Working with the great folks at City Schools, facilitating learning and leadership development to cultivate a culture in which effective staff are valued, challenged, and contributing to equity and excellence for all City Schools students. My team leads capacity-building work focused on leadership and management, systems and standards for professional learning, access to professional growth opportunities for ALL staff, and special initiatives that build self-awareness, results orientation, and equity-driven leadership.

Coordinator of Youth Initiatives: Work in Youth & Family Services team to support programs and operations for system of 59 library locations, provide training and development for staff, and lead + support strategic initiatives.Duties: Develop proposals, assist with fundraising, facilitate partnerships, lead meetings and committees, manage and coordinate intra- and inter-institutional projects, lead staff training and development, launch programs and initiatives. In this role, I also founded our Youth Council and flagship event, Teen Trustees program, and Storymakers Symposium for diversity in literature and publishing.Director of Brooklyn Cultural Adventures Program: BCAP is a thematic, hands-on, interdisciplinary education program for youth founded on the partnership of six cultural institutions in the heart of Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Prospect Park Zoo, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and Prospect Park Audubon Center & Lefferts Historic House. BCAP weaves connections between art, science, history, nature, literature, technology, and culture.Duties: Oversee curriculum design, and program administration and implementation; Supervise two year-round staff; Hire, train, and supervise 21 summer staff and interns; Facilitate inter-institutional committees; Program planning, scheduling, budgeting, evaluation, marketing, and logistics. Oversee program transition and expansion.

At ACC, a nonprofit organization serving refugee and immigrant youth and families, I had the opportunity to work with youth from 99 countries, speaking 36 languages. As Creative Arts Coordinator, I designed and implemented the creative arts program, which operated alongside our academic and athletic programs. I taught classes for ages 6-18; coordinated arts events, clubs, visiting artist workshops, field trips, and performances; and hired and supervised adult and youth volunteers. During my time here, I wrote and was awarded a grant from the Kentucky Center for the Arts, and was invited to lead a presentation on parterships and collaboration for the ArtsReach conference.

At UAY I had the opportunity to work at the intersection of youth development, the arts, youth leadership, and social service. I spent my first nine months as an AmeriCorps service member, and then transitioned to a full-time job. My main service project revolved around organizing a youth-led hip-hop dance leadership program for middle school and high school youth, which continued and grew in my second year, to include a variety of popular dance, music, and performance events. At UAY, I also taught a vareity of creative arts classes and workshops at our youth center and in after school outreach programs, serving drop-in teens, and those in transitional services, counseling, and remedial learning programs. During my first year, I was the assistant coordinator of the Community Youth Leadership Program (CYLP), a yearlong service learning program for high school juniors. In my second year at UAY, I took over as the program coordinator. During my tenure, I also helped to redevelop our volunteer programs and social media, supervise our GLBTQA group, and teach yoga for youth and adults. I also became certified as an Adventure Challenge Course facilitator, leading teambuilding, low- and high-ropes course initiatives for youth and young adults, and a Youth Quality Progam Assessor (YPQA). My time at UAY grew my skillset to include a solid foundation in positive youth development, and an understanding of working in the field of social services.

I fell in love with museum education at CMA. Here, I taught a wide variety of gallery-studio programs for ages 6-18, including half-day school field trips, 3-day school programs, afterschool outreach on- and off-site, summer camps, and the historic Saturday Arts Connection. In the majority of these programs, I developed my own curriculum and lessons, based on themes revolving around various ideas, artistic movements, media, subjects, and techniques; literacy, math, and science; risk prevention and social issues. For the 2008 Carnegie International, I helped to develop the theme and curriculum for the exhibition's special youth programs, in collaboration with my colleagues and the Assistant Curator of Education. At CMA, I taught both individually and in a team, and supervised volunteers and interns.