Founder's Story

Step Up Founder Kaye Popofsky Kramer is a member of the organization's national board of directors. She is an experienced founder, entrepreneur, senior executive and certified career coach with a proven track record of delivering mission-critical results with a passion for growing organizations and generating business opportunities.

Her work has seen her lead and guide brands including Step Up, Nurseryworks, PHASE ONE Foundation, The Baby Box Co. and Oakwood School, among others.

Kaye began her career as a talent agent at United Talent Agency, working with talent such as Renee Zellweger and Jim Carrey. She segued into production as an executive with Interscope Pictures, serving as associate producer on the award-winning film "Kissing Jessica Stein."

During this time, her mother (pictured with Kaye, below) was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Kaye was motivated to find a way to make a lasting difference in her community and beyond. She gathered approximately 30 women colleagues and created the concept of a philanthropic network – and Step Up was born in her living room in 1998.

The first Step Up office opened in Los Angeles, followed by offices and partner high schools in New York, and then Chicago in 2006. Step Up added programs in Dallas in 2016 and Atlanta in 2017. Today, Step Up offers free mentorship programs nationwide to girls and young women ages 14-23, and has become one of the most sought-after women's groups under Kaye's leadership.

In 2012, things came full circle for Kaye, when she became a breast cancer survivor herself.

Kaye lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jeremy, and their three children, Max, Jules and Oscar.