After Pat earned her degree and teaching credential, she decided to “try something a little different” before devoting her life to public education.  Expecting to spend a brief year serving her hometown as director of her local Club, she soon discovered that she would never consider leaving this new avocation, and the Club has grown from serving 50 kids a day to more than 5,000 daily.

Most recently, she spearheaded the establishment of a health center which provides medical, dental, vision and counseling services to the children of the central Orange County.  In...

Melanie earned her B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara, her M.A. in English from UC San Diego, and her certificate in Financial Planning and Management for Nonprofits from CSU Fullerton. Her career began in the traditional classroom setting as an instructor in university-level research and writing. Melanie quickly moved to work on behalf of underserved populations, including incarcerated parents and recent immigrants. Her work with the Boys & Girls Club movement began in 2004 when she designed and implemented an intergenerational Family Literacy program which still serves...

Mark Surmanian, M.B.A., serves as the Chief Financial and Operating Officer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove (BGCGG). Mark completed his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, earning a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. After several years in the financial services' industry, Mark joined the BGCGG movement in 2007 as an ASES Site Coordinator at Doig Intermediate.

After two successful years at the programming level, he transitioned to Assistant Youth Athletics Manager, helping to provide fully functional sports leagues for over 50 sites and 2000...

In May of 2007, Brian joined the Boys & Girls Club movement.  He started out as a Site Coordinator at one of the ASES school sites.  After opening and growing a successful program, Brian took on the responsibility of hiring and training for the organization.  Over the last year, Brian and his team have helped grow the organization from 200 employees to over 450 employees.  In addition, he and his team have developed the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove Human Resources department.  They continue to strive to find better ways to recruit, train and retain...

Jennifer earned her Associates Degree in Liberal Studies, with hopes of working in the field of education.  Being exposed to the Boys & Girls Club movement as a volunteer in 1999, Jennifer soon realized her desire to build her career aspirations around youth development.  Her passion for developing the whole child, led her to discover different tools, strategies and techniques used in impacting youth.    

In May 2000, Jennifer joined the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove team, as the Learning Center Coordinator (LCC). By June 2001, she was...

 Christina is responsible for the recruitment, coordination, and maintenance of community partnerships that foster seamless referrals and coordination of services for families in the community. Most recently she has collaborated with the local financial institutions, United Way, and other non-profits to host several Community Tax Day Campaigns which returned over $118,000 to families.  She also has coordinated a 100% Campaign to survey over 1,000 Club members and their families about their health insurance status and opportunities to enroll in low-cost programs.  She is...