Staff
The Swearer Center’s full-time staff supports the work of student project coordinators. Staff members are available by appointment or during office hours to advise and assist students with community service-related issues.
Academic Advising/UCAAP
Alan Flam
Courses, Research, Faculty Engagement
Kerri Heffernan
Social Entrepreneurship
Alan Harlam
College Advising Corps
Rosanna Castro
Community Programs
Elementary/Middle School: Will Tucker (during Dilania Inoa's maternity leave until late March '08)
High School: Linda Cunningham
RI Urban Debate League: Will Tucker
Adult Learning: Janet Isserlis
Break Projects; Hunger and Homelessness Advocacy: Alan Flam
General Programs, Student Coordinators: Amy Doyle
Health: Claudia DeCesare
Fellowships
Liman, Swearer: Alan Flam
Royce, Starr: Kerri Heffernan
Community Work-Study and AmeriCorps Scholarships for Service
Claudia DeCesare
Department Coordinator
Wendy Perelman
Director/Associate Dean of the College Roger Nozaki
Seth-Thomas Aitken
Communications and Events Coordinator
Seth-Thomas_Aitken@brown.edu
Seth works to communicate the work, philosophy, history, strategy, and outcomes of the Center's initiatives to the Brown University community by creating event publicity, developing new publications, organizing events, and disseminating important news items. He also supports the administration of the Starr and Royce Fellowships. Seth graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts with a degree in Industrial Design. Before coming to the Swearer Center, Seth served in the Army as an officer in the Corps of Engineers and then worked in design and marketing across a variety of disciplines from fashion to home improvement products. He came to Brown in 2004 to work with the Brown Alumni Association and the Office of Alumni Relations. Having had a great experience collaborating with Kerri Heffernan around the Royce Fellowship's 10-year Reunion, Seth left Alumni Relations in 2006 to assume his current duties at the Swearer Center, carrying on the new tradition of Royce Reunions and planning for the Swearer Center's 20th Anniversary.
ROSANNA CASTRO
College Advising Corps Program Coordinator
Rosanna_Castro@brown.edu
Rosanna provides support to seven full-time College Guides and 20-30 part-time undergraduate volunteers that work in local high schools and community agencies to increase college access services for first generation college-bound students.
A first generation college student and graduate of Providence Public Schools, she earned a degreein Education Policy from Brown in 2004. Rosanna has worked broadly in the Providence community on health, immigration and education equity, reform and access issues, and is currently on the Providence School Board and Young Voices Board. She is President of the local Graduate/Professional Chapter of Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority Inc., and a member of the RI Young Professionals, an auxiliary to the Urban League of RI.
Linda cunningham
Program Director, Educational Equity
Office hours: Thursday 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Linda_Cunningham@brown.edu
In collaboration with other Center staff, student project coordinators, and community partners, Linda is leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Swearer Center’s strategy for educational equity and opportunity. She also directly supports the work and learning of students engaged in community programs serving high school youth.
Some of Linda’s prior professional experiences include serving as executive director of the Health Occupations Partners in Education (HOPE) at the University of Michigan. Linda launched this multi-systemic education outreach initiative of the University in 1998 in partnership with a local disadvantaged K-12 school district. The project, now in its 10th year, is aimed at increasing the numbers of underrepresented minority students pursuing future careers in the health sciences and medical professions. Prior to this role, Linda worked at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit in the departments of community outreach and volunteer administration to design, implement, and evaluate a new volunteer training program and train-the-trainer curricula for a school-based health education program. She successfully led the Institute’s effort to bring this program to students in elementary and middle schools throughout the state. Her other areas of expertise include: early childhood care and education, professional development, strategies for positive youth development, education policy, program evaluation, and university- community partnerships.
Linda recently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, where she also earned a Masters in Education. Her prior education credentials include a Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia and a B.A. in Philosophy from Purdue. She lives with her husband, two young children, dog, and two cats in Ashaway, RI.
Claudia DeCesare
Assistant Director, Health and Development
Office hours: Wednesday Noon - 2 p.m.
