Staff

Bruce Bowman is the President of Play Product Initiatives. After serving as a board member for several years, Bowman joined KaBOOM! in 2006 as chief operating officer and assumed the role of president in 2012. As president, Bruce focuses on leveraging new, large-scale business opportunities that support the strategic plan. Prior to joining KaBOOM!, he was with Wild Oats Markets, Inc., an organic and all-natural grocery retailer with $1.2 billion in annual sales. During his five years there, he served as senior vice president of operations and senior vice president of business development. He came to Wild Oats from Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream where he was part of their senior management team for six years. Bruce first became involved with KaBOOM! through Ben & Jerry’s and was instrumental in developing KaBERRY KaBOOM!, an ice cream flavor from which a portion of the sales was donated to KaBOOM!. Bruce holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Tennessee Technological University.

Carlyne is currently the Vice President of Finance and joined KaBOOM! as Controller in January 2013.  Prior to joining KaBOOM! Carlyne worked at International Baccalaureate (IB) as Head of Finance Schools Division where she was responsible for the school’s division finance staff with her teams based in Bethesda, Hague, and Singapore.  Carlyne is an experienced professional with over 20 years, specializing in accounting and finance.  Carlyne started out her career with Ernst & Young and during her career; she has worked in a variety of industries, including Bristol Myers-Squibb (pharmaceutical), Sotheby’s (auction), and Philip Morris Companies/Altria (consumer products).  Carlyne holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany and is a certified public accountant in New York State.  

Joy Hathaway is the Vice President of Strategy Alignment and Implementation for KaBOOM!., the national nonprofit focused on the meaningful engagement of communities through the creation of equitable spaces to play. Joy drives alignment across all levels of the organization to advance KaBOOM!’s strategic priorities. Joy joined the organization in 2011 as the leader of the Community Outreach team and served as the Director of Community Outreach through 2018. Joy stepped into the Vice President of Strategy Alignment and Implementation in January 2019.

Prior to joining KaBOOM!, Joy was the Director of Resident Services at Jubilee Housing, an affordable housing provider that provides wrap-around community services in Washington, DC. At Jubilee Housing, Joy oversaw all of the organization’s resident programming, including adult educational programming, financial literacy, English as a second language, homeownership training, resident leadership and youth and family services that consisted of K-12 after-school programming.

In addition to Joy’s nonprofit experience, Joy has a variety of business background in marketing and human resources, such as her work at Red Peg Marketing and Pronto Wash International. Joy is fluent in Spanish, has spent time working abroad and teaching English in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Joy holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the George Washington University.

In her free time, Joy keeps quite active with long distance running, practicing yoga and chasing around her one-year old boy.

Amy S. Levner is the Vice President of Communications and Marketing for KaBOOM!, the national non-profit driven to give children the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive. She leads the communications, marketing, digital strategy and research efforts for KaBOOM!. Previously Amy led the Livable Communities agenda for AARP where she was responsible for AARP’s work on issues related to creating livable communities for people 50+ and their families.

Amy serves as a spokesperson and thought leader, and has a background in social change marketing, program management and strategy development. She’s led successful healthcare, aging-in-place, and community design programs and campaigns throughout her career at agencies and non-profits alike. Amy most delights in playing with her 3-year-old daughter, most often at their local playground.

Gerry has served as the Chief Financial Officer of KaBOOM! for the past 7 years. Previously Gerry served as the CFO of U.S. Foodservice, a large publicly held broad line foodservice distributor and prior to that he served as the Chief Accounting Officer and Controller for Strategic Planning Associates, a publicly held international management consulting firm. He began his career as a certified public accountant with Price Waterhouse after graduating from the College of William and Mary with a Business degree.

Gerry has been a very active volunteer in youth sports in the McLean, Virginia over the past 20 years including service on three youth sports boards. He has coached all three of his children in soccer, softball and basketball and is still coaching. He serves as a commissioner and treasurer for McLean Youth Basketball and is very active in the McLean Little League softball program.

