Founders' Group

Crafting the Initial Design

The Founders Group, a cohort of eight Coro – Leadership St. Louis Alums crafted the initial mission and vision for AMCS.  The Founders of AMCS utilized their knowledge of St. Louis, experiences of organizational management and leadership positions to bring together a diverse group of individuals committed to creating a dynamic and successful charter school in the city of St. Louis.  The Founders Group transferred governance to the Board of Directors in May of 2009. 

Megan Green

Megan is the Co-founder and Executive Cirector for the Active Minds Institute. She was born and raised in Oneonta, NY. As the child of two teachers, Megan's love for learning and education developed at a young age. She attended Penn State University, where she earned her B.A. in Political Science. She was the President of the Penn State College Democrats, and Vice-President of Tapestry, the Penn State Tap Dancing Company. Upon graduating in 2005, Megan moved to St. Louis to participate in the Coro Fellows program in Public Affairs. After completing Coro, Megan briefly taught in St. Louis Public Schools as a part of Teach for America. It was this experience that led Megan to know that long term she wanted to start a school in St. Louis City that integrated the Coro-St. Louis Methodology into its programs. After teaching, she became the Development Director at Metro Homeless Center, where she used her innovative approach to organizational development to build Development, Communications, and Volunteer Programs from scratch and assist in transforming the organization from floundering to flourishing. Megan has spent the last year applying her experience with expanding the capabilities of a non-profit to create the foundations that will allow the Active Minds Institute to be a leader in education in St. Louis. Megan will continue her role as ED at AMCS once the school opens.

Brenda Guynes Glick

Brenda is the co-founder and volunteer for the Active Minds Institute. She was a Coro Fellow in 2007-2008. Before that, she received her Master of Social Work from Washington University, where she was a Practicum Advisory Representative, Children, Youth & Family Representative, and an officer for Voices for Children. She was a teacher at a variety of schools, including Ladue and Normandy School Districts. She also attended the FOCUS Leadership for Teachers program, where she learned the discrepancies among children in the St. Louis area. She has a B.S. in Education and a B.A. in Political Science. At the University of Missouri, Brenda was a reporter, a peer educator, a Student Coordinating Committee Member, Alpha Sigma Lambda Honors Society Member, and Outstanding Student of 1998-1999. She graduated Magna Cum Laude. She is active in the community, working toward policies to help children and families in the region. Brenda was chosen as a Founder based on her background in social work, her diverse experience as a teacher, and her experience as a mother of a child with special needs. These attributes bring a holistic perspective to educating children the school planning processes. As a social worker, Brenda recognizes that a school must be able to assist its students with coping with impediments to learning that occur outside of school, including unstable living situations, drugs and alcohol, or health issues. Additionally, as a mother of child with special needs, Brenda lends the parental perspective to the creation of AMCS' programs for special student populations. Brenda plans to continue her role at SSF once the school opens.

Marisa Suescun

For the past nine years, Marisa Suescun has dedicated her professional life to public education, working from both within and beyond its classroom walls. Most recently, Marisa served as Assistant Director of the Exploring Leadership program at the Coro New York Leadership Center, where she trained high school participants as they gained knowledge about NYC education policy, developed civic leadership skills, and educated and mobilized their peers to take action on an education issue that affects their schools. At Coro, Marisa also wrote curriculum, grant and evaluation reports, contributed to the organization’s first strategic plan efforts, and developed and ran the Exploring Leadership alumni program, which included a Youth Advisory Board, a mentoring program, and monthly events.

Marisa began her career as a member of the first cohort of the NYC Teaching Fellows. She taught elementary school at PS 63 in the Bronx for three years, assuming the roles of Lead Fourth Grade Teacher, Saturday Academy teacher, and track team assistant coach. She then worked for the NYC Teaching Fellows, training and supporting new teachers, managing relationships between various education partners, and coordinating the organization’s first 500-person professional education conference. In 2005-2006, Marisa completed the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in Saint Louis, where she worked in month-long internships across various fields, engaged in leadership training, and conducted over 100 interviews with local and national community stakeholders.  She has taught SAT preparation to low-income students in Brooklyn, and English as a Second Language in Ecuador. Currently, Marisa teaches ESL to international students, and serves on the Founders Group and Curriculum Committee of Active Minds Institute, an organization set to open a public charter school in Saint Louis in September 2010.

In addition to her work within the field of education, Marisa also reports on education, family lifestyle, film, food, art, and local culture. Over the past 5 years, Marisa has published dozens of articles and reviews in New York Family Magazine, Education Update, Manhattan Movie Magazine, untilmonday.com (a Brooklyn-based cultural blog), and other publications. Marisa holds a Bachelors degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University, and a Masters in Education from City College of New York.

