Our Team
Shay Girard
Ms. Girard has spent her entire career in community service. As Executive Director of Mariposa Community Partners, Ms. Girard sets our mission to serve communities. Ms. Girard oversees our community mission, including our relationships with local businesses, community organizations, and local government entities. She ensures our projects meet their community objectives.
Prior to serving as Executive Director at Mariposa Community Partners, Ms. Girard served as Director of Development for House of Shine (501c3). House of Shine is a leadership development nonprofit. Their mission is to strengthen communities by growing confident, self-aware, and resilient leaders who are equipped with a deep understanding of themselves and why their contributions to the world matter. As Director of Development, Ms. Girard was responsible for raising its operating budget as well as the capital campaign to raise $4M to build a dedicated educational space in Texas. House of Shine trains roughly 100 educators a year and hosts roughly 5,000 students a year with its programs.
Prior to this, Ms. Girard served as Director of Development for Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star (501c3), the largest Big Brothers Big Sisters organization in the United States. In this role, she was responsible for raising $4M a year for the operating budget. Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star provides mentoring to roughly 1,000 at-risk youth a year. Prior to this, Ms. Girard served as Director of the North Texas Special Needs Assistance Partners (SNAP) (501c3). In this role, she was responsible for both operations and raising capital to fund the $3M annual budget. SNAP runs both community programs and a community home for adults with cognitive disabilities. Ms. Girard began her career in social work.
Ms. Girard has a B.S. from Texas Tech University.
James Hickey
As Chairman of the Board of Mariposa Community Partners, Mr. Hickey supports investment execution and compliance.
In addition to Mariposa Community Partners, Mr. Hickey serves as Managing Director of Crimson Wealth Management, a Fairhope-based wealth management firm. Prior to this, Mr. Hickey served as Chief Investment Strategist at Avantax, an $80B BD-RIA platform with over 3,000 advisors.
Mr. Hickey received his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton and his B.A. from Harvard University. Mr. Hickey is also a CFA Charterholder.
David Kelly
Mr. David Kelly has 35 years of real estate and capital markets experience. Mr. Kelly has arranged over $50B in financial transactions and developed over $3.5B in real estate assets, including over $600M in public-private partnerships.
Mr. Kelly has also served as the Chairman of the Texas Public Finance Authority from 2002-2006 and Chairman of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas from 2009-2017. Mr. Kelly is currently lead independent director of TCW Direct Lending and The Invesco REIT and is a director of Ashton Woods Homes.
Mr. Kelly graduated as a John Harvard Scholar in Economics from Harvard College and received an M.B.A from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Steven Kelts
Professor Steven Kelts is a Lecturer in Tech Ethics, Policy and Academic Research at Princeton University. In 2022, Professor Kelts received the Clio Hall Award from the Graduate School for the “Ethics in AI” program, recognizing significant contributions to graduate student professional development at Princeton. In 2023, Professor Kelts was nominated by Princeton’s Teaching and Learning Center for a Pearson Excellence in Higher Education Award.
Professor Kelts is dedicated to first-gen and low-income (FGLI) student success. He has been the lead investigator on a UCHV-funded project looking at strategies to encourage FGLI student success at institutions beyond the Ivy League and the ethical obligation of faculty to adopt proven teaching methods. For four years, he was part of a team designing the curriculum for Princeton’s nationally recognized FGLI program, the Freshman Scholars Institute. He recently published a review in Teaching Philosophy on pedagogy for first-gen students.
Prior to Princeton University, Professor Kelts served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Northwestern University, Assistant Professor at George Washington University, and Lecturer at Stanford University.
Professor Kelts holds a PhD from Stanford University and a B.A. from Harvard University.
Meet Our Board Members
Christopher Dvorachek
ServisFirst Bank
Dan Hartman
Manufacturing Behavioral Science
Ed Hammele
Retired ( formerly SmartBank)
Seattle Hickey
3Boomerang
Shawn Graham
Xerox