Our Team
The Springfield Promise Neighborhood intends to recruit and hire Springfield residents with the skills, and more importantly, the desire, to serve their community.
If you are interested in being part of our team, please contact us.
Ashley Moore, Visioning Garden Manager
Ashley started as a neighborhood gardener in our newly renovated Kitchen Vegetable Garden, and began to share her knowledge with other participants. It was a natural fit to select her as our part-time Garden Manager. Since she joined the team in February of 2021, Ashley, along with many families and volunteers, grew and distributed over 4,000 pounds of fresh foods to the Springfield community.
Ashley is a mother to two high schoolers, and if she's not at the garden she is either going to or coming from an athletic practice, game, or meet!
Jesica Jackson, Youth Development Coordinator
Jesica is a born-and-raised Springfielder who has worked for the Promise Neighborhood in multiple capacities. Prior to the pandemic, she served as the after-school director for Lincoln Elementary's 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, for which Promise was the main community partner organization. She rejoined the team in 2021 as the Youth Development Director to oversee after-school and summer programming. Having raised multiple children, Jesica has a passion for children and setting a good path for their success. She is also part of Restored Life Ministries' outreach team and the City's Community Development action team.
Jon Upshaw, Healthy Families Coordinator
Jon is from a multi-generation Springfield family and has worked in and around Springfield schools for most of his career. First working as an after-school program assistant at Fulton Elementary's 21st Century Community Learning Center grant and as a paraprofessional. Jon served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with Promise from 2021 to 2022, and was selected as the Healthy Families Coordinator in Fall of 2022. He has published a novel and is working on its sequel. He loves spending time with his family.
Kali Lawrence, Executive Director
Kali is a graduate of Wittenberg University, where she first started volunteering for the Promise Neighborhood and took classes from its founder, Dr. Bob Welker. She served three terms as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, as an administrative assistant, and as Co-Director before Dr. Bob officially retired in 2019. Kali is originally from Elyria, Ohio. Thanks to her dad's love of nature, she also volunteers for People for Safe Water and loves spending time outdoors on her bike or in her kayak.
Krisi Clark, Youth Development Assistant
Krisi is a newly graduated MSW from Case Western Reserve University. She has served with the Promise Neighborhood through three VISTA terms, and now works part-time as a Youth Development Assistant. She supports extended learning programming, and her yearlong mentorship and peer support program "Promise Gems" has now expanded "Promise Kingz" for boys and to multiple schools in Springfield. She has also served with Upward Bound and as an academic support aide for Hayward Middle School.
Wayne Myers, Early Literacy Coordinator
Wayne came to Promise after taking a course at Wittenberg taught by Dr. Bob and Kali in 2019. He shifted careers away from landscaping and manual labor to educational studies, desiring to work with people with disabilities. After being the main caretaker at the end of his father's life, Wayne completed his Educational Studies degree and was selected as Promise's Early Literacy Coordinator in Fall of 2022. He supports the needs of preschool and elementary school buildings, including arranging volunteers, tutors, donations, and resources. In his free time you can catch him zooming by on his motorcycle or Bobcat!
Our Board of Directors
Bob Welker, Founder
Director, Springfield Promise Neighborhood (retired); Board member, Graham Local Schools; Board member, Jefferson St. Oasis Garden
Bonita Dover
Wright Patt Air Force Base (retired); Greater Grace Temple; Perrin Woods Promise; National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
Brian Kampman, Vice Chair
Vegetable & Small Fruit Technician, Central State University Extension; member of the Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden Board of Directors
Deb Accurso, Chair
Principal, Clark Early Childhood Center (retired)
Jim Gay, Treasurer
Superintendent, Tecumseh Local School District (retired); Ohio Leadership Advisory Council
Kristen Collier, Secretary
Associate Director, Hagen Center for Civic and Urban Engagement, Wittenberg University
Melissa Turner
Early Childhood Educator, Clark Early Learning Center, Springfield City School District
Nick Heimlich
Fire Chief, City of Springfield (retired); Chair of the Project Woman of Ohio Board of Directors
Steve McCready
Partner, Martin, Brown, Hull & Harper; President of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Clark, Champaign, and Madison Counties; member of the Westcott House Board of Directors