Our Team, Board & Advisory Council
Adelaide Schaeffer
President and CEO
Adelaide Schaeffer is the founder and executive director of Champions for Kids, an organization working to mobilize MILLIONS of people to improve the lives of children in their communities.
Schaeffer founded Champions for Kids in 2004 in response to an alarming awareness of millions of children in America and the world who suffer silently and in many cases, die, due to a variety of issues: hunger, abuse, violence, neglect, and abandonment. Many do not have safe or adequate shelter, access to health care and struggle or drop out of school because they do not have the resources and support they need to become healthy adults and productive members of society.
Cathy Cooper
Chief Operations Officer
Cathy Cooper is the Chief Operations Officer of Champions for Kids, an organization working to mobilize MILLIONS of people to improve the lives of children in their communities.
Cathy leads the strategic planning for CFK, including leading the organization’s efforts to cultivate and build a national network of partners and advocates to leverage their resources and influence.
Prior to joining CFK, Cooper served a twenty year tenure, working in various management and leadership positions with Tyson Foods, the world’s largest poultry company. Cathy’s corporate experience in business processes, management and training, as well as years of experience serving in numerous capacities on nonprofit boards and executive committees are invaluable to CFK.
Chris Magness
Director of Marketing and Communications
Magness is responsible for marketing and communications for Champions for Kids, an organization working to mobilize MILLIONS of people to improve the lives of children in their communities. She coordinates Champions for Kids corporate partnerships and cause-marketing programs. Magness advises CFK nonprofit partners on how to make their cause and organization a valuable asset to corporations.
Magness brings experience as well as a creative, strategic, and personable style to this pivotal role. Previously, she was the creative services account executive for Compassion International, a nonprofit organization that serves children in need. Prior to that, she worked for six years at Give Kids The World, a resort for terminally ill children as the creative director. There, she participated in marketing partnerships with corporate sponsors such as American Airlines, Kmart, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Procter & Gamble, Tide, NASCAR and Walmart.
Michelle Reed
Managing Director, Finance
Michelle Reed is the Managing Director of Finance for Champions for Kids, an organization working to mobilize MILLIONS of people to improve the lives of children in their communities.
Michelle oversees accounting, information technology and human resources functions. She works with Champions for Kids’ staff to ensure that the organization’s resources are put to their best use and that we are careful stewards of the donations entrusted to us.
Born in California, Reed grew up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where she graduated from high school. She spent a year at the University of Arkansas then earned an accounting diploma from Draughon Business College in Springfield, Missouri.
Ketan Patel
Chief Strategy Officer - Business Development
Ketan Patel has over 10 years of experience identifying and solving business problems, creating new concepts and helping people make better decisions faster. His primary interventions take the form of mentoring, strategic planning and tactical solutions.
Ketan is solutions focused and innovation driven. When presented with a challenge, he responds with opportunities for growth and breakthrough solutions. Having earned a reputation as a turnaround specialist in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector, Ketan successfully transferred his skills to the financial services industry.
More recently Ketan has been working with a wide range of private and non-profit organizations in industries including Financial Services, Supercar Manufacturing, Music Production, Hollywood Film Distribution, UK Film Production, Digital Media, Event Management, Management Consultancy, Professional Boxing & Environmental Energy.
Ketan holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Manufacturing Systems and Management and has attended the Manchester Business School specifically reading operations management disciplines.
Alongside David McWhir, Ketan provides CEO level coaching and advisory services to Champions for Kids and our partner organizations. Our partnership with Ketan, McWhir and CVL, helps Champions for Kids and our partner organizations create new approaches and solutions to help address many of the key strategic issues facing nonprofits.
Dr. Blake Brandes
Chief Program Officer
As a Marshall Scholar and PhD recipient, Dr. Blake Brandes has dedicated his life to exploring the intersection of music, academics, and youth achievement. After completing a double major in English (Honors) and French Language and Literature at Wake Forest University as a Graylyn Scholar, Blake was one of 43 Americans to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship, one of the most prestigious awards an undergraduate can receive, to undertake postgraduate study in England. While at the University of Kent in Canterbury, Blake received a first class distinction (the highest award possible) for his Masters degree in Postcolonial Studies. Blake went on to pursue a PhD in Text, Practice as Research at the University of Kent, and he successfully passed his PhD defense in September 2011.
