Angela Cruze-Boldt

Founder, I AM FOSTER KID, USA

Angela Cruze-Boldt is the founder of I AM FOSTER KID and a generational system lived expert whose work is rooted in advocacy, leadership, and systems change. Institutionalized at the age of 15, Angela brings firsthand insight into the foster care, behavioral health, legal, and juvenile justice systems, as well as the generational impact these systems have on families and communities. She is an alumna of the Congressional Leadership Academy and the National Foster Youth Institute and has been featured in People and on MSNBC for her advocacy and lived-experience leadership. Angela currently serves as a lived expert with the Behavioral Health Advisory Council in Washington State, the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Workgroup, and the Office of Homeless Youth Committee. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Oversight Committee for Civil Legal Aid in Washington State. Through her work, Angela centers the voices of foster youth, justice-impacted families, and communities most affected by institutional systems, using her lived experience to advance policy, healing, and community-led change.

Tosha Big Eagle

Director of Programs and Research, The Kindred Light Initiative, USA

Tosha Big Eagle is a justice-impacted Indigenous PhD Candidate in Prevention Science at Washington State University Vancouver and Director of Programs & Research for The Kindred Light Initiative. Her work centers health equity, harm reduction, incarceration, aging, death and dying, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and community-defined pathways to healing. Rooted in five generations of family incarceration, including her own lived experience, Tosha brings a deeply relational approach to research, advocacy, and systems change. She is committed to advancing equitable access to healing, healthcare, education, and leadership development for currently incarcerated people, returning citizens, and families impacted by incarceration. Drawing from both academic training and lived experience, Tosha’s work uplifts justice-impacted leadership, cultural continuity, and community-based solutions that challenge institutional harm and support intergenerational healing.

Jammie Gardner

Manager, Peer Support & Training, WellSpace Health, USA

Jammie Gardner is an international trainer, seasoned public speaker, and author whose tireless devotion has been celebrated by numerous state and local organizations. With over 28 years of experience leading peer-run organizations, she is a master of program development and creative training strategies. Jammie leverages her extensive experience in founding and leading organizations, along with her continual commitment to learning, in pursuit of empowering youth and young people to facilitate lasting transformative changes in their daily lives. Passionate and fearless (except for spiders), Jammie faces every challenge with openness and enthusiasm—a mindset she has somehow managed to impart to her two Yorkies, Tater and Marshall (aka The Paw Support Specialists), as well as to all those who have worked alongside her or under her supervision throughout her career. California-born and Oregon-raised, she is a mother of two children with diverse lived experiences, and many foster kids, who have been a driving force in her work in substance use, trauma, juvenile justice, and foster care advocacy. Whether she’s training, writing, doing energy work, or hiking through the Arizona desert, Jammie leads her life with a healing spirit and resounding empathy for others.