Year Up National OFFICE
Year Up's national team provides critical support to ensure students receive the highest quality program services during their Year Up journey. Working across all sites, these headquarters staff build the strong infrastructure and efficient systems necessary to truly close the Opportunity Divide.

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 and The Boston Business Journal. In 2007, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs for his innovative approach to social change and as a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. In 2008, Gerald was appointed by Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the MA State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. 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 Club.

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 and soon Chicago and Seattle. Year Up works with more than 90 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.

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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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Nathan Brown
National Director of Information Technology
Nathan joined Year Up as the National Director of Information Technology in June 2008. He comes to Year Up with over twenty years of experience in technology. He has extensive leadership experience in rapidly growing nimble organizations as well as large organizations. Prior to joining Year Up, Nathan was the Chief Information Officer at Harvard Law School where he worked to rebuild the technology group’s role within the organization as well as many of the systems and services. Before joining Harvard, Nathan worked in senior management at two successful startup technology companies. Nathan also worked for over eight years in various technology positions at the Nature Conservancy, both in their Boston office and their Home Office in Arlington, Virginia. Nathan holds a BA from George Washington University.

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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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Michael Eans
Systems & Network Administrator
Michael joined Year Up in January 2009 as a member of the National IT Team, his core responsibilities are supporting and managing Year Up's server, network and data communications infrastructure. Prior to joining Year Up, Michael worked at Property & Portfolio Research in Boston, MA as their Infrastructure Engineer, managing all IT and telephony systems for the organization. Michael has been working in IT for 10 years and holds various certifications from recognized vendors as CompTIA and Microsoft.

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SARA STRAMMIELLO ENRIGHT
National Consultant on Strategic Projects
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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Kristen Giardina
National Marketing Coordinator

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Kira Intrator
National Project Manager to the CEO
Kira comes to Year Up with a breadth of experience in the international non-profit arena. Prior to Year Up, she worked in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Health Organization's Evidence for Information cluster and at Pugwash, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning NGO founded by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein to promote disarmament. Through her two-time Center for Peace and Global Citizenship scholarship, Kira created an independent volunteer project involving five months of anthropological research, translation and thesis writing in Sucre, Bolivia on a fair-trade indigenous women weavers' cooperative. In addition, she was the recipient of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, where she performed and studied traditional vocal technique in Egypt, India and Brazil in 2005-2006. While living in Mumbai, India she also conducted a study for Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action on housing rights for single slum-dwelling women. Kira holds a BA from Haverford College in Religious Studies with a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies.

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CARLOS MAESTRE
Finance Manager
Carlos joins Year Up with seven years of experience in the Finance & Accounting field, most recently with Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a nonprofit human rights organization. Prior to that, Carlos was an Accountant at the YWCA in Cambridge. Carlos also executed portfolio trades as a Reconciliation Specialist at Putnam Investments. Carlos grew up in the Dorchester area and has studied Accounting at Bunker Hill Community College.

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TAMIKA MASON
Manager of Organizational Development
Tamika brings a wealth of managerial experience and diversity to Year-up. Raised in a military family, Tamika, has lived in multiple cities in the United States and throughout Europe and Asia. Most recently, Tamika lived in Virginia where she was a Financial Center Manager for Wachovia. Additionally, Tamika served as Operations Manager for Providence Ministries International, Inc where she developed the operational protocol and financial procedures. Prior to working with Wachovia and Providence, Tamika served as co-founder and President of one of the largest student led organizations at the University of Virginia. (“Impact”) Tamika is motivated by her deep devotion of seeing people, nonprofits, and mission driven organizations reach their full potential. Tamika holds a BS in Systems Engineering and a minor in Management Information Systems from the University of Virginia.

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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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CollEen o'connell
Associate Director of Finance
Colleen comes to Year Up with over 12 years of experience in audit and non-profit financial management.  She has worked with a variety of non-profit organizations, most recently at Capital City Community Centers in Rhode Island.  Colleen holds a BS in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University and a MBA in Management from Bryant University.

