HelpUsAdopt

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rebecca Snyder Fawcett, President, Executive Director
Becky Fawcett is a luxury lifestyle public relations and marketing specialist who owns her own New York based firm, The Fawcett Group. Prior to starting her own business in 1999 she was director of marketing for Philadelphia magazine. She holds a B.A. Degree from Franklin & Marshall College, 1992. In response to their own adoption experience, Becky and her husband Kipp founded helpusadopt.org in order to help couples/individuals overcome the financial hurdles they meet along the way to completing their own adoptions. Becky serves as executive director on a pro-bono basis.

Kipp Fawcett, co-founder
Kipp currently works in the banking industry in New York City. Kipp earned his B.A. degree in finance from Franklin & Marshall College in 1993, his MBA from Villanova University in 1996 and completed his CFA degree in 1999. The decision to launch helpusadopt.org was almost immediate once he realized what the average adoption costs are, how many couples ruin themselves financially and how others go childless. It is his belief that every deserving family should have a child if that is their wish.

Joel Eads
Joel is a practicing attorney in Philadelphia. After five years with one of the world's largest law firms, Joel left to open the Philadelphia office of a California-based firm and now serves as its manager. Joel's practice centers upon business litigation concerning a wide range of commercial disputes in courts throughout the United States. Joel is a 1990 graduate of Dickinson College, where he met his wife of 12 years, Amy. They have two children. Joel serves on the parents' committee of The Shipley School and is co-chair of a Philadelphia charitable organization devoted to the families of fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Elizabeth Marquis
Liz is a Marketing Communications Consultant for The Hartford Insurance Group where she serves as a marketing lead for new businesses in their Retirement Plans group. Liz develops communication templates which span corporate, government and tax-exempt markets. Liz is a team leader in refining and implementing the company's brand image and enhancing their value proposition through creating or redesigning marketing collateral. Liz resides in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Evan Moskow
Evan currently works at Brandywine Global Investment Management, LLC in their legal and contracts department. He is responsible for drafting and reviewing Investment Management Agreements and negotiating client, vendor and consultant contracts related to the growth of their asset management business. Evan earned his Juris Doctorate from the Temple University School of Law in 2002, and his B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1996. He lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife and son Matthew.

GRANT SELECTION COMMITTEE

Amy Eads
After receiving her Master's Degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, Amy taught for one year in the Philadelphia School District. Subsequently, she was a middle School teacher, coach and community service leader for six years at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, PA. Since 2001, Amy has worked for her alma mater, The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA, as an Admissions Director and also sits on the school's Marketing Committee of the Board of Trustees. She is also Currently serving on the Alumni Board of Dickinson College. Amy is the mother to Alex and Katie.

Laura Klarman
Laura Fechter Klarman, Psy.D. received a B.A. in Psychology with Honors from the University of Michigan in 1991. She then completed a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Yeshiva University in New York City. Dr. Fechter Klarman has maintained a private practice in Manhattan for nearly nine years and ultimately resigned from administrative work in order to dedicate herself exclusively to her practice. Her clinical work with adults and couples focuses on a wide range of presenting problems including affective disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma, and relationship issues. More recently she has expanded her clinical focus to include work on infertility and adoption related issues. She has done volunteer for RESOLVE, a national infertility organization for the past three and a half years and currently serves as the Volunteer Coordinator for the NYC area. Her interest in adoption is personal in addition to professional, as she has built her family through adoption.

Scott Rehl
Scott A. Rehl is the founder and manager of a variety of companies, including a strategic consulting firm, a luxury concierge company, and an investment development business. With a background in financial services, management consulting, and e-business startups, Scott looks for new challenges in growth businesses and emerging market opportunities in a variety of industries and geographic locations. His personal interests range from motorcycles and motorsports to tennis, travel and emerging technologies.

Scott received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania - Wharton School and a BBA cum laude from Temple University, both in Philadelphia, PA.

Scott and his wife Suzanne are active in social and philanthropic activities and events, working with organizations that focus on youth development and families in need. Scott is the Treasurer for the Schoch Foundation, based in Bryn Mawr, PA. Scott and Suzanne enjoy spending many active hours with their daughter Avery and two dogs at their homes in Haverford, PA and Palm Beach, FL.

