Chairman
Suzanne Lawrence, Chairman – brings her diverse management and leadership experience at for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and currently City of Hope, where she serves as part of the leadership team at the International Development department. Suzanne works directly with the executive management team at Fit2BeKids to expand the program service area and to build a broad base of supporters in an effort to advance the mission throughout Southern California and surrounding regions. Suzanne is a single mother of two, Yasmeen and Omar, both of whom are honor-roll high-school students. An advocate for early childhood health and education, Suzanne was drawn to the mission of Fit2beKids and impressed by the genuine efforts of its founding Executive Director, Shae Gawlak. Suzanne joined Fite2BeKids' Board of Directors in early 2016.
Vice Chairman
SHAE GAWLAK, Founder and Executive Director, was born and raised in Arvada, Colorado and received her BS in Health & Wellness-Nutrition from Kaplan University. In September 2010, Shae founded Fit2BeKids, which emerged under the guise of a school project for her Public Health Class. Once Fit2beKids went from paper to reality and took on a life of its own, Shae began devoting her entire career to nurturing the ideologies, methodologies and culture of the organization, producing a successful youth program for the under-served community. Shae has also been an Adjunct Professor at Concordia University, teaching Exercise Sports Science since 2014. She is a certified personal trainer with NASM and has been in the fitness industry for over 25 years, working with children, teens, adults and seniors. She is highly respected in her field of expertise, is actively involved in her community and has been providing free community outreach programs to families in both California and Colorado for over five years. Shae is a very proud mom of three teenage boys, Michael (swimmer), Lucas (mountain biker) and Jaxon (wrestler), all of whom attend school in the Saddleback Valley School District in South Orange County, CA. Shae also enjoys spending quality time with her husband, William, from participating in all of their sons’ extra-curricular sporting events to traveling, yoga, tennis, weight training and long sunset strolls on the beach.
Secretary
William Cook – Head Community Youth Coach, is a loving husband and father to three very active teenage boys. He enjoys all things science and has been a Fit2BeKids community coach since our inception in 2010. William finds great pleasure in positively impacting his communities’ families.
Member
MAREYA IBRAHIM, Nutritionist & Celebrity Chef, is also known as our resident “Fit Foodie”. Mareya is a nationally-recognized food safety and clean eating expert, an award-winning entrepreneur, television chef, author and inventor. Her mission is to set the record straight on what's on our plates and to help everyone take healthy matters into their own hands. She is a contributor to the New York Times bestseller, “The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life” by Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman. Mareya is a single mother of two children, Sophia and Lucca, and spends quality time with them doing fun things like cooking, playing at the beach and camping up and down the coast of California.
Member
Rick Ladendorf, Member - Speaker, writer, business owner, father of four healthy kids, an active youth coach and volunteer. Rick has been thawing out in Southern California since moving from Minnesota in 1995, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Minnesota. Rick is a wellness enthusiast, and his passion for healthy living began in 2010 when he joined Eat Right America, a company that hosted workplace wellness health immersions and created ANDI, a food scoring index. The company was sold to Whole Foods Market, so Rick combined his passion for wellness and the private-club industry by founding Prevo Health Solutions in January 2013. Prevo is a wellness company and the executive producer of America’s Healthiest Club certification program serving private clubs nationwide.
Member
Andrea Galbreath, Member – Andrea has been passionate about health for many years. She began her career as a social worker in 1999. After working many years with individuals suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses, Andrea recognized she, too, had to make some health changes herself—so she decided to change career paths and focus on health promotion and disease prevention. Andrea is a certified fitness professional and has completed Health and Wellness Coach training. Her personal transformation story was featured in Walgreen’s new community health magazine, Happy and Healthy, and she has been a featured health and wellness expert for several different health organizations and websites, over the years. She is the creator of the S.M.I.L.E. Transformation Strategy and has traveled internationally sharing her methodology through fun and interactive workshops. Andrea has also created the fitness programs Body Ablaze Total Body Conditioning and F.R.E.S.H. – a rehabilitative and fun workout using the foam roller. Andrea teaches private and group fitness classes, including Turbo Kick®, Kickboxing, Hip Hop Hustle® and Boot Camps in sunny Southern California.
