About Us

Our team

Leadership Team

Lauren Wells

Founder and CEO

With a history as an adult TCK and a background in Child Development, Lauren studied preventive care science to create a company dedicated to helping TCKs thrive.

Elizabeth Vahey Smith

Chief Operating Officer

As a TCK mom with a background in counseling, Elizabeth sought preventive care TCK resources for her children and found none. Now she works to fill that need.

Tanya Crossman

Director of Research & Educational Services

An Adult TCK herself, Tanya has a great mind for the intricacies of excellent research and uses her experience to create excellent research-based services.

Jacquie Kubr

Director of Family Services

Jacquie has a background in Clinical Mental Health counseling with a specialization in Trauma Studies. She has partnered with families in their overall health and wellness for over fifteen years.

Jessi Bullis

Executive Administrative Assistant

Director of Adult TCK Services

Jessi is an Adult TCK with a passion for helping Adult TCKs navigate the ways their globally mobile childhood impacted them and finding healing and strength.

Jacquie Kubr

Jacquie has a background in Clinical Mental Health counseling with a specialization in Trauma Studies. She has partnered with families in their overall health and wellness for over fifteen years. A mother to five, Jacquie’s youngest two are international adoptees and are growing up as CCKs. She and her family live north of Nashville, TN.

Michael Pollock

Michael is a leader in TCK Care steeped in over 30 years of educating, coaching, debriefing, and training third culture individuals, families, schools, and organizations. He grew up between multiple US states and Kenya. With his wife he raised three children in China where he was an international school principal and TCK development leader.

Evan & Jewel Evans

Evan was born and raised as a TCK in Vietnam. Together the Evans spent 39 years working with TCKs at two different international schools in the Ivory Coast and Senegal, West Africa. They have worked extensively in training personnel to work among TCKs and are international speakers on TCK issues. The Evans have 4 adult TCKS who are now married and are all raising TCKs of their own.

Phala Echols

Phala brings 19 years of overseas living experience to the task. While living the expat life, she worked as a TCK educational consultant serving TCKs and their families by encouraging, equipping, and providing resources for them to live successfully overseas. Phala has worked with families living in over 25 countries and currently calls Sugar Hill, Georgia her home.

Christine Van Tiem

Christine grew up as a TCK in France and the US. She has previously worked as a school social worker for young children with additional needs. The gift of raising her beautiful children as TCKs has deepened her desire to see global families thrive. She has lived in the UK for over a decade and currently resides in Scotland.

Jesse Eggman

Jesse has been in cross-cultural work for 16 years and lived 7 years in Guatemala and Honduras. He became passionate about helping TCKs and their families after seeing the unique challenges they face firsthand throughout his time in Central America. He has a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a desire to see TCKs, ATCKs, and their families flourishing throughout each stage of their journey.

Grace Joo Benedict

Grace is an adult TCK who has lived in S. Korea and the US as a child and in China as an adult. Working with TCKs at an international school in China deepened her understanding of and passion for TCKs and their unique experiences in life. An ICF-certified coaching training program equipped Grace to walk alongside those who desire to process their experiences and grow from (and beyond) them, living out the richness of their story.

Cristina Blackman

Cristina is an adult TCK who was raised between Ecuador and the United States. She continues to live a highly mobile life-style with her husband and two daughters. Together they have served the scientist expatriate sector and the Foreign Services community. Her unique life experience inspired her to work on a graduate counseling program and completed a MA in Family and Marriage Counseling in New Orleans, LA with the purpose to inject encouragement and hope to the Expatriate and TCK community as well with those that have experienced trauma in a monocultural context. It is my hope to help TCKs processing their rich diverse life experience and celebrate their strengths derived from their time living among worlds.

Cristina también ofrece servicios de coaching y consejería en español.

Aquí esta su perfil español.

Maria Tricarico

Maria is an adult TCK, raised between the US and Uganda. While living between these two worlds, she developed a deep passion for preventative mental health care that is both trauma-informed and culturally humble, a passion that she actively brings into her current career as an art therapist. Maria has a MS in Counseling and a post-graduate certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy. She is passionate about helping people of all cultural backgrounds access and embody their innate strength, resilience, and capacity for growth.

Lauren McCall

Lauren is an adult TCK who grew up in East Africa and has spent her adult life in the U.S, working with TCKs for nearly 10 years in various capacities. Throughout her work and relationships with other TCKs, she has become passionate about the unique and invaluable experiences that each TCK has, and desires to be a part of providing preventative care to TCKs in multiple contexts, resulting in thriving and healthy ATCKs. Lauren has a Masters in Public Health.

Lauren is an adult TCK who grew up in East Africa and has spent her adult life in the U.S, working with TCKs for nearly 10 years in various capacities. Throughout her work and relationships with other TCKs, she has become passionate about the unique and invaluable experiences that each TCK has, and desires to be a part of providing preventative care to TCKs in multiple contexts, resulting in thriving and healthy ATCKs. Lauren has a Masters in Public Health and is honored to be serving as an intern in TCK Research in 2023.

Ana Júlia is an adult TCK, raised between Brazil and Uruguay. As an adult she lived briefly in Japan and Singapore working in TCK care, and in Ukraine doing some studies in Political Science. Passionate for TCK care, her academic studies also reflect a lot of her questions about identity and belonging. She loves to hear and learn from others' experiences and cultures. Currently residing in Brazil, she is pursuing a Master in Sociology, exploring the experience of refugees living in Brazil.

Shelby was born and raised in a small town in Georgia. Although not a TCK herself, several of her closest friends and family are, and she is passionate about loving and supporting the TCKs in her life well. In her undergraduate studies, Shelby focused her research on the effects of ACEs and the importance of screening, and she plans to pursue a master’s degree in clinical counseling in the near future. Shelby is excited to be a part of a mission that is research-based and designed to uniquely support the TCK community.

Frequently asked questions

What is a TCK?

There is rich discussion on the precise definition of a TCK. When we're developing our materials, we focus on children who have lived outside their passport country for a significant portion of time with intent to repatriate. We intend this definition when we say TCK. However, we realize that there are a lot of circumstances that blur the lines. Regardless of how you fit into this definition, we've found that what's good for TCKs is good for everyone.

Who is TCK Training for?

TCKs and those who care about TCKs.
Whether you care for TCKs because you have a couple in particular that you love, or you work for an organization and found yourself an honorary auntie or uncle; whether you're in a TCK care position or Member Care and wondering how to support the TCKs within your org; whether you're leadership in an organization, company, military, or government services that send families abroad, or you're an international school or worldschool hub receiving globally mobile children; whether you're a church who sends missionaries or other financial contributor to relocating families internationally, we're here to help you intentionally and thoughtfully care for your TCKs with excellence.

Do you offer missionary discounts?

Our pricing indicates what services receive a non-profit discount. Many of our services keep prices low across sectors because we want to be accessible to all families. Some services are provided at a subsidized rate. This is with great thanks to our support partners whose generous donations enable us to provide excellent rates for non-profit sectors. If you'd like to support TCK Training, you can do so here.