Board

Mike grew up in Egypt and moved to the United States at age 18. Mike attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he obtained both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering. He also has an MBA degree from Strayer University. Mike has been in the wireless communication field for over 16 years. He worked with telecom OEMs like ALU and Ericsson but for the past 10 years, he has been with Verizon Wireless and is currently leading a team that is responsible for building and upgrading Verizon's network in the Pacific Northwest region.

Mike comes from a large family. He has 5 sisters and a brother. Mike has 3 children (Matteo 13, Alessandra 11, and Marco 9). Mike enjoys extreme outdoor sports and does a lot of skydiving, skiing, mountaineering, hiking, scuba diving, and long-distance cycling in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Mike has a passion for mentoring young adults and sharing his childhood struggles and how the adversities he overcame growing up shaped his path in life today.

Kathryn Aupperlee has been on the Ambassador Board of Friends of the Children since 2016. She was first introduced to the program in 2014 through a friend and after learning more about their mission, decided to get involved. Growing up, her parents taught her both the importance of giving back and how to throw a good party. Fittingly, she led the ABoard to launch a new fundraising event, Solstice Soiree, which was successfully held two years in a row, prior to pausing during the pandemic. Most recently, she has served on the host committee for Friends' signature event, Inspiring Greatness.

Kathryn has had a varied business career that includes roles at a real estate investment bank, Amazon, a tech start-up, and a food manufacturer. Currently, she is raising capital for commercial real estate projects. Kathryn holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BBA from Emory University. She grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and currently resides in Seattle with her husband, two young daughters, and Old English Sheepdog. She loves playing tennis, traveling, and drinking a good glass of red wine.

Jeffrey Beaver has extensive experience as a trial lawyer and focuses his practice on condemnation, financial institutions, and commercial litigation. Jeffrey has represented clients in a variety of industries, including transportation, timberlands, financial services, and manufacturing. He has successfully tried numerous multimillion-dollar cases and has obtained favorable verdicts or settlements in some of our area’s largest eminent domain cases.

Jeffrey successfully defended a salmon processor in a four-month class action jury trial against antitrust allegations that the processor conspired with other processors and foreign importers to fix prices in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The class in that case sought damages in excess of $1 billion.

He has represented Sound Transit since 2000 and continues to try cases for the firm’s real estate and banking clients. Following a recent bench trial, Jeffrey successfully defended a commercial bank against allegations of wrongful foreclosure. Jeffrey has also obtained successful verdicts for Sound Transit in the acquisition of real property for the extension of the East Link and North Link light rail projects. Earlier this year, Jeffrey and his team successfully convinced a jury to offset the value loss to property being condemned based on special benefits accruing to the subject property from the presence of the public project for which a portion of the property was taken.

Jeffrey has also been actively involved in the American Bar Association’s efforts to provide advocacy training and assistance to Sudanese lawyers representing victims of the Darfur conflict before the International Criminal Court. In 2018, Jeffrey spent two months of his sabbatical in the Republic of Tanzania where he worked with Lawyers Without Borders and other NGOs in country to fight human and wildlife trafficking in the region. Early in his career, Jeffrey was a member of the Hirabayashi coram nobis team.

Sarah Cox is Associate University Counsel in the Office of University Counsel at Seattle University. Sarah joined Seattle U after spending almost a decade in private practice, most recently working in commercial litigation at Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP. Sarah graduated with high honors from the University of Washington School of Law, where she also served as Managing Editor of the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal (now the Washington Journal of International Law). She also completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, where she graduated magna cum laude and double majored in Political Science and Journalism.

Sarah is a Washington native and lives in Seattle with her husband, Aaron, and cat, Lily. She began working with Friends of the Children five years ago, first as a volunteer tutor and member of the Ambassador Board, before making the transition to the Board of Directors. Sarah also volunteers with the King County Bar Association’s Pro Bono Clinics, and in her spare time enjoys rooting for local sports teams and spending time with friends and family.

Carmen Decker joined Kimco in 2011 and currently serves as the President of the Western Region. Ms. Decker oversees over 169 shopping centers in the Western US consisting of 33.5 million square feet. In this capacity, Ms. Decker is responsible for strategic planning, acquisitions, asset management, dispositions, leasing, property management, construction, and development. Ms. Decker has over 18 years of shopping center experience. Prior to her current position, Ms. Decker was the Vice President of Leasing & Asset Management for Kimco’s Pacific Northwest Sub-Region and spent 9 years as a Leasing & Sales Broker in both San Francisco and Seattle.

