Our Team

Wendy Urushima-Conn is the president and CEO of UPAC. Prior to joining UPAC Wendy was the president and CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County. Wendy has more than 30 years of experience in community outreach, fundraising, and marketing. She previously served as president and CEO of the Asian Business Association and associate executive director of the Center for Community Solutions where she was the chief fundraising and marketing officer focusing on sexual assault/domestic violence intervention and prevention. Wendy also worked for more than a decade at KGTV/10News as community affairs manager, promotion manager and as a weather and traffic reporter.

Her core belief is to improve our community. She is the President Elect for San Diego Rotary. She is the Vice Chair of the City of San Diego Women’s Commission. She is the immediate past chair of the Board of Library Commissioners, and the immediate past chair of the Southern California Diversity Council. She is a former Trustee with the San Diego Public Library Foundation and recently served on the Mayor’s Asian Pacific Islander Advisory Council. She is also the past board chair for the Asian Business Association Foundation as well as past board chair for Girls Incorporated.

Wendy has served as a respite care provider for foster youth, and for more than a decade personally underwrote the Harvey Simmons Memorial Scholarship, named in honor of her late husband, to assist high school students heading to college.  Her awards include: Distinguished Women of the 40^th District from Senate Minority Leader, Brian Jones; California’s 20 Most Powerful and Influential Women, National Diversity Council; Women of Dedication, Salvation Army; Women of the Year, State of California; YWCA Twin Award; San Diego Business Journal, Women Who Mean Business and SD500; San Diego Magazine, Women Who Move the City; Girl Scouts Cool Women. A graduate of UC San Diego, Wendy is a sought-after speaker, and frequent guest lecturer at UCSD Rady School of Management, as well as a professional moderator and emcee. She is married with two daughters and enjoys running 100-mile ultra-marathons.

Sarah joined UPAC as CFO in 2025. She brings nearly two decades of experience managing finance, operations, grants, contracts, and strategic planning in both non-profit and governmental agencies.  Prior to coming to UPAC Sarah led the finance and administration section of the City of San Diego’s Homelessness Strategies & Solutions Department. She has also served 15 years in non-profit executive and leadership roles across multiple housing and social service organizations throughout San Diego and globally. Across all her roles her focus has always been on leading strategic finance, organizational growth, budget management, and systems improvements. 

Lisa is originally from New York, and you will occasionally hear an accent come out. She has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2004. She has worked extensively in crisis residential treatment and private practice settings. She has a dedication working with children, women, men, and those who struggle with trauma, grief, loss, anxiety, and serious mental illness.  Lisa believes in inspiring and motivating everyone she works with. She will often provide comfort, guidance, empathy, and an honest approach. Her focus is on one’s strengths and abilities. She often strives to have a win- win solution and wants to ensure that the delivery of client and mental health service programs are consistent with values and principles.

Courtney has lived and worked in San Diego for the last 10 years as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has worked serving the addiction community as she enjoys working with clients as they work towards recovery and beginning to feel more comfortable in their own skin. Courtney has enjoyed working with clients who have struggled with multiple addictions and multiple or long-term incarcerations as a result. It has been empowering to see clients begin to rebuild their lives and learn more about themselves in the process. She always particularly enjoyed working with teens in their struggles as they become adults. She has worked regularly within residential and outpatient programs on building skills and having tough conversations that they may not have anyone else to talk with! Courtney thrives with the passion her team brings to their clients and enjoys being creative with finding solutions for our clients and their families.

Josh was born and raised in southern California and has been living in San Diego since 2004. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist and managed UPAC’s Community Wellness Clinic prior to becoming A/OA Mental Health Director. For Josh, working at UPAC has been a rewarding and a growing experience as he gets to do what he loves. Josh is passionate about working with the Severely Mentally Ill (SMI) populations and also with Transitional Age Youth (TAY). Being at UPAC has offered him the opportunity to live out that passion. Being Asian American and more specifically Chinese American, he is excited to see how UPAC is always on the forefront in framing and adapting mental health to reach not only the Asian and Pacific Islander populations but any other cultures that may have a limited framework for understanding the importance of mental health. On his day to day, you can catch him with a cold brew in hand running from meeting to meeting or hiding behind his desk. Drop by and say Hi.

