Children's Medical Center Foundation Leadership Team
Meet the dedicated members of our Foundation Leadership Team who lead philanthropic efforts at Children's Health℠.
Brent Christopher
President
As the president of the Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Brent is focused on making the organization a leading cause-of-choice in the North Texas region. That includes helping the community understand how philanthropy can impact a not-for-profit health care system; developing the Foundation’s staff and investing in talent to raise money consistently across a broad spectrum of donors; and expanding the Foundation’s pipeline of donors.
Suzanne Bouvier
Vice President, Operations
Suzanne is the hidden gem everyone needs to know at the Children’s Medical Center Foundation. She is the one who keeps the organization running – overseeing its budget, recruitment, payroll and administration. She also leads the Foundation’s development services, which includes gift processing, information management and research.
Holly Hassmann
Vice President, External Relations
Holly has dedicated her career to Children’s Health, having worked for the not-for-profit pediatric health care system since graduating from college. Today, she is one of the hospital system’s biggest advocates in its mission to make life better for children.
Laran O'Neill
Sr. Vice President & Chief Advancement Officer
As a teenager, Laran was shy – if you can believe it – but found her voice as a student journalist in the telling of other people’s stories. Now, as leader of the advancement team, Laran oversees communications professionals and fundraisers who are megaphones for Children’s Health and its mission to make life better for children. Together, they work to inspire donors and position the area’s leading pediatric health care system as a cause-of-choice in North Texas.
Carol Bieler
Vice President, Special Initiatives
After 14 years as a nurse leader, Carol transitioned her career to development at Children’s Medical Center Foundation. Since then, she has served in multiple fundraising roles for the last two decades, helping inspire donors to support the mission of Children’s Health. Today, she oversees the Foundation’s special initiatives and founding families program, raising noteworthy philanthropic support for North Texas’ children.
Paulette Mulry
Vice President, Development
As a Dallas native, Paulette knows this city and its people. Those roots continue to ground her at Children’s Health, where she manages a team of gift officers driven to grow donor engagement with the hospital system through annual and major giving, legacy and gift planning, as well as corporate partnership programs.
Ilyssa Schlereth
Associate Vice President, Advancement Services
Ilyssa provides strategic content guidance and support for fundraising and fund utilization efforts. She is a member of the Foundation Leadership Team and leads Advancement Services, encompassing the teams that secure system information to inform and prepare donor materials, that process donations and manage the constituent and donor database, and that facilitate utilization of philanthropic contributions by the Children’s Health system. She works closely with Foundation and Children’s Health department colleagues.
Summer Vincent
Associate Vice President, Development
Summer has dedicated her career to increasing her community’s strengths and resources through her varied work in non-profits over the last 15 years. Now, she leads a team of gift officers at the Children's Medical Center Foundation who are dedicated to securing significant financial support for the Foundation through annual and long-term giving.
Rathna Gray
Senior Director, External Relations and Community Engagement
Rathna has had the privilege of being a part of the Children’s Health family for more than 21 years and serves as a leader of the External Relations team. She shares the Children’s Health story with donors, volunteers and the community through unique and meaningful programs.
Suzanne Harrison
Senior Director, Donor Experience and Donor Events
Suzanne, akin to a fairy godmother of the Children’s Medical Center Foundation, has worked in various roles for the Foundation for more than two decades. She now leads the behind-the-scenes team that executes the organization’s donor events and celebrations, the creation of custom appreciation gifts and gestures for donors, as well as the development of mission centered touches that foster connection and inspiration.
Jessica Kaszynski
Senior Director, Communications
Jessica is excited to lead the communications team, whose primary goal is to position Children’s Health as the cause of choice in North Texas. She spends most of her days collaborating with Foundation colleagues on strategy to develop, implement and maintain consistent messaging that elevates the Children’s Health brand and provides a consistent voice in the community advocating for our patients.
Aracely Muñoz
Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships
Aracely leads a team focused on corporate fundraising, including Children’s Miracle Network partnerships. Aracely also collaborates with Latino leaders and influencers, through engagement, cause-marketing, and B2B initiatives to help promote Children’s Health mission of making life better for children in our community.
Candy Crespo
Director, Community Engagement
Candy brings people and organizations into Children's Health for memorable, mission connection experiences by building relationships in the hospitals and specialty centers and understanding their work. Building those strong relationships allows her to create opportunities and programs to connect community supporters with the Children’s Health mission.
Brooke Dority
Director, Donor Events
Brooke develops and executes events and activities that support donor retention, donor appreciation, and gift stewardship. Her goal is to make each donor attending an event hosted by Children's Health feel celebrated for all that they do to make life better for children.
Harmonie Farrow
Director, Annual Giving
Harmonie has a desire to help connect as many donors as possible with the areas of Children’s Health they are most passionate about. She and her team work to provide grateful patient families, employees, volunteers, community members and other supporters tailored giving opportunities to partner with Children’s Health to further its mission to make life better for children.
Matt Farrow
Director, Prospect Development & Strategy
Matt leads a team that provides fundraising intelligence to the team of gift officers at the Foundation with the goal of matching donor interest and capacity with fundraising priorities. He uses his passion for data to help provide informed and strategic direction, helping the Foundation reach its goals.
Kim Johnson
Director, Stewardship
A 20-year veteran in the non-profit industry, Kim has the joy of leading a team that ensures donors understand the incredible value of their giving and how it impacts the lives of thousands of children. Through meaningful outreach that utilizes a donor-centric voice, her team provides content and opportunity for staff to share the impact of supporter dollars.
Jessica Keen
Director, Gift Administration and Data Strategy
With her extensive knowledge of data, Jessica supports the Foundation team by developing and refining the Foundation's systems, tools, processes, reporting and analytics with the ultimate goal to support the staff's operational and fundraising teams so everyone can more effectively and efficiently achieve their goals and fulfill Children’s Health mission.
Catherine Maurer
Director, Campaign
As campaign director, Catherine's overarching role is to ensure campaign success, by partnering with team members across the Children’s Health team to develop and execute the strategies that will build community involvement and support throughout the multi-year campaign period.
Kelsey Picken
Director, Legacy and Gift Planning
Kelsey oversees best practices for a momentous and sustainable planned giving program and focuses on fully integrating the gift planning program into the work of the foundation at large, enhancing opportunities for more complex gift conversations.