Welcome to Yoursphere

Yoursphere.com is where youth connect in a fun, positive, and uniquely safe online environment.

A place where no one over 18 is allowed, Yoursphere is filled with social hubs we call "spheres," where people of shared interests-such as music, fashion, gaming, sports, and academics-interact. Yoursphere members can also create their own spheres based on their unique interests and passions.

It's wide open, and it all happens in an online community with an unprecedented commitment to Internet safety and civility. The result? At Yoursphere, members feel free to be themselves, creativity and individuality are recognized and rewarded, and parents have peace of mind.

Our mission is to create a premium social networking service that provides the safest online destination for kids and teens up to 18 -- a dynamic, supportive environment where self-expression, creative participation, and healthy peer-to-peer relationships are encouraged.

To keep our community free of creepers, Yoursphere will remain in the forefront of Internet safety technology. And through continually updated educational tools and awareness programs, we are dedicated to helping members and member parents understand online safety and protect themselves.

While the function of the site is social, Yoursphere members are encouraged and rewarded for exhibiting good online citizenship and ethical behavior. In fact, helping others within and beyond the community is integral to the Yoursphere experience: a portion of our revenue supports charities and nonprofit organizations selected by our community; and through our Create Your Future program's scholarship, internship and mentorship opportunities, Yoursphere members can help realize their own goals.

A proud wife and mother of five children (both biological and adopted, ranging in age from 5-18 years old), Mary Kay faces the same challenges every parent does: keeping her kids safe; raising them to be good, happy and well-balanced people; and providing them with the tools and support to create their own future.

While Mary Kay readily admits that she didn't "get" the whole online social networking phenomenon at first, she quickly recognized its importance in her kids' lives. After researching the disturbing landscape of social networking sites—including endless inappropriate content and thousands of predators targeting youth—Mary Kay's mission became clear: raise the bar.

Conceived and founded by Mary Kay, Yoursphere is the first social networking service for youth that parents can embrace. Drawing on her corporate entrepreneurial experience as a media strategist, advertising, marketing and publishing VP formerly with CMP Media LLC, Mary Kay built the Yoursphere team.

Although her parents never had the opportunity to attend college, thanks to their support Mary Kay earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (with a minor in Journalism) from Eastern Washington University.

Mary Kay and husband Ted live in Davis, CA.

A no-nonsense guy, Lee serves as Yoursphere's CEO and CFO. Raised on the West Coast, Lee's childhood was a baby boomer idyll of baseball, water skiing, and Boy Scout missions. He sees Yoursphere as a chance to bring that shared sense of community to today's youth.

A former Army officer and paratrooper, Lee holds an accounting degree from the University of Washington and an MBA from Governor's State University. His impressively varied career began in public and private accounting before shifting toward corporate banking at the Farm Credit System and, later, Wells Fargo. Lee was founder of Ventura County National Bank (eventually sold to City National Bank) and managed Department of Defense contracts and commercial businesses for Aerojet General.

Possessing, as he says, "more guts than brains," Lee embraces smart risk. Before turning his business acumen towards Yoursphere, Lee cofounded the innovative WePlayTV.com and, most famously, MaxPreps.com—the most visited and most comprehensive high-school sports website. In March 2007, MaxPreps.com was sold to CBS Sports.

Avid sailors and skiers, Lee and wife Kathy reside in Gold River, CA.

Caleb has developed and implemented online strategies for clients including 3M, BestBuy, PeopleSoft, and InfoWorld.

While searching for a robust platform to implement on a community site three years ago, Caleb discovered Drupal. Inspired by its potential, Caleb quickly became a Drupal ninja. To help keep Yoursphere's website cutting-edge, Caleb explores the various intricacies of Drupal theming, production, maintenance, scalability, and development, often while listening to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

Caleb lives in Northern California with his wife Beth and son Sam.

Perhaps stemming from her training as a police dispatcher, Tracy has a knack for solving problems quickly, often via creative solutions. For Tracy, the key to customer service is to always put the customer first.

"The foundation of all good companies is the relationships you build with your customers," she says.

Prior to joining Yoursphere, Tracy grew food distributor JC Produce's two-person customer service desk into a 20-employee statewide call center and was a founding manager of Trinity Fresh Management.

An avid reader, music lover and pop culture buff, Tracy and husband Jeff live in Sacramento with their three year old son Cole, golden retriever Bella and mentally challenged Boston terrier Archie.

Ela brings years of experience in customer service and Web design to Yoursphere. As leader of our Mom Advocator program, Ela is the go-to person for a network of parents working to create a better, safer Internet experience for their children.

A blogger and photography buff, Ela lives in Hayward, CA, with Husband Brian and son Kameron.

Believing in the need for a safe and creative social network website for children and students, Tom has readily joined the Yoursphere team. Tom’s educational philosophy is that our young people should have every opportunity to explore their world without the fear of being harmed or subjected to compromising situations. In essence, student safety coupled with a challenging education environment will produce positive student results. Tom has spent nearly four decades teaching students and administrating school programs from kindergarten through high school for the DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependent School) and school sites in Colorado and California. He has assisted students with special learning needs, counseled them, and developed IEP (Individual Education Programs) to meet their goals. He has been a member of NCA (North Central Association) school accreditation teams in the evaluation of elementary schools.

