Year Up National leadership team

Gerald Chertavian
Founder and CEO
Born and raised in Lowell, MA, Gerald Chertavian combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with urban young adults to found Year Up in 2000. Year Up is recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations in the nation using business excellence to engineer social change. Gerald's commitment to working with urban youth spans more than 20 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 The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, BusinessWeek, Fortune Small Business, and The Christian Science Monitor. He currently serves as a Trustee of Cambridge College and Bowdoin College and is on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Club and New Sector Alliance.

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.

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Jay Banfield
Executive Director, San Francisco
Jay Banfield was raised in Somerville, Massachusetts. Jay moved to California in 1986 to attend Stanford University, where he met his wife Kate. They have two daughters, Grace and Dray, and a son, Aidan.

After playing baseball in Europe, Jay began his career as a business development manager at Oracle Corporation in Washington, DC. While at Oracle, he built corporate volunteer programs and participated in the launch of the Clinton Administration's AmeriCorps program, thereby prompting a return to the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree.

Jay has worked on local, state and national political campaigns and has served in both the legislative and executive branches of government. Jay was appointed the Assistant Treasurer for the City and County of San Francisco in 1999 where he spearheaded a national award-winning e-government initiative. He was awarded the city's Public Managerial Leadership Award in 2001 and later was appointed an Assistant General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. For several years Jay served as an adjunct faculty member at the Edward S. Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University.

In the fall of 2005, Jay moved to the non-profit sector when he became the Executive Director of the San Francisco Parks Trust. Now serving on the board of the San Francisco Parks Trust, he moved on to launch the San Francisco Bay Area office of Year Up. In addition to his work as Executive Director at Year Up, Jay remains an active member of the community. Trained as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), Jay has been on the board of San Francisco CASA for five years, serving one term as co-chair of the board. Jay also serves as a trustee at the San Francisco Friends School and coach of numerous youth athletic teams.

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Shawn Jacqueline Bohen
National Director for Strategic Growth and Impact
Shawn Jacqueline Bohen is the first National Director of Strategic Growth and Impact at the innovative social enterprise organization Year Up, Inc., a one-year intensive workforce development program serving urban young adults.  Over the last 25 years, Shawn has made a career as a collaborative strategist, creating, growing, and strategically managing mission-driven organizations. Shawn is recognized for her ability to turn great ideas into dynamic, diversely-staffed, fiscally-viable entities.  She has had responsibility for administration, governance, fundraising, communications, constituency engagement, curriculum planning, and research, as well as for managing partnerships with community-based organizations and individuals, donors and collaborators.

Prior to Year Up, Shawn spent more than a decade working at Harvard University in a series of leadership roles facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle some of society’s most challenging and interesting social, political and economic dilemmas. Partnering with academic colleagues, Shawn led the strategic evolution of four university-wide start-ups, including the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at the John F. Kennedy School, the university-wide Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative, and the Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions. In her last post at Harvard, Shawn served as Assistant Provost, co-creating and co-leading the first institution-wide Office for Faculty Development and Diversity committed to transforming Harvard's approach to finding, developing and promoting a diverse, world-class faculty. Earlier in her career, Shawn worked as an actress and as a political grassroots organizer.

Shawn holds an M.B.A. from Babson Graduate School of Management and a B.A. in Theatre Arts and English from the University of Minnesota.  Shawn has two elementary school-aged children.  She currently serves as an advisor to Partners in Health and the Division of Global Health and Human Rights at Massachusetts General Hospital, and she is on the Board of Global Action Network-NET.

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TYNESIA BOYEA ROBINSON
Executive Director, Washington D.C.
Tynesia comes to Year Up with a wide range of experience in IT, six sigma and international business development. Prior to business school, Tynesia worked in several business units at General Electric. Most recently, Tynesia was the integration manager for a Mexican mortgage bank acquisition. In this role, she was responsible for integrating processes, policies, and over 200 employees into GE Mortgage Insurance. Earlier in her career, she lead several eBusiness and process improvement projects at GE Transportation Systems. In addition to her work responsibilities, Tynesia was the community service chair for the GE African-American Forum and has been dedicated to young adults through mentoring and church youth groups. Tynesia graduated with a dual degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Michael brownstein
National Director of Academics and Program
Michael comes to Year Up with extensive experience working collaboratively with innovative educators and forward-thinking community leaders to create self-sustaining educational programs designed to improve inner-city students' transition from high school to post-secondary education and successful careers. Among these programs, he co-founded a "last chance" urban public high school for at-risk students, facilitated cross-disciplinary and multi-site initiatives in eleven urban school districts along the Eastern seaboard that led to improved student outcomes, and co-created three public-private partnerships that supported K-12 literacy. Two of these partnership models were replicated in cities across the country, and the third was recognized by the United States Department of Labor as an exemplary summer youth development program. Michael earned a B.A. in English from Kenyon College, an M.B.A. from Syracuse University, and an Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

