(ALPHABETICALLY)

KAREN HICKS
As a single parent, Karen Hicks knows how hard it is to provide the extras children need to feel special and valued, so she was thrilled to be asked to join the Board of Foster Your Dream. Her background is as administrative assistant and bookkeeper in various fields, including manufacturing, medical/psychological, and advertising. She has held positions with such celebrities as the Oak Ridge Boys and Richard Pryor, as well as serving as in-house editor for Steve Allen. She also ran her own secretarial support business for several years. Following her dream of being a full-time writer, Karen wrote several articles, poetry, short stories, and scripts before turning her attention to books. She has now published two: The Tao of an Uncluttered Life, a self-help book on being organized, and The Coming Woman, a novel based on the life of the infamous 19th century feminist Victoria Woodhull (the first woman to run for U.S. President). Karen is retired and lives in Henderson, NV, where she enjoys being a grandmother, working on her next novel, and planning once-in-a-lifetime experience for foster children.

JAMIE KENDALL
After receiving a bachelor of science in economics, cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, Jamie practiced law with Bingham McCutchen LLP (now known as Morgan, Lewis & Bockius) in Los Angeles. In addition to her experience with a wide range of environmental and commercial litigation, from inception to trial, Jamie enjoyed balancing her practice with pro bono matters. This included taking on cases under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and Violence Against Women Act, staffing a legal clinic for homeless youth, and representing prospective parents in adoption proceedings. Jamie also served on the Associate Leadership Board of Public Counsel, the largest pro bono law firm in the United States. In her free time, Jamie can be found hiking with her rescue mutt, practicing yoga, cooking, and savoring the occasional nap.

DAWN O’LEARY
Dawn O’Leary is a New Jersey native, formerly of Los Angeles, now living in Portland, Oregon. She was a high school English teacher and served as a Poet in the Schools for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, teaching creative writing in public schools throughout the state. She received fellowships in both poetry and playwriting from the Council as well, and went on to have her plays produced in New York, Los Angeles and New Jersey. In 1993, she received a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Soon afterward she began a career in film and television that included teleplays for all the major networks as well as cable, and the feature film production of her screenplay “Admissions.” Dawn is the mother of three. Raising them taught her that nothing matters more than the children of the world, who all deserve a dream and the means to fulfill it.

GAIL STOCKER
Gail Stocker transitioned from being a probation officer in Los Angeles’s inner city to working with stand-up comics. She says “One of the lovely things about lateral skills is that you take them wherever you go.”  In her long comedy career as an agent, manager, producer and comedy consultant, she has always searched for the best and has had one of the keenest eyes for talent in the business.  Gail has worked with the top names in the industry and prides herself from being only two degrees removed from anybody.

SUE WOLF
Sue Wolf founded Foster Your Dream after volunteering and navigating the Foster Care System for the past 11 years. Although she has no memory of this, her first 6 months were spent in foster care after which she was adopted and afforded all kinds of opportunities including a stable and loving home. Noticing a huge need to provide “extras” to the millions of children currently living in foster care, she (semi) retired from television and theatre so she could devote her energy to match dreams with opportunities. She has written for Variety Newspaper, directed and produced for Comedy Central, MTV, Disney, Lifetime, CBS, ABC, TBS, UPN and has over 50 shows on HBO. In addition to spearheading the classic award-winning series “One Night Stand,” she produced the first all-Black stand-up show called “Uptown Comedy Express,” and the first all female stand-up show called “Women of the Night.” She has won 2 ACE Awards, a theatre Ovation Award, served on the Board of Directors for Lemon Grove Park in Hollywood and received 3 commendation awards from Eric (Mayor of Los Angeles) Garcetti’s office.

###  

None of the Board receives any payment whatsoever.  We use every penny we raise to make dreams come true for foster children.