Board Of Directors

2020 Board of Directors

Carlos Mozombite.............................President
Julio Cedillo...........................................Vice President
Monica Miyasato................................Secretary
Diana Lecca...........................................Treasurer
Daniel Urdanivia.................................Director of Fundraising and Corporate Relations
Gaby Cohorst.......................................Director of Community Affairs
Rocio Montes.......................................Director of Community Relations
Giuliana Avalos....................................Director of Membership
Adelaida Mogrovejo..........................Director of Events
Silvana Carranza.................................Director of Marketing
Gayle Miñano.......................................Director of Cultural Programs
Patricia Swalow...................................Director of Social Responsibilities

House of Pacific Relations (HPR) at Balboa Park:
Delegates: Alternate Delegates:
Carlos Mozombite Monica Miyasato
Julio Cedillo . Diana Lecca

Sub-Committees - Associate Directors
Corporate Relations
Foundations
Government
Friends of Peru
Members Database
New Members
Hosting - Hall of Nations
Volunteers
Culinary Arts
Logistics
Queen's Organization
Friendship Cities
Filming, Video, Editing and Photography
Dances
Community Services

Past Presidents:
2004-2007 Gladys F. Novinger - Founder
2008-2009 Carlos H. Miñano
2010-2011 Job Alvarez
2012-2013 Haydee Milliren
2014-2015 George Novinger
2016 -2017 Gladys F. Novinger
2018 Gredna Packer

Carlos Mozombite – President
Carlos was born and raised in Tarapoto, Peru, lived and studied in Chiclayo, Peru, and has recently moved to San Diego (3 years ago) with Michael, his husband. Carlos holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with specialization in Human Resources by the Catholic University Saint Toribio of Mogrovejo in Chiclayo Perú. Carlos has over 5 years of broad-based experience in human resources, recruitment, negotiation, training and development and employee benefits. His last job in Peru was working as a Supervisor in Human Resources at Petro Peru in Piura, he was in charge of managing the Welfare Team & Social Services. His most recent job in the US was as a Billing Specialist at AMN Healthcare.
Carlos’s involvement with the community started many years ago when he realized that this world will be better if each of us gives a little bit of their time to serve others. Carlos was a Founder/Member of AIESEC Chiclayo, a young worldwide non-profit organization. He is also a current Associate Director of Rob Benzon Foundation, a charitable organization that serves LGBTQ community.
Carlos has been involved with House of Peru since 2017 and joined the Board of Directors in May 2018 as Recording Secretary, few months later he became the President of the organization. He and all the Board Members as well as other volunteers are working tirelessly to achieve a wonderful dream: to have a cottage that promotes Peruvian culture, this is Carlos’s biggest goal with House of Peru.

Julio Cedillo - Vice President
Julio has been involved with House of Peru since 2016, and joined its board in September 2018 as Director of Corporate Relations, focusing his efforts on establishing strong links with major companies in San Diego and Southern California.
Julio was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and has been living in San Diego for over 20 years with Monica, his wife, and his 2 children, Gaby and Sergio. He went to Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and got his degree in Bachelor in Science, Industrial Engineering; he was able to use his technical knowledge and management skills for many years at Qualcomm, and his most recent position was Vice President and General Manager, Latin American Operations at Omnitracs.
Julio brings years of experience working for large corporations, building and leading strong teams to accomplish strategic goals. House of Peru’s goal of having a cottage-museum at Balboa Park, to promote and share Peruvian culture, is also a dream for Julio, reason why he joined the organization, so it will be his contribution to Peru, the beautiful country where he was born.

Diana Lecca - Treasurer
Diana and her family joined House of Peru around 2004-2005 and helped out periodically. She formally joined House of Peru in 2013 after finishing college and coming back to San Diego. She loves the purpose of the organization, to share with other the marvels of Peru. She used to do presentations about Peru in her High School and always loved it.
Diana works as a Graphics and GIS technician at the City of Escondido, and has worked there for 4 years. She is in charge of providing any sort of graphic advice or general graphics (posters, flyers, envelopes, banners, photo montage, renderings, image enhancements, etc), printing small and large items for events or meetings, updating city maps and aid city officials in their public presentations and reports. She gets to see a wide variety of projects and that’s what she likes her job. She is proficient with design and GIS softwares, and crafting tools.
When Diana arrived to the U.S., her English level was below basic. She is somewhat proud to have learned the language fast enough for her to complete high school at the honors level as well as attend college, and then graduate. Finishing her Master’s will be another accomplishment that she will be quite proud of.
Diana enjoys crafting, model building, gaming, and animes, being a personal growth the most important in her life. She is passionate about professionally, urban planning, community development, and cultural events.

