Senior Leadership Team 

Board of Directors

Leadership Team

Senior Leadership Team

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Eric Schwarz is CEO, and a co-founder of Citizen Schools. Schwarz has been tapped to speak about education reform and Expanded Learning Time at numerous conferences across the country. He has served as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Task Force on 21st Century Skills, the Center for American Progress working group on Expanded Learning Time, the transition team of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Social Entrepreneur Advisory Board for the New Profit, Inc. Gathering of Leaders.  He is the author of "Realizing the American Dream: Historical Scorecard, Current Challenges, Future Opportunities", a widely cited essay examining social change efforts and the role of social entrepreneurs, and co-editor of The Case for Twenty- First Century Learning.

Previously, Schwarz served as a Public Service Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, as Executive Director of City Year Boston, and as a Vice President at City Year.  He also served on Gary Hart's 1984 Presidential campaign and as a journalist and columnist at The Oakland Tribune and The Patriot Ledger, where he won two national awards and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  Schwarz earned his B.A. at the University of Vermont and his Masters in Education at Harvard University.  He lives in Boston with his wife, Maureen Coffey, and their two children.

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Emily McCann joined Citizen Schools in 2003 as the Chief Financial Officer and is now President, responsible for developing and overseeing top-level financial, technology, human resources, and administrative support services for the organization. Before coming to Citizen Schools, Emily worked in Business Planning & Development for the Walt Disney Company and in North American Mergers & Acquisitions for J.P Morgan & Company. She earned an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Harvard College and a graduate degree from Harvard Business School.

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Kate Mehr joined Citizen Schools in 2005. After beginning her career as a teacher, Kate helped found the Massachusetts Legislative Children's Caucus and launched the Massachusetts State Commission on National Service. Kate was asked by Governor William Weld to run the Massachusetts Summit on Children and Youth. In 1998, she was appointed to a White Fellowship for national leadership. Kate then launched the United States- Canada Program for Ashoka. Kate served as the Vice President of Community Impact for the United Way of America, assisting 3,000 United Ways to increase impact in communities. She attended Amherst College and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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Leadership Team

Joyce Walker joined Citizen Schools as Executive Director for Massachusetts in 2009. She grew up in the Dorchester section of Boston and was bused to a suburb for grades K-12 through METCO, a government funded program to desegregate Massachusetts suburban public school districts.  Joyce graduated from Tufts University and went on to spend over 10 years in business (including sales, marketing, corporate training and general management).  After earning her MBA from Duke University, Joyce became a Broad Resident in Urban Education. She worked closely with Citizen Schools in her role as Special Assistant to the Chief Academic Officer for Baltimore City Public Schools and Special Assistant to the Superintendent for Planning and Performance Management for Durham Public Schools.  Joyce is excited to return to her home state to continue work in education reform with Citizen Schools.  She is deeply committed to ensuring that all urban students receive a high quality education.

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Nitzan Pelman joined Citizen Schools in 2008. Nitzan is the former Assistant Director of the Office of New Teacher Induction at the New York City Department of Education, where she helped create a mentoring program for 6,500 new teachers. She also served as the Associate Director of the Office of Accountability. As Development Director for Teach For America New York, she organized the first young professionals' leadership group. Nitzan has participated in CORO's Leadership New York program and served in special project capacities at KIPP and at New Leaders for New Schools. She is a graduate of New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Stern College for Women.

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Jarrad Toussant joined Citizen Schools in 2008. Prior to Citizen Schools, Jarrad worked for Teach For America New Jersey, most recently as Development Manager. In that position he managed funding relationships with more than 40 corporations, foundations, and public sector programs. During his tenure, Teach For America New Jersey increased its public funding by more than threefold and its individual donations by 36 percent. Jarrad earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and his Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Rutgers University.

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Jerri Fatticci joined Citizen Schools in 2006. Prior to Citizen Schools, Jerri had a successful career in the financial services sector. She served as a financial advisor at Bank of America, working closely with clients to develop financial plans and portfolio strategies to meet their long-term goals. While at Bank of America, Jerri served as a chairperson for the Women’s Impact Fund, and served on the Citizen Schools Council of Champions. She is also a Community Advisory Board Member for Junior League. Jerri has a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Economics from Campbell University.

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Todd Litton joined Citizen Schools as Executive Director of Texas in 2009.  In this capacity, he leads the development of the Citizen Schools network in Austin and Houston, and also cultivates the growth of Citizen Schools across the state.  Prior to Citizen Schools, Todd was a vice president and Wealth Advisor for UBS Financial Services for almost five years, where he worked with clients to help them grow, preserve and distribute their assets.  Prior to UBS, Todd directed Preschool for ALL, a joint early childhood-business effort to expand access to high quality preschool in Houston and in Texas.  The Children’s Defense Fund recognized him as an Emerging Leader for his work there.  Todd has played an active role in the Houston and Texas community for many years, including board leadership on The Immunization Partnership, the Education Foundation of Harris County, Small Steps Nurturing Center and the Texas Lyceum Association.  Todd earned an A.B. in English from Duke University, a J.D. from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. 

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Suzanne Goodwin joined Citizen Schools as Executive Director of New Mexico in 2007, with twenty five years of experience as a teacher and administrator within the Australian government education sector. In 2001, she was nominated for participation in the Eleanor Davis Mentorship Program for Outstanding Women in Leadership. In 2003, her innovative work in challenged educational communities was acknowledged by the award of a national Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship in Education, which took her to the United States to explore exemplary practices in this field. In the same year, Suzanne was the state runner up for 'Outstanding educational Leadership' by the state education department. In 2006, Suzanne commenced work as a consultant for the Center for RelationaLearning based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Suzanne is the current Chair of the Global Community Learning Network Committee of the National Community Education Association (USA). Suzanne graduated from Deakin University (Australia) with a Bachelors Degree in Education and is completing a Masters Degree in Educational research by thesis from the Monash University (Australia).

