The team at Launch St. Louis

Originally serving as the Young Friends of Gilda for Gilda’s Club St. Louis, we created Launch St. Louis to address a need we found prevalent in the St. Louis market – a source for the knowledge, resources and energy needed to create “young friends” groups. Our team was assembled to be extremely diverse – making us a well-rounded advisor. Take a moment to meet Launch St. Louis.

Launch St. Louis Executive Committee

Rashida Dinehart, Chairperson

Rashida Dinehart is proud to call herself a born and raised St. Louisan. She attended the University of Missouri where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree focused in Strategic Communications from the School of Journalism. By day she’s a Marketing Planner at Caleres, but by night she’s one part St. Louis blogger at SomethingLou.com, and one part non-profit connoisseur. Rashida splits her free time into serving on two Young Professionals boards: Launch St. Louis and Annie’s Hope Bereavement Center for Kids. It’s through these organizations that she gets to ignite her true passion for all things St. Louis and affect change in a positive way. Outside of Launch, Rashida enjoys cooking, eating lots of pizza, running and spending as much time as possible with her husband, Ben, and their dog, Kona.

 Julie Mann, Vice Chair & Treasurer

Julie is a CPA and the finance manager at Operation Food Search. Before her current role, she spent 10 years in public accounting and worked as an external auditor and financial advisor to many nonprofits in the St. Louis area. Julie currently serves on a greek life advisory board at the University of Missouri- St. Louis and has also volunteered at Race for the Cure and Five Acres Animal Shelter.

 Jonathan Goldford, Member at Large & Former Chairperson

Jonathan is a partner at Wired Impact, an online marketing company that works exclusively with nonprofit organizations. He also served as the chair of the Launch St. Louis Board of Directors from 2014 to 2016, striving to connect as many young professionals to the nonprofit community as possible. Jonathan is dedicated to serving nonprofits, previously volunteering on the Operation Food Search young friends board and completing a fellowship with an NGO in India. He loves anything made with chocolate or honey, the movie Shawshank Redemption and all things related to sea life.

Launch St. Louis Board

 Steve Bauer

After graduating from Indiana University, Steve lived in Saltillo, Mexico, where he taught English to adults and children at the Instituto Mexicano Americano de Relaciones Culturales (IMARC). As an integrated marketing and social media strategist, Steve helps organize charitable fundraising efforts and community service projects and on behalf of his clients. Steve currently serves as a senior vice president and partner of FleishmanHillard, St. Louis.

 Jill Lewin

Jill is the Associate Director of Development for the School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. After working in the television industry in Los Angeles for six years, she moved back to St. Louis in 2008. Her years of PR and marketing experience have served an array of organizations and nonprofits from Los Angeles to Ghana, Africa. Locally, Jill is a volunteer member of the American Red Cross’ Disaster Action Team.

 Emily Gavilsky

Emily Gavilsky is the owner and principal designer of both Emily Anna Events & Renown Rentals. She also holds a license as a Professional Counselor and does work with various nonprofits in St. Louis to help with awareness and fundraising. She consults and does grant writing in the community. In her free time, Emily enjoys traveling and perfecting her calligraphy skills!

 Michelle Kilper

Michelle currently works as a Program Coordinator for a local non-profit working with volunteers and managing the volunteer program. While in college, Michelle was a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service sorority (Missouri State University) and Alpha Phi Omega National Service fraternity (University of Missouri – St. Louis). It was during this time that she realized the importance and excitement of being involved with nonprofits and giving back to the community. After college, Michelle continued to volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association and American Red Cross. Outside of work, Michelle enjoys traveling, playing sports, and spending time with her husband and two sons.

 Alex Roberts

Alex is an Account Supervisor at FleishmanHillard, a top global complete communications agency headquartered in downtown St. Louis, where he specializes in media relations. Prior to St. Louis and a career in PR, Alex worked in the television news business, providing the most accurate and always entertaining weather forecasts to Missouri and Iowa residents. Previously, Alex sat on the Gilda’s Club Chicago Associate Board, a cancer support community located in downtown Chicago, organizing and developing their charity running program as well as assisting in club PR and marketing efforts. He has also worked with and supports Movember every November through the beautiful wispy moustache he’ll attempt to grow to help change the face of men’s health. Alex joined Launch St. Louis in the fall of 2014.

