Alexis Menten is Associate Director in Asia Society’s Education division, where she leads afterschool and youth leadership initiatives for the Partnership for Global Learning. The Partnership connects educators, business leaders, and policymakers to share best practices, build partnerships, and advance policies to ensure that all students are prepared for work and citizenship in the global 21st century. In support of this mission, Alexis directs Asia Society’s Expanding Horizons initiative, which advances global learning as a means to enhance afterschool quality and build collaboration between…
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Amy Hale brings her experience as an afterschool provider, teacher, parent and informal science education Program Manager to her perspective as a School’s Out Washington Trainer and Coach. She began working in 1998 with the Family and Community Science program as the Family Science resource teacher, and continued as Director and Program Manager. Her skill sets include strategic planning, science program development and implementation, environmental education, curriculum development, family engagement strategies, academic integration in OST programming, Art integration, and assistance with gra…
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April Miller has brought a love for learning and a commitment to quality to SOWA since 1998. April has a BA in Psychology with concentrations in Human and Social Development, Mental Health and Industrial and Organizational Psychology. As a former School-Age Program Director, April enjoys sharing her expertise with programs serving children, youth and families. Her favorite topics include engaging environments, planning with purpose, learning through play and successful guidance strategies.
Vice President and Senior Youth Advisor – FHI Development 360
Bonnie Politz is Vice President and Senior Youth Advisor at FHI 360 in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, she focuses on domestic and international efforts to strengthen the youth development infrastructure at local, regional and national levels. Project management, proposal development and fundraising, enhancing organization and community linkages, and meeting facilitation are tasks associated with this position. Ms. Politz holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Gov…
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As of February 2008, Brian Brandt is offering his expertise to Pierce County as an Extension Educator. His primary responsibilities are youth and volunteer development, which he accomplishes by emphasizing experiential education and leadership training. Brian comes to this job prepared not only with a Master in Teaching from City University of Seattle and a BS in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, but having completed one of the first 4-H youth development practitioner apprenticeships WSU Extension offered. He also served as the…
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Director – American Institutes for Research
Read Carol's blog about Bridge: http://www.schoolsoutwashington.org/blogs/prodev/index.cfm/2011/9/27/Looking-Forward-to-Energy-and-Ideas-in-Seattle
Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs - Food Research and Action Center
As Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs, Crystal directs FRAC’s work on the child nutrition programs that serve school-age children. She analyzes policy to advocate for legislative and regulatory improvements to increase low-income children’s access to the nutrition programs. She helps develop strategy and direct field efforts to achieve program improvements. She provides technical assistance, conducts training, and develops materials for national, state, and local organizations. She frequently …
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Center for Inquiry Science Director – Institute for Systems Biology
Since 2005, Riley Black has held the appointment of Director for the Center for Inquiry Science at the Institute for Systems Biology. Riley Black is an educator whose interests include professional development for teachers and administrators as applied to systemic science education reform, and correspondingly, strategies that enable the scientific community to engage with and support K-12 science education. Through securing and managing grants from federal, state and corporate organizations, she currently partners with and su…
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Danette Parsley is the director of the Center for School and District Improvement at Education Northwest. Her expertise covers many areas of systemic school and district improvement, including afterschool teaching and learning practices. Before joining Education Northwest, Parsley served as a Senior Director of School and System Improvement at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), where she led the organization’s development and field work in system improvement and out-of-school-time (OST). In her career, she has led several projects focused on OST programs and currently s…
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Trainer and Coach, School's Out Washington
Debbie has an extensive background in youth program development and implementation, and has conducted trainings in diversity curriculums, community workshops, and conferences.
