Steve didn’t want to be a doctor because he hates blood and he preferred not to work at a large anonymous corporation.  Steve thought about the ministry when he was a teenager and never discussed the idea with anyone in the ministry. He decided to go to law school without talking to a lawyer about it. Law school seemed like a plausible option because it bought him 3 more years of school before going into the workforce and because he likes to argue.  He was a college debater, after all.

Next thing Steve knew, he’d spent 32 years at Arnold & Porter, a large DC law firm.  Steve did all kinds of corporate and deal work in different industries, including banking, technology and the music industry. Then he discovered life sciences deals. He found he could make a difference helping entrepreneurial scientists with their ideas for improving human health. The law turned out to be a pretty good career path.

While Steve was at Arnold & Porter, he formed The Harraseeket Foundation with a few friends, hoping after he retired from law that he could provide tools to communities that want to help their younger members make informed life and career decisions. He’s having a blast doing it!

Leslie Speidel is a mom of teens and the co-founder and owner of Career Exploration Group. She is a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) specializing in career transitions. She coaches teens and young adults in discovering their passion and learning practical skills for navigating their way to fulfilling work. Leslie has an MBA in marketing from American University and a BS in Communications from Boston University. After working in management consulting for HR, she spent time raising her kids and managing a busy household. When faced with the possibility of a second career, she realized she loved listening to students talk about their hopes for their future. Her curiosity combined with her mom’s perspective on raising teens led her to career coaching for teens and young adults.

Peter Vorkink was for many years an Instructor in Religion at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH. One of the courses Peter taught was a course called “Imagining Your Future.” This course inspired the development of Harraseeket’s Imagining Your Future program. Peter’s extensive work in this field makes him an ideal Head of Programming to Harraseeket for this program and for the development of the “Pathways Resource Map.”

Peter, an Episcopal priest who once considered becoming a physician, backed into the study of religion when he was required to fulfill a course distribution in religion or philosophy at college. Philosophy scared him, and he knew nothing about religion. Having come from an “unchurched” family, he had never been introduced to the academic study of religion and found this first course fascinating. Deciding to major in the subject while remaining a pre-med, he was accidentally exposed to the praxis of religion by spending a summer working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Augustine, Florida. His senior year in college brought him into contact with one of the most activist chaplains of that generation, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., and the combination of the study of religion in the classroom and the practice of it in social activism led him to decide to go to seminary and into the ministry.

Dr. Louis S. Jacobson is a labor economist with a national reputation for using large longitudinal databases, site visits, and surveys to examine: (a) ways to increase the college and career readiness of high school and community college students; (b) pathways leading to completion of college programs that boost earnings; (c) the returns to education, training, and support programs; (d) how report cards and other improvements in information available to students can increase college completion and earnings; and (e) how improved performance measurement systems can increase the incentives of educators and service-providers to help students complete programs and boost earnings.

Dr. Jacobson recently examined the effectiveness of a Florida-wide testing and remediation program aimed at helping high school seniors avoid remediation in college and complete high-return programs by boosting their college readiness. Lessons learned from this study were incorporated in Improving College and Career Outcomes of Low-Performing High School Students for the Hamilton Project, which advocated altering performance measures to give more attention to increasing the engagement of low-performing high school students as well as improving their planning and skills for college and careers.

Earlier, Dr. Jacobson directed studies using administrative data covering all 220,000 members of the Florida HS Class of 2000 to analyze how the returns to career-oriented and academic programs at Florida community colleges and high schools vary as a function of students’ choice of courses, credentials earned, academic performance, socio-economic status, and location. These studies were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the US Department of Education’s (US-DOE’s) National Assessment of Career and Technical Education (NACTE).

During my Air Force career, I had the opportunity to serve in Japan, Korea, and more than a half-dozen states. With a Bachelor of Science degree in international relations and an MBA focused on management science, I found it rewarding to transition through a broad range of assignments including service as advisor and speechwriter for the top general in the Air Force. In my post-military career, I’ve focused on training and professional development for staff and volunteers serving vulnerable populations. I’ve had the honor of serving at-risk youth through national mentoring programs in secular and faith-based communities, and the opportunity to develop innovative methods for successful outcome-oriented and process-based results in the public, nonprofit, and commercial sectors. In recent years, I have focused my energies on youth mentoring and ministry advancement. My greatest rewards have been through the development of people I have trained and mentored. I believe the ability to inspire and educate others is both a humbling and a gratifying experienc

K (yes, just the letter!) has always been curious about community formation, people's stories, and what it takes to create a shared future where everyone has the ability to flourish. She's spent her time working alongside women coming out of sex trafficking, in a fraternity house, at a brewery, with women who are incarcerated, and most recently as the Director of Partnerships at The People's Supper: working around the country to help people build trust and connection to combat isolation and fragmentation in their communities. She is delighted by journaling, a good thrift find, her dogs, and her latest scheme (currently: a vending machine that vends local art!) She's so excited to be on board at Harraseeket. 

Karly is thrilled to be a part of Harraseeket! Karly is a "townie" in Old Town Manassas. She walks weekly to the local train station, coffee shops, playground and farmers market with her two year old, Hadley Grace. They know every barista in town by name. 

Karly has spent the last ten years working with women who are coming out of sex trafficking in Australia, Cambodia and Thailand, bringing that same mission to the heart of DC. She is a licensed foster mama and works for a local foster care nonprofit helping to deliver care packages to foster families ‘ homes when new placements arrive. 

A few years ago, Karly led Young Life at Westfield High School and tangibly experienced the importance of investing in high schoolers’ lives. Karly will be assisting with our development as we grow and launch new programs. 

A favorite childhood story in Lauren’s family is about the time she started a neighborhood basketball team for the kids nearby. She led her friends in making posters, building a roster, getting parents to sign forms (who knows what they said), and organizing a practice schedule…only to realize, not only was she TERRIBLE at basketball, but she also hated playing it. Looking back now, though, this was probably the first glimmer of Lauren’s true strength – which is seizing on to new ideas and breathing life into them, something she enjoys doing with The Harraseeket Foundation in her spare time. Lauren is both an explorer and a guide in Harraseeket’s Imagining Your Future program, continuously looking for new insights to build a well-rounded life and helping those who come after her recognize and avoid pitfalls that she’s fallen victim to herself while also finding and grabbing hold of passions they might have left behind on their third grade basketball team.

J. Flynn Bucy, Ph.D. is a well-known senior specialist in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Futures Studies. Dr. Bucy has a unique combination of academic, business and non-profit experience to integrate research and practice into pragmatic learning programs. He has been a senior executive in both large and small business, been the Director for the high-profile Center for Entrepreneurship at Baylor University and worked extensively with World Vision and other major non-profits. Since his original work as a futurist at George Washington University during his doctoral program, he has continued to effectively bring an understanding of how current trends create the emerging context for personal and organizational strategies and practices. Dr. Bucy is currently Managing Director of Prescient360 Group in the DC area.

Dr. Bucy earned his Ph.D. from George Washington University in Strategic Planning and Corporate Social Responsibility and his M.B.A. in International Business from Baylor University. He has taught Entrepreneurship at several major universities and has worked with both start-ups and new initiatives for major corporations. He also teaches a course at GMU called Well-Being in Turbulent Times.