Born from urgency, driven by action. Kids First Alliance was founded in 2024 by four fathers who refused to stand idle while children face unprecedented challenges to their safety and well-being. While managing demanding careers across politics, marketing, entertainment, and finance, these founders united with a singular mission: transforming how America protects and nurtures its most vulnerable children.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
A media, music, entertainment and political strategy professional who is currently the co-founder and managing partner of i5 Enterprises LLC, an investment, management and political strategy & advocacy company focused on creating and growing certain business sectors for clients and partners.
He recently co-founded and is managing partner of 585 Media Partners, a full-service advertising agency and media placement firm and the evergreen non-profit Kids First Alliance, created to prioritize the safety, protection and wellbeing of children in all aspects of society and represents a unifying voice for all individuals, transcending political affiliations and ideology. KFA focuses on two main initiatives, Servos School Security protocol and Inicio Prep Academies, as well as key child related issues like education curriculum, nutrition and toxic foods, child abuse, child trafficking, social media manipulation, mental health, lethal & legal drugs and men playing in women’s sports.
In his prior thirty-three years in corporate America, he has held a variety of key sales, management and executive positions at CBS Radio, Viacom/MTV Networks, Spanish Broadcast Systems, iHeartMedia/Premiere Networks, Ryan Seacrest Enterprises and remains involved in new business ventures and non-profit projects with others. Mr. Iverson is also an investor and sitting board member of Mosadi Music, a Los Angeles-based music production and talent management company.
Mike is driven by the challenges and rewards of advocating child causes and building brands and businesses with like-minded people who are grounded with integrity, passion and the unquenchable desire to make a difference.
He graduated with a dual-emphasis degree in Film & Television and Business-Marketing from Montana State University in Bozeman Montana. Mike currently splits his time between Los Angeles and his home in Henderson Nevada and enjoys golf, skiing, cooking, reading and spending quality time with his two stepdaughters, Brigitte & Brooke, and his rescue pup Kali.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
An advertising industry media professional specializing in developing marketing plans that combine human expertise with cutting edge AI technologies and data analytics.
He is currently President and Co-Founder of Ocean Bridge Media Group, a full-service media, strategy, planning and placement agency and recently co-founded and is managing partner of 585 Media Partners, an advertising, marketing and media company.
Cary also co-founded the evergreen non-profit Kids First Alliance, created to prioritize the safety, protection and wellbeing of children in all aspects of society and represents a unifying voice for all individuals, transcending political affiliations and ideology. KFA focuses on two main initiatives, Servos School Security protocol and Inicio Prep Academies, as well as key child related issues like education curriculum, nutrition and toxic foods, child abuse, child trafficking, social media manipulation, mental health, lethal & legal drugs and men playing in women’s sports.
Over his twenty plus years in the media sector, Cary has brought a wealth of experience in driving optimal results for his clients by building and selling brands valued upwards of $1B. His expertise extends beyond his pivotal roles in connecting brands to customers via targeted traditional and non-traditional marketing, developing new product categories and increasing mindshare and awareness for his client partners. By strategically leveraging media platforms, he and his team excel at empowering political candidates and causes to best communicate their messages, engage with voters and shape public opinion within the dynamic marketing and media landscape.
Beyond his professional endeavors, Cary is deeply invested in catalyzing societal change and committed to supporting vulnerable populations. It’s this passion that drew him to co-found Kids First Alliance non-profit that prioritizes advocating children’s safety and upholding family values.
Originally hailing from Peoria Illinois, Cary brought his Midwest values to Los Angeles in 1999. He furthered his education by studying Theology through Biola University extension courses and contributed as a Christian counselor for youth.
Cary has dedicated time away from work aiding the homeless community in Venice Beach California and operating sober living housing units. He currently resides in Murietta, California with his wife Sarah and their family.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
An advertising industry professional specializing in management, marketing, media and analytics. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Ocean Bridge Media Group, a full-service media, strategy, planning and placement agency delivering cutting edge performance analytics, attribution and the creative use of AI in navigating the ever-changing media landscape. He recently co-founded and is managing partner of 585 Media Partners, an advertising, marketing and media company. Ramie is also a Co-Founder of the evergreen non-profit Kids First Alliance, created to prioritize the safety, protection and wellbeing of children in all aspects of society and represents a unifying voice for all individuals, transcending political affiliations and ideology. KFA focuses on two main initiatives, Servos School Security protocol and Inicio Prep Academies, as well as key child related issues like education curriculum, nutrition and toxic foods, child abuse, child trafficking, social media manipulation, mental health, lethal & legal drugs and men playing in women’s sports.