Associate Professor of Psychology - University of Illinois at Chicago
Dina Birman has conducted research and written extensively on the acculturation and adjustment of refugees and immigrants across generations, particularly populations from the former Soviet Union, Central America, Somalia, and Vietnam. She has particularly focused on the differences in acculturation between adolescents and their parents, and the implications of these differences on family adaptation. With a background in community psychology, she explores these issues from an ecological perspective, taking into account the …
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Quality Consultant - PASA
As PASA's former Deputy Director, Elizabeth helped to head PASA's quality improvement strategy aimed at helping build the capacity of after-school organizations to provide high-quality programming. She continues to work closely with PASA as its Quality Consultant. Prior to joining PASA, Elizabeth was a Project Director at the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) in Chicago, IL. She worked with school principals and their staff on the implementation and evaluation of social and emotional learning (SEL) programming in their schools.…
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Ellen S. Gannett is director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. A national action/research project, NIOST has provided research, evaluation, technical assistance, consultation, and specialized training on afterschool programs throughout the United States for more than 30 years. Ms. Gannett ensures that research bridges the fields of child care, education, and youth development in order to promote programming that addresses the development of the whole child.
As the founder and Executive Director of Development Without Limits, Eric Gurna designs and facilitates staff development, curriculum and other resources for community organizations and schools on topics including youth development, literacy, diversity, leadership, communication and organizational development.
Director of Learning & Teaching Support – Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
Research Associate - Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change
Gretchen Susi is a Research Associate at the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change where she directs the Roundtable’s Racial Equity and Society Peer Learning Forum. Her research has focused on the social production of housing, particularly public housing, the role of grassroots alliances in producing supportive environments, and on the challenges presented to such efforts by the political economy and social formations, particularly race and class. In a previous life Gretchen was a fiction editor at Bantam Doubleday…
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As vice president of policy for the National Summer Learning Association, Smink leads all activities related to the Association’s policy portfolio at the national, state, and local levels. Current projects include leading a National Campaign for Summer Learning to increase public investment and support of summer programs; leading an initiative to create a new vision of summer school for urban school districts; and the creation of state-level legislative task forces on summer learning. Smink also develops and delivers presentations and trainings at selected national, regional, and local policy …
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Youth Development Executives of King County (YDEKC), Executive Director
Jessica Paul Werner comes to YDEKC with over a decade of collaborative leadership experience in our community. She has spent the last nine years leading youth development efforts for the YMCA of Greater Seattle, focusing on program quality, outcome evaluation and professional development for YMCA staff working with adolescents.
Jessica will be leading a 23 member board made up of executive leaders of non-profit youth development organizations, chaired by Patrick D’Amelio of Big Brothers Big Sisters. A first step…
Senior Consultant, ThrivePoint Group
A child of immigrants, Jhumpa Bhattacharya grew up bilingual and bicultural, two experiences that greatly shape her thinking, practice, and passion to help create equitable, high-quality, engaging environments that allow all young people to thrive. Jhumpa brings over 10 years of experience and immense spirit and energy in supporting individuals, schools, programs and institutions to better serve and meet the needs of immigrants, English Learners and young people of color.
Jimena Quiroga brings a decade of experience in the afterschool sector, as a technical assistance provider, field researcher, and tool and curriculum developer. In her prior position at California Tomorrow, she played a key role in the organization’s after school and youth development efforts. As a lead trainer, she has trained hundreds of individuals and her capacity building efforts have ranged from facilitating youth development leadership programs, to providing professional development to teachers and after school professionals. As a field researcher, she has lent her expertise to a number…
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Jo Hamer was born in Spokane, WA and grew up all over the continental United States, including Colorado, Texas, Virginia, and Texas. Five years ago, she took an opportunity to work for a non-profit childcare organization and found something she was truly passionate about. Jo has been a Center Director for various non-profit organizations for 4 ½ years and is bringing an immense amount of experience to her new position as Center Director at the CDSA Kimball site.
