Meet our team
We have a small but mighty core team of staff at the Afterschool Alliance who focus on supporting and increasing opportunities for young people to have their voices heard on issues they care about. Our external Advisory Committee brings their varied expertise in civic engagement, environment, AI, and business to guide our work. Learn more about all of us on this page!
Anita Krishnamurthi (she/hers)
Anita is the President of the Collective for Youth Empowerment in STEM & Society (CYESS), our newest STEM initiative at the Afterschool Alliance. She also serves as the Senior Vice President for STEM & Youth Engagement at the Alliance. Anita is deeply committed to promoting equitable access and engagement with science and supporting young people on this journey. She has a PhD in Astrophysics from The Ohio State University and moved to a career focused on informal STEM learning, recognizing its intersection with social justice and social mobility. Anita has previously worked at the US National Academies, NASA, and the Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest philanthropy.
Leah Silverberg (they/them)
Leah Silverberg joined the Afterschool Alliance team in 2017 and assumed the role of Senior Project Manager for the CYESS initiative in 2023. In this capacity, they lead initiatives focused on amplifying youth voices across the Afterschool Alliance while providing dedicated support for CYESS. Leah has worked to develop the Afterschool Alliance Youth Ambassador Program and the Million Girls Moonshot Flight Crew and supports the CYESS Community of Practice. Leah holds a B.A. in Biology and Studio Art from Bard College.
Leslie Brooks (she/hers)
Leslie Brooks joined the Afterschool Alliance team in August 2023. She is the Afterschool STEM Hub Manager and her work is focused on supporting policy and advocacy work needed to advance afterschool STEM programs. Through her work collaborating with CYESS, she ensures we infuse youth voice into our policy and advocacy initiatives, such as through holding youth listening sessions and soliciting youth feedback on policy language. Before joining the Alliance, she was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development through the fellowship program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Leslie graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and Master of Public Health in 2012.
Deidra Parrish Williams
Deidra Parrish Williams leads Corporate Citizenship for global climate solutions and sustainability leader, Trane Technologies. By 2030, she will oversee the investment of $100M in STEM education and career pathing for populations around the world currently underrepresented in the industry. She has led community impact programs that have generated millions of dollars of incremental revenue, as well as charitable support, social capital, and allyship for marginalized communities. Deidra has enjoyed meaningful board engagements including with Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Project GRAD, the Energeia Partnership, and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Foundation.
Kelly Siegel-Stechler
Kelly Siegel-Stechler is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. She is primarily focused on projects that advance civic learning and development in K-12 education, as well as questions related to youth political and electoral engagement. Before joining CIRCLE, Kelly received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Education and worked in educational programming and youth outreach and engagement at the Interfaith Center of New York, the Louis August Jonas Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation.
Lauren Gibson
Dr. Lauren Gibson specializes in empowering young people to take environmental action for societal change. She currently serves as the first special advisor on youth engagement at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), working to bring more youth voices into agency decision-making. In previous roles, Dr. Gibson has consulted on youth-adult partnerships, researched the factors that drive young people to engage in large-scale environmental advocacy behaviors, and communicated the importance of environmental education efforts to Congress. Her experiences growing up as a youth environmental activist continue to inform her work.
Neha Shukla
Neha Shukla (she/her) is 20 years old and an inventor, social entrepreneur, activist, and AI ethicist. She develops tech to solve problems in her community, tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and homelessness with support from Microsoft, NASA, and NVIDIA. She serves as the Chair and US Representative at the World Economic Forum’s Generation AI Youth Council, advocating for ethical and child-safe AI in collaboration with corporations and policymakers. Her innovations and activism are recognized in the New York Times, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, and commended by President Biden and the Royal Family.
Scott Ganske
Scott Ganske is a leader in youth civic engagement and service-learning, with over 20 years of experience as an educator, consultant, and nonprofit executive. He has trained and coached more than 10,000 students, educators, and administrators across 100+ countries, shaping global conversations on youth leadership and volunteerism. As Vice President at Youth Service America, he works to activate young people to find their voice and take action in their communities. Scott also serves as the Coordinator for the Youth Advisory Council at the Maryland Civic Education Coalition and is a founding board member of Girls Global Academy, Washington, DC’s first all-girls public charter school. Scott holds an MPA and a B.A. in Education. In his free time, he enjoys volunteering and spending time with his wife and two daughters.