Monica Ruiz, Board Member

Monica Ruiz, the Executive Director of Casa San José, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and has Latino roots from Guatemala and Puerto Rico. Her humanitarian work and passion for helping others began as a case manager for Catholic Charities, which led her to intern at Casa San Jose in 2014. 

She holds a Bachelors degree in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh with a concentration in Psychology, and a Master’s Degree in Social Work focusing on Community Organizing and Social action from the University of Pittsburgh. Following her academic accomplishments, Monica completed the Lead Now Pittsburgh fellowship, a transformational leadership program for the civic sector in 2019. Monica advocates for minority communities in Pittsburgh and welcomes all from the Western Pennsylvania region.

Angelica Perez-Johnston, Board Member

Angelica Perez-Johnston comes to CMU from Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, where she has served as Chief DEI Officer since July 2021. Prior to that, she was the director of IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Social Justice) at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. Additionally, she served as director of First Year Experience and Transition Programs at Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., and held roles in student-facing services at Thiel and Clarion University, Clarion, Pa., among several other higher education roles. She is a native of Clarion County.

She earned her associate’s degree in paralegal studies at Bradford School of Business, Pittsburgh, and graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pa., in psychology with a developmental concentration. Perez-Johnston earned her master’s degree in counseling from Edinboro before going on to receive her doctorate in public administration from West Chester University in West Chester, Pa.

Perez-Johnston said that at CMU, she will prioritize increasing the capacity for the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion through embedding equity practices throughout CFA, as well as working with those who serve in like roles on the entire campus to become a “hub for students, faculty and staff in a real, intentional way.”

Ashley Gomez, Board Member

Ashley Gomez is Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. She joined the faculty of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business in 2022. Her dissertation used an intersectional lens to study the relationship between work, entrepreneurship, and health among the Latina/o/x population in the United States. More recently, she has been working on projects which consider policies and strategies to promote Latina/o/x entrepreneurship and support Latina/o/x-owned firms in the U.S. Dr. Gomez has professional experience tackling societal inequities alongside federal and local government agencies, nonprofits, and community-based organizations. 

Academic Area

Organizations and Entrepreneurship

Candice Pulkowski, Board Member

Candice Pulkowski is a Program Manager for Gateway Health in Pittsburgh, PA. In this role, she is focused on forging a new frontier for members to engage in healthy behaviors through utilization of technologies in order to create person centric connections that break down barriers by focusing on social determinants of health. She is also the co-founder of a local non-profit Benevine with a mission to connect young professionals in the greater Pittsburgh area, who demonstrate a passion to serve their community while gaining invaluable career experience, with local nonprofits in need of industry specific assistance through collaborative, memorable, and innovative opportunities. Candice has a Doctorate in Business with a focus on artificial intelligence and neuro-marketing.

Anthony Dolan, Advisory Board Member

Anthony Dolan created Alphabet City Development and Alphabet City Management in 2011 and forged these companies from his extensive and successful career in commercial real estate development.  The companies have shown steady growth through strategic development and management alliances throughout the region.

“The mission of Alphabet City is to add value to the communities that we develop projects within, provide sound advice to clients seeking our counsel and ensure that investors who put their trust in our abilities with their hard-earned dollars are financially rewarded.”

Alphabet City continues its focus in the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh, which began when Dolan spearheaded the groundbreaking Bakery Square development while at Walnut Capital. This urban mixed-use project sparked the revitalization of East Liberty, which continues with numerous area projects currently underway.

Lourdes Sánchez Ridge, Advisory Board Member

LOURDES SÁNCHEZ RIDGE is a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP. She practices in the areas of government enforcement, corporate compliance and internal investigations, government related civil litigation, and the False Claims Act. She counsels and investigates corporations and individuals on matters of domestic and international concerns such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), health care fraud, bribery and corruption, securities fraud, ethics and fraudulent conveyances.