Outside of non-profit childcare, Jo enjoys singing, music, sports, traveling, cooking, writing, and photography. Constantly l…
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Karen Pittman is President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment; her work as a leader in the youth development field was recognized in 2009 by The NonProfit Times, which named her as one of the top 50 CEOs in nonprofits with power and influence. A widely published author, Karen has written three books, dozens of articles on youth issues. Before co-founding the Forum, Karen conducted studies on social services for children and families for the Urban Institute, and helped create the adolescent policy agenda at the Children's Defense Fund. She directed the President's Crime Prevention Coun…
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Program Director, Arts Corps. In addition to overseeing program development and community partnerships for Arts Corps, Lara co-leads the organization's outreach and advancement work, which is dedicated to stewarding Arts Corps's anti-oppression/racial justice agenda. Over the past 15 years of her professional career, Lara has been active in youth development, arts & arts education and social justice work with groups such as Seattle Young People's Project, Queer Youth Rights, Communities Against Rape and Abuse, Seattle AFSC, the Seattle Arts Commission and more. As a musician, sound artist, col…
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Food Policy Director, Children's Alliance.
Since 1994 she has been a national leader on food policy work and was recognized as national child advocate of the year in 1998. She has also led advocacy efforts in the Alliance's Eastern Washington office and chaired a regional ten state coalition on anti-hunger issues.
In 1997 when Congress revoked food stamps for legal immigrants, Linda pushed for state funds to restore food stamps for Washington's immigrants. Most recently, in her work with the Western Regional Anti Hunger Consortium, she successfully advocated for the national reinstat…
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Lynda Llavore brings a rich background as a trainer in multicultural educational settings, and as educator teaching English and developmental reading and writing skills. Lynda is also certified to endorse out-of-school time programs for program accreditation for the National School-Age Care Alliance.
Markus Maceo joined the SOWA cohort through the Pathway to Excellence (PTE) project and currently serves in the Tacoma afterschool region as a PTE Lead Coach. He has over 5 years of supervisory, training and organizational development experience. For two years, was an adjunct faculty at Evergreen State College and brings a culturally relevant lens in navigating systems within the afterschool professional development field. He also has a passion in communicating voices from the community through media design and editing. Markus holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts and an A.T.A. in Multimedia.
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Nicole strives to make research make sense. She oversees Forum projects on out-of-school time, postsecondary success and bridging research, policy and practice; speaks on behalf of the Forum at national conferences and and events; and serves as an advisor to several foundations, organizations and initiatives connected to the Forum. Prior to joining the Forum in 2000, Nicole served as a youth development specialist at Michigan State University, where she developed, implemented and evaluated community-based youth programs and provided training and technical assistance to programs statewide withi…
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Priscilla Little has been working in the education arena and conducting educational research for over twenty years. She is currently an independent consultant; her clients include national education research firms, state education agencies, nonprofits, and private foundations. Formerly with the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), she has spear-headed its efforts to promote effective education policies and practices to support children’s learning and development through a holistic, integrated approach to learning in- and out-of-school. In her capacity as the Core Area Director for HFRP'…
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Senior Program Officer and Global Director of CYM – FHI Development 360
Education: Management, University of Maryland
Expertise: Youth, Youth Development, Training, Community YouthMapping; Youth Participation.
Project Manager – Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change
Raymond manages the domestic and international racial equity seminars at the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change. In addition, he is currently developing a youth focused curriculum around structural racism.
Before joining the Roundtable, Codrington worked at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as the Founding Director of the Julian C. Dixon Institute for Cultural Studies and curator in the Department of Anthropology. Before joining the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Raymond was a professor…
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Roberta L. Newman has worked with children, youth, and families in a variety of roles for over thirty-five years. She has been a classroom teacher, an administrator of arts and music programs for preschool through high school students, a preschool director, a high school administrator, and a director of school-age programs for elementary and middle school children. As director of the Fairfax County, Virginia, School-Age Child Care Program, she guided the growth and development of over 60 school-based before and after school programs. In this role, she created a program-wide Parent Advisory …
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Poet and Teaching Artist – Arts Corps. Roberto connects with students via universal narratives that span through a wide range of subjects: first kisses, defying racism, love for family and … cans of Spam. He teaches that poetry must be seen and heard and read. Roberto's classes are improvisational, fertile and safe creative spaces that give ample room for students to breathe their own personal experience into all styles of written language.
