Celebrating 25 Years
Leading Educational Equity

For 25 years, we have worked towards removing barriers to higher education by helping students gain access to resources and develop leadership skills that help prepare them for success in college and beyond. What started as a trailblazing NYC public all-girls school in 1996 has grown to a network of 46 public schools, including 24 all-girls schools, nationwide. Today we impact approximately 20,000 students every year, supporting them to access educational opportunities that help them fulfill their dreams.

Leaders Then & Now

When our commitment to educational equity grew to include students across NYC in our CollegeBound Initiative partner schools, so many more students were able to make the dream of college a reality. Click to meet some of our alumni and learn about the ripples of leadership they created in their lives, families, and communities throughout the country.

Folasade then and now

Stylized hheader banner with past and present pictures of Janna.

A stylized banner that shows Kelvin in high school on the left and a current picture on the right.

Celebrating the Changing Face of Leadership

When The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of East Harlem first opened its doors in 1996, it was groundbreaking in its mission to provide girls from underserved communities with the same college preparatory opportunities and resources as students who attend the city’s elite private schools. With the support of programs that inspire and empower the whole girl, TYWLS students and alumnae continue to shine as leaders in their schools, communities, and nationwide. On October 12th, we gathered to celebrate their stories and achievements.

Our History

Student Leadership Network has been driving equitable education outcomes for 25 years. Scroll below to learn more about how we have grown, evolved, and innovated to support an ever-increasing number of students reach their leadership potential. Over the next 25 years, with your help, we will continue to expand and scale our work nationally to support millions more students!

1996 New York Times article titled "At a New School, No Boys, Less Fussing, and a Freer Spirit"

Ann Tisch partners with the Board of Education to open The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem. The pioneer class included 56 seventh-grade girls.

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1998

Student Leadership Network (then the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation) is created to make our programming available to more students.

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2000

The first Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate school, The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago, opens with 6th and 9th grade students.

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2001 High school graduates take a group photo with the commencement speaker, Oprah Winfrey

TYWLS East Harlem graduates its first class of seniors, with Oprah Winfrey as the Commencement speaker.

“When I heard your stories, I saw my life in your lives…Girls, you have proven that this is what public education can be.”
– Oprah Winfrey

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2001 A student stands in the middle of a college counseling office. She has a book open in front of her and she is looking up, smiling at the camera.

The CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) program launches at four high-need coed public high schools in New York City, more than quadrupling the number of students served.

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2004

YWLN partner school, Irma Lerma Rangel School Young Women’s Leadership School is established in Dallas, Texas. It is the first all-girls public school in the state.

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2005

TYWLS Queens, located in Jamaica, opens with 81 students. Today it has a student body of over 700 students.

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2006 The first group of students at TYWLS Astoria take a group photo outside of the school.

TYWLS Astoria opens with 81 students. Today it has a student body of over 600 students.

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2006 TYWLS students and Ciara stand around a three-tiered cake with number 10 topper to celebrate the organization's 10-year anniversary.

The first TYWLS (Em)Power Breakfast event is held in honor of TYWLS East Harlem’s 10th anniversary, honoring Thelma Golden, Director of The Studio Museum in Harlem; Nancy Peretsman, Managing Director and EVP of Allen & Company LLC; Joel Klein, former Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education, and The Starr Foundation.

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2007 Students throw confetti in the air and some are jumping. There is a large banner of the school's namesake, Ann Richards, in the background.

YWLN partner school, Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, opens in Austin, Texas.

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2008 The first class at TYWLS Brooklyn stands on the steps to the school. The front row is holding a blue banner that reads "The Young Women's Leadership School of Brooklyn."

TYWLS Brooklyn opens with 63 students. Today it has a student body of nearly 400 students.

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2008

YWLN partner school, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, opens in San Antonio, Texas.

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2008 Five students are wearing their letter jackets and school uniforms. They are smiling for the camera.

