Bill Baynes is a consultant, trainer and social marketing expert. He has worked with many schools systems –-including San Francisco Unified -- to develop student-driven prevention campaigns about a variety of topics, including tobacco, alcohol, nutrition and fitness, and bullying. He has trained students and teachers to become advocates and social marketers.
Bill is a writer, producer, director and creative director, who has worked in multi-media formats for more than 40 years. He has created dozens of public education campaigns aimed at adolescents for federal, state and local government agencies and non-profit organizations over the past 25 years. He directed some of the seminal HIV prevention efforts in the State of California.
Ilsa Bertolini, MA
Ilsa Bertolini works in the program Support Services for LGBTQ Youth in San Francisco Unified School District. She develops and reviews curriculum in alignment with the state framework related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning youth. Ilsa conducts professional development trainings to school site staff and administrators on meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth and families and responds to school safety concerns regarding LGBTQ youth and families. This includes working with administration to develop comprehensive plans to address homophobia and transphobia in schools.
A recent project completed is a resource website for educators to both assist in teaching about LGBTQ families and reduce anti-gay name-calling.
In addition, Ilsa oversees the School Community Violence Prevention program, which provides training and resources to middle schools with the goal of increasing safety for students on site.
Ilsa currently sits on the Board of Directors for Health Initiatives for Youth (HIFY), a Bay Area non-profit which improves the health and well-being of underserved young people. Ilsa has a Master's Degree in Human Sexuality Studies.
Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D.
Shawn Ginwright is an Associate Professor of Education in the Africana Studies Department and Senior Research Associate for the Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy at San Francisco State University. In 1989, Dr. Ginwright founded Leadership Excellence Inc. an innovative youth development agency located in Oakland, California that trains African American youth to address pressing social and community problems. In 1999, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. His research examines the ways in which youth in urban communities navigate through the constraints of poverty and struggle to create equality and justice in their schools and communities.
Dr. Ginwright's new book, "Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America" helps restore hope and possibility to the lives of urban black youth. He is also the author of “Black in School- Afrocentric Reform, Black Youth and the Promise of Hip-Hop Culture” and co-editor of Beyond Resistance!: Youth Resistance and Community Change: New Democratic Possibilities for Practice and Policy for America's Youth. He has published extensively on issues related to urban youth in journals such as Social Problems, Social Justice, Urban Review, and New Directions in Youth Development. He is a highly sought speaker to national and international audiences.
Carol Goodenow, Ph.D.
Carol Goodenow, Ph.D., is Director of Coordinated School Health Programs at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, working to develop and promote effective school-based programs to reduce adolescent health risks. She has spent much of her career in education, initially teaching at the high school and college levels, and later as a graduate school faculty member supervising student teachers and teaching courses in educational psychology, motivation, and research methods.
Before joining the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in 1995 to coordinate the CDC-sponsored HIV/AIDS Intensive Evaluation, she directed several health research programs at the University of Connecticut Medical School. She has published on AIDS-related risk behavior of adolescents; on sexual minority youth; on social support and health outcomes; and on adolescent school connectedness and school motivation.
Kevin Gogin, MFT
Kevin Gogin, has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1989. He was hired in 2000 to develop the first comprehensive program addressing LGBT issues within a school setting: Support Services for LGBT Youth. Since its inception, he has worked on safe school planning, classroom intervention, and curriculum development and implementation. Most recently, he has collaborated with a team to create the first-ever school district sponsored website that addresses lgbt issues.
In addition, Kevin is the Department Liaison with city agencies coordinating the High School Wellness Programs, brining behavioral health and nursing services, and referrals at 15 high schools. He is also the point person for Crisis Response for the District.
Kevin has spoken at a number of conferences regarding LGBT youth issues including the American Association of Suicidology, American School Health Association, and California Association of School Social Workers.
Ira Sachnoff, MA
Ira Sachnoff was the Director for the San Francisco Peer Resource Programs from 1980-1996. In this capacity Ira was responsible for the supervision and training of 25 Peer Resource Program Coordinators who trained over 1,000 youth who then served over 20,000 youth in The San Francisco Unified School District.
Ira was also the Founding President of the National Peer Helpers Association and was a Board Member of the California Association of Peer Programs for over 10 years.
