MPA Staff
Toni Temporiti
Antoinette “Toni” Temporiti was born and raised on The Hill in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1975, she joined the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O’Fallon.
In 2003, Sr. Toni Temporiti took a sabbatical, camping overland over 8 months from Cairo to Cape Town to Africa. On this trip, Sr. Toni met local women who asked where would they get food for their families; would their children be able to go to school; and what if they or their children got sick?
Upon her return to St. Louis, while eating at a restaurant in Clayton, Sr. Toni realized that for the cost of her lunch, a woman in Africa could get a small loan (microfinancing) to help her business, and have an answer to those questions.
In November 2006, Sr. Toni attended a microcredit summit in Nova Scotia and met Ingrid Munro, founder of Jamii Bora Trust, and Mohammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, both of whom filled her with ideas. With the help of friends and colleagues, MicroFinancing Partners in Africa was founded and received 501c3 certification in December 2006.
Heather Cammarata
In 2008 Heather began volunteering with MPA and laster in 2009 joined the staff as MPA’s Executive Director.
Within her role, Heather strives to advocate for MPA with donors and the community, provide leadership in evaluating program and development performance, put in place the policies and resources needed to successfully fund and implement the mission of MPA, and support the staff so that they are continually able to do their best.
Heather has visited our partners in Africa in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, and looks forward to her next trip in 2021.
In her free time, Heather can be found trying out new recipes to cook for family dinners and spending time with her grandchildren.
Prim Mungwari
Prim Mungwari is originally from Zimbabwe, where she trained as a human rights lawyer and worked extensively in the field of gender and women’s rights, from an advocacy and program perspective. She has experience in program and grant management, mainly working to empower women to become self-actors and enjoy their rights. Her academic qualifications include a Masters in U.S law with a certificate in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Masters in Public Administration from the School of Public Policy, Central European University (Hungary).
Prim enjoys traveling, meeting new people, learning new cultures, and experimenting with food – She is also the wife to Michael and mum to Zivah!
Lea Brinson
Lea Brinson (Chandrl), MPA, CFRE, GPC has worked in the non-profit field for more than 20 years and wants to help your organization meet and exceed its fundraising and marketing goals.
Lea has worked in a variety of fields and positions that have allowed her to have a wealth of experience in all aspects of non-profit management. Lea holds a master’s degree in non-profit management from SIUE and holds both the CFRE and GPC credentials. Lea is passionate about working with non-profit organizations to help them make an impact on the world. Highlights of Lea’s 20+ year career in the non-profit field include:
- Successfully running annual campaigns that exceed $5 million annually
- Designing and executing a $70 million capital campaign
- Writing federal grants, foundation grants and corporate grant proposals totaling over $50 million in funding
- Managing special events for non-profit organizations and exceeding prior revenue by over 250%
Hannah Bruehl
Bio coming soon!
Melanie Korn
Melanie joined MPA in 2012 as the digital marketing coordinator. She works to keep our digital platforms running and up to date for current donors to see what successes our projects are having and for potential donors to learn more about the impact microfinancing can have on an impoverished community.
Melanie has traveled to Africa twice, once in 2012 and once in 2015.
In her freetime, Melanie enjoys spending time biking, playing outside and traveling with her husband and three daughters.
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