About MAJJK
The MAJJK Heart Family Foundation was created to fill the gaps that the medical system wasn't built to fill. When a child is hospitalized long-term at Phoenix Children's Hospital, the focus is on that child -- as it should be. But the parents, siblings, and caregivers holding everything together on the outside rarely have anywhere to turn.
We provide mental health support, emergency financial assistance, and fund research that improves outcomes for kids with congenital heart disease. Everything we do comes from lived experience -- we've been those parents.
How We Began...
Two parents met inside the Phoenix Children's CVICU while our daughters were fighting for their lives. We didn't choose to meet that way. Nobody does.
What those stays look like -- sleeping in chairs for months, watching your savings disappear, trying to keep life functioning outside those walls -- none of that comes with a support system. The hospital is focused on your child. Everything else falls on you.
We watched other families living the same reality. Financial pressure. No mental health support. No one to tell you what month seven looks like, or how to explain any of it to your other kids at home, friends, and family.
MAJJK was built because that gap is real and it shouldn't exist. Inspired by five children and the families who lived those hallways with us, we built the foundation we wished had been there when we needed it most.
The Five
This foundation was inspired by five children who shared the same halls at Phoenix Children's Hospital. They didn't choose to be there. Neither did their families. But somewhere inside those walls, between the monitors and the waiting and the uncertainty, something real formed between them.
Five kids. Five families. One community that nobody asks to join but nobody ever fully leaves.
One of our five passed away in September 2025. She is woven into everything we do. Her memory isn't a footnote -- it's part of why this foundation exists and why we show up every day for the families still inside those walls.
Peter Picone
Peter is a heart father whose daughter's cardiac care drew him deep into the world of pediatric hospital systems. As a member of the Phoenix Children's CVICU Patient and Family Advisory Council and a healthcare quality professional, he works to make sure the family experience inside the hospital actually informs how care is delivered. At MAJJK, he focuses on governance, partnerships, and making sure no family has to figure it out alone.
Our Founders
Melissa Sachet
Co-Founder. Heart mother. With over a decade of experience in business process optimization and years of bedside advocacy, Melissa runs the day-to-day operations of MAJJK and drives the programs she once needed herself. As a non-voting Executive Director, Melissa leads the foundation's day-to-day work without a board seat -- a structure that reflects our commitment to clean governance from day one.
Board of Directors
MAJJK is led by a four-person board with deep roots in mental health, financial planning, healthcare quality, and business operations.
Peter Picone, CPHQ
President and Board Chair
Co-Founder. Heart father. Healthcare quality professional and active member of the Phoenix Children's CVICU Patient and Family Advisory Council. Peter brings governance, strategic partnerships, and firsthand family experience to the foundation he helped build.
Tom Loschiavo, LPC
Secretary
Licensed Professional Counselor in Arizona and California with over 20 years of experience in trauma-informed care. Tom brings clinical mental health expertise directly to MAJJK's core mission of making psychological support accessible for cardiac families.
Kristy Barnes, CFP®
Treasurer
Certified Financial Planner with over 20 years of experience, including 28 years at a Phoenix accounting firm. Kristy provides the financial oversight and fiduciary accountability that every nonprofit depends on.
Gaurav Auditya
Board Member
Senior operations executive with deep experience scaling complex organizations. Gaurav brings strategic and operational leadership to MAJJK as the foundation grows its programs and partnerships.
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Daniel Velez is Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Co-Director of the Center for Heart Care at Phoenix Children's Hospital, where he holds the Joseph & Shawn Lampe Endowed Chair. He has operated on the daughters of both MAJJK founders. His clinical expertise and firsthand understanding of what these families experience makes him the natural bridge between our mission and the medical community we serve.
Phoenix Children’s
MAJJK works directly with the Phoenix Children's Foundation and PCH cardiology and CVICU communities to bring mental health support and family assistance into the hospital experience -- not as an afterthought, but as part of it. Our co-founder holds an active seat on the PCH CVICU Patient and Family Advisory Council, giving MAJJK a direct line into the clinical environment we serve.
The goal is simple: no family navigating a long-term cardiac hospitalization should have to figure it out alone.