Angela D. Black
(she/her)
Founder, CEO

Angela D. Black is passionate in her pursuit of improving the quality of life of others. While under quarantine during a recent global pandemic, Angela became inspired to found HOPE Influencers.org®, a nonprofit charity seeking to match donors with community-based, nonprofit organizations they otherwise might not have the opportunity to learn about.

Angela has more than 3 decades of experience serving with international and domestic organizations. Most recently, Angela coordinated contracts and professional service agreements for an agency in Los Angeles that manages over $800 million annually in funds for shelters and other services, as well as administers federal, state, and local funding to almost 100 community-based service providers to the homeless and unsheltered.

Angela spent over 20 years as an Audit & Risk Management Coordinator with World Vision International, a global humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization whose focus is on the well-being of people, especially children. While these experiences were profoundly rewarding and provided professional development opportunities that paralleled Angela’s desire to personally be a vessel of hope to the disenfranchised, the catalyst that fueled her to commit to a life of service to humankind was her work as the Assistant to the Executive Director at USA for Africa. In 1985, the music industry and the world came together in an unprecedented outpouring of generosity in response to the tragic famine in Africa. What is still considered a worldwide phenomenon was having the biggest industry icons come together and take a collective action to create a multi-platinum song, “We Are the World” raising more than $60 million in proceeds and providing much-needed funds to non-governmental organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Angela devoted 7 years of service and remains eternally grateful to participate in the organization’s historic humanitarian efforts to make poverty unacceptable.

Angela brings unique set of skills of working with generous donors in the entertainment field, administering of audits of NGOs for efficacy and efficiency, and managing contracts of various sizes with a variety of charities, to now, at Hope Influencers, helping pair donors with vetted charities that need funds for effective, community-level work.

Ashley Nicole Black
(she/her)
Director of Donor Relations

Ashley Nicole Black is an Emmy-award winning Writer, Actor, and Comedian on some of your favorite shows, including “A Black Lady Sketch Show”, “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee”, and “Ted Lasso”. She dropped out of her PhD program to become a comedian after being gifted a weekend comedy class for Christmas.

Ashley has been interested in working towards a more equitable world and in finding efficient and efficacious ways to do so since she was a child. That may sound like a lie, until you check the last names and realize that Ashley is Angela’s daughter and was literally being taught this stuff at the kitchen table since day one.

Krystal Minniefield
(she/her)
Director of Finance

Krystal Minniefield serves as Chief Financial Officer at House of Ruth, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing comprehensive services to survivors of interpersonal relationship violence. She manages the accounting, government grant writing, and compliance processes of the organization. Since graduating from Concordia University in Irvine, she has held nearly every role in the accounting department from a Bookkeeper to a Director. Her passion is nonprofit work, more specifically nonprofits that serve vulnerable populations. She believes nonprofits provide essential services to their communities and provide needs that often go overlooked. Since HOPE Influencers® is an organization with an excellent vision of connecting nonprofits with much-needed resources, she is very excited to be a part of the team and can’t wait to see the impact that will be made.

In her spare time, you can find her chasing her 3-year-old son, cuddling with Poppy, her cute Husky, or finding an outdoor adventure in her Jeep.

Larry Biederman
(he/him)
Director of Education

Larry Biederman is a Los Angeles-based Theatre Director of over 50 critically acclaimed theatre productions. Having collaborated with some of entertainment’s best actors and designers, he also trains young theatre artists through his private teaching and in his role as Professor of Directing and Acting at California State University, Northridge. He has worked at some of the most reputable training programs in the U.S. and beyond, including Seven Seasons at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where he developed and directed for their Master of Fine Arts program in Acting. He has also acted and coached in theatre, film, and television projects and received his own M.F.A. in Directing at U.C. Irvine.

Larry greatly enjoys supporting his son Tyler’s crazy projects, many of which make him look foolish on social media. While his wife, Therese, has worked exclusively for important non-profit organizations, his contributions have manifested as a member of the Los Angeles artistic community where they usually need to generate funding for themselves.

He is extremely excited that as part of the amazing team at HOPE Influencers®, he now has the opportunity to generate fruitful connections for others and the good work they represent.

Chad Harper
(he/him)
Director of Corporate Relations

With over two decades as an industry expert in Aerospace and Defense, Chad Harper has held key leadership roles at multibillion-dollar corporations throughout his expansive career as an advisory resource, C-suite executive, and community advocate committed to growing business organizations through effective leadership, human capital, mentorship, and the development of world-class technology. Through leveraging a strong background in organizational strategy, Chad has also been able to successfully establish and maintain relationships with small businesses and science/technology leaders throughout his industry, including DoD labs such as AFRL, DARPA, and Academia. As the CEO and Founder of C2H Capital (a private equity firm with a billion-dollar portfolio of multiple industry verticals), Chad has helped investors go public and achieve high-yield returns on their investments by incorporating an innovative and holistic approach to portfolio management.

Some of the career highlights include generating over $2 billion in revenue by developing emerging technologies and transitioning multiple programs via DoD contracts; serving as the Chief Technology Officer for the military training division at L3Harris Technologies, Inc., overseeing all internal and external Research & Development (R&D), Technology Strategy, DoD and University Lab Engagement, Technology Transition, and the management of its intellectual property portfolio; establishing Lockheed Martin’s first Innovation Lab (part of its Mission & Fire Control division), effectively leveraging it as a recruitment tool to remain competitive while attracting highly skilled talent; founding of the Xcellence Foundation, a youth-focused organization dedicated to their physical, emotional, and professional development.

A funny fact about Chad is when he was playing golf for the first time ever with his good friend and his friend’s teammate, Tiger Woods, he said he was so bad that Tiger asked him politely to just sit in the cart and watch them for the rest of the round.

Chad is excited to be a part of HOPE Influencers® team as it gives him the ability to make an impact on society and help those who need it most.