BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2013

Officers President William Josephson Retired Partner Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Treasurer Leah Modigliani Senior Vice President Neuberger Berman Members Brian Anderson Director, GF Capital Management Neil Barsky President, Barsky Ventures, LLC Mohamad Bazzi Assistant Professor Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute NYU Duffie Cohen Executive Director Invest in CUNY Campaign Pilar Conde Retired, Chief of Proprietary Positioning Business & Member of the Executive Committee J.P. Morgan and Co.

Peggy Farber Attorney, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel Doris Gonzalez Director Americas Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, IBM Diane McNulty Executive Director, Marketing The New York Times Caroline Woodruff Assistant VIce President and Philanthropy Advisor Bessemer Trust Company Advisory Board Michael Bailin Gordon Berlin Ric Burns Chiara Coletti Will Houghteling David R. Jones Arthur Klebanoff Jonathan Kozol Lee Kravitz Eric Latzky

STAFF

PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR—Keith Hefner
Keith Hefner founded Youth Communication in 1980. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989, and he was a 1986-87 Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of New York City at Columbia University. He is a 2004 graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, Institute for Non-Profit Management, Executive Level Program. In 1997 he received the Luther P. Jackson Award for Educational Excellence from the New York Association of Black Journalists. He is the executive editor or co-author of several dozen Youth Communication books and programs, including Real Men and The Teen Guide to Sex (without regrets). [khefner@youthcomm.org]

EDITOR-AT-LARGE—Laura Longhine
Laura Longhine has a BA in English from Tufts University and an MS in Journalism from Columbia. She is a 2008 graduate of Columbia University Business School's Institute for Non-Profit Management's Middle Management Program for Youth Service Organizations. Before joining Youth Communication she taught English as a Second Language as an Americorps Volunteer in California, and was a staff writer at the Free Times, an alternative weekly in South Carolina. She has freelanced for The New York Times, Newyorkmetro.com and Legal Affairs, among other publications. Laura was the editor of Represent magazine from 2005 to 2009. She is the editor of more than a dozen Youth Communication books on topics including juvenile justice, sexuality, domestic violence, work readiness, and more.  [llonghine@youthcomm.org]

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT—Sandra Toussaint
Sandra has 10+ years of fundraising experience in local and national nonprofits. Prior to Youth Communication, she served as Director of Development for Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence. Sandra also served as Senior Director of Development for Special Olympics New York - NYC Region. She was personally responsible for raising more than $1.5 million for the organization. Sandra has a Master's in Public Administration from NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is an active member of Women in Development and Association for Fundraising Professionals and has spoken at fundraising conferences. [stoussaint@youthcomm.org]

EDITOR, YCteen magazine—Autumn Spanne
Autumn Spanne has a BA in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, an MS in journalism from Columbia University, and an MA in education from Western New Mexico University. She taught English and journalism in New Mexico for five years and produced an independent radio journalism workshop there with youth living on and near the Navajo Reservation. Autumn began her journalism career covering politics and city government for The Lompoc Record in California. In 2006, she was awarded a fellowship from the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. She has been an editor at Youth Communication since 2007. She is the editor of Youth Communication’s books on college success for minority teens and for teens in foster care. [aspanne@youthcomm.org]

EDITOR, Represent magazine—Virginia Vitzthum

Virginia Vitzthum has written for publications including Elle, the Village Voice, washingtonpost.com, AlterNet.org, Time Out New York, Ms., and salon.com, where she was a columnist. She is the author of a book about Internet dating, I Love You, Let’s Meet, and a humor book, My Blind Date Went Blind! She was managing editor of a book series on substance abuse treatment and has edited many other publications. She is a contributor to Beautiful Trouble, a book about creative activism. She has a BA in English from the University of Maryland. She has been an editor at Youth Communication since 2008. She is the editor of Youth Communication’s books on drugs, disabilities, sexuality, and other topics. [vvitzthum@youthcomm.org]

PROGRAM DIRECTOR & MULTIMEDIA EDITOR—

Maria Luisa Tucker
Maria Luisa Tucker has covered crime, courts, politics, and housing for the Village Voice, AlterNet.org, and several other publications. She began her journalism career as a stringer for a small town newspaper in Texas and went on to win several awards for her investigative reporting at The Santa Fe Reporter, an alternative newsweekly in New Mexico. She holds a BA in journalism from Texas State University and an MA in American Studies from Columbia University. She has been an editor at Youth Communication since 2009. She edited Youth Communication’s books on growing up Asian, growing up black, and sexual decision-making. [ltucker@youthcomm.org]

