Deborah Rubien, Interim Co-Executive Director
Ms. Rubien has over 20 years experience working in public and private sector human services, with an expertise in child welfare, parent education and program development. As the former Assistant Executive Director at Talbot Perkins Children's Services, Ms. Rubien directed the Lower East Side office and a staff of 20. She was responsible for a community-based child welfare program offering a range of services, including foster care, prevention services, substance abuse treatment support and respite services. Ms. Rubien also served as a policy analyst with the Mayor’s Office for Children and Families and the Citizen’s Committee for Children. Ms. Rubien has taught at LaGuardia Community College and teaches peer counseling to adults and children. She earned a Masters of Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work and a Bachelors of Science from Cornell University.

LaTrella Penny, Interim Co-Executive Director
LaTrella R. Penny, whose expertise is in the field of child welfare and human services, has served the children and families of New York City for over 17 years. She has a wide range of private and public sector experiences that include direct services to families, facilitation coordination of  interagency collaboration, strategic planning, technical assistance to, and capacity-building for, nonprofit organizations, policy research, training, program development, design, and management.  Ms. Penny received her Bachelor of Arts from Adelphi University and her Executive Masters Degree in Public Affairs from Bernard M. Baruch College.

Loren Miller, Project Director, Bushwick IMPACT
Loren has over twelve years of program experience both internationally and in the United States. She has worked as a trainer, educator, advocate, community organizer, researcher and strategic planner on diverse community development and human rights operations. Ms. Miller joined ACT in May 2004, coming from Women’s Network/Mujeres Unidas in East Harlem where she created and developed an advocacy program for immigrant women. Prior to settling in NYC to raise her son, Ms. Miller was in Ecuador as a graduate student, where she studied changes in social power and rates of domestic violence among women in cooperative work associations. She also monitored human rights and developed a civic-education training program in Haiti with the United Nations/Organization of American States International Civilian Mission, provided technical assistance to a women’s cooperative in Senegal with the Agencies Jeunesse Agricole de la Casamance and advocated for just human rights policies while working in the government affairs division of Human Rights Watch. Ms. Miller’s New York City based work includes a study on Haitian community and police relations in Brooklyn, legal and social services coordination for immigrants facing deportation, advocating for defendants in the Bronx Criminal Justice System, and developing a human rights education training-manual with the Center for the Study of Human Rights of Columbia University. Ms. Miller received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and has completed coursework towards her PhD in Anthropology with the University of Pittsburgh.

Winette Saunders-Halyard, Director of Case Conferencing
For the past fourteen years, Winette Saunders-Halyard has worked in the fields of higher education and social services within city government and the nonprofit arena.  Since 2004 she has been responsible for facilitating case conferences, identifying policy barriers, and providing service coordination interventions for families within the Bedford Stuyvesant community as the Director of Case Conferencing for the One City/One Community Project.  

Prior to joining ACT, she was an Assistant Director of Hospitals at Rikers Island where she managed a component of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s discharge planning program for the forensic mentally ill population. She has also held positions as a Psychiatric Social Worker at Housing Works and an adjunct faculty member at the College of New Rochelle. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at New York City College of Technology. Her non-profit community development career began in 1997 with Housing Works where she supervised case management services provided to formerly homeless people who had H.I.V. She also taught the essentials of case management to job trainee participants and new employees. Ms. Saunders-Halyard received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in African Studies from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University.

Joyce Friedmann, Special Projects and Policy Coordinator
Committed to leading programs addressing families, at-risk youth, justice, poverty and other pressing social concerns, Joyce joins the staff of Agenda for Children Tomorrow after working with ACT on a project for Turnaround for Children earlier this year.  Prior to graduate school, Ms. Friedmann had a long career as a Marketing and Public Relations executive in the cultural arts, specializing in community and educational outreach and cultivating a new and diverse audience for the theatre.  She has worked on numerous national and international productions and taught courses at the Yale School of Drama.  Though Ms. Friedmann found great success in this field, she had a strong desire to pursue her life long interest in public service.  Along with her position at ACT, Ms. Friedmann is currently the Board Vice President of Paths to Leadership, a start-up non-profit dedicated to developing new leaders in developing countries and has volunteered her time to numerous youth organizations.   She looks forward to utilizing her skills and expertise in strategic planning, project management, community and educational outreach, policy analysis and teaching as she continues working with ACT.

Ms. Friedmann holds a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts and Psychology from Antioch University and a Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management and Policy from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

Cyrus Zulkarnaïan Kazi, Program Associate
For over a decade, Cyrus has worked in the areas of program development, executive/board management, strategic planning, organizational development, fundraising, and marketing/ public relations with several national and international organizations. He is currently working on the New Immigrant Services program targeting West African, Mexican, and South Asian immigrants and connecting them to the child welfare system. He also works as an advisor to several organizations and provides training in management/board development, strategic development, board governance issues, internal control, program evaluation, and other areas. Most recently he has worked as an advisor to the creative team of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation (WTCMF), and serves on the board of the Global Policy Project.

Naeema Hernandez, Program Associate
Naeema Hernandez is a 2006 Cum Laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She majored in political science, with a concentration in urban development and urban policy issues. Naeema's knowledge of public policy also includes her participation in the 2005 Princeton University summer fellowship program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs. Her passion lies in creating community development strategies and policies that positively impact
youth within disadvantaged communities. Before taking her position at Agenda for Children Tomorrow, Naeema was selected to participate in the New York City Urban Fellows Program in the City's Department of Education. She worked in the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. Her present position as Program Associate at Agenda for Children Tomorrow, will give Naeema the opportunity to continue to work for the goal of making lives better for communities and families on various city-wide initiatives.

Maritza Villa, Administrative Assistant, Bushwick IMPACT
Maritza Villa has been on the One City/One Community project team since September 2005, and coordinates all administrative and operational functions. Prior to joining One City/One Community, Maritza worked for a high volume, regional auto appraisal company where she was responsible for all administrative functions. Maritza has over 8 years experience working within the customer service industry. She loves working with children and has earned college credits in Early Childhood Education at Brooklyn College. She plans to achieve her goals of completing her Bachelor of Arts degree and educating young children.

Sandy March, Research, Communications and Special Projects
Sandy has been with ACT since February 2004. She brings several years of experience as an administrative professional. Sandy holds a BA in Psychology and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College.

Kenia Ortiz, Special Assistant

Kenia joined the ACT team in March, 2007. She brings five years of administrative experience from Weill Cornell Medical Center. Kenia holds a Bachelors of Arts from Hunter College and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College.

Brian McGowan, Administrative Assistant

Osman Boakye, Brownsville/East New York Child Welfare Neighborhood Network Liaison

Osman earned his Masters Degree in Public Administration from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in 1998. His previous experiences have been in the field of international trade and community development. He has also worked with World Trade Consortium for nine years as a Program Coordinator and with a range of private and public organizations on the development of economic and community programs, ranging from heath, education, transportation and many socio-economic issues. Origanally from Ghana West Africa, Osman also helped to train two non profit organizations in Ghana, as well as in the coordination and production of many charitable deeds, the management of volunteers, and logistics coordination. Currently, Osman is guiding the Network throughout the strategic planning and execution phase of the ACS CPI that Brownsville/East New York Network was recently awarded. He is also currently pursuing his Doctorate.