About Us | Our Answer | What's Unique | Founders | Advisory Board

We are pleased to have such a high-caliber, savvy, diverse, and fun group of people on our Advisory Board. Not only are they leaders in their respective fields, they also possess the generosity of spirit that YesKidzCan! is committed to developing in young kids by encouraging them to embrace charitable giving.

Dr. James Bower, CEO of Numedeon, Inc. and Creator of Whyville: Numedeon, Inc. is the only virtual world company focused on engaging users through collaborative learning.  The company grew out of years of research and development by the founders working within the Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative (CAPSI) at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA.  As a professor of computational neurobiology for 17 years at Caltech and co-director of CAPSI, Jim worked to introduce high quality "inquiry-based" science curriculum into public schools and explore the use of computers and computer networks to enhance and extend inquiry-based learning.  Whyville is the oldest, largest, and most innovative learning-based virtual world on the Internet with 62 million resigtered users. 

Darrell Hammond, CEO and Co-Founder, KaBOOM!: In 1995, Darrell launched KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to creating great playspaces through the participation and leadership of communities with the ultimate goal of having places to play within walking distance of every child in America. To date, KaBOOM! has raised over 100 million dollars to build over 1,800 playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields, and ice rinks and has improved thousands of others across America. By constructing innovative and kid-inspired playspaces across the country, KaBOOM! is fostering healthier, happier, and smarter children, green cities, better schools, and stronger neighborhoods.

Kenny O'Brien, President, Music and Arts, a division of Guitar Center Stores: A 103 store chain of neighborhood music stores, Music and Arts is the largest school music dealer in the country. Since 1952, Music and Arts has served students (teaching nearly 20,000 private students weekly), teachers, and families and has been active in music communities throughout the United States. Kenny is also a Board member for Strathmore, a premier arts center in Bethesda, Maryland, that provides art exhibitions, concerts, performing arts programs, and literary lectures and events. 

Ashley O'Neil, Editor-in-Chief, The Savvy Source: The Savvy Source is a leading parenting website, known for simplifying the way in which busy parents gather and share information about one of the most important tasks they face -- making good educational choices for their children.  Combining information on preschools, camps, classes, educational books, toys, and activities with advice from parenting experts and articles from parenting bloggers and columnists, The Savvy Source provides the content parents need to help their children learn and grow.

Steve Rochlin, Director, AccountAbility: AccountAbility is a global, nonprofit, membership organization that develops new thinking, tools, and connections that enable leading companies, civil society organizations, service providers, research institutes, and individuals to respond more effectively and responsibly to global challenges in areas ranging from climate change to poverty to HIV/AIDS to the needs of the aging. By focusing on competitiveness, collaborative governance, and engagement of citizens, AccountAbility helps enable sustainable development across the sectors worldwide. Steve is currently leading AccountAbility's initiatives on the alignment of corporate reesponsibility with core business strategy, innovative models of collaborative governance, and implementation of voluntary standards systems.  He has served as a consultant to some of the world's leading brands to help them achieve world-class global corporate citizenship performance, measurement, strategy, and stakeholder engagement.