IMAGE EDITOR—Joanne Pendola
Joanne Pendola is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal (classroom edition), Ms., and other major publications. She also illustrates books. She was an editorial assistant at Out magazine and has a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has worked at Youth Communication since 1997. [jpendola@youthcomm.org]

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR—Tom Brown
Prior to joining Youth Communication in March, 1989, Tom Brown worked for several years at the DOME Project, a community based youth development program where he was assistant director. He has a BA in Political Science from the City College of New York and an MA in that subject from Yale. [tbrown@youthcomm.org]

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC PLANNING—
Lisa Abramson
Lisa Abramson worked as an editor at Youth Communication in the late 1980s, before embarking on an IT and project management career in the banking industry. Her last job in banking, before returning to Youth Communication in 2011, was as Instrumentation and Monitoring Department Head for BNY Mellon. She has done research on high school health clinics, parent involvement, and other topics for the NYC Dept. of Education and other organizations. Lisa has a PhD in Organization Theory and Management from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and a B.A. in Mathematics from Goucher College. [labramson@youthcomm.org]

DIRECTOR OF I.T. & PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION—
Efrain Reyes, Jr.
Efrain Reyes was a student artist (1982-84) for New Youth Connections (now YCteen) while attending Morris HS in the South Bronx. He later graduated from Pratt Institute with a BA in Communication Design and in 1988 was hired to run our desktop publishing operation and to handle bookkeeping. He has since taken charge of many other tasks, including: IT, installing and maintaining our 40+ computer network; Web development and design for our various sites; in-house photographer and art director: photographing and/or designing many of our magazine and book covers. [ereyes@youthcomm.org]

MARKETING DIRECTOR—Loretta Chan
Loretta was a teen writer at New Youth Connections (now YCteen) from 1992 to 1995. Prior to returning to Youth Communication in 2006, she worked as an editor for Longitude Books, education program associate for The New York Council for the Humanities and paralegal for Cravath, Swaine & Moore and The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. She has a BA in Art History from New York University. She is the co-editor of Youth Communication’s book Strong Teens, Strong Neighborhoods.[lchan@youthcomm.org]

MARKETING ASSOCIATE—Erica Wong
Prior to joining Youth Communication in 2012, Erica Wong was an assistant editor at Barron’s Educational Series, where she acquired and edited books on subjects ranging from 3rd grade math and the pre-GED curriculum to college-level French and environmental science. She was also an intern at Penguin Group (USA) and W.W. Norton & Company. Erica graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in English Literature. [ewong@youthcomm.org]

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT—Jeff Faerber
Jeff Faerber is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, The Progressive, The Chicago Sun Times and other publications. He has a BFA in Graphic Design from San Jose State University. He started working for Youth Communication in 2000. [jfaerber@youthcomm.org]

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT—Zanella Jarvis
Zanella Jarvis is our Office Assistant/Bookkeeper. Prior to Youth Communication, she worked for Queens Public Television as Community Development Assistant and interned at Simone Smalls PR, Inc. as well as UPTOWN Magazine. Zanella has a B.A. in Media and Communications from SUNY College at Old Westbury and is currently studying Dietetics at Queens College. [zjarvis@youthcomm.org]

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR—Al Desetta
Al Desetta has worked at Youth Communication since 1985 where he has edited New Youth Connections (now YCteen) and Represent magazines, our juvenile prison newsletter, Spofford Voices, and an experimental school newspaper, Strange Brew. He also initiated our teacher development workshops. He edited The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices from the Foster Care System and co-edited many other Youth Communication anthologies. He has a BA in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a MA in English Literature from the City College of New York. He was a Charles H. Revson Fellow at Columbia University for the 1990-91 academic year. He has edited several dozen Youth Communication books, including our all-time best selling program on resilience, The Struggle to Be Strong. For more information, see www.aldesetta.com.

FORMER STAFF—Attention Youth Communication Alumni: If you would like to reach your former editor for a recommendation or any other reason, send an e-mail to lchan@youthcomm.org and in most cases we can forward it to him or her. (We’ll let you know.) Former editors we are in touch with: Rachel Blustain, Sean Chambers, Sasha Chavkin, Duffie Cohen, Andrea Estepa, Sheila Feeney, Clarence Haynes, Lynda Hill, Katia Hetter, Kendra Hurley, Philip Kay, Carol Kelly, Donna Lawson, Stephanie Liu, Vivian Louie, Nora McCarthy, Tony McGinty, Abiodun Oyewole, Alexandra Ringe, Tamar Rothenberg, Tony Savino, Hope Vanderberg.