Mike Ball – Executive Director

“Most of these children have been formed by difficult, sometimes unimaginable circumstances, but they’re not lost. They’re redeemable. We show them that the world actually can care about them. You can’t see the kids or be involved in this work without having your own life changed forever.”

Gretchen Pleuss – Associate Director

“If you can give people an opportunity to express themselves musically, a lot of times it’s easier for them to process really big, complicated feelings.”

Officers

R. Grant Drake, M.D. – Board President

“Songwriters are gifted experts at transforming human trauma and alienation into music, redemption, and healing and so can be powerful guides for troubled youth.”

Carolyn Russell – Vice President

In the 1990s, her friend and neighbor Mike Ball began his journey to teach incarcerated teens alternatives to guns and violence through poetry and music – Today Lost Voices is a leader in trauma informed care.

Wendy Zielen – Secretary

“Lost Voices helps kids who come from difficult lives explore their hopes and their goals in ways that no other organization can. I still don’t know how Mike makes it happen, but I’m so glad that he does.”

George Shea – Treasurer

George has been a fan of Josh White Jr. since his teen years, and when he saw Josh with Mike Ball in Plymouth, he was impressed with their work and their dedication to the young people they serve. That summer he and his wife Kathy hosted a back-yard fundraising concert with Josh and Mike, and he gradually become more involved with Lost Voices. He joined the Board of Directors in 2020.

Board Members

Don Soenen (Director)

“I hadn’t heard of Lost Voices until they were booked into PARC for a concert in 2016. You hear Mike Ball and you hear those girls sing and you just have to help.”

Advisors

Juliane Blazevski, Ph.D – Research Consultant

“Music has the power to evoke our feelings—even those we have locked up inside.  The power is intensified when Lost Voices participants engage in songwriting—bringing words to what may have previously been unspeakable trauma, opening the door to healing.”

Tana Bridge, Ph.D – Professor of Social Work

“Music is healing – it provides words to much that has never been spoken, it serves to empower those who have been powerless. Lost Voices provides for young people an opportunity to have safety in relationships and build community in ways that they have never experienced.”

Nancy B. Johnson, Ph.D – Community volunteer and retired library administrator; Past Lost Voices President and Treasurer

“I taught literature and I have years of music in my life. Nothing prepared me for the incredible healing power of personal writing and shared music which I found in the work done by Lost Voices.”

Tim Joy – Nonprofit Development and Administration Expert; Past Lost Voices President

“Music has the power to transform lives. Lost Voices through its musicians applies that power to heal kids and to help them find hope in their futures.”

Lori Lichtman, Psy.D – Clinical Psychologist

“Be ready to have your heart cracked open. I’ve never seen such healing and transformation in such a short time.”

Jerrell Moore – Lost Voices Alumnus

“People say that changing isn’t like a switch they can just flip, but sometimes it is. People don’t realize the power that we have as individuals – one person can make an entire movement that will ripple across the world. Everything that ever was and will be is a conscious decision to get up and not try, but actually do it. You control your world, but sometimes you need the courage to flip that switch. Lost Voices helped me do just that.”

Bobby Pennock, M.Ed. – Past Lost Voices President

“When I learned what Lost Voices does, and heard both the passion and emotion in Mike Ball’s voice when he told me why he started the organization and how it truly changes the lives of kids, I knew I had to be part of this work.”

Christin Perry-Michalik, LPC

“The beauty of Lost Voices is both the process and the outcome of that process. Children that have gone through so much find connection with others and with their own voice in the process. They then can find some healing and music that is their voice in the world as the outcome”

Jennifer Osborne, MLIS – Past Lost Voices Vice President

“Mike’s work with kids comes with mutual respect. He doesn’t preach or speak down to them – they’re immediately on the same level. The teens who get a chance to work with Mike, in any capacity, immediately understand this and know that he’ll forever be in their corner.”

Stewart Nelson – Community Leader; Past Lost Voices President

Sharon Tse, MA-I/O Psych – Strategy and Performance Consultant

“I first heard about Lost Voices at a songwriter’s meeting when Mike shared how this small, but dedicated team helped children heal from trauma through the power of music and self-expression.

As an early childhood educator and musician, there was an instant connection for me – an opportunity to bring music and my background together, to make a difference in the life of a child. I introduced myself to him during the break, agreed to play in an upcoming fundraiser, and have been grateful ever since to be part of this extraordinary group.”