Team
Eat The Elephant was founded by the counselors behind Meridian Prep, who watched talented students hunt for research experience that meant something — and built the program they were looking for.
Founder · Instructor, L.E.A.D. Fellowship
Kenneth leads Eat The Elephant and teaches the L.E.A.D. Fellowship. He also directs MIAP Med and co-owns Meridian Prep, an educational consulting practice — experience he brings to mentoring students through real research, real budgets, and real presentations.
Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer
Sheila oversees the finances of Eat The Elephant and serves on its board, keeping every donated dollar accounted for — from research scholarships to project funding in Lubao.
Co-Founder & Director
Ryan serves on the board of Eat The Elephant and presents the organization's programs to school and parent communities, including the "Empowering Future Leaders" community series.
Program Lead, L.E.A.D. Fellowship
Charisma runs the Fellowship day to day — cohort operations, student meetings and milestones, and the program's community partnerships — and co-signs each fellow's certificate of completion.
Eat The Elephant runs on a wider circle of partners and supporters who lend their time, expertise, and resources to the mission.
Partner & Supporter
Farid is an aerospace program leader whose career includes senior program-management roles with major aerospace and defense institutions — including Safran, GE, and United Technologies — and whose current work supports a leading human-spaceflight program, helping send people to space. He supports Eat The Elephant's mission to turn mammoth community problems into finished projects.
Partner & Supporter
Pavel is a real estate developer whose earlier career was in landscape architecture and urban design. A Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture graduate (Class of 2010), he spent a decade with SWA Group as an Associate and Project Manager on urban design projects around the world — including projects in China and Russia — followed by work with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and later earned a master's degree in real estate development from Columbia University. For the Lubao project, he consults on development best practices, greatest-impact design, LEED, and green development.
Philippines Program Partner
Alison serves as a program coordinator and community liaison for the Lubao program, connecting Eat The Elephant's research teams with the schools and community they serve in the Philippines. She is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) and a graduate of UCLA.
Philippines Program Partner
Carmelita serves as Eat The Elephant's liaison and host in Sta. Rita, Lubao, Pampanga — a community anchor for the Lubao program who hosts visiting students and supports the program's work with the local community.
