Our Leadership

Our Founder
Executive Board
Advisory Board
Committees

Our Founder

Executive Board

Advisory Board

Committees

Jacqueline Jacobs Caster

President and Founder of the Everychild Foundation
In 2000, Jacqueline Jacobs Caster founded the Everychild Foundation, which she has headed since its formation on a completely volunteer basis. The grant making organization’s mission is to ease suffering of Los Angeles-area children, whether due to disease, disability, abuse, neglect or poverty.
The group is comprised of over 200 Los Angeles women who each contribute $6,000 annually. The dollars are pooled, and the organization makes a single $1 million grant in the community each year to fund a new innovative project serving a critical unmet need of local children.
Jacqueline is personally engaged in juvenile justice reform work and served 6 years as a member of the Los Angeles County Probation Commission monitoring juvenile incarceration facilities and for over a decade on The Campaign for Youth Justice in Washington, D.C.
She was also integrally involved in convincing Los Angeles County officials to adopt the Missouri Model approach of restorative juvenile justice and helped persuade the Los Angeles Police Department to launch a new youth diversion program. It provides a fresh start for eligible youth offenders in lieu of adjudication if they participate in a therapeutic program and victim-offender mediation. As a result, the program has expanded countywide.
Jacqueline earned her B.A. from Pomona College, her Masters in City and Regional Planning from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law. After practicing real estate law with Loeb and Loeb in Los Angeles in the mid-80s, she moved into the field of urban redevelopment, spending several years with Disney Development Company. She later headed her own consulting firm for over a decade performing economic feasibility studies for clients including Fortune 500 companies, municipalities and cultural institutions.
She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Safe Place for Youth, The Blue Heron Foundation, The Westside Food Bank, Team Prime Time and The Women’s Foundation in the United Kingdom.
Jacqueline has received numerous recognitions for her work, including being named 2017 Woman of the Year for California’s 26th State Senatorial District by Senator Ben Allen. She also received the inaugural Sister Janet Harris Award from Loyola Law School for her juvenile justice advocacy, the Momentum Award from the Women’s Foundation of California, as well as the Nancy M. Daly Advocacy Award from the National Child Labor Committee, the Nancy M. Daly Founder’s Award from United Friends of the Children for her commitment to children’s causes and the Silver Shingle Award from Boston University School of Law for her service to the community.
She and her husband, Andrew, are the proud parents of two adult children.

Everychild Executive Board

* Founding Member

Jacqueline Caster *

Founder and President

Doreen Gelfand

Treasurer

Kristie Hubbard

Member at Large

Michelle Katz

Membership Co-Chair

Wendy Kirshner

Chair, Grant Monitoring Committee

Michèle Lynch

Membership Co-Chair

Helen Palmer

Chair, Grant Screening Board

Ande Rosenblum

Chair, Grant Outreach Committee

Lauren Smith

Policy & Activism Committee Chair

Nancy Stark

Secretary, Past Grant Screening Chair

Lauren Turner

Past Grant Screening Chair

Robin Venturelli

Chair, Communications Committee

Emeritus Board Members

* Founding Member

Cynthia Alexander *

Vicki Baker

Dara Barker

Cindy Bauman Frischling

Linda Bernstein Rubin

Carla Buck

Lisa Cleri Reale

Grant Consultant

Kay Faguet​

Member-at-Large

Karin Fielding

Elizabeth Friedman

Sharon Gam

Eve Jaffe

Mary James

Tracy Katayama Esse *

Lilly Lewis

Denise McCain-Tharnstrom

Jamie Meyer

Karen Olan

Kirstin Orban Meyer

Reese Relfe

Tamara Ritchey Powers

Susan Rosenblum

Amy Sommer Childress

Alison Whalen

Ann Soh Woods

The Everychild Foundation Advisory Board

Marcia Antopol

President, Fineshriber Foundation

Karen Bass

Mayor, City of Los Angeles

Carol Biondi

Vice Chair, Juvenile Justice State Advisory Committee

Rev. Patricia Farris

First United Methodist Church

Joel Glucoft

C.P.A.

