About SickleWell
SickleWell began with a family’s lived experience of sickle cell—and a growing conviction that people should not have to become experts in broken systems just to receive the support they need.
We focus our professional experience where it can be most useful: education, emergency and acute care, sports and recreation, research, training, and the systems surrounding everyday life.
Why we exist
Sickle cell can shape attendance, learning, emergency care, family routines, career decisions, participation in sports and recreation, and access to joy. SickleWell exists to make those intersections easier to navigate—and to help the systems involved respond better.
The founding team
Our roles and experiences are different but connected: parent, professional, sibling, and sickle cell thriver.
Founder & Executive Director
Public administration · Operations · Emergency services
Wale Forrester is a public administration and operations leader focused on building sustainable organizations. His experience in emergency services and as a parent supporting a child with sickle cell shapes SickleWell’s emphasis on coordination, acute care, and long-term impact.
Founder & Associate Executive Director
Education systems · School advocacy · Research
Kandace Forrester is an education specialist whose work focuses on how health and education systems intersect for children and families. Her experience as a parent navigating sickle cell informs SickleWell’s approach to school continuity, advocacy, and evidence-informed change.
Founder & Youth Ambassador
Youth engagement · Arts · Communications
Abisola supports SickleWell’s education, arts, and communications work. As the sibling of a sickle cell thriver, she brings a relational perspective that helps shape how the foundation engages families, communities, and the public.
Founder & Youth Advisor
Lived experience · Storytelling · Youth voice
Ayinde is a sickle cell thriver who contributes to SickleWell’s storytelling and youth perspective. His insight helps center joy, possibility, and lived experience in how the work is designed and shared.
Our approach
Research, training, and systems change are not a separate program. They are how we deepen every focus area and turn individual experiences into broader improvement.
Ask questions shaped by lived experience and the gaps families encounter.
Translate evidence and community knowledge into practical professional learning.
Use what we learn to improve policy, practice, coordination, and accountability.
Work with us
We welcome collaborators who value lived experience, honest learning, and practical systems change.