Staff
Trina Gadsden, Executive Director
Trina Gadsden is an adventurer who lives life to the fullest. When she is not climbing tall mountains, jumping out of planes, diving with sharks or hanging with mountain gorillas in the wild, she devotes her life to making a difference to those who need it most. After leaving the for-profit world and getting her Masters in Nonprofit Leadership, she combined her love of photography with helping youth and landed this awesome gig at YIF. When she is not ‘connecting dots’ in the community for YIF, you will find her and her camera in some remote part of the world taking it all in, grinning from ear to ear in gratitude for this great life and amazing world we have the opportunity to live in.
Jacob Smithers, Youth Wrangler & Program Lead
Jacob Smithers loves the Pacific Northwest, but enjoys any excuse to leave in exploration of other parts of the world. Photography has always been a great explorative tool for the mind and the world around him. He is passionate about travel, photography, cooking, and soccer. His artwork displays the symbiosis of underappreciated beauty through photography as shown through reclaimed vintage window frames. This belief that beauty and success are in all things around us speaks to his love for Youth in Focus – helping Seattle area youth to discover that the person they want to be is already within themselves is a wonderful thing.
Ashley Mouldon, Administrative & Development Guru
Ashley Mouldon is a Midwest transplant who has fallen in love with everything the West Coast has to offer. When she’s not trying new recipes in the kitchen, you can find Ashley playing with her two big dogs or exploring funky thrift shops and new eateries. She is excited to join Youth in Focus to help empower–and enlighten–Seattle’s young people through photography. The metropolis that is Seattle has so many amazing features and nooks and crannies, that there is never a boring place to take a picture. Ashley is looking forward to continuing to explore the Northwest through hiking and camping adventures, festivals and live music and most of all, through the lens of a camera.
Faculty
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Zorn B. Taylor, Beginning Digital Photography
Angela Goodman, Beginning Digital Photography
Barry Wong, Advanced Digital Photography
Chloe Collyer, Beginning B&W Photography
Bryn Mooney, Beginning B&W Photography
Zorn B. Taylor is an artist who expresses his creative vision through film and digital photography. Formally trained at Seattle Central Community College in commercial photography, he has worked shooting his own fine art projects as well as weddings and other commercial contracts since 1997. He has taught beginning black & white film and for several years has taught digital photography as a teaching artist with Youth in Focus. His current series, the Black Fathers Project, addresses the urban myth of black men being unable or unwilling to parent. Zorn’s work has been displayed at SAM, NAAM, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, the M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, the Seattle Center, and ACT. His latest project, Eve and the Apple, is a response to the idea that women are somehow cursed for having the temerity to use their initiative and improve themselves (kindly taking Adam along for the ride) in the Garden of Eden.
Angela Goodman discovered photography in high school, where it gave her a path out of her own head and into the world around her. She started working in photojournalism at two daily newspapers, and has been published on the AP wire, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Dirt Bike Magazine, Seattle Met, and Alaska Airlines Magazine, among others. She then returned to the inside of her head, completing a Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Her personal work uses environmental and studio constructions to explore the wonder and complexities of the urban environment, and she happily pays the bills shooting product, lifestyle, and event photography, mainly for the adventure motorcycling industry. She knits, rides motorcycles, attempts encaustic, thinks about practicing guitar, and visits her mom. Sometimes she actually misses shooting high school football.
Barry Wong was intrigued as a young boy by the black and white photographs of his parents’ early lives in China in the family album. There were village scenes, relatives riding rickshaws and dragon boat races. The photos could transport you to a magical world. Discovering a love of photography and cameras as a teenager, Barry started taking his own pictures for the school newspaper, studied photography in college and became a news photographer. As a photojournalist, Barry covered erupting volcanoes, earthquakes and riots and traveled on international shoots. But his most treasured assignment was to document his own parents’ journey to visit the Chinese villages they had left so many decades ago. It was a sentimental journey, as affecting for him and his siblings as for his parents. Today, Barry is a freelancer specializing in still-life food photography. His work appears on Getty Images and his iconic Asian fine art prints have been exhibited in Washington, DC, at the Seattle Center and Wing Luke Asian Museum. Barry has won many awards including prizes in the International Photography Awards, the Pictures of the Year Competition and he was a finalist for a team Pulitzer in photography.
