Our Board

Jaime ZavAla

Executive Director ArtworxLA

A graduate of Azusa Pacific University (BA) and UCLA (M.Ed.), Jaime has over two decades of experience working in the nonprofit field.  Being a native Angeleno coupled with experience serving in international settings, Jaime brings to Seen & Heard an ability to help communities from different backgrounds come together for a common purpose.

Most recently, Jaime served as the Executive Director for Olive Crest-Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving at-risk children and their families, many of whom are involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.  During his tenure at Olive Crest, the organization saw an increase in volunteer engagement, corporate and individual donor engagement, and rapid expansion of its community engagement efforts.

Jaime’s heart to serve underrepresented and vulnerable youth comes from his own personal story as well as being the parent of a child with special needs.  He’s a dad to two wonderful kids, loves traveling, running, the arts, trying out LA’s taco stands, and is an avid Dodger fan.

Esther Chang Weese

Esther Chang Weese is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA), Boston University (MPH) and the University of Southern California (JD).  She focuses her legal practice on health care transactions and regulatory matters, and has represented large health systems, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, cancer treatment facilities and other health care providers.  She was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is currently practicing at Athene Law LLP.

 

Esther has been recognized in The National Law Journal, Minority 40 Under 40, Chambers USA (2011 to 2014), Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Star (2009 to 2015), Up and Coming 50 Women (2015) and Super Lawyers (2017 to 2022) and The Best Lawyers in America (2014 to 2019 and 2021 to 2022). 

Jenn Haskew

A lifetime Texan and graduate of Texas A&M University, Jenn moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and has fallen in love with this city. Jenn has been a foster parent since 2014 and has been able to share seasons of life with incredible kids and their families. She is passionate about family reunification and seeing kids and families thrive together.

Jenn was a bookkeeper and administrator at Newsong LA Church for half a decade and hopes to bring that experience with her as she serves on the board of Seen&Heard. Recently, Jenn began working at Crete Academy, an elementary school in South LA, whose mission is to deliver an excellent academic program to students who are currently houseless or under resourced while simultaneously cultivating their physical, mental and emotional health so that each student is prepared for college and life beyond school.

Jennifer Yang

COO, Forks Over Knives

Originally from Seattle by way of Taipei, Taiwan, Jenn moved to California to attend UC Berkeley and has stayed in the Golden State ever since, eventually getting her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Business and settling in Los Angeles. Having built a career focused on brand management and digital marketing, she is the COO of an omnichannel plant-based lifestyle brand called Forks Over Knives, where she oversees business operations along with all things marketing. In her free time, Jenn enjoys hanging out with family and friends, traveling, cooking, and eating. Her ideal day is eating her way through a foreign city with family and friends.

Amy Carbo

Amy is a mother and a foster parent, a former small business owner and a nonprofit manager. She has six years of fundraising and event management experience and has volunteered as a CASA in Los Angeles for the past three years. She has held the educational rights of and advocated for two teens in foster care, volunteered for a camp for youth in care, and loves to bake custom birthday cakes for kids in the system. She has seen firsthand the overwhelming need for well-equipped caregivers and other supportive adults in the lives of transition age youth especially, as well as the need for creative strategies to engage and encourage this population.

Amy has also personally experienced the importance of regular breaks for caregivers, and as such, enjoys gardening, good music and long walks with her dog.

Dr. Cammie Rolle

Dr. Cammie Rolle currently works as a Neuroscientific Researcher at University of Pennsylvania and Stanford in the department of Neurosurgery, and has been conducting independent research for about a decade. Cammie obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford University, and is now a Neuroscience Researcher working within both the NeuroSurgery and Psychiatry Departments at Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, and in collaboration with University of California, San Francisco. Cammie’s career path to becoming a Neuroscientist is completely rooted in her experience working within the foster system. During her undergraduate career in Davis, Cammie co-founded a theater therapy program for foster youth utilizing a personalized musical theater experience as an alternative avenue for emotional rehabilitation. This work motivated her to further educate herself on the neural correlates of emotion and how we can use that knowledge to develop trauma-specific therapies, and started her on the path towards becoming a Neuroscientist.

Cammie is passionate about the brain as it relates to emotion and psychiatric symptoms, and her career goals center around utilizing her knowledge gained from her research endeavors to inform therapeutic options for foster youth that are grounded in neuroscience.

THANKS TO OUR FINANCIAL PARTNERS