The City Year Alumni Leadership Awards recognize outstanding alums who are continuing their commitment to strengthening community by inspiring, mobilizing and empowering others and who exemplify City Year’s values.
2013 Comcast NBCUniversal Leadership Awards
Congratulations to this year’s recipients!
For her nearly two decades of leadership and dedication to improving the lives of children as an educator in Boston, Massachusetts, public schools. Angel’s pathway into urban education began as a corps member at the James F. Condon Elementary School where she returned in 2009 as its assistant principal after more than 10 years as a public school teacher and math coach. Today, as the Principal of the Dennis C. Haley Pilot Elementary School, recently named a fully inclusive school, she leads faculty and staff to meet the needs and raise student achievement for all 300 K-fifth-grade learners. Through collaborative efforts, she has cultivated relationships with Boston College, Wheelock College, Harvard University, UMass Boston and New England Center for Children to bring student support programs into her school. Her innovative ideas for creating a balanced and inclusive school climate focus on implementation of new curriculums, strong parent engagement, execution of school-wide behavioral programs and professional development for her staff.
For his inspiring leadership in building the beloved community and expanding the national service movement across the country and the world over the past 10 years. Whether recruiting corps members, mentoring his peers, cultivating external champions or launching new sites, George’s influence is felt at all levels of the organization. As Senior Director of New Site Development for City Year, he has inspired local leaders and collaborated with dedicated champions to establish four new U.S. sites, and counting, in Denver, Orlando, Sacramento and Jacksonville. In 2009, he served as U.S. Startup Director for City Year’s second international affiliate in London where he developed the site’s service, recruitment, fundraising and corps member development strategies and prepared the local team to assume primary leadership. By calling on others to lead and facilitating the opportunity for corps members to reach students in new communities, George exemplifies the value of service to a cause greater than self.
For his exceptional advocacy of under-resourced communities and more than a decade of building the national service movement in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San José. As Program Director for City Year Los Angeles, Mario has led nearly 1,000 corps members and program staff to expand the impact of Whole School Whole Child across the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 2010, he represented schools served by City Year and the voices of hundreds of students to advocate for Boyle Heights receiving Promise Neighborhood designation – one of 21 neighborhoods across the country to receive highly competitive federal funding to significantly improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in our most systemically under-resourced communities. His community impact extends beyond City Year through his volunteer leadership as a board member for Motivating Our Students Through Experience and the Salvation Army Red Shield Community Center.
For his outstanding dedication to and embodiment of public service to expand opportunities for young people to serve. As a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, Aaron served in Afghanistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom, leading a Civil Affairs team that executed 32 reconstruction projects across four provinces, and managing a 600-person local security force program during transition to Afghan Local Police. Prior to commissioning as an officer with the U.S. Army, Aaron, along with fellow City Year alums, co-founded ServeNext, which recently merged with ServiceNation, to unite national and community service stakeholders in grassroots advocacy to elevate national service as a public policy solution to address America's most persistent societal challenges. Through his leadership, Aaron built the foundation of an advocacy movement that united thousands of citizens and national service alums that culminated in nine Presidential candidates – including then Senator Obama - signing a pledge to expand AmeriCorps by 100,000.
For her steadfast commitment to guiding and empowering the Latino community in Massachusetts through advocacy, collaboration and education. Alejandra is the executive director of ¿Oiste?, a state-wide civic engagement and political organization for Latinos with a member-driven approach to public policy, leadership development, progressive electoral reform and active voter mobilization. During her first two years as executive director, she spearheaded a new program called Latinas for Change, which has trained more than 300 women in systemically under-resourced communities on leading collaborative, local issue-based campaigns to solve community problems. Through building a state-wide coalition, she successfully advocated for a fair Redistricting process in 2011, which resulted in the creation of twice as many minority-majority seats in the House and Senate. With over 10 years of experience in education and community development, she is an invaluable voice in the conversations and solutions to build democracy amongst Latinos by advancing their political, social and economic standings.