 Beth Casagrand

Beth is the Youth Leadership St. Louis and Emerging Leaders Director at FOCUS St. Louis, a regional leadership nonprofit. She conducts leadership training for high school juniors and young professionals. As a former Teach For America teacher, she’s passionate about educational equity. She sits on the Governmental Affairs committee for the Parkway School District, is a St. Louis Mosaic Ambassador, and is part of the St. Patrick Center Young Friends Board.

 Elise Hastings

Elise is director of Good Street STL, a micro-donation platform that allows you to give just 25¢ a day to charities all over St. Louis and the world. Elise is passionate about merging the innovation sector with the social sector, and loves to talk about ways to help nonprofits become more effective. Before she helped found Good Street in St. Louis, she managed a refugee resettlement program in Phoenix, and completed a New Sector Alliance fellowship in San Francisco. You can find her most weekends at the Missouri botanical garden or the STL Zoo.

 Zarrin Lilani

Zarrin currently works in the Business Analytics Supply chain team at Nestlé. Her job is to make sure the Supply Chain folks have all the data they need to make the right business decisions. Zarrin is passionate about urban regeneration and believes that innovation is key to building better and more sustainable cities. Zarrin spent most of her life in London, UK where she was involved in “Croydon Tech City,” a movement to regenerate her London district by attracting tech talent and companies. Zarrin loves living in St. Louis and wanted to give back to the city so she joined Launch at a Committee and then a Board level. She also currently serves as a St. Louis Mosaic ambassador and has a blog on ways to give back and enjoy St. Louis at somethinglou.com.

Paul VandenElzen

Paul is a Lead Research Analyst and Project Manager at Avant Marketing Group. In addition to his work with Launch St. Louis, Paul is an avid volunteer and Board member with the Young Friends of the APA. When he is not conducting market research he can be found backpacking, kayaking and camping through-out the Midwest.

 Jeanne Kaufmann

Jeanne Kaufmann is the current Wealth Strategist Associate for Northern Trust – St. Louis, where she coordinates the event and marketing efforts for the Missouri region.  Prior to joining Launch St. Louis in 2017, she served on the Education Committee and helped facilitate the Launch St. Louis Blog.  Before taking on her current role, Jeanne spent her career working in non-for-profit administration, with a focus on general management for theaters both in St. Louis and Washington, DC, and is very passionate about getting the next generation involved with causes they believe in.  In her free time, you can find Jeanne hanging with husband Tim and her dog Talullah, laughing over her favorite episode of “Parks & Rec”, and working on her fashion blog, FashionByCommittee.com.

Launch St. Louis Alumni

Erin Willmann

Digital Marketing Specialist for Entertainment Cruise Productions

Jon Franko, Founding Board Member

Gorilla 76

Jill Mantey

Communications Consultant

Ashley Turigliatto

Director of Development at Pujols Family Foundation

Joe Sullivan, Founding Board Member

Gorilla 76

Tim McFarlin

Fellow, Legal Method & Communication Program at Elon University School of Law

Kevin Haar, Founding Board Member

Super Bright LEDs

Michelle Sinclair

Appistry

Keith Goltschman

Enterprise Bank & Trust

Whitney Vredenburgh

Valent Corporation

Yvette LeGear Hartsfield, Founding Board Member

St. Andrew’s Charitable Foundation

Michael Hart, Founding Board Member

Isle of Capri Casinos

Jen Crichton, Founding Board Member

Weber Shandwick

Joy Hennessy, Founding Board Member

Thompson Coburn, LLP

Keri Kiblinger

5 Horizons Group

Stephanie Burke

Brown Shoe

Devon Cramer

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Matthew Haywood

Krilogy Financial

Ann Davidson, Founding Board Member

Northwestern University School of Law, Office of Alumni Relations and Development

Michael Lane, Founding Board Member

Protiviti

Kathleen Molamphy, Founding Board Member

Bunge North America, Inc.