MEET OUR TEAM
We are a small group of volunteers working together with our Ugandan partners and American chapters. Read below to meet the people who make Heart for People happen.
Sarah Harrs
President
Sarah graduated from Elon University with a bachelor’s degree in International Development and minors in Economics and African Studies. She founded Heart for People in 2012 after witnessing the extreme poverty that destroys the hope of families who are seeking to build better futures for their children. Sarah is currently the Program Associate at the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, which allows her to expand her non-profit experience while remaining in the United States where she can best lead Heart for People. She loves finding others who share her enthusiasm for children in need and visiting her friends in Uganda. She also enjoys reading on rainy days, Earl Grey tea, and large dogs.
Rev. Kim Padfield Urbanik
Vice President
Rev. Kim is the founder and director of the Christian Drama School of New Jersey. She was inspired by Cindy Garrison Donough’s experience to write a play about the children of Uganda in 2009, which raised enough money to build a secondary school for Segawa’s children in Nansana. Her partnership with Segawa is the inspiration for the Heart for People model of international aid (read more about Our Story). She is a passionate, driven Christian who works tirelessly to build a future of the children of Uganda. She is married to Bob Urbanik and has two sons, Luke and Mark, and a dog who is named after George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life. She hardly ever sleeps, loves Pretzel Goldfish, and will retire someday to a small beachside cabin to write. You can read more about Rev. Kim and the Christian Drama School here.
Bob Urbanik
Treasurer
Bob is currently a vice president at Broadridge Financial Solutions working as a product manager focusing on strategy and regulatory issues. Prior to Broadridge, Bob worked at Merrill Lynch, Bessemer Trust and SunGard Investment Systems. Bob graduated from Rider University with a degree in Finance, where he also was played four years of varsity basketball. Bob is the treasurer of the Christian Drama School serving on their board since the non-profit’s inception in the fall of 2000. He is a member of the Denville Community United Methodist Church where he teaches the 7th and 8th grade Sunday school class and is a former board member of the Denville PAL basketball program where he also coached. Bob has two teenage high school sons, Luke and Mark, and enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.
Rebecca Cesa
Communications Manager;
Photographer
Rebecca Cesa (known to her friends as Becca) is a graduate of Delaware Valley College and is a voice over artist, photographer, and freelancer for live TV. She travelled to Uganda for the first time in the summer of 2014 to film the Heart for People commercial (which you can watch on YouTube or here). She met the teachers, teenagers, and children of Uganda and has become one of Heart for People's most outspoken supporters. She's a vegan who loves animals and recycling.
Stephanie DiIonno
Volunteer
Steph, a passionate volunteer with Heart for People, is currently teaching abroad in Thailand. Her favorite thing about being a part of Heart for People being able to share that passion with her peers and discovering her ability to make a difference in the world. She loves getting to know her friends in Uganda through this organization.
Cindy Garrison Donough
Secretary
Cindy was the first of the group to travel to Uganda. She is the one who inspired Rev. Kim’s first play about Africa in 2009 and has returned to Uganda three times. She is a second-grade teacher in New Jersey and recently had her first baby, Maggie, with her husband Erik Donough. Though she now has a daughter and a class in the U.S., she considers the Ugandan students to be her first children.
Linda Bohrer
General Director
Linda Bohrer Shearman has worked with the Christian Drama School of New Jersey since it was founded in 2000. A graduate of Bucknell University, Linda worked for 20 years in newspapers in the New York metropolitan area before retiring from The Wall Street Journal in 1994 when she became pregnant with her third child. She and her husband, Mark, are parents to Matthew, Daniel, and Emily. Linda has always had a keen interest in Africa. She and her husband sponsor two students at Extreme High School in Namayumba and in 2012, Linda and her son Daniel traveled to Uganda to meet them and to connect with all the students in Nansana and Namayumba. Linda is an avid reader and loves baseball and tennis. She will neither confirm nor deny that she was once a Radio City Rockette.
Emma Worrall
Multimedia Storyteller
Emma Worrall graduated from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in May, 2013 with a degree in Political Science. She then finished her master’s education in the spring of 2016 from Northeastern University in Massachusetts with a degree in International Development, with a regional focus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Emma has been involved with Heart for People since it started in 2o12. Her favorite part about being involved with Heart for People is collecting the stories of our Ugandan partners and bringing these stories to life for chapters in the United States through videos and presentations. Fun Fact: To stay on the safe side, Emma devised an escape route and weapon of choice in the case there is a zombie apocalypse.
Leah Hamill
Volunteer
Leah lives in Washington DC and graduated from Catholic University with a degree in International Politics. She plans on studying law and hopes to one day work on international human rights campaigns. She has been involved with Heart for People since its founding in 2012.