Meet the Team

Despina Kayichian

Founder & President

Despina is a nephrologist for the last 26 years. She lived her first 25 years in her home country Lebanon experiencing first hand social inequities and poverty brought on by the long drawn civil war. Twelve years ago, she went back to school and completed a graduate degree in Healthcare administration; that gave her the tools to take on multiple leadership roles in hospitals as well as ambulatory settings. The desire to serve the most vulnerable has always been burning in her heart.

Over the years, she volunteered as a practicing physician in Mexico, Belize, Skid row DTLA, free clinic in Glendale and many more. She always enjoyed the outdoors and found calm and therapy in the beauty of nature. While practicing the last 8 years at Venice Family Clinic, she experiences every day the disparities in accessing safe and green spaces her patients’ experience. Now, at the nadir of her career, she would like to give those kids, kids in unserved communities, the opportunity to enjoy nature outings and to experience the beautiful outdoors Southern California has to offer.

Christine Lewison

Director

Christine Lewison is an executive specializing in brand marketing, management and development with a demonstrated record of accomplishment in direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns, go-to-market strategies and industry-leading creative within film, TV and entertainment-focused brands. She is the Director of Franchise Development at Spin Master managing the #1 preschool brand in the world, PAW Patrol.

Christine holds a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Mass Media from California State University, San Bernardino. Prior to Spin Master, Christine was the marketing lead for numerous film campaigns at 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and WarnerBros.

Christine loves to be immersed within the beauty of nature and is a dedicated trail runner who runs throughout sections of the Santa Monica mountains every week. She practices martial arts including Muay Thai Kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu and has an absolute passion for cooking and travelling.

Iliniza Baty

Secretary

Iliniza (Nisa) was born in California, but spent part of her childhood living in Patzcuaro, Mexico. As the child of an anthropological archeologist and a former Peace Corps volunteer, commitments to cultural understanding, activism and social justice are rooted in her bone marrow. Nisa (Iliniza Baty, LCSW) is the Director of the Behavioral Health Department at Venice Family Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving the most vulnerable in Los Angeles.

Nisa has worked in the field of Behavioral Health for 26 years in a variety of settings including a local non-profit mental health agency where she was instrumental in developing school based programming for schools in SMMUSD. She has also worked in hospital and county mental health programs. Nisa Baty has a Bachelors in Political Science and Sociology from Occidental College and a Masters of Social Work degree and Certificate in Family Therapy from Boston University. Prior to her work in behavioral health, Nisa served as director of the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Riverside, CA.

Charbel Ghaby

Treasurer

Charbel was born in Lebanon, and immigrated here at the age of 11. Charbel has a bachelor of science in Management Science (Business) from the University of California, San Diego. He graduated Cum Laude in 2000. He began working as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley until he left in 2004 to join the family restaurant business. He went on to open several restaurants in the next 15 years. At one point, he and his brother had 3 full-service restaurant and 5 quick-casual restaurants. He got his MBA at Woodbury University in Burbank while simultaneously running his restaurant businesses. In 2020, he went back to his true passion, financial planning, when he joined WestPac Wealth Partners as a financial advisor.

Since then, he has obtained his Series 7 and Series 66 licenses through FINRA, and also is a life/health agent through the CA department of insurance. In 2021, he obtained his RICP (Retirement Income Certified Professional) designation through the American College of Financial Services. Charbel has coached his sons’ AYSO soccer teams for the last 8 years and is involved in his sons’ cub scout pack and boy scout troop, where they regularly participate in activities to better their community.

Rigo Garcia

Director

Rigo Garcia has recently been named the new Executive Director of the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California. He brings over 18 years of experience working in an FQHC setting. His experience includes health education, leadership and outreach and a commitment to ensuring marginalized groups are provided primary care access.

Recently, Rigo has been the Director of Health Education for the Venice Family Clinic, an organization that provides quality primary health care to people in need. In this role, he created and managed one of the largest community clinic food distribution programs in L.A. County where he executed daily food security initiatives for nearly 10,000 families in need per month.

Rigo has had experience working with children and youth in various aspects. He was a camp counselor during his college years, created fitness programming for youth during the beginning of his career, and most recently has worked with a health care team to provide education on teen health. Rigo has also served on various committees: Anti-Racism Committee as an Action Group Facilitator, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and UCLA’s Hypertension Council. He received a B.S. in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and a Master of Public Health from the University of Southern California.