YWLN partner school, Talkington School for Young Women Leaders, opens in Lubbock, Texas.

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2009

YWLN affiliate, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, opens in Baltimore, Maryland.

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2010

YWLN partner school, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, opens in Fort Worth, Texas

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2011

The first CBI Celebration fundraising event is held to celebrate 10 years of CollegeBound Initiative, honoring George Hornig, COO of PineBridge Investments LLC; Lon Jacobs, former Chief Legal Officer and Senior EVP of News Corporation, and NY Giants Quarterback Eli Manning.

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2011

YWLN partner school, Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy, opens in Houston, Texas.

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2012

CollegeBound Initiative launches Bridge to College, a program that supports graduated seniors as they navigate the obstacles that arise during the summer before they begin college.

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2012 A graduate's gown has "Bronx Girl Rise" written on the back in bold gold letters.

TYWLS Bronx opens with 89 students. Today it has a student body of nearly 600 students.

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2012

Young Women’s Leadership Academy at Arnold, in Grand Prairie, Texas, joins the Young Women’s Leadership Network.

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2012

YWLN affiliate, Young Women’s College Prep Charter School of Rochester, opens in Rochester, New York.

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2015

YWLN affiliate, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, opens in Saint Louis, Missouri.

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2016

Young Women’s Leadership School at Ysletta (in El Paso, Texas) and Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (in Wilmington, North Carolina) join the Young Women’s Leadership Network.

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2018

SL Network is nationwide – our affiliate network continues to grow with the addition of our first west coast school, Girls Academic Leadership Academy in Los Angeles.

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2019

YWLN affiliate, Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, opens. It is the first all-girls school in Kansas City, Missouri.

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2021 Silver 25 with SL Network crest between the 2 and 5 above the words Student Leadership Network, Leading equity in education for 25 years

SL Network celebrates 25 years of equalizing education; so far we’ve made the dream of college a reality for over 23,000 students across the country.

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2021 Bridge Through College

CollegeBound Initiative launches Bridge Through College which supports our students to persist through college and ultimately graduate.

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View full history

Brad Ruskin

Board Chair

Brad Ruskin joined Student Leadership Network’s Board of Directors in 2014 and was elected Board Chair in 2023. He believes passionately in equity for all students.

Brad is a Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, and has tried a significant number of high profile, headline-generating cases to verdict, each one with a complete victory for Proskauer’s clients on issues ranging from so-called “bet-the-company” antitrust challenges to questions of Russian constitutional and military law. He currently serves as a Director of the Legal Aid Society, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services provider to the indigent. He also serves on its Executive Committee. He is a frequently published author of articles, has taught a graduate school class at NYU’s Tisch School, and has testified before legislative and other bodies concerning the administration of justice and court operations in New York State.

Beth Cohen

Senior Managing Director, Growth Strategy and Development

Beth H. Cohen is passionate about connecting people, ideas, and resources to create a more equitable world. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed teams for various impactful organizations to generate over $150M.

For the past decade, Beth has worked to generate support for initiatives that allow young people across the U.S. to gain access to transformative educational opportunities. In September 2022, she joined Student Leadership Network as Senior Managing Director of Growth, Strategy, and Development. Previously, Beth served as Vice President of External Relations at New Classrooms. At New Classrooms, she led the fundraising team to raise over $80M to support the growth and expansion of innovative learning models. Before that, Beth served as Vice President of Leadership Gifts at Teach for America, where she cultivated the organization’s largest national supporters and champions.

Early in her career, Beth focused on international poverty issues. From 2001-2011, she was Director of the Synergos Institute’s Global Philanthropists Circle, a dynamic network of leading philanthropists addressing questions of strategy, meaning, and impact.  Previously, she worked with Catholic Relief Services as Senior Program Manager in Lima, Peru, and as an Internal Program Auditor. As an Internal Program Auditor, she assessed the effectiveness of diverse programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Balkans. Beth also worked as a Change Management Consultant for Andersen Consulting, where she designed and developed training programs for public sector clients in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Beth holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a joint Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, teenage daughters, and fluffy bernedoodle.

