Malin Burnham, Founder and Board Chairman

Malin has been Chairman of John Burnham & Company Insurance and Burnham Real Estate and has been involved in the business since 1949. In 2008, Burnham Real Estate was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield.

Malin is a native San Diegan who graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering In addition to his involvement with the Burnham Companies, he has been active as a board member of several major corporations and 16 firms. His present involvements include: Board Member of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, UCSD Foundation, Rady School of Management, and the USS Midway Museum, and is Chairman of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.

Mr. Burnham has chaired nine major non-profits and has co-founded 14 organizations in his career, most providing direct benefit to San Diego. He’s also been a world-recognized sailor for five decades and has helped San Diego achieve prominence in both local and professional sports. At age 17, he became the youngest skipper to win a World Championship in the International Star Class. In 1987, he played a leading role in bringing the America’s Cup to San Diego. He is a former partner/owner of the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Sockers.

Tad Seth Parzen, President and CEO

Tad has dedicated thirty years of his career to partnerships and innovation across a broad range of public and private sectors. Prior to joining the Burnham Center as its founding President and CEO, Tad headed Parzen Civic Solutions, providing strategic vision, management and implementation services to philanthropy, government and non-profits—work that specialized in in cross-sector public-private collaboration to enhance communities and lives.

Formerly a partner at the San Diego law firm of Hillyer & Irwin, Tad pivoted to public service and philanthropy in 2000. Since then, he’s served as General Counsel for the San Diego Unified School District , Executive Vice President of Price Philanthropies, Founder and Executive Director of the City Heights Partnership for Children, co-architect and counsel to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, education reform consultant to Los Angeles Unified School District, and design-builder of the Oceanside Promise, among other positions and civic board and committee affiliations. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA and a J. D. from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

Kirby Brady, Board Member

As Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Performance and Analytics for the City of San Diego, Kirby is responsible for the department’s day-to-day data and analysis efforts. Her team is responsible for organizing City data and making it universally accessible and helpful to all users. Using municipal analytics, her team leverages data to drive decision-making efforts to better align services with needs and optimize taxpayer resources.

Prior to joining the City of San Diego, Kirby spent four years working for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, where she oversaw the research efforts of the organization. Her team’s work focused on analyzing local economic trends, including quantifying the economic activity of regional industries and evaluating policy impacts. Kirby spent seven years working for the San Diego Association of Governments, where she managed the long-range population and housing forecast program for the region.

With a background in urban and transportation planning, demography, and infrastructure policy, Kirby is well versed in economic and demographic analysis and the application of local data sources.

A native San Diegan, Kirby holds a bachelor’s in regional development from the University of Arizona and a master’s in urban planning from the University of Southern California.

Paula A. Cordeiro, Board Member

Paula is the Dammeyer Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership and Education in the Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego (USD). From 1998-2015 she served as dean of USD’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences and then spent four years working internationally with two NGOs in training and research. In addition to teaching social innovation and entrepreneurship at USD, she is the VP for Education for Edify, an international NGO. Paula works in training, curriculum development and research in sub-Saharan Africa, and Central/South America with school leaders, government ministries and NGOs. Dr. Cordeiro previously served as coordinator of masters and doctoral programs in educational leadership at the University of Connecticut. Prior to being a professor, Paula was a teacher, principal and school director in international schools in Venezuela and Spain. She is the author of three books and numerous articles. Her research interests include social innovation, school leadership, and philanthropy.

Peter Ellsworth, Board Member

After growing up in Los Angeles, Peter received a BA and a JD from Stanford University and served two years in the Army before coming to San Diego with his wife Doris. Once he settled in San Diego, Peter joined the law firm of Lindley, Lazar and Scales, which eventually evolved to become Ellsworth, Corbett, Seitman and McLeod, of which Peter was President. He left the law practice to become President and CEO of Sharp Health Care. Over his ten-year term in that role, he expanded the system from two hospitals to a group of seven hospitals and two medical groups that cared for one third of San Diegans and was the largest private employer in the City. After leaving Sharp, he refocused and reorganized a foundation established by a former law client and became President and CEO of that Foundation. He ran that Foundation in the new model for over 20 years until its final dissolution in July of 2020.

