Steve LePore
Founder, Executive Director

Steve brings over 24 years experience in nonprofit management and consulting to 1in6, which he founded in January 2007. He originally worked in the private sector as Director of Human Resources for Six Flags Corporation and Landmark Entertainment Group. In 1988, Steve co-founded My Friend’s Place, a resource center for homeless and runaway youth in Hollywood, California and became its full-time Executive Director in 1990. In June 1999, he left My Friend’s Place to found the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Project, a community-based outreach program preventing high-risk behavior among students in his own neighborhood. Steve is a Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow (having researched effective strategies to address difficult social issues and create change through program and policy development) and also served on the board of CALCASA (the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault).

Todd Eckel, M.Ed.
Managing Director of Programs

A Florida native, Todd has worked in the nonprofit sector his entire professional career. He has worked in literacy for Guatemalan migrants, taught at the university level and most recently ran the Inland Empire (Southern California) office for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in charge of providing programs and services for people affected by MS. Todd is committed to social justice and has dedicated his life and time to serving those whose voices are marginalized and underrepresented. Todd is also currently working toward his doctorate in education through Loyola Marymount University.

Peter Pollard MPA
Training and Outreach Director

Peter Pollard has been a longtime advocate for extending accountability for preventing child abuse to include all adults as well as individual perpetrators of sexual violence, most recently as public education director and Helpline supervisor at Stop It Now!. Peter previously worked for 14 years as a child protection case manager for the state of Massachusetts. Since 2003, he has served as the Western Mass. regional coordinator for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Treehouse Foundation, a multi-generational community for elders and families with children who have experienced foster care. Peter is a survivor of sexual abuse as a child. He received a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government in 2005. His comments about child abuse and community responsibility for prevention have been published in the Boston Globe, on National Public Radio, CNN, and WBUR Boston.

Emiliano C. Diaz de Leon
Cultural Capacity Specialist

Emiliano works as a consultant with more than a decade of experience working for multiple Domestic/Sexual Violence centers in Texas. Since 2008, Emiliano has worked as Primary Prevention Specialist for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) with the lens of engaging a diverse population of boys and men in the prevention of sexual violence throughout Texas. In addition he has consulted with various national/international organizations on the issue of improving or infusing cultural capacity into their programming and services for boys and men. He currently serves on the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Multilingual Access Project Advisory Committee which will develop relevant materials and resources for Spanish-speaking communities along with a nationwide Language Access community needs assessment. Emiliano is a new father and is working on organizing a local support network of Latino fathers.

Chris Carlton
Development Director

After an early career as a U.S. Navy intelligence officer, Chris worked for several years as a sports advertising executive managing an ESPN account and producing successful television, print and interactive campaigns. He then managed the Arizona Diamondbacks’ community outreach program that builds baseball fields in Arizona’s most challenged neighborhoods. In 2009 Chris made a career change to become an advocate for men sexually abused as boys. At that time, he decided to make himself the proverbial guinea pig, by blogging details of his own recovery, and shared two years of emotions, challenges, and triumphs. His goals were to help others on the same path feel less alone, and to help their loved ones become better informed about challenges a survivor might face. Chris recently published Nice to Meet Me, a book chronicling those first two years of recovery, and he continues to write about his progress to educate others on the effects of childhood sexual abuse and the benefits of therapy. Chris and his wife Ellen enjoy life with their two Labrador retrievers in Richmond, VA.

Heidi Sommer
Development

Heidi is originally from Los Angeles, where she received a BA (in Communications/Mass Media) from UCLA and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy (emphasis on Social Welfare programs) from USC. Currently she is working on her PhD at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and serving as Lead Investigator for an assessment of the California Connected by 25 project, a multi-county initiative to improve the outcomes of young people transitioning from the foster care system into adulthood. The initiative is funded by leading foundations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. For over seven years, she has also worked as a freelance consultant on grant writing, helping to raise over $1.5 million for nonprofit organizations operating in Los Angeles County.

Todd Schneider
Legal Counsel

Todd Schneider is an associate with Paul Hasting where his practice focuses on intellectual property and technology transactional matters. He has extensive experience in trademark application and patent prosecution, with an emphasis in the computer, electrical and mechanical arts. Todd holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law, where he was a member of the San Diego International Law Journal, and a B.S. in computer science from the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Peter Chen
Graphic Design

Peter is a Los Angeles-based design consultant specializing in web and corporate identity design. He has worked on a broad spectrum of projects including Stamps.com, News Corporation, Red Mango, Paul Mitchell, Baby Ruth, LA Family Housing and Animal Wow. Prior to consulting, he taught art in the Los Angeles Unified School District at El Camino Real High School for three years. Peter received a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a Master’s in Education from UCLA.