Sara Clarke

Chief Operating Officer

Sara C. Clarke is the Chief Operating Officer of Student Leadership Network. As a dedicated TYWLS volunteer and active contributor for 15 years, Sara is delighted to join the organization to apply her collaborative leadership and business acumen to help drive increased scale and impact. She brings over 20 years of experience at the confluence of strategic analysis, project management, and talent development. Sara has a proven commitment to equity and access to opportunity through decades of volunteer leadership focused on literacy, education, and career advancement.

Sara was most recently the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Analysis, and Collaboration at Showtime Networks Inc. She oversaw an adaptable, solution-oriented team, providing competitive analysis and strategic recommendations that helped Showtime exceed its performance targets. Earlier in her career, Sara was a consultant for Accenture in the Media and Entertainment practice. She serves as Co-President of the HBS African-American Alumni Association and has also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, chairing the award-winning Prime Access Executive Mentoring program and community service committee.

Sara holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School in Business Administration, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.

Meg Kayman

Managing Director, Finance and Administration

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Meg is the Managing Director of Finance and Administration and has been with the organization since March 2009.  During that period, the organization has grown from a budget of $3.5 million to $11.0 million. She is part of the Administration Team which is responsible for building infrastructure to support the growing needs of the organization.

Prior to Student Leadership Network, Meg worked in the Financial Services Industry including positions as an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs and a senior research analyst at General Electric’s Commercial Finance Division.  She also has been an active volunteer with numerous non-profit organizations and a board member of the HIV Law Project from 2005 to 2013.  She holds a B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

Rob Robinson

Senior Managing Director, CollegeBound Initiative

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Robert Robinson is the Senior Managing Director of CollegeBound Initiative (CBI). Prior to joining Student Leadership Network’s central office team in 2008, he served as director of college counseling for CBI at two Brooklyn high schools: Juan Morel Campos and Middle College High School at Medgar Evers College. As a college counselor, Robert worked primarily with first-generation students of color with the goal of preparing them academically and financially for college enrollment. Before joining CBI, Robert served as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at his Alma Mater, New York University (NYU) for nearly four years where he worked specifically with the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) in an effort to increase minority and financially disadvantaged student enrollment.

Robert received both his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and his Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from NYU.  He has also spent a summer in South Africa where he had the opportunity to study higher education and social reform. Robert prides himself on being an active member of his community.  He has volunteered with various non-profit organizations such as Grand Street Settlement and Publicolor. As a member of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling (NYSACAC), he has served as a Conference Presenter, Workshop Moderator and Planning Committee member. He has also served as a Summer Institute Mentor where his responsibilities included training new high school and college admissions counselors.

Laura Rebell Gross

Senior Managing Director, Girls’ Education National Team

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Laura Rebell Gross is the Senior Managing Director for the Girls’ Education National Team — comprising The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS) and Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN) — which serves more than 10,000 students every year. A leader in the education field for decades, Laura implements a vision for developing innovative programs that enrich students’ lives, create experiential leadership opportunities, and build a path to college. Her expertise is widely recognized and she has been honored by Jewish Women International and The Center for the Women of New York. Laura is a national speaker and expert on girls’ public education.

To impact the lives of girls beyond New York City, Laura co-founded the Young Women’s Charter Prep School of Rochester, a YWLN affiliate, and takes the lead in identifying and establishing new school affiliates nationwide. Notably, Laura’s path to leadership started as a public school teacher, including serving as an English teacher at SL Network’s flagship school in East Harlem for six years.  She earned a BA from Tufts University, an MAT from Brown University, and has completed coursework toward an Ed. D. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and the Warner School, University of Rochester.

