Team Member and Bios and Roles
Angela Crane
I am a Board Certified Internist who practiced both emergency medicine and internal medicine over the last twenty years. I graduated from Yale Medical School and completed my residency at Boston City Hospital. Recently, my entrance into the world of advocacy for children has increased my awareness of the contextual resistance to change. This led to my enrollment in the MPH program, SHDH, in essence the unfolding of my goal to make a difference.
I believe that many problems afflicting our health, both physical and mental, am not only preventable and inter-related but can be effectively addressed utilizing community based approaches. Our emphasis on symptoms has created a silo-effect leading to fragmented solutions without adequate data to evaluate efficacy. A more comprehensive, multidisciplinary collaborative approach tailored to the needs of children and families within a community is necessary. EmpowerEd embraces this approach in its mission and philosophy.Are children receiving the best education to prepare for the challenges of life and post-secondary education? This question resonates loudly among educators, health providers and parents. At the core of this debate are the definition of education and the role of schools. The traditional view is grounded in the reason many parents or guardians send their children to school: to be provided with academic skills to become independent. However, there is another view with a voice grounded in the over 20-30 years of research that shows ‘healthy kids are better learners.’ Child development is an enigmatic maze that is physiological and ecological. The product is heavily reliant on physical and socio-environmental factors that can impede a child’s ability to learn and a teachers’ ability to teach. This group represented by educators, neurobiologists, behavioral scientist, geneticists, health providers, and parents are increasingly demanding that schools use meaningful ways to support families and help children navigate the maze of youth development. Obesity, behavioral issues, delinquencies, violence, substance abuse and teen pregnancies are preventable problems that cause irreparable damage to many teenager, young adults and older adults.My teammates and I believe EmpowerEd is the evolution of education. So far our technical solutions to the problems facing our educational system have not worked instead they have increased the gap. This educational gap translates into a future mired in concentrated poverty, isolation, economic disparities and poor health outcomes. EmpowerEd recognizes and the individual student and appreciates the importance of academic achievement in building self-esteem and confidence. Our product will revolutionize the education industry.
Kenya Mitchell
Kenya Mitchell, a New Orleans native, is an author and scholar who is committed to improving adolescent literacy stateside and abroad. Ms. Mitchell focuses on developing adolescent literacy through curriculum that uses innovative pedagogies, the arts and social networking that utilizes diverse learning hubs, like libraries, galleries or slam poetry workshops. In addition to working on the EmpowerEd project, Kenya is designing teacher training she will implement in Dar Es Salaam this summer as a launch for the Tanzania Level’s 3 and 4 Curriculum she designed for World Teach. On the creative front, Ms. Mitchell’s third book, Warrior of Mande, an adventure novel for adolescent boys, is slated to debut this fall. Kenya Mitchell thus far has provided the framework for EmpowerEd’s onsite model and ideas for financial streams. As this project continues, Ms. Mitchell will work in conjunction with Kristen Faulkner to align EmpowerEd’s software with national and global curriculums. She will also work with other team members to build strategic alliances and generate revenue.
Zainabu Rumala
Zainabu Rumala continuously demonstrates commitment to a strong work ethic. Being one of the youngest graduates to earn a B.S. degree at the University of Florida, she also earned both her J.D. and M.S.B.A. by the age of 22. She went on to complete a clerkship at the Florida Supreme Court under the direction of former Chief Justice Peggy Quince and Justice Barbara Pariente. In this position, Zainabu was responsible for researching and analyzing legal issues, and making recommendations to assist justices with determinations of jurisdiction, disposition of original proceedings and motions, and oral argument/court conference preparation. She also helped draft memoranda, summaries, orders/opinions, and other Court documents.Currently, Zainabu is a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education working towards an Ed.M. degree with a specialization in human development and psychology. She is active in various organizations on campus including BRIDGE, an organization that fosters the future of education innovation within a shared, collaborative space; and the Oval Office initiative of the Women & Public Policy Program at the Kennedy school, a program that provides a select group of students training and support for future political endeavors. Zainabu also serves as an editor for the Women’s Policy Journal of Harvard. She enjoys exploring ways to give back to the community and in the future desires to practice public interest law and remain engaged in the education policy and social entrepreneurship sectors. In her role in EmpowerEd, Zainabu has thoroughly enjoyed providing original content, coordinating the consolidation of team efforts, providing branding advice, and refining the idea presentation.
Kristen Faulkner
Kristen Faulkner is from Homer, Alaska. She is currently a freshman at Harvard College and plans to major in Psychology and Computer Science. Kristen has been interested in entrepreneurship since she was very little; at age 12 she owned and operated her own ice cream shop. She has traveled abroad many times and developed a passion for international development. She is traveling to China for eight weeks this summer to study Chinese language and research China’s recent economic growth; when she is older she plans to pursue business with China. Kristen values education very highly, and hopes that through the President’s Challenge, she can provide better education opportunities to children in America and around the world.
Elizabeth DeLozier
Elizabeth DeLozier, is Senior Network Analyst at Harvard University. As an interdisciplinary autodidact, and member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Community for 10 years, Elizabeth researches a gamut of subjects on what can be described as a kaleidoscopic informational journey. A primary focus of her scholarship has been visual information, and the impact this has on influencing, informing, shaping and affirming culture, and of the pervasive influence on shaping and switching behaviors, of targeted commercial messages. As an Internet user over the past 20 years, she has a few ideas about the technology. With a past involvement as the product designer on the team that developed NoteThing, which sold as paid subscription shareware worldwide, and instantly became the Industry standard application for sharing and editing notes between the Apple Newton, and Macintosh computers. Elizabeth has watched the future unfold, and has had the pleasure of witnessing the Information Revolution play out on her computer screens. Elizabeth DeLozier's focus on the EmpowerEd Team, is primarily in the area of Product Modeling, Product Conception, Design, and Development, and building in Strategic Partnerships, Branding, and Outreach while acting as a project coach and facilitator, an opportunity afforded by her Harvard Appointment as Senior Network Analyst under the auspices of the Office of the University CIO | HUIT Infrastructure organization.
