Board of Trustees
Jared Abelman
President
Jared Abelman was born and raised in St. Petersburg and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. He was active in student government and other leadership positions in high school and at Penn . He graduated with a dual degree in Finance and Public Policy and, and moved to NYC immediately thereafter. After spending 3 years on the FX desk at Citigroup in both New York and London, he moved back home to the Tampa Bay area where he currently resides. After spending nearly 9 years trading municipal bonds, he currently is the Director of Fixed Income at Amuni Financial Inc. in downtown St. Petersburg. In his free time, he is involved with the Shorecrest Alumni association, volunteers at Temple Beth-el, is on the Board of Directors at Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services and serves on the Board for the Gulf Coast Cares endowment. He joined the Project Prosper Loan Committee in 2012 and has served as a Project Prosper board member for the last 5 years, where he is the Treasurer.
David Gonzalez
Vice President & Loan Committee Chair
David was born in California and moved to the Tampa Bay Area as a child. He graduated from the University of Florida, go Gators! He has been in the financial services industry for 20 years and is currently the Chief Risk Officer at TCM Bank. David has been a member of the Loan Committee since 2016 and on the Project Prosper Board as of 2018. David’s parents emigrated from Cuba to the United States in the 1960’s. He is the youngest of six brothers, four of whom were born in Cuba. In his free time, David enjoys playing sports, traveling, and volunteering for several civic organizations throughout Tampa Bay.
Ayled Ramos Amador
Treasurer
Ayled was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and attended the University of Puerto Rico, where she received her BBA in Finance and Human Resources Administration in 2008. She also attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, where she obtained her dual degree: a Master’s degree in Finance and Business Management and her Juris Doctor in 2013.
Ayled has been in the Banking and Compliance Industry since 2013. She worked at Banco Popular of Puerto Rico as a Compliance Officer until she moved to the Tampa Bay Area in 2017. She started working with Farm Credit of Central Florida as a Sr. Compliance Manager until 2018, when she moved to Raymond James Bank. Her current position is Internal Audit Manager.
Ayled started volunteering with Project Prosper in 2019, teaching financial literacy courses as well as mentoring borrowers from Project Prospers’ Loan Program. She joined Project Prosper’s Board in 2020. In her free time, she enjoys travelling and spending time with friends and family. Music is her passion and she has played the piano for over 26 years.
Sandy Knight
Secretary
Sandra “Sandy” was a teacher and reading specialist for 29 years with Hillsborough County Public Schools and the Beaverton, Oregon Public Schools. As a teacher, she is very aware of the issues and challenges facing the immigrant/migrant population. She was Teacher of the Year in 1990-91. Active in her community and church, she volunteers with the Literacy Program, Clothes for Kids, and serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Matthew A. Knight Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. She joined the Board in 2019 and continues to teach financial literacy classes.
Robin Warren
Co-Founder / Trustee
Robin was Executive Director of the Florida Council on Economic Education from 2009 to 2013. Previously, she spent 21 years with Bank of America and its predecessor banks in various roles including Associate General Counsel, Public Policy Executive and Compliance Risk Management Executive. Robin has served in leadership roles with the Wealth Building Coalition of Pinellas County (now the Pinellas Prosperity Partnership) including Asset Building Committee Co-Chair, the Steering Committee for Bank on St. Pete, a program to bank the unbanked in the City of St. Petersburg, and as Vice Chair of the Board of the Florida Holocaust Museum.
Molly Auld
Trustee
Molly attended UCLA, where she graduated with honors and received a BA in Latin American Studies and a minor in Spanish Literature. After graduating she moved to Central America where she worked with an organization dedicated to bringing educational opportunities to impoverished rural communities and teaching English. Motivated by wanting to help create real positive social change in her local community, she attended graduate school and pursue a degree in Urban Planning with a focus on Community and Economic Development. She graduated from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service in 2008 and moved to St. Petersburg, FL the following summer. She has been a part of the Board of Trustees since 2009 and has served as President of the Board since 2011. Additionally she volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay and Community Tampa Bay working to empower young people to make positive changes in their communities.