Monica Miyasato - Secretary
Monica was born and raised in Lima, Peru. She attended Cambridge College, a British school in Lima, which allowed her to be fluent in both English and Spanish. She then moved to California and obtained a B.A in Media Studies and Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley. Shortly after graduation she moved back to San Diego. Monica has 10 years of experience in client relations and over 6 years in Project Management specializing in IT consulting, and Data & Analytics.
Her passion for volunteer work started back in Peru when she was a teenager volunteering at orphanages in the capital city of Lima. She has been involved with House of Peru since 2007 when she joined the organization as one of its Princesses and later represented us as the Queen for House of Peru. She later joined the Board of Directors serving as Vice President, and she is now our Secretary for 2019. She has also worked with other non-profits like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Borer Angels.
Monica's favorite things are travelling, enjoying the arts (opera, galleries, theater, music, etc.), Zeke (her baby dog), and spending time with friends and family. You can also find her planning her wedding, coming in September of this year.

Gayle Miñano - Director of Cultural Programs
Born and raised in San Diego, Gayle had always loved to dance at her parents social gatherings which persuade them to introduce her to formal training of that love of dance and began taking tap dancing lesson, later followed by ballet, a jazz.
At the age of 17, Gayle attended a Peruvian Independence Day celebration in which, for the first time, she saw Peruvian Folklore and instantly fell in love with Peruvian Dance and Culture.
Gayle joined the House of Peru in 2004 and worked her way up from Princess, to Queen, then becoming Queen of Queens of the House Pacific Relations Queens organization. She began dancing with mentor Miluska Kirnus, learning festejo and later progressed to learning other dances from videos on YouTube.
So much was her passion for her culture, she moved to LA and began studying Peruvian Folklore from renowned dance director and choreographer, Fredy Chiara who also introduced her to Alessandra(Mosita) Diaz and Cesar Aguirre who she studied under for the Club Libertad Los Angeles Marinera Norteña dance competition.
Gayle, now having moved back to San Diego, is dedicated to teaching dance and choreographing performances for all House of Peru events with the help of PeruVive OC and their directors Cesar and Natashia Aguirre.

Silvana Carranza - Director of Marketing
Silvana is a helpful and hardworking Peruvian International Chef & Pastry Chef who has experience and passion for great food and mouthwatering desserts. In 2012, after working as a Pastry Chef for many renowned Peruvian chefs, Silvana opened “il Travaglini”, a bakery shop providing custom cakes and traditional Peruvian desserts in Lima, Peru. Silvana was also the Executive Chef for TIGO, a well-known Peruvian yogurt and cheese company, having some of her recipes and interviews published in different magazines. She’s also been interviewed by local Peruvian radio stations for gastronomy series talks about Peruvian desserts and their history.
A few months after getting married and moving with the love of her life to the United States in 2016, she met Marisol del Solar and she invited her to help at “House of Peru” showcasing some Peruvian pastries at their Balboa Park events since she had just started her own Peruvian Pastry business in San Diego. “Since I met the organization, I couldn’t be away from this beautiful and kind community and this amazing dream of building our own “House of Peru” at one of the most beautiful parks in San Diego... That’s when I started volunteering at all their events as a chef, as part of the culinary team”. Finally, in 2019, I was called to help in the organization as the Director of Marketing and Public Relations.

Gaby Cohorst - Director of Community Affairs
Gaby was born in Lima, Peru and moved to San Diego with her family at the tender age of seven. She was lucky enough to return home on an annual basis growing up and has always had an immense love for her birthplace, sharing everything about Peru with friends and strangers alike.
She earned her B.A. in International Business with specialization in Management from San Diego State University. She’s has over 8 years of digital marketing and e-commerce experience and currently manages the Affiliate Marketing program at Intuit.
Gaby joined the House of Peru in 2018 when her son was born, wanting to ensure that he is exposed to his rich Peruvian heritage. Balboa Park has a special place in her heart, and she can’t wait to see her beloved birthplace represented with a cottage to continue sharing the Peruvian culture.

