​Meet Our Advisory Board

Members of the Advisory Board are dedicated individuals who bring their expertise to College Access Partnership thus enabling the staff and volunteers to best serve our students and their families.

Reverend Canon Gary Hall, Ph.D.

Gary retired in January of 2016 as the tenth dean of Washington National Cathedral where he served on the Foundation Board overseeing the work of St. Albans, Beauvoir, and National Cathedral Schools and worked collaboratively with the heads of school. Prior to serving in Washington, he served as Dean and President of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, chaplain and teacher at the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and as English Teacher, Director of Studies, and Principal at Oakwood Secondary School in North Hollywood, California. Gary has also served parishes in California, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Gary received his A.B. at the University of California, Berkeley and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his M.Div. with distinction at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English at UCLA.  Hall has taught both theology and English literature at the seminary, college, and secondary levels.  

Rachel Jeffer

Rachel Jeffer graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration and for over 40 years has worked as a business executive and consultant in the areas of human resources management, organizational and business development, and strategic planning within for profit and nonprofit communities.  She currently serves as the AIPAC Southern Pacific Regional Political Chair, a member of AIPAC's National Leadership Council., and a consultant for the law firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Mitchell. She is a past president of Kehillat Israel and has served on a variety other nonprofit boards and advisory committees over the past thirty-five years, including Village School, where she worked and collaborated with Sue Slotnick and Nora Malone for over eight years.

Judith Lu

Judith is Founder and CEO of Blue Zone Wealth Advisors, an independent investment advisory firm. She has over 20 years of experience working with high net worth individuals and families on matters of asset management and comprehensive financial planning. For her work, Judith has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Top Women Advisors in 2017, 2018 and 2019 as well as a Best-In-State Wealth Advisor in 2018 and 2019. She was recently named by InvestmentNews as one of their 2019 Women To Watch. She has been a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles since 2015 and teaches financial literacy at local high schools around the city. Judith graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA with a dual degree in Business Administration and World Arts and Cultures. She has a Global MBA, Magna Cum Laude from Thunderbird, American Graduate School of International Management. Judith is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Josselyne Rivas

Josselyne has worked at CSUN for over five years as the coordinator for an educational pipeline program that focuses on student success and community engagement for undergraduate students. She was the first CSUN recipient of the College Compact Principal Community Scholar in 2017 for her volunteer and mentorship work in the Canoga Park community. Josselyne graduated with degrees in Child and Adolescent Development and Journalism from California State University, Northridge. She also received her master’s degree from CSUN in Higher Education Leadership and Administration in 2019. Josselyne hopes to empower the students she works with to feel confident in their abilities and in the pursuit of their educational and career goals.