Our Staff

---

Chris Coats’ resume is quite ‘colorful’. Before working as an community development volunteer in numerous countries around the world, her employment included serving as Administrative Assistant to a Superintendent of Schools, Deputy Clerk of a District Court, Hunting Guide, Orthodontic Assistant, and Office Manager for a Private Investigator. 

Chris started her community service related work during high school, volunteering on a reconstruction project in Appalachia, and mission work in Mexico. For a number of years, she served as a youth group leader, Sunday school teacher, and summer camp counselor. During most of the 1980's, Chris was a foster parent for twenty children.  

In 2001, Chris started volunteering on a variety of international projects, in Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Kosovo, Estonia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Through her experiences, she learned that a grassroots approach empowered the people she was helping, and a hands-on participatory practice was the most effective way to ensure success and sustainability of any project. These experiences led to Chris co-founding Trailblazer Foundation in 2004. Chris resides in Fort Collins, Colorado (USA).

Trailblazer Foundation has two staff, working in the United States. Our staff work remotely in Colorado and Oregon. Our Executive Director travels annually to our Cambodia office located in Siem Reap, the largest town in the province of the same name, where we conduct our rural community development work. Also, our Cambodia affiliate, Trailblazer Angkor, has twelve staff who implement Trailblazer's four programs. 

Jeni was a resident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming for more than twenty years. During those two decades, she developed and grew Mike Atkins Teaching Ministry International. She helped develop and manage the Upward Basketball and Cheerleading program for eleven years, which served up to 250 participants in the community.  

Jeni had the privilege of home schooling her children through high school, and served as the HOW Teton County Contact and TEACH Coordinator for 12 years. Through the years Jeni has volunteered and worked at different local churches and community programs using her administrative, leadership, hospitality and webmaster skills.  Jeni is someone that likes to get involved and serve in her community.

Jeni joined Trailblazer Foundation's staff in 2006 and is the anchor to Trailblazer's US operations. She now resides in Molalla, Oregon (USA) and is Head of Communication for the Molalla Aquatic Center and Recording Secretary for the Molalla Aquatic District. She is excited to be involved in her new community and helping to develop administrative processes at the newly re-opened public pool in Molalla; as well as, continuing to be a part of the incredible work Trailblazer Foundation continues to do in rural Cambodia.