Zachary Watt
Governance
Zachary, “Zach”, is an associate for the law firm, Hill Ward Henderson. Zach has represented financial institutions and borrowers in numerous commercial lending transactions. He also represents companies in public offerings and private placements, preparation and review of SEC filings, other securities law compliance, and general governance matters. Prior to joining the firm, Zach was an associate in the Philadelphia office of Ballard Spahr LLP. Zach received his J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2010 and is admitted to the Bar in Florida and Pennsylvania. He has served on the Project Prosper loan committee since 2016 and joined the board of trustees in 2017.
Ron Knight
Trustee
Ron is a business owner and entrepreneur. He develops corrosion protection and control products and procedures for his company Corrosion Protection and Solutions. In addition, through his Organic Resource company, he develops microbial consortiums for soil/water bioremediation. He has served as an Admissions Liaison Officer (ALO) for the United States Air Force Academy for the past 18 years and he was civilian ALO of the year in 2004. He was named Businessman of the Year for Apollo Beach, Florida in 1996 Ron is President of the Board for the Matthew A. Knight Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which sponsors a Cub Scout and Boy Scout troop. Active in the local Rotary International Club, he has served as president and is a Paul Fellow. With his entrepreneur and business background, he enjoys mentoring immigrants in their business ventures.
Michelle Christie
Financial Literacy Program Chair
A first generation immigrant, New Jersey native, and currently active in the Tampa Bay Area, Michelle attended University of South Florida where she studied Health Sciences and Public Health. With that, her efforts are focused on the education, awareness and program development of health and finance. She continues to serve and lead in the community as Financial Wellness Relationship Manager with Regions Bank, a member of the Emerging Leaders of Tampa Bay Leadership Team, advisory committees with St. Petersburg College, and mentor with Florida Prosperity Partnership. Michelle began her journey with Project Prosper teaching financial literacy courses which aligned her passion for empowering the community to achieve optimal wellness.
Amber Nixon
Trustee
Amber has a personal and professional passion for work that centers community empowerment and opportunity. She received her B.B.A. in accounting from the College of William and Mary. Amber moved from Virginia to Tampa in 2016 as an AmeriCorps VISTA for United Way Suncoast. She continued at United Way as a program specialist, coordinating operations for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program sites in DeSoto and Sarasota counties. As a program manager for United Way, she managed various financial stability initiatives across the Tampa Bay region including the financial coaching program and matched savings for entrepreneurship, home ownership, post-secondary education, and transportation. Working with community members and volunteers on asset-building at the individual level furthered Amber’s commitment to understanding and removing systemic barriers to economic opportunity. Amber is currently the Outreach & Advocacy Manager at Florida Policy Institute. She focuses on building authentic community partnerships that will inform research and make the legislative process more inclusive of those who are impacted by the policies. In her free time, Amber continues to volunteer as a tax preparer for VITA. She enjoys attending live music and poetry events and finding new restaurants and experiences to Yelp about.
Faye Steinhauser
Executive Director
Since she began working with refugees and immigrants in 2009, Faye has developed a passion for empowering, elevating, and achieving better inclusion for this incredible population of American society. Executive Director since 2018, Faye is responsible for strategic growth and planning, programmatic success, and overall operations of Project Prosper. She sees clients as fully capable of creating their own bright future if given the tools to empower themselves strategically and fully.
Prior to joining Project Prosper, she worked as Development Officer in individual gifts and grants for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and in Business Development for the organization’s national interpreter network – a start-up “Uber model” business that connected clients with language skills with organizations needing to provide language access. Additionally, Faye provided direct service at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), teaching cultural orientation and financial skills to a wide variety of populations and with Literacy Network, a Madison, WI based non-profit that provides community ESOL classes to refugee and immigrant clients. Outside of work, Faye enjoys reading, keeping up with news and politics, and spending time at the beach.
