Swearer Center for Public Service
Through programming, advising and fellowships, the Swearer Center engages the university in collaborations with local partners to strengthen communities and better prepare students to lead lives of effective action.
Staff
- Adam Bradley
Web & Technology Specialist
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As a Web & Technology Specialist, Adam splits his time between the Swearer Center and the office of the Dean of the College, providing technical support and Web programming expertise for both offices' programs. A 2005 graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a double major in History and German, Adam previously worked at Pitney Bowes, Fleet Bank, and Vanderbilt University.
- Peggy Chang
Director, Engaged Life Partnership
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Office Hours: By Appointment
In January 2009, Peggy became the Director of the Engaged Life Partnership, an initiative dedicated to creating more opportunities for students to connect their liberal educations to living lives of meaning and purpose. She co-leads the Careers in the Common Good program and the Urban Education Semester in New York City.
For twelve years she was the Executive Director of the Venture Consortium, a group of colleges committed to offering programs for students and resources for consortium members about experiential learning and social responsibility. Before that, she was the Coordinator of the Curricular Resource Center at Brown from 1994-1996, and she graduated from Brown with an A.B. in American civilization. Here she also serves as an acadmic advisor with the University/Community Academic Advising Program, and she has facilitated numerous discussions and workshops for students about activism, leadership, and public interest careers.
As an alum, she serves on the Alumnae Council of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women and co-founded the Brown University Asian/Asian Alumni Alliance. Originally from Long Island, New York, she lives in Warwick, RI with her husband and two sons.
- Jesse Cohen
Program Assistant, College Advising Corps
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Jesse supports the work of the College Advising Corps by providing training, resources, and support to twelve full-time College Guides and ten part time Access Scholars who work in urban, public high schools in Rhode Island to make more accessible the pathways to higher education, and by developing resources for and with school and community partners.
An inaugural College Guide and former Swearer Center student coordinator, Jesse has experience working and facilitating dialogue with youth and young adults in a range of settings from urban high school classrooms to the White Mountain National Forest, and has worked on issues of education equity, affordable housing, and homelessness in Providence.
A graduate of Brown University, Jesse is an amateur backpacker, carpenter, and gardener; a folk music vocalist; and sea-shanty enthusiast.
- Linda Cunningham
Program Director, Educational Equity
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Office Hours: 10 am-noon, Thursdays
In collaboration with other Center staff, student project coordinators, and community partners, Linda is leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Swearer Center's strategy for educational equity and opportunity. She also directly supports the work and learning of students engaged in community programs serving high school youth.
Some of Linda's prior professional experiences include serving as executive director of the Health Occupations Partners in Education (HOPE) at the University of Michigan. Linda launched this multi-systemic education outreach initiative of the University in 1998 in partnership with a local disadvantaged K-12 school district. The project, now in its 10th year, is aimed at increasing the numbers of underrepresented minority students pursuing future careers in the health sciences and medical professions. Prior to this role, Linda worked at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit in the departments of community outreach and volunteer administration to design, implement, and evaluate a new volunteer training program and train-the-trainer curricula for a school-based health education program. She successfully led the Institute's effort to bring this program to students in elementary and middle schools throughout the state. Her other areas of expertise include: early childhood care and education, professional development, strategies for positive youth development, education policy, program evaluation, and university- community partnerships.
Linda recently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, where she also earned a Masters in Education. Her prior education credentials include a Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia and a B.A. in Philosophy from Purdue. She lives with her husband, two young children, dog, and two cats in Ashaway, RI.
- Claudia DeCesare
Program Manager, Community/Resident Partnerships
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Office Hours: Noon-2pm, Wednesdays
Claudia works with students who are interested in exploring the social and community context of health in a variety of settings. After graduating from The University of Rhode Island in 1980, Claudia has worked in many social service settings, addressing a variety of social issues including domestic violence, substance abuse, nonviolence and violence prevention, parent education, youth and family advocacy, and education. She has also been involved in organizational and program development in a variety of contexts, including community-based and public school settings and at the Rhode Island Training School, the state's juvenile detention facility.
- Amy Doyle
Community Programs Coordinator
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Amy works with the Swearer Center staff to meet their administrative/office needs. She has worked in a variety of fields, from journalism to natural foods, and volunteered at St. Anthony's Farm, a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Amy holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
- Alan Flam
Senior Fellow
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Office Hours: 2-4 pm, Tuesdays
Alan Flam is the senior fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Service where he coordinates the University-Community Academic Advising Project (UCAAP), Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) Brown Votes! and Break Projects. He also serves as Associate University Chaplain, a position he has held since he came to Brown in 1982. In addition to supporting these community based projects, his role at the Swearer Center is to provoke and support conversations on campus and in the community about service, values, faith and conviction, and to promote thoughtful and effective research and advocacy as a strategy for social change. For eighteen years he served as Rabbi and Executive Director of the Brown-RISD Hillel Foundation where he created Visions for Change, a public service/tzedekah/tikkun olam initiative. On campus he was the co-founder of the Brown University Mediation Project (BUMP) and has also been involved with issues of diversity and pluralism as well as issues of loss and grief. He is President of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless and he also serves on the Jewish Community Relations Council, the RI Interfaith Coalition and the One RI Coalition.
