Our Leaders

Tommy Tepper is the Vice President of Finance and Operations at SOS Children's Villages – USA. With a history of leadership in strategic planning, finance, and operations, Tommy works to advance the strategies and goals of various organizations, assisting in the drive for market leadership, and delivering high quality, quantifiable, and lasting results. Recognized for his ability to foster transformational change, Tommy has led turnarounds that result in foundational financial integrity followed by growth in revenues through diverse revenue streams, operational expansion and effectiveness, and strength and stability in assets.

His career has centered on providing strategic, operational and financial counsel in industries including for cause, media, hospitality, technology, and sports entertainment. Tommy is also known for his leadership style, cultivating creative, collaborative, and stable environments, while developing and leading extraordinary teams that exceed expectations and strive for continual improvement.

The range of organizations that have benefitted from Tommy’s work, largely as CFO, COO or as a member of the Board of Directors includes The Ocean Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, EarthShare, Bikes for the World, Washington Freedom Soccer, and Gateway Canyons Resort. Tommy also served and was instrumental in the growth and evolution of Discovery Communications and National Geographic Society. 

Tommy also has a passion for youth empowerment, having lead youth leadership initiatives and youth sports programs, including the Montgomery County Volleyball Club, and the girl’s volleyball program at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland.

A Washington, D.C. native and graduate of St. Anselm’s Abbey School and The Catholic University of America and a reformed CPA, Tommy now resides in Rockville, Maryland with his partner, Jennifer and their children, which range from one to 22 years old. When he isn’t running family air traffic control with Jen, he loves to explore the world, through their shared legacy in Lam Lha LLC, and related holdings of Sapillo Creek Escape and Ouroboros, as well as through biking, sailing, scuba diving (as a Divemaster), traveling, or finding inner peace through yoga (as a certified yoga teacher).

Phone: 202-470-7722

Email: ttepper@sos-usa.org 

For the last three decades, Jim has served as a senior manager and leader in a variety of regional and national nonprofit organizations.  Applying his deep understanding of organizational dynamics and management theory, Jim is known for creating high performing teams that routinely exceed performance benchmarks.  As a passionate student of the complexities within the nonprofit sector, Jim’s career has focused on providing leadership and counsel to those organizations that promote and ensure opportunities for underserved populations.

Beginning his career as both a dean and chief advancement officer within several institutions of higher education, Jim then served as the chief advancement officer and foundation director of a large faith-based organization serving the needs of more than 300,000 people in the thirteen counties of the Capital Region of New York State.  For more than a decade, Jim served as both a senior managing director and vice president in two large philanthropic consultancy firms.  In this role, Jim provided counsel to such organizations as the United Nations Foundation and the Sesame Workshop, strengthening their ability to develop transformational relationships with their constituents.  Most recently, Jim served as the team leader developing the philanthropic strategy for the United States World War One Centennial Commission in their efforts to build the World War One Memorial in the District of Columbia.  He is a frequent speaker at regional, national and international philanthropy conferences.
 
A graduate of Cathedral College and the University of Maine, Jim considers himself a life – long student and has a passionate interest in American history, theology and epistemology.  When not reading, Jim can be found on the nearest river with his fishing pole or at home, in Albany, New York with his wife who serves as an assistant dean at the State University of New York at Albany.

Lora Sodini is the Senior Director of Philanthropic Partnerships at SOS Children’s Villages - USA, where she cultivates transformational gifts to help the world’s most vulnerable children. She has over a decade of experience in fundraising, marketing, relationship management and strategy development for both nonprofit organizations and private-sector companies.

Lora works closely with SOS’s principal donors, foundations and strategic partners to help them fulfill their philanthropic goals. She holds an undergraduate degree from Miami University.

Phone: 202-470-5176

Email: lsodini@sos-usa.org