BOARD OF DIRECTORS BIOGRAPHIES

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NOPA’s governing Board of Directors represents the constituency it serves. Bylaws require that the Board include representatives of various geographic regions and nationality groups, that half the Board represent Affiliates or have identifiable constituencies, and that the Board include equal representation of men and women.

Founder/Executive Director: Francisco Semião
Francisco is the son of a Portuguese immigrant and was born and raised in the Washington, DC area. He is a health care and public health professional having graduated from Marymount University’s School of Business Management and the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Francisco has over ten years working in non-profit health care management through his tenures with The National Council of La Raza, DC Department of Health, Inova Health System, and The George Washington University Medical Center where he is currently a Director of Development. He has also served on several non-profit boards including and has the distinction of establishing the DC Cancer Control Coalition, which is now a self-sustainable 501 (c) 3, and he helped to establish DC’s first city-wide patient navigation program. Francisco has been awarded over $31 million in Federal and foundation grants since 2002. He holds a faculty appointment at George Mason University where he teaches program evaluation and research methods. His honors include being inducted into the Upsilon Phi Delta Honor Society in Health Care Administration, the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, the Delta Epsilon Sigma National Honor Society, and he is also the recipient of the George Washington Alumni Association Award. He has served the Portuguese-American community during his tenure with the PALCUS board of directors. In 2007, Francisco received the royal order of knighthood from HRH Dom Duarte, Duke of Bragança, for his work and service with the Portuguese-American community. He has been married since 2008 and resides in Northern Virginia.

Chairman: Dr. Arcindo B. Santos
After working as an engineer for the California Public Utilities Commission in 1983, Arcindo received his PhD in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering in 1988 from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He went on to become Assistant Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, until 1993. Besides teaching and publishing he was a leader in the areas of R&D in waste incineration, energy production from renewable fuels and pollution control. During part of that period he also worked as Technical Director of the Center of Biomass for Energy in Coimbra, Portugal, serving as a liaison for public-private bioenergy projects between Portugal and other European countries. Since 1993 he has worked at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC as an environmental protection specialist and as task manager for urban and municipal development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has served the Portuguese-American community during his tenure at PALCUS as one of the organization's original board members. Arcindo became a citizen of the United States in 1991; he speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Swedish.. Arcindo was born in Portugal in May, 1958, becoming a US citizen in 1991; he speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Swedish; he is married and has two sons; he is also a songwriter and occasional performer and likes to serve the public-good and promote socioeconomic development.

Vice-Chair: Jason Moreira
Jason is the Legislative Assistant for Legislative Affairs, National Policy at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. At the Center, he is responsible for monitoring bills and floor/committee actions in the House and Senate, conducts lobbying visits with members and staff, preparing Hill related charts/target lists, drafts communications to the Hill, responds to Hill requests for information, covers congressional hearings and meetings, prepares daily Congressional Record summaries and semi annual lobbying disclosure reports, and distributes policy analysis to Congressional and Administration contacts. Previously, he served the Portuguese-American community during his five-year tenure at PALCUS where he eventually became its Associate Director. He holds a B.A.
in English from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Secretary: Mary Jo Rodrigues
Mary Jo was born in Pico, Azores and immigrated to San Jose, California at the age of 12. She graduated from Peter Burnette and San Jose High School with honors, graduated from Mission College with an Associate of Arts, on the Dean’s List, and graduated from San Jose State University, Bachelors of Science in Business Management in the Marketing Field. Mary Jo had an extensive career with Hewlett Packard with a total of 21 years of service in Human Resources and has been the Director of Sales (West Coast) at the Luso American Life Insurance Society since April 2009 after serving as Executive Director of the Portuguese Organization for Social Services and Opportunities for three years. She has also served on the Board of Directors of Santa Clara Sister Cities, as Secretary of the Mountain View/Santa Clara Council of Luso American Fraternal Federation, Member of Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, and the
National Association of Realtors. Mary Jo has been married for 31 years to Arnold Rodrigues, and has three children and three grandchildren.

Treasurer: Tony Ferreira
As Vice-President of Investment Operations, Tony manages vital operations that support Freddie Mac’s investment portfolio, transactional accounting across all business units and cash management functions and control. He is responsible for the processing of all Trading Transactions and the Middle Office groups that controls trade confirmations and position blotters. He is also responsible for clearing and custody functions, treasury management, single family loans and securitization, Transaction Accounting for Investment and the month-end operations close. Tony joined Freddie Mac in 2006, bringing over 25 years of experience gained from operations leadership roles in middle and back-office functions supporting all aspects of Capital Markets activity. He has extensive knowledge of mortgage and asset-backed securities, debt and derivatives services, transactional accounting and banking services.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP
Additional board member bios will be posted soon.