From Our CEO

Spring/Summer Update from the CEO

Yolonda Marshall
Chief Executive Officer
June 30, 2023

As we close our fiscal year , we are reflecting upon a successful school year and the continued expansion of our work. Excitement is in the air throughout Student Leadership Network as the Class of 2023 has crossed the graduation stage and is heading off on their post-secondary journeys!

Horizontal bar graph titled "Seniors Who:" showing 95% Applied to college, 85% made their final college choice, and 78% will attend four-year colleges. Footnote says "Historical SL Network averages of 70 to 74%"

As of late May, over 81% of our students have completed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which surpasses the state (55%) and national averages of (49%). We will spend the summer months ensuring that 100% of eligible seniors complete their FAFSA before they start college in the Fall so they receive the financial aid necessary to make college affordable. Additionally, our Alumni Engagement team is working on our graduates’ successful transition into the alumni community with our annual Collegiate Send-Off programs.

We also hosted our first Annual Collaborative College Fair since the onset of the pandemic at the College of Mt. St. Vincent on May 5th. We proudly welcomed nearly 1,000 high school Juniors from across our partner schools to meet with representatives from 50 colleges/universities!

Thanks to the support of corporate partners like Estée Lauder, Apollo, and Nike, we were able to bring in-person events back to all The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS). Programs like Cool Careers, Potential Paths, TYWLS at the Workplace, and TYWLS Glows Up, impacted more than 2,500 students across all six TYWLS. Additionally, we were excited to launch our first Whole Girl Education National Conference this Spring. Nearly 150 attendees participated in the three-day event featuring interactive breakout sessions and keynotes from leading voices in education exploring the theme of “Connected Communities.” We featured seven incredibly impactful plenary speakers, including Yolonda Marshall, Dr. Monique Couvson, Chancellor David Banks, Melissa Kilby, Laura Rebell Gross, Rachel Simmons, and Dr. Bettina Love.

We continue to work with Buffalo Public School stakeholders at all levels to strengthen the college-going culture in schools across the district. Our staff continues to see positive outcomes regarding FAFSA and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) completion rates, continuing last year’s upward trend. Congratulations to our very own Maria Lascarro, Director of College Counseling at Riverside Academy High School, whose school is one of the winners of the New York State FAFSA Completion Challenge! Bolstered by such a successful year, we look forward to adding two Buffalo schools in the Fall and increasing our impact in the area from 406 students served to 2,612 in one year.

Bar graph titled "Buffalo FAFSA & TAP Completion" with a key showing blue bars for Riverside and red bars for East high schools with FAFSA and TAP completion rates above the district standards.
Image of New York State with text "NY FAFSA Challenge 2023 Winner Riverside Academy High School"

We wrap up this year with an even stronger resolve to continue our work dismantling the gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequities that students from underserved communities face as they strive to pursue their highest educational potential. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling banning race-conscious admissions in higher education, the students we serve face a renewed challenge in gaining access to opportunities. The threat to diversity on college campuses deprives all students of a learning environment that will enrich their perspectives, cultivate their knowledge, challenge their assumptions, and prepare them to thrive in a competitive global economy. As we absorb the impact and implications of this ruling, SL Network will work closely with our partners to learn about the changes to the future admissions processes. We are more determined than ever before to support our students and ensure they have what they need to navigate the pathway to post-secondary success!

As always, we appreciate your support and thank you for championing our work.

Always my best, 

Yolonda signature

Yolonda Marshall
Chief Executive Officer

Read more updates from the CEO

Your support makes moments like these possible!

Join us in our work towards gender and educational equity.

Donate Now

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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.

Translate »