Meet the Team!
You hear a lot about what we do and why, but you don’t always get to see the team that is behind the scenes making it all happen! Everyone has a title and a job description, but what do the staff really do at Pause? This month, let’s find out more about our Family Strategy team!
Melody Schurgast, Director of Family Strategy
With her 20+ years experience serving special needs families, Melody specializes in planning for the future growth of Pause and the development of new programs and resources to serve families. She is a key figure in the creation of all safety/medical plans and procedures program wide. At events, you can often find her helping kids feel safe, leading up the diaper changing squad (there are A LOT of diapers from big to small!) and making sure all of our kids who need medication are taken care of. She leads the Family Strategy department and is integral in leading our student intern team - educating, mentoring and leading them to be the next generation of advocates and supporters.
Samantha Story, Resilience Coordinator
Serving as our lead Resilience Coordinator, you can find Sam at all of our events leading our Resilience Support Team. This team’s objective is to simply help kids feel included, safe and cared for while they are with us. She provides training and tools to our volunteers and oversees sensory spaces within our environment. Sam is currently leading a pilot program in which tool kits, coaching and support groups have been made available to those serving children with disabilities - educators, therapists, first responders, ministry leaders and more. You can also find her broadcasting live on Facebook for Coffee Talks sessions where she interviews professionals and businesses our families can connect with.
Jillian Zuzolo, Resilience Coordinator
Jillian leads our Care Coordination team to provide extra care to families navigating extra hard seasons. She oversees a team of Pause family volunteers to deliver meals and care packages about a dozen times a month. Jillian also meets with new and current families to integrate them into the program and creates tools for families to utilize at home, at school or in social situations. She can also be found at programming events as part of the Resilience Support Team where she specializes in being a best friend, safe place and party partner. In the volunteer realm, Jillian leads training for volunteers helping them understand more about brain science and how it connects to the time they spend caring for our kids.
Kaylann Yankie, Curriculum Coordinator
Kaylann is our curriculum queen! Her sole job is to create sensory engaging activities that build children's self-esteem while also helping them connect to each other and their communities. She provides over 50 activities per event so children have choices and can find something they love! Kaylann also makes the volunteer’s role easy by providing detailed instruction sheets so they know what to say before, during and after the activity so that every interaction is impactful. When she isn’t creating fun, she’s capturing it as our team photographer and helping to design family take-home packs so learning and connecting can continue at home too!
2023-2024 Student Intern Team: Jenna, Maggie and Jessa
Our amazing college intern team helps our staff with all of the to-dos and also serves as Zone Leaders at our events supporting volunteers and event operations. They keep events on schedule, help volunteers with transitions and ensure all safety measures are being followed. They are the glue that keeps everything moving seamlessly!
The Pause team as a whole is honored to serve our families! Interested in learning more about us? Check out our website pauseforparents.org or reach out to us at questions@pauseforparents.org.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
