April Bignell spoke about the role the community can play in small non-profits such as the Center for Healthy Development, CHD. She talked about the various programs and the philosophy of our agency which serves as both a counseling agency and training ground for interns.

April Bignell is the Business Development Director at the Center for Healthy Development, CHD, a non-profit counseling agency in Santa Clara. April was born and raised in northern Illinois and relocated as a young adult to San Jose in 1976.

She attended the University of Illinois / Champaign – Urbana as a biology major and upon relocating to San Jose, continued her education at San Jose State University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Social Science with minors in both History and Life Science. She went on to earn her California Teaching Credential at San Jose State and taught science for 11 years in Campbell Elementary School District at both Blackford Elementary School and Rolling Hills Middle School.

Taking leave of the classroom, April served as Communications Director at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose just prior to accepting the position of Business Development Director at CHD in October of 2003. She served on the Board of Directors at CHD for 6 months prior to her employment there.