MEET FILI’S LEADERSHIP

We all are part-time volunteers committed to the success of Friends Improving Lives Internationally. We are a collaborative group that shares all operational and fundraising responsibilities of the non-profit and rules by consensus. Our titles are positions we fill as required for registry with the State of California. We draw no salaries nor have other financial benefits.

Nicole Capsopoulos – CEO

Nicole serves as the current CEO of Fili-Inc. For three months in 2016 to 2017, Nicole volunteered at the Theotokos Girl’s Orphanage in Kolkata, India, teaching English at the school in which the girls attended, tutoring after school, writing fundraising articles, and gaining 90 adopted “sisters” by the time she left. Nicole joined the board of Fili-Inc. in 2020. She is passionate about building an international community that can sustain the philanthropic, humanitarian, and educational efforts of the orphanage in Kolkata, India.

Residing in Chicago, Illinois Nicole is also responsible for managing social media and related technology needs. She is a consultant, specializing in advising brands and retailers on their entry to China in regards to digital transformation and unified commerce; she is also employed as Director of Business Development for a media and marketing company in travel and hospitality.

Rosa Deamant – CFO

Retired Marketing System Analyst

Rosa has worked for several tech companies in Silicon Valley, California, in the Customer Relations Management (CRM) software field. From 2012 to 2018 she served her parish by supporting and leading the Missions Ministry. She currently enjoys a country life in the Central Valley of California with her husband. They have three grown children. Rosa met Sr. Nectaria in 2018 at a conference on Human Trafficking in Argentina when Sister Nectaria was a noted speaker. She also visited the Theotokos Girls Orphanage for the inauguration of the St. Ignatius High School in spring 2019, and she presently handles accounting and designs publications for FILI.

Cleo Constantin – Secretary and Correspondence to all Donors

Retired teacher, dental hygienist, and real estate manager

Cleo Constantin graduated from San Jose State University with a Master’s degree and became a secondary teacher and college educator. Later, following her love of the health sciences, she returned to school and trained for her four-decade career as a dental hygienist. She has two grown children and five granddaughters. Medical and teaching mission teams have taken her to Sonora and Tijuana, Mexico, Guatemala, Albania, Bulgaria, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, and remote Alaskan villages. She spent a month at the orphanage in Kolkata, India. The dramatic work with Indian orphans inspires Cleo’s dedication today. She writes for FILI and for publications of two churches, corresponds with donors, and actively manages real estate holdings.

Dr. Anna Yallourakis – Fundraising & Branding

Dr. Anna Yallourakis has served as the CEO of Fili-Inc. from 2018 to April 2023. In 2016, Anna executive-produced the documentary EKOTA (strength and unity in love in the Bengali language), filmed in Kolkata, India. “EKOTA” documents the work of Sister Nectaria at the Theotokos Orphanage.

Anna participated in an international fundraising campaign for the St. Ignatius School from 2017-to 2019 and returned to India for the school’s inauguration in spring 2019.

Dr. Anna has served as the Saint Sophia Cathedral (Los Angeles, CA) Parish Council President since 2020 and as an executive board officer there since 2013. Her work as a philanthropist began in 2016 when she founded the non-profit organization Princess for Peace, which gave underprivileged girls a beautiful dress in a keepsake box to give them hope and feelings of self-worth.

Prior to her work in philanthropy, Anna practiced dentistry in Washington, D.C., and Tennessee. She actively continues her work as Director of Surgical Specialties at Holston Medical Group. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a Doctorate in Dentistry in 1990.

Roberta Sardell – Treasurer

Retired School Teacher

Roberta A. Sardell has been involved with missions most of her life, having served as a volunteer English teacher in Bangkok, Thailand, in the late 1970s, and more recently as a catechism instructor in such countries as Indonesia, Kenya, Romania, and Guatemala. An English teacher before her marriage, Roberta worked with her husband in owning a restaurant supply store for twenty-two years. Since his death, she has done volunteer work in schools and a non-profit that supports our aging population. Roberta lives in Modesto, CA, and is active in Greek Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox churches. Roberta manages our contributions and financial matters for FILI. She has also planned and implemented our meeting agendas and conducts international transactions.

Andonios Neroulias – Fundraising

Retired U.S. Army, Colonel

Andonios was born in 1943 in the Greek village of Myrtia in Ileia located in the Peloponnese, Greece. His family immigrated to the US in 1956. After graduating from the City College of New York with a BS degree in Education, he attended various US Army military schools, and graduated with honors from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is now a retired U.S. Army Colonel. Also, as a real estate executive he has owned and managed commercial and residential real estate in New York City.

Volunteerism has always been a strong value to Andonios, having served for decades as chairman of the school board of the Greek language school at the Greek Orthodox Church of Our Savior in Rye, New York. In 2022, Andonios and his wife visited Sr. Nectaria and the orphanages and schools in India and have become dedicated supporters of her dynamic work. He joined the board in July 2023 focusing on fundraising.

OUR FOUNDING FAMILY

Father Gregory Koo and Presbytera Lisa met Sister Nectaria Paradisi when she worked in their homeland of South Korea. They met again and deepened their friendship during the time that they resided for studies in Greece. Years later, Sister Nectaria was working with the orphans of Kolkata and was supported by contributions from her country of Greece. However, when that country fell into difficult economic times, her support virtually ceased. On learning of her plight, Fr. Gregory arranged for Sister Nectaria to visit the St. Basil Church to share her needs. Thus, our first organization, The St. Basil Orphanage Fund was established. In time, an official non-profit was registered with the US government with the name of FILI, Inc. Fr. Gregory Koo, Presbytera Lisa, and their daughter Maria Koo Silva were our officers from 2015 through 2019. They continued to offer support, encouragement, and inspiration after Father Gregory took a position at the Monastery of Theotokos of the Life Giving Spring in Dunlap, California.

We want share the recognition Maria has received by Axia Women in January 2022: “Our first Woman of the Week of 2022 is Maria Koo Silva, nominated for her work as a children’s author, homeschooling mother of four, and blogger regarding life on a new farm. She was one of the founders of Fili, a non-profit that supports the work of the Orthodox orphanage in Kolkata, India.” https://www.axiawomen.org/wow/maria-koo-silva