Jon Roure

Executive VP & Chief Innovation Officer

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Jon Roure is the Executive Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) for the Student Leadership Network. As the organization’s first CIO, Jon oversees program planning and implementation across the network. He continues to provide overall leadership to CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) while developing the work streams that support the organization’s strategic planning efforts. This includes increased focus and programming around alumni engagement, research and evaluation, and national expansion via Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate schools.

Prior to this year, Jon served as the Senior Managing Director of CBI for many years and totals decades of college counseling and management experience in both the higher education and nonprofit sectors. Jon began his career at Columbia University as an Early Intervention Initiative Coordinator for the Double Discovery Program and a College Advisor for Columbia’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). In 2001, Jon was hired by SL Network (formerly Young Women’s Leadership Network) as one of four inaugural counselors to pilot CBI in some of New York City’s Title 1 public high schools.  He served as a CBI director of college counseling at Health Opportunities High School for almost five years where he worked to build a college-going culture with its families, faculty, and staff that helped guide nearly 400 students to college.

Jon holds a B.A. in Sociology (1998) with a minor in Professional Youth Work from Rutgers University and an M.A. in Student Personnel Administration (1999) from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He is a proud alumnus of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF) at Rutgers University and is an example of what opportunity and access to higher education can do for first generation students.

Lesley Guggenheim

Chief Operating Officer

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Prior to joining Student Leadership Network Lesley spent 15 years supporting school systems, schools, and educators across the country to ensure students in under-resourced schools have access to the excellent education they deserve. She began her career working at – and later leading – the NYC Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) program and later became a Partner and then a Vice President at TNTP (formerly The New Teaching Project). Lesley has a BA in political science from Union College and an MPA in non-profit management from New York University’s Wagner School.

Yolonda Marshall

Chief Executive Officer

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Yolonda Marshall has committed nearly two decades of her life working to ensure that children growing up in underserved communities across the country receive the education they deserve.  She is Student Leadership Network’s first-ever Chief Executive Officer charged with overseeing the management of the organization’s $11M budget, leading the implementation of the organization’s strategic direction, operations and ensuring that the organization is a great place to work and grow.

Prior to joining Student Leadership Network, Mrs. Marshall served as the Deputy Chief Officer, Regional Programs for New Leaders; an organization whose mission is to ensure high academic achievement for all children, especially students in poverty and students of color, by developing transformational school leaders and advancing the policies and practices that allow great leaders to succeed.  In this role, Mrs. Marshall was responsible for managing a team of Executive Directors who led all local program implementation, client engagement and management of 70+ staff across the country.

Mrs. Marshall began her education non-profit career with Teach For America where she held a number of leadership roles on their national development and human assets team, and also served as Interim Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia region. Prior to joining Teach For America, Mrs. Marshall had a 14 year career with Showtime Networks Inc where she honed her sales and marketing skills, provided strategic direction to the nation’s top cable companies and managed a team of marketing specialists that created and executed comprehensive marketing plans to help launch critically acclaimed and Emmy award winning programming.

Mrs. Marshall received her BS degree in Marketing from Tuskegee University and her MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Media Management from Columbia Business School.

Ann Rubenstein Tisch

Founder and President

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ann began a 19-year career in broadcast journalism at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. She then moved to WCOO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later joined NBC Network News as a national correspondent, where she developed a strong interest in educational issues.

After covering dozens of education stories for the network and reading and studying data on single-sex education, she was inspired to create an all-girls inner-city public school to serve disadvantaged families. In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the New York City Board of Education, Ann turned her idea into a reality and opened The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of East Harlem – the first public all-girls school to open in the United States in 30 years. Her vision was to provide students growing up in underserved communities a high-quality college preparatory education modeled on the finest private schools.

Ann was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated summa cum laude with degrees in psychology and sociology. She currently serves as a trustee on the Board of Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Dean’s Council of The New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a trustee of the Center for Educational Innovation. She consults with many school districts and parent groups across the country about creating schools similar to TYWLS.

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