Deacon Charlie was ordained on June 10, 2017 by His Excellency Jose H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles. He is married to his wife Jessica of nearly 20 years and is a natural father, adoptive father, Godfather, stepfather, foster father, sponsor father, spiritual father, father-in-law and grandfather! Deacon Charlie holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications with a minor in Film Studies from Florida Atlantic University. His diaconal ministries range from evangelization, apologetics and formation to Pro Life and bereavement. He is assigned to the congregation of Saint Gerard Majella Church in the Cypress Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Deacon Charlie is Vice Chairman of Catholic Answers, the world’s most respected English-language apologetics and evangelization apostolate. He is Chairman of the National Communications Committee for the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (C.A.L.L. – founded by Archbishops Jose Gomez & Charles Chaput). He is Chairman of the Vida Initiative, an apostolate founded by Astrid Bennet Gutierrez (EWTN) dedicated to raising pro-life leaders from the Latino community. He is also President of SOFESA, a non-profit organization founded by his wife in 1999 that assists homeless and low-income families in Southern California.
Deacon Charlie is the founder of the Black//Brown Collective a Los Angeles-based business accelerator focused at the intersection of emerging platforms & emerging audiences.
Previously he was Chief Revenue Partnerships Officer at mitú, the nation’s leading media brand for Latino youth, where he led all aspects of revenue generation, including global advertising, content licensing, and direct-to-consumer businesses. He oversaw the sales, strategic alliance, licensing, business development, account management, sales marketing and revenue operations departments and was part of the company’s executive team.
Prior to mitú, Deacon Charlie was Executive Vice President of Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the US. He led the interactive team, overseeing the digital advertising businesses and managing the unit’s offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and Dallas, as well as the various support departments dedicated to the group. He was a member of Univision’s Executive Council in charge of steering enterprise-wide initiatives.
Prior to Univision, he served as Vice President of The Walt Disney Internet Group where he focused on emerging markets & platforms and managed the sales offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco & Chicago. He was a member of Disney’s Multicultural, Retail & Global councils as well as a member of Disney Online’s Idea Lab and twice the recipient of their annual Leadership Award.
Prior to Disney, Deacon Charlie was Director of Sales at AOL where he was part of a group that developed the nascent digital advertising industry for an online pioneer.