Claudia_DeCesare@brown.edu
Claudia works with students who are interested in exploring the social and community context of health in a variety of settings. After graduating from The University of Rhode Island in 1980, Claudia has worked in many social service settings, addressing a variety of social issues including domestic violence, substance abuse, nonviolence and violence prevention, parent education, youth and family advocacy, and education. She has also been involved in organizational and program development in a variety of contexts, including community-based and public school settings and at the Rhode Island Training School, the state's juvenile detention facility.
Amy Doyle
Community Programs Coordinator
Amy_Doyle@brown.edu
Amy works with the Swearer Center staff to meet their administrative/office needs. She has worked in a variety of fields, from journalism to natural foods, and volunteered at St. Anthony's Farm, a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Amy holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Alan Flam
Senior Fellow & Associate University Chaplain
Office hours: Tuesday 3-5 p.m.
Alan_Flam@brown.edu
Alan Flam is the senior fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Service where he coordinates the University-Community Academic Advising Project (UCAAP), Affordable Housing Advocacy Action (AHAA), and Break Projects. He also serves as Associate University Chaplain, a position he has held since he came to Brown in 1982. As part of his collaborative work with the Swearer Center and Office of Chaplains and Religious life, he is interested in supporting conversations on campus and in the community about service, values, faith and conviction. For eighteen years he served as Rabbi and Executive Director of the Brown-RISD Hillel Foundation where he created Visions for Change, a public service/tzedekah/tikkun olam initiative. On campus he was the co-founder of the Brown University Mediation Project (BUMP) and has also been involved with issues of diversity and pluralism as well as issues of loss and grief. He is President of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis, Chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee of Barrington, RI, and Vice President of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. He also serves on the Jewish Community Relations Council, the RI Interfaith Coalition, the One RI Coalition and the Steering Committee of HousingWorks RI.
ALAN HARLAM
Director, Social Entrepreneurship
Office hours: Monday 1-3 p.m., Friday - 9:30 a.m. - Noon
Alan_Harlam@brown.edu
Alan works collaboratively with community organizations and leaders and university students and faculty to identify, develop, and guide progress on projects that can respond meaningfully to community needs. In addition, he helps develop courses in social entrepreneurship including a two semester capstone course in Sociology. Alan has been a social entrepreneur at Amos House where he helped launch and manage their institutional and full-service catering business, More Than a Meal, which creates employment opportunity for the poor and homeless of Providence. Prior to his work at Amos House, Alan’s has been an investor and consultant to financially distressed, turnaround companies and worked for an international IT consulting company.
Alan is currently the President of the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island and a member of the Board of City Year Rhode Island. He is also a partner of Social Venture Partners of RI which invests and advises Rhode Island social enterprises. Alan and his wife, Bari, live in Providence with their three children, Jeremy, Gregory, and Sophie.
Kerri Heffernan
Associate Director and Director, Royce Fellowship Program
Office hours: Monday 1-3 p.m., Friday - 9:30 a.m. - Noon
Kerrissa_Heffernan@brown.edu
Kerrissa Heffernan is the Associate Director of the Swearer Center for Public Service and leads the Royce Fellowship, the Starr Fellowship, and is the director of the Royce Fellowship for Sport and Society. Prior to joining the Swearer Center, she spent 2 years as a senior associate in Integrating Service with Academic Study at National Campus Compact. Prior to that, Kerri was the Arnow-Weiler professor of liberal arts at Lasell College, director of the Women's Studies Concentration, director of the Center for Public Service and founder and director of the Donahue Institute for Values and Public Life. She is the co-editor of The Practice of Change: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Women's Studies, co-editor of The Introduction to Service-learning Toolkit: Readings and Resources for Faculty and author of The Fundamentals of Course Construction. Kerri received her BA in Visual Arts from Florida State University, and her M.ed and Ed.D from Boston University.
Dilania Inoa
Assistant Director, Literacy and Schools
Office hours: Thursday 2-4 p.m.
Dilania_Inoa@brown.edu
Dilania works with other Center staff to provide support to students involved with education and literacy projects at the elementary and middle school levels. For the past fifteen years, Dilania has worked with many community organizations in Providence and other neighboring communities.