- Alan Harlam
Director, Social Entrepreneurship
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Office Hours: By Appointment
Alan works collaboratively with community organizations and leaders and university students and faculty to identify, develop, and guide progress on projects that can respond meaningfully to community needs. In addition, he helps develop courses in social entrepreneurship including a two semester capstone course in Sociology. Alan has been a social entrepreneur at Amos House where he helped launch and manage their institutional and full-service catering business, More Than a Meal, which creates employment opportunity for the poor and homeless of Providence. Prior to his work at Amos House, Alan has been an investor and consultant to financially distressed, turnaround companies and worked for an international IT consulting company.
Alan is a partner of Social Venture Partners of RI which invests and advises Rhode Island social enterprises. He has also served on many community Boards including the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island and City Year Rhode Island. He and his wife, Bari, live in Providence with their three children, Jeremy, Gregory, and Sophie.
- Kerissa Heffernan
Director, Faculty Engagement and Royce Fellowships
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Office Hours: By Appointment
Kerrissa Heffernan is Director of Faculty Engagement, Royce Fellowship, and the Royce Fellowship for Sport and Society. Prior to joining the Swearer Center, she spent 2 years as a senior associate in Integrating Service with Academic Study at National Campus Compact. Prior to that, Kerri was the Arnow-Weiler professor of liberal arts at Lasell College, director of the Women's Studies Concentration, director of the Center for Public Service and founder and director of the Donahue Institute for Values and Public Life. She is the co-editor of The Practice of Change: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Women's Studies, co-editor of The Introduction to Service-learning Toolkit: Readings and Resources for Faculty and author of The Fundamentals of Course Construction. Kerri received her BA in Visual Arts from Florida State University, and her M.ed and Ed.D from Boston University.
- Dilania Inoa
Program Manager, Elementary & Middle School Programs
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Office Hours: 2-4 pm, Thursdays
Dilania works with other Center staff to provide support to students involved with education and literacy projects at the elementary and middle school levels. For the past fifteen years, Dilania has worked with many community organizations in Providence and other neighboring communities.
Dilania has lived in Rhode Island for nearly eighteen years, after her family immigrated to this country from the Dominican Republic. She graduated from Central High School, Providence, in 1994 and served as an AmeriCorps volunteer before entering Brown. She graduated from Brown in 1999 with a degree in Latin American Studies.
Dilania has served on the Providence School Board and is also a past board member of the RI Commission for National and Community Service. She has held the titles of Miss Rhode Island Latina, Miss Latina USA and Ms. Rhode Island Belleza Latina, enabling Dilania to work with Latino communities locally, nationally and internationally.
- Janet Isserlis
Program Manager, Adult Learning and Literacy
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Office Hours: 1-3 pm, Mondays
Through Literacy Resources/ RI Janet works with area adult literacy practitioners and learners to expand professional development opportunities, increase educators' capacity to use on-line technology, and assist in improving delivery of services to adult learners. She also serves as a advisor for student programs combining literacy and the arts. She has worked with adult immigrants and refugees in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vancouver, BC since 1980. In addition to classroom work, she is a co-author of Making Connections: A Literacy and EAL Curriculum from a Feminist Perspective, author of a number of articles about language/literacy learning, assessment and practitioner research, and a 1999-2000 Literacy Leadership fellow of the National Institute for Literacy. Janet facilitates teacher education workshops at educational and regional sites as well as national adult education meetings and conferences. Janet completed a Master's degree in English as a second language and cross-cultural studies at Brown in 1991, and holds a teaching degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
- Ralph Johnson
Program Manager, College Advising Corps
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Ralph is the program manager of Brown’s College Advising Corps, which aims to increase the number of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students entering and completing higher education. The program recruits and trains recent graduates of Brown University and the University of Rhode Island to provide the advising and support necessary to help students in low-income high schools and community colleges throughout the state to navigate the college admissions process.
