Atlanta

Brent’s love for organizations benefiting children started in college. While at Southwestern University, he spent his summers as the boys’ camp counselor at Peaceable Kingdom, a camp for children with chronic illnesses and special needs. Brent also interned at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston with the Child Life team, getting to experience all aspects of the hospital – ER, Cancer and Hematology, PICU, NICU, and Surgery.

After college, Brent went to work for Dell Inc in sales. During his 20-year tenure as a sales executive, he continued to give back to the community, helping create the Children’s Trust of Central Texas, serving on the board of Upper Ninety (now 4ATX Foundation), coaching and serving on the board of the West Austin Youth Association, and Wonders & Worries, where he served on the board from 2014 – 2023, with the last three years as Board President. Brent’s desire to help children and teenagers led him to join Wonders & Worries as our Director of Development.

Melissa has been a child life specialist for over 30 years with her primary area of clinical expertise in the oncology arena. Prior to co-founding Wonders & Worries, she worked at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland and the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In addition to hospital-based practice, Melissa has also worked in private practice/consulting as well as being a psychosocial program director for Camp Sunshine in Atlanta, GA and a school counselor.  Melissa has also served on several non-profit Board of Directors. In addition to chairing many committees and a task force, Melissa has been the President of the Association for Child Life Professionals (ACLP), a Director on the ACLP Board, and the Child Life Certification Chairperson.   She was honored to receive the Child Life Council Distinguished Service Award in 2010.

Melissa earned a BS in Individual and Family Studies from the University of Delaware and a MS in Counseling from Georgia State University. She was awarded the Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement (2001) and the Outstanding Alumni Award for the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (2002) at the University of Delaware.

She has published in journals and textbooks on the topics of children impacted by cancer, coping with chronic illness in children and child life practice in alternate settings. Melissa has presented on these topics at the university level, professional conferences, to medical staff and to parents.

Melissa is a certified child life specialist, a licensed clinical mental health counselor and a registered play therapist & supervisor. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and in her free time enjoys spending time with family and friends on Cape Cod.