Year Up benefits from the active involvement of many accomplished and dedicated professionals. From the National Board of Directors and Technical Board to the local Boards in each Year Up site, these corporate and philanthropic leaders play a critical role in Year Up's success.

Interaction among each of the Local Boards and the National Board is crucial to the success of Year Up as a consistent, strong and integrated organization. The primary areas of focus are building capacity at a national and local level, sharing knowledge across offices and prioritizing organizational need and activity to best advance Year Up. Through the annual governance Summit and other events, the National Board and the Local Boards exchange ideas and work together.

national BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Year Up is proud to have such accomplished and dedicated professionals on our National Board of Directors. The National Board assists the Year Up team in areas such as strategic direction, fundraising, financial control and overall corporate governance, and it has ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the organization.

In addition to Gerald Chertavian, Founder & CEO, other Board members include:

national TECHNICAL BOARD
The Technical Local Board consists of senior technical executives who provide Year Up with current data on the technical skills that are most in demand for IT positions. Year Up uses this information to modify its curriculum to meet market demand. They are:

LOCAL BOARDS

national BOARD OF DIRECTORs bios

Paul Salem-chairman
Co-founder & Senior Managing Director, Providence Equity Partners
Paul Salem has been investing in private equity for the past 13 years and is a Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Providence Equity Partners. Paul oversees Providence's European investment activities. Paul has been responsible for investments in incumbent telephone companies, competitive local exchange carriers, advanced data solution providers including web hosting and ISPs, publishing, wireless data networks, Internet content, and telecommunications infrastructure. He was, during the period of Providence's investment, a director of AT&T Canada, Inc. (formerly MetroNet Communications Corp.), Song Networks Holding A.B. (formerly Tele1 Europe Holding A.B.), Netcom Canada, NC Holdings, Interep National Radio Sales, Inc., Unisite, Inc., Verio, Inc., and Wired Ventures, Inc.

Prior to joining Providence, Paul worked for Morgan Stanley & Co. in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that time, Paul spent four years with Prudential Investment Corporation, an affiliate of Prudential Insurance, where his responsibilities included private placement financings, leveraged buyout transactions, and establishing Prudential's European investment office. Paul received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

back to top

Timothy Dibble - Immediate Past Chair & treasurer
Managing General Partner, Alta Communications
Timothy Dibble is the Managing General Partner of Alta Communications. Tim joins the Board of Year Up with over 13 years of experience working with and investing in various new business ventures. Tim joined Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1989 and in 1996, the firm transitioned to become Alta Communications, a Boston-based venture capital firm focusing on telecommunications. Tim began his career at the Bank of Boston in the Acquisition Finance Division, structuring and monitoring the performance of management buyouts in cash flow industries. Tim received a degree in Economics from Wesleyan University.

Tim and Alta have incubated Year Up from idea stage through to execution - offering office space, support, and resources. Tim also sits on the Board of the Big Brother Association of Massachusetts and is co-chair of the Steering Committee.

back to top

Peter Handrinos - secretary
Partner, Latham & Watkins
Peter Handrinos is a partner in the Boston Office of Latham & Watkins LLP. Mr. Handrinos practices corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and venture capital transactions for life sciences and technology companies. Mr. Handrinos has advised both public and private companies in connection with a broad range of matters, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, PIPEs, registered direct offerings, strategic investments, 144A offerings, cash and stock mergers, tender offers and going-private transactions. He has counseled numerous start-up companies and venture capital firms in venture capital financing.

Mr. Handrinos also regularly represents investment banks in connection with capital markets transactions. A significant portion of his practice involves general corporate work for ongoing clients on matters such as SEC compliance, securities and disclosure issues and corporate governance matters.

Prior to joining Latham & Watkins, Mr. Handrinos was a partner at WilmerHale and Chair of its Capital Markets Group.

