Virtual PD

Allyson Knox is Director of Education Policy and Programs in Microsoft's Washington DC office. Since joining Microsoft in 2004 she launched several new national education programs including InterroBang, Problem Solving with Smithsonian Experts, Service Technology Academic Resource Teams program with the Corporation for National and Community Service, Scaling Education Success, C2i Gaming Challenge with the NEA Foundation and CareerForward. At the state-level, she helped deploy Microsoft's IT Academy available for NC, VA, GA, LA, and WA high school students.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Allyson managed Workforce Innovation Networks as a senior program officer at the US Chamber of Commerce's Center for Workforce. She directed Michigan State University's Young Spartan Program – a university-urban elementary schools partnership, taught leadership and entrepreneurship courses to urban youth and community members as an economic development agent for Michigan State Extension, trained community leaders on building service coalitions at the Michigan Community Service Commission, secured federal grants and managed industry committees as Director of Workforce Development at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, and directed a nationally recognized community outreach program at Michigan's largest independent bookstore.

Allyson received her BA from University of Michigan, MA from Michigan State University, and Ed M from Harvard University.

Becky Johnson is Vice President of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF), a CEO led initiative aimed at helping to reduce obesity, especially childhood obesity, in the United States. Johnson serves as the deputy to the President, manages the staff and consultants for the Foundation in addition to ensuring all Foundation messaging fits the overall goals of the organization and its members. Johnson joined HWCF as Project Coordinator in July 2009. As a founding member of the HWCF team, Johnson has been instrumental in the development and expansion of our Together Counts™ curriculum and platform reaching over 27M students, the growth of our membership to over 300 corporate and non-profit members and the design of our partnership programs. Johnson also works with the corporate partners who use the power of their own brands to promote the Foundation's messages beyond HWCF's Together Counts social media presence.

Before joining HWCF, Johnson served in the federal government at the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security. In January 2009 she left the position of Director of Scheduling for U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. As Director of Scheduling, Johnson worked with other members of the Department's senior staff and the White House to strategically plan the Secretary's schedule to achieve the goals and priorities of the Department and Administration. Johnson was responsible for managing the activities that comprised the Secretary's Scheduling Office including final approval of the Secretary's daily schedule and serving as the liaison to other Departments, the White House and private sector participants regarding protocol, logistics and meeting strategy to ensure successful delivery of event messaging.

Johnson also served as Senior Advance Representative and Trip Coordinator for Secretary Gutierrez where she coordinated, planned, handled all logistics and led overall execution of official events both domestically and internationally. Johnson was advance for Trade Missions to Vietnam and China and over 20 domestic trips involving Senators, Members of Congress, foreign dignitaries and private sector leaders. She also advanced events for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in addition to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Minor in Public Relations from Union University.

Dr. Dale Blyth is a senior research consultant and advisor who recently retired as Extension Professor in the College of Education & Human Development at the University of Minnesota where he served as the Howland Endowed Chair in Youth Development Leadership and Senior Research Fellow with the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. For 15 years he served as Associate Dean directing the Center for Youth Development. The Center was home for the Minnesota 4-H Program (with over 100 staff and 10,000 volunteers touching 130,000 youth annually); the Youth Work Institute (focused on developing and delivering professional development to 4,000 youth workers), Youth Community Connections (then the statewide Mott network), and conducting applied research and evaluation. Recently he led an initiative to advance social & emotional learning outcomes. He serves on several community, state and national groups related to out of school time, data systems, and youth development.

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Dr. Blyth was the Director of Research and Evaluation at Search Institute and on the faculty of Cornell University and Ohio State University. He co-developed the Center for Adolescent Health at the American Medical Association, and was a Research Scientist at the Boys Town Center for Youth Development.

Dr. Blyth has co-authored a book, written many chapters and dozens of articles and delivered numerous presentations. His research focuses on access to, participation in, the quality of and outcomes from non-formal learning opportunities in communities as well as the use of data in policy and practice. Recently he led an initiative to advance social and emotional learning outcomes in collective impact efforts. He serves on several community, state and national groups related to out of school time, data systems, and youth development.

