Network Leaders

Working Together Towards Equalizing Education

Student Leadership Network
December 16, 2021

As the season of giving and gratitude is upon us and we celebrate 25 years of leading equity in education, we’re reflecting on our community of incredible partners. This generous community of education champions believe, as we do, that education is a gift and has everlasting value for our communities and society. Read on to meet some of these individuals and organizations who have stepped up to join us in our mission of equalizing education and helping our young people fulfill their dreams.

The Acker Family: Supporting Young People from Cradle to College

Since their introduction to us in 2008, David and Andrea Acker have been loyal supporters and good friends to the organization. After hearing our students’ stories at the (Em)Power Breakfast and CBI Gala, and learning how we’re breaking down barriers to education, it didn’t take long for the Ackers to become steadfast supporters.

David and Andrea Acker pose for a photo with a CBI student who is holding a certificate for completing the Step Ahead 5K in 2019.

While their relationship with us began as donors, David and Andrea have grown to become an active, multifaceted part of the SL Network community. They’ve visited The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) and CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) partner schools where they have seen our work in action – in particular, the dedication and great lengths our directors of college counseling (DCCs) go to in order to make the dream of college a reality for our students.

Additionally, they’ll always take us up on an opportunity to pitch in and volunteer while connecting with students, alumni, and staff like they did at our 2019 Step Ahead 5K.

The Ackers continue to raise awareness for our organization and have helped grow our groundswell of support. Not only have they brought friends into the fold, David and Andrea have fostered a giving and philanthropic spirit in their family. Their sons, who are also passionate about youth development and education, join the family in making philanthropic decisions together. They share a passion for organizations focused on education and children, and are thoughtful in supporting all ages of young people, all the way from “cradle to college.”

The Robin Hood Foundation: Critical Support During COVID-19 and Beyond

The Robin Hood Foundation has been one of our most critical partners for nearly 15 years. Since 2007, their partnership has been key in our growth and impact. Their support has been especially significant in keeping students on pace for reaching their higher education dreams during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Robin Hood Foundation logo.

While the Classes of 2020 and 2021 experienced major disruptions in their college application process, the Robin Hood Foundation’s support was critical in helping our CBI team – particularly DCCs and college transition coaches – ramp up their support and ensure that the students in our network continued to meet college application milestones, and prepare for college enrollment and persistence.

Bridge Through College students catch up over lunch and grow their community at Hunter College.
CBI alumni catch up over lunch and build community at Hunter College.

In fact, in the midst of the pandemic, the Robin Hood Foundation has made further investment in our college persistence work. This fall, our Alumni Engagement team launched a pilot of Bridge Through College (BTC) – a direct service program that offers first-year students support with campus belonging and reaching critical college persistence milestones. BTC is currently supporting CBI alumni who are first-year students at Hunter College and BMCC, and we are excited to use our learnings from the pilot to increase our impact on our alumni community, especially as they begin their higher education journey.

EPAM: Developing Future Leaders in STEM

EPAM Systems has been long committed to providing quality education for young people. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, EPAM supported and partnered with several education initiatives to ensure students had access to educational resources and tools. With a proven commitment to education, we were proud to welcome EPAM into our community in 2020 when they joined us as a new corporate partner.

epam

As a leading global digital transformation services and product engineering company, EPAM also shows a deep commitment to elevating women in STEM. With a shared passion for developing girls and young women into the future leaders in STEM, EPAM partnered with us in providing high-quality STEM learning opportunities for our TYWLS students.

A group of TYWLS students pose for the camera with a bag of trash collected on and along the Hudson River.

With the support of EPAM, this past summer students from TYWLS Astoria, Bronx, East Harlem, and Queens participated in technical, hands-on science research programs through the New York Botanical Garden Research Program and Secondary School Field Research Program (SSFRP) where they learned about research and evaluation techniques as well as scientific communication and had a chance to apply these new skills out in the real world. 

Lindsay Gruber Dunham: TYWLS Teacher Turned Board Member

In 1998, when Lindsay Gruber Dunham arrived at TYWLS East Harlem as a student teacher, she quickly fell in love with the TYWLS model and school community.

One of her first experiences at TYWLS was in the classroom of Laura Rebell Gross, who now serves on our leadership team as the Senior Managing Director of Girls’ Education at SL Network. Lindsay, who had finished her master’s in social work and education, joined TYWLS East Harlem full-time the following year as a history teacher and it didn’t take long for her students to fall in love with their new teacher.

Students would often stop by her classroom to say hello and hang out; it wasn’t uncommon to hear lots of laughter from Lindsay’s classroom! However, as an educator, Lindsay is serious about making a meaningful impact in her students’ lives. Her approach and genuine care for the students firmly established her as a beloved, successful teacher at TYWLS.

With a philanthropic focus and passion for girls’ education, Lindsay was asked to join our board of directors and she began her tenure in 2004. As a board member, Lindsay and her family have shown incredible dedication to our Girls’ Education programs. They consistently show up to celebrate our girls at the (Em)Power Breakfast, and also lent instrumental support in the founding of our affiliate school in Rochester, the Young Women’s Charter Preparatory Academy (YWCP). 

Though she no longer teaches at TYWLS East Harlem and now focuses on philanthropic work with her family’s foundation, The Gruber Family Foundation, Lindsay continues to be a committed board member and wonderful friend to the organization. We are grateful for all the ways that she has shared her passion for equalizing education and helping our students achieve their dreams.

Sara Clarke: From Volunteer to the Leadership Team

In 2006, Sara Clarke was coordinating a panel for a leadership summit hosted by the Harvard Business School African-American Alumni Association (HBSAAA). There she had a chance to meet Andrew Tisch who shared the story of TYWLS. Not long after, Sara was invited to visit TYWLS East Harlem and became one of our early Jumpstart to College volunteers.

Over the years, Sara became one of our most dedicated and cherished volunteers at each of our signature volunteer events including Cool Women, Hot Jobs and Brag Parties. She also hosted TYWLS Works for seven years while she worked at Showtime Networks, Inc. During these events, she and her colleagues mentored students through fun, interactive projects and job shadowing. TYWLS Works quickly became one of the most highly anticipated volunteer events at Showtime so it wasn’t difficult to enlist participants!

A big group of Showtime volunteers and TYWLS students pose for a group picture in front of a Showtime sign.

Sara always felt deeply enriched and inspired by the students’ intelligence, curiosity, vulnerability, and sisterhood that they showed. To this day, she cherishes the thank you notes she received from students after her first time volunteering at Cool Women, Hot Jobs at TYWLS Astoria. She has also maintained and developed closer ties with some of the students she met at these events. 

There’s a quote by Gandhi that has long inspired and sustained Sara: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” This quote has proven to be true for Sara, and continues to serve as inspiration. After nearly 20 years of supporting SL Network’s programs and volunteer initiatives, Sara has recently joined the organization as its Chief Operating Officer! She says this opportunity is like a “Venn diagram in which three circles are the SL Network mission, my values, and the leadership skills I can offer to help the organization achieve its strategic goals.” We are thrilled to learn from Sara as we work together in equalizing education.

Sara Clarke takes a group photo with TYWLS students at a Jumpstart To College event.

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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 $13M 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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