Christel Gopin brings over 20 years’ experience of successful leadership, financial management, and administration. She worked with various stakeholders at the governmental, business, and non-profit level, providing expert guidance and recommendations, as well as conducting various types of audits into the billions of dollars for the State of Arizona and local governments, which included a range of federal programs. She has implemented methods, standards, laws and regulations, policy, and procedures to improve efficiency and effectiveness, monitoring, compliance, and human relations. Christel has worked in various complex work settings with individuals and groups to promote cooperation necessary for the timely production of quality work products and to build positive working relationships within teams and organizations. As a trainer and workshop facilitator, Christel has instructed hundreds of participants in a broad range of continuing education courses for professional development.
Christel has advanced certifications as a fraud examiner (CFE), as a public accountant (CPA), and as a governmental financial manager (CGFM). She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy from Arizona State University and a German diploma in early childhood education. She is the founder and executive director of Gopin Associates, LLC, and serves on various governing boards. She is the vice chair of Infant Toddler Family Day Care (ITFDC) in Fairfax, Virginia, and the vice chair/treasurer of Heartland Community Reconciliation Center (HCRC) in Bloomington, Indiana. She also is a member of the advisory board of Tastakel, a collective for Syrian women’s empowerment.
Christel grew up in Germany, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. She has extensive volunteer experience, including housing construction for the needy and family support in Puerto Penasco, Mexico (2008-2010). She was a co-founder and presenter of the Women’s Forum, “Coffee Connection: A Conversation with a Purpose” (2009-2011). She led religious groups on a journey to the Holy Land (Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan) with a geopolitical emphasis to connect the group to indigenous peoples of the region in 2009 and 2011. In 2013 and 2014, Christel initiated and led two trips to help orphaned, abandoned, and disadvantaged girls at the Orphanage La Casa Hogar de Niñas, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Christel has worked with CRDC’s classes in Jordan and Bosnia and contributed to the development of the center’s American peacebuilding projects, including the Police Officer Peacebuilding Program and the Truth, Reconciliation, and Atonement Commission of Charlotte, NC, in addition to the cultivation of new resources and allies for CRDC.