Over the past 35 years he has handled marketing for a variety of companies, with varied objectives, from startup launches to Fortune 500 companies. Ramie has extensive experience in a diverse group of business sectors that include, but not limited to, CPG, financial services, healthcare, health & fitness, technology, insurance, real estate, luxury goods, cosmetics/beauty, children/family products and political campaigns. He has developed considerable expertise in connecting products & services to consumers via direct response marketing with added insight into generating leads, driving traffic, creating new product categories, increasing mindshare & awareness, and best positioning brands for eventual sale.
Growing up in Montreal Canada, Ramie spent many long cold winters skating and playing hockey with family and friends on backyard rinks. He moved to Los Angeles with his family as a teenager and graduated from UCLA with a degree in Business-Economics. Over the next decade and a half, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and being a committed student of financial markets and an investor in equities and derivatives, Mr. Ostrovsky started several businesses, obtained his private pilot’s license and reached his teenage goal of becoming a U.S. citizen. He is involved with putting on and promoting child safety seminars to teach parents and children situational awareness and other strategies to stay safe when outside the home. Ramie is married with two children and enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar and piano, writing, hiking, skiing, ice skating, meditating, and practicing martial arts.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
A securities, finance and investment banking professional and is currently the founder and CEO of Integral Capital Advisors, an investment banking firm focused on navigating challenging market conditions, achieving long-term objectives, and maximizing shareholder value for his client partners.
He recently co-founded and serves as treasurer for the evergreen non-profit Kids First Alliance, created to prioritize the safety, protection and wellbeing of children in all aspects of society and represents a unifying voice for all individuals, transcending political affiliations and ideology. KFA focuses on two main initiatives, Servos School Security protocol and Inicio Prep Academies, as well as key child related issues like education curriculum, nutrition and toxic foods, child abuse, child trafficking, social media manipulation, mental health, lethal & legal drugs and men playing in women’s sports.
In Eric’s twenty plus years in the corporate financial sector, he has held key advisory positions at Deutsche Bank Securities New York, Cascadia Capital, FocalPoint Partners and CREO Capital Advisors. Throughout his career he has led the strategy and execution of more than seventy corporate finance and capital market transactions including mergers and acquisitions, follow-on equity offerings, IPO’s, leveraged buyouts and equity private placements valued north of $10B.
As a constant champion for business owners at every stage of evolution, Eric serves as a mentor and advisor to start-ups through Stadia Ventures and the SKU Accelerator program, in addition to assisting undergraduate and MBA candidates attempting to pursue a career in corporate finance. He is a sought-after speaker on the topic of investment banking and recently provided the forward to the latest edition of Ted Schlueter’s top selling business book, Branding for Buyout.
Eric graduated from Washington University in St Louis, MO with a bachelor’s degree in finance and shares four children with his partner Jonalyn Morris. They split their time between homes in Manhattan Beach, California and St. Louis, Missouri and are actively involved in and enjoy fundraising at their local school level and being advocates for children with autism.
Director, Utah Moms for America
Director, Utah Moms for America
Along with being an acclaimed theater instructor and gifted public speaker, Cari hosts a podcast called “Be Not Afraid”, serves on the board of Path Forward Utah, ran for State School Board District 13 and is currently the Director of Utah for Moms for America. Under Cari’s tutelage, students in classrooms, communities, homes and online have benefited from hearing her speak to one’s ability to rise and become the very best version of themselves.
Growing up in Washington state, she put herself into foster care at the age of eight, lived in eighteen different foster homes for over nine years and personally saw and experienced the terrors of foster care abuse. Cari is truly a practical example of, and advocate for, American exceptionalism and champions bringing communities together to ensure the teaching of correct history through unbiased classical education, focused on merit that will restore true American opportunities to all, especially the poor and traumatized.
