Paul Jelle
Board Member and Chief Financial Officer
Paul is a Credit Administrator for a west coast commercial bank and recently celebrated 44 years in the banking industry.

Paul and his wife of 44 years, Joanne are the parents of one adopted son and three biological children and grandparents to two. They are the founders of Heart to Heart Support Group; and are currently responsible for the Mercy and Care Ministry at Valley Springs Presbyterian Church. Paul has served on our board as CFO for many years.

Paul enjoys family gatherings. Time spent at the beach, mountains and family get-togethers at home are his most cherished.

Paul found his adoption experience challenging, however the outcome was that his heart was changed to allow him to love his son as the exceptional person that he was.

Joel (JD) Diefenbacher
Board President, Volunteer Emancipation Coach, Mentor
JD and his wife Nadine are the parents of one biological child and four children adopted from foster care. He is proud to report that all five are healthy contributing adults.

As a foster care graduate himself, JD's heart has been drawn towards participants who near time to age out of our program, but are not yet ready to return home, or launch into the big world. To address this, he researched and developed our emancipation curriculum and volunteers several evenings per week to administer the same.

JD enjoys watching his young adult children grow in their careers, relationships and faith. He and Nadine enjoy weekend getaways and activities at their church.

Stacey Colletti, BA
Board Secretary, Volunteer
Stacey and her husband Chris are the parents of a sibling set of two children who were adopted from foster care. Their family also boasts a dog, two cats and several chickens.

Stacey has provided a plethora of services since joining The Parent Cooperative. As a project manager, she has been pivotal to the development and implementation of each program. She has also been generous with time spent cooking and baking with the children and coordinating social functions.

Stacey enjoys annual time spent in Hawaii with her family. She also loves cooking and baking, tending to her chickens, and snuggling to read with her daughter.

Carla DeRose MA, MFT Director
TBRI Educator
Carla and her husband Edward are the parents of seven adopted children and one birth child. Additionally they have been guardian parents to several children and are raising their grandson. Growing their family via adoption and guardianship parenting seemed like a natural outgrown of their separate careers as mental health professionals in the adoption field.

Carla and Edward along with several other adoptive families founded The Parent Cooperative Community in order to fill the unmet needs of their own and other adoptive families of children from difficult beginnings. As the director of this small non-profit, she wears many hats. Her top priority is always to facilitate the development of skills, resources and connection within families and the adoptive community.

Carla enjoys sharing meals, playing sports and table games together. She loves weekend get-aways (with and without her family). During quiet time, she loves to research, read, write garden and take photographs. Time spent at the river with her grandson and dog are her favorite things.

Edward Olvera
MA, MFT Administrator
Edward and his wife are parents of seven adopted children, one biological child and several guardianship children. They are also raising their grandson. Edward is retired from county adoption services.

Edward is a program founder. In his position at the Parent Cooperative Community, he insures compliance with a plethora of complex county, state and federal regulations. He is very generous with his time as an "all-around-helper guy" who is willing to show up at the facility day or night when his help is needed with a struggling child, or a plumbing crisis.

Edward is an advanced NLP trainer who enjoys facilitating and attending trainings all over the world. He loves spending time with his children hiking, biking and climbing. Hanging out and playing with his grandson is also at the top of his list.

Shauna Davis
House Manager, Mentor
Shauna and her husband are the parents of four adopted children. Her background before coming to the Parent Cooperative was in service to special needs preschoolers with emphasis on sensory-motor development.

Shauna's hand can be experienced in essentially every aspect of the programs here. She does all of the scheduling (including programs, therapeutic interventions, staffing, appointments, outings etc.). Additionally, she supervises the direct care and admin staff, facilitates sensory-motor interventions and physical education, teaches and mentors other parents and children.

Shauna enjoys taking walks with her dog and hiking, Disneyland, movies and table games with her family. She is pursuing her Occupational Therapist certification.

BJ McGhie
Administration, Mentor
BJ and her husband Ben are the adoptive parents to one child and four cats. They are looking forward to adding more children and pets to their family in the future.

Here at the program, BJ is an administrative power house. She takes care of all things financial, manages our web page, fixes computers, keeps track of grades, and coordinates between teachers here and our charter school partners. She also mentors other parents and children.

BJ enjoys spending time with Ben and their very large families. Table games at their house are known of near and far. She loves to travel, spend time with girlfriends, read and do service projects.

Joanne Jelle
BA, Elementary Credential, TBRI Practitioner, TBRI Educator Direct Care Staff, Parent Mentor
Joanne and her husband Paul are the parents of 3 biologically and one by adoption. She met her youngest son at age ten when he became a student in her classroom.

They are also founders of Heart to Heart Support Group. Through Heart to Heart she provides adoptive families resources and opportunities for community connection. Countless adoptive families at The Parent Cooperative and throughout the Greater Sacramento area have benefited from being mentored by Joanne towards TBRI caregiving. As a direct provider, she teaches two subjects and coaches children to manage their thoughts and feelings.

Joanne enjoys gatherings with her adult children (who are gourmet chefs) and their families and yearly trips to Pajaro Dunes.

Debra Zacharia
RN (retired) Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Debra and her Husband Michael are the parents of 4 biologically and 2 via adoption from China while the family was living there. They are grandparents to five with two on the way. For the, adoption has been an amazing journey of learning, love, growth and more love.

At The Parent Cooperative, you will find Debra elbow deep in papers to correct, tutoring and supervising activities. Each week she helps the participants find healthy-nutritious recipes, develop menus, prepare shopping lists, shop and prepare meals. Debra and Michael also serve as mentors to folks in their community.