Mr. Handrinos received a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law and M.B.A. and B.S. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

back to top

John Bradley
Global Group Head of Human Resources, UBS
John Bradley most recently served as Global Director of Human Resources at JPMorgan Chase and a member of the firm's Operating and Executive Committees. Mr. Bradley joined the predecessor firm, JPMorgan, in 1983, and has held various human resources positions supporting areas such as Investment Banking and Technology & Operations, and leading Corporate Human Resources functions such as Employee Relations and Compensation & Benefits. Prior to assume the firm's senior HR executive role, he was HR executive for JPMorgan Chase's operations in Europe and Asia based in London, where he was also a member of the firm's European Executive Committee. He assumed the global role in Jan. 2006 and had oversight for company-wide Human Resources activities until earlier this year when he left the firm to pursue other opportunities.

Mr. Bradley has served as Non-Executive Director of the London-based Coalition Development Corporation and was formerly the Board Chair of INROADS/NYC. From 1991 to 1997 he was a member of the South Orange/Maplewood, New Jersey Board of Education, where he served as chair from 1992-1994.

Mr. Bradley completed his undergraduate work at Cornell University, earning a B.S. degree from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He also earned an MBA at Cornell's Johnson Business School. Mr. Bradley is married (wife Kristine) and has two daughters.

back to top

Gerald Chertavian
Founder and CEO, Year Up
Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the Opportunity Divide that exists in our nation. Determined to make his vision a reality, Gerald combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with urban young adults to found Year Up in 2000.

An intensive one-year training and education program that serves low-income youth ages 18-24, Year Up provides the technical, professional and communication skills needed to empower urban young adults to make successful transitions to careers and higher education. With its annual operating budget exceeding $40M, Year Up is one of the fastest growing non-profits in the nation. It has been recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations using business excellence to engineer social change.

Gerald’s commitment to working with urban youth spans more than 25 years. He has actively participated in the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985 and was recognized as one of New York's outstanding Big Brothers in 1989. The recipient of the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Manhattan Institute and the 2005 Freedom House Archie R. Williams, Jr. Technology Award, Gerald has been featured in many publications, including Time Magazine, Fortune Small Business, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, US News & World Report, Fox Business and Newsweek. In 2007, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs for his innovative approach to social change. In 2008, Gerald was appointed by Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the MA State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In 2010, Gerald received an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. In addition, he currently serves on the board of Bowdoin College and The Boston Foundation, and is on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative.

Gerald earned a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A., with honors, from Harvard Business School. He began his career on Wall Street as an officer of the Chemical Banking Corporation and then moved on to become the head of marketing at Transnational Financial Services in London. Gerald co-founded Conduit Communications in 1993 and fostered its growth to $20M in annual revenues and more than 130 employees in London, Amsterdam, New York and Boston. From 1993 to 1998, Conduit ranked as one of England’s fastest growing companies. Following the sale of Conduit to i-Cube in 1999, Gerald turned his full attention to opportunities for others.

A national model for social change, the Year Up program gives companies a cost-effective solution for recruiting entry-level employees, while providing young adults with the essential “stepladder” for success. Results are excellent with 85% of graduates placed in positions that average more than $15/hour within four months of graduation. The program will serve more than 1,000 students in 2010 with sites in Atlanta, Boston, Providence, New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago and soon Seattle. Year Up works with more than 100 corporate partners, including AOL, Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Boston Medical Center, CVS/pharmacy, Digitas, Dunkin Brands, Fidelity Investments, Freddie Mac, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Partners HealthCare, and State Street Corporation.

back to top

Shanique Davis
Junior Systems Engineer, Affiliated Computer Services
(Year Up National Capital Region Alumna, ‘08)
Shanique Davis graduated from the Year Up National Capital Region program in January 2008. Upon graduation, she was hired full-time at America Online (AOL), where she interned while in the program. She is currently employed at Affiliated Computer Services as a Junior Systems Engineer. She also attends the University of Phoenix's Networking Security Bachelors Degree Program. During her free time Shanique mentors at the Hoop Dreams Association and Year Up. She currently serves as the Year Up National Capital Region’s Alumni Board President. Shanique participates in different community service projects, including - but not limited to - City Year events, Walk for AIDS, and Light the Nights Cancer Walk, while engaging and encouraging others to become more involved. Shanique was born and raised in Washington, D.C.

back to top

Lisa Jackson
Partner, New Profit Inc.
As a Partner in the New Profit Pathways Fund, Lisa works with the Pathways Team to create and execute on the Fund's strategy. In addition, she helps support the growth of the Pathways portfolio, continuously honing and applying New Profit's approach to driving impact. Lisa loves to solve complex problems. Her primary approach to problem solving is to ask critical and provocative questions that get at the underlying assumptions that feed a problem. Once there, she is often able to identify what it will take to solve the problem, helping lead others toward resolution.