Dilania has lived in Rhode Island for nearly eighteen years, after her family immigrated to this country from the Dominican Republic. She graduated from Central High School, Providence, in 1994 and served as an AmeriCorps volunteer before entering Brown. She graduated from Brown in 1999 with a degree in Latin American Studies.
Dilania has served on the Providence School Board and is also a past board member of the RI Commission for National and Community Service. She has held the titles of Miss Rhode Island Latina, Miss Latina USA and Ms. Rhode Island Belleza Latina, enabling Dilania to work with Latino communities locally, nationally and internationally.
Janet Isserlis
Assistant Director, Literacy Resources/RI
Office hours: Monday 1-3 p.m.
Janet_Isserlis@brown.edu
Through Literacy Resources/ RI Janet works with area adult literacy practitioners and learners to expand professional development opportunities, increase educators' capacity to use on-line technology, and assist in improving delivery of services to adult learners. She also serves as a advisor for student programs combining literacy and the arts. She has worked with adult immigrants and refugees in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vancouver, BC since 1980. In addition to classroom work, she is a co-author of Making Connections: A Literacy and EAL Curriculum from a Feminist Perspective, author of a number of articles about language/literacy learning, assessment and practitioner research, and a 1999-2000 Literacy Leadership fellow of the National Institute for Literacy. Janet facilitates teacher education workshops at educational and regional sites as well as national adult education meetings and conferences. Janet completed a Master's degree in English as a second language and cross-cultural studies at Brown in 1991, and holds a teaching degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Roger Nozaki
Associate Dean of the College and Director
Roger_Nozaki@brown.edu
Roger serves as Associate Dean of the College and Director of the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University. The Swearer Center works to connect the capacities of the university and community to address inequalities in our society and communities; create, share, and apply knowledge for the public good; and educate and prepare students for lives of effective action. The Center was established in 1987 by Howard R. Swearer, the fifteenth president of Brown.
Prior to this role, Roger served as executive director of the GE Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of the General Electric Company. In this role he worked with the Foundation's board, president, and staff to establish priorities and strategies for the foundation's $60+ million global philanthropic portfolio, provided leadership and management for the Foundation's programs and operations, and supported GE's global corporate citizenship and community relations efforts.
Roger joined the GE Foundation from The Hitachi Foundation, where he served as senior program officer, addressing issues of education, community development, and corporate citizenship. He had previously worked with Campus Compact, a project of the Education Commission of the States, focused on strengthening higher education through civic engagement. In addition, he spent two years as a full-time volunteer in a community of adults with developmental disabilities. Roger holds degrees from both Princeton and Brown Universities.
Roger has served on the boards of the NBC Universal Foundation and Independent Sector and Pact. He has also served on the American Council on Education's Commission on Minorities in Higher Education, the Conference Boards' Contributions Council, the Council on Foundations corporate committee, the United Way of America National Corporate Leadership Advisory Council, and the Executive Committee of the Pathways to College Network, an effort he helped to found.
Wendy Perelman
Department Coordinator
Wendy_Perelman@brown.edu
Wendy has been employed as an Administrative Assistant at Brown University for nearly fifteen years. She has spent the past twelve years as the Swearer Center's Department Coordinator where she is responsible for all of the Center's finances and daily office activities. Wendy is pursuing a degree in Elementary Education and is the mother of three children.
Will Tucker
Interim Assistant Director, Youth Programs
Will works with other Center staff to provide support to students involved with education and literacy projects at the high school level. He is also the Director of the Rhode Island Urban Debate League, a partnership between the Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket Public Schools and the Swearer Center. Will has worked with communities, organizations, and schools across Rhode Island.
Originally from Iowa City, Iowa, Will graduated from Brown in 2004 with a degree in Africana Studies and Public Policy & American Institutions. While in school he was a student coordinator at the Swearer Center, and was involved in many student groups organizing around issues of social justice and education reform. He is a past member of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, a Truman Scholar, and a former Royce Fellow. He is also safety-certified in forklift, chainsaw, and jackhammer operation.