Our most heartfelt "goodbye and thank you" goes to Luisa Montero-Diaz, LAYC's Maryland Multicutural Youth Centers (MMYC) Director for the past ten years. Luisa will be serving in her new role as Mid-county Regional Service Center Director for Montgomery County. In this position, she will represent the county as the liaison between government and residents and businesses in a very diverse area of the county. She will work with individuals, community groups, regional Citizens' Advisory Boards, and other agencies to provide information, identify and assess regional problems and issues, and recommend and implement solutions. Although Luisa is leaving, we know that we will stay connected to her in her new role. 

After five years as Chief Strategy Officer, Nicole Hanrahan will be moving to full-time status as Executive Director of the LAYC Career Academy Public Charter School. Nicole was one of the founders of the LAYC Career Academy and has served as the part-time Acting Executive Director since the school opened its doors in September 2012. The LAYC Career Academy, today with 200 students, needs a full-time Executive Director. The LAYC Career Academy Board of Directors offered Nicole the well-deserved position.  

While we say goodbye to Luisa, we are proud to announce that Lupi Quinteros-Grady will be moving into the Maryland Director position from her MMYC Deputy role. Lupi has been a part of LAYC for over 18 years. She is also an LAYC alum, having participated in many LAYC programs as a youth. She exemplifies LAYC's mission and values in all that she does, and her deep knowledge of program, talent management, and evaluation brings her seamlessly into her new role.

We are so pleased that Charon Hill-Reed has stepped in as the MMYC Interim Deputy Director to serve as Lupi's leadership and thought partner in Maryland. Charon is known to all MMYC staff as she has consulted with MMYC for the past 10 years. She initially worked with the Upward Bound program in Montgomery County. She then served as an employer outreach specialist to support our annual Let's Get it Started Youth Job Fair for our Workforce program in Montgomery County for several years. Her work with our Summer Youth Internship program has been invaluable to partnering with new employers and establishing placement sites.

We are also very fortunate that Patricia Bravo is stepping in as Interim Chief Operating Officer. We are honored to have Patricia back as she came to LAYC 15 years ago as the director of the new Youth Opportunities program. She then moved over to be the Director of YouthBuild and led that program through its transition to the LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School, where she was the founding Executive Director. Since leaving LAYC and YouthBuild Public Charter School in 2008, Patricia worked for YouthBuild USA, the national technical assistance provider for all the YouthBuild programs around the country, and as an independent consultant writing proposals for nonprofits, scoring proposals for government agencies and foundations, and providing assistance to nonprofits in program improvement. She is thrilled to be back at the youth center. Like Charon in Maryland, Patricia's deep knowledge and history with LAYC has meant that she has hit the ground running.