Anne Adams is a Senior Program Associate at CYC. She has extensive teaching and practice experience, particularly in the areas of case management, youth development and services, intervention within health care settings, workforce development, individual and organizational change, and cultural diversity. Her work with the Center includes technical assistance on a number of national youth workforce development initiatives, the development and delivery of Executive Training programs on diversity and organizational development. Prior to her association with Brandeis, Ms. Adams served as an Assistant Professor/Academic Administrator with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Graduate School of Social Work. She holds degrees from Keuka College and Rutgers.

Lawrence Neil Bailis is a Senior Research Associate at CYC and an Associate Professor at the Heller School. In recent years, he has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator for more than a dozen evaluations in a wide range of youth development, education, and workforce-development related fields, including service-learning, college access programs, school to career initiatives, employment and training and welfare reform. Recent projects include a nationwide evaluation of America's Promise, Community Higher Education School Partnership (CHESP) for the Corporation for National and Community Service; evaluations of college access initiatives, including the GE Fund's College Bound Program and the Rhode Island Children's Crusade for Higher Education; evaluation of a comprehensive school to career initiative, Communities and Schools for Career Success, operating in Massachusetts and California; and a study of the impact of welfare reform on Massachusetts families. He regularly conducts training sessions on evaluation for nonprofit organizations and, as a visiting professor at Tufts University, Simmons College, and the Boston University School of Social Work, has taught graduate level courses on program evaluation. Larry received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his Masters' and Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Cathy Burack is a Senior Research Associate at CYC. Prior to coming to the Center she was the Associate Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) in Boston,  Massachusetts.  For the past ten years she has focused on ways faculty and administrators can fulfill the civic missions of their colleges and universities. This has taken several forms including facilitating Think Tanks,
co-coordinating and facilitating Wingspread meetings focused on the civic mission of research universities, directing various funded action research projects, a national evaluation of institutional support for service-learning, and extensive work with faculty from a wide variety of institutions. Cathy is also a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, a Campus Compact Engaged Scholar, a consultant for the Council of Independent Colleges' "Engaging Communities and Campuses"
project, and an adjunct faculty member in the Higher Education doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts Boston.  Recently she directed "Reversing the Telescope: Community Development from Within" which focused on the civic microcosm within the university community. She holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester, and a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. 

Faye Cohen, Research Assistant.  Faye’s work is focused on the areas of college access, service-learning, workforce preparedness and corporate citizenship, among others.  Her main responsibilities include: assisting with evaluation design; data collection; data analysis; information management; and conducting library, Internet, and field research.  Since joining the Center for Youth and Communities, she has worked on many projects including: GE College Bound, FIRST Robotics, Action for Boston Community Development, Principal Residency Network, Earth Force, Do Something, Learning In Deed, Learn and Serve America, and the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade. Prior to joining the Center as a full-time staff member, Faye was a Staff Assistant while pursuing a BA in Economics at Brandeis University.

Susan P. Curnan, Director of CYC and Associate Professor of Social Policy and Management, is also co-chair (with Lorraine Klerman) of the MBA and Ph.D. concentration in Children, Youth and Families, and co-founder (with Della M. Hughes) of the Community Youth Development Journal and CYD Anthology, both internationally circulated publications. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator of the America’s Promise Longitudinal Study and the ten-year retrospective evaluation of the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade.
Professor Curnan’s teaching and management practice is grounded in the promotion of social justice and well-being for children, youth and families- especially those who face greater odds as a result of economic insecurity, family conflict or disconnection, gender, community prejudice, homophobia and other life challenges. She is most interested in teaching and in working with students, organizations and businesses committed to improving the “triple bottom line,” including the economic, social and environmental outcomes necessary for healthy development and safe, just, prosperous communities.  In doing so, she conducts policy analysis, strategic planning, organizational and community assessments, leadership and management training, and evaluations for
non-profits, foundations and government.
A self-proclaimed “academic activist,” Curnan is a frequent public speaker at national conferences, a regular member of National Academy of Sciences Workgroups and other forums dedicated to furtherance and use of science for social well-being.
A graduate of Yale University with advanced degrees in policy and management and expertise in practical translation of academic theory and methods into useful, usable and timely management tools, she joined the Brandeis faculty in 1983. Prior to that she was the executive director of a non-profit organization in Vermont, director and trustee for a private foundation in New York City, dedicated to civil rights, education and environmental quality, and before that worked in the private sector as Chief Operations Officer for a family owned and family friendly corporation.

Tracy Cutter, Research Associate, joined CYC in January 2003.  She received her Master’s degree in Community/Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is currently working toward a Certificate in Program Evaluation from Tufts University.  Tracy’s research experience includes the collection, management and analysis of data, as well as survey design. She has worked in the areas of both social and health-economic research. Tracy currently divides her time at CYC between two projects, one of which is an evaluation of the College Bound program. Her work on College Bound includes managing the academic, program and survey data received from sites, as well as conducting periodic site visits to College Bound schools. Tracy also works on the FIRST Robotics project and is currently looking at the role that participation on a FIRST robotics team might play in encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in science and technology.

Ginger Fitzhugh is a Research Associate at CYC. Since joining the Center in March 2004, she has worked on evaluations of the YMCA of the USA’s Connecting Our Communities Project, America’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth, and Building with Books.  Her substantive areas of interest include community youth development, partnerships across nonprofit-business-educational sectors, change management, and organizational development. Prior to coming to CYC, she spent ten years in the nonprofit sector in a variety of direct service and management roles, including providing case management services to adults with chronic mental illness, offering supportive services to homeless and runaway youth, and managing operations for university-based child care programs. She also has several years of research and evaluation experience and has worked on projects for Head Start, Education Development Center, Inc., the Hitachi Foundation, The Home for Little Wanderers and the Boston Public Schools. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College and Master of Management degree from the Heller School at Brandeis.

