Lt. Col. Sandra Chavez, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Board Chair · 25-Year Army Veteran · Bronze StarSandra Chavez spent 25 years in the United States Army — serving in Bosnia and Iraq, earning the Bronze Star, and coming home to Colorado Springs with a conviction she’d carried through every deployment: that the people around you are your responsibility, and you do not leave them behind. She holds a Master of Public Administration from UCCS.
I spent my career building units that didn’t leave people behind. That’s all Restoring Hearts is doing — extending that standard to the families, the veterans, and the people in recovery that the system forgot.Lt. Col. Sandra Chavez (Ret.) — Board Chair
Jessica Lovato, CPA, MSA
Board Treasurer · Certified Public AccountantPueblo-based CPA with a Master of Science in Accounting from UCCS and nearly a decade of experience in public-sector and government finance — including roles with El Paso County and Pueblo Water, where she manages budgets, financial reporting, and compliance for an organization serving more than 50,000 residents. As Treasurer, Jessica manages dual authorization controls, monthly reconciliation, and restricted fund tracking.
Donors give to the mission. They stay because of the governance. I’m here to make sure Restoring Hearts earns both.Jessica Lovato, CPA, MSA — Board Treasurer
Destiny Reyes
Board Member · Peer Voice & Community AccountabilityDestiny Reyes brings seven years of lived experience navigating substance use recovery in Colorado’s Front Range communities. Having accessed peer support services during her own recovery, she provides the board with a grounded, firsthand perspective on what works — and what doesn’t — for people in the earliest and hardest stages of recovery. She currently works as a certified nursing assistant at a Pueblo County community health clinic.
I didn’t find recovery in a program. I found it in a room full of people who had already been where I was. That’s what Restoring Hearts is building — and I’m here to make sure we never lose sight of that.Destiny Reyes — Board Member
James Nguyen
Board Member · Community & Outreach DirectorJames Nguyen has spent seven years as a case manager and community resource coordinator at El Paso County Department of Human Services — working daily at the intersection of housing instability, substance use, family crisis, and the gaps between them. He is Restoring Hearts’ primary bridge to El Paso and Pueblo County’s formal service infrastructure, opening referral pipelines and building relationships with city and county partners.
I’ve spent seven years telling people to hang on while I find them something. Restoring Hearts is finally something worth finding.James Nguyen — Board Member
Dr. Alfonso Cappa-Mélendez, PsyD
Clinical Director · Pueblo Pioneer PsychologyLicensed psychologist with more than seventeen years of clinical experience in trauma, PTSD, and addiction — practicing out of Pueblo Pioneer Psychology. Named Best Psychologist in Pueblo in both 2022 and 2023. Bilingual in English and Spanish, with deep cultural fluency in the Latino community. Dr. Cappa-Mélendez oversees all mental health linkage protocols and ensures the warm handoff model is clinically sound.
Recovery requires treating the whole person — the trauma underneath the addiction, not just the substance on top of it. Restoring Hearts is built around that truth.Dr. Alfonso Cappa-Mélendez, PsyD — Clinical Director
Calvin Mercer, Esq.
Board Legal Advisor · General Counsel (Retired)JD from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Colorado Bar licensed. Calvin spent 26 years as in-house counsel at Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo, retiring as Senior Vice President and General Counsel — a career spanning nonprofit governance, federal healthcare compliance, community benefit law, and the regulatory frameworks that govern organizations receiving public and philanthropic funding.
I spent decades making sure a health system stayed legally sound while serving this community. Now I get to do the same thing for an organization that reaches the people that health system couldn’t.Calvin Mercer, Esq. — Board Legal Advisor
Rev. Tamara J. Holloway
Board Member · Ordained Minister · APC ChaplainRev. Tamara Holloway holds an M.Div. from Denver Seminary and has served as an ordained Christian minister and APC-certified chaplain for over a decade — sitting with people in recovery, in crisis, and in the particular despair that comes when someone believes they are beyond redemption. For participants who want a faith-based door into healing, Rev. Holloway is that door.
The church has always been in the business of restoration. For the people who need that particular path, Restoring Hearts is showing up for the people who stopped believing they could walk back through the door.Rev. Tamara J. Holloway — Board Member
