Improving the Lives of LA County’s Most Vulnerable Youths & Young Adults
in foster care
homeless
Victims of Sex Trafficking
In-crisis or at risk
GIVE – MENTOR – LOVE is a Foundation of dedicated professionals serving LA County youths and young adults in-crisis, at risk, homeless or in foster care, and victims of sex trafficking.
We are a layer of the healing process GIVING immediate and continued support of basic needs and financial assistance; MENTORING to help them rediscover their self-worth; and LOVING unconditionally to help them thrive.
History of our Organization
2010
We started volunteering with foster girls in the Pasadena, CA area who were exploited, in-crisis and suffered unspeakable traumas.
2019
We established GIVE – MENTOR – LOVE Foundation to expand our footprint and services in order to support youths and young adults in-crisis, at risk, homeless or in foster care, and victims of sex trafficking across all of Los Angeles County.
Today
GIVE – MENTOR – LOVE Foundation partners with LA County Specialized Bureau for Commercial Sexual Exploited Children (CSEC), ZOE Los Angeles, and Learning Works Charter School.
Our Leaders
Board of Directors + key leadership
Donna Pierson
Founder, Chairman of the Board
Donna Pierson is the Founder and Chairperson of GIVE – MENTOR – LOVE Foundation. She started the Cottage Guild at Rosemary Children’s Services in Pasadena with four friends in 2010, which later transformed into the GIVE – MENTOR – LOVE Foundation in 2019. This now feeds her passion for volunteering with youth and young adults in-crisis, at risk, homeless or in foster care, and victims of sex trafficking.
Ginger Umutyan
President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer
Ginger Umutyan joined the board in 2020 and is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. An active member in her community, she on the Board of Trustees for The Gooden School, and is the president of TEMVAT, LLC, a bookkeeping service for non-profits and corporations. Ginger enjoys helping make a difference in this world and being a part of this organization, by Giving, Mentoring, and Loving these girls, something that they have been missing in their lives. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of Financial knowledge so that the youths and young adults in our programs can have a better idea of how to do life budgeting and digital skills, and prepare for job searches. Ginger is a wife and a mother of six children.
Natalie Friberg
Vice Chair/Vice President, Director of Communications
Natalie Friberg is the Vice President/Vice Chairperson of Give – Mentor – Love Foundation and Director of Communications. She oversees and handles public relations and marketing of the foundation to help spread awareness for the youth, young adults, and victims we serve. Ms. Friberg is the co-Founder of RetireBetterNow.com, and formerly, she was the Editor-In-Chief of DREAMS Magazine, a luxury lifestyles magazine in Southern California.
Paul Rusnak
Board Member
Paul Rusnak is Chairman and CEO of Rusnak Group. Since establishing his first automobile dealership in 1959, he has made the Rusnak brand synonymous with Southern California car culture and one of the region’s most widely recognized. Rusnak emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1948 and has made LA’s San Gabriel Valley his home for the last five decades. For his charitable contributions and business acumen, Rusnak has received numerous awards and recognition, including an honorary doctorate of humanities in 2016 from Sias University.
Christian Scali
Board Member
Christian Scali has a diverse law practice that includes advice and counsel and complex and high stakes litigation. His clients are in a variety of industries, including restaurant and hospitality, property management, entertainment, clothing manufacturing and ecommerce. Valued by clients for his outside general counsel advice and guidance, Christian resolves the critical issues, disputes and lawsuits facing his clients to minimize risks. Along with being on the Give Mentor Love board of directors, Christian is on the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Litigation Section Executive Committee, and is a delegate for the Board of Directors of the Independent Auto Dealers Association of California (IADAC).
