Our Team

Executive Leadership Team

Our executive leadership team oversees our vision and charitable outreach. The team meets regularly to ensure that the CORE Causes we support have the resources needed to ensure success.

Taralyn Kohler

Executive Director

Taralyn Tharp Kohler brings over 25 years of successful marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, brand building, and philanthropy experience to CORE Foundation’s leadership team. She has a proven track record of creating a vision and making it a reality through sound strategy development. Prior to serving as CORE Foundation’s Executive Director, she led as CEO of “Move Your Mission” offering transformative thought leadership to charitable organizations throughout the U.S. Her passion for philanthropic social entrepreneurship and desire to help others “be the change” makes CORE Foundation a natural fit. Taralyn, a certified Race Director and Coach with the USA Triathlon, is also a nationally recognized speaker and thought leader on fundraising through sport. She is passionate about leveling the playing field for needy families in our community as well as giving back through CORE’s multi-sport fundraising events like the Reston Sprint Triathlon.

Active in the community, she is a proud member of the 2020 Leadership Fairfax Cohort, Capital Speakers Club, Young Men’s Service League, the National Charity League, and Reston Chamber of Commerce’s Community Engagement Council. For her volunteer efforts, she was the recipient of the Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award from 2016-2019 for fulfilling over 500 service hours annually. Taralyn is a proud Terrapin having graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. She also is an alumni of Georgetown University’s Executive Leadership Coaching and Leadership program.

Mary Cackling

Operations Director

Mary Cackling has been assisting small businesses with attaining their operational goals for over 40 years. She is committed to process improvement by means of innovation and dedicated to sustainability through corporate social responsibility. She holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Petersburg College in Management and Organizational Leadership. Mary began her journey with CORE Foundation in 2016 and serves as both Operations Director and Corporate Secretary.

Mary’s passion for “giving back” began as a teen volunteer at an orphanage which ignited her passion for helping others and became the motivation for a lifelong commitment to community service. In the 1980’s and 90’s, Mary with husband, Richard, adopted a community in Jamaica, where they helped local children earn school money by making crafts. Following Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, they were recognized by US Rep. Sam Gibbons and JA PM Edward Seaga for their relief efforts. Later, Mary served as Treasurer of a HUD residence for low-income seniors. Along with providing due diligence for annual government audits, Mary taught the residents how to email their grandchildren. Additionally, Mary and Richard are co-founders of an animal rescue in Florida where they coordinate efforts to save a dwindling habitat for a variety of local wildlife and migrating birds. They also volunteer for the Humane Society.

Mary has a vast knowledge of nonprofit management and shares her experience with the CORE Foundation CORE Cause leaders to ensure transparency, accountability, and federal 501(c)3 compliance throughout all levels of the organization.

Board of Directors

Doug Bushée

Chair

Sr. Director, Sales Research Practice, Gartner

Doug advocates for the foundation’s mission, influences the foundation’s strategy, and sets the direction for the future of the foundation.

Gina Healy

Vice Chair

Head of Product Development and Capital Markets at Portum Trust Inc., a provider of private capital to the US housing finance industry and a secondary mortgage market.

Previously, Gina served as Vice President of Credit Risk Transfer at Freddie Mac where she was responsible for securing over $15 billion of institution-based capital from global reinsurers across US, Europe and Asia and managing the Mortgage Insurance Portfolio. She led a team responsible for structuring and launching new products within the mortgage industry.

Gina has demonstrated expertise in product innovation, capital raising within domestic and international markets, and managing Profit and Loss across a range of companies including Oracle, Nasdaq Europe and Fortune 50 Companies.

Her hometown is Silver Spring, Maryland where she is actively involved in serving community through tutoring kids in homeless shelters, promoting financial literacy, and advocating for professional advancement of women in the workplace. Gina is “impressed by CORE Foundation’s efforts to help those in need within Northern VA and with CORE’s mission to provide resources to other nonprofit organizations for fundraising, awareness and infrastructure to help make their initiatives successful.”

Ted Craig

Treasurer

Account Executive, Red Hat

Ted has IT sales experience at established Fortune 500 companies as well as several start ups. He is President of Three Black Dots, LLC which focuses on real estate investment.
Ted has a BBA in Marketing from James Madison University with a concentration in Economics and Finance.
He grew up in and is a long time resident of Northern Virginia.

Brett Fox

Director

Development Director at Hopecam

Brett is proud to serve on the Board of Directors of the CORE Foundation. Brett grew up outside of Philadelphia and went to college at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

She moved to Washington DC in 1999 to begin graduate school for a master’s degree at George Washington University and currently lives in Herndon with her husband and two sons.

Brett is the Development Director at Hopecam, a non-profit that virtually connects kids with cancer to their classrooms. She is active with the PTA and the food allergy community. Brett is honored to work closely with the CORE Cause leaders and support CORE’s mission.

Phil Vera

Director

Global Director Business Development, SendSecure at XMedius

Phil began his career in 1989 right out of RU with eight years of progressive sales, management and training experience at Xerox Corporation in the Northern Virginia area. Phil spent five years as President of EDGE Office Solutions, Inc. He was involved with the start-up, growth and sale of this company in 2001. Phil then spent eight years running his own Consulting and Training Company working with various businesses around the globe in the area of sales and sales management processes.

Phil spent several years back with Xerox Corporation as a Principal in the Enterprise Print Services Practice and Director of Strategic Accounts for Global Imaging Systems a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox. Currently Phil is working full time as an Executive at XMedius a software company headquartered out of Montreal CA.

Phil has a BBA in Marketing from Radford University and an MBA from George Mason University.

Outside of work Phil is on the Board of Directors as President for RU SigEp Brothers by the Wayside Foundation and The CORE Foundation.