Joe Frees is a Senior Research Associate at CYC.   He has worked on a wide variety of research and evaluation projects for national foundations, state and federal agencies, and community organizations in field-based studies of programs providing education, job training, and support services to youth and adults.  Working at Abt Associates from 1978-1995, his work covered the full span of education, job training, support, and service programs, with a particular emphasis on interagency collaboration and coordination of service delivery. He is familiar with and sensitive to the concerns of both adults and youth who use programs, front-line staff, and managers. He has directed six multi-site, longitudinal studies of collaborative programs involving different combinations of housing assistance, welfare subsidies, education, job training, and community service.  After leaving Abt Associates, he formed the Sparhawk Group, a research collaborative with a focus on providing practical recommendations and technical assistance to human service and social service agencies. He received a PhD in anthropology from the University of Minnesota in 1976.  In addition to his research experience, he has taught at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota.

Andrew B. Hahn is Senior Advisor and a founding member of CYC. He conducts policy analysis, evaluation, and demonstration projects for government agencies and major foundations on employment, education, youth, and community development. His books, numerous published articles, and reports are syntheses of practical lessons for foundation officials, policy makers and program managers about effective strategies for assisting America's most vulnerable youth. His work is aimed at identifying opportunities to strengthen American youth policies and assisting local leaders to contribute to policy development and change. Through  the Heller School's new Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), an emerging  interest is focused on how institutions of higher education contribute to  progressive social change. He teaches graduate courses and co-chairs the Heller  School graduate programs in children, youth and families. Andy is a regular op-ed writer for Youth Today.

Della M. Hughes, Co-founder and President of the Institute for Just Communities, is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainable Development and CYC and is the former Executive Director of the National Network for Youth in Washington,
DC. She is a noted community researcher, public speaker and writer and is the
co-founder and publisher of CYD Journal and principal of the CYD Publishing Group.
She has served on numerous national and local boards and advisory committees, and has been an invited participant in three global youth forums. She serves as a consultant to foundations, as well as local and national nonprofit and government organizations in the many aspects of CYD, as well as systems change, community planning, learning organizations, management, evaluation, and board development. Della holds advanced degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and the University of Tennessee School of Social Work.

Chris Kingsley, is a Senior Trainer and Senior Program Associate at CYC. In his roles as researcher, evaluator, consultant, and nationally known trainer and group facilitator he works with local communities to: develop curriculum and implement high-quality project-based learning and community service learning experiences for young people; design and implement education reform initiatives (e.g., learning standards, career pathways, nontraditional instructional strategies, etc.); enhance the long-term employability of "at-risk" populations; implement essential elements of effective youth program design; develop and "grow" inter-institutional partnerships; design and implement community-wide service systems; and provide client-centered case management services. Prior to joining Brandeis over a decade ago, Chris worked for 17 years as a practitioner in the employment-and-training and education fields. He has served in a variety of line staff, managerial, and leadership positions among an array of institutions serving young people in Boston, Massachusetts.

Susan Lanspery, is a Senior Research Associate at CYC. She conducts evaluations, manages research and demonstration programs, provides technical assistance, and teaches. Her substantive interest areas include community building, community youth development, college access, intergenerational connections, and community living for older people and people with disabilities. Dr. Lanspery is especially interested in policies, programs, and strategies that provide the resources and support needed to help people participate meaningfully in their communities. She earned her doctorate in social policy at the Heller School, Brandeis.

Alan Melchior, is the Deputy Director and a Senior Research Associate at CYC. He brings nearly twenty years of experience in managing a wide variety of wide variety of policy, evaluation, and technical assistance and training initiatives in the fields of youth, education, and workforce development. Much of Alan's recent work has focused on the evaluation of service-learning and community service-related initiatives. In the past decade, he has led a number of major service-related evaluation projects. These include the national evaluations of the Serve-America and Learn and Serve America, School and Community-Based Programs for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS); studies of the institutionalization of service-learning for the CNCS and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and evaluations of several national service-learning programs, including the Earth Force, Active Citizenship Today (ACT), and Do Something programs. Other projects have included evaluations of college access programs, school-to-career initiatives and comprehensive community partnerships, as well as studies of the uses of technology in youth and community-based programs. Overall, Alan brings a strong commitment to the use of research and evaluation as a means of strengthening programs and services for young people.

Tom Piñeros Shields, is a Research Associate at CYC with over ten years of professional experience in the service-learning field at other organizations such as The Partnership for Service-Learning, City Volunteer Corps, Tufts University, University of Illinois and East St. Louis Action Research Project. He holds degrees from Cornell University and Tufts University and is currently enrolled in the Heller School Social Policy Ph.D. program on a part-time basis. Since joining CYC, Tom has worked on projects for America’s Promise, Massachusetts Department of Education, Junior Achievement, Salem Academy, KIDS Consortium, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), and the Corporation for National and Community Service. He teaches a spring semester course for undergraduates: Sociology 92a: Internships for Community Action and Social Change. In addition, Tom has worked to develop campus community partnerships with Waltham organizations to form the Waltham Action Research Project (WARP) with high school seniors and a book of community indicators for Healthy Waltham.  He has an interest in applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better understand community youth programs. Tom lives in Salem with his wife Alexandra and two children Padraic and Peter.