Contact: Linda Thompson, Director of Development 512-975-1816
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEEDLING APPOINTS BOARD PRESIDENT AND THREE BOARD MEMBERS
Austin, TX. August 13, 2020–The Board of Directors for Seedling Foundation, a non-profit organization providing school-based mentoring for children who have an incarcerated parent, has appointed Jessie Metcalf to the role of board president and added three new board members to assist the organization with advancing its mission.
Ms. Metcalf has served on the Seedling Board of Directors for three years. She started her career helping local disadvantaged businesses build strategies for growth and now leads an initiative at Amazon Web Services focused on helping communities leverage technology to further their efforts to prevent and combat homelessness. Jessie succeeds Diana Maldonado as board president. Ms. Maldonado remains on the Seedling board and is the new CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“Children who have incarcerated parents face tremendous challenges. Not only does it put a financial strain on households but the parent-child separation is traumatic. This separation happens at a time when we want children to learn at school so they grow into better versions of themselves. This is the heart of Seedling’s vision – we want students impacted by parental incarceration to have the opportunity to thrive,” Ms. Metcalf said.
The mission of Seedling is to mitigate the impact of parental incarceration on children in Central Texas through school-based mentoring. Seedling has served more than 2400 children in Central Texas since it began providing mentoring services in 2005. The organization partners with local school districts including Austin ISD, Del Valle ISD, Pflugerville ISD, Hays Consolidated ISD, and KIPP Public Schools.
Three new board members have also joined the Seedling Board of Directors including Matt Shook, JuiceLand Founder and CEO, Michael Dominguez of CDW, and Mark Beavers, most recently with AT&T Cyber Security. Ms. Metcalf, Mr. Shook, and Mr. Dominguez all serve as Seedling volunteer mentors. Mr. Beavers has previously volunteered with the Blanton Museum of Art and Habitat
for Humanity.
“I’m just a kid at heart so it seemed like a natural fit for me to provide time and energy to something so impactful. Human connection is such an essential part of life and I look forward to helping grow the potential for Seedling to provide that space to more and more youth,” said Matt Shook, Founder and CEO of JuiceLand.
ABOUT Seedling: The mission of Seedling is to mitigate the impact of parental incarceration on children in Central Texas through school-based mentoring. Seedling has a goal of serving 640 children who have an incarcerated parent with a mentor this school year. For more information, www.seedlingmentors.org. To become a mentor: www.seedlingmentors.org/mentor.
For interviews, contact Dan Leal, Executive Director, any time /by phone – 512-549-0742