She also practices in the areas of municipal law including land use, civil rights, employment law, zoning, code enforcement, First Amendment matters, civil rights, permits and licenses, building code violations, and the Torts Claims Act. She has substantial trial experience in both state and federal court where she has tried numerous bench and jury trials in a multitude of jurisdictions. She has also represented a myriad of clients before state and federal grand juries.

Prior to joining Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP, Ms. Sánchez Ridge was the Chief Legal Counsel/City Solicitor for the City of Pittsburgh where she was responsible for all legal matters concerning the City of Pittsburgh while supervising the law department. She has substantial experience in representing elected and appointed officials in high profile matters and has experience in handling the media.

Ms. Sánchez Ridge served as a Federal prosecutor in Washington, DC where she handled a myriad of cases including financial crimes, narcotic rings, violent crimes and homicides. As an Assistant United States Attorney, she conducted numerous grand jury investigations, argued motions, conducted bench and jury trials and sentencings. In the mid-1980s, Ms. Sánchez Ridge served as a prosecutor in Miami-Dade County, Florida also handling violent crimes and narcotic prosecutions.

Ms. Sánchez Ridge has spoken on a variety of topics before varied audiences. She has spoken on internal investigations, the FCPA, the False Claims Act, financial fraud and constitutional issues before local, national and international audiences. Ms. Sánchez Ridge has also served as a Subject Matter expert and lecturer at Carlow University’s Fraud and Forensic Master’s Degree Program.

Ms. Sánchez Ridge is also deeply involved in the community. She serves as a Governor for the Allegheny County Bar Association, as well as a Board Member of the Board of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. She served as the Chair of FamilyLinks, a social service non-profit organization, the Chair of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where she was the Founder of the Hispanic Scholarship Program; she was a Trustee at Carlow University; a Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs; and, a Director at the Allegheny County Community College Foundation and Global Pittsburgh. Ms. Sánchez Ridge has also earned several awards: the Carol Las Mansmann Helping Hand Award, National Football League (NFL) Hispanic Leadership Award and the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Hispanic Bar Committee El Sol Award.

She speaks, writes and reads fluently in Spanish.

PRACTICE AREAS: Government Enforcement, Compliance, and White Collar Litigation.

BAR ADMISSIONS: Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Florida, U.S. Supreme Court, and U.S. District Court - Western District of Pennsylvania.

EDUCATION: J.D., University of Florida School of Law B.S., University of Miami School of Business.

Tony Torres, Advisory Board Member

Tony has over 30 years of experience and has held numerous senior management positions in the Chemicals, Materials and Construction products sectors. He founded and currently operates FreeRadicals LLC, a consulting firm and investment holding company exclusively focused on sustainable building and construction methods and materials, packaging and renewable energy. Prior to FreeRadicals Tony co-founded Triventas LLC, a small-cap investment firm and was Sr. Consultant at Headwaters, a merchant banking and advisory company. These opportunities came after a long career in the chemicals industries where he worked for leading firms including Dow Chemical and Nova Chemicals. At Nova, Tony was President of its construction materials business, SYNTHEON Inc., and ran its Performance Styrenics business with accountability for over $300M in revenue. While at Dow Chemical he held numerous global assignments including; Global Business Director for Corporate New Ventures Global Growth Center, the founding of Dow Fibers Solutions, Polyolefin’s and Elastomers, as well as DOWBRANDS Consumer Products. He also oversaw the construction of an elastomeric fiber plant during this tenure.

In the last five years Tony has focused on building a global construction business through the formation of wholly-owned or joint venture companies in India, Chile, Mexico and the United States. He especially focused on the identification of critical and capable partners to successfully start-up technology based companies. Through partner companies like Reliance Industries in India and Grupo Idesa in Mexico Joint Ventures were started in record time. Mr. Torres was CEO of the India venture, Reliance Innovative Building Systems for nearly 2 years.

Tony has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Miami, Florida. He has completed the Executive Programs at MIT for Management of Technology and the Thunderbird International Management Executive Program. Tony is fluent in Spanish and additionally is an adjunct professor for Entrepreneurship at Duquesne University.