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.
2017 Comcast NBCUniversal Leadership Awards
Congratulations to this year’s recipients who were honored in Boston at Summer Academy on July 11, 2017!
For her authentic leadership and humble dedication to creating opportunities for youth. As Co-Founder of Big Citizen HUB, a youth development organization in Los Angeles, Beth is extending the reach of national service by activating the talents of our young leaders. She has created a little league for civic action, building a pipeline of diverse, enthusiastic and informed change makers. In her role as Director of Strategy and Development, Beth oversees the fundraising, operations, systems and strategic planning that has enabled Big Citizen HUB to engage more than 500 young people ages 11-26 in addressing pressing social issues affecting their communities.
Prior to her work with Big Citizen HUB, Beth received a Master of Business Administration from Boston University with a focus on social impact. She then moved to Los Angeles to take on Local Control Funding Formula at Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), helping to create new ways for teachers, staff and stakeholders to better understand the complicated financial policies affecting LAUSD students and communities. Beth is committed to strengthening communities and empowering young people. She has recently served on the City Year Los Angeles Associates Board and volunteers with the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care program.
For his selfless dedication to building the national service movement and commitment to helping students, AmeriCorps members, alums and staff reveal their limitless potential. Dan served as the vice president and executive director of City Year Jacksonville. Through the team he built and his leadership in Jacksonville, the site expanded from seven to 12 schools in three feeder patterns, serving more than 10,000 students and making it one of City Year’s fastest growing sites in the network. Over the last few years, it has increased its corps from 75 to more than 100, growing its budget from $3 million to $4.7 million.
Prior to his role at City Year Jacksonville, Dan was the program director with City Year Los Angeles, overseeing the service of 70 corps members serving seven schools in the South LA/Watts communities. Dan currently is a member of the Weaver Philanthropic Initiative Fellows, the First Coast YMCA Millennial Advisory Board, a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville and LEAD City Year. He is currently working towards his Executive Master of Public Administration with the University of Pennsylvania.
For leading with the City Year value "students first, collaboration always" and working to close the opportunity gap for more than 2,000 children in Massachusetts and Virginia. Brent Holsinger has made a career serving as a champion for young people inspired by his AmeriCorps service year with City Year Boston. After finding his voice as an educator and building operational leadership skills as an administrator for several nonprofits and out-of-school learning programs, including City Year, Citizen Schools and Beyond the Bell/21st Century Community Learning Centers (Harrisonburg, VA), Brent founded and currently serves as president of On the Road Collaborative, a youth empowerment nonprofit organization in Harrisonburg that sets middle school youth in systemically under-resourced schools on the road to college and their career.
He received his master’s degree in education in out-of-school learning and facilitative leadership from Lesley University and bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Richmond. Along with his work at On the Road Collaborative, Brent serves on the Harrisonburg City School Board and enjoys spending his time with wife, Laura Toni-Holsinger, his daughter, Lucy, and son, Myles.
Alex Peay
For their entrepreneurial leadership in creating large-scale change and advancing social justice by harnessing the skills, talents and passion of young adults. Today, Mubarak Lawrence serves as the vice president and Alex Peay serves as the founder and president of Rising Sons, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization that assists youth from systemically under-resourced communities in an effort to open their eyes to what they can offer their community, country and world, as well as what the world can offer them in return.
After Rising Son’s establishment in Philadelphia, Alex served two years as a Team Leader for City Year Greater Philadelphia and achieved community notoriety as recipient of the John S. & James L Knight Foundation’s Black Male Engagement Award, a United Way Philly Root’s Fellow, a 2016 Echoing Green Fellow, recipient of the Mayors' Distinguished Alumni of National Service Award and the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. Alex’s story was published in a book called R.E.A.C.H, which was written by former President of the NAACP Ben Jealous and Founder / CEO of BMe Trabian Shorters, one of the founders of AmeriCorps. In addition, the book was forwarded by Russell Simmons and features inspiring stories of 40 Black men including, Talib Kweli, Bill T. Jones, Louis Gossett, Jr. and John Legend. Alex was honored by NBC as one of 28 of the nation's most talented innovators and game changers under the age of 28 as well as the Philadelphia Tribune’s 10 Most Influential under 40. Mubarak coordinates Rising Son’s events and programs, such as “Reason for the Season," a holiday celebration for families living in shelters. He has been the program director for Rising Sons’ after-school program at Hope Partnership for Education since 2013. In 2013, Mubarak launched Rising Community Enterprises LLC, a firm focused on providing systemically under-resourced communities with economic and community development services through business consultation, community investment and youth enrichment programs. In August 2011, Mubarak enrolled in the AmeriCorps VISTA position at the Mayors of Education in Philadelphia. As the outreach coordinator for PhillyGoes2College, Mubarak traveled throughout the region providing youth and adults with the resources to enroll into postsecondary institutions. In September 2012, he served as the career and postsecondary specialist for Philadelphia Academies Inc.’s Student Success center at Abraham Lincoln High School, providing guidance to students looking to enrich their academic achievement and professional expectations. Mubarak currently sits on the board for Radnor a Better Chance and is a 2016 Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow.
For living the City Year value “service to a cause greater than self” and creating a social justice movement through civic engagement and cross-sector collaboration. Whitney is a rising millennial activist, and the co-founder and CEO of Service Never Sleeps. She grew up between Latin America and West Africa as a Foreign Service child. At Washington University in St. Louis, Whitney double majored in English and Spanish and minored in communications and journalism, during which she also embraced her calling as a “professional humanitarian.” Whitney’s passion for service and social justice brought her to Washington, D.C. to serve with City Year.
She served on the Civic Engagement team, planning and directing more than 30 service days that engaged more than 4,000 volunteers. Whitney then worked full-time in homeless services supporting more than 200 chronically homeless individuals through advocacy and community partnerships. In 2015, she founded Service Never Sleeps, a nonprofit focused on mobilizing young professionals and the corporate sector to work on social justice issues through civic engagement. Whitney released her first single, “The Talk,” earlier this year. The song is a preview to the upcoming summer release of Whitney’s social justice album, “What Will You Do.”