John-Anthony Meza has joined KaBOOM! as the Vice President, Talent, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to lead operations and the strategy around KaBOOM!’s talent management function, in addition to having a critical role in cultivating a culture that encourages diversity, equity, inclusion and serious play so critical to our success.

John-Anthony brings over 20 years of leadership experience in human resources, performance management, change management and diversity, equity and inclusion. He served in HR and operations leadership roles with Community Health Accreditation Partner, Corporate Voices for Working Families, KPMG and, most recently the Raffa Companies. He also led corporate social responsibility as the National Director of Corporate Citizenship at KPMG, where he founded the award winning Family for Literacy program, and guided the firm’s annual giving, managed its disaster relief grant making and grew employee volunteering and giving programs.

He is a published author and a frequent presenter on progressive HR topics. He studied Industrial/Organizational Psychology at California State University, Long Beach and holds his degree in Psychology from California State University, Northridge.

On the playful side, he is a former improvisor with Washington Improv Theater’s former troupe ImprovNation where he eventually served on their board. Before kids he was a triathlete and cyclists doing numerous AIDS Rides from NC to DC and a half ironman in Costa Rica in 2012. Today he mainly focuses his playtime at home in Capitol Hill with his three kids and husband, shuttling between school, extracurricular activities and sports, and other family fun.

Lysa M. Ratliff is the Vice President of Partnership Development for KaBOOM!, the national non-profit driven to give children the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive. Deeply connected to building relationships that transform communities and invest in the potential of children, Lysa leads the Partnership Development team and is focused on creating partnerships with organizations that recognize the power they have to make lasting change in their communities and for children.

Prior to joining the KaBOOM! team, Lysa spent more than 21 years in corporate development, communications and marketing, with 15 of those years in non-profit at Habitat for Humanity International and Save the Children. Lysa has led both public and private fundraising teams, cause marketing and communications campaigns with large global corporations. When not spending time with her own children and husband of 22 years, Lysa enjoys all things home, with most of her playtime being spent in the garden growing organic fruits and vegetables.

James Siegal is the CEO of KaBOOM!, the national non-profit that seeks to give children the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive. Prior to KaBOOM!, James served as Chief of Staff for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that supports citizen engagement to address community challenges through AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund and other programs. James has broad experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors, including serving as Vice President of Nonprofit Programs and Practice at the leading non-profit coalition, Independent Sector. He also served as Registration Section Chief and Assistant Attorney General at the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau and associate at the global law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. James and his wife enjoy spending time on the playground with their three young girls.

Ronda Jackson joined KaBOOM! in April of 2017. In this role, she and her team are building public private partnerships with city governments to increase access to play for kids living in under-resourced communities.

Prior to joining KaBOOM!, Ronda was the Assistant Director of Public Sector Innovation at Living Cities where she worked with cross-sector leaders in cities across the nation to build a new type of urban practice aimed at dramatically improving the economic well-being of low-income people.

Prior to joining Living Cities, Ronda in the youth violence prevention field as the Project Manager for the Sacramento Safe Community Partnership Ceasefire Initiative to reduce street gang and gun violence. Prior to working for Sacramento Ceasefire, Ronda was the Senior Program Associate for the Public Health Institute's Safe Community Partnership where she provided technical assistance to eight Northern California cities implementing the Ceasefire violence prevention model.

In addition to the youth violence prevention work, Ronda managed the cutting edge smart on crime Back on Track reentry initiative created by former San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris providing education and employment services to first-time non-violent drug offenders. She also served as a Program Associate at the UC Berkeley Law School Center for Criminal Justice focusing on juvenile justice reform and recidivism.

Ronda began her career in politics working in the Clinton Administration as a Public Affairs Officer at the US Department of Transportation and as a Special Assistant to the Cabinet Secretary at the White House. She also worked in the corporate world as a Communications Manager at Mobil Oil Corporation and as a Vice President of Corporate Giving at the Fleet Bank Foundation.

She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Howard University.