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Claudia Alfaro joined Citizen Schools in January 2007 as the Director of Volunteers for Boston. Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Claudia is a bilingual professional with over seven years in the non-profit community and nine years of professional work in various aspects of business development, marketing, operations and recruiting in high growth companies and organizations. Claudia formerly worked for Building Excellent Schools as their Director of Recruitment implementing a national recruitment strategy for a start-up program in a non-profit organization. There, she developed national relationships and brand recognition with key stakeholders in non-profit, private, and government sectors. Prior to that, Claudia was the Director of the USA High School Program, part of the Council of International Educational Exchange, and she managed the operations and marketing. Claudia has also worked in international markets, primarily Europe and South America. She is currently working on her MBA at Northeastern University.

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Stacy Miles joined Citizen Schools in 2006 as Executive Director for Texas, and became Chief Program Officer in 2009. Prior to joining Citizen Schools, Stacy served as the Chief Operating Officer for IDEA Public Schools in the Rio Grande Valley. She also worked for Teach For America in Houston as the Director of Operations for the summer program that trains new corps members. Stacy started her career in education working at The University of Texas at Austin in the Office of the Dean of Students. Stacy earned a M.Ed. from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

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George Chu joined Citizen Schools in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer, and has since taken on the role of Chief Analytical & Financial Officer. Prior to Citizen Schools, George worked as a consultant for the Bridgespan Group, a non-profit consulting firm, centering on youth and education organizations such as Year Up, City Year, New Sector Alliance and the College Board. He was a management consultant at Arthur D. Little and a manufacturing engineer for Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates. George currently serves on the boards of The Bottom Line, a Boston college access and retention program, and ESAC, a community-based agency that strives to improve the quality of life for residents of eastern Massachusetts. He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Kristin Brennan joined Citizen Schools in 2007. Prior to Citizen Schools, Kristin was a consultant for the Bridgespan Group, where she focused on working with educational and youth development organizations in their efforts to create organizational structures and systems that would support significant increases in scale. Prior to her work at Bridgespan, Kristin spent four years as a mediator and negotiation strategist, largely in public education. Kristin earned her B.A. in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and her M.B.A. from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

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Will Nourse joined Citizen Schools in 2008, with unique and varied professional experience. He began his career in Boston, MA as a trader/investment banker, after which he ventured into freelance consulting for educational non-profit organizations such as the Children's Television Workshop. He joined Arthur Anderson's business consulting practice in the late 1990s to advise corporate clients on the development of sound business processes and technology tools. Will then served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE), a non-profit international education organization until 2007. Most recently, he was Vice President of Product Development at a technology start-up. He attended Harvard College.

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Lori Stevens joined Citizen Schools in 2006. Previously she directed fundraising for Harvard's cross -university public service initiative to support the Graduate School of Education, Kennedy School and School of Public Health. She helped secure many major gifts, including $10 million to establish the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship.  During her 11- year career at Harvard, Stevens also led major gifts fundraising in the New York region and worked with alumni in the Boston region and the Southeast. She has an A.B. from the College of William and Mary and an M.Ed. focused on urban education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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John Werner has worked with Citizen Schools since its inception in 1995, when he was the founding Campus Director. John has served in a number roles, including founder and Executive Director of Citizen Schools 8th Grade Academy and Alumni Services. Before joining Citizen Schools, John was a Boston Public Schools teacher for four years and a principal at Wediko Children's Services (a residential school for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children). John is a graduate of Hamilton College in New York and president of its Boston Alumni Association. He has served on a number of boards, including WGBH, BPS Middle School Taskforce, and the Governer's Readiness Project. He is a member of LeadBoston's Class of 2000, and has been recognized as an After- School Hero by the After-School Alliance, one of the Ten Outstanding Young Leaders (TOYL) in Boston, and a Harvard Loeb Fellow Class of 2009.

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Christin Driscoll joined Citizen Schools in 2008 with 20 years of experience working on workforce development, education, poverty, hunger, and family income issues in national advocacy and research organizations.  Prior to joining Citizen Schools, Christin served as Senior Director for Policy Development and Advocacy at Catholic Charities USA. Christin has also served as Senior Director of Public Policy at the Association for Career and Technical Education; Policy Director of the Workforce Alliance; Senior Policy Analyst at the Food Research and Action Center; and in the research and public relations departments of the Economic Policy Institute. She was awarded the Leland-Emerson Award for Excellence in Leadership from the Congressional Hunger Center for her commitment to ending hunger and poverty and her excellence in mentorship. Christin received her master's degree in Public Policy from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in Government from Georgetown University.

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Patrick Kirby joined Citizen Schools as Massachusetts State Executive Director in 2007, with over a decade of management experience in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. He is currently Managing Director for Massachusetts. Before joining Citizen Schools, Patrick spent five years managing Timberland's global volunteer programs as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility department. Over his five years, employee engagement increased globally by more than 800 percent. Prior to Timberland, Patrick briefly taught high school before spending five years at City Year, where he held a number of senior leadership roles at their founding Boston site and their national office. Patrick is a graduate of McGill University, where he received his BA in Political Science in 1995. He has served on the Board of Directors of GroundWork USA, The Brookings Institute's Building Bridges Task Force on International Volunteering and Service, and Volunteer NH!

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