Leadership Team
We have an orphan crisis in our country. Here in South Texas, the situation is no better. In response to this crisis, we formed 1HOPE for Kids with the simple goal of doing everything possible to serve the needs of orphans and the families that serve them. While serving as foster parents, learning to meet the needs of the children in our homes, the founders of 1HOPE became acutely aware of the immense crisis children in our region are facing. We're here to work with you and for you, providing support at every stage.
John Wilhelm
President, CEO, & Board Member
John’s work with abused and neglected children goes back many years. While serving as missionaries in Eastern Europe in the early 1990’s, John and his wife Katy worked with orphans in several former East Bloc nations. They supported the restoration of dilapidated, former-communist orphanages and visited and loved on orphans infected with HIV. John has been active in working with abused and neglected children in San Antonio since his family returned from the mission field in 2005.
John brings a broad knowledge of the child welfare system and has many years of experience in working for faith-based foster care and adoption agencies. He is passionate about finding quality families to care for children in need and providing those families with the support and training that will make them succeed.
He co-founded 1HOPE because he wholeheartedly embraces the vision, which is to create a partnership of individuals, churches, corporations, government agencies and foundations committed to creating community solutions for the modern-day orphan (foster children). In his spare time (whenever he has any), John enjoys going on nature walks with his wife or watching action movies with his boys.
Kristi Nnokam Parker
Chief Operating Officer & Board Member
While finishing her undergraduate degree, Kristi’s eyes and heart were opened to children in child protective services through serving as a kinship placement. Her personal experience lead her to pursue a career in social work, which afforded her the opportunity to serve children in crisis professionally, too. Kristi has been working in the child welfare field for over a decade.
Kristi contributes a vast array of professional and personal experience to the 1HOPE team. She has served as a CPS investigator, faith-based child-placing agency case manager, intake coordinator and program director. She is skilled in all the behind-the-scenes tasks of compliance with state and area regulations, while working with Child Protective Services representatives to make excellent placements in 1HOPE foster families.
Kristi excitedly accepted the call to serve as the Executive Director and Licensed Child Placing Agency Administrator of 1HOPE for Kids in 2014. Kristi embodies 1HOPE’s mission, vision and values and is dedicated to serving foster families and the children they serve. In her spare time, Kristi enjoys spending time with her 6 children, going to amusement parks, and making trips to the beach.
Board of Directors
Greg Leininger
Chairman of the Board
From the mission trips to Haiti orphanages while growing up to working with under-privileged kids through a community outreach ministry during his college years, building relationships with the poor and hurting has left a long-term impact on Greg’s heart for kids in crisis. Working to provide real hope for these kids has become the dominant focus of his life. He has served as a CASA (court appointed special advocate), foster parent, and respite-care provider for foster care parents.
He is a dedicated husband and father to seven children, an adoptive father through local foster care and international adoption. He is committed to his involvement at his local church where he leads and serves with his "missional community". His favorite interests are reading and spending recreational time with his family.
David Meriwether
Board Member
While considering the decision to adopt a child, David and his wife Casidhe were exposed to a world they only knew existed in the periphery. This lit a fire in them to make whatever impact they could in their community for these children in crisis. David was a founding member of the Oak Hills Church Tapestry ministry for foster and adopted children. Serving on the executive leadership team at Oak Hills, David’s primary focus is training Empowered to Connect to future and current foster/adoptive parents. These are tools and techniques that are beneficial for bringing about dramatic healing for children that come from traumatic backgrounds.
David is especially focused on the older children, who tend to become lost in the system and need people who will show them that they have a voice, and their lives matter. David and Casidhe provide respite care, have fostered, and ultimately adopted a 15 year old girl. They also opened their home to care for and mentor two young women whose previous adoptions were dissolved.
Mark Camarillo
Board Member
Mark Camarillo is the founder of STx Home Solutions. He was not always involved in Real Estate. His family is no stranger to 1HOPE For Kids! Both Mark and His wife, Katie, served two placements with the agency and Mark has also had the privilege of serving as a Family Home Developer from 2019 to 2021.
Mark has spent 12 years in student ministry and the non-profit sector, serving in churches across Texas. During COVID Mark began buying and selling houses and quickly moved to operating a brokerage. Though Mark is no longer in the non-profit sector, the values and mindset have not changed for him and his family. “We are community-minded, and we are honored to take on whatever opportunities are available to serve others, and I am glad to be a part of the board at 1HOPE for Kids”.