About Youth Communication-Staff

Youth Communication Staff

Keith Hefner

PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR—Keith Hefner
Keith Hefner founded Youth Communication in 1980. Prior to that he published a magazine and a series of books on youth issues. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989, and he was a Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of New York City at Columbia University during the 1986-87 academic year. In 1997 he received the Luther P. Jackson Award for Educational Excellence from the New York Association of Black Journalists.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR—Tom Brown
Prior to joining Youth Communication in March, 1989, Tom Brown worked for several years at the DOME Project, a community based youth development program where he was assistant director. He has a BA in Political Science from the City College of New York and an MA in that subject from Yale.

Tom Brown

Laura Longhine

EDITOR, Represent— Laura Longhine
Laura Longhine has a BA in English from Tufts University and an MS in Journalism from Columbia. Before joining Represent, she taught English as a Second Language as an Americorps Volunteer in California, and was a staff writer at the Free Times, an
alt-weekly in South Carolina. She has freelanced for The New York Times, Newyorkmetro.com and Legal Affairs, among other publications.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, Represent—Autumn Spanne
Autumn Spanne has a BA in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, an MS in journalism from Columbia University and an MA in education from Western New Mexico University. She taught English and journalism in New Mexico for five years and produced an independent radio journalism workshop there with youth living on and near the Navajo Reservation. Autumn began her journalism career covering politics and city government for The Lompoc Record in California. In 2006, she was awarded a fellowship from the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and covered the environment for The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Autumn Spanne

Hope Vanderberg

EDITOR, New Youth Connections
—Hope Vanderberg
Hope Vanderberg has a BA in Biology from Earlham College and an MA in Journalism from New York University. Prior to joining Youth Communication she specialized in science journalism for six years. She has been an editor at Medscape/WebMD and an editorial intern at The Sciences magazine, Audubon magazine, and Natural History magazine. She also worked briefly as a field biologist and taught environmental education for several years.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, New Youth Connections
—Marie Glancy
Marie Glancy holds a BA in English from Williams College, an MA in literature from Trinity College Dublin and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. She worked for several years as a print and radio journalist in Ireland and more recently as a reporter for Wall Street-based investmentwires.com. She has freelanced for The Sunday Times, BUST magazine and the Queens Chronicle, among other publications.

Marie Glancy

Efrain Reyes

ASST. DIRECTOR/PROD. MANAGER—Efrain Reyes, Jr.
Efrain Reyes was a student artist (1982-84) for New Youth Connections while attending Morris HS in the South Bronx. He later graduated from Pratt Institute with a BA in Communication Design and in 1988 was hired to run our desktop publishing operation and be our bookkeeper. He has since taken charge of many other tasks, including installing and maintaining our 40+ computer network. He also co-designed this site with
William Pope.

MARKETING DIRECTOR—Loretta Chan
Loretta was a teen writer at New Youth Connections from 1992 to 1995. Prior to returning to Youth Communication, she worked as an editor for Longitude Books, education program associate for The New York Council for the Humanities and paralegal for Cravath, Swaine & Moore and The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. She has a BA in Art History from New York University.

Loretta Chan

Joanne Pendola

ILLUS. & GRAPHIC ARTS INST.—Joanne Pendola
Joanne Pendola is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal (classroom edition), Ms., and other major publications. She also illustrates books. She was an editorial assistant at Out Magazine and has a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. She started working for Youth Communication in 1997.

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT—Jeff Faerber
Jeff Faerber is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, the Progressive, The Chicago SunTimes and other publications. He has a BFA in Graphic Design from San Jose State University. He started working for Youth Communication in 2000.

Jeff Faerber

Al Desetta

WEB EDITOR—Al Desetta
Al Desetta has worked at Youth Communication since 1985 where he has edited New Youth Connections and Foster Care Youth United, plus our juvenile prison newsletter, Spofford Voices, and an experimental school newspaper, Strange Brew. He also initiated our teacher development workshops. He edited The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices from the Foster Care System and co-edited several other Youth Communication anthologies. He has a BA in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a MA in English Literature from the City College of New York. He was a Charles H. Revson Fellow at Columbia University for the 1990-91 academic year.

SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR— Nora McCarthy
Nora McCarthy is the editor of Rise, Youth Communication's magazine by and for parents who have been involved with New York City’s child welfare system (ACS). She has reported for Newsday, Child Welfare Watch and the Voice. She edited New Youth Connections for three years and Represent, The Voice of Youth in Care, for four years. Nora is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Nora McCarthy

FORMER STAFF —Attention Youth Communication Alumni:
If you would like to reach a former staff member to get a recommendation or for any other reason, send us an e-mail and in most cases we can forward it to him or her. (We'll let you know.)

Former staff we are in touch with: Lisa Abramson, Rachel Blustain, Sean Chambers, Jennifer Chauhan, Duffie Cohen, Andrea Estepa, Clarence Haynes, Lynda Hill, Kendra Hurley, Philip Kay, Carol Kelly, Donna Lawson, Vivian Louie, Tony McGinty, Abiodun Oyewole, Alexandra Ringe, Tamar Rothenberg, Tony Savino.