Introduction to USA

United Services Agency

Dedicated to support our communities at Santa Cruz

By Ngan Nguyen May 19, 2026

Santa Cruz, West Cliff Drive. Photo credit: Flickr

Our Story and Mission

United Services Agency is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Cruz, California. Our establishment can be traced back to the 1970s with the collaboration between two friends: Dr. Paul Lee and Reverend Herb Schmidt. The two founders seek to uplift community ideas and sponsor an array of progressive projects within the UCSC campus and the county.

Our core mission is to serve the local community of Santa Cruz and the Greater Bay Area by providing support for educational, cultural, and community service projects. We provide services such as administrative scaffolding, fundraising, and resources connections to passionate individuals and organizations who are proactively building solutions for societal and environmental good.

Since our establishment, we continue to foster the growth of our community through contributions to diverse and localized programs. Our support ranges from local businesses to nonprofit causes as well. 

Our Team

Nada Miljkovic, President	Toby Corey, Vice President
Nada Miljkovic is a multi-disciplinarian educator, entrepreneur, and activist (art-activist). Her subjects of teaching range from entrepreneurship to digital storytelling. Nada Miljkovic also has made significant contributions towards career development of UC, Santa Cruz and local communities through her co-founded student-run Project Management Internship Program, GetVirtual.	Toby Corey is an ambitious entrepreneur turned Zentrepreneur, and a guest lecturer at UC, Santa Cruz. He has an extensive history of working in start-ups that focus on customer-centered innovation with the continuous growth of technology. Toby Corey is currently building the BrandCapsule–decision intelligence for AI discovery.

Eva Miljkovic-Ammann, Secretary	Herb Schmdit, VP Accounts
Eva Miljkovic-Ammann is an avid environmental activist of Santa Cruz. Her work involves digital mix-media and filmmaking that evoke self reflection within the audience. She was part of the production of joymakers–a social justice documentary film in the remarkable lives of Southern Serbian Romi trumpeters.	Herb Schmidt is a Lutheran Campus Pastor Emeritus. Before retirement, he served Stanford University, The University of Arizona, and UC, Santa Cruz. In retirement, he continued to serve the communities as the Protestant Church of Bali, an Interim Pastor in California congregations, and Dean of the Lutheran Congregations in Monterey Bay. The Rev. Herb Schmidt died peacefully of natural causes, surrounded by his loving family.

Our Impact

As an umbrella organization that provides a wide range of services and resources, United Services Agency supports passionate local leaders, organizations, and businesses to come closer together and to their goals for social justice, cultural preservation, and environmental good. Multiple projects endorsed or led by the United Services Agency have left a profound impact on local Santa Cruz.

The Homeless Garden Project

In the early stage of United Services Agency, our co-founder Dr. Paul Lee was deeply involved in activism for homelessness crisis in Santa Cruz. He was inspired by the impact of the Homeless Garden project that eventually formed a partnership with them through the spirit of Ecotopia–an environmental movement effort to restore the integrity of organic nature. United Services Agency as the local fiscal sponsor has supported the Homeless Garden project to secure vital federal AmeriCorps funding. The collaboration helped the project in its early stage to employ homeless individuals full-time in community and school gardens, providing them with stable stipends, and job training.

Get Virtual 

Facing the modern crisis of career development, and rapid growth of technology and AI, United Services Agency has co-founded the Get Virtual Program during COVID-19. The program addresses the hardship for career development during the time of social distancing, and its persisting consequence of remote work. Get Virtual pairs university students with small businesses in the Bay Area (primarily Santa Cruz as it is offered as a course at UC, Santa Cruz). Students gained hands-on experience and an insight into entrepreneurship. On the other hand, small businesses with limited resources and budget receive free digital overhauls, including e-commerce setups, website optimization, and social media marketing. 

UC, Santa Cruz Campus Childcare Centers

One of the earliest projects of Dr. Paul Lee with the United Services Agency is the reform of childcare for UC, Santa Cruz campus. They provided the early administrative framework for the establishment of the original Campus Childcare Centers, eventually becoming the official Early Education Center (EEC). Additionally, the project also expanded the impact across Santa Cruz County region, ensuring the hiring of bilingual and bicultural staff so that low-income and immigrant families had equitable access to early childhood education. This has built the foundation for the more recent expansion of on-site chil care centers by UC, Santa Cruz, one of which is expected to open in 2026.

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