Staff
Dennis Stoica, MBA
President
Dennis@CaMarriage.com
909.867.3274
A prominent national leader in Healthy Marriage work, Dennis is responsible for CHMC strategy, as well as programmatic and fiscal oversight. As co-founder of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC), Dennis utilized his expertise in the business world to develop California's pioneering "coalition of coalitions" model through which Healthy Marriage coalitions are linked throughout the State. Dennis also founded the Orange County Marriage Resource Center, where he launched the country's first Community Marriage Resource Center website, which is now considered a best practice among Healthy Marriage Initiatives around the United States. Dennis is a trained facilitator in over a dozen of the most popular Marriage Education programs. He is a prominent figure at the annual Smart Marriages conference where he is regularly invited to give plenary addresses. Dennis is a recipient of the 2008 Smart Marriages IMPACT Award, in recognition of his many contributions to Healthy Marriage work, both within California and on a national basis. Dennis did his undergraduate work at Loyola Marymount University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. Dennis and his wife, Sandy, recently celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary.
Patty Howell, Ed.M., A.G.C.
Vice President of Operations and Media Relations
Patty@CaMarriage.com
760.436.3960
Patty has vast experience in the field of Marriage Education, having taught relationship skills and Train-the-Trainer workshops to over 3,500 couples, parents, psychologists, physicians, teachers, and managers in fourteen countries around the world. She co-founded the Marriage Education Institute, which pioneered online delivery of Marriage Education courses, and she is the co-author of World Class Marriage (published in ten countries) and the 15-hour World Class Marriage course for couples. Patty is a trained facilitator of many Marriage Education curricula, the author of many professional publications and successful grant applications, and is a frequent presenter at Smart Marriages conferences. Patty is grant manager of CHMC’s Federally-funded Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant project, as well as its implementation among CHMC’s Partnering Organizations. Patty and husband, Ralph Jones, have had more than 30 years enjoying the benefits of a world-class marriage.
K. Jason Krafsky
Community Mobilization Specialist
Jason@CaMarriage.com
206.354.7497
Jason is a nationally-recognized expert in building Healthy Marriage coalitions, having built coalitions in California and the Pacific Northwest for more than ten years, and consulted with numerous other coalitions across the country. He has also helped several organizations acquire Federal funding for their Healthy Marriage Initiatives. Jason is a PREPARE/ENRICH trainer-of-trainers, and is trained in other Marriage Education curricula including, PREP, FOCCUS, and Couples Communication. He currently serves on the Community Mobilization Leadership Team for the Marriage CoMission. Jason is the author of an interactive, premarital workbook for couples, Before "I Do" - Preparing for the Full Marriage Experience. Jason provides technical assistance to CHMC Partnering Organizations, and oversees CHMC’s website/media development and public awareness campaigns. Jason has been happily married to Kelli for 14 years, and they have four children.
Kerri Norbut
Special Projects Manager
kerri@CaMarriage.com
951.520.1227
Kerri has worked in the Marriage Education field for two years. Before joining CHMC in 2007, Kerri served as an AmeriCorps Vista with Korean Churches for Community Development, and interned with United Cambodian Community and Long Beach B.L.A.S.T. She is trained in several Marriage Education programs, including Relationship Enhancement, PREPARE/ENRICH, the Dibble Institute’s relationship skills curricula for youth, and is a certified trainer of facilitators for the FOCCUS premarital inventory. For CHMC, Kerri provides technical assistance consultation to Partnering Organizations, oversees CHMC’s statewide Outcome Evaluation project and 10 Great Dates program implementation, and assists with PR/Media Relations. Kerri and her husband, Eric, have been married for one year.
Ralph Jones
Bookkeeper, Workshop Registrar
Ralph@CaMarriage.com
760.436.3960
Ralph is responsible for CHMC’s day-to-day financial transactions including accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll. Ralph has been a Master Trainer of relationship skills on four continents for over thirty years, specializing in programs for couples, parents, and business leaders. As the Director of Overseas Operations for Effectiveness Training International, he was responsible for the establishment and support of twenty-five overseas representatives of Dr. Thomas Gordon's Parent Effectiveness Training program. Ralph is co-author of World Class Marriage and the World Class Marriage Workshop for couples (translated also into four languages). He shares a world-class marriage and professional partnership with Patty Howell.
Bento Leal
Implementation Specialist
Bento@CaMarriage.com
510.333.3478
Bento has worked in the field of marriage- and family-strengthening for the past 20 years. Before joining CHMC staff, he worked with Federal grants in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area to provide life skills mentoring to ex-offenders and to help build family-strengthening capacity of small or emerging faith-based and community organizations. Bento is a trainer in several Marriage Education curricula, including Mastering the Mysteries of Love (MML). Bento's primary assignments with CHMC are to teach MML leadership workshops and provide technical assistance to newly-trained MML facilitators so they are successful in organizing and conducting MML classes. Bento and his wife, Kimiko, have been married for 25 years.
Alison Doucette
Special Projects Assistant
Alison@CaMarriage.com
951.213.6637
Alison recently graduated from the University of California Riverside with a BA in Psychology. Her professional experiences blend retail management and customer service. Alison joined the CHMC team in 2008 to handle special project needs, including processing CHMC’s statewide Outcome Evaluation data and fulfilling Marriage Education “Class Packs” and resource orders. Alison has been married for three years to Christopher, a U.S. Marine Corporal.