Our incredible team brings years of professional and personal experience in supporting kids and families experiencing the child welfare system.
Trey Rabun, Associate Director of Kinship and Community Services
Trey is the Associate Director of Kinship and Community Services at Amara. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hampton University, a master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois, and soon after graduating with his Master’s in Social Work from the University of Washington in 2011 Trey begun his career at Amara. Trey has held several positions at Amara over the past 10 years including doing direct service work supporting youth in foster care and their caregivers, foster parent recruitment and outreach, and currently is leading Amara’s efforts to create programming focused on supporting kinship families in the child welfare system. He also manages Amara’s various LGBTQIA+ programs including a partnership with Gays with Kids and is a current member of DCYF’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Group. Personally, Trey and his husband were foster parents for four years and have a 6-year-old adopted son.
Brittney Lee, Kinship Retention Support Specialist
Britney Lee experienced 17 foster homes in the span of 17 years of her childhood. Brittney’s current aspiration is to utilize their growth and knowledge gained from resilience, community involvement and employment opportunities with youth who have experienced foster care. They consistently involves themselves in community conversations on child welfare and engages in opportunities where they can increase their understanding on how to best leverage their experience and meet their goals. One of those major goals is to become more educated on the subject of racial disproportionality in the child welfare system. Brittney hopes to work from the inside to come up with simple solutions to counteract racial inequality and institutionalized, structural racism that affects all youth in foster care today. Having grown up living with other children in the system from various backgrounds and at all kinds of emotional, mental and spiritual levels, Brittney has unconditional compassion in their heart to give back to the youth in the communities similar to those in which they grew up in as well as on a national and global level. They wish to be a role model and source of support to youth experiencing foster care; to help them navigate all of the ups and downs; to be the someone that Brittney needed when they were younger.
JaVonya Stewart, Kinship Care Specialist
JaVonya Stewart (Ja-Von-ya) was born and raised here in Washington state. In 2019, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Social Services, with a minor in Sociology from Central Washington University. Stewart also received a Master’s degree in Social Work from Eastern Washington University in 2021. JaVonya has quite a bit of experience working with children and families from diverse populations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She has always had the interest working at a Foster Care Agency to help make a change in the Child Welfare System for children/families of color, as well as advocate to place children in homes with their relatives. Amara’s Kinship Care mission goes hand in hand with her core beliefs. Stewart is truly thankful that she can be a part of this amazing team!
Emani Donaldson, Kinship Care Specialist
Emani Donaldson, one of the new Kinship Care Specialists, was born and raised in Tacoma, WA. Her city has been a huge influence on me and the work that she does. My community has always inspired me to advocate for myself and fight to improve that lives of young people and families in our community. She is a first-generation college graduate, AmeriCorps Alumni, a mother and Chair of the Commission for Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in Tacoma. Emani truly believes in centering our service work around community collaboration and exemplifying the voices of the people we serve and represent. She is very grateful to now be a part of an organization that also believes and practices those things. In June 2018, Emani graduated with degrees in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Eastern Washington University. My academic focus was on social problems and social change within oppressed communities; primarily pertaining to criminal law, the family institution, and peacemaking. As a social scientist, Emani’s aim is to promote self-determination, unification, collective economics and community sustainability. She is extremely excited to meet, collaborate and learn from everyone in the Amara family.
Crystal Nambo, Kinship Care Specialist
Crystal Nambo is one of the Kinship Care Specialists at Amara. They were born and raised in a small town in Washington state. Crystal attended Central Washington University and obtained their Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Family Studies in 2020. Since then, Crystal has gained experience working with youth and strives to be a support for children and families. From professional and personal experience, Crystal has learned the value of support from community and the impact it can have on a child. “I chose to work at Amara to be a source of support for children and families, whether that’s referring them to resources or be someone to listen to their experiences”. Crystal wants to ensure each interaction they have with children and families be with compassion and in a trauma-informed approach. They are excited to learn and be a part of the team.
Learn more about programs and resources for kinship caregivers and/or the LGBTQIA+ community:
- Kinship Care: Visit our webpage or email us at kinship@amarafamily.org.
Posted in Amara Announcements, Kinship Care