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Our Staff

Our team works every day to make schools more equitable and safe for all students. Learn more about what drives our team.

Leadership Team

Shantay McKinily

Director, Positive Schools Center and Promise Heights School-Based Programs

Email: [email protected]

What do you do for the PSC?

I am the Director of the Positive Schools Center. My responsibilities encompass a lot of different areas of our mission and goals. I coach and support principals in creating strategic plans to shift their school culture and climate. I conduct training on restorative practices, trauma, and the school to prison pipeline to ensure that our schools have the best foundational knowledge for this work. I actively work to support and advocate for legislation that will help establish and maintain holistic and healthy environments for students. Furthermore, I help to set the direction for the Positive Schools Center, where we are going both in the short term and long term, especially in staying connected to our organization’s strategic goals. I am tasked with supporting and creating a collective vision for the Positive Schools Center and I support the team throughout. Finally, I am also responsible for recruiting funders and strategic partnerships to work with Positive Schools Center.

What school and neighborhood do you serve?

I support schools throughout all of Maryland.  As a Baltimore City teacher and principal for 18 years, Baltimore leaders and schools are especially important to me. 

What drives you to work with the PSC?

The idea of community is the biggest driver for the work I do with the Positive Schools Center. That idea of community is about the idea that collectively we can change how generational trauma and institutionalized racism impacts our students.

Nikomar Mosley

Associate Director, Positive Schools Center and Promise Heights School-Based Programs

Email: [email protected]

What do you do for the PSC?

As the Associate Director for the Positive Schools Center and Promise Heights School-based Programs, I supervise the Intensive Climate Cohort (ICC), where I collaborate with school leaders, wholeness teams, and PSC coaches to ensure that schools receive the skills and supports they need to produce and sustain a positive instructional environment. Additionally, I support school-based leaders and their teams to create and implement effective climate plans that positively enhance the school community. I also work with stakeholders and policy makers to facilitate effective decision-making related to school culture and climate.

What school and neighborhood do you serve?

Most of my work is with Baltimore City Public Schools principals, however I also support other Maryland school leaders and their teams.

What drives you to work with the PSC?

After working with City Schools for 22 years as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal, my goal is to advocate for the well-being of school leadership. The Positive Schools Center is an environment where I can support principals with improving their social competencies, while focusing on the development of their students’ social, emotional, and academic learning outcomes.

Asia Hinton-Sweets

Assistant Director of Community Schools

[email protected]

As the Assistant Director of Community schools, I manage and lead our Community School Coordinators, to ensure they are equipped with the supports, resources, and tools needed to create and sustain high quality community schools. I am a former Community School Coordinator, I offer first-hand experience in implementing the community school strategy. When I am not hard at work supporting our coordinators to reach their highest potential and assisting with grants, I am partnering with school and district level leaders on ways to enhance and expand the community school strategy.

Cass James

Assistant Director of College and Career Readiness

Email: [email protected]

As the Assistant Director of College and Career Readiness, I oversee postsecondary programming for the Promise Heights and SWCOS Next Generation Scholars program. In this role I have established a comprehensive college and career readiness framework that incorporates best practices, in preparing students for middle school and high school completion, while advancing in pursuit of their postsecondary goals. Essentially, the work I do supports students in making informed academic and career choices, to succeed in their postsecondary journey.

Providing students equity and access to quality services that support their positive development, has been my professional passion, for as long as I can remember. This dedication to youth development, youth empowerment, and youth- centered success has not only chartered my career, but it also closely aligns to the work of the PSC.

Emily Ames-Messinger

Assitant Director of the Intensive Climate Cohort (ICC)

[email protected]

As the Assistant Director for the Intensive Climate Cohort (ICC) I collaborate with school leaders, educators, and PSC coaches to make sure that schools have the supports they need, when they need them. In addition to supporting schools, I coordinate the PSC’s contracted partnerships, support fundraising and advocacy efforts, and help implement the PSC’s commitment to reflective data collection and evaluation. I also thankful to serve as a MACRO field instructor for graduate Social Work students.

 

Portia S. Rouse

Lead Social Worker

[email protected]

As the Lead Social Worker for the PSC, I provide support through supervision to the LMSW social workers and social work interns at the PSC. I collaborate with various staff on being the social work support for those rendering services to the communities being served by the PSC as needed.

I have had experience working in and around Baltimore completing community work with youth, adolescents and families throughout my career. I believe it is a treasure hidden in plain sight. People just have to see it and the people we serve for who they are and not what the world and stereotypes want them to be. I want to be a part of the community who helps people see the treasure.

 

School Climate Coaching

André Turner

School Climate Coach

[email protected]

Community Schools

Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts (AFSIVA).

Corey Fraction

Community School Coordinator

Matthew A. Henson Elementary School

Felicia Moore

Community School Coordinator

Wolfe Street Academy

Aneuri Castro

Community School Coordinator

Next Generation Scholars

Ebony Knight

Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts

Harold Jones

College and Career Coordinator, Renaissance Academy

What do you do for the PSC?

As the College and Career Coordinator (CCC), I collaborate with students, their parents, and their instructors to create individualized post-graduation experiences. This work includes a high school graduation plan, summer work and internship opportunities, college and career visits, and one-on-one advising. I am also the advisor for the Next Generation Scholars program at my school site. Next Generation Scholars is a program that enhances college and career awareness and college completion for low-income Maryland students.

What school and neighborhood do you serve?

I work specifically at Renaissance Academy, but the work I do serves the whole community in the Upton-Druid Heights neighborhood.

What drives you to work with the PSC?

I’ve always been an advocate for education access and community elevation. In my current role, I am able to achieve this by engaging families about high school success and postsecondary goals. The positive effects of a strong community can be directly seen in school success.

Lucy Hassel

College and Career Coordinator, Booker T. Washington Middle School

What do you do for the PSC?

I am the College and Career Coordinator at Booker T. Washington Middle School. I work with students and families to increase awareness and access to all the resources and experiences out there that get students thinking about the future they want for themselves. I work closely with 8th grade families through the high school choice and YouthWorks application processes. I meet with 6th–8th grade social studies classes monthly, covering topics and doing activities related to high school, college, and career readiness. I plan and execute college and career exposure events like college tours, job shadows, and mock interview events. My goal is to build capacity in students for future-oriented thinking, so they are prepared to carve their own pathway to success long after they have left Booker T. Washington.

What school and neighborhood do you serve?

I am located at Booker T. Washington Middle School in the Upton neighborhood.

What drives you to work with the PSC?

I am driven to work for Promise Heights-PSC at Booker T. Washington Middle School because it is a historic school with an amazing staff that works every day to improve and provide a well-rounded educational experience for our students. I am honored to be a part of a school community that works in collaboration with students and families to set and achieve goals for their futures.

Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) Leadership

Dr. Wendy Shaia

PSC Founder and Executive Director of the Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS)

Rebecca Davis

Assistant Director of the Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS)