Experience

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  Orchard place

  May 1996 - Aug 1996

  Summer intern

  Serve as a staff person in a residential PMIC house serving youth ages 10-17 with various psychiatric and substance abuse diagnosis.

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  Family support network - helping services of ne iowa

  Jun 1997 - Mar 1998

  Coordinator

  Recruit and coordinate parent education classes, serving parents of children birth - age 18Write grantsStart new programming, such as the Healthy Start program, which connects volunteers with new moms to help them adjust to life with a childCollaborate and partner with local planning entities to develop and start new programs within the community

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  Lutheran social services

  Jun 1997 - Mar 1998

  Caseworker

  Provide family centered services, skill-building services, social-emotional assessments, and family preservation services to families and children in a 10 county area in NE Iowa. The majority of cases involved children in the foster care system.

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  Four oaks

  Aug 1998 - Apr 2001

  Youth worker and supervisor

  Supervise and serve as staff in the shelter and girls residential treatment centerWrite treatment plansProvide group educational sessions Serve as an ally to pregnant teensAssist students with their personal and academic goalsProvide tutoring services and classroom assistance in the shelter school

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  Iowa division of criminal and juvenile justice planning

  Apr 2000 - Dec 2008

  Program planner iii

  Support the work of the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development which promotes the use of positive youth development in state agencies and state-funded programs through the provision of training and technical assistance, policy development, and youth engagement. Work to align the youth development policies and practices of ten state agencies. Manage federal and foundation funding and multiple local contracts, maintain three websites. Provide on-site training and technical assistance on best practices and coalition development to multiple state and local entities serving youth. Pilot a systems-wide implementation of the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) tool including management of 15 assessors working across 65 prevention, intervention, and sanction programs throughout school, therapeutic, residential, and after school-based environments. Develop and manage the State of Iowa Youth Action Council (SIYAC). Work closely with the Iowa Youth Survey planning team to revise questions, clean data, and develop administration process for the state-wide youth survey. Present on behalf of the National Governor’s Association at the national convening of juvenile court judges on the results of the Iowa YPQA pilot. Assist with the drafting and eventual passing of legislation that codified the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development and the SIYAC, both of which are in existence today.Support the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, Gender-Specific Services committee, and the Disproportionate Minority Contact committee. Draft RFP’s, review and staff RFP review committees, and assist with policy and practice challenges related to juvenile offenders. Show less

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  Iowa department of human rights; division of latino affairs

  May 2001 - May 2002

  Practicum student

  Serve as a lead in the development of the Latino Heritage Festival, now held annually in downtown Des Moines. Write grants and develop relationships with potential donors and committee members. Assist with the conducting of six state-wide hearings and multiple one-on-one interviews related to hate crimes, employer abuse, and law enforcement hostility. Write and was awarded the Iowa’s first dual diagnosis grant specifically addressing the unique needs of Latinx youth.

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  Iowa department of human rights; iowa division of criminal and juvenile justice planning

  Aug 2001 - May 2002

  Contract employee

  Catalog and organize how local Decategorization Councils utilized DHS and CJJP decat funds. Create a compilation report of this information for public dissemination.

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  Community youth concepts

  Aug 2008 - Jul 2021

  Executive director and co-founder

  Community Youth Concepts is a mission-driven agency specializing in positive youth development programming, adult and youth training, and technical assistance. CYC offers a variety of services to youth-serving entities including staff development, program management, group facilitation, youth training, and organizational development. CYC also provides several services to youth, including the Teen Outreach Program, a service-learning program grounded in evidence-based best practices, a middle and high school mentoring program, a high school youth philanthropy board called uVoice, and several other stand alone groups specifically tailored to school needs. We meet youth where they are by understanding their motivations and using those to connect them to the community in pro-social ways. Through our direct service work and our training of adults in best practices, we decrease risk and increase protective factors that help youth be successful in school, work, and life.My role has been to cultivate the growth of the organization overseeing both capital campaigns, policy development, grants and fiscal management, board management, HR elements, donor relations, and contract relationships. I am responsible for building the Stowe Heights Challenge Course, the only high and low ropes course that is ADA accessible in the Midwest. This course is open to groups of youth and adults looking for team-building, experiential opportunities. Show less

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  Croll consulting, llc

  Sept 2008 - now

  Nonprofit management specialist

  Croll Consulting primarily serves the strategic, capacity building, management, and facilitation/training needs of human-serving nonprofits through project planning and management, group facilitation, and strategic planning. In this role, I served as a Field Consultant for the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality training nationwide on assessment of best practice in youth development settings. Throughout those 10 years, I worked with several United Ways, Boys and Girls Clubs, and countless school districts and youth serving non-profits. Show less

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  National resource center for family centered practice

  Sept 2008 - Sept 2009

  Research assistant

  NRC is housed within the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. In this position, I assisted with social service-centered or public health research and evaluation projects across the state of Iowa. Specific projects included evaluation of the colo-rectal awareness marketing campaign, abstinence-based pregnancy prevention fidelity checks, and Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) research and data analysis.

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  Greater des moines leadership institute

  Jan 2013 - Jan 2014

  Class of 2013-2014
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  Iowa department of public health

  Sept 2018 - now

  • Capacity Coach

    Apr 2011 - now

  • SAPST and Substance Abuse Ethics Trainer

    Sept 2018 - now
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  Community youth concepts (cyc)

  Jul 2021 - now

  Supervisor

  Supervise and work with coalition activities to implement environmental strategies specific to the reduction of opioid use in the metro.

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  City of urbandale

  Dec 2021 - now

  City councilwoman

  Listen, advocate for, and represent the citizens of Urbandale for the betterment of all citizens.

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  Grand view university

  Jan 2022 - Dec 2022

  Adjunct professor

  Teach organizational and community practice to undergraduate and graduate level social work students.

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  Homeward

  Sept 2023 - now

  Community engagement coordinator