Board & Staff
Officers
Alba Weaver, Chair – Economic Development Project, OG&E
Leslie Osborn, Vice-Chair – Oklahoma State Labor Commissioner
Dr. Leslie Hudson, Secretary – Epidemiologist, Community Volunteer
Stephanie Mendenhall, CPA – CFO, Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
Elizabeth Eickman – Director, Kirkpatrick Family Fund
Rev. Dr. Lori Walke, Immediate Past Chair – Associate Minister, Mayflower Congregational UCC Church
Members
Dr. Teri Bell – Retired, Executive Director of Student Services, OKCPS
Paco Balderrama – Deputy Chief, Oklahoma City Police Department
Shante Fenner – Oklahoma State Department of Education
Dr. Nelson Fong – Obstetrician & Gynecologist, Lakeside Women’s Hospital
Eran Harrill – OK National Guard
Jorge Hernandez – President & Senior Partner, Tango PR
Penny Voss – VP of Development, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Laura Lang, CFRE, CEO (she/her/hers)
Laura Lang is the CEO of Thrive: Sexual Health Collective for Youth. Laura is a nonprofit leader with more than twenty years of dedicated service in the social services and social justice arena. Her extensive experience includes positions at leading nonprofits in the Oklahoma City area, including the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) and the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Her well-rounded skills include executive-level management, strategic planning, fundraising, communications, project management, program development, and budget and financial oversight. Laura graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism. She earned the Certified Fundraising Executive certification in 2008. She and her husband, George, and their son, Sam, live in Oklahoma City with their dogs Ozzie and Finn.
Brittney Criswell, MPH, CHES, Senior Director of Programs (she/her/hers)
Brittney holds a Master’s of Public Health degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and is a Certified Health Educator Specialist through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing. She has over ten years of experience in health promotion, program planning and program implementation with concentrations of adolescent sexual health, employee and organizational wellness, and student health and wellbeing.
Brittney currently serves as the Senior Director of Programs for Thrive. As Senior Director, Brittney leads Thrive’s program team responsible for coordinating and facilitating the Collaboration’s comprehensive plan activities. Working in conjunction with public and private partners, Brittney ensures that all of central Oklahoma’s leaders in sexual health work together effectively to serve youth and the caring adults in their lives.
Brittney’s favorite modes of self-care include exercise, binge-watching Netflix, and spending time with her husband Jeff, kids Boston and Berkeleigh, dog Penny, and cat Addison.
Sharayah Fore, MA, Senior Director of Data and Evaluation (she/her/hers)
Sharayah graduated magna cum laude with a masters in experimental psychology from the University of Central Oklahoma. While at UCO, she was a researcher and teacher's assistant for multiple classes while also being a member of the Interpersonal Processes and Social Cognition Laboratory, holding the position of lab coordinator for two years.
Sharayah has six years of experience working with Oklahoma Health Care Authority as a senior research analyst with the majority of her time being in the reporting and data unit. In that time, she helped develop several new evaluations and summary reports as well as served on multi-agency workgroups to fulfill public health needs in the community. Additionally, she served as head of the DSS user committee to establish reporting best practices, develop new user training and disseminate system updates and changes.
Sharayah is dedicated to driving decision-making with data to make informed decisions that are able to impact the most vulnerable populations. She is an advocate of educating young women to help them to reach their goals in life and empower the next generation of leaders.
Sharayah's favorite modes of self-care are playing volleyball, hiking outdoors and playing any sort of board games. Most of all, she enjoys spending time with her son, Desmond.
Tosha Baird, Director of Strategic Partnerships (she/her/hers)
Tosha Baird is the director of strategic partnership with Thrive. She has an extensive history working in the nonprofit sector and has dedicated her career to working with vulnerable and at risk populations. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, her experiences include education, mental health, domestic violence, and crisis response. Tosha has a passion for leadership development, teaching, equity/inclusion, and building relationships. She is committed to breaking down barriers and making positive change in our community. Tosha’s favorite modes of self-care include reading, art, puzzles, and bubble baths.
Sasha Hughes, MA, Project Coordinator (she/her/hers)
As a non-traditional adult learner, Sasha graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Organizational Leadership from the University of Central Oklahoma. Having obtained all six tenets of Transformative Learning, Sasha is now working on her MBA at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Sasha has amassed over a decade of combined experience in hospitality and health care, as well as three years recruiting, training, and connecting young people to employment opportunities. It was during this time that Sasha was able to grow her love for helping others as well as growing her skills in project coordination, professional communication, and leadership skills.
Sasha is committed to helping the younger generation obtain education and opportunities to make an impact on their communities. She has joined Thrive as the Project Coordinator, convening, supporting and connecting the partner network of content and context experts, to make the biggest impact.
Sasha’s favorite modes of self-care include writing. She has written Weekend Warrior blogs for Oklahoma City’s own Metro Family Magazine. She also enjoys spending time with her family, working out, cooking and entertaining.
Amy Jenkins, Evaluation Coordinator (she/her/hers)
Amy’s dedication to sexual health promotion began in high school, when she grew up without receiving sex ed and saw the consequences of withholding sexual health information. As friends and classmates became unintentionally pregnant, have no idea how to treat or manage STIs, and survive intimate partner violence, the most common reaction she heard was, “I didn’t know what to do.” Consequently, Amy went on to get her Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations at the University of Oklahoma, with a focus on social justice and nonprofit management, and served as a peer sexual health educator and Planned Parenthood volunteer. She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at George Washington University in the Health Promotion program. In her studies, she has focused on reproductive health, historic and present reproductive racialized violence, and program planning and evaluation.
Prior to this role, Amy served as the Freshmen Diversity Experience coordinator at the University of Oklahoma, the program assistant for Thrive, the communications fellow at SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, and has done social media and public health consulting.
For self-care, Amy enjoys to knit, hike, and unwind with a bourbon cocktail made by her husband, Jake.
Brittany Keck, Project REACH Manager (she/her/hers)
Brittany has been working in youth and family education for the past decade with an expertise in sexuality education. Her bachelor’s degree is in family life education from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she focused on child and adolescent development. Brittany’s main goal is to make a positive impact on families.
She began working in sexuality education in 2013 by providing comprehensive sexuality education classes for Oklahoma middle and high school students. From there she became the Education Coordinator for the collaborative sex education efforts in Oklahoma County. In addition to her work in sexuality education, Brittany also works as a Family Life Educator. In this role, she works directly with new parents, challenging them to work on their relationships as they work to build emotionally strong foundations for their children.
Brittany’s favorite modes of self-care include kayaking, fishing and camping. Family time with her husband and daughter consist of family game nights, movie nights and dance parties. Brittany also loves country music, gardening, true crime podcasts and all things Harry Potter.
