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Ashleigh and her wife are foster parents in Region 5. They are foster as well as adoptive parents. They received their first foster care license in 2014 and have welcomed more than 20 children into their home. Ashleigh and her wife offer placement, specifically, to children with Type 1 Diabetes. Prior to joining the FPAWS team, Ashleigh served as the 1624 representative for Region 5, where she helped to support foster parents and children in care. Ashleigh has now shifted her focus to supporting FPAWS and all the new projects that are being created to support families involved in the foster care system
Shala and her family fostered over 50 children and are the adoptive family of a sibling group of 3. In serving as the Program Director of Fostering Together, Shala was able serve foster parents in a wide variety of ways. Including trainings, events, support groups and other resources. Advocating for foster parents and helping them to keep fostering. In addition Shala served for 10 years as a representative for Region 3 for Washington State’s 1624 Foster Parent Consultation Team and recently became a board member for the Foster Parent Association of Washington State (FPAWS). Currently she is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Foster Hearts, who serve foster children in the PNW.
Celeste comes to the FPAWS Board from Community and Family Services Foundation. She is dedicated to helping FPAWS work on systems issues so kids in care have a better chance for success. Celeste also loves to keep moving. If there is down time, she finds something that needs doing. FPAWS can count on Celeste to make our Conferences run smoothly and look great!
Mary is a foster parent in Region 3 who cares for Developmentally Delayed Treatment Foster youth. Mary is the voice at the end of the FPAWS 800-391-2273 line. She talks with over 2000 people per year. Mary is a volunteer on the task force for educating foster families concerning the mental health system through the Bright Futures grant. She has been a therapeutic foster parent for over 13 years and has fostered over 35 children specializing in developmental delays and mental health issues. She developed and coordinated a respite program for children from families impacted by mental health issues with Compass Mental Health. She has been a trainer and advocate for families with special needs children; assisting with resolution of Special Education and IEP issues, since 1977. Currently, she is developing a foster family support program, “Heart Beat” in Snohomish County for foster/kinship families with Native American children.
Gina has worked with children in Early Childhood and Special Education for over 27 years. Her passion working with young children had sparked a dream to one day be foster parents with her husband when their birth children were grown and out of the house. About 7 yrs ago that dream was made real beyond anything they could have imagined. They became foster parents on a fast track and adopted their sibling group of 3 only 9 months later. They have had many children from 2 days old to 11yrs become part of their lives, for periods ranging from 12 hrs to 2 1/2 yrs. They adopted their 3yr old and her brother. Gina left her full time job as a Coordinator of an Early Learning Center so that she could stay home with their children and bond with and build a trusting relationship. Advocating for children’s rights has always been one of her passions in addition to researching laws, policy and information on brain development and the effects that early trauma has on our children.
Nancy is the mother of 10 children, 5 of whom were adopted through the Washington State Foster to Adopt Program. Nancy has an extensive background as a foster parent being first licensed in Indiana in 1976. Nancy has been employed as a Home Support Specialist for Children’s Administration, a liaison for foster parents and a welfare eligibility worker. Nancy has been training Pride Pre Service classes to potential foster, foster/adopt and kinship care parents for many years in Bremerton, Port Townsend and Port Angeles as a licensed contractor.
Beth & Mike have been involved with FPAWS since the early 1990s. They started as house parents in a group home for up to 10 severely emotionally and mentally disturbed adolescent boys on March 3rd 1983, and developed their foster home to work with those youth stuck in the group care system. Mike started working as a Child and Family therapist and is now a Master Trainer and Consultant for the State’s Aggression Replacement Training Program. In 1989 Beth became a Fosterparentscope Trainer and continued to run Caregiver Core Training, pre-service, and other in-service trainings with the Alliance for Child Welfare Excellence into the year 2016. In July of 2015 the Board made Mike the Executive Director because of the time it takes to keeps FPAWS moving forward. Beth soon became a FPAWS Consultant. Together Mike and Beth have trained foster parents around the country. Mike’s parents and their oldest son have also fostered, making 3 generations committed to helping improve children’s lives. One son (#2) is a Juvenile Probation Officer and their youngest is a nurse. They have 6 grandchildren.
Tracy was a foster parent for 9 1/2 years. She served as an intern with FPAWS after graduating with a degree in Public Health she stayed on as volunteer staff to support the great work that FPAWS is doing to support families involved with foster care. Tracy and her husband have welcomed relationships with the families of each of their foster children and work to help build family partnerships. She and her husband Mark are foster parents that have also adopted. Tracy has helped build the dream programs of the FPAWS Board. Tracy has dedicated her life to blessing the lives of children through her interactions with the adults in their lives. She does this now as she works with foster, adoptive and relative families to build efficacy and skills that will enrich the lives of the children they care for. Tracy works to find innovative ways to support, educate and retain foster and caregiving families throughout Washington State.
Christin is a former foster parent of eight years and adoptive parent of a sibling group from foster care. Since becoming a foster parent in 1999, she had been actively involved in FPAWS after receiving support for CPS investigations and foster parent mentoring. She was a FPAWS staff for the FIRST program, the board treasurer, she coordinated caregiver support groups, and worked to recruit and retain foster parents. She continues to volunteer her time and knowledge to help Tracy and Mike reach their goals.
Christin is a self-employed Event Manager with Ducks in a Row Events, a former DSHS licensing caregiver trainer and special topics trainer for caregivers. She created the Tax Tips for Foster Parent workshop and handbook that is still being used today. Christin is passionate about education and support on issues of mental health, LGBTQ+, parenting, and resources. She believes “when you know better, you do better” … Maya Angelou.
Jac is a professional programmer and foster parent in Seattle. After she and her partner were licensed in 2018, she reached out to FPAWS hoping to turn fpaws.org into a broad source of information for everyone involved in foster care in Washington. She has volunteered in the Treehouse Wearhouse for several years and began serving on the Ambassador Board in 2020. Since moving to Seattle in 2009, she has also volunteered (mostly for website assistance) for Babies of Homelessness, Northwest Immigrant Rights Program, Seattle Association of Women in Science and the Northwest Community Bail Fund
Ben started with FPAWS as a volunteer at our Great Wolf Lodge event. He went on the become our volunteer coordinator for all of our conferences and trainings. Now a college student, at Central Washington, Ben continues to help grow our volunteer efforts, along with all things that support foster parents.
