Virtual-Only Facilitator Bios
Becky Mares (she/her) joined Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) as the Statewide Volunteer Coordinator in July 2019. With a personal passion for the outdoors, she is excited to listen, learn, and lend a hand to inspiring all people to be stewards of our natural resources. Prior to CPW, Becky spent 10 years with the Cooking Matters campaign in Colorado. Becky has 17 years of experience in volunteer management, community partner engagement, building programs from the ground-up, outcomes tracking and evaluation, and publication development. A collaborative and resourceful team leader, Becky is passionate about food and nutrition, wilderness and sustainability, education, social justice and equity, and cultural diversity. She is proficient in Spanish.
Betsy McFarland (she/her) has dedicated her career to mobilizing passionate individuals to tackle challenging societal issues. As a principal consultant at Adisa and Energize, Betsy specializes in maximizing the impact of volunteers by helping leaders align volunteer engagement efforts with their mission. She offers comprehensive assessments of current volunteer engagement strategies and provides customized support in strategy development, implementation and training to ensure efficient and effective achievement of organizational goals. With more than 25 years of experience in engaging and growing volunteer efforts in organizations of all sizes, Betsy is a Certified Volunteer Administrator (CVA). She began her career by developing the first-ever volunteer program for a local animal shelter. She went on to spearhead the launch of The Humane Society National Volunteer Center, the first broad-scale, coordinated volunteer effort in the organization's history, which now engages thousands of volunteers worldwide. Betsy also serves as co-director of the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement and as a facilitator for the National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement.
Beth Steinhorn (she/her) partners with organizations and their leadership to increase impact through strategic and innovative engagement. She regularly participates in the national dialogue about volunteerism and engagement and is co-editor of the new book, Transforming Disruption to Impact: Rethinking Volunteer Engagement for a Rapidly Changing World. Beth provides consulting and training to organizations across the US and Canada, including supporting dozens of organizations to become certified Service Enterprises.
Betsy McFarland (she/her) is a principal consultant at Adisa (www.adisagroup.com) and Engage (www.energizeinc.com). As a certified volunteer administrator (CVA), she specializes in helping organizations leverage the power of volunteers. She began her 25-year career developing the first-ever volunteer program for a local animal shelter and went on to spearhead the launch of The Humane Society National Volunteer Center, the first broad-scale coordinated volunteer effort in the history of the organization, which now engages thousands of volunteers globally. Betsy co-directs the Strategic Volunteer Engagement Initiative for The Leighty Foundation and serves as facilitator for the National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement.
Donte Curtis (he/him) is the Owner/Leader of Catch Your Dream Consulting where he keynotes,consults with, and trains teams and organizations, nationwide, on leadership development,racial equity, Inclusion, and supports them to create practical change. Donte currently is the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at Social Enterprise Alliance Twin Cities and is a member of the program investment committee at Youthprise. Donte brings his 15 years of facilitation and speaking experience with an expectation of getting you energized, you taking practical action and finding hope for a better tomorrow. Probably one of the most energetic people you will ever meet, Donte lives a life that is dedicated to leadership, social justice and liberation and resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his Wife, Rachel and two dogs, King and Moose.
Jennifer Bennett (she/her) joined VolunteerMatch to formalize and manage the organization's volunteer engagement program. With her breadth of experience she is well qualified to help VolunteerMatch's community of nonprofits better recruit and engage volunteers. She shares her knowledge with volunteer managers through the webinars found on the Learning Center, in newsletters and blog entries, and at conferences around the country. She also so-hosts the Time+Talent Podcast with Tobi Johnson from VolunteerPro, which finished its fourth season in December 2022. She currently serves as the Director of Knowledge on the Board of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. She is the current co-editor and a contributing author for the 4th Edition of Volunteer Administration: Professional Practice, published by LexisNexis Canada in January 2021. And, she contributed The New Volunteer Manager's Toolkit chapter to the guide Volunteer Engagement 2.0: Ideas and Insights that are Changing the World published by VolunteerMatch in 2015.
Faiza Venzant (she/her) CVA is the Executive Director of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. With over 20 years of leadership experience in volunteer engagement, she continues this work with a goal of centering community amongst the profession, improving equity and access to volunteerism and increasing diversity amongst professional leaders of volunteers. In 2018, Faiza published her first children’s book entitled, My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up! As a mother of two young boys, she has not actually eaten any of her children.
Kasandra James (she/her) is Volunteer Toronto's Director of Programs. Kasandra provides strategic leadership of the organization's programs, services and events that connect Toronto's diverse volunteer-seekers with community organizations and volunteer programs that need them. Since joining Volunteer Toronto in 2015, Kasandra has used her experience and expertise in non-profit and volunteer management, community development and program design to support capacity building efforts in hundreds of organizations across Ontario.
Kayla Paulson (she/her) fights for more strategic and impactful volunteer engagement. She has led a Volunteer Center, RSVP, and Service Enterprise in addition to volunteering with Volunteer Iowa, Points of Light, AL!VE, and United Way Worldwide to help improve volunteer engagement practices at local and national levels. Now she is helping nonprofits build capacity and better meet community needs as AL!VE’s National Service Enterprise Administrator and a Supportive Environments for Effectiveness Administrator for reDirect Foundation.
Mackenzie Albrecht (she/her) is MAVA's Greater Minnesota Program Manager. She's responsible for outreach, relationship-building, and supporting volunteer engagement organizations and networks across Greater Minnesota. As a resident of Central Minnesota, she has first-hand experience engaging volunteers in small town and rural areas. Mackenzie has been involved with nonprofits as a volunteer, board member, and staff member since 2014, primarily with animal and youth related organizations. Before joining the MAVA staff, Mackenzie worked as the Volunteer Manager at Ruff Start Rescue, one of Minnesota's largest foster-based animal rescues.
Sammy Feilchenfeld, (he/him) CVA, is Volunteer Toronto’s Manager, Learning, designing and overseeing Volunteer Toronto’s learning programs for leaders of volunteers, board members, non-profit professionals and volunteer seekers. With a focus on addressing the changing needs of volunteerism, Sammy draws on more than 15 years in volunteer management and adult education. Sammy also serves as Director of Partnerships on the board of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA).
Sue Carter Kahl (she/her) has dedicated her professional life to working and volunteering within the nonprofit sector. Sue demystifies and translates research–making it accessible and even exciting. She helps organizations collect and make meaning from their data to enhance organizational decisions. A nationally-recognized expert on volunteer engagement, Sue has presented or facilitated sessions at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the National Park Service, Points of Light, the California League of Cities, the University of San Diego Governance Institute, and more. She teaches a graduate course on Strategic Volunteer Engagement at the University of San Diego. Sue has a PhD in Leadership from the University of San Diego. Her dissertation, Making the Invisible Visible: Capturing the Multidimensional Value of Volunteerism to Nonprofit Organizations, articulated the diverse contributions that volunteers make to nonprofits. She has a Master’s in Social Work Administration and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management.