Camellia Network is the combined vision of co-founders Vanessa Diffenbaugh and Isis Dallis Keigwin. In an effort to leverage the attention of her book release, Author Vanessa Diffenbaugh (The Language of Flowers, Ballantine 2011), approached long-time friend and senior strategist at Ogilvy, Isis Keigwin, to help. Their goal was to create an organization that highlights the tragic inequities of the foster care system and engages readers all across the world to take action against those inequities.

Beyond her experience as a foster parent, Diffenbaugh was also involved in a Sacramento based giving circle. In the spring of 2010, this group of women learned of a young man, Tyrone, who had received a full-ride scholarship to California State University, Chico. Typically admittance into college and a full-ride scholarship is cause for celebration, but before Tyrone had time to this, he was told that his foster parents would not allow him to stay in their home past his eighteenth birthday. He would turn 18 and emancipate from the foster care system in mid-July; he could move into the college dorms in early September--if he could find a ride to Chico. And for the six weeks in between? He would couch surf as long as he could, Tyrone decided. After that, he would head for the shelters.

Seeing that the most basic needs, a bed to sleep in, groceries and a ride to college were preventing Tyrone from reaching his potential, the Sacramento giving circle stepped in. They registered Tyrone at Target and got him everything he needed for college; they helped him arrange an early move-in to his dormitory; they drove him two hours north to Chico and took him grocery shopping before dropping him off at college. Nearly a year later, they have weekly check-ins with Tyrone, and his academic and social reports are glowing. Sometimes that is all it takes; a set of sheets or a suit for an interview and a life can be changed.

Diffenbaugh and Keigwin decided that starting with a youth’s immediate material needs creates a clear entrance point for both the youth and individual across the country to connect. As illustrated by Tyrone's story, youth need more than just "stuff": they need help brainstorming solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems; they need help navigating bureaucracies; they need people checking in and offering encouragement. Like all young people, they need a support system. Together with your help, Camellia Network can be that system.

To make this vision a reality, Camellia Network has become a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a 35-year history in managing progressive social change movements. Tides is a nonprofit organization that works at the heart of today's most critical issues, supporting grantees and programs that are core to our country's nonprofit infrastructure and social service delivery.

Meet the Camellia Network Team

Isis Keigwin: Isis was born and raised in Marlborough, Massachusetts, where she learned the values of generosity, kindness, gratitude and equality from her mother, grandmother and their close-knit family. She attended Duke University where she earned dual degrees in Sociology and African and African-American Studies as well as a minor in Markets and Management. Prior to co-founding Camellia Network, Isis spent more than 10 years in the world of Advertising and Public Relations - most recently at Ogilvy where she was a Vice President and Senior Strategic Planner. Her personal passions include Social Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Sports, Music and Writing. She resides in Sacramento, California with her husband and their two daughters.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh:  Vanessa was born in San Francisco and raised in Chico, California. After studying creative writing and education at Stanford, she went on to teach art and writing to youth in low-income communities. She and her husband, PK, have three children: Tre'von, eighteen; Chela, five; and Miles, four. Tre'von, a former foster child, is attending New York University on a Gates Millennium Scholarship. Vanessa is the author of the best-selling novel, The Language of Flowers that chronicles a young woman emancipating from the foster care system. Diffenbaugh and her family currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her husband is studying urban school reform at Harvard. Vanessa Diffenbaugh is also the founder of the Camellia Network. 

Maria Conroy: Maria was a life-long Minnesotan until she graduated from college in 2009. Maria attended the College of Saint Benedict; received degrees in Spanish and Theology and upon graduation relocated to New York City to do a year of service with Mercy Volunteer Corps. During this year, Maria worked in a community center in the South Bronx providing various programs and services for immigrant women and children. This experience made her more profoundly aware of the plight of urban poverty and furthered her commitment to serve people who are systematically oppressed. Maria moved to Boston to intern with Catholic Charities Refugee and Immigrant Resettlement until she began her Masters of Social Work studies. She currently works as the Program Director for Camellia Network and is enrolled in the School of Social Work at Boston College.

Joslyn Morris: Joslyn was born and raised in Sacramento, California, where she attended C.K. McClatchy High School. While at C.K. McClatchy she served as a chapter President and Board Member for Lilu, Inc., a student run organization that supports Sacramento's WIND Youth Center for homeless teens. After graduating from McClatchy in 2007 she moved to Santa Cruz, Ca to study Psychology at the University of California. While in Santa Cruz she worked as a Fund Development and Community Outreach Intern for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, researching funding opportunities and doing outreach on the UCSC campus. In 2010 she participated in the UCDC program in Washington D.C. where she worked as a Development Intern for Alliance for Justice, an organization that provides legal support to more than 100 non-profits around the country. While with Alliance for Justice, Joslyn worked specifically to organize their annual Justice First Luncheon event. She has a varied background in fundraising, outreach and recruitment, most recently serving as a Membership Director for Girl Scouts Heart of Central California. She currently works as a Program Assistant for Camellia Network in Sacramento, Ca.