OUR TEAM

Our diverse team consists of people that find a calling to serve the community by ultimately making it safer. Led by Neeraj Singh as the founder the company seeks to develop a community of belonging through the celebration of life. The Abja Foundation team is purposed to fundraise, develop, and lead out programs for the kids that do not have parents or guardians. The eclectic team is always open to new members interested in taking leadership roles in the foundation. Please take the time to look at the people in our leadership circle and feel free to reach out to find out how you can get involved or make a contribution.

Staff

Neeraj Singh has continually worked towards positively impacting communities on a local and global scale for over a decade. He started during his time at the University of Redlands in California where he volunteered with the Big Buddies and YMCA youth mentorship programs. He graduated from the University of Redlands in 2006 with a BS in Business and a BA in Economics then joined Heart to Heart International Children’s Medical Alliance, an organization that aims to improve global health by helping doctors and nurses get to where they are needed most. He implemented his fundraising and marketing skills as a Program Assistant and travelled to Russia to provide logistical support to the developing program in Samara.

After finishing his time with Heart to Heart International Children’s Medical Alliance, he pursued an MBA at University of California in Davis. His post MBA experience includes consulting for large enterprises and small companies in the wine industry while continuing to volunteer for local non-profits such as the Napa Valley Vintners and the Jimmy V. Foundation. Neeraj is returning to his non-profit roots with the goal of helping reduce the depression and suicide rates among Syrian refugee children. He is currently learning Arabic and will travel to Lebanon in the fall of 2017 to lay the foundation for a pilot program which will be implemented in the first half of 2018.

Our Team

Our diverse team consists of people that find a calling to serve the community by ultimately making it safer. Led by Neeraj Singh as the founder the company seeks to develop a community of belonging through the celebration of life. The Abja Foundation team is purposed to fundraise, develop, and lead out programs for the kids that do not have parents or guardians. The eclectic team is always open to new members interested in taking leadership roles in the foundation. Please take the time to look at the people in our leadership circle and feel free to reach out to find out how you can get involved or make a contribution.

Staff

Betsy Rose is a singer, songwriter, and mindfulness teacher/practitioner. Her musical programs for youth and educators focus on mindfulness and emotional awareness, being and making peace, and care of the earth. She is part of the Family Practice Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (Woodacre, CA)., and a frequent presenter at regional and national Early Childhood Education, and Mindfulness conferences. In 2015-16 she spent 5 months in Asia and Africa, bringing empowering and healing songs to a wide variety of groups- from earthquake survivors in Nepal to tribal and Dalit children in India, to former sex workers in Kenya, to women peace activists in Liberia.

Betsy was first introduced to mindfulness practice through Vietnamese Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh, whom she met in 1987 and with whom she has traveled and sung nationally and internationally. Her recordings include Calm Down Boogie, mindfulness songs for children and families; Motherlight, songs of the journey of parenting; and Heart of a Child, featuring music from her parenting and educator workshops.

Carol Swann has been teaching voice, somatics (movement re-patterning & psychology), Alexander Technique, Authentic Movement, Contact and Performance Improvisation for 35 years in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Israel and Russia. She is Co-Founder and Director of Moving On Center School of Participatory Arts and Somatic Education which links somatics and the performing arts for social change (1994-2015).

She has been the Assistant Director and primary faculty to Martha Eddy in the Dynamic Embodiment & Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DE-SMTT). She is a registered movement therapist/educator (RSMT, RSME through ISMETA) with a private practice in Somatic Psychology (blending Hakomi Method and Process Work) and the Alexander Technique.

She is a group process and conflict facilitator and weaves her extensive studies and practices in Social Somatics, Body-Mind Centering and Laban/Bartenieff into all of her work. She has shared her dynamic, liberatory singing with groups of people internationally. Her work is influenced by her parents Bob and Marj Swann, Steve Paxton, Bonnie Cohen, Arnold Mindell, Ron Kurtz, John Cage, Meredith Monk, Balkan Singing, nature, and the history and practice of liberatory politics.

Advisors

Ilene A. Serlin, Ph.D, BC-DMT is a licensed psychologist and registered dance/movement therapist in practice in San Francisco and Marin county. She is the past president of the San Francisco Psychological Association, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, past-president of the Division of Humanistic Psychology. Ilene Serlin is Associated Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, has taught at Saybrook University, Lesley University, UCLA, the NY Gestalt Institute and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich.

She is the editor of Whole Person Healthcare (2007, 3 vol., Praeger), over 100 chapters and articles on body, art and psychotherapy, and is on the editorial boards of PsycCritiques, the American Dance Therapy Journal, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, Journal of Applied Arts and Health, and The Humanistic Psychologist.

Michaela K. Rodeno, retired CEO and vintner, Haas MBA, marketer, entrepreneur, director Silicon Valley Bank 2001-2011.

Rodeno has a rich history in Northern California as she has been prevalent presence in the valley. Having her on our team as a director of finances helps us ensure that we keep our operating costs at a minimum so that 80%+ of the money received goes towards our programs in benefit of the communities at risk kids.

Tresa Eyres is a business consultant with a career history of helping organizations improve their productivity and increase their reach. Her client list includes Fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of industries and non-profits.

She now donates the majority of her time to assisting U.S. and global non-profits in their missions to educate and level the playing field for women, minorities, children and youth, and the under-served in general.

Her work includes bringing teams together to agree, plan, act, and succeed; documenting business processes and developing custom learning programs to help organizations become more effective and/or scale; and capturing and creating the kind of stories about people and organizations that resonate with target audiences. Tresa has an MA in education from Michigan State University. She is the co-author of business and career self-help books. She lives and works in San Francisco.