UNDER ONE SKY VILLAGE FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP
A year-round core Leadership Team provides support between camp programs to all youth and their foster or adoptive families. A camp program staff of compassionate professionals from the community make a long-term commitment to delivering our programs throughout the year.
This commitment helps to build a supportive mentoring community and meaningful relationships with youth. Some staff have themselves been in foster care and were former campers in our program. All staff has been trained in trauma-focused practices, which utilize strategies and training from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
This commitment helps to build a supportive mentoring community and meaningful relationships with youth. Some staff have themselves been in foster care and were former campers in our program. All staff has been trained in trauma-focused practices, which utilize strategies and training from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
If you are interested in volunteering as a counselor or mentor with under One Sky, please contact Katie Kasben at katie@under1sky.org today!
Kelly Shanafelt
Executive Director
Kelly Shanafelt has spent 21 years in the non-profit field of western North Carolina, and has had the opportunity to serve some absolutely amazing organizations including the Friends of the WNC Nature Center, WNC Superheroes, Asheville Community Theatre, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Warren Wilson College, and MAHEC. She is also a consultant with Sims & Steele Consulting and works privately with clients on grant research and writing, organizational development, and fund planning. Through this work she has had the pleasure of working with clients ranging from hospital systems to the Salvation Army and from libraries to homeless shelters. Kelly has also served as a Board member for several organizations throughout the region, and loves what a generous and caring community we have. She is incredibly excited to be part of the Under 1 Sky Team!
Executive Director
Kelly Shanafelt has spent 21 years in the non-profit field of western North Carolina, and has had the opportunity to serve some absolutely amazing organizations including the Friends of the WNC Nature Center, WNC Superheroes, Asheville Community Theatre, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Warren Wilson College, and MAHEC. She is also a consultant with Sims & Steele Consulting and works privately with clients on grant research and writing, organizational development, and fund planning. Through this work she has had the pleasure of working with clients ranging from hospital systems to the Salvation Army and from libraries to homeless shelters. Kelly has also served as a Board member for several organizations throughout the region, and loves what a generous and caring community we have. She is incredibly excited to be part of the Under 1 Sky Team!
Katie Kasben
Camp & Program Manager
Katie is an Experience Pirate and has lived, worked and played around the whole world, from the Beijing Olympics and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival to working with the Anangu Community in the Outback of Australia and event productions in London. She is a Military Brat, born in the Philippines, and feels keenly what it is to be the new kid and an outsider. She is also an adoptive Mom of two amazing former foster children, and that experience, along with extensive research and understanding of trauma-informed development and attachment will be a guide for our future programming. She is so excited to be with Under 1 Sky village!
Camp & Program Manager
Katie is an Experience Pirate and has lived, worked and played around the whole world, from the Beijing Olympics and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival to working with the Anangu Community in the Outback of Australia and event productions in London. She is a Military Brat, born in the Philippines, and feels keenly what it is to be the new kid and an outsider. She is also an adoptive Mom of two amazing former foster children, and that experience, along with extensive research and understanding of trauma-informed development and attachment will be a guide for our future programming. She is so excited to be with Under 1 Sky village!
Marne Potocki, MSW
Youth Services Director
Marne obtained a Masters of Social Work Degree from Saginaw Valley State University. She has worked with children in a variety of settings, starting as a Spanish teacher and then transitioning to serving as a youth development specialist and social emotional learning coach. She also has experience with clinical behavioral therapy programs and wilderness therapy for youth and adolescents. In the non-profit realm, Marne spent years as a crisis response advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and also provided case management to cancer patients and their families. The combination of these experiences, as well as her former position as the social worker at a summer camp in Northern Wisconsin, taught Marne the value of being an active member of the community where she lives through direct services and organizational leadership. Her passion is supporting groups and individuals through an empowerment and strengths-based perspective to achieve their self-determined dreams. Marne is thrilled to be the Youth Services Director for Under 1 Sky!
Youth Services Director
Marne obtained a Masters of Social Work Degree from Saginaw Valley State University. She has worked with children in a variety of settings, starting as a Spanish teacher and then transitioning to serving as a youth development specialist and social emotional learning coach. She also has experience with clinical behavioral therapy programs and wilderness therapy for youth and adolescents. In the non-profit realm, Marne spent years as a crisis response advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and also provided case management to cancer patients and their families. The combination of these experiences, as well as her former position as the social worker at a summer camp in Northern Wisconsin, taught Marne the value of being an active member of the community where she lives through direct services and organizational leadership. Her passion is supporting groups and individuals through an empowerment and strengths-based perspective to achieve their self-determined dreams. Marne is thrilled to be the Youth Services Director for Under 1 Sky!
Diane Delafield
Founder of Under One Sky Village Foundation
While meeting and interviewing hundreds of children in foster care in North Carolina as Founding Director of Campaigns for Kids, she listened to them tell their stories of hope, despair, and resignation. She saw how their behavioral, emotional, and psychological issues often impeded their ability to ready themselves for adoption and make a successful transition into an adoptive family or into the next phase of their lives including reunification with birth family, new foster placement or leaving the foster care system.
She is honored to be the Founder of Under One Sky Village Foundation and will continue being committed to helping youth awaken to a renewed sense of purpose, connect with their inner resources and ultimately to a family and community of loving support. As part of her life path, she adopted her son Jesse at age fifteen and feels blessed to have built her family through adoption.
Devin- 2021-2022 Intern
UNDER ONE SKY PROGRAM STAFF
We are fortunate to have a dedicated team of camp staff who come back year after year. Below are a few of our talented camp program staff. Staff is made up of teachers, artists, and Under One Sky alumni. We also have professional chefs, farmers, carpenters, actors and more! Camp staff are trained every year to provide consistent and expert programming and mentorship for youth in foster care.
We are fortunate to have a dedicated team of camp staff who come back year after year. Below are a few of our talented camp program staff. Staff is made up of teachers, artists, and Under One Sky alumni. We also have professional chefs, farmers, carpenters, actors and more! Camp staff are trained every year to provide consistent and expert programming and mentorship for youth in foster care.
Rebecca - Counselor
Terrence - Counselor
Caitlin- Counselor
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Duke - Carpentry Instructor
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Brandon - Support Staff
Beatrice - ROP Instructor
Micheal "Mam" - Camp wide support
Melissa - Camp Nurse
In Loving Memory,
Justin Bencivengo - Camp Counselor
"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." -Thomas Campbell
Justin Bencivengo - Camp Counselor
"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." -Thomas Campbell