Children are a precious gift, and a wonderful challenge. We want to give each child and every parent the security, empathy, and skills they need to discover the joy of being a family.
Healthy, happy kids grow from strong families. We provide training and support for parents/guardians learning to become their best selves, for their sake and for their children.
The Harvey E. Najim Hope Center is our mental health clinic, providing free and low-cost counseling and social work services for children and families. Here, we ask not “what’s wrong with you?” but “what has happened to you?”
The Children’s Shelter Family of Services delivers high quality, compassionate trauma-informed care delivered to children and families impacted by or at-risk of abuse and neglect.
LaRhesa Moon founded Articulate Strategic Communication (ASC) in 2009. ASC is a consulting firm specializing in devising solutions that enable significant revenue growth and solve strategic issues impeding corporate progress. Her expertise includes executive management and leadership, crisis and critical communications, brand management, board facilitation, stakeholder mediation, and strategic planning.
LaRhesa works with CEOs and management teams across diverse industries advising on growth initiatives and implementing communication strategies. She has extensive experience in developing annual and quarterly reporting for public and private companies, has led teams in significant acquisitions and IPO initiatives, and has served in interim executive positions. Among many highlights of her consulting engagements, LaRhesa worked extensively with a $1.2 Billion organization from 2009 through early 2018 supporting many major communication and acquisition initiatives, led a skunk works product development initiative in the emerging social media space, and served as the Advisory Board facilitator for a significant media company. Additionally, she has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than a decade developing and implementing communication strategies for community relations and mediation, branding initiatives, quarterly reporting for a public company, ESG reporting, and the successful launch of an IPO.
Prior to founding ASC, LaRhesa was a senior executive of Harland Clarke Holdings (now Vericast), reporting directly to the CEO, responsible for internal and external communications, investor relations, learning and development, and marketing functions. She also oversaw multiple product line introductions and led several award winning cross-functional teams during her tenure with the predecessor company Clarke American.
Committed to giving back to the community, LaRhesa has held several philanthropic leadership positions. She has been involved with the San Antonio Children’s Shelter in various roles since 2005, including three years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and currently serving as Chairman of The Children’s Shelter Foundation Board. She was the United Way Campaign Chairman for Harland Clarke multiple times and a three-year board member of Any Baby Can. She is currently a member of the Texas A&M Aggie Women Network, and served on the Board, including a term as President in 2013. LaRhesa joined the Texas Business Hall of Fame as a Director in December 2019 and joined the TBHOF Executive Committee in 2022.
Adrienne Martinez joins The Children Shelter as our new Chief Financial Officer. She previously served as the CFO for another San Antonio non-profit and has a diverse career serving in various roles in the corporate, public, and private family accounting sectors. She brings 27 years of experience as a Certified Public Accountant to The Children’s Shelter.
Adrienne will celebrate 30 years of marriage this December and has two children, a recent graduate of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and a sophomore at Texas A&M-College Station. She loves family time, playing with the dogs and watching movies with her husband, who works for a non-profit school.
Adrienne is very excited to be a part of The Children’s Shelter and its mission. Her brother and brother-in-law both have multiple adopted children and she has seen firsthand how fostering and adoption can change lives.
“To be able to see a child, who might not have been given the chance to know a family, thrive and be loved — it’s an emotion that can’t be described.”
Adrienne is a proud graduate of Texas A&M University-College Station with a BBA in Accounting. She was born in Indiana, but got to Texas as quickly as she could.
Andrea Hofstetter is a committed non-profit leader with expertise in development, administration, financial stability, and communications. She creates positive business relations with key stakeholders, leadership, and team members. Andrea has committed her career to service, and proud to have provided leadership to teams who have raised substantial funds for our community. Among Andrea’s notable non-profit commitments are SAMMinistries, Endeavors, and most recently as Executive Director at Visitation House Ministries. Throughout her career her position has been pivotal in developing new programs, creating and executing development plans, managing projects and communications.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Andrea actively engages in volunteer work, serving as board member of the UIW Alumni Association, AFP Hospitality Chair and International Scholarship Recipient, Girl Scout Troop Leader, Mentor UIW Cardinal Latina Program, Parent volunteer for Barshop Jewish Community Center, St. Matthew Catholic School, St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church.
Originally from Kingsville, Texas, Andrea pursued her education at the University of the Incarnate Word, earning a Bachelor of and a Master of Arts Administration. She is married to Dwayne Hofstetter and a devoted mother to two wonderful children.
Dr. Mary Wise is the Vice President of Human Resources for The Children’s Shelter. In this role, she provides strategic leadership to the Human Resources department and the agency overall that aligns to the mission, values, and employee promise of the agency. Dr. Wise is tasked with implementing practices that create an environment that will provide an employee-oriented, high-performance culture that emphasizes trauma informed care principles, Praesidium best practices for safety, compliance, excellence, retention, and employee engagement.
She is also the owner of WiseEvolutions, LLC. WiseEvolutions is a leading human resources consulting firm dedicated to empowering organizations and individuals through strategic HR solutions, impactful speaking engagements, and comprehensive training programs. With a commitment to excellence and innovation, WiseEvolutions has established itself as a trusted partner in driving positive change in the realm of human resources.
She has more than 35 years of human resources experience in various leadership roles working for a Fortune 500 company. Mary holds a BS and an MS in business administration from the University of Central Florida and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, respectively. She also obtained her Doctorate in management and organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix. Additionally, she holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources Certification.
In her 35-year career, Dr. Wise contributed to the development of the change management strategy within the business to support the implementation of HR programs and initiatives. She facilitated monthly training and development courses with close to 200 managers. She has led people strategies, leadership accountability and key HR Initiatives for over 5,000 geographically dispersed employees. In addition, Dr. Wise was responsible for leading a training team that delivered over 208,000 total training hours and 600 classes to over 1200 employees in three months to support start-up program.
Dr. Wise’s core competencies include: Change Management; Conflict Resolution; Relationship Building; Employee Engagement and Involvement; Coaching & Mentoring; Cross-functional team management; Union Containment/Avoidance Strategies; Human Resource Policy Compliance ; Organizational Development; and Training & Development.
Please connect with Dr. Wise @ mwise@chshel.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mlwise
Deborah Rios Urias has dedicated over 26 years to improving the lives of children, families and IDD. Deborah persevered In her life biggest accomplishments and wouldn’t have any other way. She has been in a leadership position since she was 19 years of age in sales and volunteering for numerous non-profits, City of SA, Graffiti Wipe Out, National Paint a Thon. Jimenez Thanksgiving and Katrina Evacuee emergency response. Deborah is a proud graduate of Sidney Lanier High School (1986) Deborah has devoted her life in advocating for her community and never forgets where she came from.
Deborah began her career as a Bexar County Juvenile Gang-Probation Officer and worked part time as direct care staff at St’ PJ’s home where after several years she was offered a Leadership position to facilitate her first 25 bed shelter for boy and girls and ensuring the delivery of high-quality services. Her experience includes, Educator in Criminal Justice, worked for numerous non-profit organizations to include Executive Director for several organizations working directly with Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
She believes it is essential for an organization to seek out opportunities and strive for excellence by continuously learning, improving, and growing together.
Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies and Minored in Criminal Justice., Our Lady of the Lake University and a Master of Arts in Education and Adult Training from University of Phoenix. She is a Licensed Child Care Administrator. A member of Alpha Phi Sigma (CRIJ).
