Philip Aspegren is the Executive Director of Casa Viva, a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to helping children who have been separated from their families find safe, nurturing solutions in local families.  Philip and his wife, Jill, began working with vulnerable children in the Dominican Republic in 1995, where they spent six years directing a children’s home, schools, and day programs.  Their experience led them to recognize the limitations of residential care and the importance of pursuing family reunification and a broader spectrum of family care options. In 2003, they co-founded Casa Viva Costa Rica, a Christian child and family agency where they pioneered a family care model, working alongside local churches, families, and government to develop foster care, reunification, and adoption solutions.  Today, through Casa Viva Solutions, Philip works with children’s homes, churches, and governmental leaders in Latin America and beyond to help transform residential programs and develop sustainable, family-centered approaches to caring for children.  Philip holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in Bible from Wheaton College, Illinois.  He worked for nine years in marketing and product development with Tyndale House Publishers. Philip brings more than three decades of experience in child welfare, organizational leadership, family care, and the transition from residential to family-centered models.  Philip and Jill have three sons, one daughter-in-law and another to-be, and are completely smitten with their new grandson.  Philip pretends he can still play Ultimate Frisbee and was a birder before it was popular.  He and Jill live in Costa Rica.   

Sandra is  committed to the welfare of vulnerable children. She  excels as a master trainer in Child Protection and Case Management, and a certified Care Transition Coach in Nigeria and West Africa, transitioning orphanages to family-based care models. She is also a Board of Trustee Member and Vice President for the Northern Region of the Association of Orphanages and Homes Operators (ASOHON).  She spearheaded the Save the Plateau Child Initiative. Her  recent initiatives include pioneering innovative family strengthening programs such as “Mother Me,” the Aging Out Mentoring Platform known as STAND OUT, AOA (Aging Out Africa) to assist youth transitioning out of care.

In her role as the Plateau State Coordinator for the Child Protection Network (CPN), Sandra ensures the protection of children within communities and upholds best practices in orphan care, always prioritizing the best interests of the child in decision-making processes.

Tara Boshart Garcia is the Co-founder and Executive Director at Identity Mission and has 16 years of experience in child welfare advocacy and family-based care solutions. She holds certifications in Trauma Competent Care, Backyard Orphan Certified Trainer, Halo Project Making Sense of your Worth Facilitator and has received specialized training in coaching orphanages through the transitioning process to models of family-based care and is certified as a Care Transition Coach by CAFO. Her work has been dedicated to strengthening family support systems in Honduras, collaborating with government and faith-based organizations to promote sustainable child welfare reform.

Kristi Gleason serves as the Chief Operations and Programs Officer at World Hope International. She comes to World Hope with over 25 years of experience in international development, focusing on international child welfare, family-based care and child protection. She has led domestic programs for refugee resettlement, alternatives to detention and programs providing psychosocial support to survivors of trafficking. Additionally, she has experience in the full spectrum of the program life cycle, from program design, implementation and closure, as well as monitoring and evaluation and financial management. Kristi’s true passion however, is supporting teams to run well designed and impactful programs.

Kristi has a BA in Latin American Studies from Calvin University and a Master’s in Social Work from Grand Valley State University. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband, two children and two dogs.

Dr. Laura Horvath is the founder and principal consultant of Bridging Solutions, where she helps nonprofit, faith-based and child welfare organizations strengthen strategy, clarify mission, build organizational capacity and move toward locally led, family- and community-based solutions. She also serves as Senior Technical Advisor for Global Programs with Helping Children Worldwide, providing ongoing consulting, training and technical support to HCW and its global partners.

Laura holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction and brings more than 25 years of experience in global child welfare, education, ethical missions and sustainable development. A frequent writer, speaker, facilitator, and co-host of HCW’s Optimistic Voices podcast, she focuses on care reform, systems change, ethical partnership and translating good intentions into effective and sustainable practice.

Catherine serves as the Field Director for Hope College’s Social Work Department in Michigan, where she brings her extensive global social work practice to her program leadership and teaching. She holds a BA in Social Policy and Administration and a Masters Degree in Social Work. Her career began in UK child protective services before a move to the States, where she managed programs for Bethany Global’s care reform work across Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, and Colombia. Having directed complex portfolios in family preservation and alternative care, Catherine now applies this background to her college role while offering independent social work skills and program development consultation and training. 

