Aaryn Pratt
Diego Rios
Diego Rios is the Executive Director of Here For Kids International, a youth organization
serving six countries in Latin America. Prior to taking on this role, in 2020, Diego served
as International Service Team Leader for the organization.
He is a graduate of St Mary's College where he received a B.S. in Business
Administration and Communications. Diego was elected Student Body President in
2015-16.
Diego has also served as a motivational speaker for numerous schools and
organizations in California. He was a trainer of trainers for CASC and an assistant
director and director for the summer leadership camp.
Rupesh Shah (He/Him)
Rupesh currently leads Product, Analytics, and Customer Support for Granular, the software arm of Corteva Agriscience, a leading agricultural company. Rupesh has 20+ years of product experience, striving to solve significant customer problems by developing deep customer empathy and working closely with design, engineering, and data science to design and build innovative software and data products for end users. Previously, Rupesh held leadership roles in product development at Khan Academy, Infusionsoft, LAUNCH, Simpa Energy, and Intuit; he has also led sustainability and solar initiatives at Simpa Energy and Intuit. In addition, Rupesh is on several boards, including De La Gente, a coffee cooperative and wholesaler based in Guatemala, Nexleaf, a global health company working to ensure the high potency of vaccines, and is an advisor to several high-potential social enterprises through Rippleworks. Rupesh holds a BA in Sociology from UC San Diego and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Randy Bangs (He/Him)
Mr. Bangs currently serves as the Superintendent of the Soledad Unified School District, Superintendent of Educational services, and as a principal at the high school and middle school level. He worked in the Salinas Union High School district as Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services for twelve years. He is past-president of Region 10 for the Association of California School Administrators and currently is the chair for the ACSA Mid-State Conference.
Terrence Mims
Dr. Mims was born and raised in Fresno, CA, where he attended Bullard
High School. He is a graduate of San Diego State University where he
earned his bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and played
football.
Dr. Mims began his professional career as an analyst with Bank of
America, Inc., but soon decided to become a teacher and entered the
Urban Education Program at Holy Names College in Oakland, CA. There
he earned his secondary teaching credential and later taught social
studies in both Oakland Public Schools and San Francisco Unified
School District.
In 2000, Dr. Mims and his family relocated to Seattle, WA, and there, he
moved into school leadership, working as a high school principal in
Seattle Public Schools. During this time, he earned his doctorate in
Educational Leadership from the University of Washington. While living in
Washington, he served as an adjunct professor at both the University of
Washington, and Antioch University, Seattle in the College of Education.
In 2020 Dr. Mims was hired as superintendent of SIATech Schools
located in Oceanside, CA. He served in this role for 4 years before
recently retiring.
Derek Yung (He/Him)
Derek Yung was elected to the CASC Board of Directors in December 2022 and will serve on the Marketing Committee. He was recently named Chief Financial Officer of TransForce. Previously, he was CFO at wine.com. Derek holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Derek served CASC as a trainer and trainer of trainers for our leadership conferences and was involved with our work with the Association of Young Leaders based in Moscow, Russia.
Derek Yung is the Chief Financial Officer for TransForce, a leader in commercial driver solutions and operates a nationwide network for drivers to match truck drivers through an online marketplace. Derek has a history of impactful CFO roles at technology-driven companies, including Wine.com, eHealth, Hotwire (part of Expedia Group) and Ticketfly (acquired by Pandora Media). Derek began his career as a management consultant at Accenture and Alvarez and Marsal, where he specialized in partnering with Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement technology enabled business strategies. Derek has an MBA with Distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
For almost a decade, Derek served CASC as a trainer, trainer of trainers, and assistant director for leadership conferences. Derek was also involved with CASC partnerships with the Association of Young Leaders, a Russian-based youth leadership organization, and with Earth Train, a worldwide campagn by youth to youth to ensure a liverable planet.
Eric Schwartz (He/Him)
Eric leads successful consumer product portfolios. At Tyson, Hillshire, Henkel & Clorox, Eric has owned P&Ls of up to $3 billion and led teams including R&D, Food Service, Analytics, Insights, Project Management, Marketing and Innovation, with indirect leadership of Manufacturing, Logistics, Financial Planning and Accounting. He has led diverse Food and Household product portfolios including breakfast sandwiches, poultry, breakfast meats, corn dogs, waffles, frozen desserts, water filters, trash bags, detergents, fabric softeners, air fresheners, hard surface cleaners and insecticides.
Eric’s multi-chapter career began in CASC programs at age 15. He was a CASC summer programs delegate before any involvement in student leadership, and went on to serve as a student member of hi school board, as student body president, and as a staff member for CASC programs. His involvement with the CASC organization intensified, and – like for many CASC alumni – became a personal and professional formative experience that continues to pay dividends in workplace setting decades later, including instilling an unbreakable habit to work with others to drive change.
Maria Pappas (She/Her)
Maria has a 30 year history in nonprofit where she began her career at the American Heart Association learning the basics of fundraising, board development and community engagement. She was Development Director, Executive Director and Senior Business Development Director while at the AHA. Maria joined The Tech in 2012 as Vice President of Development and has recently been promoted to Chief Philanthropy Officer. Maria leads the development team and has been responsible for The Tech raising over $150M from 30,000 donors during her tenure. Maria's CASC involvement started when she was 16 years old and attended a summer conference at Stanford. She then went on to become a counselor and gamma. Maria was part of the international team that developed Agenda 21, proposals which were presented to Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow and President Ronald Reagan in Washington DC in 1988. Maria earned her BA degrees in Sociology and Psychology with a business emphasis from UCLA and recently completed her Masters in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Arizona State University.
Kelly Wachowicz
Kelly Wachowicz is serving as CASC’s Interim Executive Director, supporting the organization through a leadership transition process. She attended her first CASC program in 1983, and has served in a wide variety of roles for the organization over the decades, including most recently as the Co-Chair of the CASC Board. Kelly is a true believer in the power of people and ideas to change the world! She has been a Director on several charter school boards, and has been an entrepreneur and investor in the not-for-profit and private sectors, focused on ocean and forest sustainability and climate solutions. Prior to stepping into the Executive Director role for CASC, Kelly was the CFO and COO of XPrize winner Planetary Technologies, developing a low-cost solution for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere using ocean chemistry. She co-founded and served as Managing Director and CFO of Catch Together, an impact investment platform supporting ocean conservation, led the Bloomberg Philanthropies Vibrant Oceans Initiative, and has advised foundations and NGOs on impact investment opportunities in 12 countries. She also served as a member of the Global Think Tank for the World Bank’s Ocean Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation, and as judge for the Economist World Ocean Summit Ocean Innovation Challenges. Kelly received a BA in History with Honors from the University of California in Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her favorite ocean phenomena include cuttlefish, siphonophores, and the languages of fishes. Her favorite youth leadership organization is CASC!