Amanda Blaurock
Co-Founder/Executive Director
amanda@villageexchangecenter.org
Amanda Blaurock
Co-Founder/Executive Director
Amanda is our Executive Director and Co-Founder and has 16 years of experience as a realtor, investor, entrepreneur and lawyer.
Focuses on international law in both the public and private sector representing the United States, Fortune 100 companies and international entrepreneurs.
Interested in bringing her business and legal expertise to bear in bridging the gap between the local and international communities.
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Marcel Narucki
Co-Founder/Director
marcel@villageexchangecenter.org
Marcel Narucki
Co-Founder/Director
Marcel is our Chairman and Co-Founder and is also a Lutheran pastor for our donating church St. Matthew Lutheran Church.
He is an educator, theologian, a spiritual director and a former Roman Catholic Camaldolese monk.
Involved in social outreach ministries for thirty years, he is interested to promote and articulate interfaith and multicultural encounters and exchanges in the service of refugees and immigrants.
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Alejandra Ospina
Operations Manager and Community Outreach Director
aleja@villageexchangecenter.org
Alejandra Ospina
Operations Manager and Community Outreach Director
Aleja is newly arrived from Cartagena, Colombia and is both a Colombian and Chilean citizen. She has worked as a business administrator managing international projects, marketing and commercial strategies. Previously, Aleja was the Private Assistant to the Former Vice President of Colombia in charge of social campaigns, media strategies and public relations.
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Sam Deboskey
Program Manager for Village Farms at Stanley
Sam Deboskey
Program Manager for Village Farms at Stanley
Sam is a farmer, carpenter, wilderness guide and community activist from Aurora, Colorado. He is currently reintegrating back into his hometown after spending the last 10 years working for various organic farms and ranches across the country. From a 6,000 acre cattle ranch here in Colorado to a native and perennial plant farm in Maine, he has dedicated himself to learning about different ways we can grow food and use our natural resources in a sustainable and socially just way. His love of being outdoors is what originally drew him to agriculture and he soon found it to be a simple and powerful way for people to connect with each other, to the places in which they live, and to themselves. He is especially interested in empowering young people to find healthy and authentic ways to be themselves and develop a lifelong connection to our natural environment. Currently, Sam is exploring different possibilities and methods to do all of that in an urban setting. He is grateful and excited to be part of the Village Exchange Center team, managing the Village Farms project while also supporting the after school program.
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Erwin Gebers
Community Liaison
erwin@villageexchangecenter.org
Erwin Gebers
Community Liaison
Erwin has been a member of St. Matthew since 1981, and has served in various positions on the St. Matthew Council, including Counsel President. He has been serving as the liaison for the transition of St. Matthew to Village Exchange Center. Erwin develops relationships and manages the congregations at Village Exchange Center. Erwin is retired after working 40 years in Christian Book Stores.
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Omar Montgomery
Chairman
leadervate@gmail.com
Omar Montgomery
Chairman
Omar Montgomery knew from an early age that he had a passion for working in education and with youth. He is an adjunct instructor of Ethnic Studies and Director of Black Student Services at the University of Colorado Denver where he works with students on leadership development and career planning. Omar is also president of the Aurora Branch of the NAACP, serves on the City of Aurora Citizen’s Advisory Budget Committee, and is a member of the City of Aurora Golf Commission. Lastly, Omar enjoys being a servant leader who advocates for social justice issues as it relates to civil rights, affordable housing and eradicating poverty.
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Hector E. Sanchez
Board Member
Hesaba@gmail.com
Hector E. Sanchez
Board Member
Hector E. Sanchez Barba is the Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and the Chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition comprised of the 46 leading national Latino organizations. He is an indefatigable voice fighting systematic injustices against Latinos, immigrants and the most vulnerable communities across the nation.
In 2012 the U.S. Office of Personnel Management appointed Sanchez as co-chair of the Hispanic Council on Federal Employment in the effort to remove barriers to recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing Hispanics in the Federal workforce; Hector continues co-chairing the council. In 2015 he was appointed to the Executive Council Committee on Immigration, he is a member of the AFL-CIO Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice and the Criminal Justice Reform advisory council. In 2014 Hector was appointed to the Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities of the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the Kennedy Center’s Latino Advisory Council, Univision’s External Advisory Board, El Rey Network Hispanic Advisory Council and PVBLIC Foundation LATAM Board of Directors. He frequently appears as a commentator on national and international TV networks, his opinions have been widely published and he is a regular speaker at conferences across the country.
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David Pedley
Board Member
dpedley@pedleylaw.com
David Pedley
Board Member
David serves on our Board and is a corporate and securities lawyer with over 25 years of experience representing companies, including, startups, technology companies, venture capital funds, merchant banks, and hedge funds. In addition to his law practice, David is involved in startups as both an entrepreneur and investor.
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Dave Bechhoefer
Board Member
dave@familiesforwardrc.org
Dave Bechhoefer
Board Member
Dave Bechhoefer has spent nineteen years working for Colorado’s Family Resource Centers and believes passionately in the ability of family centers to strengthen families to meet the challenges that are unique to their communities.
Starting as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer at the South Aurora Family Resource Center in 1998, Mr. Bechhoefer was then hired as a Family Advocate for the Center until its closure in 2000. Mr. Bechhoefer was then employed by Families Forward Resource Center in 2000 where he has been a Family Advocate, Case Manager, Program Coordinator and has served as the Executive Director since 2008.
Mr. Bechhoefer holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in English from Oberlin College and a Master of Public Administration, Nonprofit Concentration, from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Other professional accomplishments include Prevention Generalist Training (1999), Colorado School of Public Health Public Health Scholar (2011), Family Resource Center Association Board of Directors (2007 - 2013), Aurora Welcome Center Board Chair and Board Member (2014-present), Steps to Success Community Board Co-Chair (2011-2016), Steps to Success Nonprofit Board Chair (2015 – present) and Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening and Support Certification Training (2013).
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Laura Mitzner Paletz
Board Member
Laura Mitzner Paletz
Board Member
Laura Mitzner Paletz is the Vice President of Design at RIDA Development and oversees the interiors for all major hospitality and commercial projects for the company. Laura has been passionate about refugee services and social justice from an early age. A descendant of refugees, her grandparents survived the Holocaust and had the opportunity to pursue the American Dream. They instilled in her a passion to always give back to the community and ensure that others receive the same opportunities they were granted as new immigrants.
Laura currently serves as co-chair for multiple subcommittees on behalf of the Village Exchange Center.In her spare time Laura is also a Young Adult author and is active with the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
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Mohamed Mouaddine
Board Member
Mohamed Mouaddine
Board Member
A native of Morocco, Mohamed Mouaddine immigrated to the United States in 2001, with few connections, no money and speaking only broken English. With a sense of humor and a healthy dose of grit, Mohamed forged his path in the United States all the while fueled by support, kindness and generosity from bosses, friends, neighbors and even customers that helped him each step of the way.
Now a business owner and entrepreneur in both his home country and here, in the United States, Mohamed is devoted to serving as an example, and a patron to those forging their own path.
Mohamed Mouaddine is the owner of Amina Auto Repair, a collision and mechanical repair shop, located in the Village Exchange neighborhood. He is also the sponsor of Village Exchange Center’s Drive it Forward Program.
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