In addition to his educational credentials, Blake has been actively involved in music production and management over the past five years. As President of Decrypt Productions LLC, Blake has produced Top 40 radio singles and MTV-featured songs, developed sponsorships and licensing partnerships, and organized international concerts and tours, in addition to being an active musician and performer of piano, rap, and beatbox (vocal percussion).
Merging his passion for music and academics, Blake has performed numerous hip-hop workshops in the US, UK, France, Morocco, and Egypt. During these workshops, he teaches students and young people how to beatbox and helps them create connections between their passion and their academic studies. Blake also organized the international Conference on Global Youth Cultures at the University of Kent in October 2009, which brought academics and artists from around the world together to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and build relationships that transcend scholar/practitioner divides.
Known for delivering improvisational raps in up to five languages at a time, Blake is dedicated to mediating the perceived gap between the Academy and the streets. From motivating one child in a classroom to motivating millions of people to become Champions for Kids, Blake believes in the power of committed, active citizens to make a difference in their communities and the world.
Julia Kivistik
Senior Strategy Advisor - Corporate Partnerships
Julia Hobbs Kivistik provides CEO level consulting and advisory support to Champions for Kids to help build our corporate partnerships and platforms. Julia leverages her diverse background in consumer products, branding, corporate communications, nonprofit leadership and cause-related marketing as a senior strategy advisor on cause branding, cause marketing and corporate philanthropy trends. Julia presently serves as Co-founder of Human Truth Marketing.
Prior to this, Julia joined Cone as Executive Vice President of Cause Branding, working closely with companies and nonprofits to integrate values and social issues into brand equity and organizational identity. Clients Julia helped lead include Walmart, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, National Wildlife Federation and more. Before joining Cone, Julia worked at Saatchi & Saatchi X as Senior Vice President of Human Interest. At Saatchi, Julia was responsible for building a global human interest team and corporate communications. As Vice President of strategic marketing, account planning and shopper insights, Julia led several companies in sustainable and strategic marketing campaigns for clients including: P&G, Gerber, Leap Frog, Energizer, Smucker’s, Wal-Mart, SAM’s Club, General Mills, and Disney.
A pioneer in Cause Branding, Julia has worked as a consultant with corporations and non-profits to develop cause marketing programs and branding campaigns. Julia and her husband live in upstate New York.
David McWhir
Chief Strategy Officer - Programs
David McWhir provides CEO level coaching and advisory services to Champions for Kids and our partner organizations. Working alongside Ketan Patel, McWhir and Patel bring a depth of organizational development expertise to Champions for Kids and our portfolio of organizations.
Based in Loughborough, McWhir is a former PricewaterhouseCoopers training consultant with an MA (Hons) in Psychology specializing in providing relationship building, training and consultancy to a range of organizations across the world. With twelve years business to business board level selling and account management experience prior to joining Price Waterhouse Cooper followed by twelve years training and consultancy, David works closely with professional services firms, financial services organizations, European and UK governmental organizations, the United Nations and police authorities on external and internal relationship management strategies and techniques. His work takes him regularly throughout Europe, the Middle and Far East, India and USA. David McWhir and his partners provide invaluable strategic support and resources to Champions for Kids and our partner organizations.
David Taylor
Senior Strategy Advisor - Social Media
David Taylor provides CEO level consulting and advisory services to Champions for Kids to help build our social media platforms. David has almost 20 years experience of the media scene in Great Britain garnered from a career in journalism, in-house media relations, PR and marketing consultancy. This includes media management, campaign implementation, marketing and communications strategy as well as online marketing and social media expertise.
Educated at the University of Aberystwyth and holding a BSc Econ in International Relations, David received professional training as a journalist with the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) in 1993.
In response to growing interest in online marketing and the revolution of social networking sites, David has just published a book now available on Amazon, “ Fusion, the New Way of Marketing.” This book has been described as one reviewer as ‘the no nonsense guide to marketing in the 21st Century’.
A member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), David presents online marketing seminars for a number of organizations including the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA), Business Networking International (BNI) as well as the National Housing Federation (NHF). He also runs regular one-day seminars in London for Business Training Made Simple.
David provides a variety of online marketing and social media strategies to Champions for Kids to help exceed our goal to Mobilize MILLIONS to improve the lives of children.
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