The Board at Thrive Youth Center is made up of a group of individuals who are passionate about serving the LGBTQIA+ youth throughout San Antonio and the surrounding communities.
Check out the board page to learn more about our board members & their stories.
Meet Our
Thrive Youth Center
Board of Directors
STEFANIE GAINES, PHR, MBA
Board President
Stefanie has served on the Thrive Youth Center board since 2019. She has been involved with the annual gala, fundraising, reviewing board policies and procedures, and new board member onboarding. Stefanie was born in Okinawa, Japan and grew up on Army bases in Virginia and Kansas and eventually landed in Texas where she graduated from high school in Plano. She received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Master of Business Administration from Texas Woman’s University. Stefanie has worked in HR for over 25 years in manufacturing, in industries ranging from food manufacturing to construction materials and now has landed in the aviation industry.
Stefanie joined StandardAero as the Director, HR in Sept. 2021 where she helps support almost 700 employees at the facility in the Port of San Antonio. Prior to StandardAero, Stefanie worked at HEB and served as the HR advisor for the Pride PRG there.
Stefanie has been involved with the Human Rights Campaign (in Dallas, TX) and on the Fairway to Equality Committee.
Stefanie relocated from Dallas to San Antonio in 2018 where she resides with her wife, Renee, along with three wonderful stepchildren (Lily, Otto, and Henry) along with three dogs.
ALEX MOTTER
Vice President & Board Treasurer
Alex currently serves as a software engineer at USAA. His primary responsibility is leading a team developing a digital data quality scanning platform he created. With several years of experience in the digital analytics and IT space, Alex’s professional background is primarily in the financial services industry.
Alex received his bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics from Trinity University, minoring in Chinese and English. While at Trinity, Alex and a team from his cohort earned the distinction of Meritorious Winner for the 2020 COMAP International Math Modeling Competition, placing in the top 5 of US teams. Alex also wrote curriculum for and taught an 18-month intensive coding class for high school students interested in AI and ML development.
Through his involvement with USAA and Trinity, Alex became aware of Thrive Youth Center. Prior to joining the board, Alex participated in Elf Buddy and other Thrive programs. Alex has served on the Thrive Youth Center board since 2022. He has been involved with the events committee, decision-making, and spearheading strategic data and technology initiatives.
Alex currently resides in San Antonio.
EMILY MARCOTTE
Board Secretary
Emily joined the Thrive Youth Center board in August 2022 as a local leader in nonprofit and higher education administration. She has dedicated her career to serving youth impacted by trauma to open gateways for successful futures, including over 15 years of combined experience in the fields of foster care and the local homelessness response system. She brings experience with federal grant administration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Care policies, child welfare, and authentic youth collaboration. Emily spearheaded the development of the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project grant proposal, later awarded to San Antonio in 2019 for $6.88 million to create housing solutions for youth ages 18-24. She was instrumental in driving the foundation of the local Youth Action Board.
Emily has a Bachelor of Arts in English degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of Arizona Global Campus. She currently leads the UTSA Fostering Futures Program as Associate Director and is the university foster care liaison.
As an LGBTQ+ Ally and Housing First advocate, she passionately believes that housing is a basic human right, and that the solution to homelessness is to collaborate across the community to build innovative housing solutions that meet the unique needs of people experiencing homelessness. Emily is a dog mom to two rescue pups, loves to do hot yoga, and is always up for trying a new hot sauce.
CALLIE HOCH
Board Member
Callie Hoch spent over 25 years in the radio industry in marketing, promotions, digital and social brand management roles. Most recently, she oversaw digital and social content strategy, website management, brand design, community and nonprofit engagement, marketing and promotions for 6 iHeartRadio stations in Austin and 8 in San Antonio.
Through her work in radio with non-profit and community organizations, she quickly developed a passion for being actively involved in community in her personal life. Always ready to volunteer, Callie has worked on several committees tied to the community and nonprofit organizations. Callie grew up in rural small-town Iowa with no LGBTQ+ community.
Like many LGBTQ+ youth, she was looking to find a community and selected Dallas Fort Worth as her location for college. She received a bachelor’s degree in art from The University of Texas in Arlington in 1992.
Callie lives with her wife, Andrea, and son in San Antonio.
PAUL VILLAFLOR
Board Member
Paul has been serving as a Thrive board member since 2019. He has been involved in decision-making, fundraising, special events and assisted in reviewing policies and procedures of the organization.
Paul was born in Honolulu, HI. The youngest of three, he grew up on several military bases in different parts of the U.S. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He has worked in various industries such as healthcare, fitness, hospitality and retail. Based on the learning efforts and results, he would create Living by pH Balanced LLC, a lifestyle consulting business, in 2020.
Paul lives with his husband, Brian, in San Antonio, while the rest of their family, consisting of their children (Tyler, 26; Kassidy, 23), the children’s mother (Jeannette) and Tyler’s son (John Dexter, 2) reside in Kentucky.
SUSAN MACCABE
Board Member
Susan is an attorney and Fortune 100 executive leader with 20+ years in the financial services industry, including experience in insurance operations, litigation, strategy and planning, risk and compliance, and passionate talent development.
She currently serves USAA’s mission as the CEO’s Chief of Staff overseeing operational aspects of the CEO’s office and providing strategic input to key stakeholders across the company to plan, execute and ensure the effectiveness of initiatives.
Susan is also the Executive Sponsor for BOLD, a USAA Diversity Business Group that promotes an inclusive community for LGBTQIA+ employees and their allies.
Susan obtained her law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law, a Masters concentrated in Finance from Harvard University Extension School, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Susan served as a military spouse and comes from a family of military officers. She is married with three children, two sons (2012, 2013) and a daughter (2017).
Susan serves as a Board Member for Thrive Youth Center. She is passionate about serving her community by providing pro-bono legal services for the underserved in San Antonio, supporting needs of the homeless and foster children communities, and providing career mentorship to military spouses.
Our Youth
Thrive Youth Center in San Antonio
is a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth
1 in 5 members of our community will experience homelessness.
That’s why we are working to create a safer future for our youth.