Executive Team

Yvette Marrin, Ph.D.
President and Co-founder

Dr. Yvette Marrin is the co-founder and President of the National Cristina Foundation and the President and principal program officer of The McMahan Center-Abilities Activists (www.abilitiesactivists.bm). Prior to becoming President of the National Cristina Foundation in 1984, Dr. Marrin was active over a long career assisting people with special needs and the underprivileged reach their potential through her work as a teacher, educational therapist, consultant, and school administrator. She earned a Ph.D in Organizational and Administrative Studies and Special Education from New York University in 1985.

Pioneering the concept of technology reuse on a national scale since 1984, as president of the National Cristina Foundation she dedicates her efforts along with the team and our Board of Directors to assure that the Foundation continues to evolve its mission to enable that no technology should go to waste but be effectively reused to enable people in need to "link their lives to its promise."

Dr. Marrin's belief that charities that believe in the productive and responsible reuse of previously used technology to help people in need has led to the creation and ongoing development of the Cristina Network.  The Foundation's innovative donation management system software is designed, through cloud computing, to significantly increase the number of participating partner organizations who can benefit from technology reuse. It will greatly expand  technology donation channels for potential donors to a broad range of communities in the United States and internationally.

 As president of the McMahan Center-Abilities Activists she oversees programs, largely internationally, that recognize that all people have abilities and as people with differing abilities they can use their unique range of abilities to develop fully in their own way.

Yvette Marrin is married to the award winning historian and author of numerous non fiction history and science books for young adults, Dr. Albert Marrin.

Harry (Bud) Rizer, Ed.D.
Executive Director

Dr. Harry (Bud) Rizer has been involved in the disability and technology field for over twenty-five years. He has worked in clinical settings and has developed and directed assistive technology programs throughout the United States. In addition, Bud has been involved in research, the development of national training programs, and has taught at a number of universities throughout the country. Bud has served as a consultant in the development of disability and technology programs nationally and internationally, has presented at international conferences and published in textbooks and journals. Bud received his doctoral degree from The Johns Hopkins University.  He can be reached at rizer@cristina.org.

Brian Barrett
Director of IT & Communications

Brian came to the foundation in 2000 as Webmaster. Since that time he's created redundant nation-wide data centers for the Foundation and led the development of a suite of applications that allows NCF to facilitate ever-increasing donation channels.

Brian's passion of Psychology led him to the University of Washington where he gained a deep sense of how humans interact with technology. Leading the Cristina Foundation's open-source development team, Brian supports the non-profit sector with advanced toolkits and software that helps NCF achieve its goal of Linking Life to its Promise®. He can be contacted at brian@cristina.org.