OUR TEAM
Paul Martin, President and CEO
Paul started his career as a commercial real estate broker in Orange County before heading business development for John Wimber’s Vineyard Music, which included a two-year placement heading up the Europe office in London. He subsequently founded the U.S. chapter of Soul Survivor, a UK-based international Christian youth non-profit, hosting tens of thousands of young people at U.S. conferences. He was senior pastor of Soul Survivor Church, Costa Mesa, before serving in pastoral roles in two local Anglican churches, with additional senior non-profit experience including roles advising the late Dr. Robert H. Schuller on faith and science issues, and development leadership at March of Dimes and Family Assistance Ministries.
Paul ran for US Congress in January 2018 (California’s 48th district) with media coverage in Forbes Magazine, MSNBC, NPR, The Daily Beast, NBC, The Atlantic, The Observer, CNN, The American Interest and the LA Times, the OC Register and other local media outlets.
He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA and an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He and his wife, Gina, live in Orange County, and have 5 children.
Email: paul@rfk.org
Jeff Juhala, V.P. Training & Ministries
Before becoming Vice President of Training at the national office, Jeff directed the Concord, CA, camp from 2001 to 2005. Jeff has a 15-year background in safety and risk management training in the construction industry where he also taught leadership development. He was a member of Toastmasters for 4 years, recently became a Practitioner for Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and is a licensed minister.
He holds a B.A. in Business Management from Liberty University, an M.A. in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University, and lives with his wife Janet and four children in Orange County.
Tony Choi, CPA, V.P. Finance
Before joining Royal Family KIDS, Tony served as the CFO for Opportunity International China, was a partner at Folkers, Choi & Associates, Director of Finance for Vanguard University of Southern California, accounting manager for the Southern California District Council of the Assemblies of God and for Balser, Horowitz, Frank & Wakeling Accountancy Corporation.
He is currently certified by the State of California as Certified Public Account and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the California Society of CPAs.
He was an adjunct professor at Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, and received his B.A. from Vanguard University and his M.B.A. from Chapman University.
Tony had been involved with Royal Family KIDS Camp Newport Mesa as volunteer in various positions for 20 years. He and his wife Kim live locally and have two adult children.
Kerry Rhodes, V.P. Strategic Engagement
Kerry spearheads the RFK Regional Ambassador Program, identifying churches and voluntary groups throughout the U.S. that would be well suited for establishing RFK programs.
Previously Kerry had a role as Group Employee Benefits sales for seven years, and balanced early parenthood with roles as a pre-school teacher and classroom aide where she gained personal insights into the impact of the foster care on students.
Kerry has a B.S. in Business from USC, and an M.A. in Education from Pepperdine University. She is married to Ken, with three sons.
Tiffany Everett, V.P. Development
Tiffany has years of experience building and managing public-private partnerships and coalitions, engaging new stakeholders and corporations, and developing and evaluating programs.
Prior to joining RFK, Tiffany oversaw the humanitarian and natural disaster department at Good360 which distributes an average of $30M worth of critically needed goods to over 150 non-profits annually. Tiffany brings additional experience from World Relief, where she oversaw two federal refugee resettlement grants, developing training and program evaluation tools to ensure an effective program of refugee participants becoming self-sufficient within their first 6 months after arrival. She also worked vigorously with the Director of US Programs at World Relief on mission alignment with US staff.
Tiffany holds an M.P.H. from the University of Virginia, and a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Maryland. She lives with her husband and young daughter in Costa Mesa, where they also run a family physical therapy business.
Director of Public Relations & Special Events
Emily Ferrell
Training Coordinator
Summer Mavis
Liaison to Directors
Linda Chenot
Legal Counsel
Glenn Howard
Ambassador, East Region
John Schwider
Ambassadors, West Region
Tina and Larry Stealey
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CHAIRPERSON
Lettie Cowie
CEO, Colbi Technologies, Inc.
VICE CHAIR
Gunnar Gustafson
Sales Director Western U.S., Silver Peak
Rebecca Neal Captain
Attorney
Mike Lang
COO, Power Plus
Steve Fryer
Founder and CEO, SC Capital Partners, Inc.
Don Glacy
General Manager, for Omnific Advertising, Inc.
Teddy Fong
CEO, Million Dollar Baby Co.
John Beering
President, United Access
Sandy Cook-Fong, Ph.D.
LCSW
Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska
Brad Wayman
Managing Director – Head of US Consumer Lending Sales, Citi
Jen Blakey, Ed. D.
Vice President, Organization Development and Training, Irvine Company
OUR HISTORY
1985

