Capital Area Food Bank of Texas Blog

David Davenport, President & CEO

David Davenport joined the Food Bank in March 2008 as President & CEO. David was born in Baltimore, Maryland and moved with his family to the Houston area in 1974.

David went on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University where he currently serves as a member of the Former Students Advisory Board for the Department of Political Science.

Soon after graduation from college, David began a successful career with the YMCA serving communities here in Texas as well as internationally in Japan, Mexico and Brazil.

In 2004, David became the Executive Director of End Hunger Network—then a small food rescue organization. Since 2004, End Hunger Network has received national acclaim as one of the most effective and innovative organizations of its type in the United States. Growing from seven employees in 2004 to thirty six in 2007, End Hunger Network serves as a national model for food rescue and human service serving the most vulnerable members of the greater Houston community.

David has been an active Rotarian for over a decade and is a Paul Harris Fellow.

A bi-lateral lung transplant survivor, David is an advocate for organ donation and removing the barriers of participation in organ donor programs.

David and his wife, Ginger, have three children, Lauren (11), Danielle (11) and Brandon (5).

 

Kerri Qunell, Vice President Communications

Kerri’s role is to educate the public, media and community organizations of the mission, activities, programs, events and other services of the Food Bank through public relations and communications programs. She joined the CAFB team in May, 2005.

Previously, Kerri was the Community Relations Director for KEYE – TV, Austin’s CBS television station. She worked to grow KEYE’s community initiatives through awareness, marketing and partnerships, and promoted the station’s commitment to making a positive difference in the communities they serve. Kerri has also worked at Dell, SicolaMartin and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Kerri is a member of Association for Women in Communications, is a 2004 Leadership Austin graduate, and a current Leadership Austin board member. She was accepted to the 2008 Frank McBee, Jr. Fellowship Program in Civic Entrepreneurship, a program of Austin Area Research Organization (AARO). Kerri is involved with Emerging Professionals in Conservation through Hill Country Conservancy, and Friends of Urban Roots, an advisory board for YouthLaunch. She served as President of Young Women’s Alliance (YWA), served on the YWA board for eight years, and was named “YWA Member of the Decade” in 2003. Kerri was the 2006 “Austin Under 40″ winner in the Community Service category. She serves as a regular guest speaker and mentor at Texas State University-San Marcos, where she received her BA in Journalism.

 Lisa Goddard,  Advocacy and Online Marketing Director 

Lisa joined CAFB in September 2006 and serves as the Advocacy and Online Marketing Director. Lisa focuses on engaging the community online and mobilizing Central Texans to act in support of the Food Bank’s legislative goals. Since 1996, Lisa has been providing online marketing expertise to internet companies and was a founding member of HotJobs.com. Prior to joining the Food Bank, Lisa volunteered as an AmeriCorps*VISTA.

Lisa holds a BA in Mathematics from Marist College, an MBA from St. Edward’s University, is a member of the American Marketing Association and is a current Sustainable Food Center board member. In 2003, she received her Registered Yoga Teacher certification, focusing on Ashtanga Yoga.

Lisa, her husband, Dr. Fred L. McGhee and sons, Alexander and Thelonious, enjoy growing fresh vegetables and herbs in their organic garden.

Joel Berg, Executive Director, New York City Coalition Against Hunger

Joel Berg is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of hunger and food security, national and community service, and technical assistance provision to faith-based and community organizations.  He is also author of the new book, All You Can Eat:  How Hungry Is America?   The book challenges the new President to make hunger eradication a top priority — and offers him a simple and affordable plan to end it for good.

Before becoming executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger in 2001, Berg served for eight years in the Clinton Administration in senior executive service positions at USDA.  For two years, he worked as USDA Community Coordinator of Community Food Security, a new position, in which he created and implemented the first-ever federal initiative to better enable faith-based and other nonprofit groups to fight hunger, bolster food security, and help low-income Americans move from poverty to self-sufficiency.

He was USDA Coordinator of Food Recovery and Gleaning the previous two years, working with community groups to increase the amount of food recovered, gleaned, and distributed to hungry Americans. Also while at the USDA, he served as Director of National Service, Director of Public Liaison, and as acting Director of Public Affairs and Press Secretary. From 1989 to 1993, he served as a policy analyst for the Progressive Policy Institute and a domestic policy staff member for the President-elect Bill Clinton’s transition team.

Berg has published widely on the topics of hunger, national and community service, and grassroots community partnerships. A native of Rockland County, NY, and a 1986 graduate of Columbia University, Berg now resides in Brooklyn. He is the past winner of the US Secretary of Agriculture’s Honor Award for Superior Service and the Congressional Hunger Center’s Mickey Leland National Hunger Fighter Award.

 

 

Amy Silvey, Development Director

Amy Silvey was appointed to Development Director in February, 2007 after joining the Food Bank team as Development Assistant in January, 2006.

Before entering the world of fundraising, Amy received an undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of California at Santa Cruz as well as a Masters Degree in Museum Studies from San Francisco State University. She relocated to Austin in August, 2006 after spending more than six years working for a private family foundation in Los Angeles. In this position, Amy worked with the Foundation’s traveling art exhibitions where she was responsible for writing educational and promotional materials as well as assisting in the creation of new exhibitions and initiatives. Amy was also fortunate enough to occasionally travel with the exhibitions to exciting destinations such as Australia and Singapore where she supervised the art transportation and spoke about the collection.

 

Kim Willis, Communications Coordinator

Kim joined CAFB in September, 2008. She provides project management support for the communications department, edits internal and external publications and designs CAFB collateral.

Prior to joining the Food Bank, Kim spent three years working for The Seton Family of Hospitals.   During this time, she worked at The Seton Fund, Sweet Charity Gifts and The Seton Williamson Foundation.

In May, 2008, she was selected to travel abroad as a Rotary and U.S. Ambassador where she and her team studied international communications.

Kim received an undergraduate degree in Public Relations with a concentration in Business Administration from Texas State University in San Marcos.  She lives in Austin with her husband, Brian, and their two dogs, Lucy and Tadd.

Carrie Gibson, Communications VISTA

Carrie joined CAFB in August 2008 as part of a one-year service commitment to Americorps VISTA, the national service program designed to fight poverty.

Carrie received a BA in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During her time at UIUC she enjoyed volunteering for a variety of non-profit organizations. Her additional hobbies include yoga, biking, traveling, cooking vegetarian meals for friends and enjoying Austin’s live music scene.

Since moving to Austin in December 2006, Carrie has worked at her favorite local vegetarian restaurant, Mother’s Café & Garden; as a nanny for four wonderful families in the Hyde Park neighborhood; and for Austin Independent School District as a bilingual teacher. She is thrilled with her position at Capital Area Food Bank, where she can combine her love of writing, perfecting her Spanish and serving people food!

Aimy Steadman, Online Development Coordinator

Aimy joined the Food Bank in April 2009 as the Online Development Coordinator. Aimy focuses on analyzing, coordinating and implementing online fundraising strategies for the Food Bank.

Prior to working with the Food Bank, Aimy worked at Austin-based Internet marketing firms Leverage Marketing and Apogee Search. She has also volunteered with Austin-based nonprofits to help develop their online communication strategies, such as Our Forgotten Heroes, Monkey Wrench Books and the Foundation of Decentralization Research. 

Aimy received her B.S. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, with certificates in Business Foundations and Social Entrepreneurship and Nonprofits. Her hobbies include gardening, painting and making technical-based art projects. She has two Chihuahuas named Benjo and Cocoa and is engaged to be married in October 2009.