Directors

Dan Albaum

Marketing Director

When Dan Albaum was thinking about the next step of his career, he reflected on all the areas where he’d used his marketing expertise: consumer packaged goods, technology, fitness equipment. What he’d never done was work for a cause-based organization.

“I wanted to have the opportunity to apply my skills and knowledge around creating a multigenerational impact,” says the father of five. “I would love to help Committee for Children leave a positive legacy.”

That decision brought Dan to Committee for Children, where he leads a team that’s responsible for emarketing, social media, event management, encouraging potential clients, and planning the launch of new products.

With ample experience in everything from product management and product marketing to field marketing and channel marketing, Dan jumped eagerly into his role in the midst of the biggest set of product launches at one time that Committee for Children has ever had. One of his top goals moving forward is implementing marketing automation, a system that will help make email marketing campaigns more targeted and efficient.

Dan says his social-emotional learning (SEL) superpower is relationship-building, something he takes seriously in his role as a manager. “I have a real passion for developing people and enabling them to have more impact inside the organization,” he says. “I hope to inspire and help the team prioritize the most impactful work.” He puts an emphasis on collaborating with other teams at Committee for Children—such as sales, product management, and IT—so that everyone can benefit.

Dan has an MBA from the University of Texas and a BA in communication from the University of Washington, and colleagues know he’s an ardent college football fan, cheering on the Huskies every weekend.

He brings that same passion to his work here. “I’m excited and energized around the mission of Committee for Children,” he says. “The future’s incredibly bright, and I can’t think of a better time to come in and be part of it.”

Åsa Douglas

Creative Director, Brand & Product

Recognized by her colleagues for her rare ability to balance both the creative and operational aspects of her role, Åsa Douglas is the only Committee for Children employee who works on both the marketing and product sides of the organization. “I may be a designer by training, but I’m also very much a spreadsheet/numbers person,” she says.

As the creative director, Åsa oversees both the Marketing team that executes the creative vision, and a team that supports product development. After joining Committee for Children in 2015, she refreshed the brands for both Committee for Children and its social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, Second Step—and to make sure each has its own distinct identity.

After starting her career as a graphic designer, then most recently working as senior creative services manager at Brooks Sports and creative studio supervisor at Zulily, Åsa decided to shift gears and pursue a master’s degree in art therapy. While taking classes in psychology in 2015, the job opening at Committee for Children popped up in her inbox. The description was a perfect melding of the work experience she had and the topics she was learning about in her classes. Although she wasn’t looking for a job at the time, she knew she had to apply. “Things just really clicked,” she says. “It was the perfect fit for me.”

Åsa has a BA in advertising arts from the Art Institute of California–San Diego. Her SEL superpower, organizational skills, comes in handy both with managing two teams at Committee for Children and balancing her family’s schedule. On the weekends, she participates in cyclocross, a type of bike racing that involves obstacles and unpredictable terrain.

Taking up the intimidating hobby is, in many ways, a metaphor for the way Swedish-born Åsa lives her life. “If I’m a little bit scared and nervous about something, I get even more determined that I want to do it,” she says. There is something so real about that nervous feeling and the fact that you don’t back down from it.”

Jessica Martin

Director of Human Resources

Every day, Jessica Martin is motivated by Committee for Children’s new goal: to positively transform the social-emotional well-being of 100 million children annually by 2028.

“I don’t feel like you can turn away from a mission that is fostering the well-being of children,” she says. “The combination of the mission and where we are as a company—we’re in a very exciting phase—drew me in.”

Jessica’s role as director of Human Resources, which she started in March 2019, is to attract and retain top talent for Committee for Children. But it doesn’t end there. Her team helps people through the entire employee life cycle and creates meaningful ways to motivate and elevate performance. “I feel strongly about training and development for our entire employee base, for both managers and staff,” Jessica says. “One of our goals is to create more development opportunities for our employees.”

