Francisco Uceda

Born and raised in the sunny shores of the Spanish Mediterrean, Francisco spent much of his early years on the water. Like most people his age, he allotted his time between his main passions: school, friends, movies and books.
        Due to his father's influence, Francisco developed a great appreciation for traveling and art. At the age of 5, he took his first photograph; he started seriously studying photography as an art at age 17. After high school, he studied Economics at St. Louis University in Madrid. However, after realizing that his true passion was art, he obtained a scholarship to study photography and anthropology in the U.S. at Bard College in upstate New York.
        Upon graduation, duty brought him back to Spain, where he chose alternative social service instead of joining the military. After completing his social service at a hospital, where he worked as a translator, Francisco went back to school and received his masters in Spanish, English Literature and Linguistics from the University of Almeria in Spain. While in school he juggled different jobs-director of a hotel, free-lance translator, commercial photographer-until he moved into teaching full time. His photographs have been exhibited throughout Europe in places such as Cologne, Lisbon, and Madrid. However, at the age of 30, he desired a bigger pond and came back to New York, where he continues his work as a foreign language teacher.

Fernando Cardenas

Fernando Cardenas has spent a majority of his life in Southern California. He originally came to Los Angeles from Peru at the age of 10 with his family. He earned a B.A. in Psychology at UC Riverside and is currently completing his M.A. in Psychology at Cal State University, Los Angeles.         Fernando is working as a health disparities researcher at Charles R. Drew University, exploring such issues as telemedicine, school-based vision screening, glaucoma screening and how to increase community involvement in research programs. He is planning to pursue a Ph.D. in Psychology and hopes to pursue a career in Psychology research. He plans to focus his studies on American ethnic minorities and the development of ethnic identity.
        This is Fernando's first year as a group leader, and he is very excited to be a part of Project Bridge. He feels very fortunate to work with such a talented and dedicated group of people. He feels this will be a great opportunity to learn more about the role of ethnicity in the way people interact, and to see how young people push themselves to face and overcome the challenges that a culturally diverse society poses.

Lisa T. Sueki

By day, Lisa is an organizational development consultant who has been providing training and consulting services to the public and private sectors. Eleven years ago, she started her own consulting business that specializes in organization development and assessment, with emphasis on human relations, social justice, leadership, teambuilding, workplace diversity and strategic planning.
        Prior to her consulting practice, Lisa worked in the field of clinical psychology for various hospitals and mental health agencies. She served as a researcher and counselor for both adults and youth. Her clinical experience includes: Cancer Support Groups, Crisis Intervention, Suicide and Drug Abuse Intervention, and AIDS/HIV Support.
        By night, Lisa is a dedicated volunteer who has been designing and facilitating youth development programs throughout California for over 12 years. Last year, Lisa had the pleasure of serving as a group leader for Project Bridge. She is truly grateful for the opportunity to support youth in their journey to build bridges both domestically and abroad.
        Lisa received her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University. She earned her M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University and her B.S. in Biology from Santa Clara University. Currently, Lisa serves on the boards of the Asian Business Association of L.A. and the Go For Broke Educational Foundation.