Debra and Michael love big family meals together, hikes in the California hills, boating and playing games.

Tyler Harstron
Student Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Tyler and his wife of three years are parents to a sweet baby boy. He is a Psychology student at Sacramento State University. Tyler plans to become a Marriage and Family Therapist.

At the program, Tyler teaches two subjects, tutors math, facilitates physical education and sensory diets, supervises recreational activities and provides mentoring to young male participants.

Tyler enjoys his "close and crazy" family get-togethers and game nights. Special occasions, support, and snuggles with his wife Jessica and infant son are also on the top of his favorites list.

Angela DeRose
Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Angela is an adoptee with more than a half-dozen adoptive siblings as well.

We are so fortunate to have Angela here at the program where she isn't afraid to take on whatever task we put in front of her. She tutors, supervises activities and outings, does transports, errands and shopping and provides that experienced ear for the participants and parents.

Angela loves spending time with her fiance', road trips and hanging out with the family.

Connie Van Horn, MSW
Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Connie and her husband Jeff are the parents of a sibling set of three adopted from foster care. Connie's experience as an adoption social worker played a significant role in their decision to develop their family via adoption.

Here at the program, Connie teaches high school and facilitates a variety of recreational activities and projects ranging from baking and crafts to river outings.

Connie enjoys swimming, hiking and biking on the American River, baking, reading and vacationing with her family.

Connie Kniveton MD
Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Connie and her husband are the parents of one internationally adopted child and two birth children. Her family includes a horse and two dogs.

Connie not only provides her medical expertise as a pediatrician to the program, she also volunteers as a direct care staff in the classroom. She spends many hours here correcting papers and tutoring children in basic subjects.

Connie enjoys swimming, horseback riding, and doing service projects. She likes to share meals and vacation with her family.

Marcelle Tudhope BFA
Direct Care Staff, Music Instructor, Mentor
Marcelle and her husband Brian are parents of one internationally adopted son and one birth son.

As our music instructor, Marcelle provides individual and group lessons to children interested in singing or playing an instrument. She also provides curriculum development and instruction to junior high students.

Marcelle loves making music with her family, singing and playing instruments. They also enjoy movie nights, kayaking, biking and quiet evenings at home.

Connie Apostolocas, BA
Direct Care Staff
Connie is the parent to one child adopted from foster care and one birth child.

Connie provides weekend staffing here at the program. You can find her on Saturdays supervising deep clean, raking leaves, tutoring and correcting papers.

Connie enjoys hiking, bike riding, and spending time with her children. She also enjoys fostering abandoned puppies.

Sandie Hanson, BA
Sandie and her husband Michael are the parents of one child adopted from foster care and three adult biological children.

As a direct care staff at The Parent Cooperative Community, she supervises small education groups as well as therapeutic and recreational activities. She also volunteers her time tutoring and grading a lot of papers.

Sandie enjoys working at and attending functions at her church, visiting with her children, travel and scrapbooking.

Jeff Van Horn
Direct Care Staff, Mentor
Jeff and his wife are the parents of a sibling set of three adopted from foster care.

Here at the program, Jeff provides math tutoring, supervises educational, therapeutic and recreational activities and provides support to the teaching staff.

Jeff enjoys biking, hiking, and board games with his kids.

Michael Hanson, BS
Direct Care Staff
Michael and his wife are the parents of one child adopted from foster care and three adult children.

Michael is a coveted weekend math tutor here at The Parent Cooperative Community. He also provides general supervision during recreational and therapeutic activities.

Michael enjoys his career in the computer industry, and attending functions and activities with his family.

Chris Colletti
BCIA, BCN/HRV Certified Electronic Intervention Coordinator, Mentor
Chris and his wife Stacey are the adoptive parents of a siblings set of two from foster care. In addition to his work here at PCC, he provides electronic interventions to clients in the greater Sacramento area.

Here at the Parent Cooperative Chris provides electronic interventions to participants and parents including neurofeedback, biofeedback, Interactive Metronome, Play Attention. He challenges himself to stay on the forefront of brain science and keep up on new products and equipment in his field.

He enjoys trips to the park with his family and the dog, traveling, and playing table games together.

Nadine Diefenbacher, MA MFT
Clinical Supervisor
Nadine and her husband JD are the parents of four children adopted from foster care and one birth child.

Nadine provides clinical supervision and direct clinical services to children and families. She has extensive training in trauma informed care and "in-the-trenches" experience as an adoptive mom of children from difficult beginnings.

Nadine enjoys travel and weekend get-aways with her husband and sharing meals with her family.

Jerri Ford MA, MFTi
Therapist
Jerri and her husband are the parents of two adult children and grandparents of one beautiful granddaughter.

Jerri has extensive experience in special education and trauma informed care. She provides individual and group therapy to participants at PCC. Some of her modalities include sand tray, cognitive behavior therapy and brain spotting.

Jerri enjoys spending time with her children and grandchild, date nights with her husband and collecting turtles.

Ben McGhie
General Contractor Maintenance, Mentor
Ben and his wife BJ are parents to one adopted child. They are looking forward to adding to their family via adoption in the future.

Ben is a general contractor, and "fix-it" guy here at the facility. He can be found doing everything from fixing faucets to building emancipation dorm cabins and replacing our huge deck. The best part of having Ben do our building and maintenance projects is that he involves the participants. Under his mentorship they not only learn about maintenance and construction, but about service and being a person of good character.

Ben enjoys time with his very large family, fishing, and the "Famous McGhie Game nights".