Our Team
Katherine Wald
Katherine is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Miami, Florida. She obtained her graduate degree with honors from The University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University, where she was a Division I swimmer. Katherine has almost 20 years of experience providing therapy to clients with a wide variety of emotional issues.
She was one of the founding members of 1st & Alton, a grass roots Haiti relief organization that was created with friends after the 2010 earthquake. In addition to traveling to Haiti after the earthquake, to help train local people to work with survivors suffering from stress and trauma, Katherine helped fundraise and assembled supplies. To date 1st & Alton has been able to collect individual, community, and corporate donations in excess of $12 million for earthquake survivors.
Since 2010, Katherine has been traveling to regions in Africa that have limited access to psychological resources, and a high rate of gender-based violence (GBV). She focuses her energy on counseling survivors of GBV and training local leaders how to use basic counseling techniques to improve lives. She was particularly drawn to working with women and children who experienced GBV due to her specialization in counseling trauma survivors. When Katherine was informed of the high incidence of rape, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and HIV throughout these regions in Africa, she knew that her expertise in working with patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) provided her with a unique opportunity to make a real difference in these communities. She primarily works with the Masisukumeni Women’s Crisis Centre (located in the Nkomazi region of Mpumalanga, South Africa), the Ark of Hope Southern Africa (located in Pretoria, South Africa), and in several remote villages in northern Namibia.
She is a certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist, and certified clinical supervisor with extensive postgraduate training in various therapeutic modalities including experiential therapy such as Psychodrama, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing(EMDR), play and art therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Katherine has been able to utilize this training in working with survivors and to help train and educate local leaders to use basic counseling techniques.
She feels honored to be able to work with such courageous women and children, and to support and empower them to reach their highest potential.
Jeffrie Parrish
SoccerPlus Outreach Founder
Jeff is a math teacher and soccer coach at Framingham High School in Massachusetts. Jeff also works with the New England Revolution as a Player Development Coach and has experience with US Soccer as a Kit Man for the youth national teams. Jeff was a SoccerPlus camper for 7 years and staff member for 8 years. Jeff currently plays in the Over the Hill soccer league for Irish Village out of Brighton.
Jeff received a masters in special education from Regis College, where he also worked as a graduate assistant to organize service immersion trips for students. Jeff played both soccer and tennis at Regis, where he was a two year captain (soccer) and two time conference champion (tennis). Jeff was granted the Regis-Casserly award, which recognizes excellence in academics, athletics, leadership, and service. He also received the Erat Scholar Award, which allowed him the opportunity to travel to Kenya for the first time in 2012.
In 2014 Jeff met Davis Ouma, founder of a youth soccer league in Manyatta, Kenya. Inspired by the Manyatta soccer program and his experience with SoccerPlus camps, Jeff founded SoccerPlus Outreach. Jeff attributes his passion for soccer outreach to his father, who was his coach and a sponsor for players unable to afford club costs.
Sarah Kate Noftsinger
Inspire Transformation Co-Founder
Skate is a former professional soccer player and the Head of Sports Marketing at Adidas.
She is the former Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement for Atlanta United of Major League Soccer (MLS). She serves on the Brand Council for Arthur Blank's Family of Businesses, which includes the Atlanta Falcons (NFL), Mercedes-Benz Stadium, PGA Tour Superstores, Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, and Atlanta United. She is a former Commissioner for the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), where over six years she grew the league to include 79 ECNL member clubs across the country and more than 10,000 players.
Skate has also coached prolifically at the highest level of women’s soccer, including as the Developmental Assistant Coach for the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team in the 2006 World Cup and as the Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach at Stanford University. She was an all-American midfielder at Wake Forest University, before being the first female student-athlete to be drafted by a professional sports team as the #22 overall pick by the Washington Freedom in 2002. She is endorsed by Gatorade’s Play it Forward campaign. She has founded two non-profits and her philanthropic work has been featured on the front page of the New York Times and on ESPN.
Ruth Riley Hunter
Inspire Transformation Co-Founder
She graduated with honors from University of Notre Dame, with a B.A. in psychology in 2001 and Executive MBA in 2016 and was inducted to the CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame (2012). She is the Senior Director of Team Development for the Miami HEAT. She has experienced success on every level, winning a NCAA Championship (Notre Dame 01), two WNBA titles (Detroit 03,06), and an Olympic Gold Medal (Athens 2004). She was the first woman to be named MVP of the NCAA Final Four (2001) and WNBA Finals (2003).
Ruth is passionate about using the platform of sport to create awareness and promote social change as a NBA/WNBA Cares Ambassador, spokesperson for the UN Foundation’s malaria campaign (Nothing But Nets), and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. Riley Hunter was recognized as one of JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 2014.
In December 2007 Ruth traveled to the Nkomazi region of rural South Africa, located between the borders of Mozambique and Swaziland. She has returned numerous times to conduct basketball, leadership, and life skills clinics.