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Bridge Conference National Advisory Committee 2011

The National Advisory Committee is made up of individuals and organizations that support School’s Out Washington’s (SOWA) mission of building community systems to support quality afterschool and youth development programs for all 5-18 year olds to have safe places to learn and grow when not in school. Committee members provide input and guidance with the content development for workshops, networking opportunities and general sessions with the goal of creating a relevant and meaningful two-day professional development experience for all those involved.

The Committee's objectives are:

• Identify the newest research, publications and resources relevant to school/afterschool partnerships and trends in K-12 education, both in and out of school;
  
• Identify presenters and speakers to lead workshops and general sessions specific to evidence-based practices that will support the quality improvement of afterschool and youth development programs; and
  
• Identify and support effective strategies to reach out to potential conference participants that would benefit from attending this two day professional development experience.

The Committee members are:

Ellen Gannett, M.Ed.
Director
National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), Wellesley Centers for Women

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.

Eric Gurna
Executive Director
Development Without Limits

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. Eric also designs and directs youth programs, including Project Unity, an internship program where teenagers create and perform plays based upon their own experiences and ideas.

Joyce Harris
Director, Equity Program
Education Northwest


Priscilla Little
Research & Evaluation Consultant

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's Out-of-School Time (OST) research and evaluation work, she led research teams to investigate policy-relevant OST issues such as improving participation, addressing program quality, building OST systems, and supporting out-of-school learning partnerships. She received her undergraduate degree in music history and theory from Smith College, and her master’s degree from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study at Tufts University, where she continued with doctoral studies.

Brenda McLaughlin
Vice President, Community Initiatives
National Summer Learning Association

Brenda McLaughlin leads the Association’s new and community initiatives, providing strategic direction and ensuring alignment between our organization’s overall goals and on-the-ground strategies. The initiatives team uses a combination of research, policy development, advocacy, professional development, quality assessment, resource alignment, data tracking, and evaluation to serve the summer learning community. Her team works to expand access and participation for low-income youth and families in summer programs through increased political support, alignment and sustainability of resources, enhanced knowledge and data sharing practices, and improved program quality.

Alexis Menten
Associate Director, Afterschool and Youth Leadership Initiatives
Asia Society

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 schools and community partners.
 

Earl Martin Phalen
Co-Founder and former CEO of Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) and Founder and CEO of Summer Advantage USA
Reach Out and Read & Summer Advantage USA

Earl Martin Phalen is the CEO of Reach Out and Read and Founder of Summer Advantage USA. Reach Out and Read is a non-profit that makes literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care, so that children grow up with books and a love of reading. Reach Out and Read serves 4 million children per year at 4,500 sites throughout the country and children who participate in the program enter school with a 6 month advantage. Phalen is a Mind Trust and Ashoka Fellow and is a three-time recipient of Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award. In 1997, President Clinton awarded Phalen the President’s Service Award for outstanding community service. Phalen holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
 

Bonnie Politz
Vice President and Senior Youth Advisor
FHI 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 Government and a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Maryland.

Jimena Quiroga
Senior Associate
ThrivePoint Group

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 of national research projects on topics such as equity and diversity in after school and preparing staff to work with immigrant youth.
 

Jody Rosentswieg
Program Officer
Raikes Foundation

Jody Rosentswieg came to the Raikes Foundation in May 2008. As Program Officer, she identifies and executes strategies to support the Foundation's focus on youth development. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jody directed strategic planning, program, and outreach initiatives at Girl Scouts of Western Washington, and also led program expansion at Washington State CASA. Jody earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from Columbia University.
 

Gretchen Susi, Ph.D.
Director of Racial Equity & Society Peer Learning Forum
The 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 Dell publishers.  She holds a Ph.D. in environmental psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
 

Nicole Yohalem
Director, Special Projects
Forum for Youth Investment

Nicole oversees work related to postsecondary success; out-of-school time; and bridging research, policy and practice. She has authored a range of reports, articles and commentaries and provides leadership on several regular Forum publications including the Out-of-School Time Policy Commentary Series. She represents the Forum as a spokesperson at national conferences and events, manages several major projects, and serves as an advisor to several foundations, organizations and initiatives. Nicole earned a Master of Education degree in the multidisciplinary Risk and Prevention program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.