Team

Mea Han Fajardo

Founder, Executive Director

My experience of helping others started at a very young age.  When I was 10 years old, I was adopted from South Korea to a wonderful family in Tucson, AZ.  Prior to my adoption, I lived in an orphanage for a year and it was there that I experienced the joy of helping.  Now, I am thrilled for this opportunity to help and serve our kinship, foster and adoptive community.

In 2005, my husband and I became a kinship placement for a 13 year old boy.  He was a therapeutic level child and we had no experience parenting a teen, much less a child who had been in 13 different foster homes since the age of 8, but we naively thought that if we just loved him enough, we could do it!  His case manager dropped him off and didn’t return my calls.  We had no support or guidance.  Embarrassingly, we only lasted 3 months.  That failed experience brought shame to my soul but after some healing, I realized that my experience could help other foster families.  So I began working for a local foster care agency.  We also decided to continue to foster because we wanted to make a difference.  We fostered for 8 years and only closed our license when we ran out of space in our home.

Over the next 15 years I worked for several foster care agencies, with my last position as Director of Business Development.  I also served as Co-Chair for the Foster and Adoptive Council of Tucson for 3 years, sourcing community wide Resource Fairs and Foster Care Awareness Blue Ribbon Events. 

My educational background includes a BA in Psychology from New Jersey City University, MS in Training and Development from University of St. Francis and Nonprofit Leadership and Management Certificate from University of Arizona.

Personally, I am married to my wonderful husband Johnny and we have 4 awesome kids (Max 19, Myles 17, Maddux 12 and Molly 9).  We also have 4 cute but sometimes naughty dogs.  I am a recovering Extreme Couponer and an avid thrift shopper.  I love all things Outlander, watching personal development YouTube videos and trying new recipes from Pinterest. 

I am currently in the process of writing my memoir about my adoption experience and curating an inspirational talk to present to children at schools across the US. 

I am honored and excited to lead FostAdopt Connections to support and love on our kinship, foster and adoptive community.

Emily Weeks

Director of Programs

My love for children and a passion for helping those often forgotten, started when I was very young. I was raised in a small family in the Midwest and would often look for any opportunity to help someone else. After high school, I attended the University of Northwestern and received my Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communications. I then moved to New York City where I worked as the Director of Children’s Programs through an inner-city nonprofit, advocating for special needs and underprivileged children to receive equal opportunities in education. I oversaw a program serving 200 youth, providing year-round educational and extracurricular activities. After taking a break to advocate for the extreme needs of my special needs children, my family moved to Arizona, where we made the decision to open our home to foster special needs and medically complex children.

My education and experience gave me the mindset that it is extremely important to make every attempt to understand a child and meet them where they are. Throughout our journey with foster care, I have seen the need for better understanding, and access to information and education. This inspired me to continue with my own education to equip myself, and therefore be able to better support others in their experience as well. I have my Master’s in Human Services Counseling, with certificates in Behavioral Psychology, Child and Adolescent Trauma, Family Dynamic, and Community Care and recently received my Ph.D. in Psychology.

My husband Richard and I have a blended family of step, biological, foster, and adopted children of various races and ethnicities Keegan (16), Alexis (14), Coralyn (9), Rikson (????, and Aryan (3). Our family loves the outdoors and enjoys running, swimming, and a variety of club and adaptive sporting activities. We have genuinely enjoyed participating in organized racing with our children utilizing various adaptive equipment. We have been CDH foster parents in the past and are currently licensed as medical fragile foster parents and have been extremely blessed by this journey. I’m extremely excited to join the team at FostAdopt Connections and look forward to help bring much needed services and connection to our kinship, foster and adoptive families.