WHO WE ARE

Rachel Sparks-Graeser

Rachel grew up around film, understanding the impact it has on our culture, through the influence of her father, Jeff Sparks, President of Heartland Truly Moving Pictures. Graduating Magna Cum Laude in Business Administration and Adolescent Ministry from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2006, she moved to New York City to work with children, never imagining film or non-profit work in her future. During that time, her life forever changed when she heard that children were being sold into prostitution all over the world. No longer content to live as she had been, she began wrestling with how to get involved. The result: The SOLD Project. Currently residing in Los Angeles, her full-time job has now become fundraising, networking, building a non-profit organization, and working to complete this important film.

Rachel Goble-Carey

Having grown up in a family passionate about issues of social justice it was no surprise when she dedicated her life to advocating for sexually exploited women and children. Having graduated from Westmont College in 2005 with a Bachelors in Business and Marketing, she worked in youth ministry before heading back to school at Fuller Seminary to pursue a Masters in Intercultural Studies with a concentration in Children at Risk. It was during this time that she heard of the issue of child sex trafficking and knew that something had to be done. Her masters thesis brought her to India and South Africa, where she spent three months hearing the stories of children who had been trafficked, and meeting with organizations doing on the ground work for prevention, rescue and rehabilitation. She came on board with The SOLD Project in 2008 to serve as their executive director. 

Carrie Shaffer

Carrie joined the SOLD Project in Spring of 2009 when she moved back to the Bay Area after living and working in Washington, DC for 7 years. After logging many hours in her own internships throughout college, it was a perfect fit for her to oversee the SOLD Internship program!

Carrie loves idea exchanges, thoughtful conversations, good books, and dreaming up travel plans.

Shannon O'Malley

A bay area native, Shannon found herself back in Pleasanton after attending the University of Arizona. She studied Communication, Political Science and Business.

Shannon got involved with social justice issues in college, feeling called to love the unloved. Her heart grew for the issue of human trafficking and she became a SOLD activist. Fresh out of school, she interned with SOLD and recently came on board as Director of Development. In her free time she volunteers with a local youth group and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Drew Persons

Having spent a total of 14 years in Thailand as a child of missionary parents, Drew entered the project with a wealth of cultural and linguistic insight. Raised in the red light district of Bangkok, he was exposed to the issue of sexual exploitation and human trafficking at a very young age. His mother's continued involvement with abused children infected with HIV/AIDS, as a public health nurse, further opened his eyes to the gravity and complexity of sexual abuse within Thai communities. After graduating from an international high school in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2004 he went to Biola University, where he studied film production for 2 years before taking a leave of absence to return home. After working as a struggling model/photographer for a year in Bangkok, he joined The SOLD Project in July of 2007 and began functioning as the project's Thai language interpreter & cultural consultant.

Laura Adams

As a Los Angeles native and third generation entertainment prodigy, Laura Adams, a co-founder of a film and music company Liquid Worldwide Inc. has more than 25 years diverse experience in both 'For Profit' and  'Non-Profit' sectors including Entertainment, Business Development, and Interior Design.

Adams' Entertainment and creative portfolio includes Feature Film development, Broadcast Television Segment & Field Producing; Creator, Producer, Writer, Story Producer, and/or Director of Documentaries, Short-films, Music video, Promos, Theater, Live Events, and Art Directed photo shoots.

Adams' proclaims that Abolitionists of any era are heroes and appreciates the value of culture current Art that promotes awareness of social justice issues.

With a blend of pragmatic insight, candid counsel, and inspirational style, Ms. Adams is effective in her approach to developing, mentoring and training the next generation of artists and entrepreneurs; encouraging self-responsible, high performing contributors.

Ms. Adams' personal portfolio includes a fabulous family of five who endorse her significant chocolate consumption. She comprehends that life is more than chocolate, but it sure makes the adventure almost divine.

Selective in her pursuits, she is inspired most by 'real people' living extraordinary lives and thrives on making sure a great story is told through the appropriate quality medium.

Justin Dial

Justin was a fresh out of college filmmaker who was looking for work when he stumbled across The SOLD Project.  Through mutual friends of SOLD, Justin was referred to the Rachel's as a young, hungry filmmaker who could make an impact in the editing room.  Originally he was hired on just to edit, but within weeks was on a plane for the second round of filming in Thailand. After the trip, and hours of slaving away in the editing room, Justin's heart has grown for this issue. While he enjoys the film making process, he's more excited about the opportunities The SOLD Project is granting to children in need, and is honored to be a part of the movement.

Brandon Lippard

Brandon became a Cinematographer out of a passion for film, travel and adventure. When approached by The SOLD Project, he jumped at the opportunity to go to Thailand. He had no way of knowing that over the course of the shoot he would lose his heart to the cause of liberating trafficked children.

A Seattle native, Brandon graduated from Victoria Motion Picture School in 2001.  He made the move to LA in 2004 to pursue his love of filmmaking.  Cutting his teeth in reality TV, he began shooting for the Speed Channel and the UK's Sky TV. He quickly segued into music videos, commercials, documentaries and feature films. Through these projects Brandon has added several stamps to his passport, shooting around the world from Europe to the rice paddies of Cambodia to the epic savannas of Kenya.

