Every organization hits moments when the next step isn’t obvious, when change feels risky, decisions feel high-stakes, and momentum hangs in the balance.
That’s where CoreWorks comes in.
Built on MPW’s decade of delivering game-changing fundraising results, CoreWorks brings deep analysis, strategic clarity, and execution muscle to your biggest leadership and organizational challenges.
Our work is designed to meet your organization where it is and take it where it needs to go. CoreWorks offers:
Clear, streamlined processes save time, reduce errors, and ensure consistent results. Without them, organizations face redundancy, delays, and confusion. Strong processes make you scalable and agile, two traits essential for long-term success.
People bring strategies to life. Success comes from having the right people in the right roles, with clarity, capacity, and room to grow. Investing in staff development, role alignment, and cultural fit builds a resilient, high-performing team.
Technology should simplify work, not complicate it. CoreWorks helps you assess, strengthen, and align your tools so they streamline routine tasks, deliver clear data, and support smarter decisions, empowering your organization to move faster, adapt with ease, and achieve more.
With over 20 years of experience in human resources, Adam is a passionate and innovative people leader who provides human capital guidance to various companies and non-profit organizations. Adam develops and implements HR strategies and models that align with organizational goals and values, and resolve any issues or inefficiencies that affect the workforce. Adam has a strong track record of delivering transformational results in various industries such as financial services, global supply chains, manufacturing, technology, and transportation. Adam has led and supported several initiatives in employee relations and experience, diversity and inclusion, organizational change, human resources service delivery and shared services design, merger and acquisition, offshoring, compensation, labor relations, and succession planning. He is a cultural ambassador who builds strong relationships and drives sustainable change, focusing on both business and employee outcomes.
Former CEO, Roice-Hurst Humane Society
Former Mayor, City of Grand Junction
Owner, Transfinem Language and Cultural Services
President & Founder, Foundation for Cultural Exchange (Grand Junction’s Sister City Program)
Certified Animal Welfare Administrator
Certified Spanish Court Interpreter; ATA Certified Translator SP>EN; former NBCMI Certfied Medical Interpreter
Jason Pemberton is a multi-award winning facilitator, coach, independent executive board director, and strategist based in Denver, Colorado. Born in USA and raised in New Zealand, his entire career has been dedicated to Not-for-Profit and purpose-led organizations striving for high impact.
A series of catastrophic earthquakes in his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, launched him into several years of disaster response, which, in turn, launched him into international consulting practice. He has worked in more than a dozen countries supporting companies, networks, and communities navigate through unexpected terrain for mutual benefit.
As a strategist and coach, he is pragmatic, direct, and clear, bringing his sharp mind and depth of thought to the fore whilst supporting groups to identify their own priorities and take charge of their future. His deep governance experience, coupled with professional training in positive psychology and related coaching accreditations, makes him highly effective at supporting teams of leaders and governors to find successful paths forward.
His time now is invested in supporting governance boards and senior leaders to succeed, and coaching technical experts and engineers on how to be skilled leaders of people.
Kaye Taavialma’s work in education is rooted in her passion for serving unique charter schools created with clear missions and populations. Her first charter experience as a teacher was in a youth detention center and crystalized her calling to work with the “most forgotten” in our system. Throughout her almost 20 year journey through the ed world, Kaye has worked as a teacher, founding Dean of Academics, School Leader, and Executive Director with schools serving the most marginalized of communities at stand-alone schools (Academy of Urban Learning) to national networks (KIPP). Yet it is the role of “Coach” that resonates most deeply over all those titles and is the focus of her consulting business, Kaye’s Coaching. And her expertise in coaching school teams goes beyond those on staff and extends to the board as well.
As a result of almost a decade in the trenches of charter school leadership, Kaye knows what it means to go from “start-up” to “sustaining” and how to survive those “triage” times. And she also knows what it takes to keep a school in the black and how to fundraise like a champ. In 2018 Ricardo Flores Magón Academy, the CSI school she was leading at the time, was awarded a $15.5M BEST Grant for a new building – a first for CSI and virtually unheard of across charters in the state. Kaye also secured over $300,000 that year in additional grants and awards to support the new building.
Kyle Christensen, M.P.A., is a program leader, facilitator, and trainer with more than 25 years of experience designing and delivering transformative learning experiences that advance leadership, civic engagement, and organizational change. He specializes in designing and evaluating leadership programs, facilitating team and organizational development, and guiding strategic planning processes that align purpose with measurable impact.
As founder of The Connected Leadership Project and consultant with Arrow Performance Group, Kyle partners with organizations such as the State of Colorado, CiviCO, and the University of Denver to design experiential leadership programs that build resilience, connection, and innovation. He also serves as program director for Leadership Veteran, an 8-month leadership initiative advancing the skills of professionals serving veteran communities.
Previously, Kyle directed Colorado State University Douglas County Extension, where he launched Colorado’s first Juntos 4-H program to expand pathways to higher education for Latinx youth and families. He also led the Family Leadership Training Institute of Colorado and has worked with institutions such as Peace Corps (Moldova), NYU Steinhardt, Centrul Educatia 2000+ (Romania), and the Council for Economic Education.
Kyle’s facilitation expertise is rooted in adult learning theory and supported by credentials such as Emergenetics, Strategic Doing, and Technology of Participation. He has led statewide and national trainings, peer learning cohorts, needs assessment processes, and community-centered planning efforts across government, nonprofit, and education sectors.