In 1985, an assistant pastor named Wayne Tesch and his wife, Diane, saw a need to provide hope to local foster children in Costa Mesa, California. They created a week-long summer camp held in the mountains, the “cathedral of the outdoors,” in order to create moments that matter for foster children ages 6-12.
1990

After the first five years of hosting camps through their church, the Tesches realized the need was in every county in the U.S. As more friends and volunteers wanted to replicate their success, Wayne left his role in the local church and incorporated Royal Family Kids Camp as a nationwide organization, and developed a franchise model to scale their programing to other counties, drawing from Diane’s corporate franchising experience.
1990-2008

From 1990 to 2008, the organization steadily grew, serving more and more children each year and equipping more lay leaders from churches around the world to be able to serve children in foster care. Royal Family KIDS refined its training program and learned how to franchise its model so that its ultimate mission — to serve every foster child, ages 6-12 — would be possible.
2008

In 2008, the organization expanded to include a school year mentoring program called “Royal Friends Club,” headed by Joanne Feldmeth, the former Executive Director for Child SHARE.
2018
In 2018 Royal Family KIDS served over 9,872 children in 242 camps in 43 states and 7 international countries.
93 college kids changed their course of study to social services due to RFK service. We also had 2,651,391 total volunteer hours.
OUR CO-FOUNDERS

Wayne Tesch
Co-FounderWayne is the co-founder of Royal Family KIDS, Inc. Wayne has over 35 years of experience in developing camp programs for children. While serving as Sr. Associate Pastor at Newport-Mesa Christian Center, Costa Mesa, CA, from 1972-1990, his portfolio included developing programs to serve families within the church as well as outside. Having a double college major in Physical Education and Biblical Studies, he developed multiple camping programs serving the community. In 1985, he and his wife, Diane, developed a residential camp for some of the most severely abused children in foster care, known then as Royal Family Kids’ Camp.
Wayne holds a B.A. degree from Evangel University, Springfield, MO, and a Master’s degree in Church Leadership Studies from Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA. He has been Outstanding Alumnus of the Year at both Universities. He is a 16 year member of VISTAGE International, a worldwide CEO development organization.
He and Diane have been married 45 years, have a married daughter and three granddaughters. Her family just completed an international adoption.
Email Wayne at waynet@royalfamilykids.org.

Diane Tesch
Co-FounderDiane Tesch co-founded Royal Family KIDS® with her husband, Wayne. Diane drew from her experience in the startup of a fast food franchise company in the 70s to develop a system to duplicate their camp model in the mid-1980s.
In 1990, Diane and Wayne incorporated Royal Family Kids’ Camp as a non-profit and began duplicating camps full-time around the country, and eventually around the world. As Director of Training from 1988-2008, Diane refined the training model, using existing model camps in conjunction with classroom lectures to train new Camp Directors. “Passing the Scepter” classes were later developed to train Directors’ successors and strengthen camp leadership. In addition, she served as the V.P. of Communications, Operations and Events since the inception of Royal Family KIDS.
Diane attended Evangel University, Springfield, MO, from 1966-70. She has been a contributing author to two women’s devotionals: “A Quiet Escape” (2004) and “Times of Refreshing” (2005), both by Onward Books. She and Wayne co-authored three books:, “Unlocking the Secret World”, by Tyndale House Publishers (1995); “Moments Matter — The Stories of Royal Family Kids’ Camps” (2000); and “From Despair to an Heir — Healing the Heart of a Child” (2008). A Special Edition 20th Anniversary book—“A Week of Memories — A Life of Hope” (2010), was written consisting of testimonials from 20 former campers who have all returned to serve at the camps.
The Tesch’s daughter, Renee, is married to Paul Schroder, and they have three daughters.