Some of Brandon's recent clients include Microsoft, Sony, HP and Honda. He has shot music videos for bands including Switchfoot, LAX and Katy Perry.

Brandon considers The SOLD Project a visionary endeavor that will impact our generation and bring justice to those who need it the most.  He is honored to be a part of SOLD.

David Serota

David Serota is the writer, shooter and editor at Dokument Films, a full service boutique production company dedicated to high quality motion picture and commercial storytelling.

In 2007 his short film, Ubuntu, won the award for best short form documentary at SXSW and in the (RED) Vision category at the Vail Film Festival. That same year he was the director of photography on a Motown documentary about famed singer/songwriter, Lamont Dozier. He interviewed artists such as Babyface, Mary Wilson, John Legend, The Black Eyed Peas, Joss Stone and Dave Stewart.

David rounded out that year as both EPK director and additional camera for academy award winning director, Jessica Yu's first narrative film, Ping Pong Playa. In 2008 he completed a documentary television series pilot produced by Al Roker Entertainment about gang intervention in South Central Los Angeles as well as a music video for Red Light recording artist, Samantha Stollenwerck. Red Light's featured artists include Dave Matthews Band and Radiohead.

That summer, David traveled to Thailand as a cinematographer with The Sold Project, a non profit organization producing a film about the effect of sex trafficking and prostitution on children.

He is currently producing a 4 part web series for Olay skin care products, profiling women in different stages of their lives.

David also volunteers with special media projects for the Creative Visions Foundation. It is an organization that supports individuals, especially the young, who use media and the arts to promote social, environmental and humanitarian change in their local and global communities.

He resides in Pacific Palisades, California.

Katie Basbagill

Katie Basbagill is from the Midwest but keeps her address written in pencil. A self-proclaimed vagabond, Katie learned of the severity and injustice of child trafficking when traveling to Nepal in 2005. It was there that she decided that her life needed to be an active response to the heinous injustice of child trafficking. Through a serendipitous series of events, she found herself connected with the SOLD project and has functioned in several areas creative since the Summer of 2007. Katie also has an affinity for pumpkin spice soy lattes, dinosaurs, and typography.

Tawee Donchai

My name is Tawee Donchai. I am 30 years old and currently live in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My bachelor degree is in Chemistry at Mae Jo University, and I completed graduate studies in Biochemistry at Chiang Mai University. Currently, I am working as a scientist in HIV research. My family lives in Chiang Rai, a small farming community in the northern mountains of Thailand. My parents passed away when I was very young, and so I was raised by my grandparents.

I have a dream to start a youth center in my hometown, and have a place for youth to go and become part of a group. I think it is important to give these children a broader view of the world, and know about the opportunities available to them, increasing their knowledge of career choices, education, preventative health practices, etc. I would also like to be able to provide scholarships for poor families to send their children to school.

I met The SOLD Project in 2007 and together we have founded The SOLD Project Scholarship fund that gives the opportunity of education to children at risk.

Blah Chermui

Having grown up in the northern hills of Chiang Rai, Thailand, Blah has become familiar with many of the issues that force children into prostitution. Blah is Akha (one of the largest hill-tribe people groups in Thailand), and for the past 10 years she has worked for another locally run foundation that provides Akha hill-tribe children with the opportunity to gain an education that they otherwise would not have. Many of these children came from broken homes, were orphaned, or came from villages in locations too remote from any Thai school. One of the biggest issues facing hill-tribe children today is the lack of Thai Citizinship (even though Thailand was their country of birth). Lack of citizinship means lack of fair wages, poverty, and is one of the most common reasons these same children end up working in prostitution as a means to support their families. Blah works with The Sold Project in Chiang Rai, Thailand to find more children in need of scholarships to study, and communicates with their families and schools. She is excited to be working alongside an organization she believes in, and one in which she can help to prevent prostituion in a very tangible way.

JK Klaiber

Originally from Ohio, J K Klaiber graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2004. He first moved to Thailand in January of 2006 to teach English for a year. However, after meeting a Chiang Mai street youth and wanting to help, J K was directed to the Volunteers for Children Development Foundation. Impressed with the work VCDF was doing, J K has remained in Thailand volunteering to help pursue VCDF's goal of improving the lives of the street children of Chiang Mai and Mae Sai, Thailand.

J K met The SOLD Project in 2007 and has opened up a partnership between VCDF and SOLD.

Jim Connor

Jim has spent the last 17 years working with children in various capacities; teaching, daycare, foster-parenting, and is committed to seeing that all children have equal rights and access to a happy and healthy childhood.

Compelled by the situation facing the people of Burma, he moved to live along the Thai-Burmese border in 2004. There, he lives on a 12 acres farm just a few kilometers from the Burmese border, where he co-founded ‘The Whispering Seed’, a home for children coming from orphaned, abusive and neglected backgrounds. The facility also serves as a community living and learning centre supporting displaced and migrant women and children from Burma and other ethnic minority groups who live in the border region.

