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Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Outreach Center |
Management Team The management team and staff at the Center are culturally diverse with many different educational backgrounds and life experiences. We work interactively to ensure that our programs and services are responsive and relevant to the needs of the families we serve.
Freda Gandy fgandy@mlkspokane.org Bob McNickle Bob was born at home on Valentine's Day 1945 the son of an Ohio River boat captain and the daughter of German immigrants. After spending his childhood in the sleepy, little town of Antiquity, Ohio Bob decided that being a farmer or a coal miner was not the profession he desired for life. Deciding the world was bigger than the then remote area nestled in the Ohio River Valley he left home after graduation and joined the United States Air Force. The Air Force determined that Bob would be best suited to be a jet aircraft mechanic and after serving his country for more than twenty-three years retired, choosing to remain in the Spokane Area. After retirement, Bob returned to college as a non-traditional student and received a Liberal Arts degree from Spokane Community College and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Washington University. After graduation, Bob's experience includes positions as the payroll administrator for a California based corporation with over four hundred employees, a financial analyst, and as an accountant for a variety of businesses in various fields. Having traveled to many nations, while serving in the Air Force, and experiencing first hand the struggles of people the world over, he decided to serve with those dedicated to assist families not blessed with the best of circumstances. Being raised on the banks of the Ohio River, he spends much of his free time fishing and building custom spinning and casting rods. fd@mlkspokane.org Suzanne Kolbe, MSW Suzanne's first experience as a community activist dates to advocacy for the vote for eighteen year olds and the Equal Rights Amendment while attending college at the University of Washington. She later worked as an organizer and fundraiser for the bi-partisan National Women's Political Caucus and for services to address the needs of victims of domestic violence in Massachusetts and Connecticut. She spent the next seventeen years working with adults and families who were homeless, including extensive experience in the inner city during the early outbreaks of HIV disease among women and the African American community in the 1980s. She returned to Spokane in 1993 and completed her Master of Social Work degree from Eastern Washington University in 1999. A growing belief in the financial and human cost effectiveness of prevention and early intervention efforts brought her to the Center in 2003. She began volunteering with the Circle of Security ® project while still in graduate school and, with consultation by the program's authors, adapted it for use in a transitional residential setting for women in crisis, and for use with families at the Center. She has post graduate certificates in assessing parent-child attachment in preschoolers from the University of Virginia, and in clinical assessment of infant mental health from Tulane University. She is an adjunct faculty member of the EWU School of Social Work. After thoroughly exploring every water hazard, sand trap and stand of trees on area golf courses, she surrendered her golf clubs in favor of a digital camera three years ago, which allows her to wander an even wider range of terrain. skolbe@mlkspokane.org |
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