Didier Sylvain

Didier recently earned a Masters in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University immediately following his completion of the Coro Fellowship Program in St. Louis in 2006. His graduate study included a concentration in social entrepreneurism, examining the collaboration between public, private and non-profit entities to solve social problems, which is a crucial part of the AMCS philosophy. At Boston College, he earned a B.A. in Economics with minors in both Philosophy and Music. Didier currently works for Deloitte Consul ting’s Federal Practice where he focuses on performance improvement at Federal agencies and worked in the areas of strategic planning, communication strategies and performance measures. Didier also brings to AMCS the expertise or working in the Institute of International Education as a Project Officer of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. His previous work experiences include organizing for the 2004 Kerry/Edwards Presidential Campaign, working on diversity outreach for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, researching voting trends at The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and volunteer service in Haiti and Brazil. Didier is a first-generation Haitian-American from New York City. He plans to continue to assist AMCS in an Advisory capacity once the school opens.

Phyllis Burstein Katz

Phyllis is a St. Louis native who holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from Washington University and holds Masters degrees in Marketing and Human Resources as well as in Education with an emphasis in Reading and Special Education. Phyllis has worked for Scholastic Publishing and in the fall of 2004 took a position teaching Read 180 for the St. Louis Public School System. Currently, Phyllis is working in an Urban Charter School teaching Reading and using the Read 180 program. Phyllis also teaches Marketing and Human Resource classes for Lindenwold University. She was chosen to be a Founder because of her wide experience in business, human resources, and teaching, particularly students with Special Needs. Phyllis plans to be among the first Teachers at AMCS.

Jennifer Prudencio

 Jennifer is the Program and Academic Advisor for the Columbia Under-graduate Scholars Program (CUSP) of Columbia University in New York, an academic enhancement program focused on developing students as engaged public servants of the global community. She attended Saint Louis University to pursue her BAs in psychology and sociology. From immigration research to the design of diversity and leadership programs, Jennifer developed a strong thirst for public service and education very early in her career. She completed the Coro Fellowship Program in St. Louis doing work that included needs assessments of Eastern Illinois nonprofits and analyses of community-school partnerships in the Jennings School District to build local involvement. She received her M.A. in Education Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. At Columbia, Jennifer teaches seminars on leadership, forms partnerships to create public service internships, and designs experiential, skills-based curriculum in which students conduct research in their first year of college. She also engages in educational outreach with youth organizations for Asian-Americans. Jennifer was chosen as a Founder because of her experiences integrating the Coro-St. Louis methodology into education, which is a large part of her job at Columbia University. Jen plans to continue to assist AMCS in an advisory capacity once the school opens in 2011.

Jay Swoboda

 Jay is currently the Project Manager of Corbin Homes, a St. Louis-based company that brings green, modern, precision-built homes to urban neighborhoods. Jay has been a champion for housing and homeless issues for the past seven years as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of What's Up Magazine and ran the Great Rivers Community Family Asset Development Program with housing group Justine Petersen Housing. Jay brought the idea of a street publication to St. Louis in the fall of 2000 upon his return from Aerators. Through his efforts and those of countless volunteers, the organization has become the source of social awareness news in St. Louis. Jay is a 2002 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis in Arts and Sciences and has created several for-profit and nonprofit startups during his time at Washington University and in his years living in St. Louis post-graduation. Jay was chosen to be a founder of AMCS for his knowledge and experiences working in facility development in St. Louis. As a developer who emphasizes sustainable building, Jay is a tremendous asset to the Founding Team in its efforts to identify a facility and ensure that the school is as eco-friendly as it is financially viable. Jay plans to continue to assist AMCS as its facilities needs grow in the future.

Ebony Cain

Ebony is currently a third-year doctoral student within UCLA's Urban Studies program. She is a research associate with UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and works on multiple research projects associated with urban youth and academic trajectories. Her personal research focuses on youth civic engagement. Prior to beginning her doctoral work, she worked with the Program Evaluation and Research Branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). She also worked with the Campaign for College Opportunity, a non-profit organization, focused on creating college opportunities for future generations in the state of California through legislation and direct support. During the summer of 2008, Ebony worked with urban high school students from LAUSD. Ebony spent the first half of this summer working with the UCLA/ IDEA Council of Youth Researchers during a summer seminar. This partnership between the mayor's office and UCLA allowed a group of high school students to engage in graduate level research and to develop policy memos around the issues of promoting youth voice. The second half of this summer was dedicated to working as the co-coordinator of the Youth Empowerment and Research Seminar (YEARS) project, a joint partnership between LAUSD and Pepperdine University. YEARS is designed to provide urban high school students with the opportunity to investigate critical issues that influence democratic participation and the educational achievement of youth. Ebony was chosen to be a Founder because of her extensive knowledge in research-based academic practices as they relate to urban youth. Her studies give her access to information about urban education from across the country that can be implemented at AMCS. Ebony will continue to assist AMCS in an Advisory Capacity once the school opens.