Board of Directors
Lance O'Keefe
President
Lance is the current president of the Board of Directors for Family Promise of Santa Clarita Valley. He joined the board in 2017, and has been volunteering for Family Promise since 2015.
Lance has worked for the City of Santa Clarita in a variety of roles since 2001 and is currently in the Recreation and Community Services Department as a Management Analyst. In this role, he is responsible for the department’s budget creation and oversight, contract management, and community and staff engagement. Lance has over 15 years of experience in youth and adult community program development, implementation, and evaluation.
Lance has been a resident of Santa Clarita for over 20 years and is raising his two daughters with his wife Kelly. Lance received his Bachelor’s Degree in Recreation and Tourism Management and a Master in Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality Management from California State University, Northridge.
Kieran Wong
Vice President
Kieran Wong is a financial professional with Prosperitas. He holds Securities 7, 66 & SEI licenses and has taken specialized courses in various areas of the planning process.
Kieran specializes in understanding the complete picture of his client’s lives and then constructing comprehensive customized portfolios, which address those needs and anticipates any future concerns. His passion is to help his clients determine what their dreams are, develop an action plan and ultimately achieve them.
Kieran has been a resident of Santa Clarita since 1999 and is a leader in the community as a City Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commissioner. He hopes to get more involved with the local city council in the near future to strengthen the leadership and continue to contribute to the future growth of Santa Clarita.
He has always been active in the community, as a board member of Family Promise Santa Clarita Valley, president of the JCI Santa Clarita, founder of the Brenda Mehling Cancer Fund and recipient of the Outstanding Young Californian Award in 2003. He also achieved the rank of Eagle Scout at the age of 13, one of the youngest on record in the history of the Boy Scouts.
Kieran is an avid triathlete and participates in races around the country. He and his wife, Stacey, have four young daughters – Kylie, Isla, Téah and Reece.
Jason Lane
Vice President
Jason Lane is a financial advisor with Vance Wealth and the Director of Retirement Plans for his team. He primarily works with business owners in various planning areas, including advising companies on their 401k/403b plans.
Jason is actively involved in his church and community. He believes family comes first and that the SCV community can work together to empower all families by giving them a hand up, not a handout. Prior to joining our board, Jason served for 7 years as a board member of Single Mothers Outreach. He has also coached youth soccer, baseball, and basketball.
After graduating from Oregon State University in Finance and then receiving his MBA from Western Connecticut State University, Jason has worked in various financial service capacities for over 20 years.
Jason and his wife, Shaunasey, have lived and raised their three children in Santa Clarita since 2005.
Steffanie Stelnick
Secretary
Steffanie Stelnick is the founder of the Law Offices of Steffanie Stelnick. Ms. Stelnick directs all civil litigation operations at The Law Offices of Steffanie Stelnick. She is personally involved in every case and insures that each client receives impeccable representation.
Ms. Stelnick attended elementary school through high school in the Santa Clarita Valley. She received her Bachelors degree in both Law and Society and Communications, Arts and Advocacy from American Jewish University in Los Angeles, CA. Ms. Stelnick received her law degree, a Juris Doctor, from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, CA.
Ms. Stelnick began her legal education working for an intellectual property law firm in Tarzana, CA. Thereafter, she worked with the City of Los Angeles in the civil litigation department. In working for the City of Los Angeles Ms. Stelnick worked on multiple cases ranging from slip and falls to wrongful death lawsuits. At the City of Los Angeles, she helped the civil litigation department win multiple jury trials and reach settlements well before a trial was set to start.
Ms. Stelnick’s core belief is that focusing on the client is critical in the litigation process. Insurance companies, negligent doctors, negligent manufactures and even negligent corporations have strong legal representation. A client without a strong, aggressive attorney will rarely operate on an even playing field in a litigation environment. The client’s needs remain paramount in every day of practice at The Law Offices of Steffanie Stelnick.
Steffanie and her husband, Todd, live in Santa Clarita with their three beautiful children and love being involved with Family Promise.
Bryan George
Treasurer
Bryan George is a retired CPA and has been the board’s Treasurer since 2018. Bryan is an avid golfer and family man, and he enjoys spending time with his children and 16 grandchildren. He is actively involved in his church, and his faith shapes his passion for solving homelessness in Santa Clarita Valley.
Amber Alexander
Board Member
Amber has been involved with Family Promise since its inception and has co-chaired Family Promise’s Box City event for the past 7 years. Amber is office manager at her husband, Kenny’s, business, Fasthouse, in the Santa Clarita Valley. Fasthouse is rapidly rising in the ranks of motorcycle gear and apparel, currently selling their brand worldwide and producing prominently featured videos of their riders on social media and the web. Amber and Kenny produce the Red Bull Day in the Dirt Motocross Grand Prix, a 3-day event in Southern California held on every Thanksgiving weekend for the past 20 years. Locally, she produced the Over the Hump Mountain Bike Race series at Castaic Lake.