Bryn Mooney is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. She is a practicing artist in the mediums of B&W photography and glass-work, and has recently begun to realize her passions for community and collaborative art. She spreads color to the world via interior color consultations. Bryn has yet to witness a program that can harness or manifest an environment that is as supportive, safe, and creatively yielding as Youth in Focus. Her passion to work with youth is fueled by their willingness to try, and their unmatched creative minds. She can be caught zipping around town on her bike, dressed up as a pirate, or sending and receiving hand written mail.
Chloe Collyer
A twin-lens memory machine with tripod feet.
A multiply exposed, multicultural contact sheet.
Mix-race. Mixed-media. Producing personal portraits and finally
she has developed a sense of self.
She has found a fondness for dark rooms
where safelights hang overhead to guard her sanity.
This is a woman who can’t be stopped. She can’t be fixed.
And she can’t be reproduced without a mix of dangerous matches.
She has a one-of-a-kind daguerreotype mind.
She has details in her blackness,
her highlights hold bold, dynamic tones.
This alumni, young, but from a different time
Believes in the power of empowered youth.
Chloe Collyer is a poet, a photographer, a percussionist, and the winner of the 2012 Scholarship for Promising Young Artists. More importantly she is a native Seattleite and Youth in Focus alumna who loves nothing more than coming into work each day!
Board
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Walter Bodle, Founder
Matt Flor, President
Andrew Storey, Vice President
Julia Janus, Treasurer
Chris Nordfors, Secretary
Kathryn Lewis, President Emeritus
Steve Dodd
Helen Tapping
Anne Fisher
Jeff Siefred
Jessica Kurtz
Ashley Siple
Carol Vipperman
Sean Alexis
Anthony Davis
In 1994, Walter Bodle gathered some ideas and friends and started a summer photography program to give a few vulnerable Seattle teens something positive in their lives. As a result, 14 youths completed the first 10-week session of Youth in Focus. New ideas and more friends began to look for new ways to make the next summer’s program better. Today, this nationally-recognized program has afternoon and summer sessions and serves nearly 200 participants each year. During his 30-year teaching career in Compton, California, Walter would ask, “What is the big difference that makes one young person become a successful orthopedic surgeon, and the one who sat next to him in class is dead or in jail before the age of 20?” The answer always was found with an adult who took time to care and support. The adults who are involved at YIF continue the mission to encourage the young people. The photographs are secondary. When not traveling, Walter lives in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood with his wife, Lynne, and dog, Candy.
Kathryn Lewis is a long time supporter of Youth in Focus and joined the board in 2008. She currently is board president, and co-chaired Youth in Focus’s annual Doublexposure auction gala three times. She believes that Youth in Focus makes a lasting difference in the lives of young people by providing a supportive and caring program that helps them explore their possibilities through the art of photography. Kathryn is active in the political community and has a marketing and business strategy consulting practice. Previously, she has served as chief marketing and development officer for Preston Gates and Ellis and director of marketing for Seattle University’s Albers School of Business. Kathryn is an avid horsewoman, training in dressage with her horses Merlin and Varanasi. She lives in Seattle with her husband Chris.
Seattle-based photographer Matthew Flor has worked in and around the photography industry for over 25 years. After honing his craft at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Matthew spent 10 years working for two of the largest stock photo agencies in the world, Getty Images and Corbis Inc. Matthew grew up in south Seattle, only blocks away from Youth in Focus’s current location. He became involved with YIF when he was asked to help teach the first digital class which took place on Sunday afternoons at the Getty Images office at 4th and Virginia. For the last five years, Matthew has been the Senior Photo Editor within the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.
