Leadership – You Gotta Believe

We believe in what we do. So, it’s no surprise that many of our staff and board have a personal connection to our mission.

Twenty three years after our founding in 1995, our staff and Board continue to be true believers in our model and some would even testify to its efficacy – since many are themselves, permanent parents to youth. Some of our staff and board are also former foster youth; in essence each member of our board and leadership team has a personal connection to our mission which informs their passion and commitment to the agency.

Executive Director

Jennifer Pinder

Executive Director

Jennifer Pinder joins YGB with more than 20 years of nonprofit and corporate experience, most recently at the social science research firm, IMPAQ International. There, Ms. Pinder was a strategic leader in partnerships with multiple Federal agencies including the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation; the Office of Head Start; the Children’s Bureau; the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“As an adoptee, I have a unique appreciation for the loving, lifelong support network a family provides and I am excited to join an organization that has an established, 25-year history of finding permanent families for older children in foster care,” says Ms. Pinder. “I look forward to working with the talented and committed YGB staff and board, many of whom were either adopted from foster care or are parents to kids adopted from foster care. I am eager to continue our collaboration with Children’s Village and grow our partnerships in the field to continue YGB’s mission.”

Senior Advisor

Mary T. Keane

SENIOR ADVISOR & Foster/Adoptive Parent

Ms. Keane has been a dedicated employee of YGB since 2004. Before stepping into the Interim Executive Director role in 2017, Ms. Keane served as Senior Director of Family Permanency and Director of LGBT Services. She oversees YGB efforts to provide capacity building and technical assistance to agencies wishing to improve permanency outcomes, and is responsible for our our youth-specific recruitment work by supervising the recruitment teams and coordinating services to the teens, their families, foster care staff and social workers. Additionally, Keane is an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and parents and is the leadership behind YGB’s LGBTQ programming and our efforts to recruit and prepare permanent families from the LGBT community.

On top of her Executive Director role, Keane has been a foster mom to almost two dozen teenagers and is currently the adoptive mother of 13 children. She is a highly recognized speaker both locally and nationally–about her experiences as a parent as well as her YGB-focused advocacy for permanency for every child, regardless of age.