Amy Gaylor, LCSW
Amy Gaylor is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Founder of Children Inspiring Hope. She is a passionate child advocate, dynamic facilitator, educator, and leader formerly serving as the Child Advocacy Center Director in Augusta, Georgia and an Executive Committee Board Member for Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia. Amy served as Chair of the Augusta Judicial Circuit Multi-Disciplinary Case Review Team for three years and was recognized as Outstanding Family and Children’s Advocate and runner-up as Child Advocate of the Year by the Augusta-Richmond County Community Partnership for Children and Families. In her career she has served as a clinical supervisor to MSW interns and taught collegiately as an adjunct professor in the Human Services Department of Kennesaw State University, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in the Master of Social Work Program. Amy has been a long-time volunteer of Camp Sunshine in Atlanta, programs for children with cancer, and is currently a Contract Group Facilitator for Family Night and Remember the Sunshine Programs. Other service to the community has included a long time volunteer with Scottish Rite campus of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in the Child Life and School Programs, Rape Crisis and Sexual Assault Services, Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Response Team, Project Safe, Athens Child Abuse Council, and Cross Cultural Solutions in Ghana. Amy has a degree is Psychology from the University of Georgia and a Master of Social Work from the University of South Carolina.
Rick Roche, MS
Rick has worked in the healthcare industry for over 20 years in Human Resources and Operations. He has an undergraduate degree from Xavier University and a graduate degree from Lesley University. Rick has served extensively on the Board of Directors for an array of non-profits including: Child Enrichment, Inc., Boys & Girls Clubs, The American Red Cross, Ronald McDonald House, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and the Georgia Hospital Association. Rick is also a triathlete and a coach.
Kate Benson
Kate has a BA in Elementary Education and is the Outdoor Classroom teacher at Cliff Valley School in Decatur, Georgia. During her teaching career, she was trained in and implemented the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound program, which focuses on environmental science and education. Cross-culturally, Kate has been involved in environmental service programs for farming and nutrition in Honduras, environmental clean-up projects in St. Vincent in the Caribbean, and annual school trips to Costa Rica. As a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School, Kate has been trained in and involved with outdoor educator wilderness education, leadership and communication skills, and group dynamics. Kate also organizes Community Supported Agriculture in her community.
Jennifer Brown, MA
Jennifer Brown has been a teacher involved in Children Inspiring Hope since 2008 and currently Chairs the CIH Teacher’s Committee. Jennifer is a 4th grade teacher at Holy Innocent’s Episcopal School in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Brown has also taught summer school in the Fulton County School system, worked with the Horizons Program, and taught other early childhood classes. Outside of the classroom, she serves on the Alumni Advisory Board and has earned accolades as the Varsity Cross Country and Track Coach for HIES from 2004-2008. Jennifer’s service to the community includes Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Children’s Miracle Network, Hands of Atlanta, Habitat for Humanity, and Women’s Assistance League. Jennifer has a BBA in Finance from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Art in Early Childhood Education from Brenau University.
Whitney Doe
Whitney Doe has worked for four years in the country music industry in Nashville while simultaneously working on a major in Religious Studies and a Minor in African American Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. She was one of eight students in her graduating class to be selected as a Vanderbilt Engage Scholar. Whitney’s commitment to community and service include three months in Ghana, West Africa through Cross Cultural Solutions. She has been engaged in service locally as an active Young Life leader mentoring teenage girls and has been involved with organizing outreach service projects. Whitney was a leading voice among teenagers seeking a deeper spirituality while living in the Boston area. She served as a columnist for Beliefnet.com, the premiere multi-faith source for spirituality, religion, and morality on the Web with over 3 million readers a day. Her columns focused on helping teens merge their spirituality and daily high school life. Her articles generated hundreds of responses from teenagers. Whitney has been interviewed by publications such as CosmoGirl, ElleGirl, Seventeen, All You, and Campus Life.
Advisory Board
Judson Graves, JD – Alston & Bird
Judson Graves is a member of the Products Liability Group and during 35 years at Alston & Bird has been a practice group leader, co-chair of the firm’s Adversarial Practice Groups and chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. His practice is focused on civil jury trial work with concentration in the areas of products liability, medical malpractice, defamation and intellectual property. In his career he has tried over 100 jury cases in various states.
Jud is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and in 2000 was profiled in The National Law Journal featuring 10 of the top trial lawyers in the United States. Defense verdicts in three of his cases have been featured in The National Law Journal’s annual compilation of “Top Defense Winners” in 1999, 2000 and 2006. In 2008 he was the third highest point getter in the state in the Georgia Super Lawyersannual survey of the top lawyers in Georgia. In 2009 he was named one of three Georgia “Lawyers of the Year” by Best Lawyers based on his particularly high level of peer recognition.
Solomon Ofori-Acquah, PhD – Emory School of Medicine
Dr. Solomon Ofori-Acquah is a biomedical scientist at Emory University School of Medicine, and Director of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Center for Endothelial Biology. Since, 1995, he has been working on sickle cell disease as a diagnostic molecular geneticists, advocate and researcher. He graduated from the University of London, King’s College School of Medicine and Dentistry, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of South Alabama, as the NIH Scholar of the University’s Comprehensive Sickle Cell program. He currently serves as Consultant for a Newborn Screening Program Cooperative agreement between the Governments of Brazil and Ghana. He is a member of the Medical Research Advisory Committee of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, and Editor of its news magazine, Sickle News and Views. Dr. Ofori-Acquah grew up in Ghana.
Kendle Hassinger, LPC
Kendle Hassinger is a Licensed Professional Counselor and psychotherapist at The Emory Healthcare Department of Psychiatry and founding board member of Children Inspiring Hope. In 1987 she earned a BA from Vanderbilt University in psychology and in 1991 obtained an MS from Georgia State University in Professional Counseling. She is currently a candidate in the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute. She has been active in education and international service for many years, serving as PTA President and Vice President for three years at Hawthorne Elementary School. She has been a Water Educator in Mexico as part of the Living Waters Education Committee, and conducted numerous professional workshops and continuing education courses. For ten years, she has studied indigenous healing practices and cross cultural shamanism. She has been married for 19 years and has two teenage children.