Ms. Decker holds a B.A. degree from University of Washington and is an Alumni of the Harvard Business School Program in Leadership Development. She is a licensed real estate broker in Washington, a member of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) and the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers).

Katie is a Director in the Advisory practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). She specializes in providing Software industry clients with litigation services, focusing on the financial aspects of patent and antitrust matters. Katie is thrilled to be a board member of Friends of the Children. She has been involved with youth mentorship for years through church youth groups and summer camps. In 2012, she began devoting time to PwC’s financial literacy and digital upskilling program. After returning from a trip to Belize, where Katie spent time teaching skills to Belizean youth, Katie was energized and inspired by what type of effect caring adults can make on the lives of disadvantaged youth. She soon developed a relationship with the Seattle chapter of Friends of the Children and has been involved ever since. Katie loves spending time with her husband and three young children, who help to remind her how much love, support, and guidance all kids need.

Avi Joshi is the Head of Product at Aloft Appraisal, a Seattle-based startup in the real estate valuation space. Previously, Avi worked in product management at Amazon as well as corporate strategy and finance at The Walt Disney Company.

Avi first got involved in volunteering with youth as a music teaching assistant at an after-school center in South Central Los Angeles. He saw firsthand the impact that consistent quality personal interactions and structured activities can have in building up youth. After relocating to Seattle, Avi became acquainted with Friends of the Children and was immediately attracted to its mission and unique model of paid mentorship. He joined the Board of Directors in 2019 and continues to be inspired by the everyday impact Friends of the Children is having in the Seattle community.

Avi holds an AB Cum Laude in Economics from Harvard College and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Prosper is a first generation Nigerian-American who was raised in the Dallas, Texas area. He comes from a close-knit family that highly values education, community, and giving back.

Prosper has an undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and an MBA from Texas A&M University. He moved from Texas to the Puget Sound area in 2017 to continue his budding career as a Corporate Finance and Strategy Specialist at Microsoft. This past October, however, he joined a rapidly growing food automation startup, called Picnic, as their new Director of Financial Planning & Analysis. Currently, he works at Amazon.

Prosper is passionate about helping others, outreach, entrepreneurship, innovation, and relationship-building. He enjoys playing and watching sports, volunteering, traveling, cooking AND eating, trying new things, and spending time with family and friends…especially his 3 year-old daughter, Semaya.

"If you want to keep happiness, you have to share it."

-Dale Carnegie

From the first time Jerome attended a FOC fundraiser years ago, he knew Friends of the Children was a very special place. He was not only inspired by the mission, but he was also awestruck by the dedicated and talented staff and the impact that the organization had on the lives of our youth. Believing deeply in the cause, he was excited to join the board in 2017.

Growing up, Jerome was taught the importance of service and giving back to the community. Whether it involved assisting with construction projects in an economically disadvantaged country or serving meals here at home, he and his wife involved their children making service a family value with the hopes this value will be passed down for generations to come.

Although he was raised in the other Washington, Jerome has lived in Seattle most of his life. He graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC with a degree in Business Administration. He is also an alumnus of the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas. He enjoys spending his free time with friends and family. He loves traveling with his family and believes that there is more to education than books. An avid home improvement show junkie, he likes to test his skills and abilities on the weekends.

Monique Taylor is a Seattle native with a passion for supporting her community. Her background is in DEI and social justice work within higher education and nonprofits. Specifically, her career has spanned admissions & recruitment, communications strategy, teaching, coaching/advising/mentorship, and program management. Monique currently works for the University of Washington Bothell, where she’s serves as Assistant Director for Student Outreach and Communications in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences.

Monique is a strong believer in the value of mentoring and cultivating community care for youth. She was inspired to join the board after learning of its mission and seeing a clear alignment between the work of Friends of the Children and her values. It brings her great joy to be able to support her community in this capacity.

Monique holds a B.A. in Advertising from the University of San Francisco and a M.Ed. in Student Development Administration from Seattle University. In her free time, she enjoys curling up with a good book, exploring Seattle’s amazing restaurant scene, traveling, and watching movies at home with her partner and their dog, King.