New Prevention Projects Coordinator:
Leah Uberseder has 15 years of bridge-building nonprofit experience in conflict resolution, organizational support, fundraising, capacity building and youth development. After a B.A. in Peace & Global Studies from Earlham College, Leah began her career with a focus on international human rights and conflict resolution. A deep desire to find meaningful
work within her own community led her to switch gears and join Girls Incorporated in 2005, where she spent over three years in sexual health and prevention education. A move to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008 provided the opportunity to hone organizational capacity building, fundraising, and constituent engagement skills on behalf of several national organizations with health justice focused missions. Leah moved back to Holyoke this summer because she literally couldn’t stand to be away from this community any longer, and is extremely excited to be joining the Holyoke Youth Task Force after admiring the commitment and real change-making of its membership for so long.
New Youth Projects Coordinator:
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, José Enrique Cartagena-Ortiz, better know as Kike; move two years ago to Holyoke, Massachusetts, to live more closely to his immediate family and to embrace new educational, professional and personal experiences. After graduating high school, Kike completed a Bachelor Degree in Arts in Education with a concentration in Visual Arts Education at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Also; he completed a Master Degree in Arts in Education with a concentration in Instructional Systems and Educational Technology at the University of the Sacred Heart in Santurse, Puerto Rico. Kike worked as a Visual Art Teacher in the Department of Education of Puerto Rico in the elementary school level; in addition, he worked as an Instructional Designer at the Center for Development and Support of Academic Technology (or better known by its Spanish acronym as C_DATA,) as part of the Cooperative Title Five Project at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao. For the past two years, Kike worked at John F. Kennedy Middle School in the City of Northampton as a Technology Integration Assistant, advising teachers about the use and integration of technology in their courses and classrooms, supporting them in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of Blogs, Web pages, online courses, tutorials among others technologies, and supporting the district IT department. Also, at JFK Middle School, Kike had the opportunity to be a Spanish language facilitator, translating official documents to Spanish, and supporting the English Language Learners (ELL) students and their parents as translator. During this summer Kike volunteers at Nuestras Raíces, a grass root organization in Holyoke, Massachusetts, helping the organization to improve the technology in their main office, and redesigning and updating their webpage. Recently Kike became the new Youth Program Coordinator at The Holyoke Youth Task Force; he is exited about his new position, because, as he said, he wants to contribute with his skills, knowledge and experience in the development of strong youth leaders and organizations in Holyoke.
