Executive Leadership

Mary Brodd

General Counsel

Mary Brodd was so positively influenced by her teachers as a child that, for a time, she considered pursuing a career in education. After choosing law school, she began an extensive in-house practice as a corporate and business attorney. Mary served as chief or deputy legal officer at technology companies Intermec, Inc., AT&T, and Spacelabs Healthcare. Her practice included general business and intellectual property matters, and more recently, public company compliance and board governance.

Now, as general counsel at Committee for Children, Mary draws upon her wealth of experience as a business legal advisor and legal executive. She helps to manage and resolve legal matters, freeing up more energy and resources for furthering our mission.

Mary sees her SEL superpower as problem-solving. “Joining CFC is a wonderful opportunity to put a career’s worth of experience into doing good,” she says. “I feel incredibly lucky every day to be able to help realize our vision of safe children thriving in a just and peaceful world.”

Regi Dennis

Vice President of Marketing and Client Relations

Regi Dennis, an accomplished, full-spectrum marketing and business leader, has won awards, cultivated lifelong strategic alliances, and helped teams and businesses navigate change and challenges. What distinguishes him is his wholehearted commitment to and passion for helping people grow and giving back.

“Professionally, I lead by making sure my team gains knowledge, experience, and exposure. What I ask for in return is an honest day’s work toward being a positive contributor to the culture and community,” Regi says.

While he’s worked in several industries, including finance and technology, he’s focused the better portion of his career on helping underserved students go to college, most recently as vice president of marketing for TCS Education System in Chicago. When a recruiter reached out to him on behalf of Committee for Children, he saw an opportunity to have a bigger impact and change more lives. “When I learned of the North Star Goal of reaching 100 million children annually by 2030, I was hooked,” he says. “I want to help as many people as possible, not just in school, but in life.”

Regi has been recognized for his ability to inspire future leaders, assemble strong strategic alliances, and build values-based brand equity, but he says his real strength, or SEL superpower, is self-motivation. “Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of teachers or supervisors who looked out for me,” he says. “The reason I believe in giving others knowledge, experience, and exposure is because I didn’t have that. I’m the first person in my family to get a college education.”

In his role as VP of Marketing and Client Relations for Committee for Children, he says his goal remains steadfast: “Success for me is all about helping others grow.”

Mia Doces

Vice President of Innovation

After beginning her career in media production, Mia Doces found herself drawn to the idea of making a positive difference through education. She spent the next decade gaining insight into the barriers kids face when it comes to learning, developing a particular interest in bullying prevention while serving as a teacher and counselor in Seattle Public Schools.

Today she is at the helm of Committee for Children’s Innovation Lab, exploring new avenues for broadening the organization’s impact through SEL both in and outside the classroom, from conceptualizing a smart toy to help kids self-regulate to driving partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Mia has worked on state- and national-level youth initiatives, having served on the Washington State legislative anti-bullying work group and advised organizations from Sesame Workshop to the Born This Way Foundation. From 2007–2011 she co-chaired Prevention Works in Seattle, a Drug-Free Communities coalition, and in 2011 also received the CINE Golden Eagle Award for her work on the Second Step music video series.

She sees her SEL superpower as relationship building. “The most successful projects involve bringing together the right people at the right time, and building teams that are passionate and excited about the work,” she says. “Outside of the office I’d call myself an extreme extrovert—I would go to a concert or meet up with friends every night of the week if I could!”

Find more of Mia’s work here:

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Happy to Be Me: An Anti-Bullying Discussion video series, Sesame Workshop

Koua Franz

Chief Strategy Officer

Koua Franz emigrated to the United States in the early 1980s as part of the Hmong refugee resettlement and learned firsthand about the inequities that existed in education and community systems. She credits her culture’s ethos for the resilience to successfully navigate academic and cultural challenges in her formative years. “SEL builds a foundational skill set that many cultures embrace,” says Koua. “Critical skills like self-awareness and responsible decision-making were encompassed in my family traditions.”

Koua knew from early on that she wanted to solve problems (for the better part of her childhood that meant wanting to be an FBI agent), but as an adult she became interested in the notion of organization development and continuous learning models. Today, Koua is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and innovator—and Committee for Children’s first chief strategy officer. With experience in education, philanthropy, and nonprofit sectors, Koua’s nearly two decades of executive leadership in supporting and developing strong teams, building leadership capacities, and designing and creating learning organizations have positioned her well to join our growing organization.

“My job is to bring the best out of people, from creating strategies to enhance our organization’s effectiveness, to building individual capacities, to ensuring we’re reflective of the community we’re serving,” says Koua.

A champion of equity and access for underserved children and communities, Koua has been recognized by CASEL for excellence in expanding the practice of SEL, notably in her role as chief of staff to the superintendent at the Sacramento City Unified School District, where she oversaw the districtwide implementation of SEL curriculum, including Second Step.