Sergio Gonzalez is the Program Manager of UPAC’s Community Violence Response Team. Sergio leads the mobile response team of diverse community advocates to assist families, support youth and empower communities. Sergio is a certified Grief Support Specialist providing grief counseling, supportive after-care case management, and proactive response to community trauma. Sergio was previously employed by Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation specializing in youth workforce development, prevention and early intervention. The main workforce training program was his co-founded Writerz Blok, a Multi-Media Printing Social Enterprise. As Program Manager of Writerz Blok,Sergio was responsible for the overall administration of the at-risk youth diversion program serving over 2500 youth and families.

Jessica is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has worked at UPAC since 2019.  Prior to her current position, Jessica served as the assistant program manager at New Leaf Recovery Center and helped support the addiction division with clinical supervision.  Jessica has spent her career as a therapist working with young and older adults dealing with substance and mental health conditions, in individual and group settings, using EMDR, CBT, ACT, and Motivational Interviewing modalities. Jessica is passionate about therapy and mental wellbeing as she knows it’s essential to helping others and her community to thrive.

Natalie joined UPAC as the HR Manager in 2025. She previously held the role of VP of HR at SurgLogs, a healthcare technology company, where she worked to build the HR department from the ground up. Natalie comes to UPAC with experience in talent acquisition, employee relations, HR compliance, learning and development, payroll and benefits administration, as well as building scalable HR processes. She holds a BA in Psychology, a PHR certification, and brings a strong passion for destigmatizing mental illness. In her free time, you can find her spending time with her husband and her two pets or singing with her a cappella group. 

Daisy’s experience with non-profit organizations include assurance and advisory services in the sectors of biotechnology and research, social services, private foundations, academic institutions, education, arts and culture, charitable, religious, and healthcare organizations. Daisy advises clients in areas of assessments and review of internal control systems; implementation of detailed business plans, budgeting/forecasting, internal audit programs, operating system procedure and accounting manuals, internal control analysis reports and board governance issues. Daisy’s private industry experience includes management and director level positions overseeing the fiscal and administrative functions of an organization, including areas of finances, investments and asset management.

Dung is himself an immigrant. After enduring a harrowing journey at sea, he arrived from Vietnam to San Diego in 1982 with only his father and older brother, as a political refugee. In his own words, [they were among the “boat people”]. Dung is a local and grew up in City Heights where he attended Hoover High School. He has directly benefited from the services that UPAC offered him and his family during their early years living in San Diego. He is glad to be able to give back to the organization and community that has helped him.

Susan Lew is the President and CEO of S. Lew & Associates, Inc. Born in Canton China, she
spent her childhood in Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States in the 1965.
Ms. Lew embarked on a successful career in the Real Estate, banking and restaurant
business, holding leadership roles such as:
• Managing a Real Estate Investment Portfolio of asset across Western United States.
• Advisory Board of Director for U.S. Bank
• Board of Director for former Bank of Commerce
• Board of Director of former 1st Pacific Bank
• Founder & owner of Former Emerald Restaurant and Pearl Chinese Cuisine
Over the last four decades, Ms. Lew has served on the boards of over 30 non-profit organizations, including a previous term on the UPAC Board, demonstrating her deep commitment to community and public service.

Prior positions include regional business banking manager, relationship manager, and human resources recruiting manager. Her background encompasses nearly seventeen years of experience in banking of which 13 years have been in business banking. Ms. Oudinarath lives in La Jolla with her husband and 2 sons. She has lived in San Diego for over 22 years and is involved in many JP Morgan Chase’s internal and external community organizations such as Diversity Action Group, Women on the Move, Adelante, Aspire, Pride, various Lao Community Groups, and Asian Business Association to support diversity and foster growth for San Diego. Ms. Oudinarath holds 2 bachelor’s of science degrees in psychology and biochemistry from the University of San Diego, California.

Felix C. Sablan, currently the Executive Vice President of Client Solutions at TalentSmartEQ, is a seasoned executive with a diverse background spanning six major industries. In his role at TalentSmart, he excels in senior-level leadership development, building performing teams, and organizational growth strategies. Felix’s leadership extends to higher education, having held roles such as Vice President of National Development for Global Health Education, Assistant National Director of Strategic Alliances at Excelsior College, and Workforce Solutions Advisor at Apollo Education Group. His career started in Retail and Automotive, where he managed district operations and business development for a flagship automotive dealership. As a proud Chamorro, native to the island of Guam, Felix has an insatiable passion for helping under-represented communities find access to education, workforce readiness, and career/life success. In addition to serving on the UPAC board, he also sits on the City of San Diego’s API Advisory Council, California Selected Services Board, and The County of San Diego’s Mental Health & Wellness Advisory Board.