Before joining New Profit, Lisa was an assistant professor of Education at Boston College. She most enjoyed it when her students would have a "light bulb moment" after she had taken them on a journey (sometimes literally) to places and knowledge they had never experienced before. Once there, students would find out new things about the world and themselves, and Lisa would be energized by their revelations.

Lisa also served as a project director for GEAR UP Boston (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) where she managed partnerships between colleges and universities and Boston Public middle schools to increase access for middle school students to after-school programs focused on college preparation. In addition to providing technical assistance to the individual partnerships, Lisa also developed systems that fostered collaborations across partnerships in a variety of areas including curriculum development, staff training, and evaluation.

Upon leaving GEAR Up Boston, Lisa became the Vice President for Performance and Outcomes at The Home for Little Wanderers. There she had the unique opportunity to build a department dedicated to measurement from the ground up, integrating the value of data for the purpose of program improvement. Continuing on this path, Lisa joined the Center for Effective Philanthropy as the Vice President for Research. There she worked closely with a variety of foundation leadership teams to use comparative data for the purpose of assessing their effectiveness. Lisa received her B.S. from Howard University in Psychology and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University.

Lisa has a husband, two children, and a cat. She loves to eat good food, watch action thrillers and crime dramas, and spend time at the beach.

back to top

Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart
Chief Executive Officer, TRI Group Holdings (TRIGH) LLC
Dr. Mayberry-Stewart, a native of Cleveland Ohio, has been a successful executive in two Fortune 20 companies, one of the largest healthcare hospital systems in the Country, and one of the largest public sector enterprises in the country. With a career spanning 30 years that started as a Systems Engineer for the IBM Corporation, Melodie remains a top IT executive with a national reputation for leadership and organizational transformation.

She started her career in technology at the IBM Corporation. During her 13 years at IBM, she quickly rose through the ranks as was promoted as a Systems Engineering Manager, Marketing Support and Operations Manager, and Regional Market Support Manager. In her last position at IBM, she was a Regional Telecommunications Marketing Manager serving California, Arizona, Hawaii and Guam. In addition, she served as an Instructor in Database and Data Communications at the IBM Advanced Technical Education Center in Los Angeles.

After her successful career at IBM, she spent the next 14 years serving as a CIO in the health care industry where she pioneered the development of electronic medical records and other major technology “firsts” in the industry. She was the first CIO at Community Health Corporation, (California), St. Thomas Hospital (Tennessee) and Beth Israel Medical Center (New York). After her healthcare CIO position, Melodie’s executive management interest turned to the energy industry when she became a Vice President and General Manager of Global IT Shared Services and Delivery for the Amoco Corporation at the global headquarters in Chicago. In this position, she managed an IT budget of $424 million and 1900 IT professionals serving in 125 countries where the IT organization was voted as one of the top 100 IT organizations to work for.

To fulfill one of her personal passions, she founded Black Diamond IT Consulting Group to provide management consulting services solely to non-profit companies, working with CEOs, CFOs and CIOs, to help them leverage technology to achieve their mission-driven goals. It was during one of her consulting engagements in Cleveland, Ohio that Melodie was introduced to the newly elected Mayor of Cleveland and in 2002; she was appointed the City’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and CIO. Her leadership resulted in several national and international awards for innovation, creating an intelligent community and improving business for minority and women-owned businesses and disenfranchised businesses.

In the summer of 2007, Dr. Mayberry-Stewart was appointed by then Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve as the State’s top technology advisor and a member of the Governor’s cabinet as the State’s CIO. In this capacity, she oversaw IT planning, investments and service delivery operations for approximately 5,600 IT professionals with an annual IT spend of approximately $2 billion. As the state CIO, she was required to work closely with state, local and federal government entities, academic and private industry partners to deliver innovative state government services to citizens and businesses. In addition, one of her responsibilities was to promote the use of technology to drive economic development. Towards that end, Melodie served on the boards of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Center for Computational Nanotechnology Innovation and continues to serve on the CIO Leadership Institute to advance the IT executive profession globally.

