蘑菇视频

A member of IEL鈥檚 Senior Leadership Team, Kwesi Rollins guides IEL鈥檚 portfolio of programs designed to develop and support leaders with a particular emphasis on Family and Community Engagement, Early Childhood Education and Community-based Leadership Development. Kwesi directs the District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and Leaders for Today and Tomorrow, an initiative that designs and delivers professional learning and support opportunities for school and district leaders.

Kwesi has years of experience working with local communities and state agencies to improve cross-sector collaboration and service delivery systems supporting children, youth and families. Mr. Rollins provided technical assistance and training to a range of state and county agencies, school districts, local schools and community-based organizations in projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Working with young people is also a personal passion for Kwesi who has special expertise in resiliency and youth development.听 He has been recognized as the Big Brother of the Year in the District of Columbia and is an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the National Capitol Area.听 He holds an MSW degree from the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work where he was a Maternal and Child Health Leadership Training Fellow. Follow Kwesi on Twitter: @kwesibaby58

Areas of expertise:听蘑菇视频, Family and Community Engagement, Juvenile Justice, Youth Engagement/Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Leadership Development and Capacity Building, Program Design/Implementation/Support, Event Planning and Logistics, Grant Development/Development and Fundraising/Disability Inclusion, Racial Justice, Youth Development

Christa Rowland believes in the power of uniting communities to create a brighter future for all children. Before joining the IEL team, Christa was the Director of Community Impact at the United Way of Treasure Valley in Boise, Idaho. She helped grow the system of 蘑菇视频 in Idaho, founded the Idaho Community School Learning Network, and co-founded the Idaho Coalition for 蘑菇视频.

Christa began her career as a Music Educator, teaching hundreds of students the joy of creating music. She has听 a Masters Degree in Public Administration, a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Administration, and Bachelors Degrees in Music Education and Violin Performance.

Liz Thacker joins IEL as the Community Connections Manager. She is no stranger though to IEL having contracted with IEL for nearly four years to support the operations of our Coordinators Network. She brings over 10 years of experience working as a Coordinator with three different 蘑菇视频. In her last role, she did partner onboarding and development helping transform the high school experience through career themed academies.

Liz holds a Master of Education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Bachelor of Science from Furman University. She currently resides in East Tennessee with her husband and two young children.

Joining IEL in 2022, Michelle Lessly Blackburn is the Senior Policy Manager, working to advance the policy agenda of both IEL and the Coalition for 蘑菇视频 on the federal level. She brings 15 years of experience in higher education administration and policy research. Her policy work focuses on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Clery Act, and accreditation innovation. Prior to joining IEL, Michelle was the Head of Student Success at an EdTech nonprofit based in San Francisco and worked at MIT in the Division of Student Life. She currently serves as the Executive Director for the Blackburn Foundation, a non-profit focused on college readiness for K-12 students in North Texas. She holds a Doctorate in Law and Public Policy from Northeastern University and a Master鈥檚 of Education from Abilene Christian University.

A Texas native, Michelle now lives in Oakland, CA, with her husband and son.

Mia joined IEL in October 2019, and leads IEL鈥檚 communications and elevating IEL鈥檚 online presence through our various digital platforms and networks of partners.

Prior to her time at IEL, Mia worked to support digital communications for almost 8 years at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Her experience there included leading social media and online campaign efforts focused on servicing hardworking union members by creating a platform for their stories and amplifying their voices to help them build better lives and gain agency, as well as educating the masses about the union difference and Labor鈥檚 impact on social justice issues.

During that time Mia also earned her MFA at George Mason University where she concentrated on creative nonfiction writing and utilized courses in professional writing and web design to enhance her skills in writing for the web to engage a wide variety of stakeholders.

Mia is also an advocate of Type One Diabetes, helping to support groups like Type One Run, that connect area diabetics and their friends and family through running and community. She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and German Shepard Sarah.

Dr. Emily (Li) Cheng, the senior data analyst at the Institute for Educational Leadership. She has a Ph.D. in public policy and administration and a master鈥檚 certificate in applied statistics. She also has a professional certificate in Result-Based Accountability (RBA). At IEL, Dr. Cheng supports data-related work, research, and strategic planning. Meanwhile, she oversees internal and external data capacity building, program evaluation, and impact analysis. Dr. Cheng is also the leading author of the IEL Annual Youth Transition Reports and the interactive youth transition data tool and one of the co-authors of the Youth Voice in 蘑菇视频 Guide and protocols. Before joining IEL, Dr. Cheng led a project to analyze the gap between academic training and job requirements for the FAA Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance (TTHP); managed a state-funded college mentoring program that was launched for academically and economically disadvantaged high school seniors and first-year college students; and prepared an annual accreditation data report for NASPAA, a global accreditor of master鈥檚 degree programs in public policy, public affairs, public administration, and public & nonprofit management. She joined IEL in 2019 and wanted to advance people鈥檚 ability to use data to improve community-level equity trajectories.

Areas of expertise:听Youth Engagement/Leadership, Leadership Development and Capacity Building, Program Design/Implementation/Support, Event Planning and Logistics, Disability Inclusion, Racial Justice, Youth Development, Data-informed Decision Making, Data Capacity Building

Born and raised in New York City, Sherene previously worked for The Rockefeller Foundation as a Senior Associate working with their design team to plan and design convenings.听 After graduating from New York University with a Master鈥檚 in Event Management, she started an Event Management Agency and relocated to Alexandria, VA. She loves spending time with her two sons and traveling.

