Our Crew

Massachusetts
BACK (left to right): Silvia and Mary Frances
FRONT (left to right): Liz, Ryan, and Nate

California
Becky

Becky Blevins
Becky Blevins grew up in Arizona, but is a California local these days. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend Stanford University and to pitch softball for their first women's team. Becky has worked for Hewlett Packard since 1999 and is currently (in addition tofull timee work) pursuing her MBA at Santa Clara University.

When Becky was recruited to join the trip to Jamaica, she was in the midst of taking a course on Social Benefit Entrepreneurship. The trip and the
"needs assessment" seemed like the perfect opportunity to serve using the new skills she had just acquired and the learning she had experienced in school. Becky looks forward to completing her MBA for all the obvious reasons, but also because she looks forward to being an agent of change by acting on her beliefs about service and humanitarian work as well as using business/corporate opportunities to make a positive impact on the world.

Silvia De la Guardia
Silvia was born and raised in Guatemala city and at the age of 11, moved to the U.S. with her family. After a short stint in New Orleans, they relocated to Miami -– the place she now “calls home.

Sivlia stays “on the go” as a travel nurse working in the E.R. for a couple of months at a time in different cities. She has been in Boston for almost 6 months now and will soon return to Miami before moving on to her next station.

Silvia has made international volunteer work a part of her life and volunteers at least once each year to serve those in need. Having never been to Jamaica she is looking forward to adding to the number of Jamaican friends she currently has and working with a new population and putting her talents to work!

Mary Frances Giles
Mary Frances hails from the "new New York" otherwise known as Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is a southern belle in many respects but has certainly learned to hold her own "“up North" and her accent (despite her grandmother'’s protestations) is still there.

Mary Frances has worked for many years as a speech - language pathologist and in the last year has made the transition to working for a non-profit organization called the Bolivian Street Children Project (BSCP) based here in Boston. Mary Frances has spent time volunteering with street children in Bolivia and now serves them in a professional capacity as the Director of Development at BSCP.

During her time in Jamaica she is looking forward to furthering her understanding of world poverty and the needs of developing countries, especially as it relates to her work with the Bolivian Street Children Project.

Liz Hawkins Lincoln
Liz grew up in Montana and eventually became another one of California's "Bay Area transplants"” to teach elementary school. After five years of work in education-related fields she moved to Boston where she now resides. Lizfull timely works fulltime at Harvard Graduate School of Education and, like Becky is also pursuing a graduate degree part-time.

Her first trip to Jamaica was during Thanksgiving week 2004 with the original medical team (sponsored by Won by One) service project. Her passion for those living at the May Pen/Clarendon Infirmary and desire to serve the less fortunate have greatly influenced her involvement (and recruitment of others) on this upcoming trip. Liz and Ryan married last year in August and look forward to many years of serving Jamaicans together.

Ryan Lincoln
Ryan is originally from Kansas City Missouri and has the most experience of those on our team when it comes to serving in Jamaica.He moved to Boston for a Masters program in theological studies, and after graduating has been working at Harvard Divinity School for the past 2 years. The fall has been a busy one for him. In addition to preparing for the upcoming Jamaica trip, he is busy preparing applications for PhD programs in the sociology of religion.

Nathan Pelsma

Nate too hails from the Kansas City region, though he's from the western side of the border. He grew up in Lawrence KS and attended the University of Kansas before moving to Boston to work at City Year. He has extensive experience in the non-profit sector planning service events around the nation, and coordinating corporate sponsorship with non-profit organizations. In addition to bringing these credentials to the Jamaica team, he'll bring many new skills that he's learning in his new role as an MBA student at Boston College.

---------------

PLEASE NOTE: All payments through our website are managed by Ryan Lincoln. You will see his name appear throughout the transaction. Please indicate (during your transaction) if your payment should be assigned to a specific team member. You may also contact Ryan at ryanlincoln@post.harvard.edu if you have any questions about your payment.