Board Of Directors

Darlene Carpenter has a rich background in ministry, particularly as it relates to the needs of children. She has served on both a church staff and a Christian school staff as well as working with children’s choirs. Darlene also taught Creative Parenting Workshops in churches across the country and wrote the book “Spiritual Nurturing – How to Help Your Child Grow Spiritually.”

In 2009, having recently retired from her job as a legal assistant, she started Dresses for Orphans. She has a passion to help vulnerable kids and her dream was to personally make a few dresses each month. But, God had another plan. Under her unique leadership style, the ministry has grown to over 80 volunteers in Arizona, Ohio, and Minnesota.

Dr. Tim A. Smith founded Ripe for Harvest World Outreach in 1979, which today has over 200 missionary families serving in 35 countries around the world. Born and raised on the mission field himself, he has a heart for many different kinds of ministries. Not only has he worked as the President of his own ministry, he has served as a pastor for over 20 years. In addition to working with the Jesus Film Project of Campus Crusade for Christ, he also set up several thousand school assemblies with Sports World Ministries, where a retired NFL pro athlete would give his testimony.

Tim received his DMin degree from Bethel Theological Seminary with a concentration in missions. He and his wife Mary have three grown children and reside in Oregon.

Dennis Brown, from northeastern Montana, oversees the family business which includes Treasure State Farms Inc., Sterling Farms LLC, Bonanza, Inc., Sterling Investments LLC, Cottonwood Investments and Brown Family Foundation. He has a rich background in finances and serves as the Treasurer of Dresses for Orphans. His insight and advice regarding the financial health of the ministry has been invaluable.

Dennis brings a unique perspective to Dresses for Orphans out of his personal experience. His son and family have adopted twins – a girl and a boy – from Haiti so he has two adoptive grandchildren! He understands the orphan crisis very clearly and has seen firsthand the whole process of international adoptions.

Judy Huber’s interest in missions began in 8th grade when she went on a summer mission trip to Poland. While there, she saw firsthand the toll that Communism had taken on that country’s families. After that trip, she continued to pursue mission trips whenever possible, eventually visiting Finland, Russia, and Colombia, where she taught high school math to children of missionaries. This international exposure gave her a greater understanding of the challenges of life in other countries and a desire to be involved in serving vulnerable children.

Judy resides in Mesa, Arizona with her husband and two children, whom she homeschools. She also has an M.A. in mathematics and has taught at the Community College and High School levels for over 20 years.

Dan Carpenter, a West Virginia native, began his ministry career right out of Denver Seminary, conducting evangelistic crusades. That led to a move to Minneapolis and 10 years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as the director of the Church Film Ministry. He soon realized that besides his ‘heart for ministry’, he had a ‘head for marketing’. He developed the Seven Laws of Market Strategy and used the principles from this proven program for the next 30 years while working with parachurch ministries, Christian publishers, businesses, and individuals.

As a member of the board of Dresses for Orphans, his experience has been extremely valuable in getting the ministry message out to orphanages around the world. Dan and his wife live in Arizona and have three grown children and nine grandchildren.