Jeffrey Richardson

Jeffrey D. Richardson is an AmeriCorps Alum and the Executive Director of Serve DC – The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism. Serve DC is the DC Commission on National and Community Service. In his role as Executive Director, he guides the organization in achieving its mission of promoting service as an innovative, sustainable solution to the challenges we face as a community and a nation. Serve DC awards more than $500,000 in grants each year to nonprofits, faith-based organizations and universities to strengthen organizational capacity, and create and expand programs that fight poverty and advance economic opportunity and academic achievement.

A graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Howard University School of Social Work, Jeffrey shares with the Commission, a commitment to compassion for the low-income populations they serve and to inclusivity of youth populations (foster care, youth in care, and other non-traditionally served groups). Prior to his work at the Commission, Jeffery served as an AmeriCorps member in Windsor New Hampshire at Wediko Children’s Services’ Summer Fresh Air Experience Program; focused on at-risk children whose emotional and behavioral symptoms interfere with their ability to function in school, at home, or within the community.

Lisa Tatum

Lisa is the Senior Manager, Disaster Preparedness at the Volunteer Center of North Texas. She coordinates volunteer recruitment and management for a local high-impact collaboration called the Mass Care Task Force. In addition to her daily life of service, she leads the AmeriCorps Alums of North Texas local chapter and serves on the Board of Sustainable Education Solutions, an effort to launch an environmental charter school in the Great Trinity Forest area.

Lisa's work with the Volunteer Center goes above and beyond her role managing volunteers for disaster preparedness. She liaises with local VOAD, COAD, Citizen Corps, and Regional Emergency Managers to ensure that the collaboration extends across all networks. Additionally, she supports her work by maintaining her standing as a Red Cross volunteer for fifteen years and serves in a leadership role with the Red Cross DFW's Volunteer Services Department. By building cohesiveness between AmeriCorps programs and AmeriCorps Alums, North Texas has been able to work to host a coordinated MLK Day of Service Project, Life After AmeriCorps Seminar, and various AmeriCorps Week activities. Lisa has been instrumental in establishing this foundation for collaboration.

Lisa is wholly committed to service. Her work with the Volunteer Center helps to meet a great need for disaster preparedness in a community like North Texas with such high risk for being affected by a disaster. As the leader of AmeriCorps Alums of North Texas, she is responsible for planning and strategy, and creates a vision for the leadership team to execute on. Her work to create the vision for a North Texas community of committed national service alumni encompasses local AmeriCorps Programs, nonprofit organizations, and AmeriCorps Alums. She has worked to engage One Star Foundation on a state level to ensure support for all chapter activities. As a Board member for Sustainable Education Solutions, she provides her expertise in nonprofit management. The need for environmental education and the void that the organization can fill by creating an environmental charter school that takes advantage of the Great Trinity Forest is great.

Lisa has a heart for service, and this commitment can be seen in every facet of her life. Even greater is her willingness to see strong collaboration in communities and work to build that in every situation she is faced with. Lisa inspires all of us work towards a better community together, and her spirit of collaboration and her ability to organize people and bring them together to effect change is unique.

Alexa Kraft

Alexa Kraft has made service the backbone of her life. She excels in finding creative ways to engage young women in community service projects that match their specific interests. She organized and led an innovative 5-day service trip addressing the needs of the underserved population, often-overlooked pockets within her own community in Atlanta, Georgia by distributing food to the poor, assisting the elderly with home repairs, providing blankets for children in crisis, and delivering cards and kind words to those living in nursing homes. Additionally, each year Alexa co-organizes a 5K Diabetes Walk and Run at the Georgia College and State University Campus to help fund the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Alexa is passionate about educational equity, social justice, hunger, and homelessness. As she continues her work to address the needs of the underserved, her vision is to establish her own volunteer center in the future.

Briana Kinsey

Briana Kinsey has been a spokesperson for the Alabama office of the American Diabetes Association for two years. Since the diagnoses of her mother and several of her family members with diabetes, Briana has been a strong advocate for diabetes education and prevention. As a result, Briana created the platform, Daring to Defeat Diabetes, to raise awareness and funds to prevent diabetes. She seeks to inspire others, particularly young people to get involved in the fight against diabetes. She demonstrates her creativity and ingenuity in designing signature programs such as the Dance Away Diabetes event where she invited high school and middle school dance teams to the local mall to demonstrate their moves, focus on the importance of exercise and take the diabetes pledge. Through her efforts, Briana raised $2,500 for the American Diabetes Association and more than three 300 people took the pledge.

Additionally, Briana worked with the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama to create a "Daring to Defeat Diabetes" patch to increase awareness about preventing diabetes. She visits local Girls Scouts to talk about the new patch, the importance of eating healthy and exercising, and handouts pedometers to the scouts.