The mother of three sees her SEL superpower as being a lifelong learner, crediting her natural inclination to improve and expand her own worldview with her drive to continuously improve the world around her.

“When I learned of Committee for Children’s commitment to positively and equitably transforming the social-emotional well-being of 100 million children annually by 2030, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of,” says Koua. “This is a huge investment in what we want to see in the world ahead of us.”

Emily Holthaus

Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Emily Holthaus is Committee for Children’s first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer. She brings more than 18 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations to implement, measure, and sustain their DEI initiatives. As part of the Executive Leadership Team, Emily will guide Committee for Children’s systems-level DEI vision and strategy.

“I’ve spent most of my career working with nonprofit organizations that center youth development and social-emotional learning,” Emily says. “I’m excited to help Committee for Children continue to integrate DEI into all we do and co-create a workplace culture that is equitable and inclusive.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have always been foundational values for Emily, due in part to her biracial background. “I understand what it feels like to not belong in spaces, and sometimes those inequities are systemic,” she says. “That’s why much of my career has centered on building bridges, advancing equity, and fostering inclusion.”

In her previous roles, Emily served in a variety of leadership positions. She was the director of multicultural leadership development for the National Office of the YMCA and managing director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Nonprofit HR, where she also helped support Committee for Children’s DEI initiatives as a strategic advisor. She has more than 20 years of experience working for social change in the nonprofit and education sectors, including in executive director and vice president of operations roles, and has also taught elementary school and Head Start.

Emily joined Committee for Children full-time in August 2022. It was the mission that drew her in. “As a parent of a young person on the autism spectrum, I know how critical social-emotional development is for children to thrive,” she says. “And I wanted to work for a place that sees DEI as a critical component of advancing its mission.”

Emily believes her SEL superpowers are perspective-taking and appreciating diversity, skills she uses daily to understand and value the broad spectrum of identities, experiences, and opinions of the people around her.

Emily considers herself a foodie, loves art, and enjoys attending live music events in her spare time. She also likes travelling to new places with her family so her children can connect with people from a variety of cultures and walks of life.

Tia Kim, PhD

Vice President of Education, Research, and Impact

Tia Kim decided she wanted to be a psychologist at age fourteen—though unlike many teens, she stuck to her plan.

Tia began her career in academia but later decided she wanted to see her research in action helping children and youth. Today, she leads our team of education designers and research scientists working to develop and evaluate the quality, effectiveness, and reach of Committee for Children’s programs. Tia is a driving force of our organization’s efforts to continually gather information about implementation fidelity, advance the evaluation process, focus on continuous improvement and learning, and promote partnerships within the field. She considers these factors essential to carrying out our mission of advancing the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning (SEL) and helping us increase our impact to reach our goal of positively and equitably transforming the social-emotional well-being of 100 million children annually by 2030.

Drawn toward understanding the unique needs and developmental tasks of adolescents, Tia received her doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and completed three years of post-doctoral training at the Academic Center of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention, where her research focused on the etiology and prevention of youth violence and aggression. Before joining Committee for Children, she served as an assistant professor in the department of human development and family studies at Penn State Brandywine.

Tia sees her organizational skills as her SEL superpower, whether it’s meticulously planning a family trip or managing multiple projects and deadlines as she works to answer questions around what make social-emotional learning programs successful.

“We track the pulse of the education field and push the envelope wherever possible to innovate, whether it’s in the form of iterative development or developing the evaluation process itself. We ask—and try to answer—the really hard questions so we can help move the field forward as a whole, not just our organization.”

Kelsie Longbrake

Vice President of Finance and Operations

Kelsie Longbrake has always been up for a challenge. She first joined Committee for Children in 1998 as part of the Finance Department, and since then has held over a dozen roles within the organization. In March 2022, she stepped into the role of interim chief operating officer, a position that utilized her background in finance, operations, and human resources to assist in innovative and transformative strategic planning.

As vice president of finance and operations, Kelsie is instrumental in strengthening human resources systems to better support employees. Kelsie says that if there’s one lesson she’s learned in more than 20 years at Committee for Children, it’s that an organization is strongest when it prioritizes employees and the unique values they bring to a company.

Kelsie believes it’s Committee for Children’s commitment to its employees—in addition to a powerful mission—that will expand the organization and pave the way toward achieving our North Star Goal. “A leader is only as good as their staff,” she says. “We’re prioritizing operations in a way we haven’t in the past, focusing on bringing in the right people to help us reach operational excellence. We want to achieve our strategic goals while creating better company culture in the process.”

Shauna McBride

Vice President of Public Relations and Communications

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 vice president of public relations and communications, Shauna is responsible for overseeing internal and external communications efforts in support of extending the organization’s brand influence and thought leadership. She also works to grow the organization’s advocacy communications and lead key initiatives and campaigns, including developing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies.

