Volunteers

Alexandra Graham is the lead designer and founder of Mango Design, a full-service graphic design studio specializing in web and print design (www.mangodesign.net). She designed NYF's web site.

Mike Mell has been creating web sites since 1994 and built the NYF site's first incarnation in 1998. His site management tool, Elements, is the technical foundation for the NYF website. His home page at www.nthwave.net links nowhere, but may be an intriguing place to spend a few quiet minutes. He can be reached at mike@nthwave.net.

Alison Wright Photographer Alison Wright provided some of the photographs used on this web site. Her books include Faces of Hope, Learning to Breathe, The Spirit of Tibet and A Simple Monk, a photographic biography of the Dalai Lama. To see more of her work, go to www.alisonwright.com.



Joanne Heffelfinger has been a committed, loyal and versatile volunteer since NYF’s founding. She has helped NYF in such diverse ways as grantwriting, editing - and child-rearing. When we brought to the U.S. two children who needed medical care they could not get in Nepal, Joanne and her husband opened up their home and their hearts to the girls and provided them over a period of many years with the same loving and wise parenting they had lavished on their six children. Somehow, she also found time to earn a Bachelor’s degree, a Masters degree, a law degree, and a PhD. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Tot, a founding member of NYF’s board, surrounded by thirteen rambunctious grandchildren.


Barbara Jones has helped NYF to establish the Ankur Psychological Counseling Center in Nepal. She travels to Nepal frequently to assist with the training of Nepalese counselors for the center, and she introduced sand play therapy to Nepal. She has a Master’s Degree in counseling and a PhD in transpersonal psychology. In addition, she initiated and developed a bullying prevention program for the Taos (NM) Municipal Schools and is a jazz singer and cabaret performer. Barbara and her husband Yale, who is chairman of the Board of Directors of NYF, visit Nepal often and have sponsored the education of a number of children and young adults.