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Neal Drobenare I was born in Brooklyn, attended college at Stony Brook, and went to law school at the University of Buffalo. I started my career as a lawyer but soon transitioned into turning around failed government housing agencies in New York and DC. After that, I moved into building affordable housing around the nation. Currently, my projects include a 54-unit, middle-income apartment project on Galena Street in Frisco, which is under construction, and a 50-unit, low-income project that will replace the West Main Professional Building, which will be underway in the spring, as well as larger projects in Denver, Houston and Minneapolis. In my role as senior vice president at the NHP Foundation, I head up “originations,” which means finding and structuring new deals and creating new business lines that help the foundation meet its mission of providing and preserving affordable and workforce housing. Kristin Nelson I grew up in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. I attended the University of Iowa for my undergraduate degree in biology. Thad and I met in my final year at Iowa, got engaged, and moved to St. Louis, where I attended graduate school at Washington University. I originally planned to be a biomolecular research scientist but discovered working in the lab didn't suit me and found my way to sales where I sold reagents and instruments to scientists performing research. We decided to move to San Diego after we completed our schooling in St. Louis. We lived in San Diego for 13 years. Thad took over a conference calling business from his brother, and I eventually joined him in the business when I was between biotech sales jobs. This afforded us the ability to travel as we could run the business online. We left on our sailboat and explored Mexico for two years, we skied each month for a winter, and were able to travel to Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Later, we sold our boat and purchased a camper van and traveled mostly around the west with periodic trips to Florida to assist family members. During this travel time, we had home bases in Bend, OR, and Seattle, WA. After an unfortunate boat purchase in Seattle, we decided we were ready to stop the vagabond lifestyle and settle into a community. We had lived part-time In Frisco in 2017-18 and decided it was a place we could see ourselves living year-round. We purchased our home in May 2024, and I have been thrilled with our decision, especially during this time of year when the aspens are changing! Thad Nelson I grew up on a small farm in Iowa. Since I was 5 years old, I have been participating in the family farm work. The farm was cared for by just my parents, my younger brother, and myself raising cattle until 1984, then hogs until 2000. All the time we were growing corn and soybeans on 1,300 acres of land. I learned to drive a tractor at age 7 delivering grain to the local elevator, and was driving the family car at 9. After attending college and earning a BSN, I worked in the emergency room and trauma center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. It was one of the busiest ERs in the country at a top-10 ranked hospital in the nation. I advanced to become a charge nurse of the trauma unit with in a year. We then took advantage of travel nursing incentives to move to San Diego, CA, and I worked at the many hospitals in the area. During my career there, my family had started a telephone company back in Iowa. They invited me to take over a small business providing conference call networks. I started No Cost Conference, Inc., growing the business by providing primarily church and nonprofit organizations a place to hold their conference calls specializing in 1,000-person calls and larger. We ran that business until 2021 and were fortunate to have earned and saved enough to retire at that time. |
With warm Rotary hugs and much gratitude,
