EXECUTIVE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Board President Christine Jackson, is a founding partner of Canopy LLC, a print, packaging, signage and promotional project management company. Before venturing out on her own, Christine literally “grew up” in the printing industry, starting as a press operator at the tender young age of 20. She eventually found her home within business development, where she received many awards for outstanding performance.

Christine has a strong connection to the Art with Heart mission be cause she feels “We are not living until we are truly giving of ourselves to make the world a better place.” In her spare time, Christine enjoys camping and riding Quads in the wilderness with friends and family.

As senior market manager, Paula Tobol leads marketing for the Seattle marketplace. Her goal is to increase revenue, recognition, and build relationships. She working with India to teach and train the marketing group to help with the account management aspect of the job and to integrate geography marketing within the NorPac Region. Paula is the TMT National Champion for account marketing and she is working to incorporate the consulting division into the marketing plan for the region by building relationships and incorporating change management on both sides. She is responsible for building marketing and strategic plans for all functions within Seattle, as well as overseeing all eminence building events. Paula is a integral team member on all major targeting teams within Seattle. aula has extensive marketing experience. Before joining Deloitte Services, Paula was the Director of Marketing for iCopyright.com and Marketing Manager for Request4Bid.com. In addition, Paula owned her own marketing business, Marketplace Consulting, which performed all aspects of marketing and sales for different accounts throughout the years. Paula earned a BS in Marketing from the University of Montana in Missoula, with a minor in Interpersonal Communication. She serves as Vice President of the Art with Heart Board of Directors.

Board Secretary Madzy Bessellar B.A, B.S., MLA, earned her Master’s in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Science and Education in 1994 from University of Washington and began teaching Science and Humanities at the Northwest School. After teaching for six years, her interests led her to peruse pre-med studies. Her desire and will to help children in need strengthened during this time and, as a result, she volunteered for Group Health Children’s Clinic in Redmond for two years and then began work as a clinical researcher for a pharmaceutical company based on the East Coast. Upon the birth of her second child in 2004, she stopped working to enjoy more time with her kids. In October 2006, she joined Art with Heart’s Board of Directors in a role that allows her to fuse many of her interests and past educational and professional experiences to help children in crisis through inspirational books and creativity.

Treasurer Elena Howell, CFP, is a Financial Advisor with UBS Financial Services Inc. She has been in the financial services industry since 2000 and became a Certified Financial Planner in 2004. Elena develops customized financial and estate planning strategies for clients to help them pursue their life goals. Financial planning services are provided in our capacity as registered investment advisors. Elena was born and raised in Russia, and received her master’s degree in teaching and linguistics from Irkutsk State University in her hometown of Irkutsk. In addition to English, she is fluent in Russian, Japanese and conversational in French. Elena is an active volunteer in the community, as a treasurer for Art With Heart and as a member of Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. She also enjoys outdoors activities with her husband and son, and is passionate about ballroom dancing.

BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE:

T.A. McCann, serves as founder and President of Jump2Go. His past experience includes Vulcan Capital, Polaris Venture Partners, where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence. Prior to Polaris, he held senior positions at Microsoft, leading future strategy and product planning for the Exchange Server Group and developing the burgeoning Service Delivery Platforms group, focused on mobile applications development. In addition, he is a founder of HelpShare, a web Q&A company and Soft Labour, a web design and development consultancy. He currently serves on the board of Art with Heart and is an adviser to Wishpot and Notary One. In addition to his deep technology background, T.A. has won sailing’s America’s Cup and sailed around the world.

Sacha Stjepanovic currently works at WaMu in Compliance and Community Affairs. He is trilingual, speaking fluent Spanish, Croatian & English. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Washington.

Sacha leads a Spanish conversation group for the World Affairs Council, is a member of the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and is involved with many nonprofits, community centers and schools. He joined the board after helping translate the Spanish version of Oodles of Doodles. Sacha enjoys traveling, volunteering, teaching, snowboarding and photography.

Judy Suhr has more than 25 years professional experience in marketing, as well as business and program development. She was the founder and President of Lifestyle Health Services, which developed and implemented corporate on-site health and screening programs in a high-tech mobile unit, including mammography screening for women at work and general public screenings - servicing thousands of people over an eight year period. Following this, she worked at Virginia Mason Medical Center for nine years as a Marketing Consultant and Project Manager. Needing a change of scenery, she turned her talent in sales and marketing to working on-contract designing cabinetry and contractor sales in the construction industry, working as an independent rep for Canyon Creek Cabinet Company. She enjoys enjoy skiing, biking, windsurfing, running, roller blading and hiking. Some of her physical bests include climbing Mt. Rainier, Mt. Kilimanjaro and running the Portland Marathon.