Staff

Bill Gallagher (President and Founder): Bill has been training young service leaders for nearly 30 years. He grew up in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania where he attended Kennett High School. Bill then went to the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University School of Medicine. Bill is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Contact Bill at Bill@sparkthewave.org or 202.294.6366

Laura Payne (Camp Director & Operations Director): Laura leads all of our direct service and service support efforts year-round, as well as running operations for Wave Week. She holds degrees from Boston University and The George Washington University. Laura has been with Spark the Wave for nearly 10 years, since attending Wave Week while a student at South Brunswick High School. She currently lives and works in Washington, DC. Contact Laura at Laura@sparkthewave.org

Richard Fernandes (Camp Recruitment Coordinator): Richard leads all of our recruitment efforts. He is a graduate of Drexel University and first joined STW as a program volunteer. He has been with STW for over 8 years and presently works for BMW of the Mainline. Contact Richard at Richard@sparkthewave.org.

Laura Oleksiak (Director: Curriculum & Staff Training Development and Program Director: Wave Week-Moldova): Laura directs all programmatic aspects of WW-Moldova and co-directs our staff training and curriculum development. She is a graduate of Shippensburg University with a B.A. in English Education. Laura is currently a high school English teacher in King of Prussia, PA. She has more than 10 years of experience with Spark the Wave. Contact her at LauraO@sparkthewave.org