He holds an M.P.A. from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and a graduate certificate in Learning and Development from the University of Denver’s College of Professional Studies.
Kyle believes that the workplace should focus on continuous learning and growth, inclusive engagement, and creating a sense of belonging. “Why wouldn’t we hope for work environments that align with our values and our professional and personal growth aspirations?” He brings curiosity, compassion, and clarity to every engagement, and is most inspired when people find their voice, connect with others, and lead boldly in collective service.
Lauren Sisneros is the founder of LS Consultants, LLC, a consulting firm that provides strategic advising and interim management support to nonprofit and education-focused organizations. A mission-driven leader with over 20 years of experience, Lauren brings a deep commitment to advancing equity across education, workforce development, and public policy.
With a keen understanding of complex systems and a results-oriented approach, Lauren partners with organizations to develop and implement strategies that are both effective and sustainable. Through LS Consultants, she delivers hands-on guidance in program management, board and stakeholder engagement, and leadership transitions, empowering mission-aligned teams to grow, adapt, and create lasting community impact.
Lauren has collaborated with a diverse portfolio of clients, including the Prosperity Denver Fund, Contractor Academy, Education Commission of the States, and Strong Start to Finish. Her work is grounded in a strong foundation of project management, nonprofit leadership, and policy analysis.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Colorado State University–Pueblo and a Master’s in Education from Colorado State University Global. Lauren is also a proud graduate of the University of Denver’s Latino Leadership Institute, a fellowship preparing Latino professionals for positions of influence across Colorado, and the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation’s Leadership Program, an 11-month civic leadership experience.
A Colorado native born and raised in the San Luis Valley, Lauren now lives in Lakewood, Colorado. She is a proud mother of two college students and a devoted grandmother who cherishes time with her family.
Throughout her career, Lauren has remained deeply dedicated to expanding access to opportunity, especially for underserved communities. Her work continues to center on shaping systems that are inclusive, community-driven, and equity-focused.
Matt Jordan brings 30 years of experience leading social impact organizations through periods of rapid growth and change. He and many talented colleagues built cross-sector partnerships covering a wide array of public policy issues.
Matt is passionate about helping nonprofits and governments effectively address their most pressing challenges and achieve their goals. He earned a master’s in public administration from the University of Kansas and has specialized in the areas of community development, civic leadership and education policy.
Patrick Gaines has 28 years of fundraising experience with cultural arts, higher education, healthcare and medical research organizations. For nearly three decades, he has helped lead nonprofit organizations through strategic planning and implementation, business development, talent acquisition and board management. He has a strong record of accomplishment in major gifts initiatives, planned giving, capital campaigns, corporate development and sponsorship marketing, annual fund and membership programs, grant writing, and volunteer recruitment/management. As a nonprofit executive, volunteer and donor, Patrick passionately fosters a culture of philanthropy throughout the organizations and communities in which he works and lives.
Patrick served as the Executive Director of the University of Colorado’s Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine from 2011 to 2019, where he played a critical role in securing $50 million for operating and endowment, and an additional $17 million for capital construction. Prior to that, Patrick held the position of Director of Major Gifts with the American Cancer Society, where he helped secure the Society’s largest individual gift, $9.5 million, in its 100-year history. Patrick also piloted a new and innovative major gifts business model to increase the Society’s national investment in cancer research.
Patrick’s experience in the cultural arts spans over 15 years, including senior fundraising positions with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Westfield Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey, and the University of Colorado Denver College of Arts & Media. Concurrent with his early fundraising career, Patrick also enjoyed a brief tenure as a professional musician, holding positions with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller.
Patrick is a board member with the Brent Eley Foundation and volunteers with City Year Denver, CASA, and the ARC of Weld County. He has lived in Colorado for 18 years and enjoys hiking, climbing, skiing, cycling and ultra trail running. Patrick resides in Ken Caryl, CO and is the proud and grateful father of an eighteen year old son, Christopher, who will be enrolled in the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science in August 2019.
Dr. Rodric Smith is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. During his 24-year career, he served 12 years in various roles within the nuclear missile operations career field and 12 years in support of the US Air Force Academy. During his time in the nuclear missile operations career field, Rod served as a crew commander, instructor, chief of training, executive officer, tester, and strategic planner.
During his nine years at the US Air Force Academy, Rod taught undergraduate and graduate-level leadership courses as an assistant professor to help students and officers develop their authentic selves as leaders of character. He designed, directed, and implemented coaching programs, leadership seminars, multi-year leadership development efforts, and leadership assessments. Dr. Smith has facilitated numerous conversations on maximizing individual and team performance while leading change for senior executive, mid-level, and entry-level leaders of operational and academic organizations.
Currently, Rod serves on the boards for the AK Rice Institute and the Adaptive Leadership Network. At the AK Rice Institute, Dr. Smith serves as the Vice President and was recently elected as the institute’s next president. At the Adaptive Leadership Network, he continues to serve in the development of leadership programs. His work on both boards prepares leaders around the world to address the toughest challenges in their communities.
Rod holds a doctorate in leadership studies from the University of San Diego, a master’s in adult education from Central Michigan University, and a bachelor’s of science in behavioral sciences from the US Air Force Academy. His research focuses on the transformative role of love in leadership practice and development at personal, interpersonal, team, and organizational levels of leadership in order to advance respect for human dignity in communities. In his personal time, Rod enjoys being with his family, listening to music, writing poetry, and playing basketball as much as his knees allow.
