Management Team
Roque J. Barros
Interim President
Roque's career spans 25 years with roles in community organizing and community building. Prior to joining JCNI in 1997, Roque served as executive director of Los Niños, an international grassroots organization doing work in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. His work with both organizations has focused on developing and directing sustainable programs that assist communities in addressing their needs and developing solutions.
In his role, he has created and led many of the innovative resident engagement programs for which the Center is known, including the Neighborhood Coordinators and Writerz Blok graffiti arts programs, and Project VOCAL (Voices of Community at All Levels). Barros is a sought-after trainer and expert in resident engagement and assists other communities and organizations in leading change where they live. He is also a resident of the Diamond Neighborhoods, which is the focus of the Jacobs Center’s work.
Roque has received awards and commendations from the San Diego Center for Mediation and the City of San Diego 4th District Councilman's office, and he was honored as an Hispanic leader by President Bill Clinton.
He has served on the board of directors of the National Community Building Network, the Boys and Girls Club of Chula Vista, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Roque is a founding member of "Friends of The Good Samaritan"Retirement Center and served on the San Diego Citizens Revenue Review and Economic Competitiveness Commission.
Mr. Barros holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Redlands.
Kristine Breese
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Kristine Breese serves as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Jacobs Family Foundation and the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation. In this role, she works at the crossroads of the foundation's grant-making and grant-seeking initiatives, facilitating the award of dollars to initiatives in The Village as well as forging philanthropic partnerships that leverage and extend the Foundation's investment in "resident ownership of neighborhood change."
Prior to joining Jacobs in 2010, Breese worked as Director of Development for the performing arts at UC San Diego, raising funds to bring international artists to the University for the benefit of students and community. Breese came to UC San Diego from Los Angeles, where she ran her own nonprofit consulting business for eight years, working with clients ranging from the UCLA Foundation to Boy Scouts of America to the California Association of Community Clinics. Prior to that, she held senior staff positions at several nonprofit and philanthropic agencies in Los Angeles, making a difference and raising millions of dollars. Breese is also a published author, having written a book called Cereal for Dinner about her experience suffering and recovering from a cardiac arrest while raising two small kids. Her work has also appeared in Real Simple, Parents Magazine, and Woman's Day, with articles focused on women's health and balanced living. Breese is a member of the San Diego Women's Foundation and the ArtPower! Players, sits on the board of NP Strategies Inc., and serves on the San Diego region Scholarship Committee for the UCLA Alumni Association.
Kristine has a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University and a BA from UCLA. She has completed five marathons and five triathlons, and was selected as a Medtronic Global Hero for her work spreading the word about heart health to women.
Charles "Chip" Buttner
President & CEO, Diamond Management, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of JCNI
Charles "Chip" Buttner joined JCNI in 1997 to help guide the development of Market Creek Plaza. He currently serves as the President and CEO of Diamond Management, Inc. and oversees the physical development and property management of all properties in The Village at Market Creek.
Chip has nearly 40 years of property development and property management experience. His career has been devoted to the entire development spectrum, including site acquisition, planning, permitting, leasing, construction, and property management. He has worked on various projects, including free-standing fast food restaurants, large neighborhood centers, casinos, office buildings, and emergency care units.
Prior to joining JCNI, Chip was a partner of Warburton & Buttner Development Company, a San Diego-based professional development firm integrating the disciplines of planning, finance, governmental relations, real estate, construction, and property management to provide a total service approach to commercial real estate development. Warburton & Buttner successfully completed a comprehensive spectrum of commercial real estate developments exceeding $100,000,000 in construction costs.
Chip holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Principia College and is a licensed general contractor.
Charles Davis
Director of Project Development
Charles Davis is Director of Project Development for activities undertaken by Jacobs Family Foundation — entities that relate to planning, building, operating and maintaining the emerging cultural Village at Market Creek as an inclusive, sustainable community.
He is working closely with resident teams, local community groups, and public and private sector partners to plan & develop more than a dozen new projects that will transform the Diamond Neighborhoods in southeast San Diego for the benefit of existing and future residents. These efforts include designing and constructing a green, walkable, livable transit village that will create 1,000 units of quality affordable housing; produce 530,000 square feet of new retail, office, and light industrial space; enhance over 3,000 linear feet of urban wetlands; and redevelop numerous brownfields. He is also helping to build a network of community resources to enhance capacity-building for long-term resident investment and ownership, generate social enterprises and provide livable-wage jobs and skills training for those who live there.
Before joining the Jacobs Center in 2006, Mr. Davis had over 25 years of community development and construction experience. He has managed the development and construction of over 50 projects valued at 850 million dollars for numerous for profit and non-profit organizations. He served as the Community Development Officer of the Gaslamp Quarter Association in San Diego and Director of Development for Landgrant Development.
He attended the University of California at Los Angeles School of Engineering, received a Business degree from the University of Redlands and has completed the Community Economics Development program at San Diego State University.
Susan Halliday
Director of Finance
As the director of finance for JCNI, Susan manages all areas of finance, accounting, and administration, including developing budgeting and cash flow management tools to guide JCNI toward both short- and long-term financial goals.
Prior to joining JCNI, she served as vice president and controller for a high-tech product manufacturer, guiding their financial, information technology, human resources, and administrative functions from a loss position to a 700 percent growth in revenues. She also worked with a world-wide manufacturing company as its general accounting manager, helping guide the company through its initial public offering.
Susan is a past chair of the American Electronics Association CFO Roundtable, and in 2008 was named San Diego’s CFO of the Year by the San Diego Business Journal. She serves on the Finance Committees for San Diego Grantmakers, Elementary Institute of Science, the local affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and Make A Difference Fund. Susan has participated as a moderator and speaker for the Council on Foundations and Salk Institute, and is a 2011 participant of Leadership California.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from California State University, Northridge.
Lisette Islas
Director of Community Organizing
Lisette Islas is the Director of Community Organizing for the Jacobs Center for NeighborhoodInnovation. Lisette has more than 15 years of experience in community development and action research organizations. The focus of Lisette’s work is creating community- and capacity-building strategies. She co-developed and manages the Neighborhood Coordinators Program, an innovative approach to equip residents of a community with the tools they need to strengthen and improve their neighborhoods. For these efforts, she received an official commendation from the City of San Diego in 2004. Lisette also worked with residents to establish the Neighborhood Unity Foundation (NUF), the first foundation in the country designed and governed by residents to serve and support philanthropic efforts in their community.
Lisette also leads the community arts program, which brings residents, artists, and artsprofessionals together to design and create a collection of public art works for the neighborhoods of southeastern San Diego. She led the development of the Center for Community & Cultural Arts, a unique partnership between the residents and arts community of southeastern San Diego and the arts institutions of Balboa Park. Lisette graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of California at Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and completed her master’s studies in Urban Planning, at the University of California at Los Angeles.
