Amy Friedman, Executive Director, is the author of several memoirs, thousands of essays, articles and stories and the long-running syndicated feature Tell Me a Story. She works as an editor and ghostwriter and teaches creative writing to high school students involved with POPS the Club and to students at UCLA Extension, The Skirball Cultural Arts Center, Idyllwild School of the Arts and in private workshops. Ms. Friedman’s devotion to the families of the incarcerated began in early 1992 when she was married to a man in prison and helping to raise his two daughters. Ms. Friedman is a staunch believer both in freedom of expression and in the power of art to change the world. She envisions a POPS the Club in every high school in the country, and with the spread of POPS the Club, the end of the shame and stigma too often associated both with the incarcerated and their loved ones.
Mel Keedle, Program Manager, has a Bachelor of Social Science, with a focus on adolescent studies, from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Before moving to Los Angeles, Mel worked with young people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Mel is passionate about helping all young people to develop the skills and tools they need to succeed. Having volunteered with POPS the Club for over a year, Mel is proud to be part of the ever-expanding organization and looks forward to working with school sponsors and volunteers in training and developing POPS clubs across the country.
Lauren Marks, Social Media Director, has worked as a writer, actor, director, and dramaturg. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and also pursued a PhD in Theatre Studies at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. At age 27, she suffered a serious brain injury that affected her abilities to communicate. Her upcoming memoir, A Stitch of Time (Simon & Schuster 2017), follows her path back to language. Over the last two years, Lauren has been working with those living with acquired language disabilities, helping to facilitate meaningful exchanges through all manner of artistic expression, including recent collaborations with Presence Theatre and Rosetta Life. POPS has been a natural fit for Lauren, since she is passionate about under-represented communities, art as a vehicle for personal expression and social change, and the transformative power of previously unheard voices.
Arrowyn Ambrose, Volunteer Coordinator, majored in dance at UCLA before starting an acting career in Hollywood. She was a series regular on a TV show and appeared in several films and commercials. In 2004 she discovered the art of personal narrative. Since then she has performed many of her pieces around L.A. and is writing a collection of short stories and a one person show. Combining her love of writing, deep listening practice, and improvisational theater into a workshop for people to create connection and community has become her life’s passion. While working as The Program Director for The Young Storyteller’s Foundation, Arrowyn harnessed her myriad skills to develop Story Tribe (www.storytribe.net). Arrowyn is thrilled to be working with POPS the Club, helping to grow an organization in whose mission she so firmly believes.