David Bruce McMahan, Ph.D., Chairman and co-founder National Cristina Foundation

David Bruce McMahan and Yvette Marrin

Dr. David Bruce McMahan is the Chief Executive Officer of McMahan Securities Co. L.P. and the principal and founder of the Argent Funds Group. Graduating from the University of Southern California in 1960, he earned his Ph.D. in Labor Economics in 1992 from The Union Institute. The experience of raising a child with cerebral palsy, born in 1970, led him to take his first serious steps into philanthropy in 1984. Seeing the impact on his daughter Cristina and her classmates of a computer he had donated to his child’s classroom, resulted in the founding of the National Cristina Foundation to “link life to its promise.” It was named in honor of Cristina.

David Bruce McMahan has built on the major success of his first philanthropy by establishing the McMahan Center-Abilities Activists (www.abilitiesactivists.bm) in 2003. This Foundation works to help people who are disadvantaged or have disabilities in communities in different parts of the world to connect to and use their abilities to create new options in their lives. David Bruce McMahan has set an example for his children that they make an effort to emulate. (www.McMahan-Philanthropy.com).

Yvette Marrin, Ph.D., President and co-founder National Cristina Foundation

After receiving a donation of a computer for Cristina McMahan’s class from her father, David Bruce McMahan, Dr. Marrin demonstrated that computer technology could make a significant difference in the lives of Cristina and her classmates. Obtaining sufficient access to computer technology and information on how it could best serve students with disabilities was the challenge that originally led Yvette Marrin and David Bruce McMahan to co-found the National Cristina Foundation in 1984. Used computers would be put to work again in support of developing human potential. Prior to this work, 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 administrator. She earned a Ph.D in Organizational and Administrative Studies and Special Education from New York University in 1985. Yvette Marrin is also the president of the McMahan Center-Abilities Activists.

The National Cristina Foundation was founded in 1984 because we believed that previously used computer technology could be effectively reused. Though at the time it was a still to be a proven concept, we were determined that no computer coming out of its first place of service should ever be wasted if it could be used to support or train a person in need.

For individuals with disabilities, as well as for the disadvantaged, we have demonstrated over the years that technology is capable of providing new opportunities, powers and freedoms. Technology reuse it has been shown can significantly contribute to the social and economic health of communities worldwide. It is in our mutual interest that every citizen be given his or her chance.

For the National Cristina Foundation, from its inception and through its ongoing work, our guiding objective remains true - Linking Life to its Promise.

(Follow these links for a short summary of our early history, or about some of our international agenda.)