Meet the team at Foster Advocates

Osahon Akpata-Tanious (she/her)

Executive Director

  • Osahon Akpata-Tanious brings a diverse background in finance and public service to Foster Advocates. Growing up in New York City, she saw firsthand the stark difference between the haves and have-nots, and as a Foster, she learned that these disparities are deep-rooted and embedded into the very fabric of how systems are created. Her interests lie at the intersection of participatory policymaking, economic liberation, mental wellness, safeguarding cultural and spiritual practices, and disability advocacy. Osahon is passionate about fostering connections between professional environments and community experiences to drive holistic growth and development.

    Osahon is a first-generation master’s graduate with a MPP from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she concentrated on Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Management and Public Finance, with a minor in Integrative Leadership. During her time at the Humphrey School, she was president of the Student Government of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a recipient of the 2025 Student Leadership Award. She also completed a certification in Disability Policy and Services through the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, and was a 2025 MNLEND Fellow. Before this, Osahon spent five years in Corporate and Nonprofit Banking and most recently worked in the Budget Office for a local municipality. Prior to this, Osahon completed a B.A. in Political Science from the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, The City College of New York. 

    Osahon lives in Brooklyn Park with her partner and their dog Oscar, a few reptiles, and more plants than they can count. She enjoys spending time with her community, exploring the beauty of Minnesota summers, and listening to live music of all genres.

    Email: osahon@fosteradvocates.org

Elena Leomi (she/her)

Director of Movement Building

  • Elena focuses on internal team structures, building capacity for leadership programs and research, and supporting the growth of our statewide Foster network.

    Elena started facilitating youth programs in high school and has a range of experience designing and managing youth programs focused on healthy development and sexuality, leadership, violence prevention, as well as racial and gender equity.

    She has seen the impact of letting young people lead, and values creating settings where their expertise and voices are heard. Elena is passionate about youth participatory research and advocacy. She brings those values to Foster Advocates while building out our leadership programs, including the annual Fellowship, and research platform.

    Elena holds an MSW and MPH from UC Berkeley and consults on research projects around youth civic engagement and modeling consent in after-school programs. In her spare time, she likes to play in her garden, cook spicy food, and explore the outdoors with her spouse. 

    Email: elena@fosteradvocates.org

Donté Wilkins (he/him)

Operations Manager

  • Donté supports our organization and Foster community through a focus on organizational systems, resources, evaluation, and events.

    Donté’s work experience spans a decade as a career and college coordinator and includes program management, non profit development, partnership engagement and advocacy.

    Born in Germany, Donté and his family relocated back to Chicago a year after his birth, subsequent to his dad finishing his stint in the Army. Growing up in Chicago, Donté enjoyed being a role model for his younger twin siblings. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the first in his family to graduate. In his free time, Donté loves to golf, play rec softball and soccer, watch his Chicago sports teams (go White Sox!) and appreciates spending quality time with friends and family.

Whitney Behle (she/her)

Community Engagement Manager

  • Whitney focuses on housing stability for Fosters, starting with connection, empathy, and non-judgement. Whitney hopes that Fosters will be empowered to reach their goals while providing space to develop self and sustainability, express agency, and widen connections.

    Whitney has engaged in over eight years of advocacy and support work with youth and families in various settings. Her fiery passion for uplighting others comes from her own journey within child welfare, with formal placement in care as a pre-teen until aging-out. Whitney understands firsthand the impact of housing instability, domestic violence, and the juvenile justice system. She believes we all have a spark inside that may need a little help igniting to disrupt cycles, heal, and empower each other to keep swimming.

    Whitney graduated from UW-Eau Claire, Wisconsin with a B.A. in Psychology and a Child Welfare certificate. In her free time, she enjoys weight training, crystals, music, hiking, podcasts, cooking, and baking.

    Email: whitney@fosteradvocates.org

Sarah Blouin (she/her)

Education Program Manager

  • Sarah, a lifelong Minnesotan, supports Fosters in navigating major life transitions by focusing on strengths, sharing resources, cultivating skills, and building connections. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas.

    With nearly two decades of experience working with youth and young adults, Sarah specializes in guiding Fosters through school-to-life transitions, drawing on her background in education, mentoring, and career coaching. Sarah values holistic support, tailoring services to each Foster’s unique aspirations, and creating pathways that empower them to achieve their goals.

    Outside of work, Sarah enjoys exploring the outdoors—camping, paddleboarding, and gardening. She loves spending time with her family, tackling home projects, and expanding her knowledge across a range of topics from current events to brain development. You can often find her cheering on the Golden Gophers and Vikings in the fall.

Meet our Board of Directors

Jillian Gross Fortgang (she/her)

Board Chair

  • Jillian Gross Fortgang is a lifelong educator and coach with over 20 years of experience in equity focused nonprofit organizational leadership, teaching and facilitation, and collaborative research. She specializes in holding space with loving accountability that allows individuals and groups to do their inner work as the foundation for transformational change. She is a continuous learner who earned her PhD in Higher Education with a concentration in Organizational Management and is a certified ICF Coach, IDI Qualified Administrator, yoga teacher, and mentor with Racial Justice from the Heart.

Shadoe Darris (she/her)

Board Member

  • Shadoe Darris brings a lived experience–driven perspective and a strong commitment to community advocacy to Foster Advocates. Having spent her early childhood in foster care, she understands firsthand the complexities and gaps within the child welfare system and is passionate about advancing solutions that center healing, equity, and family preservation. Her interests lie at the intersection of youth advocacy, social justice, education equity, and artistic healing practices.

