Karen Hobbs, Executive Director
Karen is a trained teacher and supports students as a volunteer in the Rachel’s Challenge “Chain Links Club” at Cascade Middle School- a group that actively promotes anti-bullying, inclusion, kindness, student empowerment and community outreach. She is involved in Boy and Girl scouting in Bend.
Karen has a BA (Honors) in Humanities and a post graduate teaching degree, and has taught Prison Education professional development modules to colleagues.
Kelley Carson, Chairperson
Kelley Carson is the Director of Client Services for BendBroadband in Bend, Oregon. In this role, she is responsible for strategic oversight of customer experience. Her focus is ensuring operational excellence with an embedded culture of continual review and process improvement. Kelley spearheads and executes initiatives to achieve and exceed customer acquisition, retention, and brand promise goals. She was awarded the BendBroadband Leader of the Year Award for 2011 and strongly believes that a culturally mature, empowered, and engaged team has led to BendBroadband’s success within the communities it serves.
A 20 year veteran of the cable industry, Kelley began her career in 1993 with Cox Communications in Omaha which led her to Cox Phoenix and Cox Wichita where she held a variety of positions including call center project manager and operations manager. She served as Installation and Service Director at BendBroadband prior to her current role. Kelley received her BA from College of St. Mary in Omaha, Nebraska.
Barbara Dunlap, Co-Secretary
Barbara Dunlap is a journalist who has written for print publications such as The Oregonian and The San Francisco Chronicle, and for websites including LiveStrong and USA Today. She previously taught elementary school and preschool in Southern California and Japan, and she founded the Teens in the Newsroom program at The Modesto Bee in California.
Barbara earned teaching credentials from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri – Columbia.
Mark Gerson, Co-Secretary
Mark Gerson owns and runs a business, Outsourcing Pros Inc., which provides office support including call center, bookkeeping and research services. Prior to owning this business, he owned and managed a school that taught medical transcription. His background prior to this was teaching elementary school for a number of years. He obtained his teaching credential from San Francisco State University, and his BS from Willamette University. Mark currently sits on two other boards in addition to Winning Over Anger and Violence: The Bend 2030 Commission, and The Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association.
In addition, Mark and his wife have their own not for profit organization, Sharing Opportunities For Success. Their goal is to purchase and send children’s books to poor schools in The Philippines to better educate their children and give them a chance to go further in their education and careers.
Paul Adams, Accountant and Treasurer
Paul Adams is an accountant, non-profit leader, and professional musician. He has over a decade of experience working in non-profits, and has also volunteered as the accountant and treasurer for Slow Food Portland.
Paul has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon; a Master of Arts degree in non-profit management from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Theory and Composition (also from Linfield). He is married to Michelle Adams, a marriage and family therapist who specializes in play therapy. They have one daughter, Lucy.
Charlie Burdick, Member
Charlie Burdick is a retired corporate research scientist who holds some three dozen patents in various fields. In his corporate capacity Charlie worked directly with numerous industrial companies located in Europe, China, Indonesia, Australia and Canada as well as the U.S.
Within the Winning Over organization he has been active in planning expansion of the adult outreach programs.
Emily Patterson, Member
Ms. Emily Patterson is the Director of Customer Relations at StreamIt, an online video hosting service in Bend. Before moving to central Oregon, she spent three years in the Republic of Moldova. For two of those years, she taught English as a foreign language with the Peace Corps. During the last year, she served as a communications assistant and editor for USAID at the US Embassy in Moldova.
Linda West, Member
Linda is a Registered Nurse, Retired. Her areas of practice included Obstetrics & Gynecology, Neonatal, Pediatrics and Family Health. Her work experience included hospitals and clinics in Indianapolis,IN; Tri-Cities, WA; and Seattle. She is new to Bend and is looking for volunteer opportunities in which she can use her professional background. Anger management crosses all disciplines of mental health and family well being. She is pleased to find an organization already in place in Bend to help individuals and families with these critical issues.
