Team

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.

Mathew is a values-consistent investor, researcher, and business leader – across multi-asset, ESG and impact investing. He has extensive experience with institutional investors and investment consultants worldwide, including values-based organizations employing ESG or other frameworks. Mathew was most recently Director of Investments at UK based non-profit FaithInvest, where he led their investment programs, research and investment training for institutional faith-based asset owners, and was a frequent writer and speaker on topics related to faith-consistent investing. Prior to this Mathew served as Director of Research and Development at Fidelity Investments, leading investment innovation, product design and asset allocation for Fidelity’s suite of multi-asset class strategies and custom offerings. In this role, Mathew also led investment communications and met regularly with advisors, institutional investors, investment consultants, and made frequent press and conference appearances. Prior to Fidelity, Mathew was a Vice President at Wellington Management Company, LLP where he helped establish and grow global and international equity and multi-asset strategies and investment teams, and a Managing Director of Research at institutional investment consultant RogersCasey. Mathew earned the Master in Business Administration degree from Cornell University and Queen’s University Canada, and an BS Finance from Northeastern University. Mathew is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. He is also financial advisor to World Habitat, and a member of UU Church of Greater Lynn, serving on their Finance & Investment Committee.

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 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.

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.

Didier Dumerjean’s work has been driven by the belief that economic stability and prosperity should not only be accessible to the lucky few. To that end, he has leveraged his career to increase economic opportunity in underinvested communities by ensuring that people from historically excluded backgrounds and low-income communities have greater access to capital, and higher paying jobs to self-determine and self-authorize around the critical solutions necessary in their communities. He has recently supported product and business development, and capital formation for BlackRock’s flagship private markets social impact strategy (BIO). Didier represented the Rockefeller Foundation on the Economic Opportunity Coalition, a Biden Administration public-private partnership investing atop of the ARPA and IIJA. He served as the Global Head of DEI for the Corporate Functions at Google, leading a team partnering with the C-suite to design and implement a systems-level strategy aimed at attenuating disparities along lines of social difference. He was previously a Socrates Fellow at the Aspen Institute, focusing on contemporary issues around racism, policy, and power. Didier holds a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from New York University.

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.

Laura is a seasoned investment professional with over two decades of experience in asset management, alternative and sustainable investments. Laura most recently led the public market investment program at Builders Vision, and impact investment platform based in Chicago. Previously, she focused on alternative investments, serving as a Director at Citadel LLC and a Vice President at Goldman Sachs. She began her career as an institutional investor at The University of Chicago Investment Office, and The Pritzker Group.

Laura received a master’s degree from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and both master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Marquette University. She holds certificates in Sustainable Investing and Climate Risk and Valuation from the CFA Institute.

Laura serves as Chair of the Board for the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which focuses on conservation and access to clean water in the Midwest. She is also an investment committee member for WHI Investments and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Laura spends her time between Chicago and the UK with her husband and two daughters.

Nick has over twenty years of experience in asset management, quantitative analysis, and investment risk management. In his current role, he provides actionable investment insights and recommendations across alternative and multi-asset strategies, serving both institutional and retail clients. He also contributes to the manager research and broader investment solutions process.

Previously, Nick established the investment risk analytics and oversight function at BNY Mellon, focusing on institutional fixed income and multi-asset portfolios. Earlier in his career, he held various quantitative and investment risk roles at MFS Investment Management and State Street, both based in Boston.

Nick holds a Master’s degree in Financial Economics from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance, with a minor in Economics, from Springfield College. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and an active member of the CAIA Boston chapter. Outside of work, Nick enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, keeping bees as a part-time hobbyist, and reading.

Amrita 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.

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 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.