Meet the Board
Marybeth Levine
President / Director
Marybeth Levine graduated from Penn State University, is a Mom to three young boys and lives with her family in Canton, Michigan. She started her professional life working on a congressional staff on Capitol Hill. In the years following, she welcomed new opportunities and challenges, finding particular success with start-ups and growing productive organizations. Marybeth's background includes the public, private and nonprofit sectors, she's successfully launched for-profit start-ups within a large corporate structure, on her own and with other entrepreneurs. Marybeth has been passionate about the diaper issue for more than a decade and was thrilled to finally launch the Detroit Area Diaper Bank in April 2009.
Marybeth serves as President of the Board, contributing her energy, passion and past success in growing viable organizations from the ground-up. Marybeth also serves as the unpaid Executive Director and has received numerous recognitions for her work in starting the Diaper Bank since it launched in 2009.
John Burnham
Treasurer / Director
John Burnham is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, Old Dominion University and the University of Southern California. John served 22 years as a Comptroller/Supply Officer in the United States Navy, retiring as a Commander. He then spent 11 years in the private defense contracting industry as a Project Manager and specialist in Logistics. After retiring from the defense industry, he worked as business manager of an HVAC manufacturing and service company. He then semi-retired again, choosing to teach Business classes part-time at a local technical school. The school un-retired John for a while, convincing him to step into the Business Department Head position and eventually, Assistant Director of the entire school. Finally, in 2006, he retired fully.
John serves as Treasurer of the Board, contributing his vast experience in business operations, logistics and finance.
Steve Levine
Secretary / Director
Steve Levine is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and University of Arizona. Steve began his career in mechanical engineering. After specializing in finance and entrepreneurship in graduate school, he worked first in purchasing for a large corporation and then flexed his entrepreneurial muscles, starting up a software firm with a friend from his MBA program. After 5 years managing all of the business operations of the software firm (and after the internet bubble burst), Steve was hired to be Business Manager for a specialized optics manufacturer. Ford Motor Company then hired Steve to join its Global Purchasing Team and moved him and his family to Michigan in 2003.
Steve serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors, contributing his expertise and experience in business start-up and finance.
Melissa Freel
Director
Melissa Freel is a graduate of Penn State and Michigan State Universities, a resident of Troy, Michigan, the mom of two great boys and wife to an auto-engineer. For the last 18 years, Melissa has worked professionally for nonprofits in Oakland County and Lansing raising awareness of children's issues and managing programs committed to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. As part of her current position as Executive Director of Healthy Start/Healthy Families Oakland County, she's worked with a team of volunteers and professionals to establish a small but significant baby pantry to provide diapers to the vulnerable families with young children they support.
Melissa serves as a Director on the Board, contributing her knowledge and experience in growing, funding and managing a nonprofit that serves families in need in Michigan.
making a difference with diapers™
Mary Jo Kripowicz
Director
Mary Jo Kripowicz is a graduate of Central Michigan University and is the owner of MJ Capitol Consulting, LLC. Mary Jo has deep Michigan roots and has built a successful government relations and public affairs career that's spanned more than two decades. She started her career at the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC), then became director of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, where part of her role was to direct the annual Mackinac Leadership conference. Mary Jo raised attendance 800% in just five years and helped transform the conference into the “who’s who” event it is today. Mary Jo then joined Consumers Energy where she first served as assistant treasurer for the company’s foundation and community programs and later as the director of federal affairs. Then, as the public affairs director for Consumers Energy, Southeast Michigan, she capitalized on her coalition building experience, managing local government affairs, community affairs and communications for Wayne, Macomb and Monroe counties. Mary Jo was then tapped to be senior vice president for Strategic Federal Affairs – a Michigan-based federal lobbying firm. Here, Mary Jo lobbied Congress, managed governmental advocacy initiatives and funding strategies for clients with concentrations in healthcare, higher education, private companies and non-profits. Today, Mary Jo Kripowicz runs her own firm, MJ Capitol Consulting, dedicated to furthering the interests of its Michigan clients by establishing agendas, securing federal dollars and providing a strong voice for advancing their policy concerns in Washington D.C.
Mary Jo became aware of the Detroit Area Diaper Bank shortly after its lauch in 2009 as a member of the Board of Directors for Child's Hope. An early and active Diaper Bank supporter, advocate, connector and donor, she continues in and builds on those roles in a more formal way as a Director on the Board.
# of diapers, pull-ups and incontinence supplies distributed
to partners since
April 27, 2009:
1,085,306
