Staffing Bonanza!
ALearn has recently added four new team members, and we are delighted to welcome them.
Rocio Abundis-Rodriguez is our Vice President for Programs, and has nearly 25 years of experience in managing diverse youth-oriented programs in both public and private non-profit organizations.
Most recently, she served for seven years as the Region 5 Lead for After School Programs coordinating, managing and implementing training and customized support to over 200 after school and Healthy Start state funded sites in Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
Rocio has a Masters in Public Health from UCLA, and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Behavioral Science from the University of California at Davis. The most vital experience and accomplishment she brings is that of mother of two beautiful children, Sofia and Mateo, who serve as her inspiration for improving educational opportunities to all.
Jeni Ramirez is our new Program Manager. She has worked in nonprofit management for 8 year. Previous to ALearn, she was the Director of Youth Services for the YWCA of Silicon Valley. At the Y, she developed and managed three programs: Project Inspire, Teen Success, and Tech GYRLS. These programs focus on helping students who are falling behind in their coursework catch up through credit recovering mentoring, enrichment, and tutoring support.
Jeni has a B.A. in Kinesiology and a M.S. in Adapted Kinesiology, both from Cal State East Bay. She is also a graduate of the 2012 San Jose Community Leadership program.
Jeni's passion for education and ALearn comes from a desire to help the next generation be prepared, succeed, and live a fulfilling life. A quote that drives her comes from Benjamin Franklin: "Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn."
Eileen Tsai is our new Development Manager.
A longtime public education advocate, Eileen joined ALearn after working years in the corporate world and volunteering in public schools. Her most recent personal passion has been leading the transformation of the college and career center at a local public high school and focusing on college attainment for first generation students. It was through her 12 years of work within the school district that Eileen saw the great need for college readiness programs for under-served students in middle school and high school.
Previously, Eileen held marketing and project management roles at Visa, Intuit, Citibank, and McAfee. She has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Cornell and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Kim Guptill is our new Marketing Lead. She spent 15 years consulting with Hewlett-Packard, helping them market their servers and PCs. Her last assignment was producing videos for HP TouchSmart computers. She is also the Grants Manager at the Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation, which makes grants to organizations that support at-risk youth in education and the arts.
Her passion exactly matches ALearn's: to launch low-income, first generation students on a trajectory to college.
Kim holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arizona, a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Golbal Management, and an M.A. in Organizational Communication from Purdue.
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