Meet Our Staff

Jim Duran
Executive Director

Jim is the Executive Director of The City Center Transitional Living, a facility for homeless children and their parents. He is also the Executive Director of Tender Life Maternity Home, servicing homeless pregnant women and their babies.

Jim has been honored with various awards over the years including the “Heroes Among Us” award from the Ventura Police Community Foundation, The Golden Triangle Award from the YMCA, and the “Hometown Hero” award by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce; Jim was honored in 2020 with the first ever Legacy Award, awarded to those citizens who go above and beyond to make a difference in Ventura.

Jim and his wife Pam, serve on the board of Marriage Well, a non-profit organization that provides support for couples to achieve excellence in their marriages. He is actively involved with solving the homeless crisis in Ventura County through the Homeless to Home collaboration, by partnering with the Downtown Ventura Partners and being involved with the Ventura Social Service Task Force.

Jim and Pam have been married for over 31 years and have six children, two daughter-in-laws and three incredible grandchildren. Jim’s passion is to serve his community and to be a blessing to his neighbors through partnerships and collaboration.

Brandi Brown
House Manager
& Case Manager

Brandi Brown was born in Oxnard. Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother and sibling moved around a lot while her mother was in her addiction. Brandi started using drugs and living on the streets at the age of 11. At 15, she had her first child and then had two more while still living the only lifestyle that she knew.

When Brandi discovered she was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Jaime, Child Protective Services became part of her life, which she can now say was one of the best things that happened to her. Brandi started her relationship with God, joined and graduated from Prototypes and then began her journey at The City Center in July 2017. Brandi left the program before she graduated thinking she could manage life with her daughter on her own, but after six months, she asked to return to finish what she had started there. Brandi feels by God’s grace, she was accepted back into The City Center. She has since graduated the program but still lived on campus.

Brandi held several jobs while living at The City Center with her most recent position at Malibu Hills Treatment Center in Malibu Canyon. As much as she enjoyed working and helping others in addiction, it became a financial hardship with a daily round trip of 84 miles from home to daycare and work. Brandi prayed and asked God what her next move should be while seeking counsel from her mentors. A position at a local Starbucks became available at the same rate of pay. She still felt a little unsettled, because her passion is to help people in recovery, but she also wanted a faith-based program. Brandi is so grateful to The City Center and to The River for the love and support that was shown and taught to her, she wanted to return it to someone else.

Two days after giving notice at Malibu Hills, Pastor Jim Duran offered her the position of Assistant House Manager at Tender Life. All she could think of and feel is that God is so awesome and wonderful! By staying faithful and true to herself and asking and trusting in God, she is being blessed and shown favor. Brandi is excited to see where these new life moves will take her, and she is anxious to be a blessing to others as she continues to grow and put God at the center of her life.

Cynthia Long
Communications Director

Cynthia Long is our Communications Director for Tender Life Maternity Home; however, she didn’t start that way. Cynthia first heard about Tender Life during a hard time in her life, finding out she was three months pregnant and had nowhere else to go. She was a resident at the home for nine months before temporarily moving to The City Center Transitional Living for three months.

At Tender Life, residents are required to serve part-time at The River Community Church. Cynthia was such a wonderful volunteer, exceeding expectations, and was such a blessing to those around her, that she was eventually asked to be full-time staff at The River Community Church and the assistant manager at Tender Life Maternity Home until she married in 2020.

Cynthia is so thankful for the opportunity to give back to Tender Life and to be able to witness the goodness of God in every mother and their babies. Cynthia has a passion for seeing the Tender Life moms succeed and is fueled by the work that God has done in her life as well as the relationships that are built with each resident.

Cynthia is married to Chris Long and mother to a beautiful daughter, Harper, who is a frequent favorite little office helper to Executive Director, Jim Duran.

Terry Long

Terry Long, and her husband Doug, have been serving in a Foursquare Church ever since they committed their lives to Jesus over forty years ago. They attended a church in the San Fernando Valley for 22 years and found themselves at church every time the doors were open. This is where they learned that serving was part of their DNA, whether it be supporting the lead pastors, ministering to the congregation, serving as Children’s Ministry Coordinator or taking care of the facilities.

In 2000, the Lord called their family to Ventura, and ever since then Terry has faithfully assisted in the Church Office at what is now The River Community Church. She prefers to be behind the scenes and has worked with teams who volunteer and prepare for the many church functions over the years. One key event that Terry has supported these past 20 years is the Tender Life Maternity Home Walk. She has been on-site to help with set up each year come rain or shine (and yes, it poured one year, but faithful people still showed up!). Terry currently serves the Tender Life Advisory Board as their Scribe in addition to assisting Jim Duran, the Executive Director, with any administrative duties related to Tender Life.

Doug and Terry were high school sweethearts and have been married for 41 years. They have two adult children, one son-in-law, a grandson, daughter-in-law and one granddaughter. They have celebrated over 25 years in pastoral ministry and are looking forward to seeing how God will continue to use them to serve Him and His people.

Corky Marquez

Born into a large family (12 brothers and sisters!), Corky has spent most of her life in Ventura. Like the family she grew up in, Corky has raised a large family of her own with three sons, a daughter, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  Professionally, Corky spent most of her working life in Human Resources and accounting for JC Penney. This has benefited the Kingdom of God greatly as Corky functions as our bookkeeper! In her leisure time, she enjoys spending time with her family and making cross-stitch pictures.