In his current roles, Dr. Blyth is a senior advisor and consultant on a variety of projects where his experience in bridging research and practice, change management, and shaping the fields of youth development and non-formal learning can be utilized to make a difference. He can be contacted at blyth004@umn.edu.

Ron DeChristoforo

Ron DeChristoforo is the State Policy Director for Texas Instruments (TI), Education Technology Group. In this role, he works directly with national, state, regional and district education and leadership organizations. He also leads TI advocacy for initiatives to support teacher development, improve student performance and advance access to opportunities for success in school and careers. Read more.

Kim Fremont Fortunato

Kim Fortunato was named Director-Community Affairs and President-Campbell Soup Foundation in May 2016. Kim is responsible for Campbell’s community affairs strategy and program, including employee volunteerism, Campbell’s Healthy Communities, and enterprise-wide expansion of the community affairs strategies. She joined Campbell in 2010 as the founding Director of Campbell’s Healthy Communities, the company’s signature philanthropic program based on a collective impact approach. Read more.

Becky Johnson

Becky Johnson is Vice President of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF), a CEO led initiative aimed at helping to reduce obesity, especially childhood obesity, in the United States. Johnson serves as the deputy to the President, manages the staff and consultants for the Foundation in addition to ensuring all Foundation messaging fits the overall goals of the organization and its members. Johnson joined HWCF as Project Coordinator in July 2009. As a founding member of the HWCF team, Johnson has been instrumental in the development and expansion of our Together Counts™ curriculum and platform reaching over 27M students, the growth of our membership to over 300 corporate and non-profit members and the design of our partnership programs. Johnson also works with the corporate partners who use the power of their own brands to promote the Foundation's messages beyond HWCF's Together Counts social media presence... Read more.

Allyson Knox

Allyson Knox is Director of Education Policy and Programs in Microsoft's Washington DC office. Since joining Microsoft in 2004 she launched several new national education programs including InterroBang, Problem Solving with Smithsonian Experts, Service Technology Academic Resource Teams program with the Corporation for National and Community Service, Scaling Education Success, C2i Gaming Challenge with the NEA Foundation and CareerForward. At the state-level, she helped deploy Microsoft's IT Academy available for NC, VA, GA, LA, and WA high school students... Read more.

Laura Kreutzer

Laura Kreutzer is the Corporate Director, Youth Programs for Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, one of the largest regional amusement park operators in the world. Focused on its mission to make people happy by providing fun, immersive and memorable experiences, the company owns and operates 11 amusement parks along with two outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and four hotels. Since 2012, Laura has been exclusively focused on creating awareness and expanding the student/youth programming throughout the Cedar Fair park portfolio to create unique and memorable experiences with an emphasis on “Edutainment”... Read more.

Jessica McGlyn

Jessica is Founder and President of Catalynics, a consultancy with the mission to help corporations and NGOs catalyze smart strategy, partner collaboration, stakeholder engagement, project ideation and development, communications and issues management in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Jessica also has experience in designing and executing market research and assessments. Some of Jessica's current clients include the World Resources Institute, the US Chamber Foundation, USAID, World Wildlife Fund and the Strategic Innovation Lab.

Jessica has 20+ years of sustainability operational and policy experience across a number of sectors, most recently serving as the North American Director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). In addition to member and stakeholder engagement, business development and program and policy support, Jessica ran WBCSD's global Sustainable Lifestyles project... Read more.

Jenny Nagaoka

Jenny Nagaoka is the Deputy Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, where she has conducted research for over 15 years. Her research interests focus on policy and practice in urban education reform, particularly using data to connect research and practice and examining the school environments and instructional practices that promote college readiness and success. She has co-authored numerous journal articles and reports, including studies of college readiness, noncognitive factors, the transition from high school to postsecondary education, and authentic intellectual instruction... Read more.

