Bella Chaffey Lakic
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Bella has had much experience working and volunteering for a plethora of different nonprofits all around the world throughout her lifetime and has known from a young age that nonprofit work is where her heart lies. When her younger brother, Alexander, had emergency open heart surgery and received a donor heart in the summer of 2017 she found a new cause that she realized had to be addressed more in society and that she cared deeply about, organ donation awareness and screening young hearts to try and prevent others from going through what her brother, Alexander did. Through that realization, her past nonprofit experiences, and with help from family and friends she decided to form Alexander’s Hope. Bella is an avid runner, competing in long-distance races all over the world. She also loves to spend time with her four rescue pups and husband, Nikola.
Lindsey Wellmon
BOARD MEMBER
Lindsey has a passion for health and wellness, particularly in children. She believes there is not enough focus on prevention and is seeking to change that through her role as Executive Director of the 47th Avenue Foundation. By supporting organizations like Alexander’s Hope, we can improve children’s health. Prior to her career at the foundation, she worked for an aerospace manufacturing company for 10 years. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, cooking and being active.
Angelina Olson
BOARD MEMBER
Angelina is a health advocate and entrepreneur. She opened The Wallflower in 1993, a retail store at Bellevue Square and ran it for 9 years. She currently runs her own growing health and wellness business with Arbonne. She often uses her business as a platform to create awareness and opportunities for people to come together to give and make an impact.Angelina has lived in the Pacific Northwest all her life. She is a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Speech Communications. She has been involved with the National Charity League Board for 6 years and has served as Vice President of Philanthropy.Angelina has a Passion for serving children and giving them opportunities to flourish. Philanthropies that she is actively involved with are Jubilee Reach, Children’s Hospital and Alexander’s Hope. She enjoys creating memories with her husband and 3 children along with gardening, hiking, golfing and traveling.
Georgina Frantz
BOARD MEMBER
Georgina is from the United Kingdom and moved to the United States at a young age. After graduating from Western Washington University, Georgina worked in corporate events, managing multi-million dollar budgets and overseeing production of national and international programs. While enjoying a challenging and creative career, she never felt truly fulfilled with her 9-to-5.
Georgina has a passion for philanthropy, specifically working for the development of youth through education and physical rehabilitation of disabilities. She volunteered through the Junior League of Seattle prior to joining Alexander’s Hope. Georgina left the corporate world in 2020 with the arrival of her daughter, in hopes of dedicating more time to family and community service. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the Pacific Northwest with her family and their two King Charles Cavaliers.
Margo Engberg
BOARD MEMBER
Margo Engberg is the mother of four adopted children and is also helping raise a few of her nieces and nephews. She is the CEO and Founder of PinkaBella Cupcakes, a story that was inspired by her adopted children, who had never had a birthday party. Though running her company of five stores, and a franchise keeps her busy, her priority is her family and serving her community. Margo has served on many charity auctions as a chair member, as well as working for outreach organizations for children at risk, doing anything from serving meals to mentoring. More than anything, Margo is passionate about people, especially those in need.
Sophia Chaffey
BOARD MEMBER
Sophia Chaffey is a 2022 graduate from the University of Washington. Along with studying for her undergraduate, she was part of the UW Women’s Rowing Team and won a National Championship with them in 2021. When not rowing, Sophia enjoys spending time outside hiking, swimming, and biking. She spends most of her down time with her rescue pup, Diego, and loves to take him along on her adventures. Alexander’s Hope has a special place in her heart, since she witnessed her brother Alexander’s journey firsthand. Her competitive drive and winner’s mentality makes her a strong addition to the Alexander’s Hope Board of Directors.
Alexander Chaffey
BOARD MEMBER
Alexander is currently exploring areas of study that impassion him. He loves writing, music, the study of animals (especially marine life), and video games. He is able to continue pursuing these passions due to the lifesaving heart transplant he received in September of 2017. An unexpected emergency following a family vacation led to him being hospitalized in August of 2017, and he was put on an artificial heart. Due to the generosity of a donor, he was able to receive a transplant remarkably quickly and that saved his life. He has made a full recovery!