With hopes of adopting the children he now cares for, he not only provides a home and family for these children coming from vulnerable backgrounds but also offers many programs through the community living and learning centre including: vocational skills training (weaving, spinning, natural dye, sewing), health care support for villagers, a young mothers support program, teacher training program for teachers from inside Burma and those in the border region, and trainings in sustainable living (earthen house building, Permaculture, alternative technology).

Jim met the Sold Project in the summer of 2008 and is excited about several new partnerships and collaborations with them.

Andrea Swift

Andrea grew up in New Jersey and was always burdened for people in the world who needed someone to fight for them because they were too weak to fight for themselves. After working in the world of advertising Andrea decided to use her skills in marketing to help nonprofits who were fighting for the weak and poor. While working at Russ Reid fundraising for World Vision, Andrea was exposed to the issue of sex traffiking and was deeply heartbroken. She met Rachel Sparks-Graeser and learned about what the Sold Project was doing and knew immediatley she needed to join the cause.

Alexis Jones

Alexis Jones is a motivational speaker and the President/ Founder of the empowerment company for girls called, I am That Girl, located in Beverly Hills, California. She also recently launched an interactive, online magazine at www.iamthatgirl.com and created a clothing line exclusive to her website.

She received her Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Spanish and completed a Master's degree in Communications Management, both from the University of Southern California. While at USC, Jones hosted a television show for three years called, Doing It for Reel, where she interviewed celebrities on the Red Carpet at movie premieres and press junkets. While still in school, she worked at Fox Sports, hosted segments for College Sports TV and worked on ESPN's, College Game Day. She also founded and reported for a website that covered the 2005 USC football season called www.insideusc.com.

Jones was born and raised in Austin, Texas, with four older brothers and has an affinity for college football. Her claims to fame are winning the Show Case Showdown on the Price is right, hiking 150 miles to the Base Camp of Mt. Everest and being a contestant on the CBS TV show Survivor: Fans vs Favorites. Currently, she filmed a pilot for a new travel show and is working on a book entitled, "I am That Girl: Death to the Comatose Barbie."

Emily Aldrich

Emily grew up in Colorado and now lives in Seattle, completing a degree in Family Consumer Science-Individual & Family Development at Seattle Pacific University.  Emily's first passion is people. She comes alive while serving and investing herself in the lives of others.  She studied at Capernwray Bible School in England, which afterward took her to other countries in Europe.  She believes travel is a study in itself, and immersing oneself in other cultures and peoples is a broadening experience that cannot be taught within an institution. 

Emily found herself forever changed when she traveled first to inner-city Chicago, then to build for homeless in Mexico, and finally to the township slums of South Africa, working with aids orphans.  Her heart ached daily as she saw the scourge of aids and its impoverishing effects, now devastating three generations of families in Africa.  She made a personal vow to pursue ways of preventing the loss of innocence and devastation in the lives of the young, wherever she is.

Emily sees her involvement in The SOLD Project as a perfect opportunity to contend for the God-given rights of children, seeking justice and liberation for those already imprisoned by profiteers, and providing practical ways of escaping that snare for many other children, that those to come might find themselves never SOLD.

D. Picasso Anderson

As a clinician and chaplain, he has been a talk radio co-host and conference speaker in Africa, Switzerland and Vienna. His team private practice offers counseling, coaching, mentoring and consulting.  As an American Psychology Association certified mental health clinician, he works with individuals, children and families. As an after-care provider, his expert services in Addictions Life Coaching has lead to him being referred to prospective clients by several residential treatment and celebrity detoxification facilities in Malibu and Hollywood. He heads a team of professionals that treat a wide variety of issues and services including Addiction Life Coaching and Legacy Project Consulting. He also works with college and professional athletes as a Motivational Sports Therapist. In the entertainment industry his specialty is Creative Talent Therapy. The actors he works with have found him to be an essential asset to providing a safe, healthy and nurturing support system when working with them on the set during filming. This helps actors avoid certain pitfalls. The aftermath of portraying dramatic characters is tough for many actors to transition out of once the directors say cut.  For many the characterization they portrayed takes on a life of its own three to ten months after the film wraps. The therapeutic process of Creative Talent Therapy has led to his common phrase “Healthy Film Making”. He has taught courses in psychology and religion most recently at the University of Phoenix and Pacific Oaks College.

Michael Manes

Michael loves people and short sentences.  He loves coffee and the art of storytelling.  He loves verbs.  He loves trees.  He loves writing personal bios in the third person.

Michael graduated from Baylor University in 2000 with a BBA in Marketing.  Upon graduation, Michael began working with a faith based non-profit organization called Young Life.  After a three year journey with Young Life, he took a job with a company in the Dallas area, where he grew up.

Michael first heard about the Sold Project in 2008 through mutual friends and subsequently traveled to Thailand with the Sold Project during the summer of 2009.  He fell in love with the mission of The Sold Project and the people of Thailand.

Currently, Michael works in Dallas at a fundraising agency.  He is still waiting to use his college degree.