About Us

Our History, Mission & Purpose

Established in 2011 with the goal of serving vulnerable women by giving them clothing, career counseling and healing from past abuse. Divine Threads became a 501(c)3 and officially opened its doors in 2012.

Home Exterior

Our mission is to empower and revive women overcoming trauma throughout the Pacific Northwest by providing confidence-building capsule wardrobes, critical life skills training, and compassionate healing from trauma.

We currently offer personalized makeovers, tech literacy classes, and trauma & abuse support groups. We also connect our clients to other resources that meet their needs and further improves their lives. We want each woman we serve to feel strengthened, dignified, with hope for the future and the comfort of knowing they are seen and not alone.

Our Clients

Women who have experienced turbulent upheaval in their lives, forcing them to face poverty, emotional distress, and isolation due to dangerous and traumatic situations such as domestic violence, trafficking, fire, war, incarceration, addiction, and more. We welcome women regardless of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital or familial status. Clients accepted on a referral basis only.

“Divine Threads has literally saved my life – No hyperbole… Thank-you all.” – Patricia B.

“Thank-you for the clothes and giving me the opportunity to feel like a woman again. Your program has touched my heart and I know it has and will touch many others.” – Jamie D.

“You taught me that you can’t break a woman who seeks her worth from God.” – Unknown E.

“I thank you for making me feel very valued and like I belong here in this group.” – Tammy M.

Painting of Women
Kathy

Our Founder

Kathy Towne

Kathy and her husband Bill have 3 grown daughters and 8 grandchildren.  For over 40 years they have served at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Oregon where Bill is the lead pastor. In addition to her favorite roles of wife, mother, and grandmother, Kathy has been an interior designer, artist, and mentor to women of all ages.  Her passion is to connect women’s hearts to God. She founded Divine Threads in 2011 and has poured her love, talent, and time into our organization and the women we serve ever since.  Kathy is the cornerstone of Divine Threads.
Kathy.T@divinethreads.org

Board Members

Chairperson

Tanya Kimmer

Tanya is a pioneer with Divine Threads and has served in many different roles over the past 12 years.  Her heart for serving hurting women and her professional skills and training in fashion has given her a unique gift for helping build women’s confidence and self-worth. Over the last 18 years, Tanya has built a successful fashion business; she is a Team Leader and Mentor to women and serves on a Fashion Leadership Council.  Tanya knows firsthand how fashion can help transform how a woman sees and feels about herself and can even bring a glimmer of hope when things seem hopeless. As a board, we know God’s kindness and lavish love fuel our hearts and passion for impacting lives together.

Tanya is the Board Chair of Divine Threads.  She also serves as a stylist and Marketing Coordinator.  She and her husband, David, of over 36 years, have two wonderful children.

Secretary

Tami Hoogestraat

Tami and her husband have been married for over 40 years, blessed with two adult daughters and their families. After nearly 20 years working in the consumer products industry, Tami returned to grad school to become a licensed psychologist, providing services to adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Her passion is to meet people where they are and help them use their gifts and abilities to move forward in practical ways. She has been part of Divine Threads since its inception and is currently a Board member, Secretary. Tami enjoys traveling, doing things outdoors, cheering on the Blazers, and mostly spending soul-filling time with family and friends.

Treasurer

Pat Kimmer

Pat has volunteered at Divine Threads since the beginning. In 2024, after a 35-year CPA career, she retired with a heart to spend more time traveling with her husband, playing with their two grandkids, gardening, and contributing to Divine Threads. She currently serves as Board Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair. In her CPA practice Pat loved mentoring women entrepreneurs. Her work with Divine Threads’ clients has been inspirational and she enjoys seeing them grow in their self-esteem and hope for a better future. Volunteering with Divine Threads women of faith has renewed and strengthened her own faith in God, and she hopes to encourage the same in others.

Director

Donna Buhrow

Donna is a long-time teacher and lover of the Word of God. Her desire is to ignite a passion in others for Jesus Christ through the teaching of God’s Word. Donna graduated from Wheaton College with a B.A. in Biblical Studies, then earned a M.A. in Biblical Studies from Dallas Seminary. She and her husband Bill, who is Dean of Student Services and the Director of the Health and Counseling Center at George Fox University, have two adult children, Morgan, and Wills.

Donna co-leads One Women’s Community Bible Study in Wilsonville, OR, has a mentoring ministry, and is a retreat and conference speaker. Her passion for Divine Threads resulted from a divine encounter with Kathy Towne at TJ Maxx.

Executive Director & Volunteer Staff

Executive Director

Stephanie Summers

“Steph” came to Divine Threads after a 20+year career in production homebuilding and real estate and has an extensive background in executive leadership. Steph is adventurous and loves to travel, scuba dive, ski, and golf. Spending time with her family and friends is precious to her, as is her relationship with God. Steph felt the desire to serve, left her corporate career in 2022 and began volunteering with various organizations, including Divine Threads. She now serves as Executive Director, Board Member, and various other roles within Divine Threads. She wants women to see their worth and know God loves them.

Client Manager

Carolyn Yela

Carolyn thrived in a 20-year Marketing career at Hewlett Packard, where she was a Product Manager and Corporate Events Producer. She was also a volunteer Firefighter/EMT and still holds the position of Assistant Fire Chief. She serves in ministries at Rolling Hills Community Church, loves the outdoors, dancing, staying fit, and pointing young lives towards Jesus. Her brand is being relationship-driven and finds success by smashing her goals. As the Client Manager at Divine Threads, she will help guide women through our three areas of focus: Emotional Healing, Life Skills Training, and Makeovers; matching each woman’s needs with the various programs we or one of our partners offers.

Life Skills Training Manager

Julie Keys

Julie came to Divine Threads after a 20-year career in the technology industry as a Business
Development Manager and Partner Programs Manager for Cisco Systems and Microsoft. Her
passion for all things technology, and her growing faith and connection with Rolling Hills
Community Church, led her to volunteer at Divine Threads, supporting the Tech Literacy
Program. Julie loves the outdoors and enjoys traveling with her husband in their RV. When she’s
not on the road, she spends most of her free time hiking, paddleboarding, skiing and
snowshoeing. In her new role as the Life Skills Training Manager, she will oversee all the Life
Skills programs, including Managing Money, Job Skills/Placement, Tech Literacy, and 1:1
Coaching.

Grant Manager

Laura Moreno

Laura is a lifetime Oregonian who loves all the excitement that comes with raising two young
daughters alongside her husband of nearly ten years. She and her family love the summertime,
trips to the Oregon Zoo, and visiting the Oregon coast and Sunriver as often as possible!

Laura holds a Master of Public Health in Health Management and Policy, accompanied by over
ten years of experience in various roles within the healthcare sector, including patient complex
care coordination and health policy research project management. Throughout her career and
while pursuing her MPH, Laura has remained committed to advancing health equity for women
and children. In 2023, upon being invited to lead the PowerPoint section of the Tech Literacy
program at Divine Threads, Laura immediately resonated with the organization’s mission of
serving and empowering women overcoming trauma.

Laura continues assisting in the Tech Literacy program and is excited to contribute her grant
writing and advocacy experience in the role of Grant Manager to support Divine Thread’s
ongoing mission to serve women facing poverty, emotional distress, and isolation.