About the Board

Meet the CFHK Board of Directors

When CFHK decided to formally pursue 501(c)3 status, founder Jen Rubino and her team carefully selected a board of directors to oversee CFHK. The board members are all passionate about CFHK's passion, and have been involved with CFHK for many years prior to joining the board. The CFHK board is dedicated to helping CFHK continue to spread strength & smiles to hospitalized kids across America and to helping CFHK expand.

Joanie Sebastian
Joanie serves as secretary of the CFHK Board, and has been involved with CFHK since day one. As the teen librarian at the Des Plaines Public Library, Joanie got to know Founder Jen who had been on the library's teen advisory board and a library volunteer for many years. When Jen founded CFHK, Joanie immediately offered to help and partnered with CFHK to host monthly card-making events at the library. The events were very successful, and eventually expanded to other libraries as well. 10 years later, the library continues to host monthly card-making events for CFHK. As someone who has been involved with CFHK since the beginning, Joanie brings a great deal of knowledge to the CFHK board and is excited to help CFHK continues its impact.

Jen Rubino
CFHK Founder Jen serves as President of the CFHK Board. As President of the Board, Jen is excited to continue spreading strength and smiles to children in hospitals across the United States. Jen and the board are also excited to help CFHK continue to expand to more hospitals in the coming years.

When Jen left for college at Georgetown University, she put a team in place to handle the day-to-day operations at CFHK headquarters in Chicago such as: processing & sorting the cards, and preparing them for distribution. She has continued to oversee CFHK operations and serves as the executive director.

JoAnn Ross
JoAnn is a New York Times best selling author, and serves as treasurer of the board. She first became involved with CFHK in 2012. Having made cards for military groups for many years, JoAnn knew the power that a card can have. She began making very detailed, artistic cards for CFHK every year and quickly became one of CFHK's loyal supporters. Over the years, JoAnn has made hundreds of cards for CFHK that have spread smiles and encouragement to so many children.

As a longtime CFHK supporter, JoAnn brings a great deal of excitement and passion to the CFHK board. She is excited to help CFHK continue its impact and expand further in the coming years.

Ann Marie McCormick
Ann Marie serves as an officer on the CFHK board, and is excited to help CFHK further its impact. She first became involved with CFHK when she organized a company-wide card-making event for CFHK at her work. Ann Marie quickly became passionate about CFHK's mission and continued her involvement. Ann Marie and her colleagues at UBS have made hundreds of cards for CFHK over the years. When CFHK Founder Jen moved to Washington D.C to attend Georgetown University, Ann Marie connected with Jen and offered to help in any way possible. After being involved with CFHK for many years, Ann Marie is excited to serve on CFHK's board of directors.

Meet the Team

Nina
Nina is the Public Relations & Communications intern for CFHK. Over the years, CFHK has had PR & Communications Interns assist with various PR & Communications tasks. These efforts are very important as they help more people learn about CFHK which ultimately helps us to reach more kids.

Nina is excited to assist CFHK with tasks such as: media, social media graphics + content, and more. Most recently, Nina assisted with the launch of CFHK’s partnership with LovePop; she worked closely with LovePop’s team to coordinate various tasks related to the launch (such as creation of newsletter, blog, graphics, etc). She also recently re-designed CFHK's thank-you cards, which are sent to each individual or group who donates cards. Nina can be reached via email at Nina@CardsForHospitalizedKids.com.

Volunteer Team
CFHK's volunteer team at the HQ office processes the cards that arrive from all over the United States, as well as countries abroad, and prepares them for distribution. This includes opening the packages / envelopes, screening each card to ensure it follows the guidelines and sorting them to be distributed to Children's Hospitals & Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide. The team also then sends a thank-you note to each individual / group who sends cards. Students and community members volunteer there as well. If you are interested in volunteering at the office, please fill out the volunteer interest form.

Lauren
Lauren is a junior at the University of Southern California, studying Psychology, and serves as the Volunteer Operations Intern at CFHK. For as long as she can remember, Lauren's biggest passion in life has been to work with child oncology patients and families who deal with the hardships of an ill family member. When she found CFHK, Lauren immediately knew she wanted to be involved. Founder Jen was very impressed with Lauren's devotion to CFHK's mission, professionalism and her overall willingness to do whatever she can to help.

As operations intern, Lauren will be completing tasks such as: logging + reviewing student service verification requests, signing student volunteer forms & letters, responding to email inquiries from individuals and groups, amongst other important tasks.