Our Board

Daniel Baird, President

Daniel Shehan Baird is the Chief Operating Officer of Capital Funding Group, Inc., a creative healthcare and multifamily financing organization, and Chief Financial Officer of CFG Bancorp.

Prior to joining Capital Funding Group, Baird worked for other local Baltimore firms including E. Stewart Mitchell, Willis Corroon, and Mackenzie and Associates.

Active in his community, he has served as President of Loyola High School Alumni Association Board, as well as on the boards of the Sherwood Forest Club and Boys Hope Girls Hope of Baltimore.

He holds an MBA and undergraduate degree from the Sellinger School of Business at Loyola College of Baltimore. Baird resides in Annapolis with his wife Leslie and four children. He spends his free time boating, hunting, and fishing.

Christopher Boesen, Vice President

Christopher Boesen is the President of Tiber Creek Associates of Capitol Hill, Inc., a consulting firm in Washington, DC focused on community development, housing, and healthcare finance issues. Since its founding in 2005, Tiber Creek has represented healthcare companies, banks, state and tribal governments, private corporations, and both US and international nonprofits.

Prior to starting Tiber Creek, Boesen served as Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as a Professional Staff Member for the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services, and as the Economic Development Policy Specialist for the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

From 1997 to 2001, Boesen was the Executive Director of the National American Indian Housing Council, a nonprofit that provides technical assistance and training for Tribes and tribal organizations nationwide.

He also currently sits on the board of the education-focused Bollinger Foundation and is the Chairman of the Board of the Vinyl Record Preservation Society. He is a former member of several nonprofit boards including Borromeo Housing and Strategies for International Development.

Boesen received his BS in political science and a master’s in communication from American University in Washington, DC where he has also served as adjunct faculty. He has also lectured on American politics and policy issues at universities throughout the US and Great Britain.

He lives with his wife Sharon and children in Washington, DC. In his free time, Boesen plays bass in local jazz, reggae and rock bands.

Daren Cortese, Secretary

Daren Cortese is the CEO and President of Nursing Facility Solutions, LLC. Prior to this, Cortese owned and operated Brinton Woods Senior Living, in Lutherville, Maryland, for more than 15 years. He has more than 30 years of operations, financial management, and merger and acquisitions experience in the long-term care and health care industries.

Cortese is also Chairman of the Board for Health Facilities Association of Maryland (HFAM) and has completed the acquisition or divestiture of more than 140 skilled nursing facilities with a combined value of more than $500 million.

He holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in economics from the College of New Jersey. He currently resides in Lutherville, MD.

Patricia Gibson, Treasurer

Patricia Gibson, CFA, is the Founding Principal and CEO of Banner Oak Capital Partners in Texas.

Before founding Banner Oak, Gibson was the President of Hunt Realty Investments, where she led the commercial real estate investment management activities for the Hunt family of companies, and held senior positions at Goldman Sachs’ real estate subsidiary, where she oversaw portfolio management and capital market efforts for more than $4 billion in commercial real estate assets.

She is currently a member of the executive council of the University of Texas Real Estate Finance Council, the Vice-Chairman of the Industrial and Office Parks Council of ULI, and on the Board of Directors of The Real Estate Council of Dallas, and Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, and past Chair of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers.

Gibson holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and a BS in finance from Fairfield University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Nicole Kaufman

With 20+ years of organizational design and team development experience, Kaufman successfully launched Everest Management Solutions, a boutique operations strategy and development firm generating more than 1.5 million in revenue in its first year. As an expert talent acquisition and retention strategist, she continues to support Everest in her role as Innovation Advisor and simultaneously serves as Chief People Officer at Air Protein, LLC.

She has more than 15 years of leadership experience in various areas of senior housing. Prior to founding Everest, Kaufman served as Chief Development Officer and Vice president of Operations for Compass Point Healthcare, and vice president of business development at Savia Senior Care.

As a DWD Board Member and Chair of the Grant and Scholarship Committee, Kaufman has “the opportunity to support a program that encourages students to thrive in a healthcare career, positions them for career advancement, and assists in the removal of barriers to continued success.”

Kaufman obtained her BS in education focused on communication sciences and disorders from The University of Georgia. She lives in Houston with her husband and two daughters.

Mel Martinez

A native of Cuba, Mr. Martinez immigrated to Florida in 1962. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Florida State University in 1969 and a law degree from that institution in 1973. He worked in private practice for nearly two decades and was President of the Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers from 1988 to 1989. Mr. Martinez also held the positions of Orange County Chairman (later relabeled mayor), President of the Orlando Housing Commission, and Chairman of the Orlando Housing Authority. He also served on the Governor’s Growth Management Study Commission and was Vice President on the Board of Catholic Charities of the Orlando Diocese. He later served in President George W. Bush’s Cabinet as the secretary of HUD before being elected the first Cuban American to serve in the U.S. Senate. While serving as the secretary of HUD, Martínez sat as an Ex Officio member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

In August 2008, Mr. Martinez released an autobiography, A Sense of Belonging; From Castro’s Cuba to the U.S. Senate, One Man’s Pursuit of the American Dream.

Mel Martinez currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission and Senior Health and Housing Task Force. Martinez joined JPMorgan Chase as Chairman of the Southeast U.S. and Latin America.

In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife Kitty, three children and five grandchildren.

Clifton Porter

Clifton Porter is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) where he advocates against cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and backs policies that improve patient outcomes through incentives.

Prior to coming to AHCA/NCAL, Porter led HCR ManorCare’s Government Relations Department from 2004-2013 as its Vice President of Government Relations.

Porter has been serving the needs of seniors in the long-term care field for more than 30 years, beginning his career as an administrator in training at a skilled nursing facility in 1989. From 1990 through 1998 he served as Assistant Administrator and Administrator of several skilled nursing centers. He has also served on the Boards of the Virginia Healthcare Association, Ohio Healthcare Association, and the Health Facilities Association of Maryland (HFAM) at different times beginning in 1995, and served as Chair of HFAM’s Legislative Steering Committee from 2004 to 2013.

Porter is a native of Columbia, MD, and received his BS from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989, majoring in Healthcare Management. He enjoys spending time with his wife Deborah and three children.

Barb Clapp, Ex-oficio

Barb Clapp joined Dwyer Workforce Development as the CEO in 2021. She was chosen to transition Dwyer Workforce Development as a new venture from concept to a full-scale, national workforce development organization. In her role, she leads nonprofit program development, operations, strategic partnerships, marketing tactics, and board development while leveraging past entrepreneurial and nonprofit success to develop an immediate and sustainable market presence.

A successful entrepreneur and national business leader, Barb was the founder and CEO of Clapp Communications, an international communications company that she sold in 2019 with the goal of taking her expertise into the nonprofit world. Barb has received numerous awards for her leadership which include, most recently, the Public Relations Society of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award; The Daily Record’s Most Influential Marylander, Most Admired CEO, and Top 100 Women; and an induction into both the Circle of Leadership and Circle of Excellence.

She also serves on the boards of the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Signal 13 Foundation, and Maryland SPCA. As a committed community advocate, she has previously served on The Humane Society of the United States Humane Policy Leaders, as chair of the Maryland SPCA’s March for the Animals, as a sponsor of the American Diabetes Association CEOs for Stopping Diabetes, on the Leadership Committee for the American Heart Association, and was a 2016 Alzheimer’s Association Memory Ball dancer. With a promise to give a voice to the voiceless, Barb shares the Dwyer family’s passion for building stronger communities through workforce development and improving senior care.

Our Board

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