Area of expertise:听Event Planning and Logistics

Dr. Helen Janc Malone is dedicated to advancing policies, research, and practices that change systems in support of children, youth, and families. She is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and Secretary of the Board. She has over 25 years of professional experience at the intersection of 蘑菇视频, out-of-school time learning, education policy, and systems change. Helen is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and oversees IEL鈥檚 strategy, policy (), data (internal impact, research, external evaluations, and the Coalition for 蘑菇视频 Research Practice Network), and communications. She has been with IEL for over 11 years, supporting along the way the Education Policy Fellowship ProgramTM (EPFP), education policy and research initiatives (including serving as Co-PI on federal and philanthropic grants), institutional advancement, and has co-authored several IEL鈥檚 frameworks and guides, including , Building a 蘑菇视频 System, .听

Helen has expertise in out-of-school time learning (OST) and school-family-community partnerships. She is the Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA) Advisory Board Co-Chair, Founding Series Editor of the Emerald Publishing鈥檚 Current Issues in Out-of-School Time book series (producing 8 volumes), serves on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine consensus study focused on OST, and is a recent alum of the American Express Leadership Academy.听 She was one of the co-founders and a former Chair of the American Educational Research Association鈥檚 (AERA) Out-of-School Time Special Interest Group (SIG) and has prior to IEL supported OST evaluations Statewide Networks, and student leadership.听听

Within educational change, she is a former Chair of the AERA Educational Change SIG where she created and served as the founding editor of the Lead the Change series, has served on several domestic and international boards in this area, and has prior worked on Comprehensive School Reform, and at state K-12 and higher education levels.听听

Helen has authored over 50+ publications, facilitated 100+ workshops and webinars, served on 6+ publication boards, 14 academic publications, and has mentored dozens of grad students and early career professionals. Her select journal issues and books include: Bridging Educational Change Through Partnership (Journal of Educational Change, 21, 2020); The Role of Context in Scaling Up Educational Change (Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 17(3), 2018); The Growing Out-of-School Time Field: Past, Present, and Future (Information Age Publishing, 2018, co-edited book); The Future Directions in Educational Change: Social Justice, Professional Capital, and Systems Change (Routledge, 2018, co-edited book); Collaborative Partnerships for Systems Change (Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 2(4), 2017). She has given lectures domestically and internationally and has appeared in mass media, including PBS, C-SPAN, and has run two Education Week blogs. Helen holds Ed.D. in education policy, leadership, and instructional practice from Harvard University. She is also a certified Results-Based AccountabilityTM professional.听

Areas of expertise:鈥�蘑菇视频, Youth Engagement/Leadership, Leadership Development and Capacity Building, Policy/Advocacy, Out-of-School Time Learning Program Design/Implementation/Support, Event Planning and Logistics, Grant Development/Writing and Fundraising听

Ken believes in the power of communities, families, students, and teachers working together to drive meaningful learning. He began his journey as a teacher in outdoor education and eventually became social studies classroom teacher. He has served as a teacher, curriculum/instruction leader, mentor, coach, district administrator and professional development provider for teachers and school leaders. Over the course of his career he has collaborated with other educators to lead the development of several new schools. He currently serve as the Deputy Director of Leadership Initiatives for IEL. He also holds a doctorate in Educational
Leadership and is a published writer on various education topics ranging from equity, teaching and learning, to leadership coaching. He also teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses and is currently teaching a graduate level course on collaborative leadership.

Areas of expertise:听Youth Engagement/Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Leadership Development and Capacity Building, Program Design/Implementation/Support, Youth Development, Professional Development for Educators

Ebony Watson is a Deputy Director for the Center for Workforce Development at the Institute for Educational Leadership. Ebony is the National Program Director of the听听 (RAMP), a career-focused mentoring program for court-involved and at-risk youth with disabilities. For the last sixteen years, Ebony has provided counsel, assistance, and guidance to youth and families involved in the juvenile justice and foster care system, collaborated with schools to improve attendance and graduation rates for system-involved youth, and mentored youth in goal-setting and decision-making skills. For the last eight years, she has worked at IEL to streamline best practices for mentoring youth with disabilities to include recruiting and training mentors, mentor-mentee match support, engaging families, case management, and records review. Additionally, Ebony has developed and facilitated trainings sharing the learned strategies and best practices of the RAMP program to assist in the development of peer mentoring programs across the country.

Ebony holds a Master of Social Work degree from Walden University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Augusta State University. Ebony is also a graduate of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services Leadership Development Institute.

Areas of expertise:听Juvenile Justice, Program Design/Implementation/Support, Event Planning and Logistics, Disability Inclusion, Mentoring

Former Vice President for 蘑菇视频 Director, NCCS Children’s Aid

THS 蘑菇视频 Coordinator, Taos Municipal School

Community School Coordinator鈥�, United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley鈥�

Manager of Community School’s Initiatives鈥�, City of San Francisco – Department of Children, Youth and Their Families鈥�

Senior Director of Kentucky 蘑菇视频, The Prichard Committee

Zone Leader, Say Yes Buffalo

Director of 蘑菇视频鈥�, Greece Central School District鈥�

Director of 蘑菇视频 & School Transformation鈥�, Durham Public Schools

Director and Clinical Faculty; The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Director of Training and Development, Community Learning Center Institute

Assistant Center Director鈥�, UCF Center for 蘑菇视频鈥�

Regional Supervisor for 蘑菇视频, United Way of Greater Knoxville

Director of Data and Evaluation, United Way of Erie County

Associate Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnership, University of Pennsylvania

Assistant Professor of 蘑菇视频, Binghamton University鈥揝UNY