StaffThe Innovation Center is composed of core staff in Maryland and California as well as consultants, part time staff, and operational partners across the U.S. and in countries around the world. The diversity and strength of these partners as individuals and as a group define the Innovation Center Core StaffInnovation Center for Community and Youth Development President & Chief Executive Officer
As the president and a founder of the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, Wendy seeks out, nurtures, and brings to scale exceptional strategies to support young people, strengthen communities, and promote social justice. An expert in training and organizational, youth, community, and leadership development, Wendy consults for organizations, universities, and philanthropic institutions to increase youth engagement in communities and adult partnerships with youth. Prior to founding the Innovation Center, she held leadership posts at the YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts of the USA, and was a Senior Vice President at National 4-H Council. She has served on numerous advisory boards for youth and civic organizations including the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University and the Encyclopedia of Youth Activism; she currently serves on the advisory board for the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE). Wendy also is a Howland Endowed Chair in Youth Leadership at the University of Minnesota. She has written numerous articles for both practitioners and academics, but her true love is creating practical training materials for youth and adults who want to create change. wwheeler@theinnovationcenter.org
Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Senior Director, Resource Development & Partnership Building
Carla’s work focuses on engaging new partners – whether foundations, national organizations, or community-based agencies –in unleashing the potential of youth, adults, communities and organizations to achieve a just and equitable society. She brings multiple perspectives to this role based on a decade of experience in nonprofit and academic settings. As Project Director for the Ford Foundation’s Youth Leadership for Development Initiative (YLDI), she managed a learning network that explored civic activism as a strategy for youth development. During her tenure with the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, she led a qualitative study of the organizational and policy contexts surrounding local community schools. Carla holds a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University and her areas of specialization include youth development, community building, community schools, and cross-sector collaboration. She is energized by opportunities to interact with colleagues who share her view that research and practice are complementary strategies for social change. croach@theinnovationcenter.org
Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Director, Administrative Services
Trenny oversees and coordinates all of the Innovation Center’s administrative functions, including human resources, contract management, accounting, and general office procedures. Trenny is invaluable not simply for her organizational and office management skills but also for the knowledge and experience she brings from 12 years of experience with the Innovation Center, since its inception as a division at the National 4-H Council through its evolution as a project of the Tides Center to the organization’s complete independence on April 1, 2004. tjefferson@theinnovationcenter.org
Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Project Coordinator
Lisa builds partnerships and assists in fundraising as part of the external relations team. She also provides leadership on product distribution, conferences, web site communications and constituent management efforts. Lisa is a graduate of Frostburg State University with a degree in Sociology and is currently pursuing a master's degree in social work at the University of Maryland. She is deeply committed to a career in child advocacy and has completed an internship at CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and a year of field work in the Family Preservation unit of the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services. lmaholchic@theinnovationcenter.org
Operational PartnersDale Blyth, Director The Center bridges research and practice and serves as a resource, catalyst, and advocate for quality community opportunities for young people to learn, lead, and contribute. They provide non-formal learning opportunities for Minnesota youth. Wendy Wheeler, President of the Innovation Center, is the Howland Endowed Chair of Youth Leadership at the University of Minnesota. Dale Blyth, Director blyth004@umn.edu Beki Saito, Senior Analyst saito015@umn.edu
Elayne Dorsey Prior to establishing Dorsey and Associates consulting firm, Elayne was the Senior Director of Training and Field Services for the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. She is an expert in organizational analysis, evaluation and training. For over 20 years, her work has involved youth-adult partnerships, youth leadership development, and youth civic engagement. Before joining the Innovation Center, Elayne worked with the Citrus Council of Girls Scouts, where she was responsible for strategic direction and implementation of membership support services for the council’s five county jurisdiction; the Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council, where her scope of work included fund development, recruitment, community relations and collaborations, budgeting, goal setting and delivery of services; and the Gulfcoast Girl Scout Council, where she recruited adult volunteers and expanded girl membership in underserved populations, directed summer resident camp program, and wrote proposals. Elayne holds a B.A. in Communications and Advertising, and is a certified GSUSA instructor of trainers. Elayne and the Innovation Center work together on the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change project of the Kellogg Foundation. fedorsey@verizon.net
Carolyn Edlebeck For more than 7 years, Carolyn has been a partner of the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development based in Waupaca, WI. In addition to her work on the Waupaca Healthy Community / Healthy Youth Team, Carolyn is a lead trainer in the Innovation Center’s national cadre of trainers. Her voice and story were featured in the Innovation Center Publication: Creating Change: How Organizations Connect with Youth, Build Communities and Strengthen Themselves and she is the co-author of the article, “Leading, Learning, and Unleashing Potential: Youth Leadership and Civic Engagement”, published in the journal New Directions for Youth Development. Carolyn is an avid community volunteer with experience in Mexico and Finland as well as in Waupaca, and she is currently a senior at University of Wisconsin. rcaedlebeck@wisc.edu