Over the years, Peter has served on numerous other Boards and committees including the Board of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and the National Committee on primary care of the National Institute of Health in Washington DC. He currently serves on the Strategic Roundtable of the San Diego Economic Development Council and the Advisory Boards of The Center for Ethics in Science and Technology and the Accelerator program at the Engineering School at UCSD among others.

Lisette Islas, Board Member

Lisette is the Executive Vice President & Chief Impact Officer at MAAC, a nonprofit that, for more than five decades, has been providing programs and advocacy in the areas of health, education, workforce development, and housing throughout San Diego County. In this role, Lisette focuses ono increasing the visibility, reach, and impact of MAAC’s work, including organizational development and advocacy. With more than twenty years of experience working in the fields of community development and philanthropy, Lisette is passionate about finding new and better ways to help disadvantaged communities be more prosperous and civically engaged.

Previously, Lisette was the Vice President of Community Engagement and Programs at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation. She also served as the Director of Learning and Programs at San Diego Grantmakers. Recognized for her exceptional ability to build strategies, forge relationship among diverse groups, and develop innovative and impactful programs, Lisette enjoys working with organizations seeking to engage hard to reach populations, build partnerships across sectors and drive organizational change.

Lisette graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in sociology and minor in ethnic studies.

Jack McGrory, Board Member

Jack is CEO of La Jolla MJ Management, LLC, a real estate investment company. Prior to that, Jack worked for the City of San Diego for twenty-three years, including serving as City Manager from March 1991 through August 1997. After his time with the city, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Price Enterprises, Inc., where he oversaw the sale of the company.

From 1999 to 2000 Jack was Chief Operating Officer of the San Diego Padres and from 1999-2002 he was President of the subsidiary responsible for building Petco Park and the adjacent commercial development.

Jack has also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Price Legacy Corporation, a real estate investment trust specializing in the acquisition and management of retail power centers, as Manager of The Price Group, and as Director and Executive Vice President of PriceSmart, Inc.

Throughout his career, Jack has served on more than a dozen boards and committees and has been a lecturer at the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University and in the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of California, San Diego.

Jack earned his BA at Colgate University, received his master’s in Public Administration from San Diego State University and his Law Degree from the University of San Diego. He was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Human Letters from the CSU Board of Trustees.

Vincent Mudd, Board Member

Vincent Mudd is the former Managing Partner and Principal of Carrier Johnson + CULTURE. Throughout his tenure at Carrier Johnson + CULTURE, Vincent led the firm to its most solid performance as a private company, leading to its “Top 14” ranking from Architecture Magazine’s “Architect 50” top firms of the year. Previously, Mr. Mudd was the Chief Executive Officer of San Diego Office Interiors.

Vincent is a champion of sustainability having completed several LEED Platinum, Gold and Net Zero projects. He was given the “Cool Californian” award by the California Air Resources Board for his work. As an instructor at SDSU CES, Vincent inspired the next generation of green business leaders through his Sustainable Design and Construction course.

Highly committed to civic engagement, Vincent is one of San Diego’s “Top 100 Influential Leaders,” and has served on a variety of civic and philanthropic boards and led turnarounds of troubled not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Mudd was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Board of State Compensation Insurance Fund. He served as Chairman of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and San Diego’s Citizen’s Sustainability Task Force. He is a former director of the San Diego County Water Authority, Metropolitan Water District and Sharp HealthCare – the largest private health care system in the San Diego region.

Patricia Prado-Olmos, Board Member

Patricia is the Chief Community Engagement Officer at California State University San Marcos. She joined the CSUSM campus in 1997 as an assistant professor of education, earning tenure in 2001 as an associate professor, and achieving the rank of professor in 2007. She has also held numerous administrative positions at CSUSM, beginning with the role of academic director for CSUSM programs in Southwest Riverside County from 2005 to 2008. She served as associate dean for the College of Education from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2011 to 2012 under its new structure as the College of Education, Health and Human Services. In 2010, she led the College of Education as its interim dean.

