Our Boards

Kelli works as a real estate agent for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Elevated Living in Evergreen. When not selling real estate, she enjoys an active mountain lifestyle biking, running and enjoying the outdoors. Kelli has also been active in the local real real estate board (Mountain Metro Association of Realtors) and local charter school board (Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen). Her family includes, a biological daughter and son-​in-​law, 2 grandsons and 3 adopted children from Korea. The family has attended Korean Heritage Camp for over 15 years. Kelli is beginning her 4th year as a Director for KHC and has traveled to Korea four times to visit birth families and foster mothers. KHC has provided her family with a lifeline to Korean culture, amazing friendships and support with adoption related issues.

SoYoung is a Korean adoptee and has been attending KHC since 2000. She has been a counselor at various HCAF camps (both Chinese camps and African/Caribbean camp), as well a counselor coordinator, and program coordinator. SoYoung involves herself deeply in her adoptee community and AAPI community. She is on the Asian Pacific Americans (APA) board at her work where she dedicates time to help involve employees and their families in AAPI heritage and culture. SoYoung changed her name to her Korean name during COVID to feel closer to her Korean roots and has since gone by SoYoung. SoYoung is a project coordinator at Comcast Business and has had many opportunities at work and outside of work to showcase her leadership abilities. In her free time, SoYoung loves cuddling with her two adorable cats, going out to eat new food, and traveling the world. HCAF has always been a large center of SoYoung’s world and she hopes to continue to make a great impact for camps in the future while being part of the board.

Jenny Gawronski and her wife are the proud parents of two adopted children. As a family, they attend the African Caribbean Heritage Camp (ACHC), where their kids explore their African heritage, build lifelong friendships, and thrive in community with other adopted children and families. As both a parent and board member, Jenny is deeply committed to supporting the mission of Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families. Her areas of focus include fostering inclusion for LGBTQIA+ members and strengthening the recruitment and retention of new families across HCAF’s camps.

Originally from Minneapolis, Jenny has lived in Pittsburgh, Boulder, Göteborg, Baton Rouge, Alamosa, and Seattle before settling in Denver in 2022. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in Teacher Education from the University of Washington. A former high school art teacher, Jenny has taught in higher education for more than a decade in both fine arts and teacher education. Her research examines how student teachers use technology across learning environments, with a particular focus on media ecologies and observation practices.

Outside of work, Jenny enjoys spending time with her family, cheering on the WNBA (Go Lynx!), and rollerblading with their two dogs.

Julia is an adoptee from India (and Denver native!) and has been attending Heritage Camps since the first India camp in 1995. She has been a camper, counselor, workshop teacher, and is currently one of INHC’s co-directors. This community has had a profound impact on her life and motivates her dedication to HCAF. Julia’s mom was also very involved in the HCAF community and served as a camp co-director and coordinator, and now Julia is thrilled to be carrying on the family tradition of volunteering for Heritage Camps.   With a background in global mental health and program evaluation, Julia has been serving Denver communities for 10 years in various capacities such as crisis clinician/therapist, nonprofit volunteer, and now as Senior Program Manager for the Office of Nonprofit Engagement. In this role Julia works to build the capacity of small, local nonprofits as well as strengthen Denver’s nonprofit sector as a whole. In her free time Julia and her husband enjoy traveling, golfing, attending sporting events, and spending quality time with their friends.

Sanjiv is a Senior Project Manager at KDC Architects/​Engineers, PC in Denver. Sanjiv, his wife Namita, and their two daughters, have been instrumental in bringing authentic Indian culture to our Indian/Nepalese Heritage Camp for many years. Sanjiv joined the board because “after 12 years of being in awe of the generous parents nurturing these balanced and beautiful adopted children, and both surpassing differences and man-​made limitations to form a worldly family unit, I feel privileged to be on the board of this organization.”

Jared is an Adult Adoptee from Vietnam and attends Southeast Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Camp (SEAPI). In 2006, he first connected with HCAF when he was invited to perform original songs about his adoptee journey at camp and over the past 18 years he feels that he’s grown so much as an Adoptee and has also watched many others grow up to be amazing adults. Every year, he looks forward to returning to the mountains to visit with his second family and the friends he’s made for life.

Ben is a freelance musician based out of the Denver metro area. He works as the percussion instructor at Overland High School, is a sales associate at Denver Percussion, and writes music for local schools and groups. Ben is an adoptee from Guatemala and has been attending Latin American Heritage camp for over 20 years. Ben attended camp as a camper for 18 years before becoming a counselor, presenter and now counselor coordinator. He continues to come back year after year because of the life-long friends he has made. His area of focus on the HCAF board is to expand and create strong community relations with adoptees and their families.

Eric is President of the law firm Inman Flynn Biesterfeld & Brentlinger, P.C. based in Denver, Colorado. Eric and his wife Alison have a biological son, Mason, and an adopted son, Cameron, from Hanoi, Vietnam. Eric loves to travel, play tennis, ski and bike. Eric and Alison deeply appreciate the positive impact that Southeast Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Camp has on not only Sophia, but their entire family. They love the feeling of community and the confidence it gives their daughter. Eric is looking forward to helping continue HCAF’s great work for adoptive families.

Lara Waters is a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin.  She and her husband, Chris, adopted two boys from Russia in 2011 (ages 2.5 and 3.5).  The Waters started attending the Russian / Eastern European / Central Asian (REECA) Heritage Camp in 2012.   Lara and Chris have been lunch coordinators for seven of those years.  Lara was the Adult Workshop coordinator those seven years too, and in 2017 also served as the co-director.  The Waters enjoy watching movies, hiking, and taking family trips (with the primary theme being to U. S. National Parks).  Our REECA weekend always brings us closer together as a family and fulfills all of us, and I would like to help HCAF continue to grow and be known to others.

Scot was an engineer for a decade but now directs data analytic and strategic projects at Charles Schwab. He and his wife, Becca, have three teenagers – two adopted domestically with Latin American heritage and the youngest adopted from South Korea. Scot enjoys travel hacking, eating (and cooking) adventurously, and playing piano, organ, tennis, and volleyball. The Wayes have been to Korean Heritage Camp (KHC) since 2016 and visited South Korea in 2017 to experience the culture firsthand and visit their child’s foster mother. At camp, they have found a community that has helped support them tackle challenges facing adoptees from mental health to racism to belonging while experiencing Korean culture and having fun with families that look like them. Scot hopes to give back to HCAF by supporting strategic planning and data-driven decisions so camps stay strong and grow for all families that participate.