2023 INSPIRE Program

Alana Bell joined the Fulcrum team in January 2021. Prior to joining Fulcrum, Alana was the director of equity and inclusion at Seattle Academy, where her focus was building community and creating equitable systems. A Seattle native, Alana has strong ties to the private school community, having been a student, educator, parent, and board member at multiple institutions. Alana’s desire to serve her community has led to opportunities to work with organizations such as the Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement and Partners for Youth Empowerment. In her free time, Alana loves to travel, cook, and continue learning.

Molly Daley is a Regional Mathematics Coordinator at ESD 112 in Southwest Washington. She designs professional learning for PK-12 educators and prospective teachers, and facilitates workshops for families and caregivers. Molly directs the Math Anywhere! project, bringing place-based math and pop-up math play to school and community events. She is the current Board Chair for Public Math and a board member for the Washington State Math Council.

Background: Before joining Finalsite Russell was an accountant at a private Catholic school in Montana for many years.  Having taken his school through implementing Finalsite and working with the product, he transitioned to Finalsite to help schools like his utilize the system and make their lives easier.  Russell holds a Master’s in Finance from Colorado State University.

Personal: Russell lives in Montana with his wife Angie and two dogs (Australian Shepard mix – Cooper, Bernese Mountain Dog – Brody).  Russ enjoys coaching high school soccer and playing Ice Hockey.

Julie Francavilla joined the Fulcrum team in 2019. Julie is a longtime friend of the Fulcrum Foundation and past Champion of Education Honoree. Most recently, Julie held the role of Development Director at St. Joseph School of Issaquah/Snoqualmie and is actively involved in serving the Lakota through Sappa Un Academy, at St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Julie is a parishioner at Sacred Heart, Bellevue where her children attended school. Julie is a familiar face in Seattle and has a deep background in communications and journalism, waking Seattle area viewers up as a favorite Seattle News anchor for KING5 and KIRO7 for more than two decades.

Rachel Franz (she/her), M.Ed., is a Certified Simplicity Parenting Life Coach and an expert on children’s consumerism issues. She is also the founding teacher of an all-outdoor preschool in Seattle, WA, and has over a decade of experience as a childcare provider for children from 0 to 15 years-old. She holds a Master’s in Early Childhood Education from Champlain College, where her research focused on instant gratification in early childhood. She is a leading expert on materialism and environmental values in children’s picture books. Rachel applies an equity and anti-bias lens to all of her work, also focusing on early childhood anti-bias curriculum and how to apply it to a variety of settings. With a former life in interior design, she also offers home and school environment design consultation.

Katie Hinderer is a social media strategist and the founder of Rosebud Social. She’s passionate about person-centered, intentional social media, and helping Catholic businesses create just that! She believes online communication should add value (not noise) while uplifting, educating, and inspiring. Prior to starting her company, Katie has worked as a Theology teacher, an Instagram influencer, a business reporter, and a marketing director.

Nikki Kloeppel is a Storyteller, Coach and Motivator. She specializes in consulting, employee development and inclusion. Her keynotes and trainings are interactive, humorous and high energy to keep people engaged so they achieve long lasting performance shifts. Nikki has coached 15,000 leaders to greater personal happiness and professional success.

She facilitates group training and coaches 1:1 for leadership and presentation shifts. She hosts a podcast, talk show and facilitates live and virtual events around the world for corporate clients and nonprofit organizations and associations. She creates transformational changes in thoughts, interactions, and behaviors so people are inspired to find more joy, connection and fulfillment.

She has been the Global Account Manager and liaison between Microsoft and Dale Carnegie Training since 2002 and is an award-winning Master Trainer in the top 1% of global trainers.

Nikki is an Educator for The Gottman Institute since 2019 delivering the famous 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work and Bringing Baby Home specializing in improving relationship and family communication.

Career Highlights:

Facilitated Master Trainer Retreat for top 30 Master clinicians at The Gottman Institute

Creator of How to Win Family and Influence Kids 32-part video learning series, YouTube

Creator/Host of podcast Practical Wisdom: Your Stories and Soul Searching Interviews with Inspiring Leaders

Speaker for Gates Foundation, Amazon, Vulcan, Intel, Panasonic, Abbott Construction, and many organizations

#3 consultant in the world out of thousands of employees Dale Carnegie Training 2019

Top 1% award within Dale Carnegie training consultants every year 2004-2019

Top 10 Speaker at Microsoft Convergence Conference in 2014 & 2015

Speaker at Women’s Conferences in US and International

Nikki has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a Psychology minor from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Nikki lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons.

Throughout the past 25 years, Alix has been engaged in education both personally and professionally. Her professional life began teaching in the public school system in San Diego in the late 90’s. When her family relocated to Spokane, Washington she became active in her parish and enrolled both of their boys in Catholic school. She was elected to the school board, which turned into a request to teach at the school. She returned to the classroom, at Cataldo Catholic School. After teaching for a few years she took on the role as Executive Director of the Nazareth Guild, the fundraising organization to support all sixteen Catholic schools in Eastern Washington.

