Child Safety & Quality Assurance Team

Michael Belcher is the National Vice President of Child Safety & Quality Assurance for Boys & Girls Clubs of America where he provides health and safety leadership for Clubs across the country. Michael’s passion is working with local organizations to engage and empower stakeholders, strengthen business processes, and build positive safety cultures. He has three decades of experience developing and implementing successful strategies and leading continuous improvement efforts for international organizations in multiple work settings and is a recognized expert in safety management systems, governance and organization, regulatory compliance, and risk management. Michael is a Certified Safety Professional and the past president of the American Society of Safety Professionals. He was recently appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Labor to serve on the National Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

Kristy Jennette is a Project Analyst, Child Safety & Quality Assurance for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She is an accomplished nonprofit professional with over 15 years of experience overseeing project initiatives, process development, and partner relations. Kristy’s experience includes nonprofit strategy, communications, content management, grant compliance, and tactical planning. Prior to this role, she served as a Child Safety and Injury Prevention leader with Safe Kids Georgia for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and previously as the Director of Programs for Junior Achievement of Georgia where she was a member of the organization’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Advisory Group and was the recipient of the Circle of Leadership Award. Her innovative planning, insistence on excellence, and ability to nurture relationships lead to long-term solutions and success. Kristy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Old Dominion University and a Master of Education from Cambridge College. Kristy is a certified Praesidium Guardian and certified Project Management Essentials professional.

Sarah Nemecek is the National Director of Child & Club Safety Support. In this role, she provides local Boys & Girls Clubs with timely and relevant safety recommendations and assistance, including consultative support to local organizations on critical safety needs. Previously, Sarah was the Safety Director for the Midwest Region of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Prior to joining BGCA, she was a Senior Operations Manager for the Youth Safety and Violence Prevention program at the YMCA of Metro Chicago. Sarah also worked in management roles for a variety of nonprofits dedicated to public transit, affordable housing, and sustainable development. She holds a Master of Science in Regional and Urban Planning Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy from Pepperdine University.

Alan Mogridge brings over 25 years of practical knowledge and leadership experience in operations, aquatic safety and programming, wellness, day and resident camping and childcare. Prior to joining Boys & Girls Clubs of America in May 2020, Alan was a Partner and Senior Consultant at Safe-Wise Consulting, a company that provides safety and risk management services to hundreds of youth-serving organizations across the nation. Alan has also served as an Instructor, Instructor Trainer, and Faculty Trainer for YMCA of the USA, the American Red Cross and American Safety & Health Institute and was part of the YMCA of the USA’s Trainer Quality Team. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Maine, Orono.

Manny Smith is the Director of Child Safety & Quality Assurance for the Pacific Region. He joined Boys & Girls Clubs of America in September 2021 as a Safety Analyst responsible for conducting annual organizational and site-level safety assessments to ensure local Clubs’ compliance to child and Club safety practices, procedures, policies, and standards. Manny brings over 25 years of experience in youth service programming, which includes leadership positions in juvenile corrections, mental and behavioral health, youth rights advocacy, contract compliance, and quality assurance. He is an alumnus of Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson, Arizona where he also began his career in youth development. Prior to joining BGCA, Manny was Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer for Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County in Washington.

Tyrone Swinton Jr. is the Director of Child Safety & Quality Assurance for the Midwest Region of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Tyrone joined the national organization with decades of experience in youth development, critical incident response training, investigations, and physical security management. As a retired police detective with the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department Juvenile Unit, he established safety standards for schools across St Louis city limits and served as the first Safety & Security Director for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis. Tyrone's dedication to youth development extends beyond his professional life to the basketball court, where he has coached young players at various levels for many years. A graduate of the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Academy as well as Webster University with a Bachelor’s in Business Management, Tyrone combines his law enforcement expertise with his passion for youth empowerment to create safe and nurturing environments for all.

William “Will” Kellibrew is the Director of Child Safety & Quality Assurance for the Southeast Region. He brings more than 28 years of supervisory experience in small business, corporate, nonprofit, and government agency senior-level management. As the previous director for the Baltimore City Health Department, Will co-led the city’s efforts for a trauma-informed city as well as served as the lead for mental health response during COVID-19. In addition, he worked globally to provide trainings on trauma-informed approaches, violence prevention, and victim assistance. He has engaged grassroots and community-based organizations, U.S. Congress, the White House, and national organizations on policies pertaining to behavioral health, childhood trauma, domestic violence, and victimization. Recognized by the White House as a ‘Champion of Change’ and a recipient of the Voice Award from SAMHSA, he also received the U.S. Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus Eva Murillo Unsung Hero Award for his tireless work to serve victims of crime across the country. Will holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maryland Global Campus and will graduate with his master’s in social work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work in May 2023. He is certified in Youth/Mental Health First Aid, Psychological First Aid, Results-Based Accountability, Trauma and Resilience, Grants Financial Management and is certified through the Emergency Management Institute for disaster response.

Jon Whiteman is the Director of Child Safety & Quality Assurance in the Southwest Region for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He has been a key contributor to the organization’s efforts to educate Clubs and communities on COVID-19 vaccination while helping establish partnerships with government and private entities. He also serves as the team’s sports safety specialist, focused on strengthening practices and standards to prevent and respond to abuse. Prior to this role, Jon dedicated his professional life to improving safeguards and safety standards for youth and spent more than seven years in the Olympic Movement improving abuse prevention programming. Jon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Eastern Illinois University.