While attending Brown as an undergraduate, Ralph was very active in Swearer Center programs. After receiving his BA from Brown in 1998, Ralph stayed on as an assistant director of Admissions. While there, he served as liaison to Hillel House, sat on the athletics, transfer student and Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE) committees, and was very active in student of color recruitment efforts. He became a college/career counselor and advisor at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center. During his time at the Met, Ralph helped build the college access and advising program and also worked with The Big Picture Company to help develop and manage its emerging transition support program. This program provided guidance, advocacy, and financial-aid help to all graduates of the Met Center. Following this, he joined the history and math faculty of the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter School in Hyde Park, MA and managed a small business.
Ralph remains involved in the community as an active member of the John Hope Settlement House (where he taught computer literacy skills and coordinated afternoon programs), as a Board member of Achieving Leadership's Purpose (formerly the Archbishop's Leadership Project) and with the Providence Chapter of the Brotherhood, Inc. mentoring program. Ralph is from Harlem, NY and lives in Providence, RI.
- Roger Nozaki
Director/Associate Dean of the College
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Office Hours: 2-3:30 pm, Tuesdays
Roger Nozaki serves as Associate Dean of the College for Community and Global Engagement and Director of the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University and holds an appointment as Lecturer in Sociology. In his role as associate dean, he is a member of the Dean of the College leadership team and provides oversight of the Dean of the College's three affiliate offices - the Swearer Center, the Office of International Programs, and the Career Development Center - to advance the university's priorities for undergraduate education and engaged scholarship.
In Roger's capacity with the Swearer Center, he works with community leaders, NGOs, university faculty and administrators, students, and center staff and advisory board to develop strategies to address societal inequalities and prepare students for lives of effective action. He serves as an academic advisor and co-teaches Sociology 1870A, Investing for Social Change: The Practice of Philanthropy. Roger is a member of the boards of directors of Innovations in Civic Participation, The Institute for College Access and Success, and Orphan Support Africa; and local committees such as the Providence Mayor's Task Force on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, and the Making Connections Providence Local Management Entity Advisory Committee.
Prior to this role, Roger served as executive director of the GE Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of the General Electric Company. In this role he worked with the Foundation's board, president, and staff to establish and execute priorities and strategies for the foundation's global philanthropic portfolio, and supported GE's global corporate citizenship and community relations efforts. Roger previously worked with The Hitachi Foundation and Campus Compact. In addition, he spent two years as a full-time volunteer in a community of adults with developmental disabilities. Roger holds degrees from Princeton and Brown Universities.
Roger has served on the boards of the NBC Universal Foundation, Independent Sector and Pact. He has also served on the American Council on Education's Commission on Minorities in Higher Education, the Conference Board's Contributions Council, the Council on Foundations corporate committee, the United Way of America National Corporate Leadership Advisory Council, and the Executive Committee of the Pathways to College Network, an effort he helped to found.
Princeton Project 55 features Roger Nozaki: http://blog.project55.org/2009/03/22/new-video/
- Wendy Perelman
Department Coordinator
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Wendy has been employed as an Administrative Assistant at Brown University for nearly fifteen years. She has spent the past twelve years as the Swearer Center's Department Coordinator where she is responsible for all of the Center's finances and daily office activities. Wendy is pursuing a degree in Elementary Education and is the mother of three children.
- Leticia Tejada
Program/Communications Coordinator
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Leticia works to communicate the work, philosophy, history, strategy, and outcomes of the Center's initiatives to the Brown University community by creating event publicity, developing new publications, organizing events, and disseminating important news items. She also supports the administration of the Starr and Royce Fellowships. Leticia is a graduate of Providence Public Schools with a degree in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design. Before coming to the Swearer Center, Leticia worked with several local non-profit organizations in creating and implementing their marketing campaigns and with local graphic design firms servicing international clients.
- Kate Trimble
Associate Director
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Kate is the Center's Associate Director, focusing on organizational management; development of data and evaluation systems; process improvement; and new initiatives, grant management, and special projects.
Prior to joining the Swearer Center, Kate was the Executive Director of the Lawrenceville Corporation, a non-profit community development corporation in Pittsburgh, PA. Kate managed staff and volunteers, oversaw the organizational budget and fundraising activities, and collaboratively developed and implemented neighborhood revitalization strategies.
In Pittsburgh, Kate also worked for the Coro Center for Civic Leadership directing the New Generations Program, which supported regional talent attraction and retention efforts with applied and policy-relevant research. As the Program Officer for Research and Policy at the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, a community development intermediary, Kate had primary responsibility for national collaborations and managed the inner-city business development grant portfolio. Before moving to Pittsburgh in 2001, Kate spent four years at the Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy as a Senior Research Analyst, and also worked as a policy researcher at the Urban Institute and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Kate graduated from Bard College and then received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in Providence with her husband, Billy and son, Peter.