Retreat for Girls was founded by three dear friends that all felt the need to give back and to serve the young women of the church by creating the Retreat for Girls conference.  These three friends were Katie Smith, Marisa Brown and Trudy Barrett.

Katie Smith:
Kathleen Watkins Smith has been well prepared to work with Retreat for Girls. She participated as a young woman at Academy for Girls for 3 years. She was a counselor for one year and also a Building Counselor for one year. She worked with Academy for Girls in Provo, UT as well as Sherman, TX. Katie served as a Student Body officer at Utah State University. She graduated from USU with a degree in Family and Consumer Science Education. She has taught classes at USU and at Sky View High School in Smithfield, UT. She served as the Student Council Advisor at Sky View for 2 years and at West Side High School for 5 years. She has served as Relief Society President, Young Women's counselor and advisor, Young Women's President, Sunday School teacher, ward organist and is currently working in the Relief Society. She lives with her husband, Jeremy, in Dayton, ID. They have two cute daughters and a handsome little boy.

Marisa Brown:
Marisa Rasmussen Brown has a lot of experience with young women. She attended Academy for Girls for 3 years, was a counselor for 2 years and served one year as a Building Counselor at Especially for Youth for Girls. She has served as a Relief Society President, Primary counselor, in Young Women's, Activities Chairperson, and is currently serving again as the Relief Society President in her ward. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a major in History Teaching and minors in Spanish and Math. She served a mission for the LDS Church to Cordoba, Argentina. Marisa loves to travel and spent a semester studying in Israel and a semester teaching English in Taiwan. She lived and taught school in Richfield, UT until she moved back to her hometown of Ventura, California. She taught Spanish and Math at Foothill Technology High School for three years. She currently lives in Ventura with her husband Justin and their three beautiful daughters.   Marisa is now focusing on her busy calling, her husband and her daughters and helps Katie with finding speakers for RfG and in any other way she can from home.

Trudy Barrett:
Trudy Quinlan Barrett loved the young women of the Church! As a young woman she attended Academy for Girls for 2 years and then went on to work with them as a counselor for 3 years, a summer coordinator for 1 year and a session director for 1 year. She was privileged to work with young women in Provo, UT; Calgary, Alberta Canada; Rexburg, ID; Tacoma, WA; and Fort Collins, CO. She has served as Relief Society President, twice as Young Women's 2nd counselor, and as the Young Women's President in her ward. She lived in Gilbert, AZ with her husband of seven years, and her two sons. Before her first son was born she worked at the Provo Marriot as a conference/event booking sales manager. Trudy was tragically taken from us on the evening of June 30, 2005, during an automobile accident, one week after our first session of RfG ended.  Trudy has been called back to her Heavenly Father.  We love and miss Trudy and are grateful for her example and the courage she had to really get this program started.