Michelle Less Email Address

Senior Operations Manager

ENCOMPASS was founded in 2004 by a small group of experts in intergroup relations, youth development and arts education. Founder Lori Nelson was joined by Juliana Serrano, Ben Wright, Dani Bedau, Peter Howard, Kevin Blake, DeLanna Studi, Jenna Delgado, Steven Jones, Tom Saenz, Angie Weimer, Rodney Lazar, Ellyn McCoy, Al Hassas and Zeke Zeidler. Most of the staff had worked together in youth programs at the National Conference for Community and Justice in Los Angeles for many years before leaving to form ENCOMPASS. Additional consultation and support was provided by Lecia Brooks, Jim Hilvert, Rose Portillo, Jill Aguilar, Sergio Marin, Daniel Loera, Diane Flinn and David Nevell. Seed funding was provided by the Herb Alpert Foundation, Malcolm Atterbury, Jr, and other individual donors.

I am a proven high performing people leader with expertise in driving strategic vision and large scale initiatives by connecting people, process and technology in the most efficient and effective manner. I have strong competencies in building strategies to improve results, coaching, mentoring, collaboration, building relationships, program/project management, implementation, training, education and process improvement. My ultimate passion is lifting others up, helping them raise their voice and reach their goals!