We are currently assembling our Board of Directors and are seeking people to fill the open seats on the board listed below. If you’re interested in a role just send us an email using the form below. The board is served by volunteers who wish to be part of something bigger than themselves and serve others just for the sake of it. The board is the non-paid steering committee for the nonprofit corporation. Board members will be reimbursed for approved business expenses but do not receive a salary for their time or effort. We believe the right people will work with us and grow for the mission we are supporting. Although we would prefer you be local to East Tennessee, we will consider any individual with the right qualifications because we value people over locations.
Officers of the Board
Chris Hendrix
Chairman & CEO
Chris has been in the technology arena for over 30 years professionally. He has worked with clients on a global scale to help them manage all technology aspects of their business. Chris has worked in e-tail, retail, wholesale, industrial, consultant, and governmental sectors and employed by both start-up technology firms and Fortune 500 companies. Currently he performs as a software engineering manager at Estes Forwarding Worldwide leading the team of developers which coordinate international shipping for global clients.
He specializes in technical project management and web application development and enjoys using his experience to help solve real world problems which hinder the growth of his clients. Chris owns and operates SkuFlow Inventory Systems, established in 1996. SkuFlow is an online business system allowing businesses to manage customers, payroll, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and other logistical needs. He also offers professional e-commerce data analytics and order fulfillment. In 2025, he began work on two technology startups relating to public opinions and social media account insurance. These are exciting projects but are under wraps for now.
Chris enjoys and finds great fulfillment in helping those in need. In addition to serving in a leadership role at Outreach25, he is also on the Board at UnlockingAutism.org where he has served as the Director of Technology since 1999.
When he is not in front of the keyboard, Chris enjoys spending time in nature on the farm with his wife and grown children.
- Secretary – Austin Buhl, bio pending
- Treasurer – Sarah Janneck, bio pending
Seated Board Members
Jim McNeal
Director of Congregational Outreach
Bio is pending.
Shelley McLaughlin
Director of ASD Outreach
Shelley, pictured with her daughter, has a son, Liam, was diagnosed with autism in 1998. After his diagnosis, Shelley emerged as a leader in the autism community, organizing grassroots rallies across the country and teaching autism community members how to affect positive policy change. Liam still faces challenges but today, he is a high school graduate and Eagle Scout that has worked for McDonalds since 2012 with plans to one day open his own bakery. Shelley co-founded Unlocking Autism on February 15, 1999 with Nancy Cale of Sharpsburg, GA and Jeana Smith of Baton Rouge, LA, both of whom passed away suddenly in 2017.
Serving as the National Director of Grassroots Development for Autism Speaks for nearly a decade, Shelley directed grassroots engagement and strategy contributing to the passage of over 90 laws in 46 states to help people with autism access medically necessary healthcare treatments, as well as services to improve independent living opportunities. Since 2005, working with Unlocking Autism, Autism Speaks and the Autism Policy Reform Coalition, Shelley assisted in passing six federal laws which secured over $6 Billion in research funding, created an Autism Research Program within the United States Department of Defense and established of a mechanism allowing parents to save money for their child’s adult expenditures in tax-free savings accounts.
Since the program’s inception in 2007, Shelley has served as a consumer member of the Integrative Panel for the U.S. Department of Defense Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Program for Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. This program funds and develops innovative strategies in autism research with a vision goal of helping people impacted with autism now. Over $90 Million in research grants have been funded through this program to date.
In 2015, Shelley founded Different Beat Consultants, which concentrates on building strategies to address the autism epidemic by connecting products, government entities and families living with autism. DBC is working to address multiple systemic societal issues ranging from improving physical and mental health of those living with ASD, to accessing early intervention services, adult housing/transition services and job training in new and innovative ways. One of DBC’s primary goals is to find a way to bring solutions to the community in the most efficacious and cost effective manner possible and has focused efforts on the poorest states in our country with the least resources.
In 2005, Spectrum Publications named Shelley “Person of the Year” for her work within the national autism community and in 2006 named her one of the Top 10 Faces of Autism. Shelley graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA with a B.A. in political science and art history. She is the mother of Liam and Mairin Reynolds who have both equally fueled her passions to make the world a better place for those living with ASD.
Bob Sager
Director of Innovation & Creativity
The founder of SpearPoint Solutions, LLC, Bob’s professional background includes over three decades of experience in sales, leadership and training. He uses that experience and innovative thinking to develop business strategies that help organizations get unstuck. He also facilitates training on methods of Scientific Creative Thinking more creatively that can help any business or nonprofit thrive in the modern economy. Among other accomplishments, Bob is the inventor of the innovative/creative thinking game, What’s the BIG Idea?™, author of the books, Discovering Your Greatness , 101 Freaking Brilliant Business Ideas: And Ten Ways YOU Can Create Your Own and his latest, More Freaking Brilliant Ideas: helping You Thrive in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
When asked why he wanted to assume this role for Outreach25, he simply stated “I believe each of us should endeavor to make a huge impact with the time we have been given. This role will help me expand mine.”
Matthew Schmidheiser
Director of Privacy
Matt is a passionate technical engineer and privacy technologist driven by serving others. Beginning his advocacy for digital privacy and security back in 2016, he is ardent about empowering others to keep themselves safe in the rapidly evolving digital age.
Matt works as a technical expert and has been engineering and building software in the national security space for the past five years. He is a Certified Information Privacy Technologist by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and he received a professional Certificate in Privacy Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Matt completed his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science concentrating in national security at Virginia Tech, and during his studies he researched cybercriminal enterprises, dark web markets, and large-scale cyberattacks. He subsequently completed a Graduate Certificate in Software Development, and he is currently pursuing a Masters program at the University of Nottingham to identify how privacy technologies can be made more accessible and effective.
Matt believes we all have a responsibility to serve those less fortunate than us. Growing up, Matt was a junior firefighter and EMT in his hometown. During his undergraduate studies, he was a part of a university group which studied community service and led community service initiatives in the New River Valley region of Virginia. Now, he is grateful to help keep people safe in his national security work.
David Edwards
Director of Technology
Bio is pending.
Robert Owen
Director of Networking and Cloud Services
Bio is pending.
Paul Olsen
Director of User Experience
Bio is pending.
Michael Myers
Director of Branding and Marketing
Bio is pending.
John Coombs
Director of My Goto Pros
Bio is pending.
Christina Hendrix
Director of Books For Blessings
Bio is pending.