Team

Dave ValentineVice President, Finance & Investments

David Valentine brings 30 years of leadership in strategy, finance, and operations to UUA. He currently serves as Co-Owner of Thriving for Equity, Inc. a life coaching and consulting business he owns with his wife. Most recently he was the CFO at two small colleges, (Goucher College and Otis College of Art & Design) and at a private foundation (The Kavli Foundation). He also served in similar positions at the University of Pennsylvania, The Annenberg Foundation, and GlaxoSmithKline. David holds an M.B.A. from Drexel University and a B.B.A. from Temple University. Most of his experience has been leading people and teams in finance and administrative functions while updating processes and systems. At his last organizational role, he led the selection and implementation of Workday across accounting, finance, human resources, and payroll. David sits on the board of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. He has also invested heavily in the charter school sector serving in leadership roles on the boards of both Wissahickon Charter School in Philadelphia, and Bright Star Schools, a Charter Management Organization in Los Angeles. David is from Philadelphia originally, lived in Los Angeles for six years, and now is a proud resident of Baltimore, Maryland. He, his wife Deb, and their dog Brodie, have a multi-generational home in the Mt. Washington neighborhood where Dave’s Mom and their son Devin also reside.

Susan HelbertAssistant to the Treasurer

Susan is responsible for the UUCEF’s relations with congregations. As such, she is the initial contact for inquiries from congregations interested in obtaining information about the Fund. Susan joined the UUA in September of 2012 and prior to that worked for Calvert Investments, a leader in sustainable and responsible investing.

David StewartCo-Financial Advisor

David is the co-Financial Advisor to the UUA, focusing on. the Investment and Audit and Risk Committees. He completed an MBA from the University of Tulsa with a Finance and Portfolio Management concentration in 1998 while working in manufacturing related to his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. He subsequently worked in academia for a time after completing a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 2010. A UU since 2000, he has volunteered in many committees of his home congregations, including Youth Advising, Ministerial Selection, Ministerial Intern Evaluation, Endowment, Worship Associates, Preschool Startup, congregational Board of Trustees, and congregational President. He served on the Socially Responsible Investment Committee for the UUA for eight years and concurrently on the UUA Investment Committee for four years. He currently manages his family business of rental real estate and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his three sons and wife of 24 years.

Brian Lasher Co-Chair

Brian is Head of Investment Strategy and a Lead Advisor at CIG Capital Advisors (CIG) which provides successful entrepreneurs and senior executives with wealth management and business advisory services. The firm’s DNA includes an extensive focus on medical professionals and their enterprises. CIG offers solutions to successfully navigate the complex intersection of business, wealth, and family -- allowing clients to focus on what is most important to them, including socially responsible investing. Brian’s past experience includes developing innovative and successful investments as CIO of a private equity firm, Principal for a manager/advisor to multi-asset class, multi-manager discretionary portfolios, Managing Director at an investment subsidiary of a Fortune 50 insurance company, and Vice President at a Forbes 400 family office. Earlier in his career, he directed financing for a NYSE-listed regional shopping mall REIT and post college, he completed real estate development and construction management projects in Boston and the surrounding areas. Brian holds an MBA in Investment Management and Finance from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Brian has been a member of the Birmingham (MI) Unitarian Church and The Universalist Church of West Hartford. Currently, he is an active member of The Unitarian Church in Westport.

Asha MehtaCo-Chair

Asha Mehta, CFA, is Managing Partner & CIO at Global Delta Capital. Her thematic focus includes Emerging & Frontier Markets and Sustainability Investing. In prior roles, Asha was Lead Portfolio Manager and Director of Responsible Investing at Acadian Asset Management as well as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Early in her career, she conducted microfinance lending in India. Asha was named one of the Top 10 Women in Asset Management by Money Management Executive and was profiled as a "Brilliant Quant" by Forbes magazine. Her work has been featured in Pensions & Investments, the FT, CNN, WSJ, and other publications. Asha is a Board Member of CFA Society Boston and an Advisor to the High Meadows Institute. She is a supporter of Compass Working Capital and 100 Women in Finance to promote financial literacy and inclusion. Asha holds an MBA with Honors from The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and a BS, Biological Sciences and AB, Anthropology, from Stanford University. Asha has traveled to over 80 countries and lived in six.

Dave ValentineVice President, Finance & Investments

See above under Staff.

Eric Horvath

Eric is primarily driven by a single, fundamental question: how do we transform how power and resources are shared in our economy, while truly centering the brilliance and bravery of those who have been systematically excluded? At Common Future, Eric serves as its Director of Capital Strategies, where he leads the organization’s work in designing and developing innovative investment capital products for BIPOC communities, with an emphasis on creating more just terms, structures, and impacts. In addition, he also teaches a course on impact investing for City College's MPA program. Before joining Common Future, Eric worked at Transform Finance, where he launched several initiatives that collaborated with activists, organizers and other social sector allies across the country to explore paths for their communities to harness and reclaim capital. He has also worked in philanthropy, where he supported the Woodcock Foundation’s grantmaking and impact investing efforts. Through his time at the foundation, he helped steward several millions of dollars in grants and program- related investments. Outside of work, he is engaged in progressive local politics and mentoring youth of color. A former Fulbright ETA, Eric earned his MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and is completing an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU. He calls Brooklyn home.