Tom graduated from the University of Montana, University of Northern Colorado and received his Doctorate of Education Degree (Ed.D) from the University of Southern California. His hope is that every student will reach their full potential and become an asset to themselves and our nation.

Tom and his wife Judy live in Fair Oaks, California.

Karl comes to Yoursphere from CBS MaxPreps, where he was Director of Field Operations. At Yoursphere Karl is in charge of our nationwide high school fundraising program. An education veteran, Karl spent 16 years as a high school teacher, administrator, and coach and holds a B.A. from Saint Mary's College and a M.A. and Ed.D. in Education from the University of San Francisco.

Karl and his wife Jodi have two daughters, Julia and Emma.

Jess graduated from University of California, Davis with a B.A. in Design with a Visual Communications emphasis. She is in charge of updating content within Yoursphere. Her experience in updating web site content came from her coursework at UC Davis and internships at places such as California Lighting Technology Center and KD Anderson and Associates, Inc.

She came to Yoursphere with an interest in learning how children and teenagers relate and react to different methods of web site design.

Jess currently resides in Sacramento.

Kurt brings years of experience in graphic design and film production to the Yoursphere team. A graduate of Otis College of Art and Design, Kurt has done extensive work on youth-oriented projects and brings a vibrant visual sensibility to Yoursphere.com.

Kurt enjoys basketball, reading, collecting comic books and, oddly, shopping at hardware stores.

He lives in Los Angeles with his dog Fred and cat Rucky.

Angel is a passionate gamer, film enthusiast, accomplished writer, and publishes his own gaming review blog at theavidgamer.wordpress.com. He’ll graduate with a degree in communications with an emphasis in Digital Media in 2010 from CSUS. With a younger brother and sister entrenched in social networking, he understands and has seen first-hand through his siblings the concerning culture, community and lack of privacy safeguards that await younger people online. He joins the Yoursphere team to leverage his writing skills, entrepreneurial streak and natural online safety advocacy to work with the Yoursphere team, partners, schools and other community groups.

Tina likes reading, going to the beach, and is studying to be an archaeologist.

Jack loves football, baseball, games, and is obsessed with earning Yoursphere credits! His favorite class at school is history.

Rachel likes to draw, run, and hang out with her buds.

Nathan loves skiing, acting, spontaneous road trips, and being entertained!

Madison loves to watch movies with her friends, laugh, and text. She also enjoys skiing and playing soccer.

Jack enjoys books, learning, sweets, getting on the computer, and TV.

Ashley enjoys reading, writing, drawing, photography, and family.

Olivia loves to write, read any book she can get her hands on and play lacrosse for her school.

Riley enjoys writing, reading, working for animal rights, and traveling.

Claire loves Monty Python, soccer, music, karate, reading, art, and her mischievous chocolate lab.

Kit loves dance, gymnastics, and writing.

Rebecca enjoys playing the piano, long-distance running, and writing for her school newspaper.

Laura loves writing and reading books, biking, snowball fights, and especially drawing.

Heather enjoys singing, reading, playing guitar and soccer, and hanging out with friends.

Julia is a member of her school's writers guild. She enjoys playing volleyball, reading, and hanging out with friends.

Vincent Jones brings his experience with the California Department of Justice (DOJ) to the Yoursphere team. A former member of the DOJ's Violent Criminal Information Network, where he tracked sex offenders and honed applications such as the department's Megan's Law website, Vincent is a connoisseur of all things tech and spends countless hours researching the latest hardware and software to keep Yoursphere in the forefront of Internet safety technology.

As witness to the ramifications of social networking's increasingly vital role in youth culture, Vincent was drawn to Yoursphere's mission because he wanted to help create a transformative platform for kids that was uniquely safe.

And like Walt Whitman, Vincent contains multitudes. While his home features high speed cable Internet, he owns no TV. Vincent also studied history in college, an atypical choice for a tech guru. "That's like a forestry major becoming a logger," Vincent says with a laugh.

Vincent grew up in Alaska, with stops in Israel, Jordan, China, and India. Today he and wife Deepali make their home in Granite Bay, CA.

Terry joins the team with over 33 years of law enforcement experience.

His career includes being a: United States Secret Service/Special Agent; Federal Bureau of Investigation/Special Investigator; Chief Felony Probation Officer; Director of International and Domestic Security; Law Enforcement Liaison and security consultant.

Terry's greatest enjoyment comes from spending time with his wife and three children. He resides in Southlake, Texas.

A member of Yoursphere's Safety Task Force, Leroy is a retired law enforcement officer with more than 30 years of service, including stints with the San Jose PD and the Solano County Drug Abuse Bureau.

After retiring from active duty, Leroy started his own successful business training civilians in personal protection techniques. Leroy lives in Alameda, CA.

A former United States Secret Service agent for eight years, Matt is an electronic crimes special agent and member of Yoursphere's Safety Task Force. As a Secret Service member, Matt investigated computer crimes and access device fraud, and performed forensic analysis of computers. For the past three years, Matt has worked as a special investigator for the FBI.

Matt also teaches psychology at Montgomery College. Matt is obsessed with electronic gadgets, so his free time is often spent reading about technology. Matt and his fiancée reside in Germantown, MD, and love to travel (next stop: the Grand Canyon).