Our Team

Keshia Allen Horner, Board Chair

Keshia Allen Horner (she/her) is the founder of Mariposa Analytics, a company dedicated to helping organizations maximize their impact through insight, action, and evolution. Her passion for improving organizational performance stems from her upbringing, where her parents — both teachers — instilled in her the belief that knowledge is a gift to be shared in service of others.

Keshia’s desire to serve and make a meaningful impact led her to launch Mariposa Analytics. She rejects the notion that organizations seeking consulting services are broken. Instead, like most living things, organizations undergo growth and change, and the natural process of this growth calls for transformation to adapt to a new way of being. Keshia and her team at Mariposa Analytics believe in this process of evolution and transformation, working closely with each client to identify areas where transformation is needed. They develop personalized strategies to help each organization reach its full potential.

Keshia’s journey started as a government auditor, where she spent almost 14 years at both the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the City and County of Denver Auditor’s Office. She then spent over three years as the deputy director of a nonprofit organization. She holds a Master of Public Administration, as well as Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Public and Urban Affairs from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

With her experience and expertise, Keshia brings the full breadth of her knowledge to help organizations develop actionable strategies, make structural improvements, and refine their operations to align service delivery with desired outcomes.

In her spare time, Keshia enjoys exploring the great outdoors, trying new foods, and traveling to new places with her family and friends. She loves nothing more than hitting the trails for a run, embarking on a camping trip, or simply taking in the beauty of nature. As a food enthusiast, Keshia also spends time cooking and sharing her culinary creations with loved ones during get-togethers, seeing food as an expression of culture, heritage, and love.

Brittani Cunningham, Treasurer

Brittani Cunningham (she/her) is a nonprofit operations leader with a decade of experience in human resources, organizational development, and fiscal management. As the Director of Operations at Texas Climate Jobs Project, Brittani combines her expertise in nonprofit management with a deep commitment to social and economic change. She leads the operations team, ensuring efficiency, compliance, and transparency, while supporting the organization’s mission of advancing climate justice and growing the labor movement through strategic leadership and data-driven decision-making.

Brittani’s career spans a variety of roles in the nonprofit sector, where she has developed and managed multimillion-dollar budgets, led remote teams across multiple states, and crafted policies and procedures that have scaled organizations and empowered diverse workforces. She holds dual master’s degrees: a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Quantic School of Business and Technology. This combination of social impact and business expertise allows Brittani to bridge the gap between operational efficiency and community-focused results.

Outside of work, Brittani is an avid outdoors enthusiast. In 2022, she hiked more than 750 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail and continues to explore new trails across the country. A lifelong learner, she is currently studying Spanish and Korean and plans to travel to practice both languages.

Rufina A. Hernández, Secretary

Rufina A. Hernández, Esq. (she/her/ella) was appointed as the Associate Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity at the University of Denver in 2016, having previously served as the director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division of the State of Colorado.  She was later appointed as the ADA Coordinator for DU in 2020.  In her roles at the university, she is responsible for the Affirmative Action Plan, diversity recruitment, anti-bias training in hiring practices and ADA compliance.   

Prior to returning to Colorado, she served as the executive director of the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a coalition of the nation’s most prominent civil rights and education advocacy organizations focused on high school education reform. Hernández led the coalition’s federal policy and advocacy agenda, as well as its public outreach and education activities. 

 A leading voice on solutions to the challenges facing African American, Asian, Latino, and Native students and teachers, Hernández has a long record of civil rights and education advocacy.   Prior to joining CHSE, she joined the National Education Association’s (NEA) as director of NEA’s Human and Civil Rights (HCR)  department  and later as the associate director of the External Partnerships and Advocacy department.  As director of the HCR department, she developed strategies to promote culturally competent teaching aimed at improving academic achievement among students from diverse backgrounds.  During this time, Hernández also led a series of summits on the status of education for students of color, as well as for LGBT and female students.  

 Prior to her work at NEA and CHSE, Hernández was executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA), a Colorado-based civil rights organization. During her tenure there, she advocated for policy reform in civil rights issues affecting the Latino community, including health, education, employment, and immigration. She also created a coalition with other civil rights organizations which equipped local and statewide ethnic minority community-based organizations to advocate for common political and legislative issues. 

 A graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, Hernández honed her skills as a trial attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver. As a specialist in public utility regulation, consumer protection, and bankruptcy law, she litigated two class action lawsuits involving consumer protection. Hernández later developed policies and programs to address the needs of a diverse student community as assistant dean of students at the University of Denver College of Law. And as executive director of the State Bar of New Mexico, Hernández became the first Latina in the nation to lead a state bar organization. The American Bar Association (ABA) appointed her to its Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, Law School Accreditation Committee in 2008, and she has also served on other ABA, Colorado Bar Association and Denver Bar Association committees and commissions as well as other non-profit and local government commissions.    

 A native of New Mexico, Hernández holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico and a Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.   

*Addendum:  Ms. Hernández retired in Sept. 2021.    

Ann Hynek

Ann Hynek is the Founder of Hestia Wealth and Wellness, specializing in comprehensive financial and life planning for families navigating the complex world of special needs and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

After building a 15-year career leading marketing strategy at premier financial institutions, including BlackRock and Morgan Stanley, Ann experienced firsthand how challenging it is to navigate the special needs system when her son was diagnosed with autism at age 3. That journey revealed a critical gap: families need more than just financial advice. They need an integrated approach that addresses benefits optimization, care coordination, transition planning, and long-term wealth preservation.

At Hestia Wealth and Wellness, Ann combines strategic thinking honed at the highest levels of financial services with lived experience as a parent of a child with special needs. She helps families create comprehensive roadmaps that cover SSI/SSDI benefits, ABLE accounts, special needs trusts, estate planning, residential transitions, and lifetime care cost projections. Her approach ensures families can focus on what matters most, their loved one’s quality of life, while knowing the financial and logistical pieces are in place.

Whether families are just beginning their journey, navigating a major transition, or planning for their long-term future, Ann provides clarity, strategy, and ongoing support through every stage.

Ann is a member of The Academy of Special Needs Planners and is a Chartered Special Needs Consultant (ChSNC). She also serves on the Board of Directors for Disability Law United. She has a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a finance specialization from the University of Colorado-Denver and a Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Maite García

Maite García is a senior attorney and nonprofit program leader with over 13 years of experience advancing equity at the intersections of immigration, disability, carceral injustice, and racial justice. She currently serves as Program Manager at the Acacia Center for Justice, where she oversees a nationwide network of legal service providers representing unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings.

Maite has developed detention abuse reporting systems, coordinated pro bono programs, and led impact litigation addressing access to counsel, solitary confinement, and violations of civil rights laws, including the Rehabilitation Act.

Originally from Miami, FL, Maite is a proud daughter of immigrants and a family member of loved ones with disabilities. She brings both professional expertise and her family’s lived perspective to her advocacy. She is admitted to the Florida Bar and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, water sports and getting outdoors as much as possible with her family.

Margo Schlanger

Martha Bahamón

Martha is guided by the belief in making the world a better place by harnessing the power of philanthropy to drive financial and social mobility on behalf of historically underrepresented communities. She currently serves as Senior Director of Development for Institutional Giving at Year Up United, a national workforce development enterprise dedicated to providing job training programs and access to career opportunities at top companies for young adults. Before this role, she held several leadership positions in development in higher education and other national non-profits. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and two Master’s degrees from New York University. Martha resides in Denver, Colorado, and is an active volunteer for several local non-profit organizations.