Year Up National Office Staff

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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 Chertavian

Joseph Adu

Shawn Jacqueline Bohen

Sara Strammiello Enright

Gerald Chertavian
Founder and CEO
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.

Joseph Adu
Systems Support Analyst

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.

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.

Michael Brownstein
National Director of Academics & Programs
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.

Jason Charet
Controller

Michelle Demars
Development Support Manager
Michelle joined the Year Up team in September 2006, starting initially as Year Up Boston's Development Coordinator before being promoted in 2007 to the Development and Volunteer Manager, and then in 2009 to the Director of Development. Prior to coming to Year Up, Michelle gained valuable experience, working for two and a half years in the development department at Casa Myrna Vasquez a domestic violence organization in Boston’s South end. During that time, Michelle continued her education, obtaining a Graduate Certificate for Women in Politics and Public Policy and completing an internship at the State House, working for Representative Debra Blummer. Michelle graduated from UMass Boston in 2002 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Philosophy and Economics. While at UMass, Michelle did an internship with Women’s Statewide Legislative Network working on crafting legislation for paid family leave. Born and raised in Hubbardston, MA, Michelle is an avid Patriots fan.

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.

SARA STRAMMIELLO ENRIGHT
National Consultant on Strategic Projects
As National Consultant on Strategic Projects, Sara spearheads some of our most important cross-site initiatives, such as our project to ensure long term graduate success. She has been involved with Year Up since our early days, initially as a volunteer, and subsequently as the founding Executive Director of our second site in Providence. Prior to Year Up, Sara worked in a variety of capacities in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, gaining experience in IT, research, business development and consulting. She worked at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a nonprofit research and consulting firm focused on urban economic development, where 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, and she 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.

Donald Ger
National Director of Partnerships and Innovation
Donald recently became Year Up's National Director of Partnerships and Innovation. Previous to his new role, he served as Year Up Boston's Senior Director of Internships. Donald joins Year Up with over 16 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations. Prior to joining Year Up, Donald spent several years in the technology industry working for both GTE and Nortel. In the late 90s he worked for eJobs, an outsourced Human Resource firm specializing in organizational development and hiring. For the past six years, Donald was a general management consultant helping high growth companies build infrastructure and processes to achieve their strategic plans. As a consultant he was responsible for documenting Year Up's unique practices of engaging employers with interns. He also serves as an advisor to the board of the non-profit Beyond the 11th. Donald received a B.A. from George Washington University, a general course certificate from the London School of Economics and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. .

Kelly Hardebeck
Director of Application Development

Sara HOlt
Director of Recruitment and Capacity Building
Sara Holt joined Boston’s leadership team in 2006 and has held several roles during her tenure: Director of College Enrollment in the Boston and D.C. sites; Director of Strategic Projects supporting Boston’s ED; and as a Director of Corporate Partnerships in Boston. She joined the National HR team in 2011 as Director of Recruitment and Capacity Building, leading Year Up’s efforts to attract great staff talent and create pathways for employee success. Sara joins the National team with 16 years of experience in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to Year Up she spent four years with the Bridgespan Group during its early start-up phase as a founding member of the Knowledge Management team. From 1995-2001 she worked at Bain & Company conducting research and analysis for case teams and managing various IT projects and training events. Sara has extensive experience working with underserved youth and adults in Boston as volunteer in the Boston Public Schools, Social Venture Partners, Friday Night Supper Program, Steppingstone Foundation, MYTOWN, and the YWCA. Sara has a B.A. in English Teaching and Creative Writing from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S.W. in Nonprofit Management from Boston University. She is a proud LeadBoston alum (Class of ’09).

Sarah Janas
Marketing Manager

Rasheba Johnson
Director of Special Projects & Board Strategy

Lisette Nieves
Belle Zeller Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Policy, City University of New York (CUNY)
Lisette Nieves is currently a Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Blue Ridge Foundation. She was also recently appointed as the Belle Zeller Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Policy at the City University of New York at Brooklyn College.

Most recently, Ms. Nieves served as the founding Executive Director for Year Up NY, a workforce and education program for young adults from 2006 through 2011. From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Nieves served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) for the City of New York. Prior to her work with DYCD, Ms. Nieves was the Director of Special Projects at the After School Corporation in New York. She is the Vice-Chair of New York City’s Panel for Education Policy, a trustee of the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System, a member of the Year Up National Board and a member of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton Advisory Council.