Ms. Bartholomew’s experience of living from both inside and outside the foster care system will be an invaluable resource as not only an ambassador for, and an example of what can be, but the creation, implementation and continued execution of the Kids First Alliance vision with our Inicio Prep Academy campuses and curricula.
Founder & CEO • The Source Spokane
Founder & CEO • The Source Spokane
Over the past 28 years, Chris has not only become a foster parent but has been a grass roots pioneer in the ways and means of assisting displaced youth and developing programs for ministry development, operations, and overseeing case management for a division of Children Youth and Families, which focuses on the most vulnerable youth.
In 2011, to address the need of ministering to at-risk youth who are in both foster care and part of the juvenile court system, Chris founded and is CEO of his non-profit “The Source”, designed specifically to minister to the mental, physical and spiritual needs of displaced young people. Working with parents and child placement agencies to accomplish what’s best for children, The Source is committed to providing support, guidance, and a safe living environment where personal growth can occur. He has grown the ministry from being the original sole employee serving troubled teens, to having over fifty full time staffers serving in Spokane Washington, Post Falls Idaho and Malawi Africa.
Chris’s on-going dedication to youth development began in college circa 1996, then evolving to serve as a teen program director, community service coordinator, children’s lead teacher, junior high school pastor, juvenile detention life skills teacher and a case manager for a children’s non-profit in Puyallup Washington. In the years 2002-2011, as their Teen Program Director, he started the Youth Investment Program nationally with the YMCA and created multiple vocational training programs for at-risk youth, developed a large youth outreach ministry serving hundreds of youths per week, as well as being a juvenile detention instructor, teaching life skills development to incarcerate youth.Mr. Knowlton’s expansive “boots on the ground” experience in teaching at-risk youth, in both life skills development and spiritual awareness, will be key to the design and integration of not only a faith-based curriculum into our educational curriculum, but the overall vision and execution of creating our Kids First Alliances Inicio Prep Academy campuses.
COO, The Source Spokane
COO, The Source Spokane
In addition to being a foster parent and wife to husband Chris, Zara is currently the Chief Operating Officer for The Source, based in Spokane Washington, where she additionally serves as Chief Compliance Officer, overseeing general operations, and providing strength and support for The Source’s multiple youth home locations in a variety of ways.
Her more than 24 years of experience working with at risk youth is powered by her giving heart and unwavering passion to see orphaned children experience personal growth in a familial setting. As a person of action and not one to say and not do, she and husband Chris expanded their own personal familial setting from five children to eight after the foster adoption of two beautiful girls in 2009 and a sweet little boy in 2016.
Zara’s operational focus, heart, drive, passion and real-life foster care parenting, plus her systems and reform experience, will be an integral part of not only establishing but growing our vision for Kids First Alliance and the Inicio Prep Academy campuses.
Digital Marketing Specialist
Digital Marketing Specialist
Michael is a digital content creation and visual storytelling professional with over two decades of experience in web design, management, search engine optimization, social media marketing and youth focused non-profits around the globe.
He is currently the founding owner of NeaseMedia, specializing in elevating companies’ online presence and engagement along with serving as the Director of Communications for Streams of Mercy, a non-profit organization that brings hope, love and essential support – food, clothing, shelter, and medical assistance – to the most vulnerable and destitute in areas of North and South America, Africa and Asia.
Mr. Nease champions foster care reform by bringing his unique set of skills and expertise to the Kids First Alliance advisory board and specifically our Inicio Prep Academy campuses with insight forged from both sides of the foster care system, first as an adoptee, then as an adoptive father through the intricate Los Angeles foster system. His family’s five-year battle to adopt his daughters revealed the critical gaps in a system that often fails the children it aims to protect, and Michael’s experience will help streamline paths to permanent homes for foster children, ensuring their needs stay at the heart of the process.
CSCS, CN, PN, CPT/CES/FNS/PES/BCS
CSCS, CN, PN, CPT/CES/FNS/PES/BCS
Based in Franklin, Tennessee, Robert brings to the table 42 years of experience as a personal and group trainer, a certified nutritionist, wellness coach, author and motivational speaker. He is in his 22nd year as the head trainer and nutritionist for The Dr. Phil Show (now Dr. Phil Primetime). He is a podcaster and author of the bestselling book “Make Over Your Metabolism” and has been featured on numerous television shows, radio shows, multiple magazines and websites/blogs such as Extra, Access Hollywood, The Doctors, The Rachel Ray Show, ABC’s Extreme Makeover, The CBS Early Show, KIIS-FM, KOST-FM, Better Homes & Gardens, Prevention, Family Circle, Men’s Fitness, Women’s Health, Fitness Magazine, Huff Post Live and too many others to list.