Kate Sheerin

As a policy analyst on Google's Public Policy & Government Relations team, Kate Sheerin focuses on Google's strategy and programs on creativity, education, and innovation. Prior to joining Google in 2010, she served as a Municipal and Community Development Volunteer for the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. Kate received her B.A. in Political Science from Tulane University.

Helen Soulé

Dr. Helen Soulé is the Executive Director of P21. She has led the organization's state recruitment and support effort, the 21st Century Learning Exemplar Program, and other initiatives. Soulé is a lifelong educator with P-16 leadership experience at the local, state and national level. Soulé served as chief of staff to the assistant secretary for the Office of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education, and as Executive Director of Cable in the Classroom. She is a founding SETDA member and the recipient of several awards, including Converge magazine's 30 "Shapers of the Future" award, E-School News "Impact 30 Award for Excellence", and the Mississippi Educational Computing Association's Technology Educator of the Year award.

Stephan Turnipseed

Stephan Turnipseed is the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Pitsco Education. Pitsco Education is a world leader in 21st Century hands on, project based, personalized learning. Turnipseed is an education thought leader, strategist and entrepreneur who is passionate about inspiring children through education. He is an advocate for hands-on learning which he sees as instrumental for 21st Century success. Read more.

Corporate Members

Partners and Honorary Advisors

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The National Afterschool Association established a Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) to help further the goals and mission of the organization and to educate and encourage corporate investment in afterschool programming.

Join Us for this "Don't Miss" event!

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

9:30AM-3:30PM
Space is limited

DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS
Once Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: Data Research on Social Emotional Learning, by Consortium on Chicago School Research

PANEL DISCUSSIONS: Achieving Social Impact Through Corporate Investment & Addressing the Skills Gap for Success in the Workplace

Click here to download the schedule!

RSVP to jennifer@naaweb.org

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Frequently Asked Questions:

What will Advisory Panel members do?
Quite simply, as an AST Reader Advisory Panel member you'll help guide us in planning and executing our editorial coverage by letting us know what issues and topics are important to you and your colleagues. We want to "pick your brain" as the saying goes. We want to hear your great ideas for topics, people, reading, tools, and issues AfterSchool Today should seek to address. We are also interested in your ideas, tips, tricks and tools. We want to learn about the concerns that keep you awake at night—what you need to stay on top of to support your staff and run and improve your programs. How do you go about creatively resolving most pressing problems of your day? This kind of valuable information sharing among members is what NAA is all about.

What's in it for you?
You'll be part of an exclusive group that helps guide our editorial coverage to make AfterSchool Today the most valuable publication to cross your desk. Periodically, Advisory panel members will be acknowledged in AfterSchool Today and thanked for their contributions with a personal letter from the Executive Director that is suitable for your professional portfolio and performance reviews.

What will be required of you?
We know you're busy, so we won't flood your inbox. Rather, we'll ask you to participate in at least one of these ways.

• First: We'll send you a quarterly online survey about the issues and topics we have covered and should cover in the future. This will help us assess how well we are doing, as well as help us better shape what we cover.
• Second: We'll share our editorial calendar with you in advance. If you feel you, your program, or someone you know has something to offer to a story, please let us know so we may call on you as a possible resource.
• Third: If you are interested and willing, we may send you an advance copy of an article or book that we think will interest you, and ask for your timely feedback.

You choose what ways you contribute, and how much or how little, by responding to our requests.

What's in it for us?
Your expertise. We want your opinions and your feedback. We want you to tell us what you want to see, as well as what you don't want to see. In this way, we'll be able to deliver the targeted editorial content that you need to do your job better, grow your career, and strengthen our field.

More questions? Please e-mail Gina Warner: gwarner@naaweb.org

Ready to apply? Click here.

Thank you for your interest in joining the Afterschool Today Reader Advisory Panel!

For FAQs about the responsibilities with this role, please click here.