OUR TEAM
PAMELA HUMES
Executive Director / Presenter / Consultant
As an advocate and educator, Pamela works to strengthen families by equipping youth, parents and caregivers with the necessary tools for informed decision-making, increased levels of parent-child connectedness and continual resiliency through education. As a recipient of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation Women's Education Coalition Scholarship in 2009, she returned to college which culminated in a Bachelor of Arts degree in Family Life Education from Spring Arbor University. In 2011, she developed the ReGen Next Survey, a needs assessment tool which measures the relevancy of cultural topics among youth, as a means of ensuring more effective engagement. As a result of the research data collected from the survey, ReGen Next was invited by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) to share its findings regarding relationship and marriage aspirational trends among youth (ReGen Next: Taking Relationships from Convenience To Commitment) at the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) national conference in New Orleans in 2019 with 700+ federal grant recipients in attendance. In 2020, Pamela was contracted as a consultant for the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) Success Sequence tip sheet. Under her leadership, ReGen Next (RGNXT) has expanded its outreach, providing educational services to community organizations, social service agencies, middle schools, high schools and universities, juvenile justice centers, churches and shelters for the homeless, becoming a 501c3 nonprofit corporation in 2021.
Pamela believes that the family is the cornerstone of society. And, regardless of configuration or circumstance, a family can thrive when parents and caregivers exhibit unwavering commitment, in word and in deed, to consistent, appropriate and holistic (physical, spiritual, emotional, mental) care of their children.
Presenters
ABRA SMITH
Abra Smith is a certified health & wellness coach and educator. She enjoys helping people to find ways to make healthier eating & living simple, equitable and fun and offers classes, one-on-one coaching and various events that inspire healthy living. As a former ELA teacher and Parent Educator/Family Advocate, Abra is passionate about education, youth, families and the community and proudly represents Kalamazoo Youth Development Network (KYDNet), serving Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties as Executive Director.
IAN KELLS
Ian Kells is a board-certified music therapist with a Master's degree in Music Therapy from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor's degree in Music Theory and Composition from Elmhurst University. Ian also received his Neurologic Music Therapy certification with the NMT Academy at the University of Toronto and currently acts as Treasurer for the Michigan Music Therapy Association.
Ian loves to work with people and has a passion for supporting individuals and the community in realizing their potential. As a part of this, Ian has a wide and varied history with different instruments, musical styles, songwriting, and performance. Ian also teaches standard and adaptive music lessons for guitar, piano, ukulele, trumpet, and music composition and theory.