Peter Levine Peter Levine is Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which is part of Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Levine is also Research Director of the Tisch College. Levine graduated from Yale in 1989 with a degree in philosophy. He studied philosophy at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, receiving his doctorate in 1992. From 1991 until 1993, he was a research associate at Common Cause. From 1993-2008, he was a research scholar at the University of Maryland's Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy. Levine helped to launch CIRCLE at the University of Maryland as its deputy director (2001-5) and then its director. In the late 1990s, he was also deputy director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal. Levine is the author of The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens (University Press of New England, June 2007), three other scholarly books on philosophy and politics, and a novel. He also co-edited The Deliberative Democracy Handbook (2006) with John Gastil and co-organized the writing of The Civic Mission of Schools, a report released by Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE in 2003. He serves on many governing boards and advisory boards of organizations involved in civic reneweal. peter.levine@tufts.edu
Dale Nienow CEL is a non-profit organization, based in Seattle, WA, that inspires and develops youth and ethical leadership within individuals, organizations and communities to advance the common good. Building on the accountability of inspired individuals, they also address organizational and community cultures to foster positive change through their work in collective leadership. CEL and the Innovation Center jointly led the first phase of the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change project, Phase II focused on youth-adult partnerships and collective leadership for just communities. dnienow@ethicalleadership.org
Amy Sutnick Plotch Amy Sutnick Plotch Communications designs and implements strategic communications programs. They combine thorough understanding of clients’ goals with an external perspective, imaginative ideas and drive. The result is carefully honed campaigns that position clients for success. Amy Sutnick Plotch brings several years of experience as a communications director for national and local organizations including Girls Inc., Planned Parenthood of New York City, and the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice. She is on the faculty of NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she teaches a course on strategic communications. She serves the Innovation Center as a lead communications consultant. amy@amyplotch.com
Roger Rennekamp Author, Reflect and Improve Tool Kit Roger provides strategic leadership to the 4-H Youth Development program in the state of Oregon. Prior to working for the University of Oregon Extension Service, Roger Rennekamp was a Professor in the Department of Community and Leadership Development at the University of Kentucky. In that role he coordinated program development and evaluation activities for the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service and is recognized nationally as an expert in using logic modeling as a program development framework. His research interests include examinations of the role of young people in community change. Dr. Rennekamp earned his Ph.D. in Extension Education from The Ohio State University in 1987. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a Master’s Degree from Morehead State University. roger.rennekamp@oregonstate.edu
Zara Snapp Zara Snapp brings over 10 years of experience working with non-profits, which at the age of 25, is quite a few. She began her work with Mi Casa Resource Center in Denver, working with a peer education program around the prevention of teen pregnancy, STI's and HIV. Due to her extensive work with the Denver Tent City Initiative, Zara became interested in the issues of low-income housing, homelessness and the privatization of public spaces. Zara has been doing consulting work with the Innovation Center, the Center for Ethical Leadership, Dorsey and Associates and the Kellogg Foundation for the past 3 years. She looks forward to continuing this work while she begins a Masters program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She specializes in Youth/Adult Partnerships, Collective Leadership, Youth Civic Engagement, and Youth Leadership Development and facilitates many workshops and presentations. zsnapp@hotmail.com
Patrick Snead psnead@infosysnetworks.com
Deb Stewart Deborah oversees the various components of YDTRC's work in New Haven and statewide. She has been a youth advocate for over 30 years at the local, state, and national level. She guides the Connecticut for Community Youth Development project, and the New Haven B.E.S.T. Initiative, which both support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders. The Innovation Center supports YDTRC’s work in strengthening the practice of youth civic engagement through the state of Connecticut. dstewart@theconsultationcenter.org
Karen Hoffman Tepper The goal of the Center for Disease Control-funded Building Partnerships for Youth project is to help organizations provide youth, ages 9 to 13, with the motivation to delay the onset of sexual intercourse. This partnership operates under the premise that youth need both motivation and capacity to make healthy choices. Youth development programming provides youth with this motivation. To achieve the project goal, a menu of effective youth development programs, curricula and other strategies are being compiled and organized in such a way as to be most consistent with youth development literature and useful to organizations that work with youth. This menu of options, housed on an interactive web site, provides organizations that work with youth, suggested methods for motivating 9 to 13 year-olds to make healthy choices. The Innovation Center helps support BPY’s efforts to promote youth leadership and youth-adult partnerships. karenht@Ag.arizona.edu Roger S. Todd rstodd@rcn.com
Beth Tucker (BIO) tucker@ag.arizona.edu
CAISE (Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education) The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) is dedicated to advancing and improving the practice of informal science education in its many and varied forms—through film and broadcast media, science centers and museums, zoos and aquariums, botanical gardens and nature centers, digital media and gaming, and youth, community and after-school programs. Founded in 2007 with support from the National Science Foundation, CAISE focuses on increasing and communicating the value of NSF’s investments in informal science education. Wendy Wheeler, President of the Innovation Center, serves on the Advisory Board for CAISE. TerpSys TerpSys is a customer service company, focused on technology. They deliver networked and web-based solutions to government, commercial, and nonprofit customers. They are a trusted IT solutions provider, helping their clients navigate the complex world of technology, and assisting them in applying technology to produce exceptional business results. www.terpsys.com |
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Trenny Jefferson
Lisa Maholchic