Liz Strathy-Merrill
BOARD MEMBER
Liz is the Vice President of Investor Services for the Sound Equity Debt Fund and Owner of Sweat Equity Gym (Seattle and San Diego) and is a personal Health/Balance Coach. She attended the University of Washington on athletic scholarship (swimming). Giving back to the community has always been hugely important to Liz. She has raised money to build 8 fresh water wells in Africa as well as a pre-school and hosted fundraisers for the Family Seal Foundation and served on the board of Childhaven for 2 terms. Liz has continued her love for sport her entire life. She has completed over 10 marathons and ultra-marathons as well as many long-distance bike races. Her passion is to combine the lessons and habits taught through sport and business to help women of all socioeconomic and physical backgrounds to truly become their very best selves. To optimize their potential and to use these gifts to change the world.
Nikola Lakic
DIRECTOR OF MEDIA
Nikola graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. After spending several years working corporate communications and executive assisting C-level executives at a billion dollar company, he formed his own marketing and media agency, Lakic Creative. His love for creating is second to his enthusiasm and passion for everything he does. He currently works with small companies to create marketing materials and high quality video productions for web and social media. Nikola is an avid soccer and tennis player. He enjoys running, creating engaging content and spending time with his wife, Bella Chaffey, and their four dogs, Toby, Pookie, Sunny, and Bubba.
Nikola has helped develop all of Alexander’s Hope’s media including videos, photos and graphics while volunteering at all events!
Lisa Carlson
SECRETARY
Lisa has worked in public affairs and fundraising in the PacificNorthwest for over 20 years. Her expertise includes the areas of event planning and execution, project management and logistics. She began her career serving the state of Washington while working in Washington, DC and went on to work as an advocate for small businesses in Olympia, WA. In 1996, Lisa founded a fundraising and event management consulting firm to serve clients in the nonprofit, political and corporate sectors. Her recent work focuses on delivering exceptional results for partners engaged in the arts, leadership development and software industries. Lisa is a lifelong Washingtonian and graduated from WashingtonState University. She spends her free time reading, hiking, snowboarding and volunteering her time with organizations focused on children, cancer research and the outdoors. An adventurer at heart, she’s climbed mountains all over the world for charity, completed marathons and loves exploring beautiful terrain.
Jen Chaffey
TREASURER
Jen is a mother of three grown children. She has a passion for health and wellness, completing her nutrition counseling course and a 200-hour yoga certification in recent years. Jen had a photography business for 10 years, focusing on family photos and senior portraits. Jen has worked part-time as an in home caregiver for ill or elderly clients since 2010. She loves her clients and feels blessed to share time with them. in her free time she enjoys an active lifestyle, including yoga, running, hiking with her dogs and traveling with her husband. Jen has a new passion to spread awareness of the importance of organ donation after her son received a life-saving heart transplant in the summer of 2016. She volunteers with the Nick of Time Foundation once a month administering EKGs at local high schools to prevent others from going through what her son, Alexander, went through.
Bob Chaffey
VICE PRESIDENT
Bob has been building and selling homes for over 30 years, as a homebuilder with Chaffey Homes and more recently, a Managing Broker with Windermere Real Estate. Over the years, Chaffey Homes has won many awards, including The National Association of Home Builders Green Home of the Year, multiple MAME awards and Best of Show at luxury home events. Bob has a huge heart for children and was on the Board of Trustees for Olive Crest, a non-profit dedicated to preventing child abuse. Bob is or has been a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties as well as Kitsap, Pierce and Skagit counties, National Association of Home Builders, Seattle King County Association of Realtors, and National Association of Realtors and many more.
Bob is the proud father of three children, Bella, Alexander, a 2017 recipient of a donor heart and Sophia Chaffey, and has been married to Jennifer Chaffey since 1995.