Currently, Ira is the High School Alcohol & Tobacco Program Consultant for the San Francisco Unified School District and is also a consultant for the Alameda County Office of Education and the Contra Costa County Office of Education. Most recently Ira has been involved in the creation and implementation of District Wide Alcohol, Tobacco and Anti Bullying Social Norm Marketing Campaigns for the San Francisco Unified School District. Ira also has his own consulting company Peer Resource Training and Consulting where he has in the last five years trained over 3,000 youth peer educators and over 500 adults in the art of setting up Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention and Cessation programs for youth.
Alejandra Vila, MA
Alejandra, or Alex as all her friends call her, embodies the passion and devotion of the youth development field. A product herself of the youth development process, which included participation in a comprehensive teen leadership program during her teen years, Alex decided that youth development was her calling and she made it her career. Alex has over 20 years of experience in the field, working first as a youth minister for the Catholic Church, then as a counselor at a shelter for youth runaways, a community gang specialist, and finally as a field consultant and trainer.
Alex understands the need to serve and educate youth populations that are difficult to serve, such as gang-involved youth; children with disabilities; recent immigrant, non-English speaking youth; gay/lesbian families and homeless youth. She has a passion for community collaborations and inclusion, as well as leadership development. As a programmer, she exposed her teams to the newest youth development principles and techniques.
Over the last ten years, Alex has established a relationship with other youth agencies in order to help serve high-risk youth and to effect change within the systems of influence to enhance the lives of kids. As a director, Alex also built alliances and goodwill among local politicians, other community based organizations, and all of the larger mainstream groups that work in the community. Finally, Alex brings her theories of change, work ethic, charisma and passion to the youth development movement. As a proud, bi-lingual Latina Lesbian immigrant female, she also reminds the youth development movement of the important role that human diversity plays in fashioning youth development strategies and leadership that is inclusive, tolerant, and responsive to the communities we serve.
Laurie Jo Wallace, MA
At Health Resources in Action, Ms. Wallace has spent the last 15 years promoting healthy communities in Boston. In her role as the Director of Training and Capacity Building, she has special expertise in the areas of youth development, as a provider of training and support to numerous programs, coalitions, and youth serving agencies in the Boston region, Massachusetts and nationally. She is also the Director of the national BEST Initiative in Boston, a professional development program of support and training for youth workers focusing on the youth development approach. She has contributed to and written youth development and peer leadership curricula and facilitated strategic planning and organizational development initiatives for a variety of youth and other community groups. She particularly has expertise in peer leadership program development, youth/adult collaboration, conflict resolution and alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention.
Presently she is coordinating large contracts with such clients as the Massachusetts SADD chapter and the province of Ontario, Canada.
She serves on the Massachusetts Peer Helpers Association Board of Directors, as a board member of Mission Safe, a youth agency, and as a parent board member of the Epiphany Middle School, both in Boston. She has also presented at a variety of national conferences, including The American Public Health Association Conference, the National Network for Youth Conference and the National Peer Helpers’ Association Conference.
Her career in youth development and public health promotion follows a 10-year career teaching high school English, French and organizing student activities.
Event Description
This NPD event, held at three separate times and locations will be an opportunity for DASH funded partners in the priority areas of HIV and Coordinated School Health to participate in a process of guided reflection and planning to ensure current programmatic activities are aligned with strategic plan outcomes and objectives. Participants will explore skills critical to operating a successful HIV and Coordinated School Health program and increase their capacity to identify and address populations in their respective states, cities or territories at-risk for HIV infection, physical inactivity, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and tobacco use. Participants will leave this event with a completed action plan and identified next steps for continuous program improvement.
Professional Development Objectives
Increase knowledge and skills to support successful implementation of HIV and Coordinated School Health programs at the state and local level.
Increase capacity to identify at-risk populations and develop concrete strategies to improve program effectiveness to reduce HIV infection, physical inactivity, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and tobacco use.
Define short, mid, and long term benchmarks for on-going program improvement through completion of a team action plan.
Follow-Up Support
Following each training event, NPD staff will contact each team to check on progress toward action plan benchmarks and provide technical assistance, as needed. This website is a resource for participants to access the wealth of training materials from Event One: Strengthening Our Practice: Refining Our Aim.
Event One: 
Event Materials