Jean Sachs
Since 1996 Jean Sachs has served as executive director for Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC), a national organization which strives to empower all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life. Since her post began, Jean has increased LBBCs annual budget from $100,000 to more than $2 million per year and increased the size from 2 to 13 employees. She grew the membership base from 8,000 to more than 33,000. In 2003, she spearheaded the committee that developed a five-year strategic plan to grow and expand the organization's programs and services. In addition to her non-profit expertise, Jean brings a wealth of adoption experience as her own son Max is adopted.

Dasha Yermakova-Klein
As a former board member of Adoptions from the Heart, a nonprofit adoption agency specializing in open domestic and international adoptions, Dasha brings a specialized expertise and unique understanding to helpusadopt's grant selection committee. Currently she sits of the boards of the following non-profit organizations in Philadelphia: The Rock School for Dance Education, Laruel House (a domestic violence shelter for women and children) and The Pennsylvania Ballet.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

Corie Moskow
Corie Moskow is president/owner of Gloss Public Relations, Marketing and Special Events. In addition to Gloss, she serves as executive director of Rittenhouse Row a 501 (c ) (3) non-profit organization consisting of over 200 local businesses and restaurants in the Rittenhouse Row District in Philadelphia. She is the proud mother of Matthew.

Christina Sawicky
Christina is a graphic designer based in Philadelphia, where she maintains a successful freelance practice. Christina specializes in marketing and advertising through print media, and represents a wide-range of clients from private business to large corporations and non-profit organizations. In addition to her freelance practice, she currently serves as Marketing Art Director for Philadelphia magazine as well as Philadelphia Wedding, Philadelphia Home and Pennsylvania's Official Wine/Spirits Quarterly. She holds a B.A. in Art History with a concentration in Architecture from Fordham University and has completed studies in New York and Paris through Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture.

Joseph Scholes
Joe Scholes is a Certified Public Accountant who owns his own consulting firm in Wayne, Pa. In addition to his thriving accounting practice, Joe teaches at both Radnor High School and Philadelphia University in the fields of Financial and Managerial Accounting, Intermediate Finance, Business Administration and English.

Martin Snyder
Martin is a computer software executive who has held leadership positions in both Boston and Silicon Valley. He has published a variety of technical articles and books, and presented at conferences across the country, most recently at the SAP Business Integration & Portal conference in 2006. He resides in the Philadelphia area and is currently a Principal at Wingspan Technology, Inc, which develops enterprise content management and integration software. He resides outside of Philadelphia with his wife and two children.

Nicholas Snyder
Nick is currently Principal and Co-Owner of Morris Snyder Management, LLC. Prior to the inception of the fund, Nick served as a research associate for Wistar Morris. Nick served as a director of Boenning & Scattergood, since January of 2006. He is a registered broker with Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. and has passed his NASD Series 7 and Series 65 Exams. Nick is currently a candidate for the CFA designation and successfully passed the CFA Level 1 exam in June, 2006 and Level 2 in June 2007. Nick holds a B.A. in History from Duke University.

Samuel C. Totaro, Jr. ESQ
Sam is a member of the law firm Mellon Webster & Shelly, P.C. in Doylestown, Pa, where he practices law in the areas of estates, wills, trusts and adoption. Sam is best known for his accomplishments in the field of adoption law and related adoption litigation. He has been involved in over 3,500 adoptions of children, representing adoptive parents, birth parents and agencies and was President of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys (1996-1997), a national organization of attorneys, law professionals and judges, whose practice has an emphasis in adoption law. He was appointed by President Ronald Regan to a special White House Task Force on Adoption in 1987 and was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to a committee to revise Pennsylvania's Adoption Law.

LEGAL COUNCIL

Helpusadopt.org is represented by Matthew F. Gorra, an attorney at DLA PIPER US LLP in Baltimore, MD.

Mr. Gorra is a corporate transactional attorney with extensive experience advising clients on merger and acquisition, venture capital and securities transactions, as well as general corporate matters. He is also experienced in forming and managing the growth of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entities. Mr. Gorra holds a B.A. from Middlebury College (1994) and received his J.D. from Cornell Law School (1999).