Ms. Nieves was a Rhodes Scholar and a Truman Scholar. She was also the recipient of a John F. Kennedy Jr. Hero Award from the Robin Hood Foundation, and the El Diario Mujeres Destacada Award from La Opinion. Ms. Nieves holds a B.A. from Brooklyn College and a M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Catie Lee Smith
Director of Influence Projects
Catie is the primary project manager of all of our influence activities. Catie recently completed graduate school with Masters in Business Administration and Public Policy at Harvard’s Business and Kennedy Schools where she focused her studies on education and youth development. She spent her last few summers working in public school districts - first in the Chicago and then the Boston Public Schools. She also had the opportunity to do small consulting projects with Teach For America in New Orleans and BUILD in Boston. Prior to graduate school, Catie spent two years teaching elementary school in Washington, DC and three years as an analyst in PricewaterhouseCoopers in-house strategy group.

Bill Lehman
National Site Director

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.

Charlie Mangiardi
Influence Coordinator
Charlie recently became Year Up’s Influence Coordinator. Prior to Year Up, he spent a year in service as a member of MATCH Corps VII at MATCH Charter Public Middle School, a nationally renowned charter school in Boston that provides every student with at least two hours of daily tutoring. Before MATCH, Charlie had long-term youth/education volunteer stints on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota and in rural Bosnia. He received a B.A. in History from Boston College.

TAMIKA MASON
Director of Organizational Development
Tamika is motivated by her deep devotion of seeing people, nonprofits, and mission driven organizations reach their full potential. Since 2006, she has served at Year Up in various operational and organization development capacities to support organizational change and growth. A few areas of service include driving the development of new hire & manager orientations, company wide staff retreat planning, and national diversity & cultural competency work.

Tamika has both private and public sector experience, formerly serving as Financial Center Manager for Wachovia and multiple leadership capacities in churches and non-profits primarily focused on strategic planning and the development of operational protocol and financial procedures. Tamika was educated at the University of Virginia with a focus on Systems Engineering and Management Information Systems.

SUE MEEHAN
Chief Operating Officer
Sue Meehan joined Year Up in 2004 as the Director of Finance, Operations and Student Services. Early in her tenure, Sue was charged with developing Year Up’s infrastructure in a range of critical areas including human resources and talent development, program quality, finance, and information technology. After launching Year Up’s national headquarters in 2007, Sue formally assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer, where she currently manages organization-wide operations and planning. 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.

Derek Miranda
Financial Specialist

SUSAN MURRAY
Senior Philanthropic Advisor
Susan is focused on raising growth capital to increase Year Up’s capacity to close the Opportunity Divide on a national scale. Before joining Year Up, Susan was the Senior Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania's New York Regional Office. At Penn, Susan worked with alumni in the New York area to raise funds for undergraduate financial aid, research, and academic programs in support of Penn's $3.5 billion Making History campaign. Prior to joining the Penn development team, Susan served as the Director of the Columbia College Fund where she oversaw the undergraduate annual giving program for recent graduates. Susan also worked for New York's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. In addition to her experience in philanthropy, Susan co-founded the Brooklyn Crescents Lacrosse Club, a non-profit organization in Brooklyn, New York dedicated to youth development through the sport of lacrosse. Susan Murray earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Rochester and an M.P.A. from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Tendai Musonza
Staff Recruiting & Scouting Manager
Tendai comes to Year Up with rich and varied experiences in recruiting, training and development, teaching, and entreprenuership. Her most recent experience was with Minuteman Recruiting, where she sourced IT and engineering professionals. Prior to that, she served as a Training and Development Coordinator at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She also was a teacher and department manager at a school for young women in Zimbabwe, and founded an organization called Jewels focused on empowering teenage women. Originally from Zimbabwe, Tendai received her BA from the University of South Africa and her MBA from Hult International Business School in Cambridge.

CollEen o'connell
Director of Administration
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 an MBA in Management from Bryant University.