Chris Nordfors joined the Youth in Focus board in 2004. He has volunteered with the organization in various roles since 1999, including a term as board president in 2007 – 2008. Chris is currently Director of Marketing and Communications for GeoEngineers, Inc., a Seattle based earth science, engineering and environmental consulting firm. Like many YIF students, Chris gravitated to photography in high school. Early in his career, he edited a photo trade magazine and worked for a few years as an in-house university photographer. These experiences gave Chris an understanding of how photography can give students a platform for understanding their world and telling their stories, and it gives him great pleasure to see YIF students making the same discoveries. Chris is a native of the Puget Sound area and completed his undergraduate studies at Whitman College and graduate degree at Seattle University. He and his wife, Kathryn Lewis—who also serves on the Youth in Focus board—live with their various furry dependents in northeast Seattle.
Julia Janus recently joined the Youth In Focus Board as Treasurer in August 2012. She comes to Youth In Focus with an extensive background in Accounting and Finance. She is a spirited soul who is passionate about enjoying all that life has to offer. She hopes to positively contribute her insights, time and expertise to the Youth In Focus community for many years to come.
Steve Dodd became excited about and involved with Youth in Focus in 2001. He joined the board in 2008 and served as president until 2011. His day job is President and CEO of Northwest Framing, which has 38 retail custom framing stores and does commercial framing throughout the Northwest. Prior to working with YIF, Steve provided volunteer service for Habitat for Humanity and helped build out, and staff, a Baptist church/community service center in a high-risk area of downtown Atlanta. Steve feels very strongly that every young person deserves an opportunity to succeed and enjoys being part of an amazing team of people who provide the environment and support that enables our students to grow and make positive choices in their lives. Steve and his wife Debbie live in Sammamish (yes, way out there), and have teenagers Amber and Austin keeping them busy. When free time presents itself, Steve enjoys working out, playing tennis, reading, and hiking.
Helen Tapping joined the Youth in Focus board in 2006 after attending many auctions and finding out more about this amazing organization. She has since served on the executive committee as board president, headed up the marketing committee, chaired the auction, and is currently vice president. Helen enjoys the energy and passion shared by the staff, board, and volunteers at Youth in Focus and loves seeing the organization make a positive different in students’ lives. A favorite moment was at a YIF graduation where one student answered the question of what home meant to her. The reply? “Youth In Focus.” Helen also has a passion for photography, has a Media Studies degree, and has worked at Getty Images since 1995 in many roles, currently as Senior Director, eCommerce. A transplant from London to Seattle in 2000, she loves to explore new places and experiences.
Anne Fisher joined the Youth in Focus board in Fall 2011. She was first introduced to Youth in Focus when she attended the DoublExposure Auction and was inspired that evening by the excitement of the students and the passion of all those involved with the organization. After years of volunteerism at local organizations around Seattle through Seattle Works and other unique volunteer experiences that took her to destinations as far as Nepal, where she had the opportunity to work on the construction of an addition to a village school, Anne was ready to do more. Having always believed in the storytelling power of the arts to inspire, challenge, delight and transform, Anne is thrilled to be part of the YIF mission. Anne’s professional background is in Business Development and Marketing, and she is currently a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.com. Originally from Chicago, Anne moved to Seattle in 2007 and quickly developed a love for the outdoors and the easy access to nature. Anne is an avid reader, and in her free time she can also be found hiking and running, daydreaming about her next travel adventure, enjoying live theater and continuing to explore her new home in the Pacific Northwest.
Jeff Siefred is a newcomer to the Youth in Focus board, joining in the fall of 2011. Jeff came to know about the program after neighborhood run-ins with Walter and listening to Walter’s enthusiastic vision for the program he founded. Looking for an opportunity to give back to the community that has been his home for 20 years, YiF presented the perfect venue by helping kids and using photography as a means to see themselves and the world in a different light. After seeing what a highly dedicated staff and board the organization has brought in, Jeff considers himself very privileged to be part of this group. Jeff is a hack photographer and acts like the paparazzi when his kids and friends are nearby. Sometimes people take pity on him and publish his work in DirtRag magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia, and for the Banff Film Festival. In order to actually provide for his family, Jeff is an Engineering Manager at Microsoft. When not recovering from injuries sustained while skiing and biking, Jeff is finding new ways to injure himself skiing and biking.
Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit, a book with a permanent spot on Andrew Storey’s bookshelf, begins with “Art when really understood is the province of every human being…When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.” This passage captures an essential idea underlying Youth in Focus’ mission – that art can be a powerful vehicle for personal growth and self-expression. The opportunity to support a program that is grounded in this important concept is why Andrew was so excited to join the board at Youth in Focus. Photography has also been one of Andrew’s strong personal interests since 1998. Andrew is currently taking coursework at the Photographic Center Northwest, and serves as a volunteer photographer in the Seattle area. When he’s not out shooting, Andrew enjoys gardening, cooking, and exploring the Northwest outdoors with his wife Elizabeth. He has also volunteered for other organizations serving children, including Rise n’ Shine. Andrew’s “day job” is at Regence BlueShield, where he serves on a team dedicated to healthcare strategy, implementing pilots designed to improve delivery quality and reduce costs
Jessica Kurtz has been in the non-profit world since 2006. Originally from Olathe, KS – Jessica attended the University of Missouri – Kansas City and received a BA in Theatre. She then worked at Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, CO before moving out to Seattle for an Arts Management Internship at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. From there – Jessica worked her way through the theatre as the Education Associate to Individual Giving Officer and finally to Major Gifts Manager. She left the theatre world in August 2012 and made the switch to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and currently holds the title of Donor Relations Manager. Jessica fell into fundraising and donors relations, but loves talking to the Seattle community and making a difference. Jessica is excited to join the Youth in Focus board and to stay connected to art which will always be her passion.
Ashley Siple joined the Youth In Focus board in 2012. Ashley currently works as the Director of Education at Photo Center NW where she manages program curriculum, photography faculty, and mentors students going through the Center’s Certificate Program. She has an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and a BA from the University of Chicago. Among other places, she has worked for the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago and has contributed to projects in the Architecture Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Department of the Imperial War Museum and the Photographs section at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Ashley also teaches History of Photography in the Fine Arts department at Seattle University, and when she is not at her desk she is ALWAYS outside climbing.
Carol Vipperman joined the board of Youth in Focus in 2012. It is her love of photography and seeing nonprofits make a difference that moved her to join this organization. Carol is a consultant, speaker and a photographer. Previously Carol was President and founder of the Foundation for Russian-American Economic Cooperation (FRAEC) a nonprofit organization that for 22 years advanced U.S.-Russia relations starting with a belief that strengthening economic and community ties with a post-Soviet Russia was good for the citizens of both countries, and indeed good for the world. As a consultant she brings a wealth of international and marketing strategic and coaching expertise to assist nonprofits and companies to build capacity, increase markets, and to expand economic opportunities. Carol discovered photography just five years ago and found a passion that has surprised and delighted her. Although she has always been a storyteller, now with her photos she can say more than words alone. Through the creative use of media, Carol helps her clients more effectively communicate their organization’s vision, engage disparate stakeholders and build community, as well as educate and persuade leaders and policy makers about strategic issues and messages. Photography not only helps her see and capture the beauty in the world and people but it continually challenges her to learn and grow.
Part-time serial entrepreneur and full-time professional philanthropist, Anthony Davis is a Seattle native who re-directed a violent youth involving street gangs and drugs, into a successful career leading technology based start-ups which he largely credits to his passion of photography. He became involved with Youth In Focus in 2012 as a volunteer working with the board and executive director on strategic planning and communications, which later lead to him joining the board in 2013. In addition to serving Youth In Focus, Anthony is also on the boards of Global Visionaries, YouthForce, and is an active partner with Seattle Social Venture Partners. His day job includes Managing Partner of Monition Partners an early-stage angel investment fund and Co-Founder / CEO of Got Sync Music an online marketplace that connects independent musicians to music supervisors who license music for commercial projects.
