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About SP/Mission
| History
| Fact Sheet
| Financials
| Staff
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 Staff
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Sunburst Projects has two offices in Northern California. The Executive Office is located in Rohnert Park and the satellite office is in Sacramento. While both offices deliver the same critical services to HIV/AIDS families with children they also provide services that are unique to the specific needs of the communities where they are located.
Executive Office, Rohnert Park
 , Founder/Executive Director
Dr. Geri DeLaRosa-Brooks is the founder of Camp Sunburst and Executive Director of Sunburst Projects. In 1989, she received the Humanitarian Service Award from the United States Department of Health and Human Services for her dedication to families touched by HIV infection and AIDS.
In 1993, DeLaRosa-Brooks received the Lewis Hine Award Special Citation for Professional Service from the National Child Labor Committee for her unheralded service to America’s young people. She has been working with families and children living with life threatening illnesses for the past twenty-five years.
From 1995 to 2003, while serving as an AIDS commissioner, DeLaRosa-Brooks continued to be an uncompromising advocate for parents with dependent children living with HIV/AIDS. Today, solely as a result of her efforts to strengthen service delivery to this special population, expanded comprehensive services exist in Sonoma, Sacramento, Placer, and El Dorado Counties.
 , Bilingual Family Case Manager
Remi Newman, M.A., has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS for over 10 years. She has a B.A. in women’s studies and an M.A. in sexuality education. Her previous experience includes working as an HIV prevention educator and coordinator of an HIV prevention program in East Harlem, New York City.
Along with her case management duties at Sunburst, she conducts HIV/AIDS prevention education and healthy sexuality workshops, organizes community events and conducts outreach to the Latino community. As case manager, she works to ensure that our Sunburst families have the resources and support they need to care for their health and live productive and fulfilling lives.
 , Assistant Director/Camp Director
Cindi Rivas is the mother of an adult son, Joshua, who is deaf-blind. As a national speaker and advocate for children with disabilities, she was a key voice addressing the needs and issues concerning this special population.
As a result of advocating for her son, Rivas set northern California precedent in two areas of concern for deaf-blind children and adults — supported living services and services in the home focusing on family preservation.
Additionally, Rivas was the co-founder of Camp Me and My Family, a residential summer camp serving children with multiple sensory impairments and their families. She brings this knowledge and experience to her work at Sunburst Projects.
After raising her son Joshua, Rivas finished her degree work in Comparative Ethnic Studies at the University of California Berkeley. She has always had a strong desire to support marginalized and underserved populations.
 , Program Administrator
The grandmother of 5, Susie also answers to Grandy or Nini. She has always loved children and has a personal interest in HIV/AIDS work as her eldest son Jay has been living with an AIDS diagnosis since 1987. In 1993, when Geri DeLaRosa-Brooks asked Betts to come to work with her, it was such a natural fit.
Betts co-directs the Parents Program at Camp Sunburst and has worked and volunteered for Sunburst over the past 20 years.
Sacramento Office
 ,
Director of Client Services/ Family Case Manager
Mireya Herrera-Bayard has been working with people living with HIV/AIDS since 1991. During this time, she has facilitated the only HIV+ Women’s Group in the Sacramento area.
Having joined Sunburst Projects in 2000, Herrera-Bayard coordinates the delivery of family support services in the Sacramento office serving Sacramento, El Dorado, and Placer counties. As a Family Case Manager and mental health practitioner she advocates for and helps women with HIV/AIDS learn to navigate a complex healthcare system, manage employment, and childcare issues — women who often may face challenges with substance use, racism, violence in the home, and poverty.
 , Family Case Manager
A mother of two children, Leah Fraga, joined Sunburst Projects in 2000 as a volunteer offering her administrative and organizational skills to help the agency provide its first delivery of services in the Sacramento community. Since that time, she has obtained a Masters Degree in Counseling at CSUS and has joined the staff of Sunburst Projects.
Today she works as a member of the family case management team providing year round family case management services. Leah also helped to develop teen services for HIV/AIDS affected youth living in the Sacramento area and is the teen project coordinator. She is a certified hospice caregiver and believes that there is no greater purpose to life than bringing sunshine into the lives of others.
 , Program Administrator/Events Planner
Having lost her very best friend to AIDS Jennifer knew that one day she would get involved with others living with HIV disease. This passion to serve people living with HIV/AIDS became a reality in 1999 when she was hired as the Events Coordinator for the Sacramento AIDS Foundation.
After the foundation closed its doors, she joined the Sacramento Sunburst Projects staff in August of 2003 as the Ryan White Program Administrator and Events Planner. Serving people living with HIV/AIDS has been a milestone in her life that has brought her much satisfaction.
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