Jessica has a BA in psychology from the University of Washington and has spent more than 15 years in HR. In that time, she’s worked for companies in which HR was mostly tactical and operations-based, as well as companies in which the HR department was viewed as a strategic business partner. This variety of experience has given her a well-rounded view of what her team can do.

“In order for organizations to be successful, we do need to align with leadership on bigger strategy—that’s hugely important at Committee for Children, given the incredible mission that we have and the 2028 goal that we’re steering toward,” she says.

Fittingly for someone in a people-oriented job, Jessica calls relationship-building her social-emotional learning (SEL) superpower. She uses it both at work and at home, where she spends time answering her young daughter’s “million and one questions.”

“I got into HR for a variety of reasons,” she says, “but definitely because you can make a difference within an organization and give employees at all levels a good experience at work, and I think that’s important.”

Shauna McBride

PR & Communications Director

Shauna McBride is a seasoned journalist and communications professional with more than 15 years of public relations and media experience. She has managed all aspects—from development to implementation—of strategy, public and media relations, community outreach, branding, and events. As Committee for Children’s public relations and communications director, Shauna is responsible for developing and overseeing the strategic direction and tactical execution of our public relations and communications efforts. She focuses on pursuing media coverage, working closely with CFC’s marketing team and external agencies and partners to build brand awareness and positive perception, developing internal communications processes and systems, and owning all crisis communication planning and implementation. Before joining CFC, Shauna was director of communications for Seattle Reign FC, where she developed internal and external communication strategies to drive awareness and affinity for the National Women’s Soccer League startup. Before that, she served as primary spokesperson for Allstate Insurance’s Northwest region, with whom she earned a reputation as a steadfast, well-informed, articulate, and trusted source to key media, both locally and nationally. It was Shauna’s calm, take-charge style that leadership relied on during crisis situations, where she guided highly visible executives to deliver on-point messaging. Shauna’s ability to cultivate strong media relationships and execute successful creative campaigns has enabled her to secure coverage with top-tier media outlets, including Parents Magazine, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC Sport, ESPN The Magazine, and USA Today, as well as local publications, such as The Seattle Times and Seattle Metropolitan Magazine. Shauna holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Washington and is a long-time member of the Public Relations Society of America (Puget Sound Chapter) and The Association for Women in Communications (Seattle Chapter).

Jordan Posamentier

Director of Policy and Advocacy

With a background as a New York City public school teacher, legislative counsel to the California Judges Association, director of legislative analysis at StudentsFirst, and deputy policy director at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, Jordan Posamentier was ideally suited to be our first director of Policy and Advocacy at Committee for Children.

In his position, Jordan works on the state and federal level to advance policy for social-emotional learning (SEL), collaborating with many partners along the way. “Social-emotional learning is a fundamental aspect of a young person’s life experience and has been historically undertreated in policy,” he says. “I tend to be drawn to policy areas that are complex and impactful and evolving. SEL fits all those and then some.”

Jordan considers his SEL superpower to be perspective-taking, which is important in the work he does to help others see the value of social-emotional learning—and a skill he puts to good use at home with his young daughter as well.

“The folks who are in charge of jurisdictions around the country are quite different from one another, so when advancing policy it helps to remove ourselves from the Seattle bubble and look at what’s important to them, how SEL shows up in their lives,” Jordan says. “There’s an art to trying to figure out what will excite a policymaker,” just as there’s an art to talking to his five-year-old.

Jordan, who earned his JD from the University of Houston, his MS in education from Queens College (CCNY), and his BA in human ecology from College of the Atlantic, is proud of the work Committee for Children has done to usher forward the adoption of SEL standards in Washington state. These standards provide practitioners with a common language and a set of guides to help them develop SEL in their own communities. With his team, he’s actively working to expand the organization’s deep advocacy footprint across several more states.

“At Committee for Children, we really try to solve the problems our mission asks us to solve in a comprehensive way, through public programs, campaigns, and convening folks who are interested in other problems to solve,” Jordan says. “We’re kind of ‘soup to nuts’ when it comes to tackling our challenges.”