    Shadoe’s work focuses on creating meaningful change through both community engagement and systems-level advocacy. She has worked in nonprofit, criminal justice, and healthcare settings in support roles, in addition to her entrepreneurial endeavors, which have supported youth through advocacy efforts and by facilitating events that promote wellness through artistic expression. She has also contributed to policy efforts, including testifying in support of legislation that promotes family preservation.

    In addition to her advocacy work, Shadoe serves in a support role at Darris Consulting Group, where she contributes to strategic initiatives aimed at driving community impact. She has also served on the board of Wayside Recovery, supporting efforts that help individuals and families on their healing journeys. She is a former Education Equity Parent Fellow with Voices for Racial Justice.

    Shadoe’s commitment to this work is deeply personal. Following the loss of her younger sister to gun violence, she became an advocate for peace and mental health. She has spent years working alongside faith-based, nonprofit, and legal organizations to support healing and advance social change. She remains grounded in her belief in the power of community, connection, and equitable systems.

    Shadoe lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her husband and two children. She enjoys spending time with her family, engaging with her community, and creating spaces for healing and growth.

Mark Gordon (he/him)

Treasurer

  • Mark C. Gordon is a Professor and the former President and Dean of Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Prior to his arrival in the Twin Cities in July, 2015, Gordon served as President of Defiance College and before that as Dean of University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in Detroit. Gordon is originally from New York, where he worked as an aide to New York’s Governor Mario Cuomo in the mid-1980’s and then, during the first Clinton Administration, as Chief of Staff to Andrew Cuomo at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. He received his B.A. and his Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, and his law degree from Harvard Law School.

Christy Waltz (she/her)

Board Member

  • Christy Waltz (Barich) began her advocacy as a teenager in foster care, serving on youth advisory boards and committees, advocating for legislation such as the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, and speaking locally and nationally about youth in the system. Christy spent the early part of her career working in youth-serving organizations before becoming a nurse. She now has 20 years of experience working across healthcare in primary care, managed care, county government, and a Federally Qualified Health Center. She works to influence structural change that enables all people to achieve their optimal health.

    Christy is a first-generation college graduate. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Women's Studies from Hamline University. She has a Master of Education degree in Youth Development Leadership and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in Health Innovation and Leadership from the University of Minnesota. Christy also serves on the Women's Health Leadership TRUST Associate Board and the Minnesota Organization of Registered Nurses board. She lives with her wife, three cats, and a dog in St. Louis Park. 

ed morales (he/him)

Board Member

  • ed morales MPP, MSW, LICSW, is a trainer and social worker based in Minneapolis, MN. In addition to being an adoptive and step-parent and a husband, Ed is a full-time staff trainer with the Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy; a social worker with Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota; serves as Community Faculty with the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work; sits on the Minnesota Children’s Subcommittee on Children’s Mental Health; and provides training, clinical supervision and professional development through his LLC, Socorro Consulting. Ed lives in North Minneapolis with his wife, youngest kids, and his cat, Mocha.

Lucina Kayee (she/they)

Board Member

  • Lucina Kayee is a Liberian born psychotherapist, special education school social worker, photographer, and documentary filmmaker whose work sits at the intersection of healing, research, and storytelling. She earned her Master of Social Work from St. Catherine University and is a Licensed Graduate Social Worker in Minnesota. 

    Lucina is the Founder and Executive Director of Atlas of Blackness, a grassroots multimedia and research driven organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating the stories of Black communities across generations. Through participatory arts, documentary filmmaking, and youth led research, Atlas of Blackness equips Black youth, particularly those impacted by the foster care and juvenile justice systems, with the tools to document their experiences and imagine new possibilities for their futures. 

    Grounded in the belief that healing is not about fixing brokenness but remembering wholeness, Lucina brings a trauma informed, culturally rooted, and relational approach to both her clinical and creative work. As a psychotherapist and school based special education social worker, she supports youth and adults navigating grief, trauma, identity, and life transitions, often integrating mindfulness, storytelling, and body awareness into her practice.

Meet the founder of Foster Advocates

Hoang Murphy

As a former high school English teacher, Hoang saw the importance of amplifying student and family voices. As a Foster, he knew that children and families must have a seat at the policymaking table. As founder of Foster Advocates, Hoang worked to ensure that those most impacted by current inequities had a voice in making decisions and crafting solutions.

Hoang was the 2023 Child Welfare Change Maker award recipient, a 2022 Bush Fellow, the 2021 CCAI Angel in Adoption award recipient, and served as the 2016 Public Policy Fellow with the United States Department of Education. He is a proud first-generation college graduate with a B.A. from Syracuse University, where he majored in Policy Studies and obtained an M.S., Ed. from Johns Hopkins University. Under Hoang’s leadership, Foster Advocates passed five historic bills in its first five years. Hoang retired from the organization in 2023, and he continues to be a key supporter of our Foster Rights Movement.

Meet the Executive Director’s Advisory Council

Deddtrease Edwards (she/her)

Aleesha German (she/her)

Nashauna Johnson - Lenoir (she/her)

Shane Read (he/him)

Niizhogaabo Holmes (she/her/he/him)

Shawna Bullen-Fairbanks (they/she/her)

**More info on the Advisory Council coming soon!!

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