Who We Are: Sixteen years of progressive experience in training, counseling, and education

Sixteen years of progressive experience in training, counseling, and education in health care and benefits administration.

Highly skilled in interpreting public and private health and welfare benefits programs, including Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, state disability, short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance.

Strong working knowledge of related state and federal rules and regulations, including current legislation of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disability Act (ADA), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Demonstrated proven abilities in training, program development, benefits counseling, supervision, direct client services, and resource maximization.

Proficient in working with individuals of diverse backgrounds and needs.

Bilingual proficiency: Spanish/English.

Ms. Enriquez has worked in the Family Law Community for over 30 years as a legal assistant. During that extensive career, Cathie has performed virtually all phases of the extensive legwork necessary to assist attorneys in their preparations for court trials and day-to-day operations, which included direct involvement in interviewing clients and all the accompanying paperwork necessary for trial and other court appearances.

Cathie has been able to translate her amazing multi-tasking skills perfected as a legal assistant these past 30 years into the perfect Executive Assistant to Daniel Fortuño and the important work BEC performs. Ms. Enriquez formerly worked as the administrative assistant for the non-profit organization of OPTIONS a Benefits Training Foundation and is a life long associate of Mr. Fortuño.

Mr. Fleisher’s background and career covers everything from high tech and retail management to non-profit management in both HIV/AIDS and the Performing Arts. Wayne was founding Executive Director of the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts in San Francisco in the early 80s and moved from there to being Customer Service Manager then Senior Technical Support manager and eventually a consultant at Sybase in Emeryville. After taking a year off in 1993, Wayne began volunteering for Under One Roof, an HIV/AIDS support retail 501C3 that supported over 100 Bay Area organizations. He eventually ended up managing their retail “Holiday Card Project” quite successfully for a number of years before relocating to Palm Springs to be closer to and care for his elderly mother.

Since relocating to Palm Springs, Wayne has served as the Program Director for the AIDS Assistance Program, where his fundraising successes led to the development of an endowment fund there. From there he went on to become Chief Operating Officer for Working Wonders, an organization dedicated to women, children youth and families impacted by HIV/AIDS. Wayne’s vast experiences in both corporate and non-profit management have given him a vast repository of experience to pull from in a wide area of differing arenas and an amazingly versatile skill set.

Wayne comes to BEC with a long history and relationship with Daniel Fortuño. Daniel then at AIDS Benefits Counselors (ABC) as it was called at the time helped many of Wayne’s friends transition from work to disability at the height of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. The two would meet again years later through a mutual friend, when Daniel founded OPTIONS and Wayne was working as Program Director for the AIDS Assistance Program in Palm Springs, California. Together they started a series of seminars there dubbed “Realizing Choice”, which were geared at getting the large HIV/AIDS community there to consider returning to work or school. Daniel and Wayne have worked together ever since this successful venture.