Shawn, ’80, wrote for the very first Youth Communication publication in March of 1980. He has a degree in English from Wesleyan University and received a graduate degree in education administration from Teachers College at Columbia University. He has been co-director of the Countee Cullen Community Center at the Rheedlen Foundation (which became the Harlem Children’s Zone), where he founded Harlem Overheard, a teen-written community newspaper. He is the director of the Campaign for Black Male Achievement at the Open Society Institute.