His writing appeared in the National Poetry Slam Anthology 2003 and has traveled across Seattle with “Poetry on Buses 2004.” He was a top runner-up…
Scott VanderWey, Director of 4-H Adventure Education, has been honored with the regional Association for Experiential Education Willie Unsoeld Award for his innovative facilitating and training for the past 17 years.
A leader in outdoor education, VanderWey has been instrumental in building several new statewide Adventure Education programs including the 4-H Rock Climbing program and the Building Successful Learning Communities program. He currently manages seven challenge courses in Washington State and oversees adventure-based programs in 19 of the state’s 39 counties.
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Community Outreach Coordinator, Arts Corps.
As an MLK VISTA, Sean is the newest member of the Arts Corps family. As the Community Outreach Coordinator, Sean's role is to enhance the anti-oppression and community organizing skill sets of the Arts Corps community. His commitment to social justice work has been shaped by a variety of influences, from music in his youth to student organizing. Additionally, Sean is an active leader of the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, where he has facilitated workshops on racism, privilege & community organizing. Sean believes that through creativity of…
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Vice Chair – Washington State Legislative Youth Advisory Council
A junior this fall at Henry Foss High School in Tacoma, WA, ShaLuJuan Williams stands out for her dedication to making her community a better place. To this end, she is involved with the YMCA in Youth and Government and Youth Leadership Development, in addition to being Vice-Chair of the Legislative Youth Advisory Council and Secretary of Youth Leading Change. The YMCA featured her as their “Outstanding Youth of the Year” for her work. ShaLuJuan says, “My mom is a single parent of two and has taught me the value of hard …
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Shawn Ginwright is a leading expert on African American youth, youth activism, and youth development. He is an Associate Professor of Education in the Africana Studies Department and Senior Research Associate for the Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy at San Francisco State University. Dr. Ginwright founded Leadership Excellence Inc. that trains African American youth to address pressing social problems. He also created the Research Collaborative on Youth Activism, a network of scholars who support youth organization. He is also the co-founder of the new Institute for Radical Healing, wh…
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Shawn C. Petty serves at Edvance Research as the Technical Assistance Manager to oversee the development of educational training courses, coordinate the efforts of consultants, and to monitor the progress of support to the Texas Education Agency for the Texas ACE / 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. In addition, he assists the Executive Vice President for Emerging Practices in monitoring educational trends and highlighting innovative practices that are transforming the industry. Petty entered the out-of-school-time and education industry after a decade of experience in…
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Shemille Brown, LCSW-C, graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Psychology; with an emphasis in child development. Shemille completed her Masters in Social Work from Smith School for Social Work in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has over 10 years of experience providing therapy and working with children and adolescents in a range of settings including Residential Treatment Centers, Therapeutic Foster Homes, Classrooms, Outdoor Educational Programs and Athletic Facilities. Shemille is the founder of BSquared Training and Consulting Services where she provides trainings…
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Tina LaPadula is a performance teaching artist, the Education Director of Arts Corps, as well as one of it's founders. Her commitment to emergent curriculum, art for social change and student-centered assessment, helped shape the Arts Corps philosophy. Tina has taught theatre, performance and storytelling at Centrum Arts, A Contemporary Theatre, Hilltop Children's Center and Seattle Children's Theatre. She has facilitated experiential learning courses called " Making Student Learning Visible" through the University of Washington's Pipeline Project, and leads workshops on assessment str…
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Program Supervisor, 21st Century Community Learning Centers – Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
Founder/CEO - Technology Access Foundation
Trish Millines Dziko founded TAF in 1996 after spending 15 years as a developer, designer and manager in the high tech industry. A native of New Jersey who attended Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) on a basketball scholarship, she graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1979 at a time when few people of color and few women were entering the field. Her successful career brought her to Microsoft in the mid-1980s, just as the pioneering software company was set to become a worldwide brand.
Over the next decade of tremendous growth, she saw…
Terri Stone
Tina LaPadula
Chris Tugwell
Shemille Brown
Shawn Petty
Krista Galloway
Sherrie M. Belt
Danielle Baer
Pang Chang
Emily A Emerson
Glen Osborn
Amanda Scott Thomas
Regina Lum-Witkoske
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