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, the 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. She is a longtime member of the Public Relations Society of America (Puget Sound Chapter) and the Association for Women in Communications (Seattle Chapter).

Shauna sees her SEL superpower as her ability to make others feel seen and heard, both in her personal life and her professional life. “One of the most rewarding parts of my job is helping people across the organization not only tell their story, but own their voice. As a mother, I’ve tried to lead by example—to be a woman who is a force in her own life—to instill that same sense of empowerment in my daughter.”

Jordan Posamentier

Vice President of Policy and Advocacy

Jordan Posamentier has made policy and advocacy the heart and soul of his work at Committee for Children, both as our first director of policy and advocacy and now as our vice president of policy and advocacy. Before joining Committee for Children, Jordan was a New York City public school teacher, the legislative counsel to the California Judges Association, the director of legislative analysis at StudentsFirst, and the deputy policy director at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education. Jordan believes there’s an intense awareness across the country about how important social-emotional learning (SEL) is for our young people, and that policy helps turn that awareness into practice.

In his position as VP of policy and advocacy, Jordan works at all levels—local, state, federal, and international—to advance policy for equitable and effective SEL. He collaborates with many partners along the way, and throughout the pandemic, Jordan and his team have been committed to ushering forward federal relief legislation that prioritizes SEL. “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, impactful, and evolving. SEL fits all those and then some.”

Jordan earned his JD from the University of Houston, his MS in education from Queens College (CUNY), and his BA in human ecology from College of the Atlantic. He believes Committee for Children embodies a rare and virtuous feedback loop where research, policy, and practice all work together to improve one another to the betterment of the children we serve and hope to serve. “In this way, we’re kind of ‘soup to nuts’ when it comes to tackling our challenges,” Jordan says.

Jordan considers his SEL superpower to be perspective-taking, a skill that’s important in the work he does to help others see the value of SEL—and a skill he uses in his own life. “The folks who are in charge of jurisdictions around the country are quite different from one another,” Jordan says. “When advancing policy, it helps to remove ourselves from the Seattle bubble, look at what’s important to our partners, and learn how SEL shows up in their lives.”

Polly Stansell

Vice President of Product

As a teacher, Polly Stansell saw firsthand the benefits of kids feeling safe and developing positive relationships with peers and adults, and firmly believes social-emotional skills play a vital role in education.

Drawn to Committee for Children’s mission of advancing the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning (SEL) and to the opportunity to raise awareness of SEL, Polly joined the organization in 2018 as our first vice president of Product. She is responsible for product vision and strategy, ensuring the tools we develop are impactful and engaging for kids, educators, and families alike.

Polly earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Westminster College, and later, intrigued by how technology could be used in the classroom in the pursuit of learning, her master’s degree in educational technology at San Diego State University. For more than two decades she has worked to develop products that effectively utilize technology in the education space, most recently as senior vice president of strategy & product development at Voyager Sopris Learning and senior director of digital learning solutions at McGraw-Hill Education.

A member of numerous industry-related organizations, Polly has also served as a board member and on the strategic council for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and worked on the Corporate Advisory Council for Excellence in Education.

Polly sees her SEL superpower as her ability to make responsible decisions. “Building a successful product takes thoughtful consideration and being able to see the big picture,” she says. “And my family would agree that I have no problem making decisions, whether it’s picking a restaurant or planning a vacation.”

Lee Wilson

Chief Operating Officer

With more than 30 years of experience in education in a variety of executive leadership roles, Lee Wilson knows how to help organizations focus and grow. Most recently, he was a principal consultant at Headway Strategies advising more than 70 organizations, including Committee for Children, across the K–12 education industry on strategy and marketing programs. As Committee for Children’s new chief operating officer (COO), he’s excited to help the organization continue to grow as an international leader in social-emotional learning (SEL) while remaining true to its foundational mission of fostering the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning and development.

As COO, Lee’s role is to ensure Committee for Children’s strategy translates across the organization, from the boardroom to the classroom and everywhere in between. His experience in nearly every aspect of education equips him to understand the ins and outs of the entire organization, and his goal is to find the right people, processes, and systems to drive and support sustainable growth. Lee has built lasting relationships throughout the education world and will support Committee for Children in creating meaningful partnerships in the industry.

“I deeply respect the work Committee for Children does to support students and educators with core social-emotional skills while also shaping healthy school communities,” he says. “I look forward to helping the organization grow to the next level as SEL incorporates more technology and expands globally.”

Lee’s SEL superpower is his ability to stay organized while managing a wide variety of projects, relationships, and objectives, which will suit him well in his new role. Outside of the workplace, Lee’s hobbies are as broad as his experience in education. He enjoys playing banjo, golfing, skiing, drawing, photography, and all things sourdough.