Our Board

Amber works as Program Officer at the Yakima Valley Community Foundation. In her role, she works directly with the grants team, local nonprofits and leads their Youth Leadership Council where she facilitates conversation centered around Youth Philanthropy. Before joining the foundation, she served as the director of two college access programs Act Six and Ready to Rise. This is where she first got introduced to SOWA. Amber is inspired by the work that SOWA is doing for youth programming around the state. She appreciates SOWA’S commitment to racial equity and believes that SOWA is a bridge builder to many. She is honored to serve on the board and continue to support quality afterschool efforts.

Nicole works as director of knowledge management at Casey Family Programs, identifying and disseminating best practices related to improving and ultimately preventing foster care. She has worked in a variety of other roles in the education and youth development fields locally and nationally, most recently at the Community Center for Education Results where she focused on reconnecting 16- to 24-year-olds to education and career pathways. At the Forum for Youth Investment her work centered on youth engagement, research-practice partnerships, building expanded learning systems and improving youth program quality.

Nicole is inspired by efforts to increase equitable access to informal learning environments and sees SOWA as a critical system builder.