Crissy Brooks, Executive Director

Crissy has called Costa Mesa home for her whole life. It was in high school that she felt a specific call from God to dedicate her life to urban ministry. After graduating from Azusa Pacific University with a BA in Communication and a minor in Spanish, she spent three years in Caracas, Venezuela serving with Latin America ChildCare. Her experiences there prepared her to live and minister in Costa Mesa’s low income communities. It was while directing an after-school teen program in the Shalimar neighborhood that Crissy began to develop relationships with the neighbors and to understand the complexities of the community. Crissy’s desire to see neighborhood residents and local churches take part in community transformation led her to be part of the Mika Community Development Corporation founding team in 2003. She became Mika CDC’s Executive Director in 2005 and continues in that role. Her greatest joy is seeing her neighbors and staff grow in their leadership abilities as they work together to see God’s Kingdom come in their city.

Walter Garcia, Neighborhood Advisor

Walter was born in the ever green country of Guatemala and moved to California with his beautiful wife Carmen and two sons, Alex and Albert in 2000. He has been involved with many different ministries both in native Guatemala and in his new country, the U.S. He has always had a heart to serve in a full-time role, and found that opportunity when he joined the Mika CDC team in 2007. In order to be better equipped to serve God, Walter earned his B.S. in Human Development with a minor in Business from Hope International University in Fullerton, CA. Walter has a growing passion to serve, especially for those living in the beautiful city of Costa Mesa.

Caryn Kallal, Youth Development Director

After being involved in several other non-profit organizations in the Costa Mesa community, Caryn joined Mika CDC in 2004. Her passion for serving others along with 25+ years of performing arts experience made it a natural to serve as the Youth Arts Director of Mika’s urban arts program, Express Yourself. After three years, she is now heading up the Youth Development team and is looking forward to finding different and creative ways to reach out to even more of our kids in Costa Mesa.

Caryn is a member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church where she has been involved in Community Outreach, heading up a task force that supports an orphanage in Tecate, Mexico as well as performing with the Drama Team in Children’s Ministries. Caryn is also pleased to have been appointed to the Cultural Arts Committee for the City of Costa Mesa where she has served since 2005.

Keturah Kennedy, Director of Operations

Keturah comes to us from the exciting land of Missouri. She made the trek to California to attend Vanguard University in Costa Mesa where she earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology. After a brief stint in grad school, she discovered her talents in Organizational Development. Keturah has a passion for building the Kingdom and enjoys using her gifts at Mika. She loves to travel, drink coffee and play golf.

Teresa Flores, Site Coordinator Specialist

Teresa has lived in Costa Mesa almost her whole life and working with youth has always been her passion. During the summer of 2007, Teresa interned with Mika. That fall, Teresa joined the Mika staff and served as the Youth Development Assistant until recently when she accepted an Americorps position as Site Coordinator Specialist. Teresa is also attending Orange Coast College to pursue a carrier in psychology. In her spare time she likes to hang out with her new husband and friends, read, make lists, and scrapbook.

Juval Flores, Neighborhood Advisor

Juval grew up in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, but he considers Costa Mesa home; He loves the city and all it has to offer. Juval came to Mika to work as a part-time Neighborhood Advisor on Center St. He is currently attending Orange Coast College, until he is ready to return to Cal State Fullerton and finish his degree in Criminal Justice in order to pursue a career as a Costa Mesa Police Officer someday- his dream job. He enjoys going to the movies-anytime, and his all time favorite activity is drag racing.  Juval was recently married to Teresa and loves spending time with his new bride.

Effy Sanchez, Neighborhood Advisor

Effy grew up in the city of Campeche in Mexico. She first came to Mika as a volunteer with her church and later came on staff as a Neighborhood Advisor for Shalimar Dr. and Maple Ave. Effy enjoys working in the community and building relationships with the neighbors. She has been married to her husband Paul for 22 years and has a son and a daughter. In her spare time, Effy enjoys exercising and practicing Folkloric Dance!