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WHO
WE ARE
Staff
Board of
Directors
Megan Brown
Co-Founder, Board President, & Executive Director
meganbrown@hopefoundnea.org
Currently serves as the co-founder, board president and executive director of Hope Found. She is a Jonesboro native who graduated from Arkansas State University and is a Licensed Social Worker. In 2009 while living in Nashville, she first learned about human trafficking and then began working for Free for Life International and interned with End Slavery TN. She returned to Jonesboro in 2011 and served as the NEA Area Representative for PATH (Partners Against Trafficking Humans) until 2015. Megan is a frequent speaker on human trafficking awareness and prevention to churches, schools, civic and non-profit groups in NE Arkansas. She continues to work with law enforcement, social service providers and other nonprofits to develop a strategic response to the human trafficking occurring in NEA. Her dream is to one day provide a safe house for survivors of human trafficking. Megan is married to Ralo Brown and they have 3 children, Jude, Ruby Rae, and Raleigh.
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Kyleen Taylor
Survivor Advocate
kytaylor@hopefoundnea.org
Kyleen Taylor is the Survivor Advocate at Hope Found of NEA. She provides holistic services to survivors as well as engages in community outreach. As a graduate of Intercultural Studies from Southwest Baptist University, Kyleen enjoys helping people of all nationalities, religions, and backgrounds. She enjoys hiking with her husband, thrifting, and making pottery in her free time.
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Kassidy Murphy-Reeves
Board President
Kassidy Murphy-Reeves is a Territory Manager for AAA Cooper Transportation. She is originally from Malden, MO she moved to Jonesboro 11 years ago to attend Arkansas State University & since has enjoyed calling Jonesboro her home.
Kassidy has been married to her husband Kyle for four years, and they have a son, Kreighton.
Kassidy enjoys the lake, hiking, being with her family on their farm, baseball, cooking, & volunteering & advocating for her community as much as she can.
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Billy McKenzie
Board Secretary
Billy is Hope Found’s board secretary. She is a Pro Bono coordinator with Legal Aid of Arkansas. She joined the board of Hope Found July of 2020. Her hope for the organization is to continue to get local and state recognition as they shed light on Human Trafficking. She also wants Hope Found to continue to focus on community
outreach and public education and awareness as they strive to be proactive and lead thecommunity in providing services to victims directly affected. She is married to Cody McKenzie and they have two daughters, Laura and Lucita.
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Kimber Boone
Board Member
Kimber is the Behavioral Health Consultant and adjunct faculty member at the UAMS NE family medical residency program in Jonesboro, AR. She grew up in Wisconsin as a child but graduated high school from Mountain View, AR. She graduated from Arkansas State University, obtaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work. She holds and maintains an LMSW in Arkansas and has a vast knowledge of working with children, adults, and DCFS. Kimber, her husband, and her daughter Ava attend church at First Baptist- Trumann. Kimber enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter and fur baby and enjoys spending her time serving the community by volunteering with Together We Foster, Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, and Hope Found, being outside, and traveling.
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Bridgette Cosey-Craig
Board Member
Bridgette Craig graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in social work. Bridgette has worked in the mental health field for the last 24 years. She currently works for Methodist Behavioral Hospital as a Community Liaison for Northeast Arkansas. Bridgette says she loves serving others in need, she is passionate about her community, and this is her WHY for joining the Hope Found board and organization.
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Paige Pickering
Board Member
Paige Pickering is the Marketing Director at Life Strategies Counseling. She has been there since November 2015. She is originally from Searcy, AR but moved to Jonesboro to pursue her social work degree. Paige has been married to her husband, Anthony, for five years, and they have a daughter, Finlee, and one more little girl on the way! They attend church at Southwest Church of Christ and have two fur babies. Paige enjoys the beach, concerts, football, and yummy restaurants and advocates for mental health in her personal and professional life.
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Meredith Cook
Board Member
Meredith was born and raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She graduated from Watson Chapel High School & attended college at Arkansas State University. Her husband Justin, who she met in college is a kindergarten teacher & owns an athletic & real estate photography business.Together, they have one child, Collins Grace, who is three years old. They spend most of their free time chasing Collins Grace, traveling, cheering on the Astate Red Wolves & going to the lake with family and friends. Meredith received her Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion in 2006, which launchedher career in healthcare. She worked 4 years for a local non-profit charitable foundation in marketing and recruitment. After that, she spent the majority of her time working 11 years for St. Bernards Healthcare as the Marketing Manager. 1 year ago, she joined the Ascension Healthcare team working remotely as a Specialist in Talent Attraction, where she has focused on content strategy for campaign execution & associate storytelling.
