Jamie Finn
Jamie C. Finn is the author of best-selling book, Foster the Family, and Filled: 60 Devotions for the Foster Parent’s Heart. She is the founder and President of Foster the Family and the founder of the Filled Gathering. Her popular social media accounts offer a glimpse into the real life of a foster parent and provide encouragement to tens of thousands of foster and adoptive parents. She lives in Sicklerville, New Jersey, with her husband, Alan, and their 7 children through foster care, adoption, and birth.
Jason Johnson
Jason is a writer and speaker who encourages families and equips church and organizational leaders on their foster care and adoption journeys.
He currently serves as the National Director of The Pure Religion Project with Christian Alliance for Orphans. In his work he develops resources, coaches leaders and teaches in a variety of contexts on church-based ministry structures, organizational leadership and strategy. He is also a sought-after speaker for churches, retreats, conferences, and events for foster and adoptive parents as well as for those considering getting involved.
Prior to his work at CAFO Jason spent 14 years in church staff ministry, including planting and pastoring a church in Houston. It’s there that his family's foster care journey began.
Jason and his wife, Emily live in Texas with their daughters. He has authored 4 books: Reframing Foster Care, Everyone Can Do Something, The ALL IN Curriculum and Effectively Engaging Churches. You can find many of his resources at www.jasonjohnsonblog.com.
Philip Pattinson
Philip Pattison is a Foster/Adoptive Dad, Pastor and Co-Founder/Executive Director of Foster the City, a movement of 400 churches working together to provide loving homes for children entering foster care. Philip and his family of 6 reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and you'll most likely find him exploring new coffee shops, cheering for his kids at the ballpark or dreaming about ways that local churches can keep moving towards vulnerable children and families.
Martha Cook
Martha Cook is a marriage and family clinician, wife of 25 years, and mother of ten children, seven through adoption. With unusual honesty, humor, and hope, Martha speaks to the beautiful, complicated, and often exhausting realities of adoption, foster care, trauma, attachment, marriage, and family life.
Martha earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Washington and Lee University and her Master’s in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. As a clinician, she helps individuals and couples understand why their stories matter, how their stories of origin shape connection, and what they can do now to move toward healing, freedom, and deeper intimacy.
Martha is passionate about helping foster and adoptive parents love their children without losing themselves. She speaks honestly about staying loving but not enmeshed, connected but not controlled, compassionate but not consumed—and giving parents permission to live, laugh, rest, and enjoy the life God has given them, even when their children’s healing journeys are still messy or unfinished.
Paula Anderson
Paula Walker serves as the Trauma Specialist for Mission Georgia. She equips churches and organizations to create environments that are safe and welcoming for the vulnerable among us so that they can hear and respond to the Gospel. She holds a Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Georgia and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from the University of West Georgia. She is also a TBRI Practitioner. She is married to Scott Walker, and they have 6 children, ages 19 to 7, three of whom came to their family through foster care and adoption. The Walkers live in Jasper, Georgia.
Tona Ottinger
Tona Ottinger is the Senior Program Director of Empowered to Connect (ETC), an organization committed to hope and healing for families and communities. ETC has a long history of serving parents and caregivers through educating, equipping and empowering them with the knowledge and tools they need to cultivate safe and trusting relationships and homes.
She is also the co-founder of Memphis Family Connection Center (MFCC). MFCC provides family-centered, multi-disciplinary, connection-based, trauma-informed clinical care to children and families. 23 years ago, when Tona and her husband Mark brought their first of 6 children home via adoption, they began dreaming about a holistic center to support families as they walk the journey of adoption and foster care.
Since that time, she has served, equipped, taught, and supported hundreds of adoptive and foster parents both in Memphis and around the country, as trainer for Empowered to Connect, podcast host, content creator, and a conference speaker.
In recent years she has been part of launching a state wide initiative in Tennessee focused on bringing family-centered, trauma-informed best practices to nonprofits, churches, schools and civic organizations desiring to be part of community based systemic change and healing.
She is committed to empowering parents, professionals, nonprofits, churches, and communities with tools to create safe, attachment-rich spaces for children and families to thrive. She brings both her personal parenting experience, her heart for resourcing and supporting others, and her drive for justice, hope and healing to the ETC team.
Tona believes that every person has the capacity to overcome adversity and experience hope and healing. You can find her on the Empowered to Connect podcast as well as all the ETC, MFCC, and Safe and Secure TN social media channels and Empowered to Connect YouTube channel.
Jesse Faris
Jesse has been working with children & families since graduating from Auburn University with a BS in Human Development & Family studies in 2002. She worked in student & adult ministry on staff with churches for a number of years, and then transitioned to working for nonprofits that supported children & families. She married her husband Nick in 2006, and they adopted two children–a daughter from Ethiopia in 2011, and a daughter from China in 2015. Nick and Jesse found Empowered to Connect as they were researching the adoption process, and they began training with Empowered to Connect in 2004. After a decade staying home with her daughters, Jesse came on staff with ETC in 2021 as a Training Specialist. She now works as a Special Projects Manager, managing projects that involve ETC programs across the state & globe while continuing to train new facilitators in ETC’s Cultivate Connection parenting curriculum and creating new resources for parents & families. She leads & teaches a local evening class of an in-depth global Bible study in her free time.