Isabel Park
Prospect Research Specialist

Rivesh Persad
Accounting Coordinator

David Pineros
New Sector Special Projects Associate

Joemmy Ramirez
VISTA Organizational Development Associate
Joemmy is a Brooklyn, NY native and received her BA in International Relations from Syracuse University. While at Syracuse University, she was involved in a variety of leadership and extracurricular activities such as the Student Association and Model United Nations Assembly.

Joemmy supports the HR team at Year Up with new hire onboarding. She also provides capacity to the Diversity and Cultural Competency group, exit interviewing process, and supports HR strategy work. Before joining Year Up, Joemmy completed a year of service with Americorps/City Year within the Miami-Dade School District. Her passion for youth development and interest in non-profit organizational strategy led her to sign up for a second year of service as a VISTA.

Raphael Rosenblatt
Director of Evaluation
Raphael (Raphi) Rosenblatt is excited to join Year Up as the Director of Evaluation. He began his experience at Year Up as an Education Pioneers Fellow in the summer of 2010. During this time, Raphi analyzed a dataset of Year Up participants nationwide, identifying the risk factors associated with dropping out of the program and developing an intervention plan to increase student retention. Raphi’s interest in education equity began in 2006 when he joined Teach For America. He spent three years teaching high school mathematics at Herbert Lehman High School, a large public school in the Bronx. While teaching, Raphi earned a M.S.T. from Pace University and co-founded an organization to encourage young adults to engage more strategically with the philanthropic sector. Raphi left the classroom to pursue a Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he studied education policy and non-profit management. Raphi also attended Brandeis University on a full scholarship, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in both Politics and Economics.

Julia Santiago
Senior Director of Organization
Julia Santiago has been the Senior Director of Organization since February of 2010. In this role Julia is accountable for Year Up's Human Capital Strategy and she leads the team that is executing on the strategy. Before arriving at YU, Julia completed a 25 years career as a consultant that began in 1982 and continued with Interaction Associates since 1993. She holds a Ed.D in Organization Development , and an M .Ed. in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Julia also holds BA from the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, PR. Julia is a consultant, strategist, facilitator, trainer and coach.

Aaron Schutzengel
Manager of Program Operations
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.

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.

Christopher Thorson
Goodwin Proctor Public Service Fellow

Heather Wininger
Director of Strategic Projects
Heather is passionate about personal empowerment through holistic development and collaborative leadership. As Director of Strategic Projects, she works closely with members of the leadership team to organize and align strategic priorities, manage internal communication strategies, and own special projects related to COO needs. Heather joined Year Up in 2007 as Manager of People development, where she led talent lifecycle efforts including scouting and recruiting, performance management, and professional development & career paths. A former consultant at Monitor Group, she developed and designed talent management systems and structures in both for-profit and and not-for-profit environments. Heather is an avid yogi and teaches a mind-body wellness curriculum for Year Up students in Atlanta and vinyasa yoga in her local community. She has a BA from Dartmouth College in English and economics.

Yvonne Vargas
Benefits and Operations Coordinator
Yvonne received her Bachelors in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College. She has extensive experience in marketing, event planning and operations. Yvonne coordinated and managed C Level Executive forums world wide for HSM Global before moving from Brooklyn, NY to Boston, MA to join her husband and work as an Operations Manager for Advanstar Communications. She originally started at Year Up in 2010 as Executive Assistant to Shawn Bohen, National Director of Strategic Growth & Impact and through encouragement she followed her passion for Human Resources.

Roberto Zeledon
Senior Director of Marketing & Communication
sRoberto leads our Marketing & Communications team at Year Up. Roberto joined Year Up in April 2010 with over 12 years experience in the strategy and execution of complex marketing programs for leading national brands including Delta Air Lines, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Royal Caribbean International. Prior to joining Year Up, Roberto built and grew the GlaxoSmithKline relationship at Euro RSCG Edge. Roberto holds a B.S. in Marketing and Law & Public Policy from Syracuse University and an MBA from Boston College.

Hellen Zziwa
Technical Projects Manager

"It is [our students] depth and resiliency that inspires all of us who have the privilege to work at Year Up. I truly mean it when I say that it is an honor to serve our students and to be inspired by them each and every day."

Gerald Chertavian
CEO and Founder,
Year Up

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