While building relationships with all stakeholders in Catholic Education and seeing opportunities for collaboration she realized what she missed most was the interaction with students. Currently, she is the Admissions Director at Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Washington; with just a year under her belt. Known as a positive disruptor by those she works with (& for) Alix is committed to seeing and articulating value in the way things have been done while creating momentum for change.

In the last almost decade, Owen Logue has held many positions working in Admissions and Enrollment Management in both Secondary and Higher Education, in individual school and central office capacities. He has focused most of his working career on Admissions Operations, onboarding and using many state of the art CRM software and ensuring that families are receiving the best possible experience by utilizing data to shape the vision of each school’s enrollment process.

Throughout his time at Immaculata University, Cardinal O’Hara High School, and now at the Central Office of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he has played a major part in growing enrollment on a year-over-year basis, both at the individual school and system wide levels. Being a product of Catholic Education in an Archdiocesan High School himself, he believes in the value and importance of it, and works towards making a Catholic education a possibility for as many students as possible in the greater Philadelphia area.

Jocelyn Manzanarez received her BA from the University of Montana in Music Education and her MA in Music Education from the University of Washington.
She is a certified K-12 music educator in Washington state as well as a Washington state S.T.A.R.S. certified trainer for childcare providers. Jocelyn is the founder of Musically Minded, a Seattle based early childhood music education program that provides weekly music classes at childcare centers and preschools both in person and virtually.
She is a frequent presenter at conferences throughout the Pacific Northwest teaching teachers how to keep circle times fresh and fun through active, hands-on learning.
Jocelyn is the author of Circle Time Success, an early childhood music curriculum to help teachers take the overwhelm out of circle time by providing engaging activities and practical strategies that bring joy back to teaching.

Cristy McNay is a Catholic school graduate, Catholic school parent, and Catholic school enrollment management expert who challenges stakeholders to think outside of the box and in some cases, throw the box away!  She has a passion for helping Catholic schools realize full, mission-fit enrollment and her motto is “Dream beyond your fears.”
After graduating from an all-girls’ Catholic high school in Southern California, Cristy spent a few years exploring God’s plan for her life. Combining her love of service and history, she returned to school to become a teacher with the goal of serving in a Catholic school. 

In an answer to prayer, the principal of her alma mater asked if she would take on the new role of Director of Admissions. With no experience in enrollment management, she learned A LOT along the way. More importantly, her passion for serving Catholic schools blossomed.

After a few years, Cristy’s president encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree. Her research focused on stemming the tide of declining enrollment in Catholic schools. She then began her doctoral studies a year later and her research explored the profound impact that Catholic school leaders have on the success of their enrollment managers. 

With more than 11 years of enrollment growth under her belt, Cristy was approached by SchoolAdmin in the midst of the pandemic to help schools grow mission-fit enrollment and make informed strategic decisions. Faced with the opportunity to help one Catholic school v. thousands, she jumped at the latter. Her own Catholic school experience stirred her soul to help as many kids as possible reap the blessings of a Catholic education. Now a part of the Finalsite brand, she serves more than 8,000 schools around the world as an Enrollment Solutions Consultant.

Preschool Lead Teacher, Our Lady of Hope School, Everett

Kristin Moore is a Catholic school marketing expert whose creative and daring approach challenges audiences to think WAY out of the box.  Her dynamic strategy and practical resources have been shared with schools across the country and inspire a more contemporary approach to expanding the mission of our schools. 

After her graduate work at the University of San Francisco, Kristin launched her career as a classroom teacher in the Bay Area.  Witnessing first hand the transformational effect of Catholic education on the entire family, she couldn’t help but wonder who was not in her classroom and why.  Her passion for educational access deepened and her trajectory shifted.  Kristin stepped away from her first love, teaching, to pursue leadership roles in admissions, marketing, and advancement in order to provide access to a larger number of students…and she did.

Now, as Director of Marketing & Enrollment for the 72 schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle, it is not business as usual.  Kristin continues to develop innovative support initiatives to enrich, challenge, and expand the schools in Western Washington.  She has become a true leader and advocate for Latino outreach and is relentless in her efforts to grow schools into the future. 

Kristin is a national speaker on marketing and enrollment topics in addition to being a member of two national marketing groups where there is a generous exchange of ideas and a desire to develop compelling, effective, and unified messaging for Catholic schools. 

Oh, did we mention that Kristin speaks a little Spanish?  When she is not speaking Spanish in her sleep (it’s true!), she is outdoors exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, sweating for miles on her Peloton, and is an unofficial foodie.

Sr. Rosemarie Nassif, SSND, Ph.D., a School Sister of Notre Dame, is the Executive Director of the Center for Catholic Education. Prior to her recent appointment she worked at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, serving as Program Director for the Catholic Sisters and Catholic Schools priority areas from 2012 to 2017, during which time she led the granting of $90 million to Catholic Sisters in 23 countries and $25 million to Catholic schools in the U.S.

From 2009-2012 she served as senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Education where she had lead responsibility for achieving President Obama’s 2020 College Completion goal. She was president of two universities, Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore and Holy Names University in Oakland. She has had professional experiences in Japan, Honduras, China, Rome, Korea, London, Italy and Israel as well as in six countries in Africa.