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Whitney Eldridge
Board Member
Whitney serves as the Marketing Director for Cross Bank headquartered in Wynne, Ark. A graduate of Ouachita Baptist University, she holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications, and has worked in Marketing and Communications for more than 14 years. Thanks to her career in marketing, she has been able to support and volunteer with a number of local nonprofits through the years, including Hope Found. She is passionate about supporting local organizations making a difference in our community and is honored to be a part of Hope Found's mission to provide support, care and education about human trafficking to the community. Whitney is a native of Jonesboro and still calls it home with her husband, Tony, and three boys.
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Clara Barnes
Board Member
Clara Barnes is the newest member to the Board of Directors for Hope Found. Clara was born and raised in Poinsett county, graduating from Marked Tree High School. She received her degree in Radiology from Arkansas State University along with her Masters of Sciences Health Sciences, emphasis in Education and Administration. She is currently the Practice Manager at Pain Treatment Centers of America for the Jonesboro & Blytheville clinics. She was a Make A Wish Granter for 16 years and has been a board member for Court Appointed Special Advocates of the 2nd Judicial District (CASA) for 7 years. She is a member of Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro. Serving and encouraging others has been a life long passion in all seasons of her life. In her free time, she loves family time, spending time with friends, reading, going to concerts and travel, lots of travel. She is excited to be asked to serve Hope Found and bring awareness to our community.
Board of
Directors
Advisory
Board
Sherrie Mitchell
Sherrie serves as an advisory board member. She is a Senior Casework Manager for Congressman Rick Crawford’s District Office. She hopes to see an improved relationship with area law enforcement so that each officer is aware of the resources Hope Found provides in the community. As a result, law enforcement will increase the number of victims they refer to Hope Found.
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Natalie Gatlin
Natalie Gatlin, LMSW was a Stipend student and worked for the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) cumulatively for 6 years, serving as front-line staff and supervisor of front-line staff. Professionally she continues to work for the Title IV-E Academic Partnership in Public Child Welfare at ASU in which she has currently serviced 6 years as Field Trainer, Program Coordinator, and Interim Program Director. She received her bachelor’s degree in Social Work, master’s in social work and Certificate for Addiction Studies from ASU. She is currently working on a doctorate degree in Social Work. She has also worked as a school-based case manager and therapist and serves as a volunteer board member for Hope Found of NEA. She continues her passion for children and families, with a focus in substance use disorder, and supporting of those in recovery.
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Morgan Garner
Morgan is currently a freshman at Williams Baptist University where she is playing softball and obtaining a degree in Business Finance. She is very active member of the Fifth and Pine Church of Christ Youth Group, enjoys traveling, going to the lake, educating people on human trafficking, and spending time with family and friends. As the Miss Teen Arkansas International, she was able to take her platform, "Human Trafficking, People are not for Sale," to the national level!
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Amanda Pulley
Amanda Pulley (Casey) has seven years of experience working in anti-trafficking. As a survivor of human trafficking herself, she began her career as an advocate for those still in the life. She quickly realized her passion for impacting lives. Her strategic insight into typical advocacy methods led her to build greatly improved Advocacy and Outreach programs for ten different organizations. Writing programs, building out policies and procedures, training staff and volunteers, and seeing clients sparked her interest in practical training. Eventually, Amanda's work ethic, insights, presentation skills, and curriculum writing ability led to her desire to train human trafficking advocates in her methodology - moving the academic knowledge into practical application.
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Sarah Burnett
Sarah is a Jonesboro native who graduated with a bachelor's in Criminology and Sociology from Arkansas State University in 2016. She has worked at the Craighead County Prosecutor's Office since 2017 and since 2019 she has served as a Victim/Witness Coordinator with the Craighead County Prosecutor's Office. Sarah is very passionate about victim advocacy and victim's rights. Sarah feels most fulfilled in her career when she is helping others. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and dog Scout. She wants people to have the knowledge and the passion to stop the growing problem of Human Trafficking. The first step to a solution is to know that there is a problem and then to do our best to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.
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Founding
Members
Audra King
Audra is one of the co-founders for Hope Found. She serves as an advisory board member. She and her husband have been married for 15 years and have two beautiful girls, Collins & Charlie. They own a local bakery in Jonesboro called Southern Confections. As an organization, she hopes Hope Found’s notoriety within the community continues to increase as a reliable organization regarding information about human trafficking and that they continue to make connections with other organizations that will help us better serve future victims.
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Mary Sellers
Mary is one of the co-founders of Hope Found of NEA She is married to Chris Sellers and has five amazing daughters and four grand babies. She is the General Manager of HoneyBaked Ham here in Jonesboro. She wants to see Hope Found expand into surrounding communities and increase awareness and education in these areas.
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Miranda Ballard
Miranda is one of the co-founders for Hope Found. She is married to Tanner Ballard and lives here in Jonesboro as a Mortgage Banker at Encore Bank. She hopes Hope Found can continue to grow into a bigger footprint to help educate more communities on human trafficking.
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