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DOREEN PULLER
Technical Support Specialist

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Charkie Quarcoo
Development Coordinator
In an effort to work at an organization that aligns with her passion, Charkie comes to Year Up with experience in development and a desire to help young adults recognize their potential.  

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Charkie graduated from Trinity College in 2006, with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Educational Studies.  While at Trinity College, Charkie worked in the Development Office, serving as a student representative for development functions.  Committed to helping the community around her, Charkiealso interned at family centers, working with children and young adults to help them achieve their personal and professional goals.  After graduation, she moved to Boston to work at a leadership development consulting firm organizing the facilitative leadership workshops. 

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Aaron Schutzengel
Database Project Coordinator
Aaron joined Year Up in September 2007 as Database Project Coordinator, focusing on database rollout and support.  Prior to joining Year Up, Aaron worked at the Tufts University Office of Communications, where he designed a web application to support the school's photography staff.  Aaron holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Tufts University.

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SANDRA STARK
National Director of Development and External Affairs
Sandy Stark has spent the majority of her career building and growing both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Sandy served as Executive Vice President of Business Development for The First Marblehead Corporation and was one of six members of the Chairman's leadership team. First Marblehead markets private student loans to students and universities, and securitizes those loans for financial institutions. During her tenure, Sandy restructured the business model and built relationships with major consumer brands such as Monster, ING Direct, and GE Money, which contributed to significant growth in both revenue and profit.

Prior to joining First Marblehead, Sandy focused her career on entrepreneurship and education. Her consulting firm, The Masix Group, specialized in assisting entrepreneurial companies by providing practical, customized plans to address their specific challenges and growth opportunities. Recognizing the multiple hats worn by her entrepreneurial clients, Sandy also incorporated a strong educational component in the services offered by The Masix Group to ensure the entrepreneur could sustain the changes in the future.

Previously, Sandy joined Baldwin-Wallace College to create the first degree program in entrepreneurial education. As an Associate Professor in an endowed chair, Sandy created an Entrepreneurship Center that provided academic curriculum, experiential learning initiatives, and economic development programs for minority and women-owned businesses.

Sandy started her career at KeyBank. During her 20 years there, she held positions of increasing responsibility in retail and commercial banking, culminating in her role as Vice Chairman of KeyBank's Small Business Services division. In this capacity, Sandy conceived and implemented a new small business strategy that resulted in KeyBank becoming the nation's largest small business lender within a two-year period.

For nine years, Sandy served as President of the Urban Community School, an independent, ecumenical school serving 400 inner-city children. In this role she led the first capital campaign to improve and expand the school.

Sandy earned a B.A. in Accounting and an M.B.A. from Baldwin-Wallace College.

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Chelsey Tanaka
Technical Project Manager
Prior to joining Year Up in 2007, Chelsey worked at the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting firm, with a variety of education, youth development and advocacy organizations. As an Associate Consultant, she drove the research and analysis that enabled clients to make difficult decisions such as where to invest scarce resources or how to grow their programs most effectively. At Year Up, Chelsey has played several different roles at both the Boston site and national headquarters and is currently managing a project to redesign Year Up's online presence. Chelsey has a BA in Social Anthropology from Harvard College.

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Yvette Terry
Executive Assistant to the CEO

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Susan Hiller Troen
Director of Data Systems and Operations

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Heather Wininger
Manager of People Development
Heather comes to Year Up with a broad range of human resources and social sector experience.  A former consultant at Monitor Group, she helped develop talent management systems and structures in both for-profit and and not-for-profit environments.  Additionally, she led numerous engagements and served as Client Development chair for Inpire, a volunteer-based educational consulting firm.  She is excited to be a team member of an organization that believes the way to reach your mission is to invest heavily in your people.  Heather has a BA from Dartmouth College in English and economics.

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