Erin Oest-Larsen has 20+ years of fundraising experience and is currently the Chief Development Officer with the Archdiocese of Seattle. She’s held such positions as Associate Director of Advancement with The University of Washington, Director of Donor Relations with Woodland Park Zoo, and most recently as Director of Advancement with St. Joseph School Seattle. Areas of nonprofit focus have been annual campaigns, philanthropic events, leading boards, committees, and volunteers.

Erin holds a M.S. in Nonprofit Management and is a certified fundraising professional. In her spare time, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and two daughters, playing tennis, gardening, and traveling to her beloved hometown of New Orleans.

Father Justin Ryan is a priest in the Archdiocese of Seattle. After ordination in 2018, he served as parochial vicar at St. Charles Borromeo in Tacoma and as Associate Director of Vocations. In July 2021 he was appointed Director of Vocations. Born and raised in the Archdiocese, Fr. Ryan grew up attending St. Brendan’s Catholic School and Parish in Bothell where he received all his sacraments. He then graduated from Archbishop Murphy High School and received an Accounting degree from Gonzaga University.

The journey toward priesthood began in his parish and school life, where certain teachers and priests accompanied him through the twists and turns of discernment. After working in commercial real estate appraisal in Spokane, Fr. Ryan embraced the call to priesthood after years of discerning and entered seminary in 2013. Upon completing pre-theology studies at Mount Angel Seminary, Fr. Ryan received a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) from the University of St. Mary’s of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in 2018, and is pursuing a Licentiate with a focus in Spiritual Theology also from USML.

This focus on spiritual theology stems from the desire to help people recognize and articulate the many encounters they are having with God. Serving as vocation director, Fr. Ryan has a passion for helping facilitate a “culture of vocations” within parishes in our Archdiocese. This includes preaching on vocations and celebrating Holy Hours for vocations, giving talks for youth groups and at young adult events, while also coordinating with pastors and lay ecclesial ministers to encourage young people to embrace their call from the Lord.

Leslie is the Business Manager for Our Lady of Fatima Parish School. In her role she manages enrollment, payments, donations, bank and credit card reconciliation, collections, financial policies, and develops the tuition change recommendations each year. She manages the financial aid process, analyzing need, and making aid recommendations and consults with the principal on the financial state of the school. In her time at OLF she has improved tuition collection rates to 100%/year, up from a low of 87% and has helped to increase the annual Parent Partnership pledges (OLF’s parent donation program) from an average annual amount of  $75K when she started to a high of $208K with near 100% collection of those pledges for the past five years.

Prior to joining OLF, Leslie spent 20 years in banking, 15 years in international payments systems and has authored one book “The Once and Future History of Payments” commissioned by VISA.  

Kendra; creative strategist, educator, and motivational speaker. 

From a young age, it was evident that Kendra possessed a profound passion for entrepreneurship. She was always enamored with the idea of building something from scratch and transforming it into something meaningful.

In 2020, SHE MADE GOD HER BUSINESS COACH and gave birth to Socialdox, a global creative resource that has become a leading source of visual communication for over 850+ business owners seeking branding education and marketing expertise.

Socialdox has quickly become a top creative hack resource on TikTok + Instagram with over 5.5 million views and 175k subscribers across various platforms. Kendra plans to continue providing creative education through short-form video courses and digital products.

Kendra’s vision extends far beyond her words and heart. She aspires to create programs and safe spaces for high school students, allowing them to explore new skills and find their creative voice.

Despite facing significant struggles with poverty, grief, and brokenness, Kendra remains steadfast in her belief that God has been intentionally leading her life. 

As a Development Director, I possess 20 years of experience in the higher education industry. My expertise lies in building relationships and partnerships, as well as leading various efforts in major gifts, social media, fundraising, recruiting, event planning, and nonprofit management. I am a results-driven self-starter and team player with an optimistic outlook, always seeking a challenge and striving to exceed expectations.

My development skills include soliciting major gifts from both corporations and individuals, managing annual giving campaigns, managing fundraising events, as well as overseeing nonprofit management and database/CRM management.

Furthermore, I have strong marketing skills, particularly in social media management and graphic design. I have a demonstrated history of managing both social media and print media, with a high level of proficiency in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

I hold a Master’s degree from Idaho State University and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Utah. With my strong background in community and social services, I am confident in my ability to make a positive impact in any organization I work with.

Amy Whistler is a Client Success Manager at Finalsite, specializing in diocesan schools. She is your go-to resource for ensuring your site is working efficiently and optimally.

Amy has worked in Support, Onboarding, and now Client Success, and has a wide range of product knowledge to share. Her role is to support diocesan schools, from new to seasoned users, helping them to grow with the system and learn how to use it to its full potential. 

Before joining Finalsite, Amy worked in the financial industry and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. With four children, ranging in ages from 13 to 26, she understands the parent perspective of completing admissions and enrollment requirements and is a proponent of maintaining clear and simple processes. 

In her spare time, Amy enjoys traveling, kayaking, and exploring the hiking trails around Austin, TX. Her favorite place to be is at the beach with a good book.