Wendy Greuel

Commissioner, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

Arianna Huffington

Founder/CEO, Thrive Global

Jo Kaplan

Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Advocate

Father Donal Keohane

St. Martin of Tours Church

Sheila Kuehl

Former Third District Supervisor, Los Angeles County

Sherry Lansing

Founder, The Sherry Lansing Foundation

Tuan Le

Affiliate Developer, eBay, Inc.

Jorja Leap

Ph.D., M.S.W. Adjunct Professor, Executive Director, Social Justice Research Partnership Co-Founder, Watts Leadership Institute

Gregory Mitchell

CEO, FirstTech Federal Credit Union

Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, PhD

Rabbi Emeritus, Kehillat Israel Synagogue

Michael Rich

Former CEO and President, RAND

Sarah Robarts

President, Ballantines PR

Mark E. Sackett

President, Reflectur

Javier Stauring

Director, Healing Justice Coalition

Toni Stone

Non-Profit Consultant

Cyn Yamashiro

Director, Indigent Defense Programs, Independent Defender Program at the Los Angeles County Bar Association

Nancy Daly

(deceased), Children’s Advocate

Bill Rosendahl

(deceased), Los Angeles City Councilmember

Committees

We offer exciting and challenging opportunities for our members to become more involved in the foundation if they wish, but there is no pressure to do so. The foundation understands that its members are busy women.
Everychild works with a contracted professional grant consultant but has no paid staff, so the work done by our volunteers is critical to our success. All members are welcome to join any committee.  No specific educational or professional background is required.  We provide training on each committee, and we value a diversity of experience, perspectives and backgrounds – it’s part of what makes us so effective.
Join a committee now! Read their descriptions below and then email us at [email protected].

Grant Committees

Three important committees work together toward awarding and overseeing the yearly grants.

Grant Outreach Committee

This group contacts agencies that we have initially determined are eligible to propose a project for an annual grant. If an agency is interested and meets our criteria, committee members work with its representatives to prepare a Letter of Inquiry, the first step in our grant application process. Membership on this committee is limited to those who have already served on the Grant Screening Board.

Grant Screening Board

The Grant Screening Board offers members the opportunity to work with other women in a challenging, educational, and collegial environment. Its members act as foundation staff, performing the essential function of analyzing each applicant agency and its project for our members. Its goal is to narrow the applicant pool to the two candidates whose projects best address the critical unmet needs of children in that grant year. The Board works with a professional grant consultant who provides training and generally lends her expertise. The Grant Screening Board typically has a maximum of 20 members in addition to Executive Board officers.

Grant Monitoring Committee

This committee is responsible for monitoring the post-award status of funded projects. Under the terms of our grant agreements with recipient agencies, members of this committee typically visit the projects twice a year over the first several years to assure that the projects are being implemented appropriately. These site visits are also an invaluable means of maintaining an ongoing relationship between our members and past grant recipients.

Operating Committees

Policy and Activism Committee

The Policy and Activism Committee offers the opportunity for Everychild members to educate themselves on specific children’s issues, receive advocacy training and act as a voice on behalf of at-risk local children by advocating for local or legislative changes. Membership is open to all who wish to learn or become involved in children’s advocacy and no prior advocacy, or policy experience is required. The committee typically meets monthly. Workshops and other events are scheduled separately.

Membership Committee

The goal of the Membership Committee is to recruit and maintain membership in the foundation.  For those interested in joining, it hosts informational coffees at members’ homes. These provide opportunities for them to meet members of our executive board in a casual setting to learn more about the Everychild Foundation experience. The committee also organizes the Nancy M. Daly Salon Series. Everychild members and their guests are invited to these evening events throughout the year featuring guest speakers about issues facing children in our community and other important topics.  The purpose of the salons is to provide members the opportunity to become better informed about potential issues. The committee selects topics and speakers and publicizes and organizes the events. The salon series is named after Nancy M. Daly, an activist on children’s issues and member of the Everychild Advisory Board, who passed away in 2009.

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee produces the yearly Everychild Foundation Newsletter, maintains the Everychild website, and creates public relations materials related to the Everychild grants, public policy and the salon series. The committee also maintains the membership roster. We are always looking for member volunteers who enjoy writing, social media, design and website management.