Dear Friend,
Thank you so much for being here today! We are excited for a day of learning and leading together.
The two generation (2Gen) approach is a framework for intentionally and effectively building on the existing strengths, resources and motivation of families and the community to create a clearer pathway towards economic mobility, prosperity and thriving for families.
We hope that this time together will help us:
Develop a shared understanding of 2Gen work for our community
Understand the multi level and multi sector application of the 2Gen model
Be inspired by stories of other 2Gen initiatives across our state and county that are bringing communities together around common goals and priorities Generate ideas for furthering this approach in our community and take action
Thriving families create thriving communities, and we look forward to working together to build a community where everyone thrives.
Vanessa Philbert CEO, Community Action Partnership
Vanessa Philbert, Chief Executive Officer for the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County, has been engaged in community building and non profit work for the past 20 years. At CAP, she provides leadership, management and vision to the variety of CAP programs. Vanessa brings a unique perspective to community problem solving based on her personal experiences and journey out of poverty. She is married with three daughters She holds a Masters in Strategic Leadership and Organizational Development from Elizabethtown College and a Bachelors in Applied Phycology and Organizational Development from Albright College.
Megan Leaman Heinly is the Director of Economic Justice for the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County where she focuses on gathering research and community input on solutions to poverty and works to coordinate promising and evidence based approaches and strategies for increasing economic mobility and thriving for families in CAP programs through models including the Two Generation Approach and Family Centered Coaching. This is Megan’s second time working at CAP. Moving back to Lancaster in 2020, she came back to CAP because of her high respect for the organization’s mission, values and workplace culture Megan has experience working in diverse areas including foster care and adoption, refugee and immigrant services, family homelessness services, child sexual trauma recovery services, grants and grant management, and anti poverty community initiatives. She is a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) with 15 years of experience in human services and has a Master’s in Social Work from Temple University
Karen Grimm-Thomas
Paola Silvestre
Meg Snead
Andrea Heberlein
Dana Emanuel Elizabeth Merin
Paula Umaña
Sarah Haight
Lexi Robinson
Arelis Perez (she/her) is the Vice President of Economic Empowerment at Community Action Partnership. She serves on the organization’s leadership team in addition to leading two of the organization’s impact teams, Household Stability and Safety and Empowerment, which consists of 5 programs. She oversees programs that collaborate with clients as they journey through a continuum of support; moving from crisis to stability to thriving. Arelis started her career in community organizing and partnership building more than 15 years ago in various professional settings: medical systems, public education, and within the community benefit sector Over the last 9 years, she has led teams in addressing barriers and needs of communities who have been historically oppressed through holistic partnering.
Arelis holds a bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Science from Messiah University.
Julie Rhoads (she/her) is the Vice President of Health and Nutrition at Community Partnership of Lancaster. She is responsible for leading the Health and Nutrition Impact team at CAP that includes Women Infants and Children (WIC), senior centers, nutrition education, and food distribution She is passionate about leading teams to holistically serve families and strengthen the Lancaster community.
Prior to joining CAP in 2021, Julie worked in various positions in social work, nonprofits, and education. Most recently she served as the Director of Educational Initiatives and Research at the Council on Social Work Education, the national membership organization for social work education where she led research initiatives, professional development, grants, curriculum resources, and special projects and initiatives including the development of CSWE’s 2020 strategic plan. During her time at CSWE, Julie served on numerous committees including CSWE’s Anti Racism Task Force, the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards Committee, and chaired social work’s National Workforce Initiative. Julie holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Millersville University
Sarah Haight is the director for 2Gen practice at Ascend at the Aspen Institute. The Aspen Institute’s mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. Ascend is a policy program of the Institute and a hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that move children and their parents toward educational success and economic security.
At Ascend, Sarah manages the national Ascend Network; two generation practice and technical assistance strategies; national convenings, including the 2Gen Practice Institute, ThinkXChange, and roundtables on key areas of 2Gen approaches; and directs programming of special projects, including managing the Aspen Family Prosperity Innovation Community. Prior to The Aspen Institute, Sarah worked as an editor and journalist at Conde Nast in New York City She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University and has worked as a therapist in direct practice clinical settings with women with low incomes, with a focus on maternal mental health. She is licensed to practice social work in New York and the District of Columbia. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College.
Lexi Robinson is the Senior Program Associate for Ascend with the Aspen Institute’s Family Prosperity initiative. In her role, she supports the design, planning, and execution of Ascend’s Family Prosperity Innovation Community as it continues to amplify methods and principles for comprehensive family supportive policies.
Prior to joining Ascend, Lexi worked in the Communications and Development Department at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition – where she contributed to the organization’s storytelling and outreach efforts as well as supported fundraising and partnership strategies – served as an Americorps Member for City Year DC, and Events and Outreach Coordinator for the Sadie Collective. While at City Year, Lexi cotaught and mentored 7th and 8th grade special education students in the DC public school system She experienced firsthand the difficulty of engaging students virtually during a global pandemic and the increased tension for parents surrounding inflexible work constraints and student support. At the Sadie Collective, Lexi took lead in the planning and execution of strategic partnership opportunities with organizational partners such as the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. With the Sadie Collective’s chief goal being to eliminate the barriers for Black women in economics and related fields, Lexi’s execution and relationship leveraging has resulted in providing hundreds of Black women long overdue visibility within the profession.
Lexi brings with her a complex view of equity and justice work and an array of program management tactics that she feels honored to add to the Ascend team. Lexi is originally from Novi, Michigan and graduated with a BS in Nonprofit and Public Administration from Central Michigan University.
Meg Snead was nominated to serve as the next Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Most recently, she served as Gov. Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning overseeing the administration’s development and implementation of policy priorities, including the COVID 19 pandemic response, ensuring access to health care, and breaking barriers to critical human services.