Briana has visited several schools and spoken to over 500 students about her platform as a way to spread the message of diabetes awareness. She volunteered with the Southeastern Diabetes Education Services and served as a camp counselor at their Camp Sugar Falls. She planned and hosted a fundraiser called the Sugar Free Sweetheart Fashion Show, which raised $6,234 funds for more children with diabetes to attend the camp through the Southeastern Diabetes Education Services.

Briana’s service through her platform Daring to Defeat Diabetes and her umbrella initiatives have helped drive the involvement of children and young people in the fight to stop diabetes. She is a role model for both youth and adults, and has been able to connect with the community through her hands on service.

Briana’s ultimate goal is to make a positive difference and to help defeat diabetes during her lifetime.

Hosea Mills

Mr. Mills started the Yes You CAN! Young Lady-Young Man Youth Foundation to serve as a positive, results-oriented, youth-mentoring organization committed to saving the youth of his local community, one child at a time. The organization focuses on building confidence and character in youth, ages seven to 17 years of age.

Donna Walter

Donna Walters is known as the first Volunteer Ambassador of Aurora Medical Center Oshkosh. She continues to serve as a Volunteer Ambassador of Aurora Medical Center Oshkosh for 30 hours a week Monday thru Friday, and has become a role model to other volunteers because of the dedication and commitment she demonstrates. She began volunteering at Aurora Medical Center Oshkosh as a way to give back after the death of her husband. Donna has become a firm fixture at Aurora and is recognized within the medical center and her community. She is known as the cookie woman, the blanket woman, the stuffed-animal woman, the listener, and most notably as the friend.

Vanis Buckholz

Vanis Buckholz personifies hope in action. Vanis, a 10-year-old, is the president of My ReCycler, a business he developed at age 7 after learning about Earth Day. As his business grew, Vanis decided he should do more than just help the environment and sought out opportunities to help kids in need.

Vanis connected with Project Hope Alliance, which works to end homelessness in Orange County, and now donates 25% of his thriving recycling company’s profits to the nonprofit. The financial support provided by Vanis helps make it possible for homeless children residing in motels and shelters throughout Orange County get to and from school each day. Project Hope Alliance stops at 29 various motels and shelters each day to pick K-8th grade children up for school, and pays for afterschool care and transportation to the Boys and Girls Club and back to the motels and shelters. Vanis is a part of making that happen.

Vanis demonstrates what children can do. He shows us that a 10-year-old is just as vital and contributing member of our community as a 45-year-old CEO. Additionally, he is an example of how we can be good stewards of our planet by recycling and creatively use recycling to meet the needs of those around us.

He is an incredible example to other children of why they matter and how they can change the world around them.

Stephen Straughan

Stephen is the consummate leader. From serving as an elected official for several years to heading up some of the largest community parks and playground projects throughout his community, he is well respected and held in high regard. As the leader of the Board for Boys & Girls Club of Rockwall County, he stepped up and dedicated countless hours to rectifying the challenges and problems the organization faced including poor public perception, dismal programming, dilapidated facility, and a history of staff and board challenges. In less than 15 months under Stephen’s board leadership, the organization changed from an insolvent, failing nonprofit to a stable and consistent organization. Now, the Club is busting at the seams with kids. It is headed by leaders who have a passion for kids, a love for our community, and a business mindset that has launched the Boys & Girls Club of Rockwall County to the forefront of youth development throughout our community.

Shayla Price

After earning $100,000 in college scholarships for herself, Shayla Price has become the “Scholarship Queen” of teaching students how to earn free money for their college goals. Price’s enthusiasm for ensuring every American has the resources to attend college and put food on the table is inspiring has resulted in more than 5,000 students receiving scholarships. Price has brought great awareness to the college affordability crisis by motivating and mobilizing community members and developing relationships with the media, government, and non-profits. Price has built partnerships with churches, libraries, and youth organizations to empower service recipients to continue to pay it forward.

In addition to her scholarship initiative, Price’s has taught civic engagement to high school students through the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. As a Governor-appointed Commissioner of Volunteer Louisiana, Price promoted an ethic of service and supported programs that created long-term results. In 2009, Shayla was honored as one of EBONY’s Young Leaders and received the first-ever Emerging Greatness Award from the National Black Women’s Town Hall. The White House has also featured her on its blog series, Women Working to Do Good.

Melody Schiaffino

Melody Schiaffino founded and chartered Ph.D. Moms in the fall of 2011 at the University of Florida. Ph.D. Moms aims to provide support to student-parents as they balance school and family. As a doctoral student and mother, Schuaffino found a need to ensure that student-parents knew they were not alone, given the challenges they face are unique. Initially the organization targeted female doctoral student-parents as this group was at greatest risk of attrition. However, due to overwhelming demand and diversity, the outreach and awareness efforts of Ph.D. Moms has grown and now covers undergraduate, graduate, medical, dental, and nursing student-parents.