Patricia served as the founding director of the Alliance to Accelerate Excellence in Education in the Division of Community Engagement, the administrative home for CSUSM's guaranteed admission program with 10 area school districts. In 2015 she was elevated to the role of Vice President for Community Engagement and in 2020 took on her current role. Patricia is a champion of equitable workforce development in the region and believes in the power of public higher education to improve our region and its families. She has degrees from Pomona College and UC Santa Barbara, and previously served on the faculty of Pomona College and University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Tad Seth Parzen, President and CEO

Tad has dedicated thirty years of his career to partnerships and innovation across a broad range of public and private sectors. Prior to joining the Burnham Center as its founding President and CEO, Tad headed Parzen Civic Solutions, providing strategic vision, management and implementation services to philanthropy, government and non-profits—work that specialized in in cross-sector public-private collaboration to enhance communities and lives.

Formerly a partner at the San Diego law firm of Hillyer & Irwin, Tad pivoted to public service and philanthropy in 2000. Since then, he’s served as General Counsel for the San Diego Unified School District , Executive Vice President of Price Philanthropies, Founder and Executive Director of the City Heights Partnership for Children, co-architect and counsel to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, education reform consultant to Los Angeles Unified School District, and design-builder of the Oceanside Promise, among other positions and civic board and committee affiliations. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA and a J. D. from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

Sophia Eichner, Director of Operations and Programs

Prior to joining the Burnham Center in January 2022 as Director of Operations and Programs, Sophia Eichner served in the same role with the Design Forward Alliance. Sophia was part of the shortlist leadership team, which planned and executed a program strategy that resulted in a first-ever World Design Capital 2024 designation for San Diego and Tijuana. Previously, Sophia served in dual roles as the Director of Community Engagement & Real Estate Initiatives and Director of Special Projects for UC San Diego Extension. Her primary charge was the build-out and program development for the new downtown center, UC San Diego at Park and Market. With a 20-year career focused on project management, government, philanthropy and program development, Sophia focuses on leading initiatives designed to create visibility and opportunity for underserved communities in both the public and private sectors.

Known for her passion, creative problem-solving and ability to build and nurture cross-functional relationships, Sophia has aligned multiple organizational and public functions to succeed, including executive leadership, construction, marketing, communications, finance, and community partners. Eichner is inspired by her parents and two children and is dedicated to contributing to our dynamic and growing binational region.

Bill Ponder, Director of Community Engagement and Programs

Bill Ponder is a former University Vice President at Eastern Washington University. Bill is a native San Diegan with three decades of experience in higher education, including former membership in the Leadership Development Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has extensive experience in urban planning as a building commissioner, on planning commissions, and as faculty in the College of Urban and Regional Planning at Eastern. He has convened and reviewed grants for the National Science Foundation. Bill also served on the Citizens Independent Bond Oversight committee for the San Diego Unified School District and is currently the Chair of the Trustees Advisory Council for the San Diego Community College District. He also serves on the board of Groundwork San Diego. Most recently invited by Mayor Todd Gloria, Bill now serves on the Mayor's Civic Core Revitalization Citizen's Committee.

Natalie Royston Scoma, Executive Assistant / Office Administrator

A lifelong San Diegan, Natalie has been working and volunteering in the non-profit sector for 17 years, including the San Diego Center for Children, The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and the San Diego New Children’s Museum, where she sat on the Board of Directors. Natalie graduated with a BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is currently on the Alumni Board at the Bishops School in La Jolla.

Cindy McWay, Administrative Associate

Cindy McWay is a native San Diegan who currently serves as Malin Burnham’s assistant, supporting the day-to-day administrative functions for his many collaborations and commitments. She has spent the past 34 years in various executive assistant roles within the real estate industry, beginning with John Burnham & Company. Working with Malin and now the Burnham Center for Community Advancement has given her a deep appreciation for how nonprofits improve the quality of life for our region.

Balboa Park Working Group

The Balboa Park Working Group will look at immediate infrastructure needs as well as long-term financial and governance options for sustainability.

Workforce Development Working Group

Housing Working Group

Community Fabric Working Group

World Design Capital