As the CEO of TRI Group Holdings, headquartered in Clifton Park, New York, she gets to blend her technology and healthcare systems expertise to lead the strategic growth of two member companies: TRIGHtec which is an information technology staffing, infrastructure and executive consulting services company by leveraging strategic partnerships with the leading global technology companies; and VANGUARD Behavioral Resources which provides proprietary behavioral health software and clinical consulting services targeted at addressing the growing chronic behavioral health crisis in the country by providing innovative solutions to improve clinical treatment outcomes and enrich the lives and families of those suffering from multiple impairments.

She is the recipient of numerous awards for her transformational leadership, community service and innovation. In 2008, Computerworld recognized her as one of the top Premier 100 Leaders in Technology; in 2009; she was featured as one of Information Week’s Top 50 Government CIOs and in September 2010, Melodie was profiled as a Trailblazer in Public CIO Magazine. She has been recognized as distinguished alum of Union College, Pepperdine University and Claremont Graduate University. Her personal passions for educating and creating opportunity access for urban youth at risk, increasing digital literacy for disenfranchised populations, and improving workforce diversity in the technology sector are fulfilled by serving as Chair of the Pine Forge Academy Foundation and as a past National Director of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She has chaired and serves on numerous community boards across the country.

Melodie received her B.S. in Sociology and Business Administration from Union College; an M.A. and All But Dissertation (ABD) in Sociological Research from the University of Nebraska; a MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University; an M.A. in Executive Management and a Ph.D. with a specialty in Information Systems Management at the Peter F. Drucker School of Executive Management at Claremont Graduate University, where she was the first black female to receive a doctorate and study under Professor Drucker.

Melodie has a son, George, who resides in Cleveland as an entrepreneur and co-owner of the TLC Springwater Company LLC of Ohio

back to top

Rod McCowan
Former Partner, New Profit Inc.
Rod McCowan is a former Partner at New Profit Inc., where he advised New Profit and its portfolio enterprises on matters of strategy, organization, and leadership. His primary passion is helping social entrepreneurs and other innovative leaders build, scale, and lead high performance social enterprises that deliver innovative, sustainable, and powerful solutions to critical social problems.

Rod spent most of his prior career alternating between general management and chief human resource officer roles in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. At Herman Miller, Inc., Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, and VeriSign, Inc, he restructured and led global HR organizations designed to drive improvements in individual, business unit, and corporate performance. He also served as President of Herman Miller East Asia, then began his private sector career with IBM in marketing, IS consulting, and government relations, and with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in investment banking.

Rod was a White House Fellow in the first Bush Administration (41), and served in the State Department as special assistant to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He later served as Assistant Secretary for Management at the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration. He was the founding CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, which was singled out by former President Clinton as a model for cross-sector, domestic disaster relief efforts.

Rod graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts in Ethics and Religion. He holds a Master of Arts in Religion in Social Ethics from Yale University Divinity School. He earned a Master of Public Policy in Human Services, Labor, and Education Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he was twice selected a Kennedy Fellow.

back to top

Gail Snowden
Chief Executive Officer , Freedom House Inc.
Gail Snowden became Chief Executive Officer of Freedom House in January 2009. She served as Chair of the Board from 1997 to 2011 and Chair Emerita from 2001 to 2008. Freedom House’s mission is to promote educational excellence, economic self-sufficiency to alleviate poverty and social innovation for Boston’s most distressed urban neighborhoods. Freedom House has an extraordinarily rich sixty year history of addressing issues of poverty, educational achievement and social injustice, such as urban renewal, racial segregation and educational issues including disparities in academic achievement (which have a long term negative impact on students of color).

From 2004 to 2007, Snowden served as Vice President for Finance and Operations of the Boston Foundation, one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States. She oversaw the finances and administrative operations of the $650 million community foundation. Snowden, a veteran of the banking industry and a nationally recognized leader in urban community development, retired from banking after a successful 36-year career. She was executive Vice President for Bank of America, where she was responsible for strategy development and oversight of over 60 strategic alliances and partnerships. Prior to that, she was President of Fleet Boston Financial Foundation and also served as the Executive Vice President and managing Director of Fleet Boston Financials Community Investment Group. Here she was responsible for directing and investing the bank’s resources into low-and moderate-income communities.

