served on the Board of Directors of the National Charter Schools Institute; the Washington, D.C., Public Charter School Board; and the Charter School Leadership Council, where he served as its Chairman.Mr. Patrick served on the Advisory Committee for the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University for seven years. He also worked on global education policy issues as a Commissioner to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Education Committee for three years.

A native of Detroit, Mr. Patrick is an honors graduate of Cass Tech and Florida A&M University. He also completed the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders Fellowship program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.