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Board of Directors

Hispanic Family Foundation / Board of Directors

Howard Gentry

Howard Gentry serves the Metropolitan Government of Nashville as the Criminal Court Clerk of Davidson County in the Twentieth Judicial District. In this capacity, his office is responsible for performing the clerical duties (hard copy and electronic forms) for the operation of the General Sessions and State Trial Criminal Courts.

A Nashville native, Gentry was elected three times to countywide public office. He was a Metro Council member-at-large before being elected Metro Nashville-Davidson County’s first African American vice mayor. He was reelected in 2003. In 2007, Gentry was a candidate for Mayor and narrowly missed the run-off by less than 300 votes and ran again in 2015.


Mark Janbakhsh – President

Mark Janbakhsh was born in Tehran, Iran, and came to the United States before the age of one. His family immigrated to Orange County, California, where he grew to appreciate diversity and culture on a grand scale.

After moving to Nashville in 1985, the Janbakhsh family embarked on their Tennesseean entrepreneurial journey, paving the way for Mark and his brother to follow in their footsteps of being business owners and visionaries. Mark graduated from David Lipscomb University with a Political Science degree and immediately dove into the Nashville marketplace. Mark, after having owned various businesses, branched out into Radio when he purchased TBLC Media. In 2010, Mark and his wife, Diane, began the work of the Hispanic family foundation. They saw the needs of the growing Hispanic community in Nashville and the surrounding areas and decided that they could make a difference by giving back and creating outreach opportunities.


Thomas McSweeney

Thomas J. McSweeney was born one of 7 children to the McSweeney family, in San Francisco. He graduated from the University of San Francisco in Political Science and consequently began his career in radio. He was promoted to Sales Manager and took a new position as Sales Manager in Chicago radio. Two years later Thomas entered Spanish Radio. After 20 yrs with Univision, he stepped into the position of VP/Gm of the Los Angeles radio group Univision. He became a champion of St Jude’s Children’s Hospital and the Spanish Radio partnership. Founder& CEO of HMC Honored to be selected as a board member of HFF.


Michael Spalding

Dr Michael Spalding is the founder of Equal Chance for Education 2014, providing a college scholarship program for DACA students. To date, ECE has awarded 486 Scholarships and ECE students have attended 20 different Tennessee Universities and Colleges with a graduation rate of 98%.
Past Tennessee representative to the American Urological Association
Past President of the Kidney Foundation
Past Board Member of the Cancer Society
Past Chairman of Tennessee Lithotripsy which went public (NASDAQ)
Current Board Member of Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, and Lea Rose Residence for Seniors
Current Board Member of Cumberland University, EDP Biotech, and BioPet VetLab
Awarded three Honorary Doctorate Degrees: the University of Memphis, Trevecca Nazarene University, and Cumberland University
Married to Mary Spalding, 2 daughters, Alice and Ashley, and 3 grandchildren


George Uribe

Television experience: Former Booker, Fox News Channel; Producer, MSNBC; Editorial Producer, CNN. Radio Experience: Former General Manager, Executive Vice-President and Executive Producer. Board of Governors, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Mid South Chapter for six years. Uribe has served as a Judge for the Emmy Awards in television news and the New York Festivals. Co-founder of Newsmakers, a regular social of Journalists, Producers, Bookers and Public Relations professionals in New York City; Co-founder of the Miami Media Mixer and the Music City Media Mixer, a monthly lunch with journalists, publishers, musicians and public relations professionals in Nashville and Miami. Member of Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO). M.A. The George Washington University, B.A. North Carolina State University.


Susana Vasquez – Treasurer

Susana Vasquez serves on the board of the Hispanic Family Foundation as the treasurer. Susana is a first-generation Mexican-American and she has a passion for the Hispanic community. She moved to Nashville with her parents in 1996 and loves living in Tennessee.

Susana currently works as the operations manager at Plaza Mariachi. When she isn’t working, she loves to spend time with her son and read.