Director of Community Development

As Community Development Director, Rigo Reyes develops and coordinates community engagement and leadership training for residents in marginal areas of San Diego and Tijuana and manages our Border Immersion program for students visiting San Diego. He is a long-time social justice advocate whose work is rooted in early childhood experiences growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border, attending United Farm Workers of America rallies and listening to Cesar Chavez while playing marbles. When he was 12-years-old he rode his bike 17 miles each way from his San Ysidro neighborhood to San Diego’s Logan Heights to witness the land take-over of Chicano Park, and has been a strong community empowerment advocate ever since. Reyes has been a member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee for nearly four decades, has been lowriding since the mid-1970s, and is a founding member of the Amigos Car Club.

Director of Education

Gabriel serves as the Director of Education and Voluntourism working to expand Via International’s university partnerships by fostering increased education and community engagement through our Volunteer Travel Programs. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. Gabriel’s experience includes working as an international educator with a background in non-profit management, community activism, and a continuing creative practice as a professional artist.

Communications Coordinator

Aida is the storyteller at Via International, creating a better understanding of the community impact of Via’s programs through videos, photos and written compilations. Born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana México, she has a full understanding of what it means to be from both sides of the border, living in Tijuana and commuting to work through the most visited border city in the world.  She has a Bachelors degree in Communication from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

Aida also serves as the liaison between Via International and their partner in Tijuana México, Los Niños de Baja California A.C and is our Via Migrante Coordinator.

She loves to travel, was a professional dance (back in the day), and is the proud mother of a toddler boy.

Chairman

Phil Hadley brings more than four decades of experience to Via through his extensive background as a teacher and administrator in independent secondary schools. His academic background includes a PhD in Latin American History from the University of Texas. During his career as an educator Phil served as headmaster of boarding and day schools in several U.S. states and directed study programs in Mexico. Through his participation with planning and implementing student service programs Phil brings practical experience to the board. While Phil’s professional background make him particularly interested in the organization’s education programs, he enthusiastically committed to Via’s full range of activities.

Read Phil’s Board Highlight Interview.

Amy is an elementary school teacher in Chula Vista, CA with a passion for facilitating community development as well as self development through cultural exchange. After spending several years abroad, Amy learned that combining meaningful volunteer work for both the participant and local communities can be very rewarding for all. By combining these experiences with her studies in tourism and international development, she has developed a philosophy around building social capital within communities and is excited to continue working within her passion with Via. Board Highlight Interview.

Tom Melchior brings fifty years of experience in law, education and business to the Board of Via International.  A graduate of Duke University, then the University of Michigan Law School, he also holds a Master’s Degree in Theology from University of San Diego. Tom practiced law in Los Angeles and San Diego for several years before changing direction and entering the tuna fishing industry as the operator of a fleet of purse seiners fishing for tuna in both the Eastern Tropical Pacific and Western Pacific regions.  Through the course of that activity, he engaged in years of business with private and government entities in Mexico, Central and South America as well as several Western Pacific Island countries, spending much time in both regions, as well as Europe and Japan.   After selling his interests in the fishing industry, Tom again changed directions and became engaged in education as a teacher and coach at both the Middle School and High School levels, a vocation which remains close to his heart. He currently serves as Chairman of a community bank he founded twenty years ago.   Tom resides with his wife Sandy in La Jolla.  He is the proud father of three adult daughters who have gifted him and Sandy with four grandchildren living in San Diego, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Board Highlight Interview

Nancy has been working in the area of tourism development since the 1990’s. She received an MS in Tourism Management from North Carolina State University in 1991, worked for the Appalachian Tourism Research and Development Center from 1991-1994, then received both an MS and PhD in Sociology from Virginia Tech in 1999. Her research in volunteer tourism has focused on the complex relationship between the host community, volunteer organizations, and the volunteer tourist. Her other long-term project involves raising her two children, both 12 year olds, named Grace and Spencer, along with her husband Jim.

As a Via International board member, Andy brings to the role years of experience gained as a career non-profit leader and founding director of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. Andy has more than four decades of experience working with nonprofit boards as both a trustee and a CEO, as well as a consultant. Andy is currently IPG Senior Fellow at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG), where he serves in the design and development of the Institute’s Community Voices program. Community Voices is a dialogue and research initiative that engages leaders of innovative social change in dialogue with community leaders, faculty, and students. He is also supporting the “Dialogue on Race” and “Conversation New River Valley”, two innovative, community-wide efforts for social change in his home community, Virginia’s New River Valley. Andy has also taught for Virginia Tech’s Urban Affairs and Planning Department and is served on the Board for Community Housing Partners, a leader in affordable housing serving a seven state area in the southeastern US.