KATHRYN MATHEWS, Chief Program Officer, since 2021, became a CASA volunteer in 2001 while working as a corporate executive in the Bay Area for a high-tech company. Her experience advocating for foster youth led her to switch careers to the nonprofit sector and join the CASA program of Placer County in 2007 as Program Director. For almost twenty years, her extensive customer service and operations background helped assign a CASA to every foster child. She dedicated herself to improving outcomes for youth and assisted with expanding the operation. Before joining California CASA, she was the Executive Director for El Dorado County where she was instrumental in developing an online training tool that doubled the number of trained volunteers and is now deployed and used by several other CASA programs throughout California. She has served on the board for a local non-profit, “The Taylor House,” a safe transition home for former foster and at-risk girls.