A smiling woman with curly hair and glasses, wearing a floral dress and red cardigan, standing indoors with large windows behind her, a bright and sunny day outside.

Mendi Cooley

Mendi Cooley is a licensed Occupational Therapist, disability advocate, and community builder.  As the founder of Coolabilities, LLC, she consults with school districts and municipalities across Indiana on accessibility, inclusion, and family engagement — and as the founder and Network Lead of the Westfield Family Network (WFN), she has spent the past year building something she once wished had existed: a community where no family has to navigate disability alone and a community that is welcoming and accessible for all.  

Mendi approaches this work both professionally and personally. She is the mom of two young men who navigate the world with a balance of ability and disability. Her experience raising her sons — navigating systems, searching for community, and discovering both the gaps and the gifts that come with this journey — is the foundation everything WFN is built on. She launched the network with the belief that families are their own greatest resource, and that when they are connected to one another and to the right support, something transformative happens.

Under Mendi's leadership, WFN has grown to connect 385+ families and 70+ community partners in just its first year. She serves as an appointed member of the Westfield Advisory Council on Disabilities, leads the Westfield Special Education Parent Advisory Council, and regularly presents to community organizations, educators, and civic leaders on behalf of the families WFN serves.

Patrice Smith

A man with gray hair sitting on a bed with his legs crossed and his left hand on the bed, wearing a blue sweater and beige pants, looking to his left against a plain cream-colored wall.

Communications Advisor & Founding Board Member, WFN | Communications Director, Eastern Star Church | Founder & CEO, The Cydney Center

Patrice Smith is a nonprofit founder, communications strategist, and someone who knows firsthand what it means to build something from love. As the founder and CEO of The Cydney Center — a nonprofit serving children with special needs and their families — Patrice brings both lived experience and organizational wisdom to the Westfield Family Network. She joined the WFN leadership team as a communications advisor and founding board member, helping shape the language, stories, and messaging that carry WFN's mission into the world.

Patrice's personal journey as a mom of Cydney, who has special needs, grounds everything she does in authentic purpose. She understands the weight families carry, the gaps in support that can feel impossible to navigate, and the difference that genuine community makes. Her communications instincts — honed through years of building The Cydney Center's presence and reputation — are now helping WFN reach the donors, partners, and families who need to know this network exists.

Patrice serves as Communications Director at Eastern Star Church, one of the most influential churches in central Indiana. She brings her full self — faith, creativity, strategic mind, and deep compassion — to every conversation and every contribution she makes to this team.

Danyele Easterhaus

A woman sitting on a wooden bench in a modern indoor space with large windows, smiling, wearing a black and white zebra-print sweater, black high-heeled ankle boots, glasses, hoop earrings, gold chain necklace, and bracelets.

Nonprofit Strategy Advisor & Founding Board Member, WFN | Founder & CEO Danyele Easterhaus Consulting | WACD Secretary

Danyele Easterhaus is a nonprofit strategist, community connector, and collaborative leader who brings people, organizations, and ideas together to build stronger communities.

As a founding board member of Westfield Family Network, she has helped guide its growth from a grassroots effort into an independent nonprofit, leading strategic planning, governance, board development, and long-term sustainability.

Through Danyele Easterhaus Consulting, Danyele partners with nonprofits, businesses, and community leaders to strengthen organizations through strategy, leadership, fundraising, and collaboration. She also created and leads the Hamilton County Nonprofit Collective (HCNC) for the Hamilton County Community Foundation, connecting nonprofit leaders with training, resources, and one another to strengthen the county's nonprofit ecosystem.

Her work is rooted in the belief that when people and organizations work together, communities become stronger, more inclusive, and better for everyone.

Bridget Lueken

A woman with curly hair and glasses smiling, wearing a floral dress and a red cardigan, standing by a white table in front of large windows with a city view in the background.

Data & Learning Strategist, WFN | Founder & CEO, Empower Consulting LLC | WACD Workforce Development Task Force Lead | Noblesville High School CLIMB Transition Educator

Dr. Bridget Lueken is an educator, data thinker, and quiet powerhouse behind much of what Westfield Family Network (WFN) knows about itself. As the team's Data & Learning Strategist, Bridget has helped WFN measure its impact in ways that tell a real story — including the survey data showing that families connected to WFN feel hope 15 percentage points higher than those who aren't. She has a gift for turning numbers into meaning and for asking the questions that sharpen the network's direction.

Bridget brings her career as an educator into everything she does for WFN — including her vision for how the network can empower families as they transition through the educational landscape. She believes that the most powerful thing WFN can do is help families walk into those advocacy moments feeling informed, confident, and supported — not alone.