Kristen is the Executive Director of Otem Collective, an organization working in Uganda to help children grow up in families. A proud “Double Gator Grad,” Kristen has a B.S. in Family, Youth and Community Sciences and a Master’s of Sustainable Development Practice (MDP) from the University of Florida. She is also a licensed Trust-Based Relational Intervention® Practitioner and is certified as a Care Transition Coach by CAFO. With 16 years of nonprofit and ministry work, Kristen has experience in program planning and evaluation, child development, furthering community development initiatives, and child protection. Prior to starting Otem Collective, she worked for several years on programs for orphaned and vulnerable children in Northern Uganda. 

Elli Oswald is the Executive Director of the Faith to Action Initiative, a coalition of organizations seeking to elevate best practices in global orphan care. Elli has been a member of the Faith to Action Leadership Council for 15  years. Prior to her role with Faith to Action, she served as Director of Mission and Outreach at Bethany Community Church in Seattle, and as the Children in Crisis Research and Communications Coordinator for World Vision International’s Child Development and Rights Technical Team, specializing in community-based care for children deprived of parental care. She has a B.A. from Pepperdine University and an M.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies and International Development from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Chris Page serves as the Country Director of Agape Children’s Ministry, where he is responsible for the leadership and discipleship of Agape’s Kenyan staff and missionaries in their work in Kisumu, Kitale, and Nakuru, Kenya.  Each year, Agape rescues and rehabilitates over 1,000 vulnerable children living on Kenya’s streets and in governmental custody, reintegrating these children back with safe family members throughout East Africa.  Through Agape’s Christ-centered programs, Chris and his team have successfully reunited over 7,700 children with their families since 2010, over 4,400 of whom were reunited with their families since the beginning of 2021.  A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a master’s degree in Public Policy, Chris also draws on his previous experience as a U.S. Army officer and in the information-management sector.  Chris and his family have lived and served with Agape in Kisumu, Kenya since 2011.   

Kimberly Quinley has lived and served in Thailand for 42 years alongside her husband, John, where they raised their four children. Together, they founded Step Ahead, an organization dedicated to helping every child in Thailand grow up in a safe, nurturing family. Step Ahead provides services, builds capacity in families and communities, and equips both government and civil society to strengthen the well-being of children.

Kimberly currently supports the Thai government in transitioning its first orphanage toward family-based care and serves on several Thai government committees focused on alternative care, foster care, and ending the detention of children. As a certified Life Coach with four decades of experience, she offers training and consulting to leaders, teams, and frontline staff. She and John have also fostered both Thai and refugee children.

Jared Scheppmann serves as the Executive Director of Ekisa Ministries which works to change the lives of children living with disabilities in Uganda. Ekisa’s work currently focuses on: providing services where needed, increasing the capacity of families to care for their child, ending the stigma that exists towards persons with disabilities, and equipping other OVC organizations to serve this population.

He is passionate about seeing all children in families regardless of the barriers to overcome. A continuous improver, he is always looking to make sure the organization is serving families holistically and addressing the root causes of the problems that families face.

Jared lives in Jinja, Uganda with his wife and their three boys. He holds a B.A. in Religion and an M.B.A emphasizing in leadership.

Jedd Schroy’s life and work are rooted in his faith in God and a deep desire to serve others well. He co-founded and led a nonprofit in South Africa for a decade, equipping churches to empower entrepreneurs. He later served as Director of Advisory Research at a philanthropic advisory firm, where he wrote sector reports, developed client briefs and advised nonprofits on impact measurement.

At CAFO, Jedd helps create strategies and environments that enable people and organizations to flourish. He is married to Janelle and together they are raising four vibrant daughters.

Nicole Wilke serves as Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children & Families.  The Research Center aims to bridge research and practice to improve care for vulnerable children and families around the globe.  An initiative of CAFO, the Center serves more than 260 organizations in 130+ nations around the world, and the work impacts millions of children and families at risk. Dr. Wilke has supported improved outcomes for children in care through both research and practice.  This has included leading investigations related to care reform, resilience, and family strengthening, developing the Care Transition Accelerator Academy, and authoring dozens of evidence-based resources on improving care for children. Although she has lived on four continents, Dr. Wilke currently finds herself living with her family in Peru, where they work to see children raised in families.

Brad Voss is a nonprofit leader, advocate, and encourager with a passion for helping vulnerable children and families experience lasting transformation. Brad serves as CEO and US Executive Director of REMADE, an organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and reunifying street-connected children in Kenya while strengthening families and communities through sustainable solutions to extreme poverty. Drawing from decades of leadership experience in nonprofit, church, and the business world, Brad brings practical wisdom, sharp business acumen, authentic storytelling, and a deep conviction that lasting change begins with relationships. Brad holds two degrees from Abilene Christian University, a BA in Communication and a Master’s in Religion. He also serves on the ACU Alumni Advisory Board and as a strategic partner with the Agape Care Alliance.