Our Story

Susie was the CEO for Casa de los Ninos since 2004 until her recent retirement in 2022. Under her leadership she was able to triple corporate financial assets expand programing to include early
education and mental health services for children and families, Susie has worked in the health and human services for 45 years and has extensive experience in child welfare, mental health and early
education. Under her leadership Casa de los Ninos grew from a 4 million dollar budget to 23 million budget and grew the assets of the supporting Foundation from 4 million to 16 million. She successfully conducted a capital campaign which raised 15 million to build an entire campus dedicated serving
children and families.

Susie has participated on local, state and national boards with the most recent being the Arizona Council Health and Human Services where she chaired the Advocacy Committee for over 10 years and The National Council of Mental Well Being where she served in Executive Leadership for the last 6 years.

Susie holds a certificate from Third Sector in Interim Leadership and Board Consulting Certificate from
Board Source. With her experience her areas of interest are Board Consulting, Interim Executive Leadership, strategic growth and mentoring new CEO’s. Susie holds a Master Degree in Organizational
Management from the University of Phoenix.

Joseph M. Costa, MSW is the former CEO of Hillsides http://www.hillsides.org,  a child and family serving organization based in Los Angeles providing an array of residential and community based behavioral health services with an operating budget of $50 million. During an 11-year tenure, Hillsides significantly expanded its services and successfully navigated the ever-evolving environment of child welfare and behavioral health. During this period Hillsides merged with another child serving organization, Bienvenidos; completed a $18 million dollar capital improvement project, converted its residential services to a short-term therapeutic residential program, significantly expanded its mental health services and youth development programs and diversified its funding sources to include commercial insurance reimbursement.

 

Before coming to Hillsides, he served as the CEO of Sunny Hills Services (now known as Side by Side) based in San Anselmo, California for eight years. During that time, he completed the strategic integration of Sunny Hills with a peer child and family serving organization in Marin, led the agency through a major reorganization, merged with a youth development services provider in Oakland and inaugurated a satellite of the agency in Sonoma County. 

 

Since completing his tenure at Hillsides, Joe has developed a practice as an independent consultant that includes serving as a senior adviser, developer of strategic plans, group facilitator, fundraising counsel, public speaker and conducting executive searches. Most recently he has partnered with two other colleagues Susie Huhn and Miki Jordan to launch Partners for Impact.  

 

Acknowledged as a leader in the child welfare field, Joe served as Chair of the Child Welfare League of America from 2014 – 2017. He served on the Board of Directors of the Child Welfare League of America until 2021 and on the governing bodies of both the California Alliance for Child and Family Services and the Los Angeles based Association of Community Human Service Agencies

 

He holds a master's degree in divinity from St. John's Seminary, School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts, a master's degree in social work from Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and is a Certified Interim Executive Director. 

Miki Jordan was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Wayfinder Family Services from 2006 until her departure in June 2023 and left an enduring legacy. Miki’s leadership transformed Wayfinder, expanding its mission to encompass not only
blindness and disabilities services but also extending support to at-risk children and youth and those within the child welfare system. Under her guidance, the organization flourished, expanding programs to include behavioral health services,  comprehensive family support, foster care, adoption, kinship services, and services for medically fragile including residentialtreatment and foster care. Demonstrating fiscal and growth acumen, she led the successful effort to increase Wayfinder's budget from $10.5 million to $50 million through strategic mergers/acquisitions, organic growth, and successful fundraising efforts. This propelled Wayfinder from a Los Angeles-based organization to a statewide entity with offices and services spanning
southern, northern, and central California.

Prior to joining Wayfinder, Miki was president and CEO of Para Los Niños for 14 years. She transformed the agency from a
grassroots organization to one of Los Angeles’ most well-respected social service and educational organizations and was key in leading multiple capital projects and the building, development and opening of their first Charter School. Under her leadership
the budget grew from $1 million to a $25 million agency through a diverse portfolio of government and private dollars.

Since leaving Wayfinder Miki has continued to build her practice of executive coaching and has been a certified executive coach since 2017. In addition to coaching CEO’s, she assists CEOs with many aspects of leading a non-profit such as growth strategy
including mergers/acquisitions, board development, CEO’s role with the board and fundraising, executive compensation and
financial sustainability. Throughout her career, Miki has served on many local and national boards in various board officer roles and continues her passion for board service serving on the Board of Trustees of the Luskin Orthopedic Institute/UCLA.
Miki holds a a master’s in organizational development/leadership from Chapman University. She also completed a postgraduate
program through the College of Executive Coaching, is a certified professional/executive coach and recently completed a certification in Nonprofit Board Consulting through BoardSource.