Meet Our Board

Don served for 34 years in public school teaching and administration, with 25 of those years as principal and 9 years as a teacher. Following his retirement in 2005, Don entered the not-for-profit world, serving for 15 years as Executive Director and Area Director for Indiana Dollars for Scholars and Scholarship America. He has served as a volunteer, board member and team trainer with Kairos Prison Ministry, and has been a member of the Indianapolis Great Banquet community since 1999. Don is honored to have served as a board member, past volunteer coordinator and current Board Chairperson for Avenue941. He firmly believes that God has great plans for the future of Avenue941 as we serve together to proclaim the love and hope of Jesus Christ to the students and families of Manatee County.

Paul White graduated from Lehigh University in 1970 with a BSEE. During the next 40+ years, he spent most of his time developing leading edge high power microwave solutions for next generation military systems. He spent 30 years as a serial entrepreneur, eventually selling his last business to General Dynamics in 2008. He also taught during this time, including 10 years teaching the electronics technology curriculum at The Community College of Baltimore, an inner city institution, and 3 years teaching at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab as a staff consultant and graduate instructor. During the last 15 years, Paul has served as a Trustee at The Bridge Church, and as a board member of several non-profit and corporate boards, including Avenue 941. He is excited for the ministry opportunities that will unfold as Avenue 941 continues to provide an after-school faith based mentoring environment in collaboration with the Manatee County Board of Education. Paul is married to Vicki, father of 4, and grandfather of 9.

Thomas has a passion for helping others. Friends and family started coming to him as someone they trusted to help with their finances and investments. Seeing a void of trusted financial advice, Thomas founded Rise Financial Partners. Previous to Rise Financial Partners, he spent seven years at a global investment firm where he educated financial advisors and institutional investors how to build better investment portfolios.

Thomas frequently provides insights to other financial advisors and has been quoted by industry publications such as InvestmentNews, LendingTree, MarketWatch, Morningstar, and Time. Thomas is very active within his church community. He was responsible for the development and leadership of his prior church’s security team, and currently serves as the Chairman of the ManaSota Christian Community Foundation’s Advisory Board.

Thomas graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Central Florida. He has passed FINRA’s Series 7, 63, and 66 exams.

Hi all, my name is Johana Desir, I am a mom and wife, married to my H.S Sweetheart for 25 years, we have one amazing rainbow baby girl, well she is 22 years old, so not so baby anymore. I have my bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Concordia University Chicago. In the market place I am a Revenue Cycle Management Consultant working with small to mid-size healthcare companies. I am enrolled at Carson-Newman University in Knoxville, TN for my MBA in Org management, hoping to one day get my doctor in Org leadership.

I lead my own revenue cycle consulting firm and before that, I led the Revenue Cycle teams of several multi million dollar healthcare providers in CA, TN, GA & FL. My Husband and I are passionate missionaries to our Home Country of Haiti and leading the Haitian-American community here in Bradenton, FL through our church RendezVous Christ. I have a slight shoe addiction. I am a big ‘ole extrovert and if you’ve ever done the DISC profile personality test, I am high “I” 99% and high “C” 90%, my primary love language is gifts!

Hello, my name is Debra McNeal and I am so excited to join the Avenue 941 family as a Board member.  I fell in love with this initiative from the moment I heard about it and am excited for the opportunity to watch it grow and affect so many lives in this area.  A little about me, I am a Florida native, born and raised in Glades County.  I moved to Manatee County over 20 years ago, met my husband JD (he is a Manatee County native) and have 2 children: 12 year old girl named JacLynn and 13 year old boy named Elijah. I love connecting with people and making deposits into their lives with my time and efforts, that is especially true for our next generation. I believe that the time invested into others makes more of an impact than anything tangible you could give them.