Daniel Urdanivia - Director of Fundraising
Daniel was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and has been involved with House of Peru since 2007. He came to the US from Peru in 2001, and 3 years later, he moved to what has become his real home, San Diego, California. Daniel has worked for important technology companies, like Epson, and he has been working for Qualcomm since 2009; In addition, he is very active in many other areas, few examples: musician and songwriter since 1989; attended the Recording Arts program at Southwestern College in 2005 and built a home studio in a small apartment in Chula Vista, recorded and produced first album; attended the Small Business Planning and Small Business Growth programs at the San Diego Continuing Education school in 2016; founder of “Peru Tamales”, a small culinary business started with Suzette, his lovely wife, in 2017. Daniel relationship with House of Peru started in 2007 when he urgently needed to renew his Peruvian passport and ID (DNI); he did not know any Peruvians in San Diego at that time, and someone from the Peruvian Consulate in Los Angeles told him about the existence of an Honorary Consulate in San Diego; he contacted them and quickly made an appointment, that’s when he met Gladys Jones, founder of House of Peru. Honorary Consulate in San Diego was a small and cozy space at her house, decorated with Peruvian art crafts, that made him feel that he was not alone. Gladys kindly helped him with the process and introduced him to the beginning of House of Peru, and since then, he has been a strong supporter of this important cause.

Rocio Montes - Director of Community Relations
Rocio has been involved with House of Peru since 2017, and joined its Board in 2019 as Director of Events. She was born in Lima-Peru and moved to the US to pursue a degree in Software Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She moved to San Diego shortly after graduation to be near the ocean.
She is currently a Staff Software Engineer leading all Open Source and Open Contribution initiatives at Intuit. She brings her expertise in event planning, as she has lead technology conferences and events for the Intuit engineering community.
Outside of Intuit, she is on the leadership team of San Diego “Girl Develop it” and the Co-founder of “Emar”, a small business whose mission is to connect small businesses in the US who have tech needs with software engineering interns in Peru.

Moises Luza Ramirez – Director of Outreach Programs
Moises was born in Lima, Peru but raised in Oxapampa, a small town in the middle of Peru. He attended Cibertec Technology Institute and Universidad Peruana de Ciencias where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He has lived and worked in Lima for 10 years before he moved to California in January 2014. Moises has 15 years developing software for companies in different industries including Qualcomm where he has worked since 2015.
Moises has been involved in promoting Latino culture in Qualcomm through an employee network called LatinQ where he is part of the board of directors. He helps the talent acquisition efforts of bringing more Latin engineers to Qualcomm promoting its culture in universities and sponsoring events from organizations like Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).
Moises relation with House of Peru started as soon as he moved to California when he assisted an event in Balboa Park. Since then he has been always attending to all events organized by House of Peru and collaborating with this important cause. He became a member in 2019 and shortly after decided to become part of the board of directors.

Eduardo De Los Heros – Director of Operations
Eduardo is born in Lima, Peru, where he spent his childhood until moving to the US at age of 11 years old. He graduated from Arizona State University as a Mechanical Engineer and shortly after traveled to Peru to work as an engineering consultant to the Suasi Island hotel managed at the time by Casa Andina hotel chain in Puno, Peru. This experience motivated Eduardo to explore every corner of Peru after Puno, and has road tripped from Bolivia to Ecuador through the Peruvian coast 4 times. He has been living in San Diego since 2016 and is currently a staff thermal engineer for the chip division in Qualcomm. Since starting at Qualcomm, Eduardo has formed the outreach committee for LatinQ employee Network to connect university and high school students to Qualcomm Engineers to promote STEM in the underserved areas of San Diego and inspire students of diverse backgrounds to go pursue a STEM career. This effort has manifested through many technical hackathons held at Qualcomm and at universities across SD. Eduardo is a heavy proponent and outreach partner with San Diego’s SHPE chapter and all universities and colleges in the SD county and uses these partnerships to form a technical pipeline of engineers and scientists that will enter the labor market with the goal of increasing inclusion and diversity in the tech sector.
Eduardo has been connected to the Peruvian community in San Diego since the first day in SD so he can share his excitement and love for Peru. Eduardo has increased his involvement in House of Peru since late 2019 but has always attended their events and has supported the people heavily involved in the organization. He joins the board of directors starting in 2020.