Vanessa Lowe

Vanessa's career has been focused on economic and social justice starting with 10 years in Philadelphia legal service agencies - Juvenile Law Center, National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women and AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. She's spent the last 20 years in federal service supporting access to capital for underserved communities. She underwrote investments in community development financial institutions (CDFIs) while working for the U.S. Treasury Department's CDFI Fund, delivered consulting and training to strengthen small credit unions at the National Credit Union Administration, and currently works for the Economic Development Administration delivering disaster recovery support for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. She's currently pursuing the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) certification and hosts Vanessa's Money Hour, a bi-weekly radio show on G-town Radio. Ms. Lowe has a B.S. in Education from Temple University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She's a proud member of the Unitarian Society of Germantown. Vanessa is excited to return to the UUA's Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (CSRI). From 2005-2011 she served, leading the committee's working group on Community Investments and later serving as CSRI co-chair. She discovered All Souls Church and Unitarian Universalism in 2001 after moving to DC to work for the U.S. Treasury Department. At All Souls DC she served as Treasurer and helped to produce Money, Values and Impact - A Conference on Ethical Investing for UU Congregations in 2009.

Lee Meinicke

Most of Lee’s career has been with mission-driven nonprofit organizations – from creating and managing affordable, intergenerational housing to enabling international environmental conservation organizations to function more effectively. She answered the call to more deeply consider how capitalism could work for good and earned her Masters in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now Presidio). Following that she founded and ran Philly Compost, a B2B food waste hauling firm. She is currently the Finance Manager for Friends General Conference, an association of progressive Quaker Meetings across North America. Lee has been an active UU for over 30 years; she served as board president at both the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA, and the Unitarian Society of Germantown. She is a member of Invest for Better, a movement of women using values-aligned investing to shape a better world, and serves as a member of the Planning Commission for her small town, the Borough of Ambler, PA.

Amrita Sankar

Amrita Sankar is an impassioned professional dedicated to redirecting flows of capital in ways that solve global challenges. Sankar joined the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Team at Bain Capital in 2022 and is now an ESG Director. Previously, Sankar worked at NorthStar Asset Management as an Investment Advisor supporting clients and shareholder activism. Prior to NorthStar, Sankar worked for several years on the Investments Team of ImpactAssets, a $1B donor-advised fund that allows clients to make investments that are focused on social and environmental returns through their charitable assets. During graduate school, Sankar had the opportunity to expand her understanding of traditional finance through internships at several firms, including Elevar Equity, RSF Social Finance, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Sankar holds a Masters in Business from the MIT Sloan School of Management with a concentration in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Government, minoring in Public Policy from Dartmouth College.

Pamela Sparr

Advancing Beloved Community and honoring the sacredness of creation are at the core of how Pam tries to live her life – both personally and professionally. She is a long-time and active member of All Souls, Unitarian in Washington, DC. Pam runs her own consulting business specializing in developing and launching advocacy campaigns and programs for non-profits which weave together education, organizing, and policy advocacy. Her projects have led her all around the world and the US. For example, she has worked with Egyptian trade unionists grappling with the privatization of state-owned enterprises and NAACP leaders interested in advancing climate justice through their rural electric coops. An educational project for UU Ministry for Earth (UUMFE) sparked the production of the UU Common Read Justice on Earth. Pam has also worked on staff for UUSC and United Methodist Women, winning an international “Sacred Gift to the Planet” award for one of her UMW corporate campaigns. Early in her career, she worked in and around Wall Street as a journalist and analyst. Pam has a master’s degree in Economics from the New School for Social Research and a double degree in government and economics (with honors) from Oberlin College.

Randy Webb

Randy has been a UU for more than 30 years and is currently an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento (UUSS). He believes strongly that building community requires both hands-on engagement as well as effective leadership, sound financial management and stewardship of assets. In addition to participating on various committees at UUSS, he gets his hands dirty as a member of the building and landscaping crew and is an ESL tutor for a teenage Afghan refugee whose family is sponsored by the congregation. He is also a regular volunteer at a local food bank and with Opening Doors Inc. (a local non-profit focused on welcoming refugees and immigrants) as well as a member of the electrical crew at the Sacramento chapter of Habitat for Humanity. As a member of several non-profit endowment, finance and loan committees, he has witnessed firsthand the real impact sound financial decision-making can have on budgets, funding and organizational vitality. Professionally, Randy was most recently Treasurer of Applied Materials Inc. and has over 30 years of finance and investment experience. During his career, he was a fiduciary for multiple retirement plans and a steward of corporate cash investments. He possesses a deep understanding of investment principles, risk management strategies and institutional asset management frameworks and complexities. Randy holds an MBA from Widener University and a BS in Economics from the University of Delaware.