Kristina Boutros
Secretary
Kristina is a UC Santa Barbara graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science/International Relations. Her work experience focuses primarily in marketing management and corporate event planning. Kristina has several years of experience as a conference event manager from the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara and has also served as a Congressional Campaign Manager for a regional candidate. Kristina worked for McGraw Hill as an Electronic Marketing Consultant managing communications for many of the McGraw-Hill Construction’s information products and services for the design and construction industry. She also has administration experience in home healthcare, developing and creating policies and procedures for Medicare and JCAHO Certification. Kristina has lived in the Pasadena area for 24 years, married and mother to six beautiful children. Outside of raising her children, Kristina is currently the administrator at Jason Boutros MD INC managing credentialing, finances, and hospital contracts. As a mom to four young adult women, she is a strong proponent of helping other young women find resources that empower them to become independent, strong, contributing members of the community.
Kathy Lee
Director of Community Services
Kathy Lee is the Director of Community Services and a member of the Board of Directors at Give-Mentor-Love Foundation. Kathy is an associate marriage and family therapist (AMFT) who recently completed her graduate studies at USC. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in psychology at Loma Linda University. Kathy has experience collaborating closely with underserved, at-risk youth and high school graduates. She provides assistance in helping youth reach their vocational study goals as well as providing mentorship, guidance, and connection to needed resources. Kathy was born and raised in San Francisco and is a first generation college graduate.
Eric L. Ball, MA.
Board Member
Eric is a product of the South Los Angeles area and is one of three children raised in View Park, Ladera Heights and Inglewood California. He attended Westchester High School and then Arizona State University for his undergraduate studies. He eventually earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University at Dominguez Hills. He holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Pepperdine University and he is currently a Assistant Regional Administrator / Program Manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services Emergency Response Command Post (ERCP), the Runaway Outreach Units (ROU) and newly created Commercially Sexually Exploited Children’s (CSEC) units in the Bureau of Specialized Response Services. Eric has been with the Department of Children and Family Services for 30 years. He has a strong passion for working with hard to place high-risk youth and he has been dedicated to this cause throughout his entire professional career. Not only does he manage and supervise the DCFS ROU and CSEC units he is also responsible for facilitating and managing the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) process in the newly created CSEC “DREAM COURT” at Los Angeles Superior Court, Edelman’s Children’s Dependency Court; the court room Dedicated to Restoring, Empowering, Advocating and Mentoring the CSEC population. Eric also serves as the DCFS Law Enforcement Liaison for runaways and is the Department lead for the Los Angeles Sheriff Department’s Human Trafficking Bureau Locate and Recovery Initiative.
Edwin G. Schuck, Jr.
General Counsel to the Foundation
Mr. Schuck brings over 40 years’ international large-firm experience to his tax and corporate law practice, which focuses on middle market and public complex business transactions, market mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, ESOP leveraged buyouts and executive compensation. His practice also involves corporate governance, fiduciary responsibility, tax-exempt entities and finance, public and private finance, partnership, joint venture, real estate and international and cross-border taxation and transactions, as well as federal, state and local tax controversies and litigation. Prior Practice Schuck Law Group’s offices are in downtown Los Angeles. Mr. Schuck began his law practice in 1970 in New York at Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in taxation. He moved his practice to Los Angeles in 1980, where he has been a tax partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson and at McDermott Will & Emery (Chair of California Tax Practice). His law practice has expanded to include the corporate, M&A and complex business transactions described above. He is an active member of the New York and California State Bars.
Julie Dell'Aquila Hernandez
Advisory Board Chair
Julie is an Advisory Board Chair for Give - Mentor - Love Foundation. Julie recently retired from the wine and spirit industry after 19 years to devote more time to her family and to dedicate more time giving back. She believes when you are blessed, and you can, you must give. She has a passion for serving our youth, identifying their needs, and fundraising for their future. Whether it is creating a home away from home at the Boys & Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside where she has served on the Board of Directors since 2010, giving hope, courage, and love to those with none on the Cottage Guild serving Rosemary’s Children Services as a board member in 2013 to what Give - Mentor - Love - Foundation is today, or holding hands of the dying and her work with Southern California Hospice Foundation since 2010, and as a PTO Chair at St. Rita School in Sierra Madre, she is always on a mission to find ways to spread love and kindness to support our youth throughout Southern California. She is a wife and mother of triplets.