Snowden joined Bank Boston in 1968 and served in many capacities through the bank’s numerous mergers, including her membership on the bank’s Leadership Advisory Group. Under her leadership, innovative financial services were brought to those most in need, and nationally recognized community investment efforts were developed. Her contributions resulted in the awarding of “Outstanding” Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) ratings at the banks, and the White House Ron Brown Award for Advocating for the Needs of Minority and Low-Income Constituents.

back to top

KErry Sullivan
President, Bank of America Charitable Foundation
Kerry Herlihy Sullivan is President of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. In this role, Sullivan leads a team responsible for implementing a broad range of national programs associated with the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative. These programs, including the bank’s signature philanthropic investments, financial literacy, asset building, and disaster relief, collectively create positive impact in local neighborhoods across the country and support the company’s business goals. Sullivan is responsible for creating strategic initiatives and partnerships through focus areas including education, health and human services, and associate volunteerism.

Sullivan manages the bank’s signature philanthropic program, the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative® (NEI), which builds capacity and leadership in nonprofit organizations and individuals through unrestricted funding and leadership development training. Through NEI, the bank has invested more than $90 million in local communities and more than 2,000 individuals have been recognized for their service to strengthening communities.

Prior to joining the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Sullivan managed Philanthropic Management Foundation Advisory Services at the bank —a team responsible for distributing more than $200 million in charitable grants on behalf of clients.

With more than 20 years of experience, Sullivan is recognized as an expert in the field of charitable giving. Under her leadership, the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation distributed more than $85 million in charitable grants predominantly to organizations aimed at improving access to education for underserved populations.

Sullivan serves on the Corporate Committee for the Council on Foundations and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Associated Grant Makers. In addition, she serves as Chair of the Associated Grant Makers Summer Fund – a donor collaborative that raises annual support for summer programs to benefit Boston’s inner city youth. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Center for Extended Learning Time.

Sullivan has a BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross-Worcester, Massachusetts, and earned her MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management. She resides in Sudbury, MA with her husband and two daughters.

back to top

Robert G. Templin, Jr.
President, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)
Bob Templin has been the president of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) since 2002. NOVA is Virginia's largest institution of higher education and one of the nation's largest community colleges. NOVA projects that it will enroll more than 78,000 students at its six campuses during 2010-2011.

Under Dr. Templin's leadership the college has increased its enrollment by over 18,000 students, expanded its revenues by more than $100 million annually, opened three new centers, and begun a dozen major capital projects totaling nearly 800,000 square feet of classroom and laboratory space. Over the last six years Dr. Templin has led an alliance of business, education, healthcare, technology, and community leaders in creating a comprehensive strategy to double the region's output of registered nurses and allied health professionals.

Dr. Templin came to NOVA from the Morino Institute where he served as a senior fellow and helped in the development and launch of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a $35 million philanthropic fund targeting youth-serving organizations in low-income communities in the Washington metro area. Between 1994 and 1999, Dr. Templin served as the president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, an organization that enhances Virginia's economic competitiveness through technology-based economic development. During Dr. Templin's tenure, the Center was credited with helping to create or retain over 12,000 high-tech jobs, attracting or creating more than 225 technology-based companies, and increasing company sales or new capital investment by more than $500 million.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Templin's work in workforce training, education, economic development and immigration policy has been featured in such media as National Public Radio, USA Today, PBS National News Hour and Fortune magazine. He was instrumental in the creation of the "Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Growth in Virginia," a strategic plan outlining the steps that Virginia should take to guide the state's emergence as a leading technology state. He has been named "Virginia Business Newsmaker of the Year" by Virginia Business magazine and was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of "Washington's 150 Most Powerful People" and one of the "100 Tech Titans" of the Washington region.

