Board Member Bios

Minh Ngo, Acting Board Chair, serves as the chief executive officer of My New Red Shoes. With a focus on women, education, and disadvantaged children and families, Minh has worked with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and private sector partners to solve some of our community’s most intractable problems. She is also an active community volunteer and currently serves on the boards of directors of several local and national nonprofit organizations. Minh holds a JD from Santa Clara University’s School of Law and a B.A. from UC Berkeley. Minh can be reached at minh@mynewredshoes.org.

Timi Most, Board Vice Chair, has been the CFO of Mind Garden, Inc. since it was established in 1994. She has been a community volunteer for over 30 years in both the local schools and with various non-profits. Timi has extensive experience working with and organizing non-profit organizations as well non-profit board experiences. She helped found Daybreak Shelter, the first suburban shelter for homeless youth in this country and is on the Board of Foundation for a College Education. Her passion is to work in diverse ways to facilitate positive changes for underserved children and families. Timi received her B.A. from the University of Miami.

Cira Nickerson, Secretary, is Managing Director for the Palo Alto/Hawaii Complex. Cira has served for 19 years with Morgan Stanley and works closely with her Management Team on the strategy, business growth and development of 220 Financial Advisors across seven branches. Cira was recently recognized with the Morgan Stanley Platinum Award for her successful results with Diversity and Inclusion across her Complex. She attended Morris Harvey College in Charleston, West Virginia and holds a degree in Medical Technology. She lives in Los Altos with her partner Kim and three rescue dogs.

Lisa Sweeney, Treasurer, Treasurer, is the Executive Director of Fox Hollow Ventures. Prior to this role, she was the Director of Finance at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and worked in private equity, making investment decisions and serving on the boards of numerous portfolio organizations. She also taught private equity at the Haas Graduate School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She received an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and a BS in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

Alissa Shipper, Board Member, is a VP, Investment Director at Fidelity in the Family Office Group. Alissa has over 20 years of investing experience including 9 years at CM Capital, a $1B+ multi-asset class family office in Palo Alto, where she served as Director of the Funds Investment Department. Prior to CM, she worked as an analyst at a hedge fund and in fixed income capital markets. She has a BS in Operations Research from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Our Founder

Heather M. Hopkins, Founder started My New Red Shoes to serve children like her mom – who suffered the childhood indignity of going to school in clothes and shoes that made her feel like “the poor kid” year after year. Heather served as My New Red Shoes’ Executive Director for two years and as the Board Chair for eleven. Heather left the Board in 2017. She was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2007 for her work with the organization. In 2015, Heather opened Toddle Flexible Preschool in Menlo Park and in 2017, helped launch Community Equity Collaborative, an advocacy group for equity in early learning on the San Francisco Peninsula. She is a member of San Mateo County’s Child Care Partnership Council and an Advisor to All Five Preschool and the Listen First Project. Heather can be reached at heather@mynewredshoes.org.
(650) 241-3911 - info@mynewredshoes.org
Sobrato Center for Nonprofits - Redwood Shores 330 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 135, Redwood City, CA 94065 |