CIELO

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Iosefa Alofaituli

CEO/Executive Director Experience

I am honored to lead CIELO six years after helping to incubate the organization. While CIELO was establishing its presence and impact, I had the fortune of learning from Opportunity Fund (the largest nonprofit serving small businesses in the US), and now I feel uniquely prepared to guide CIELO through its next phase of growth. From the moment I took this position in April 2021, my focus has been on establishing a culture rooted in core values that are important to the clients and partners CIELO serves. I want to foster an Orange County & Southern CA community that values our innovative, creative, and passionate entrepreneurs, no matter their ethnicity, gender, or income level. We will leverage CIELO as a vehicle to advance social and economic justice. While I was with Opportunity Fund from 2016-2021, I lead the organization’s development and brand awareness efforts in Southern California as the Regional Director, and helped advance our national expansion through business advising and education. In 2015 I resigned from my role at Oak View Renewal Partnership (OVRP) as CEO. During my time with OVRP, I had the opportunity to lead a grassroots place-based initiative that is focused on systemic change in a Latino community that suffers from social, economic, and health disparities. In 2008, I returned to the US after volunteering in the Peace Corps for two years as a Community Economic Development Volunteer. During my service I mobilized a small fishing village community in the Dominican Republic to develop infrastructure projects, including a new artisan school, ceramic stoves, an artisan workshop, reforestation, and a youth-run business. In addition, I helped coordinate youth educational initiatives in HIV/AIDS, sex-ed, English, environmental awareness, and basic business skills. Prior to the Peace Corps, I was in the healthcare industry, where I worked in managed care/hospital sales in Los Angeles, and account-based hospital sales in New York. Having this spectrum of experience since graduating from the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 2000 has heightened my self-awareness and enriched my worldly perspective. Today, I am passionate about utilizing my lived experiences, skills, and instincts developed in corporate america, international development, and non-profit sector, to help create better lives for others.

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