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Kweku forstall
Executive Director, Atlanta
In July 2008 Kweku D. Forstall began serving as the start-up Executive Director of Year Up Atlanta.  From 2000 to 2008 he served as the first Executive Director of Project GRAD Atlanta, Inc., a public-private school reform initiative designed to increase the number of students from inner-city, economically disadvantaged communities graduating from both high school and college.  Prior to Project GRAD Atlanta, Kweku was a Vice President for Community Investments for the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, responsible for assuring maximum impact of donor dollars.  He also served as the first Director of the Office of Community Service at Morehouse College, responsible for helping to instill in students and other members of the Morehouse College community a lifelong commitment to serving others.   Kweku began his career in public service in 1985 as an Attorney with Atlanta Legal Aid Society, where for seven and a half years he represented indigent clients in civil cases, while also managing the office serving Dekalb and Gwinnett county residents.  Kweku was a founding board member of Foreverfamily (formerly Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers), Our Family Table Foundation, and the Inner Strength Mentoring program. He serves as a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program and as a member of the Oglethorpe University Center for Civic Engagement Advisory Board, among others. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Kweku and his wife Adrienne have three daughters – nineteen year old twins and a fifteen year old.

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William Lehman
National Site Director
Bill was born in Iowa City, Iowa. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Iowa and a Masters Degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina. He also was awarded the Purple Heart during his service in Viet Nam with the United States Marine Corps. He and his wife Sandra have two children, Paula and Joshua. After a short stint in the telecommunications industry, Bill joined the management and technology consulting practice of Price Waterhouse (later PricewaterhouseCoopers) where he enjoyed a twenty-seven-year career, twenty-one of these as a Partner. His clients included major manufacturing, healthcare and financial services companies in the U.S. and around the Globe. He started, led and grew several new practices for the Firm, and was a long-time member of the leadership teams which guided strategy, investment and new-product/service development priorities for various industries and practice groups. Bill retired from PwC in 2002, and spent another five years with the Financial Services consulting practice of BearingPoint, Inc. He most recently was a Principal Advisor with the TechPar Group, which assists with product, market and operational strategies for start-up technology companies, as well as larger technology companies who are investigating new product or solution domains. Bill began his relationship with Year Up as a local board member for the New York City site, where he was particularly active in big group sessions, apprenticeship sales and mentoring. Outside of Year Up, he is an active volunteer in assisting training inner-city high school students on job search processes, and on the Social Action Committee of Temple Shaaray Tefila. He worked for many years as a volunteer coach and youth mentor for the Yorkville Youth Council baseball league in New York City. He also served on the Alumni Council of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

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SUE MEEHAN
National Director of Finance and Operations
Sue comes to Year Up with extensive operational and organizational development experience. As Chief Operating Officer of Share Group, Inc, Sue helped build the premier telefundraising firm for progressive Non Profits, growing the company from start-up to 500 employees and $20 million in sales in 10 years. Before joining Share, Sue was a budget director for the Dukakis-Bentsen Presidential Campaign, a campaign manager for a Massachusetts State Representative race, and an organizer for the Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts. Sue started her career as an Admissions and Financial Aid Officer for Harvard College. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from Colby College.

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LISETTE NIEVES
Executive Director, New York City
Lisette Nieves comes to Year Up with great experience in community and youth development, making her a wonderful asset to its establishment and growth in New York City. Prior to Year Up, Lisette was a consultant to nonprofit organizations in strategic planning, program development and management and an instructor in Graduate Studies of Public Administration at Brooklyn College. She is the former Chief of the Staff for the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD). Prior to DYCD, Lisette was the Director for Special Projects at the After-school Corporation where she designed forums for superintendents and principals, as well as piloted youth mentoring programs in the local high schools. Lisette has also worked at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, where she served as Director of Grants Management. Lisette also served as a Senior Program Officer for the Corporation for National Service, overseeing AmeriCorps programs in the Northeast. Her previous board experience includes being a national board member for Jumpstart, a Trustee of her alma mater Brooklyn College and the Board Chair of the East Harlem Block Schools. Lisette is also a Truman Scholar from 1990, Rhodes Scholar from 1992 and a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton.

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Casey Recupero
Executive Director, Boston
Casey comes to Year Up with a wide range of experiences strengthening nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and in Africa. Most recently, Casey spent more than 4 years as a Program Officer at World Education, Inc., where he designed and supported capacity building programs for grassroots organizations overseas. With a portfolio that included programs focusing on HIV/AIDS peer education for Ghanaian youth, small business development in South Africa, and education reform in Malawi, Casey has a unique perspective on the myriad challenges facing disadvantaged populations. Prior to his career in international development, Casey directed a mentoring program for first-year students at Harvard, served on the College’s Board of Freshman Advisors, and collaborated on research at the Kennedy School’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Casey has a B.A. in Anthropology and African Studies from Harvard College.

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SARA STRAMMIELLO ENRIGHT
Executive Director, Providence
Sara recently joined Year Up full time after volunteering and working part-time with us for two years as she completed graduate school. She comes to Year Up with a mix of IT, business and economic development experience. Most recently, Sara was at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a nonprofit research and consulting firm focused on urban economic development. At ICIC she led a research project examining the workforce practices of leading inner city businesses. Prior to ICIC, Sara held business development and strategy positions at AltaVista. Prior to AltaVista, Sara was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting where she participated in software implementations and operations consulting. Sara also has extensive experience working with urban youth and young adults through the Boys & Girls Club, Tutoring Plus and the Deloitte Youth Scholar Program. Sara has a B.A. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

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