Heroes Waiting
for Adoption
Board of Trustees
Members of the Soldiers' Angels Board of Trustees serve in a volunteer capacity, bringing a wide range of skills, knowledge and experiences to the table as they guide Soldiers' Angels in working to ensure "No Soldier Go Unloved."
Patti Patton Bader, Chairman
The grand-neice of General George S. Patton, Patti has spent her life around the military. She remembers spending summers on the Patton estate as a child, and it was her Vietnam veteran father she turned to for advice when her eldest son deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army in 2003. Her efforts to support her son's fellow soldiers who didn't receive care packages from home led to the formation of Soldiers' Angels.
For her work in the development and leadership of Soldiers' Angels, Patti has received hundreds of awards and citations from deployed military units, military leaders, and civic organizations. She received the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service from the Department of the Army in 2006, the George Washington Spirit Award from the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Microsoft Above and Beyond Extra Effort Award in 2007, and the James C. Van Zandt Citizenship Award from the VFW in 2008. In May 2008 she was also voted "America's Favorite Mom" in an event nationally-televised by NBC and sponsored by Teleflora.
Patti lives in Bastrop, Texas with her husband Jeff Bader and a houseful of little dogs. She describes herself as "just an ordinary mom" proud to have a granddaughter and three adult children: two sons (both veterans of the Iraq war), and a daughter.
Mark is a lifelong resident of Covina, California. He earned both an Accounting and MBA degree from California State University, Los Angeles. He has both a CPA and a CIA. Mark began his career with the Internal Revenue Service, serving fours years as a Revenue Agent. He transferred to the Department of Defense to work as an Auditor. Seven years later, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s office where he assisted in prosecuting white-collar bank fraud. After 16 years of government service, Mark joined the ranks of private industry. Currently, he works as an Internal Audit Manager with Jacobs Engineering. Mark continues to operate his accounting firm, which he founded in 1985, and is an adjunct accounting instructor at Cypress College.
Mark enjoys volunteering his free time, having served as President of Orangewood Little League, Grand Knight of the Fr. Maguire Council of the Knights of Columbus, and currently serves on the Board of Governors of the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors. He has been with Soldiers' Angels since February 2003.
Mark married his high school sweetheart, Stacey, in 1981. They have two children and two English Pointers. Mark enjoys traveling, working with the dogs, cigar smoking and whiskey tasting.
Richard M. John, Vice-chairman 
Ricky is a lifelong resident of Shreveport, Louisiana. He received a BA in History from The Tulane University of Louisiana in New Orleans in 1990 and attended law school at Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, graduating in 1993. He is a partner in the law firm of Smith & John, licensed with the Louisiana State Bar, and admitted to practice in the Federal Court for the Western District of Louisiana and the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ricky is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, Shreveport Bar Association, and the Federal Fifth Circuit Bar Association, and currently serves on the Louisiana State Bar Association House of Delegates (2002-2010). He is Soldiers' Angels National Guard Liaison, for which he received the Louisiana National Guard Distinguished Civilian Service Medal. He has served Rotary International as a Paul Harris Fellow and has been listed as one of the best lawyers in the Shreveport-Bossier area in SB Magazine's "Top Lawyers" issue (2004-2008). Ricky is very active in a wide variety of local law and civic organizations, and has made numerous appearances as a subject-matter expert on local TV and national radio shows.
Ricky has three children with his wife, Angela Cush John, a pediatrician.
Jim recently retired from a distinguished career with over 28 years in the US Army, culminating as the Chief of Logistics at the prestigious Brooke Army Medical Center, the only Department of Defense Level 1 Trauma and Certified American Burn Center. He also served as the Chief of Logistics for the world renowned Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC and as the Senior Medical Logistician with the Advisory Group for the Saudi Arabian National Guard. He is currently the Senior Logistics Consultant at the San Antonio Medical BRAC Integration Office, developing plans to integrate the inpatient function of the largest US Air Force Medical Center at Wilford Hall with Brooke Army Medical Center, creating the largest Department of Defense Medical Center. This $600 million project will be completed in 2011.
Jim married his high school sweetheart, Gerri, in 1975. They have one son, Christopher, an Eagle Scout who has been active as a Soldiers' Angels volunteer. In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees for Soldiers' Angels, Jim is the Medical Director of Operation Comfort.
Matthew Currier Burden, Member at Large
A Gulf War veteran, Matt enlisted in army at age seventeen, becoming one of the youngest jumpmasters ever and serving in the 82nd Airborne, Special Forces and the Defense Intelligence Agency as he moved from enlisted soldier to the rank of major. He founded the influential and award-winning military blog Blackfive in 2003, after learning that the valorous sacrifice of a friend was unreported by the journalist whose life he saved. In 2006 he edited Blog of War, a collection of essays from Blackfive and other blogs focusing on the experiences of deployed personnel and their families in wartime.
Since leaving the Army, Matt has continually advocated for America's service members and their families, maintaining close contacts with active duty personnel, military leaders and policy makers. He is a regular panelist and moderator for military and new media conferences, and a pundit and consultant on national TV and radio news programs. Matt co-founded the Warrior Legacy Foundation and is president of independent reporting and advertising production company SOG Media. He holds an MBA in Business Strategy from the University of Illinois and Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Chicago. Matt is currently employed as an IT executive in Chicago, where he lives in the suburbs with his wife and two children.
Richard graduated from Lehigh University in 1981 with a BS in Business and Economics, majoring in Finance and a minoring in International Relations. After working for a year, he returned to Lehigh to complete his MBA. Richard has worked in finance for his entire career. In 1990, he completed the requirements for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and in 2003 he attained the designation of Certified Financial Planner. He has been working for Merrill Lynch since 1994, currently in New York City.
Outside of work, Richard has a great variety of interests, and volunteers with a number of nonprofits. He has been involved with Meals on Heels since 1992, a nonprofit that delivers food to seniors on foot in the New York area, and has been a member of Soldiers' Angels since the organization was started in 2003. He also works as a volunteer docent at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. When he isn't doing volunteer work or earning a living, Mr. Lowe explores the ocean as a registered dive master, plays golf, target shoots, bakes and cooks. His specialty is cheesecake.
Ana-Marie is the daughter of a career naval officer and was the first person who stepped up to assist Patti Patton Bader in the earliest days of what would become the Soldiers' Angels organization when Patti was nearly bed-bound with chronic illness. Recognizing the need, she offered to be "Patti's legs," visiting hospitalized military personnel, meeting donors, and facilitating the distribution of items donated and purchased for care packages and other troop support projects.
A Board of Trustees member since the founding of Soldiers' Angels, Ana-Marie was instrumental in developing and guiding initial relationships between Soldiers' Angels and the U.S. Navy, advising on the needs of deployed naval personnel and developing Operation Phone Home. Over the years she has "adopted" dozens of deployed service members and donated thousands of hours of volunteer time. More recently, her fulltime volunteer activities have focused on visiting military hospitals and medical facilities across the U.S. as an ambassador and liaison for Soldiers' Angels.
At home, Ana-Marie is devoted to her husband Robert, who served in the U.S Navy for 10 years, and their daughter Alaina. In her spare time she enjoys visiting museums and attending cultural events.