Amber has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley since 1971 attending elementary school, junior high, high school and COC before moving on to UCLA. Raising her family here, she volunteered in all the schools as her children progressed through them.
Laurie Ender
Board Member
Laurie Ender is the past president of the Board of Directors for Family Promise of Santa Clarita Valley. She joined the board shortly before the program began operations in June of 2011 and has become a vocal advocate for homeless children and families.
Ender’s community service experience is extensive. She has been the Santa Clarita Valley Council PTA president, a member of the board of directors of the YMCA and part of the advisory council for the Child and Family Center. Ender was also a five-year member of the City of Santa Clarita’s Parks, Recreation & Community Services Commission and served for a term on the City Council where she was also Mayor. She is a self-proclaimed cheerleader for the Santa Clarita Valley and maintains a passion for community collaboration and volunteerism.
After graduating from Pepperdine University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism, Ender worked as a producer for many years at both “Entertainment Tonight” and “Access Hollywood.” She and her husband, Chris, have three sons and have lived in Santa Clarita since 1992.
Dee Dee Jacobson
Board Member
Dee Dee has been supporting the very near and dear mission of Family Promise as an executive board member for the past two years. As a mother to a wonderful daughter and a SCV resident for the past 24 years, Dee Dee has been very active in the lives of the children the valley from PTA President at Helmers Elementary to PTSA President at Rio Norte Junior High, and the Director of Membership for the SCV Council PTA. She was also a member of the Parent Communications Council at the Hart School District.
Venturing in to city planning, she was a member of the SCV Planning Commission for four years.
Fred Wachtel
Board Member
Fred Wachtel was born in New York and moved to California in 1997. In 1998, he and his wife Denise found Santa Clarita and decided this was the place they wanted to live. Fred and Denise married in 2003 and in 2012 they had their beautiful daughter, Hannah, who now goes to elementary school here in the valley.
Fred is a big fan of the NY Giants, enjoys a good single malt, and loves playing poker.
Fred is a financial advisor with Prosperitas Financial in Santa Clarita and loves working with families and local business owners to help them recognize and achieve their financial goals. Fred became a part of Family Promise in 2020 and loves being able to help get families who want help back on their feet.
Kevin Petrie
Board Member
Kevin Petrie is a retired Chief Supply Chain Officer from Nestle.
Kevin was born in New Jersey and moved to Santa Clarita in 1997, relocated to Vevey, Switzerland in 2009 and returned to Santa Clarita in 2013. In 2017, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio and made a final move back to Santa Clarita in 2020 to retire.
Prior to joining the Board, he served on the Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland. Kevin has a passion for supporting his local community.
After graduating Ramapo College with a degree in Business, he received a number of post baccalaureate certificates from Stanford University, London Business School, and IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Kevin is a devoted family man and loves spending time with his wife Shuk and their two daughters, travel, and golf.
Cindy Marks
Board Member
Cindy Marks and her family have been volunteering with Family Promise since 2009, shortly after they moved to the Santa Clarita Valley. Cindy has participated in FP Holiday events, served families who spent nights at Valencia UMC, and helped furnish the transitional house and Resource Center. She and her husband Dirk supported Box City events in various ways.
During their daughter’s school years, Cindy was active in the Helmers PTA, serving as the Yearbook parent advisor and on the Disaster Preparedness team for several years. She also served as Treasurer of the Air Force JROTC Booster Club at Valencia HS for six years, staying on after her daughter’s graduation and through COVID.
Cindy is a strong believer in Family Promise’s mission. She especially appreciates their work helping families avoid homelessness through the use of donated resources and diversion.
Cindy is a business owner and Photo Coach helping busy people save and organize their photos and family memories and share them in meaningful ways. Her passion is helping people document their own personal story to tell, and sometimes those stories contain periods of struggle and hardship. She is looking forward to being part of an organization that changes those stories into ones of hope and success.
Reneé Roqué
Board Member
Renée Roqué is a local realtor and serves on and/or leads various realtor associations and committees. She served a decade as Family Promise’s Church Coordinator at His Way Church, as well as Youth Leader, Church Administrator, and for eight years as Afternoon Commander of Awana Clubs at Grace Baptist.
She currently serves as the Housing Chair for the City of Santa Clarita’s Homeless Taskforce. Renée believe in giving back to her community and is excited to serve as a board member and to lead the board’s sub-committee on programs and the new Resource Center.