Beyond her role on the WFN leadership team, Bridget is the founder and CEO of Empower Consulting, serves as the Workforce Development Task Force Lead for the Westfield Advisory Council on Disabilities, and teaches in the CLIMB Transition Program at Noblesville High School. Her work focuses on post-secondary transition, data-driven solutions, and family engagement — bridging the gap between school systems, community services, and real-world opportunities. In addition to her professional background, Bridget is the mother of three adult children with autism—all of whom are successfully employed—giving her a deeply personal understanding of the challenges and triumphs families face.

Michelle Degnan

A man sitting on the edge of a platform or bench with one hand resting on the surface, looking to his left with a calm expression, wearing a light blue sweater and beige pants, against a plain background with soft lighting.

Community Connector & Founding Board Member, WFN

Michelle Degnan is the kind of person who makes everyone in a room feel like they belong — and that quality is exactly why she is such a vital part of the Westfield Family Network. As WFN's Community Connector and a founding board member, Michelle is often a first contact for families who are new to the network, new to navigating disability, or simply looking for someone who understands.

Michelle's role on the WFN leadership team is deeply relational: she brings people together, opens doors, and ensures that the network's reach extends into corners of the community that might otherwise go untouched. Her connections across Westfield have led to meaningful partnerships, new family relationships, and the kind of word-of-mouth growth that no marketing campaign can manufacture.

She is a Westfield neighbor, a connector at her core, and a founding board member who brings heart, warmth, and an extraordinary ability to see the potential in people and relationships to everything WFN does.

Megan Chaffee

A woman with blonde and purple hair, wearing glasses, hoop earrings, a black and white animal print dress, and black high-heeled boots, sitting on a wooden bench in a modern, well-lit interior space with large windows.

Social Media Lead & Visual Storyteller, WFN

Megan Chaffee is the creative voice behind WFN's social media presence — the person who takes the real, messy, beautiful moments of this network and turns them into content that connects. As WFN's Social Media Lead, Megan handles photography, content strategy, and the storytelling that helps the community see itself reflected in this work.

What makes Megan's contribution distinctive isn't just her skill — it's her instinct for what's authentic. She understands that the stories WFN tells should feel like neighbors talking to neighbors, not marketing. Her Inclusion Wall reel, her event photography, and her community spotlights have helped WFN grow its reach while staying true to its roots.

Megan is a Westfield resident, a mom, and someone who believes deeply in the kind of community WFN is working to build — one where every family feels seen and no one is navigating alone.

Nicole Southerland

A woman with curly hair, glasses, and a floral-patterned dress wearing a red cardigan, standing in front of large windows with blue sky and cityscape in the background, smiling with one hand on her hip.

Founding Board Member, WFN | co-chair Westfield Advisory Council on Disabilities 

Nicole Southerland brings both personal passion and civic leadership to the Westfield Family Network. By day, Nicole has built a distinguished career in case management and leadership at CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions, one of Indiana's premier organizations serving older adults and people with disabilities. Her professional expertise in navigating complex systems, connecting people to resources, and building care networks has made her an extraordinarily effective advocate — and a natural fit for everything Westfield Family Network (WFN) is working to do.

Nicole's connection to this work goes beyond her profession. She joined the WFN leadership team at the very beginning and has been instrumental in bridging the network's family-facing work with the city's disability policy landscape. Appointed by the Mayor of Westfield as Co-Chair of the newly codified Westfield Advisory Council on Disabilities — a permanent city structure for disability advocacy — Nicole is one of the most influential voices for disability inclusion in Westfield. Her ability to hold space for community voice while also moving systems is a rare and invaluable gift to this team.

As a founding board member of WFN, Nicole brings her deep community relationships, her knowledge of Westfield's civic landscape, and her commitment to ensuring that every family in this community — regardless of diagnosis, age, or circumstance — has someone they can call.

Pam Schacht

A man with gray hair in a blue sweater and tan pants sitting on a bench, looking to the side, with his hand resting on the bench.

Family Connectors Program Coordinator, WFN

Pam Schacht is the Program Coordinator for Westfield Family Network’s Family Connectors Program, a family-led, peer-to-peer support initiative grounded in the belief that no family should have to walk this journey alone. Drawing on lived experience and a professional background in biochemistry and pharmaceutical business process development, Pam brings a thoughtful blend of rigor and compassion to shaping a program centered on connection, trust, and shared understanding.

Pam brings lived experience shaped by supporting a loved one through a complex journey of seeking answers, navigating systems, and finding greater understanding along the way. That experience—the searching, the uncertainty, the relief that comes with clarity, and the desire to help other families find support sooner—continues to guide her work and reflects her belief that no one should ever have to walk this journey alone.

In her role, Pam is building the foundation of the Family Connectors Program, including its onboarding framework, matching process, empowerment plan, and tools for long-term growth and sustainability. Her work is focused on creating a program that is thoughtful, welcoming, and grounded in lived experience, so that families in Westfield can find connection, support, and a trusted person to call