Executive Director
Year Up New York City, New York, NY

“I came to WWS because I felt I needed to examine policy issues through a more academic lens. I had the flexibility to take a wide range of domestic and international courses while attending WWS, and that diversity provided an extra level of expertise and experience that has helped me in my career. The graduate policy workshop in which I participated has had a real impact, rather than just being an academic exercise. In my current senior position, not only is the School’s M.P.A. degree highly respected, but I have found the analytical skills I learned while at WWS invaluable.”

Year Up is a one-year, intensive education and apprenticeship program for urban young adults ages 18-24. Year Up's high support–high expectation model combines marketable job skills, stipends, apprenticeships, college credit, and several levels of support to place these young adults in a viable path to economic self-sufficiency.

Lisette is the former chief of staff for the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), an agency responsible for funding over 1,000 community-based organizations. Prior to DYCD, she was the director for special projects at the After-School Corporation, where she designed forums for superintendents and principals as well as pilot youth mentoring programs in the local high schools. Lisette also has worked at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and was a Senior Program Officer for the Corporation for National Service, overseeing AmeriCorps programs in the Northeast. Her previous board experience includes being a national board member of Jumpstart (a national early childhood education program), and a trustee of her alma mater, Brooklyn College, as well as the board chair of the East Harlem Block Schools. She is a Truman Scholar from 1990 and a Rhodes Scholar from 1992.