Our Board of Directors
Steve Boyarsky, President
Steve was born and raised in California’s Central Valley. Upon graduation from Western Washington University, he married his high school sweetheart and moved to Redmond, Oregon where Mary accepted a teaching job. While driving school bus and helping Mary, he found he liked working with kids. He earned a teaching certificate and Master’s from Western Oregon University. Steve taught high school biology, leadership and anatomy and physiology in Medford schools for 18 years.
Steve transitioned to Southern Oregon University coordinating college-high programs and Southern Oregon ESD as a grant writer. He worked at the ESD for 10 years as curriculum coordinator and 6 as superintendent.
Steve and Mary have three children and two granddaughters. In retirement he has enjoyed fly fishing, drumming in a band and writing interviews for the Mail Tribune and Southern Oregon Magazine. Steve serves on the boards of Project Youth+, Crater Lake Trust and Gordon Elwood Foundation.
Carol Christen, Vice President
Carol is the author, of What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens, Random House, 4th ed. 2021.
Carol is indebted to a long-ago act of educational equity for her career and life success. Carol believes the ability to earn a decent living is an inalienable right, especially in a country with no security nets. Sadly not many U.S. youth have access to help with achieving, much less knowing, their career and education goals.
Carol heard about College Dreams soon after moving to Grants Pass in 2017. While now Youth Project+, it’s still a match made in mission heaven. Carol looks forward to helping Youth Project+.
Greg Redfern
Greg brings more than 27 years of experience as a physical therapist to his role on the board of Project Youth +. A graduate of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, he has called the Rogue Valley home for over 26 years. He was the managing partner of a physical therapy practice that he co-founded in 1999 in Grants Pass. He retired in 2023. Throughout his career, Greg has been dedicated to helping individuals achieve their highest functional level, emphasizing the importance of health and mobility for all.
Greg has been a dedicated board member of the Kids Wellness Network (previously known as Kidzone Community Foundation) since 2009. Their mission has been to promote physical activity for children, teens and their families.
Seeing so many young people in Southern Oregon being helped by PY+ has been inspiring, which is why Greg and his wife, Lisa, have been longtime financial supporters of this great organization. Now, as a new board member, Greg is eager to contribute to the mission of PY +. He sincerely values the opportunity to work alongside such a dedicated team to support the youth in our community.
Outside of professional commitments, Greg enjoys spending time with his wife and dog Tillie. He enjoys exploring the gravel roads of Oregon on his bicycle, and embracing the great outdoors through hiking, fishing and camping.
Ralph Burrelle
While spending 37 years in public education, 33 of which as a high school counselor, I found no greater professional satisfaction than to see young people find success in whatever they chose to do and to leave high school with a sense of purpose and meaningful goals, whether they involved further education or meaningful employment. To be of some help to students as they matured and developed into young adults with direction and vision was and remains one of the most rewarding parts of my commitment to public service. The feeling of optimism and hope continues in me as those affiliated with Project Youth+ make their way to a brighter future.
While a counselor at North Medford High School, I also served as activities director, department chair, and scholarship chair. I served on school counselor advisory committees for the Oregon University System and the University of Oregon and was a contributing editor for the first edition of Sparks Notes 283 Great Colleges. I remain a member of the Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling, for which I served as president in 2007-2008. After “retiring” from the Medford School District, I worked part time for both the American College Test company and the admissions office at Case Western Reserve University.
I have previously been a board member of the Anna May Family Foundation, OnTrack Rogue Valley, and the Medford Schools Foundation and have volunteered with a number of community service organizations, including the Oregon Community Foundation, SMART Reading, CASA, the Fairy Godmother Scholarship Committee, and the Gray Family Foundation. I live in Medford with my wife of 38 years. We have a daughter, an attorney for the Walt Disney Company, who lives in Valencia, California with her husband and our granddaughter.
Armando Lopez
Armando was born in Michoacán Mexico. In 1989, he and his mother and two sisters immigrated to the United States to be with my father and two brothers.
Armando graduated from Southern Oregon University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Spanish. His first goal was to become a Spanish teacher. While at SOU he had the opportunity to join several leadership programs for minority groups. Once he graduated, he was hired as an Admissions Counselor for diversity outreach and recruitment at SOU. He had the opportunity to meet with so many students, their families and give advice on the admissions and the college search process.
In 2009 Armando started to work for his father’s forestry company. This job allows him to get involved in local organizations such as the Southern Oregon Latino Scholarship Fund, SOU Youth Programs and the Providence Foundation. Armando is the JV Soccer Coach at North Medford High School and enjoys travel, golf, mountain biking and hiking.
Kendell Ferguson
Kendell believes that all children deserve the best and most wide ranging opportunities possible to help them become productive and successful adults.
Kendell was born and raised in Medford, Oregon. She graduated from South Medford High School in 1999. She attended Southern Oregon University and graduated Cum Laude in 2003 with a degree in Chemistry. She then went to law school at the University of Oregon and earned her JD in 2007. She began practicing law in Grants Pass that same year. She was on the Board of Directors for ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum from 2008 to 2013. She was on the Board of Directors for Lovejoy Hospice from 2012 until 2017. She was elected to the Medford School Board in 2023. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family, friends, and dogs.
Linda White
In her 40-year career in the field of education, Linda has been dedicated to seeing, knowing, and helping students who are looking to caring adults around them for stability and support. She believes that "every student is one caring adult away from a success story." As a teacher, principal, and District Office administrator in Medford and Grants Pass, she has stayed true to this purpose.
Currently, Linda is a leadership coach for school leaders in the Rogue Valley and is also an adjunct professor at SOU in the Educational Leadership department.
Linda and her husband, Paul, have five sons and enjoy living in their home in the mountains near Prospect.
Brenda Patton
Brenda founded Table Rock Foundation with her good friend Phil Hart in 1996 with the intent to connect caring people around the globe with a focus on humanitarian, cultural and environmental projects, believing that by teaching our future generations the philosophy of self-worth, as well as service above self, we could improve the quality of life for all.
Katie E. Mena
Born and raised in Phoenix, Oregon, Katie graduated from Phoenix High School in 2015. As a secondary student she was a very active participant in Project Youth+ (then called College Dreams). She earned her BS in Psychology and Liberal Studies and BA in Spanish as well as a Certificate in Chicano Latino Studies and Global Studies at Portland State University. She wanted to return home to be with her Mom and two younger sisters (15 and 12). This is her second year working for Southern Oregon ESD Migrant Services. She is gaining experience to determine her next career move, perhaps in computer programming.