Who We Are

Renee Spooner

Chief Marketing Officer

Nothing gives Renee more joy than to have clients like Surviving Skokie and LifeMoves succeed. When the documentary Surviving Skokie won the Mill Valley Film Festival Audience award, she was ecstatic for the director, Eli Adler and his Holocaust survivor father, Jack. The 2015-2016 festival darling earned coverage in the Chicago Tribune and on NPR and ABC-TV. When LifeMoves CEO Bruce Ives unveiled the homeless agency’s new brand, the employees connected deeply with the new identity and felt unified as a single team for the first time. A year’s worth of collaboration helped pave the way for new donors and increased fundraising.

At Graybird Foundation, Renee is responsible for guiding client marketing strategy, bringing together skilled teams, and mentoring clients as projects are transitioned in house. She draws from a background in high-tech branding, public relations and customer marketing, with previous management roles at Silicon Graphics, BEA and VMware, and consulting with numerous startups. Her evolution into the non-profit sector is her way to give back to Silicon Valley.

Renee holds a BA in Communications with a minor in Psychology from San Jose State University. She enjoys biking, skiing, country music and keeping up with her two energetic sons, who aspire to be American Ninja Warriors. See Renee’s full professional background on LinkedIn.

Helen Boyer

Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer of Graybird Foundation, Helen manages business operations, finance and our grant process. She collaborates with project teams, contributing to strategic planning and development of creative solutions that drive the foundation’s programs and goals.

Helen brings two decades of management and operations experience to Graybird, spanning the corporate, non-profit, public and private sectors. Having lived internationally and travelled to more than 25 countries, she has a diverse professional background ranging from leadership roles in product planning, distribution and process management to assisting underserved children in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Vietnam. Helen’s volunteer service deeply informs her life practice. She is honored to help individuals and small enterprises in her community, in addition to her work at Graybird.

Helen graduated from UC Davis, with a BS in Textile Science. When she isn’t at Graybird Foundation you’ll find her riding her bike to the beach, listening to jazz at her favorite café, or up-cycling a new find. And, plagued with a serious case of wanderlust, she is always planning the next stamp for her passport. See Helen’s full professional background on LinkedIn.

Shelley Willig

Head of Education Practice

Shelley is obsessed with education; she believes that increasing the percentage of young people earning college degrees is a solution to many of the major issues plaguing our country today. Combining her 20 years in high-tech marketing with her role as Head of Education Practice at Graybird, Shelley is elated to lead projects for community based organizations working hard to get more students to and through college.

Since 2006, Shelley has been deeply involved in education nonprofits. She manages the volunteer college advising program at Foundation for a College Education where she also works directly with students. Shelley serves on the board of Mid-Peninsula High School, a CAIS school in Menlo Park. Prior to joining Graybird Foundation, Shelley served eight years as the Director of Admission at Trinity School, an independent elementary institution.

Shelley holds a BA in Communications from CSU Fullerton, and a certificate in College Admissions Counseling from UC Berkeley. When she is not touring college campuses, Shelley enjoys hiking, cooking, and dinners on the patio with her husband and four sons.

Abby Loesch

Marketing Specialist

Abby attended her first nonprofit meeting when she was two weeks old, and giving back to the community has been important to her ever since. Abby is excited to bring this passion for helping people to her work at Graybird.

Abby is a specialist in marketing execution, client research, social media strategy, website development and event planning for Graybird Foundation and the nonprofit organizations it supports.

Abby worked extensively on the LifeMoves rebranding project and on the website update for Surviving Skokie. At LifeMoves, Abby created social media strategy, coordinated the acquisition of re-branded materials, assisted in planning three LifeMoves re-branding launch events, and contributed to the creation of the new LifeMoves website.

For Surviving Skokie, Abby developed marketing materials, created the social media campaign and was instrumental in the website refresh of survivingskokiemovie.org. For the VIP homecoming reception at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, Abby was the lead planner and on-site event manager.

Abby has a BA in Chinese from Georgetown University and her dream is to one day get a job in China where she can apply her marketing experience.

See Abby’s full professional background on LinkedIn.