STAFF
Jennifer Cavazos
Executive Director
Jennifer Cavazos is a retired pharmacist and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. Her pharmacy career spanned over 33 years, working in both retail and mail service pharmacy practice.
Jennifer began volunteering at Camp Discovery in 1990 as a cabin counselor. After taking a number of years off from volunteering at camp to raise her children, she returned as a Camp Discovery volunteer in 2016 in the program office. In addition to her pharmacy career, Jennifer had also worked as the part-time administrative assistant for Discovery Camps since 2013, assisting the Executive Director with the administrative duties required to provide our programs. In 2021, Jennifer assumed the role of Executive Director after the death of her husband Joey, who had been the founding Executive Director of VisionWorks.
Jennifer plans to pursue a Masters degree in Camp Administration and Leadership from Gratz College beginning in the Fall of 2022.
Zeff Gomes
Program Director
Zeferino “Zeff” Gomes, a U.S. Army Veteran, has worked as a Medical Laboratory Scientist for 35 years. He has worked for several hospitals, and clinics across the United States and overseas, most recently in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Lab at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. Due to his career as a soldier and working in the hospital environment, he understands the values of having a serving mentality. “Working with children and their families has brought me more joy, success and accomplishment than any other job ever could.”
Over the years, Zeff has held a variety of roles for Discovery Camps. He began as a cabin counselor for the 7 and 8 year old Red Boys in 2005, then he progressed to head counselor, planning committee member, and eventually Camp Discovery Co-Director. In 2019, he gave
up his job in the Lab and has been the full-time Program Director for Discovery Camps since then.
Heather Donnella
Special Activities Director
Heather began her journey with Discovery Camps in 2015 volunteering on the ropes course for our various weekend camps. She officially joined the team in 2019 during the kick-off year of our in-hospital program, Camp Brave Hearts, and currently serves Discovery Camps as their Special Activities Director. With over 10 years of experience working in the camping industry, Heather strongly believes in the power of camp and the impact it can have on a child’s overall wellbeing.
Heather received her Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Texas State University in 2021, and her LPC Associate in February 2022. She currently works with children and adolescents on coping with grief, anxiety, and depression at Radius Psychotherapy, and is supervised by Adam Avila M.S., LPC-S. She loves being able to utilize her background in mental health to emphasize the naturally occurring therapeutic component that camp has to offer.
