2017-18 White-Riley-Peterson Fellows

Yolande’ Anderson
Director of the Office of Family and Community Engagement
South Carolina Department of Education (Columbia, SC)

Yolande‘ is the Director of the Office of Family and Community Engagement at the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE). Yolande’s project is to work on the adoption of state guidelines for quality afterschool/expanded learning programs for South Carolina. In order to accomplish this, Yolande will review the guidelines of neighboring states and work alongside afterschool/expanded learning champions in the state to propose the guidelines to the Superintendent of Education. The long-term goal is to secure continuous state funding for afterschool/expanded learning programs. Watch video

Mercadi Crawford
Deputy Director
Texas Partnership for Out of School Time (Austin, TX)

Bio

For her project, Mercadi is working to create strong legislative champions for OST programming across the state of Texas. This project will strengthen relationships with two current champions and recruit three new champions by highlighting high quality OST programs in their districts. Watch video

Mallory Deprey
School Age Program Coordinator
YWCA of New Britain (New Britain, CT)

Bio

Complementing the current after school line item, his project will reallocate dedicated state funding for summer learning. By utilizing school and community partnerships, he will be able to rethink how allotted summer school money is spent with the intent to ensure each district has the resources they need. Through messaging he will look to mobilize and network with champions in his state to support the need of summer learning. Watch video

Andrew Ganucheau
Network Lead
Louisiana Center for Afterschool Learning (Baton Rouge, LA)

Bio

Andrew plans on conducting a mapping survey of all afterschool programs in North Louisiana, including faith based and 21st CCLC programs. The assessment will outline the extension of the 21st CCLC rural communities, as well as afterschool access issues that plague the working families of North Louisiana. LACAL will work to expand the project statewide in the following year. Watch video

Angelique Jessup
Program Director
Baltimore Campaign for Grade Level Reading; Fund for Educational Excellence (Baltimore, MD)

Bio

For her policy project, Angelique is working on advocacy around Maryland’s recalculation of the state per pupil funding formula. She will be advocating for dedicated funding for expanded access to high quality afterschool and summer learning in jurisdictions with high concentrations of poverty. She will do this by working with her state network and grassroots organizations that are mobilizing around funding recommendations to the state legislature. Watch video

Steve Mielenhausen
Principal
Davenport Community Schools (Davenport, IA)

Bio

His policy project strategy was to impact Iowa Afterschool participation through Policy Advocacy and Education. Working with the Iowa Afterschool Alliance, he gained a better understanding of the intricacy of policy making and the importance of collaborating with partners to ensure sustainability. With the assistance from several of these partners, we are going to increase awareness of the importance of Afterschool participation with audiences who can influence the formation of afterschool programming. Watch video

Jenna Pak
Program Specialist
A+ Program, Community Engagement Office; Hawaii State Department of Education (Honolulu, HI)

Bio

For her project, Jenna will work to increase wages and provide professional development (PD) for employees in the statewide After-School Plus (A+) Program for public elementary schools in Hawaii. In doing so, Jenna will determine the cost of the wage increase and PD opportunities for A+ workers and ask the Hawaii State Legislature for funding to cover three years of costs. By providing better wages and PD training, the amount of A+ employees will increase, and thus A+ sites will be able to accept more students who are in need of after-school care. Watch video

Amy Pichette
Director of Afterschool and Summer Programming
LearningWorks (Portland, ME)

Bio

Amy’s end goal for her project is to pass a funding bill in the Maine Legislature to increase access to quality summer programming for low-income children. To accomplish this, she will build off the momentum of two previous, but ultimately failed, summer funding bills in Maine. She will work with key supporting Maine State Representatives to develop a strong proposal based on the successful work done in other states and build relationships with key stakeholders, including the Maine Commissioner of Education, the 2018 State of Maine Gubernatorial candidates, and key State of Maine Representatives and Senators. Watch video

Michelle Radford
School Age Specialist
Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (Atlanta, GA)

Bio

Michelle is working on creating an afterschool endorsement to bring recognition to quality afterschool programs housed in Georgia’s Quality Rated childcare centers. To accomplish this she will revise the current professional development training requirements to increase the number of state-approved school age trainers and courses that are appropriate for the youth workforce. She will also develop a system to include onsite observations of out of school time classes as well as a rubric for assessing each program’s structural quality. The onsite observation combined with the structural assessment will determine whether the program receives the state endorsement. Watch video

Aleah Rosario
Director of Capacity Building Programs
California School Age Consortium (Berkeley, CA)

Bio

For her policy project, Aleah is working on a voter engagement campaign to complement a broader strategy to strengthen public investment in expanded learning in California. To accomplish this, she will integrate voter registration and mobilization into base building efforts with expanded learning staff. As a result, this will demonstrate the political power of the expanded learning field and its supporters, increase the visibility of afterschool as an influential issue to elected officials, and build capacity around mass base organizing amongst expanded learning advocates. Watch video

May Sagbakken
Executive Director
New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network (Albuquerque, NM)

Bio

Her policy project will focus on improving access to quality out-of-school time (OST) programs for underserved and/or disconnected middle and high school students, with the intent to reduce suspensions, expulsions and the “school-to-prison pipeline”. May will accomplish this by 1) collecting data and undertaking an asset/gap analysis of OST programs for older youth; 2) forming an Older Youth Committee; 3) educating and briefing local and statewide policymakers on how afterschool programs serve as an prevention strategy; 4) requesting funding for professional development and training in positive youth development and alternative diversion programming for educators, OST program staff, and school resource officers. Watch video

Eric Shaw
Development and Communication Specialist
Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership (Boston, MA)

Bio

The legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts has raised questions on how the Commonwealth can ensure that young people avoid risky behavior and learn to make healthy decisions that follow them their entire lives. With the revenue from the tax on marijuana going to prevention and community education programs, Eric’s policy project will be an effort to set aside a portion of the funds for afterschool programs that provide a safe space for young people and promote lifelong welfare for children. Watch video

Felicia Simpson
Contract and Grants Administrator
University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)

Bio

Felicia’s project consists of placing a line item in the Education Budget for Community Education and Afterschool Programming. This initiative will be conducted through promoting high quality programming and meeting with the State Superintendent and Key Leaders across the State of Alabama. Watch video

Brent Wake
Executive Director
Indiana State Alliance of YMCAs (Indianapolis, IN)

Bio

Brent’s policy project is to expand access and increase the quality of out of school time programs for middle school students. In addition, he will offer enrichment or academic activities in a school or community-based setting. He will do this by establishing an Out of School Time (OST) Fund that will provide grant dollars on a competitive basis for capacity-building and sustainability of OST programs. Watch video

Renea Wood
Program Development Director
YMCA of Klamath Falls (Klamath Falls, OR)

Bio

For her policy project, Renea is working on integrating the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards into Oregon QRIS/SPARK. This will be possible due to her participation in the QRIS revision process currently underway with 8-12 months remaining. She will accomplish this with the support of OregonASK, who is also on the QRIS review committee.