Elaina Ouimet has 20 years of experience with non-profit program administration at the national and local level. As National Director, Safety Operations, she is responsible for managing the operations of BGCA’s Child Safety & Quality Assurance department including safety communications, partnerships, data collection and analysis. Elaina joined the safety team in August 2022 after several years in Field Operations, focused on the development and execution of enterprise communication strategies promoting resources to the field of 437,000 adult staff and volunteers at nearly 5,000 Boys & Girls Clubs. Since joining BGCA, Elaina’s work has spanned the areas of family outreach, education, the arts, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). She worked on the early development and launch of several national youth programs and successfully partnered with external organizations like Harvard’s ArtScience Prize to provide unique learning opportunities for young people. She started her career in youth development working in direct service in the field of media literacy in Boston and San Francisco and is a certified master trainer through the National Training Initiative and a Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality Methods instructor. Elaina has a B.A. in Sociology from Boston College.

Rivers Odendahl is the Director of Safety Operations at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, where she is dedicated to building the tools and resources to help Clubs strengthen safety policies and practices. Rivers has been with the national organization since 2010 in roles across Resource Development and Field Operations and joined the Child Safety & Quality Assurance team in 2018.

Deborah Day has over 20 years of experience with operational development, implementation, and project management at a national level. Her current role and focus are identifying, recruiting, training, and activating a pool of volunteer safety peer consultants/assessors. Deborah works in partnership with other members of the Child Safety & Quality Assurance team to ensure appropriate collaboration and sharing of best practices, as well as solution building. Since joining Boys & Girls Clubs of America, her work has spanned the areas of Club and organizational support, grant and event management, and support and implementation of several national youth programs. Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Maryland Global Campus. She is a Certified Praesidium Guardian and is ISO 19011:2018 and BGCA National Training Initiative Trainer Certified.

Teresa Walch has held multiple leadership positions within Boys & Girls Clubs of America over the past 24 years including Southwest Regional Vice President and National Vice President of Club Advancement & Specialized Services. Prior to her career at BGCA, she was a Finance Director for the Department of Defense AAFES Europe, a Juvenile Probation Officer, a Department of Defense Educator, and a Schools Officer for the Department of Defense Europe. In Teresa’s current role, her focus is on governance, innovation and impactful service delivery and design that supports quality improvement systems, practices, and processes to ensure sustainable, safe, engaging local organizations and partnerships that support organizational priorities. She also serves as the Disaster Response lead for BGCA. Passionate about developing people and teams that support safe, thriving environments for youth and teens, she believes that an organization’s culture is key to innovation and the strategic alignment of a team’s individual strengths are critical to drive goals and outcomes for stakeholders. Teresa holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a minor in Education and a Master’s in Human Relations. She is also a credentialed Executive Coach with ICF, a global advisory and technology services provider, an accomplished facilitator, and a nationally credentialed trainer of trainers. Teresa believes strongly in the power of people to positively impact the next generation.

Stacey Brooks is the National Director of Quality Assurance for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. In this role, Stacey provides strategic leadership and direction for the quality assurance (QA) system and oversees all aspects of the QA system for Child and Club safety including strategy, process improvement, logistics, and assessor qualification. Stacey comes to BGCA with over 22 years of experience at General Motors, where she managed the program support team for the company’s safety management system, performed system validations and used data to continually improve compliance, risk management, and governance activities. Previously, she led more than 150 in-depth compliance and process audits in 15 states and 12 countries as part of their internal audit organization. Stacey holds three M.S. degrees from Murray State University (Occupational Safety & Health, Organizational Communication, Biological Sciences) and a B.A. in Biology from Carthage College. She maintains three professional certifications, including the Certified Safety Professional credential obtained in 2009. Stacey is a long-time, active member of the American Society of Safety Professionals and currently serves as Administrator of the Management Practice Specialty.

Lori Huggins McGary is the National Director of Quality Assurance & Training with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She has a passion for partnering with local Boys & Girls Clubs’ staff and board of directors to provide leadership and impactful training that further strengthens an organization’s culture of safety. Lori also provides valuable insight and strategic direction to the overall Quality Assurance process. She began her career in youth development and safety more than 30 years ago at a Boys & Girls Club in Portland, Oregon. Lori has leveraged her extensive national and local experience to improve organizational performance through strategic implementation, program development, collaboration, and employee engagement for several nonprofits. Prior to joining BGCA, she held leadership positions with Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica and Oregon Partnership. Lori received the BGCA Presidents Circle Award in 2023 and is a Master Trainer with the Association for Talent Development, a Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality Methods Instructor of Instructors, and a Certified Praesidium Guardian. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Portland State University and an MBA from Touro University Worldwide.

Heather Campbell has worked in several capacities with Boys & Girls Clubs for over 30 years. She started her career with Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix (BGCMP) in 1987 while attending Arizona State University. After ten years with BGCMP, she accepted a position with Boys & Girls Clubs of America as Director of P.L.A.Y., a Nike sports initiative to educate Youth Development Professionals on youth fitness and the organization of Teen Sports Leadership camps on college campuses. In 2000, Heather relocated to Japan as BGCA’s military Regional Service Director for Asia and the Pacific Region. As her military relationships formed over the years, Heather was offered a position by the Navy Child and Youth Programs in San Diego to boost their programming efforts in that region. After three years with the Navy, she returned to BGCA to work as a Senior Director, Youth Development, leading the sports and recreation area. In 2020, Heather was named Lead Director of the Quality Assurance team within Child Safety & Quality Assurance. In this role, she leads team members in the Northeast, Southeast and part of the Midwest regions.