Robert has been a frequent contributor to The Fox News Channel and Walgreen’s ParentsAsk.com website and has been a spokesperson for Gold’s Gym International for 18 years as well as the weight loss coach/content creator for Pear Sports (with their Pear Mobile Training Intelligence app, a real-time audio, heart rate-based system), among so many others. He is founder and co-creator of the Revive & Sustain Wellness Program, an app which launched in July 2024, as well as being a media health and wellness expert for Echelon and the Echelon360 content. He is committed to our veterans and has done a lot of work with the USO and our Wounded Warriors and their families.
Growing up as an overweight kid in Elkhart, Indiana, Robert has dedicated himself to helping people of all ages achieve optimum health, body image, self-image and weight control. He continues to be a results-oriented leader in the fitness/nutrition, health, corporate wellness, self-care and lifestyle arenas on the local, national and international levels. Whether it’s a top executive, celebrity or a child struggling to overcome obesity, Robert’s passion to help people is unsurpassed and his far-reaching experience in the optimum health, fitness and nutrition arena delineates why he is the perfect person to create the custom health & wellness curriculum for both Kids First Alliance initiatives, School Safety - Servos School Security Systems and Foster Care Reform – Inicio Prep Academies.
Security and Law Enforcement Specialist
Security and Law Enforcement Specialist
Founder & President, Shahan Enterprises Inc.
Founder & President, Shahan Enterprises Inc.
Shaun is an award winning commercial and residential real estate development professional with expertise as a representative, consultant and partner who is currently a broker for the Realty One Group and founder and President of Shahan Enterprises Incorporated, a full-service investment, financing and redevelopment firm. He also serves as Head of Men’s Ministry and mentor for his local church focusing on community outreach, building memberships and a discipleship team, as well as co-founding and co-hosting a faith focused podcast, Two Misfits and a Carpenter, found on Apple, Spotify or wherever you download your podcasts.
Shaun has over thirty years of experience building relationships with agents and representing builders and contractors, and is licensed in Montana and Arizona, with numerous contacts nationwide. He has been an owner and partner in the development of condominium projects, subdivisions, shopping centers, office building re-development, rehab, re-sale and mixed-use projects.
Given his deep knowledge in the ever-changing world of real estate, the prominent role faith plays in his life, and his love of challenges and making a difference, Shaun’s core competencies of teaching, mentoring and real estate problem solving experience will be paramount in our mission of establishing, planning and maintaining the Inicio Prep Academies for Kids First Alliance.
National Co-Chair, Protect Child Health Coalition
National Co-Chair, Protect Child Health Coalition
Brooke is a teacher, entrepreneur and successful parental rights advocate who founded StoryLabs, a learning platform portal which develops innovative ways to acquire language while collecting a variety of curricula to inspire, excite and educate children from all backgrounds, as well as more recently founding and releasing in the fall of 2022 Amplify-USA, a mobile app designed to educate, empower, and mobilize citizens and revive civic spirit.
Given that she and her husband of twenty years are adoptive parents of four foster children (all siblings) from a volatile background, Brooke brings front line experience to the Kids First Alliance advisory board as she clearly understands the needs of children who have experienced trauma, as well as the struggles they face in traditional learning environments and using traditional methods. Having invested in many types of therapy, learning programs and parenting classes, she and her husband have worked hard to help their children find belonging and success and look forward to doing more of the same here with us.
Brooke taught middle school Spanish for eight years and has an MA from UMass Boston in Critical and Creative Thinking, which is part of the Graduate College of Education focusing on unique approaches to education. Her beliefs focus on healthy family relationships and concepts that start with the student, supporting them with tools needed to help them develop into their best selves, drawing on her sixteen years of hands-on work bringing up four children who suffer from ADHD, RAD, ODD and dyslexia. The specific and significant background in this space makes her uniquely qualified to guide our Kids First Alliance - Inicio Prep Academy education program.
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