Prior to joining the governor ’ s office, Meg was an executive policy specialist at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, focusing on Medicaid, mental health, and substance use policy. Meg comes to the position with a background in affordable housing, homelessness, and health care policy, having spent 10 years working in the nonprofit industry in the Denver, Colorado area Meg has a bachelor’s in government from the University of South Carolina and a master’s in political science from the University of Colorado.
Karen Grimm Thomas serves as the Early Childhood Education Strategy Advisor working in Support of Pennsylvania's Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) at the Pennsylvania Key. In this role, she leads the Pennsylvania Key’s Creative Child Care Solutions (CCCS) initiative focusing on building the business community’s capacity to support their employee’s child care needs as a means to attract and retain staff and create positive work environments. Karen began her early childhood career working in Head Start programs in Pennsylvania including roles as a teacher, classroom mentor, education coordinator and training coordinator She then spent 12 years as the Associate Director of the Pennsylvania Head Start Association where she provided training and technical assistance while advocating for Pennsylvania's Head Start and Early Head Start children, families and staff.
In 2017 Karen joined the team at OCDEL as Director of External Relations. In this role she lead the Office’s coordinated, intentional approach to external engagement by interacting with interested parties to both improve their understanding of OCDEL policy and ensure that OCDEL's leadership team had a deeper understanding of how that policy was experienced when implemented in the field. Karen earned her BS in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State and a MS in Human Development from the University of Illinois. Originally from Pittsburgh, she now lives in Harrisburg with her husband and two children
Paola Silvestre Porras leads the Social Impact work in the U.S at Indeed. Prior to joining Indeed, she worked at United Way for Greater Austin, heading up the implementation of the first community wide two generation strategic plan in the US and the 2 Gen coalition. She works to ensure programs and systems in the Austin/Travis County area create pathways for families to achieve financial stability and advance racial justice.
Prior to joining the United Way team in 2019, Paola worked at Goodwill Central Texas for three years, and before entering the nonprofit world, she worked over 12 years in Investment Banking.
She holds a degree in Business Administration from La Universidad de los Andes.
Andrea L. Heberlein is the Executive Director of The Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission. The Commission was created by an Executive Order for the purpose of mobilizing business leaders across Pennsylvania to secure support for investments in early learning
Before joining the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission, Andrea served as the Vice President of Strategic Impact for United Way of Lancaster County, where she helped to lead and support community initiatives focused on improving the educational, health, and financial outcomes for children, youth, and adults Under her leadership, United Way of Lancaster County was recognized nationally and statewide for unprecedented increases in health and social service collaboration and innovative place based strategies related to social determinants of health.
Andrea has an extensive background and experience around community building work, service coordination for adults with disabilities, community systems development for children with disabilities, and directing an employer sponsored, NAEYC accredited, early childhood learning center for Penn Medicine/Lancaster General Health and Franklin and Marshall College. She currently serves at the Chair for the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition’s Steering Committee and on the Advisory Council for Nurse Family Partnership.
Andrea received her Master of Social Work degree from Millersville University, where she is an adjunct professor and teaches undergraduate and graduate social work classes. She is a Policy Fellow alumnus from the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning and a graduate of the United Way Worldwide Leadership Program.
Dana Emanuel (she/her) serves as New Moms' Director of Learning and Innovation, and since 2010 has held various leadership and direct coaching roles with New Moms' job training program and employment social enterprise, Bright Endeavors.
Dana is very enthusiastic about applied brain and behavioral science in human services and loves sharing that interest with peer organizations through New Moms' training & capacity building initiative, The Hub @ New Moms. She previously served as a Program Officer with LISC's national Family Income & Wealth Building team. Dana earned a B.A. from Northwestern University and will graduate with a Master's degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2023
Elizabeth Merin is a single mom to two amazing children, Shira and Uriah. She works full-time as a Human Resources Manager for a family-owned manufacturing company in Berks County. Elizabeth's non traditional college career started later in life In her mid 30's, she enrolled in our local community college, RACC where she earned her associate's Degree in Business Administration in 2018.
During that time, Elizabeth also navigated a divorce and moved herself and her children twice. From there, Elizabeth enrolled in Alvernia University where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Business Management in 2021. Elizabeth is a current Graduate Student with Alvernia in the MBA program Elizabeth understands the challenges that parenting students face and is proud to be part of the movement to develop more support for parenting student's needs.
Elizabeth also volunteers with local organizations, and she is also a Borough Council Member. She believes that when you want things to change, you work to change them
Passionate about social justice, Paula has devoted her career to empowering organizations and individuals to reach their highest potential She has implemented numerous initiatives to promote educational, antipoverty, capacity building, and leadership development enterprises. Her commitment to creating systemic change, empowering communities, and working across divides, have gained her nationwide recognition.
Umaña launched the first Hispanic Capacity Building Institute in Philadelphia, led programming for the Pennsylvania chapter of the Center for Progressive Leadership, and provided leadership and managed teams for the Transitional Work Corporation, promoting workforce development and self sufficiency in urban communities. Most recently, she spent six years establishing and overseeing the operation of Single Stop at Community College of Philadelphia Under her leadership, this national anti poverty, multi service model that seeks to increase college student retention, was demonstrably successful at boosting students’ academic success, according to a rigorous external evaluation conducted by Metis and Associates.
Paula currently serves as the Director of Institutional Engagement at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University where she leads efforts and partnerships focused on translating the Center’s research into policy and practice. Her efforts support higher education institutions around the country to increase organizational effectiveness in securing students’ basic needs building black to their wellbeing and college success strategy. She holds a Master of Education degree from Temple University and is a native of Bogotá, Colombia where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in dietetics and nutrition from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