Dr. Templin has been honored by receiving the Earle C. Williams Leadership in Technology Award from the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Marta V. Wyatt Award from the Hispanic Committee of Virginia and the 2009 "We Are America Now" award from Northern Virginia Family Service for his commitment to the state's immigrant community, the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Virginia Government by Virginia Commonwealth University, the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region's 2008 Civic Spirit Award for outstanding leadership in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, and the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce's 2008 James M. Rees Award for contributions to the economy and quality of life in Northern Virginia.

back to top

Carol Thompson Cole
President and CEO, Venture Philanthropy Partners
Carol Thompson Cole is President & CEO of Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), a philanthropic investment organization that helps great leaders build strong, high-performing nonprofit institutions.

Cole brings to VPP over thirty years of management experience in the public and private sectors, as well as a strong history of leadership in the National Capital Region’s nonprofit community and local government. She served as Special Advisor to President Clinton on the District of Columbia and Executive Director of the DC Inter-Agency Task Force, Executive Office of the President, where she was "point person" to the President on the District. In this position, she played a key role in developing ways the federal government could assist Washington, DC achieve and sustain financial stability, reliable services, and economic growth.

Prior to serving in the Clinton administration, Cole was the Vice President for Government and Environmental Affairs at RJR Nabisco, where she developed a corporate-wide environmental program that ensured that all business activities were carried out in an environmentally responsible manner and in compliance with federal, state, and local standards; served as corporate spokesperson on environmental issues; and functioned as a Washington representative monitoring public policy issues.

She spent twelve years in the government of the District of Columbia holding major management and staff positions, most notably as the first woman (and, at the time, the youngest person) to be appointed City Administrator. She also held a number of other positions, including Deputy Mayor for Operations and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development; Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the Mayor; and Director, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

She is a member of numerous boards, including the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers Board of Directors, the Greater Washington Advisory Board of SunTrust, the Kaiser Permanente Regional Advisory Board, the board of Hager Sharp, the Federal City Council; the Board of Trustees of Friendship Public Charter School, the Wesley Theological Seminary, the Summit Fund. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and is a Lifetime Trustee of the Urban Institute. Cole has been recognized for her outstanding leadership and dedication to the regional nonprofit community. Honors and awards include Most Powerful Women of 2011 and 2009 by Washingtonian Magazine, 2010 Sophisticated Lady by Arena Stage; 10 People to Watch in 2009 by the Washington Business Journal; Phenomenal Women of 2008, by the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust; and Washingtonian of the Year in 1990, by Washingtonian Magazine.

Cole earned a BA from Smith College and a master’s in public administration with a concentration in urban public policy studies from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. She also attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

back to top

Craig Underwood
Craig Underwood, Founder and CEO, Sports Loyalty International Inc.
Craig Underwood is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sports Loyalty International, Inc. Prior to founding SLI, Craig’s experience included Founder and CEO of The Loyalty Group/Air Miles Canada; CEO of Sports Loyalty Systems; Co-Founder of SocialSphere Strategies; and a Partner at both Bain & Company and The Bridgespan Group, Bain’s non-profit affiliate. He has served on over 10 start-up, corporate and non-profit boards.

Craig earned a BA in Political Science at West Virginia University, an MA from Oxford University in Politics, Economics and Philosophy, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a founding Board member of Year Up, the innovative work force development program and has served on numerous other boards, including Upromise, Oxford Properties, Horizons for Homeless Children and the WVU Foundation. He is currently an advisor to Modiv Media and PerkStreet Financial, a new online bank. Craig’s blog about Web 2.0, customer service and loyalty can be found at www.collaborationevangelist.com.

Craig resides in Brookline, MA with his wife, their fifteen year old daughter, twelve year old son, yellow lab and cairn terrier. All of the Underwood’s are avid snowboarders, tennis players, Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox and music fans.

back to top

Greg Walton
Desktop Support Specialist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Year Up Boston Alumnus, ’07)
Greg graduated from Year Up Boston in January of 2007 and has since been committed to doing more for the communities in the Greater Boston area. He has been working as a Desktop Support Specialist at MIT for almost four years.

Greg is in the process of seeking a school to continue his education after obtaining credits from both Salem State College & Cambridge College. Greg was recently voted the first alumnus of Year Up to join its National Board of Directors and is looking to learn and find ways to lead young people to reach their full potential.