Team

With over 25 years of nonprofit management and experience, Alan Smyth joins the team to cultivate strategic partnership on behalf of SAVING INNOCENCE reporting directly to CEO and Founder Kim Biddle. Most recently, he served for 14 years as the Regional Director for Young Life in the Greater Los Angeles Region and before that he was an Area Director for Young Life in San Francisco Bay for 11 years. During his tenure, Alan was responsible to fundraise for and oversee an overall annual operating budget of 4 million dollars as he led a charge to expand work into South LA. His responsibilities included recruiting, hiring, training & supervising staff as well as volunteers. Additionally, Alan executed hundreds fundraising events, strategic planning activities and developed marketing strategies that proved successful for Young Life in Los Angeles. Alan got his Bachelor of Communication Studies from San Jose State University.

Joshua Ungerecht is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of JRW Investments and is a managing partner for Telos Capital, and ExchangeRight Real Estate. Mr. Ungerecht serves on the board for The Mentoring Alliance, a non-profit focused on partnering with communities to rescue at-risk youth and provide them with meals, educational support, counseling, life skills, and mentoring.

Darin is Managing partner of Group of Eight LLC, an early stage venture capital firm. Formerly a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, he also recently campaigned to become Treasurer for the city of Burbank. Darin leads the Lord’s Kitchen Ministry at his church and is a certified family home provider for adults with disabilities. He recently served as board chair for The USC chapter of Younglife.

Dr. Clair is a graduate of Loma Linda University’s Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy program. She is a Play Therapist at Modern Parenting Solutions and specializes in helping young children overcome their emotional and behavioral challenges using Play Therapy modalities that promotes emotional resilience in children and attunement in the parent-child relationship. Dr. Clair is an adjunct Professor at Loma Linda University, and facilitates courses for programs including LLU’s Play Therapy certificate program, Child Life Specialist Program, and MFT and Counseling programs. . Dr. Clair is a current Pre-Clinical Fellow member for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and a Professional Member of the Association for Play Therapy and with great honor, previously fulfilled the role of President Elect in 2018, for the Association for Play Therapy’s California Branch-San Bernardino Chapter.

Leah Joney Albright-Byrd is a nationally recognized public speaker and human rights educator. She is the Executive Director of Health Movement, Inc., an organization that provides leadership advisory services to nonprofit leaders. Ms. Albright-Byrd has been featured on Oprah Winfrey, BET News, Being Mary Jane, and was the subject of an Emmy-award winning investigative interview in 2013. She also served as a spokeswoman for record-breaking Proposition 35 in the state of California while leading an organization that provided intervention services to human trafficking survivors. Ms. Albright-Byrd has a Bachelor of Science in Counseling Psychology & Theology and uses her lived experience with sex trafficking to inform the agency on policy and procedure.

Kim founded Saving Innocence in 2010 after more than a decade of work to bring honor and support to victims of dehumanization and exploitation around the world. After working throughout Southeast Asia, Caribbean and Africa, she shifted focus to these crimes within the U.S. Specifically she wanted to advocate for commercially sexually exploited youth who were being overlooked in the system or prosecuted for the crimes done to them.

To this end, Kim pioneered a partnership with friends in law enforcement which allowed her to care for children recovered from sting operations or arrested for “prostitution” and held at juvenile halls. For years, she was the only specialized victim advocate responding 24 hours a day to calls from law enforcement. By the beginning of 2012, she signed the first official contract with the Los Angeles juvenile court that allowed child victims of trafficking in the juvenile justice system to be provided aftercare.

In 2014, she worked with law enforcement to create a countywide standard for child trafficking victims, requiring each to receive a specialized advocate and case manager for their long-term recovery.  In 2019 her vision for these children was realized when Saving Innocence launched their Intensive Services Foster Care program, enabling children to be connected with forever families.

In 2020, with now a staff of 29, Kim transitioned out of her role as CEO and continues to serve on the board of directors.

Kim has her Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California, a specialized certification from Harvard in Refugee Trauma, and is the recipient of multiple national human rights awards, including L.A. Weekly’s People of the Year, naming her “The Human Shield”. Kim looked at the atrocity of slavery and decided that the complex systems and “red tape” would not stop her from paving the way within our country for the most vulnerable children to be identified and find the freedom they deserve.

Kim pioneered a nationwide movement not only to end the exploitation of our youth, but to restore our nation’s value of innocence and human worth. Today, Kim resides with her husband outside of Nashville and spends her time as a social justice consultant, life coach, and songwriter, while enjoying the beauty of Tennessee’s countryside.

Ms. Burkett brings to the Saving Innocence Board her strategic planning and administrative strengths, combined with her background in ministry and clinical social work and experience building healthy organizational cultures. She has worked both on staff and as a volunteer at Calvary Church of the Pacific Palisades and Calvary Christian School since 2007. Her most recent role was the Executive Director of Calvary Church, where she oversaw various ministries, was responsible for all communications, directed strategic planning, and led an overhaul of the organizational culture. Prior to this she also served as the Director of Women’s Ministries, led women’s and mother’s groups, and served on the Calvary Christian School Parent Board. Ms. Burkett is currently a member of the Calvary Christian School Foundation. Previous work experience includes The Help Group of Los Angeles, Cambridge Family and Children Services, and Cambridge Public Schools. Ms. Burkett earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from The University of Southern California and her BA in Sociology and Psychology from The University of Michigan.

Mr. Boone started his commercial aircraft parts company in 1990, growing it into a multinational enterprise before selling it in 2009. Mr. Boone then started Boone Aerospace in 2014. Mr. Boone has served as a local board chair for Young Life for the past 17 years

As Chief Client Development & Marketing Officer for Loeb & Loeb, an international, multi-disciplinary law firm, Christa oversees the organization’s business development initiatives, manages branding and marketing strategies, and leads internal and external communications. Prior to working at Loeb, Christa held similar roles at other large law firms, after starting her career as a management consultant. A Midwest native, Christa relocated to Los Angeles a few years ago with her husband, after spending 15 years in New York City.