ALL STARS PROJECT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair of the Dallas Truth
- Member of the ASP
- Vice President / City Leader, ASP of Dallas
One of the country's most successful grassroots leaders and advocates for the poor - and a long-time performer on and off stage - Vice President and City Leader of the All Stars Project (ASP) of Dallas, Antoine Joyce has led the creation of cutting-edge youth and community development programs throughout Dallas and nationally. He is also a dynamic and passionate bridge-builder who has introduced Afterschool Development to a diverse array of public and private partners, fostering innovative partnerships and collaborations through ASP's Afterschool Development Initiatives. Under his leadership as City Leader, the ASP of Dallas, which Antoine helped found in 2013, now reaches 5,000 youth and their families each year and raises $1.2 million annually. He directs a staff of nine.
Antoine is a member of the ASP senior leadership team and the Council of Grassroots Organizers, which works directly with the ASP CEO to grow and deepen the ASP's grassroots impact and expanding the influence of Afterschool Development initiatives and strategies in poor communities across the nation. Antoine plays a key role in advancing the organization's national strategic growth through a series of Dallas-based initiatives and, together with CEO Gabrielle Kurlander, is a creator and leader of the ASP's newest initiative, Operation Conversation.
A sought-after leader, Antoine serves as board co-chair of the Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Steering Committee, serves as the Racial Healing Committee chair and Chair's South Oak Cliff High School NAF Academies Advisory Board. Previously Antoine has been a member of the Dallas Thrives Board and Dallas County Promise Alignment Council. Mr. Joyce is also an alumnus of Leadership ISD (2015), Mayor's Star Council (2017), Stagen ILP (2020), Leadership Dallas (2022) and a mentor with Judge Amber Givens-Davis' Empowerment Program.
Born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Antoine Joyce has been an All Star since 1991. In addition to his involvement with ASP, Antoine also spent several years touring the world with hip hop legend Grand Master Flash. He is also a talented theater director, popular DJ, loving husband and proud father of two.
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Driehaus Capital Management
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- Senior Director, Afterschool Development Research and Policy
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- Broadcast Journalist ( Retired )
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- Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO
Christina DiChiara is Chief of Staff to the CEO of the All Stars Project and a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Her responsibilities include ensuring high-level day-to-day operations in the Office of the CEO and serving as corporate secretary to the board of directors. She works closely with the CEO and board and committee chairs on board governance and administrative functions, and she directs the production of quarterly board meetings. Additionally, she works in partnership with the CEO and the President to develop and execute a marketing, communications, and public relations strategy that advances the organization's public-facing presence.
Christina joined the Office of the CEO as Director of Special Projects in 2002 before becoming Chief of Staff in 2015. In these capacities, she oversaw the production of the organization's largest fundraising event - the All Stars national gala benefit at Lincoln Center - for 20 years. After working with All Stars as a volunteer fundraiser for five years, Christina was hired full-time in 1997 to manage the organization's grassroots fundraising operation.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Christina received her Master's degree in social work from the University of California, Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President
- City Leader, ASP of Chicago
- Senior Vice President / Youth and Community Development and City Leader, ASP of Chicago
David Cherry is Senior Vice President/Youth and Community Development and City Leader of the All Stars Project (ASP) of Chicago. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, David works with the ASP's Chief Executive Officer on advancing the organization's voice on public policy issues and advancing strategies for creative engagement on poverty, social justice, violence and other social issues of concern to impoverished youth and the communities in which they live.
Since the launch of the ASP of Chicago in 2007, David has used his 25-year history as a highly skilled and dedicated community organizer-together with an intimate understanding of the ASP's approach to youth and community development-to implement two of the ASP's leading programs: the All Stars Talent Show Network and the Development School for Youth. He is also working tirelessly to build the organization's trademark partnership between business professionals and inner-city youth-a key to the growth of all ASP's programs. In addition, David is a leader in convening community members, educators, innovators and others in Chicago's afterschool arena and a key player in establishing an Afterschool Development Hub in Chicago, an important national growth initiative for the All Stars.
David is also President of the Leaders Network, an organization of faith and community leaders that advocates for social justice, serves on the board of Collaboraction, a performing arts organization, and is a member of the Cook County Social Innovation Commission's Social and Human Capital Committee.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director, All Stars Project of New York
Diane Stiles is Associate Director, All Stars Project (ASP) of New York and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. In her role, Diane works to advance strategic and operational goals in New York and build relationships within the community and with nonprofit partners as part of increasing All Stars' impact across the city. She oversees programming and operations, as well as executes all phases of ASP of New York's various activities.
Previously, as Senior Director, Production and Operations for the All Stars Project of New York in 2021, Diane oversaw virtual programming, as well as the management of the ASP's 42nd Street performing arts and development center. As Vice President of Programs for ASP of New York from 2014 to 2020, she played a key leadership role in the expansion of Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids, for which she oversaw the design and execution of workshop facilitator training and the production of Demonstration Workshops, which brought together thousands of community members and officers from the New York City Police Department.
Diane was first hired in the late 1990s as Managing Director of the Castillo Theatre, which she helped establish as one of New York City's leading political theatres, creating collaborations with playwrights, theatre artists and companies such as Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, Desmond Richardson, Ntozake Shange, New Yiddish Rep and the Negro Ensemble Company. In addition, Diane executive produced the Otto Rene Castillo Awards for Political Theatre and the biannual Performing the World conference from 2010 to 2018.
Before joining the ASP, Diane held positions at the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Merce Cunningham Foundation and the College Board. She received her BFA from the Pratt Institute.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- All Stars CEO
- CEO All Stars Project, Inc.
Gabrielle L. Kurlander is a trained actress, theatre director, and non-profit entrepreneur who has transformed All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP) from a small New York City-based, grassroots, all-volunteer effort into a national organization and model for engaging poverty through Afterschool Development, employing an innovative performance approach.
As its founding chief executive officer, Ms. Kurlander worked closely with hundreds of community leaders, volunteers, and activists to build ASP into a non-profit force. Starting in 1997, she expanded the board of directors to include business leaders from Wall Street and diverse fields who provided the first significant seed capital to bring the All Stars Project into the top tier of citywide non-profits in New York.
Gabrielle Kurlander is a nonprofit entrepreneur, theatre director and actor. She is a founder of the All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP), and as its CEO over the last three decades she has led the organization's transformation from a small, New York City-based, all-volunteer effort into a national nonprofit. Using an innovative performance approach, ASP provides afterschool development opportunities for poor and underserved young people and builds bridges between diverse communities.
Ms. Kurlander expanded the board of directors to include business leaders from Wall Street and other diverse fields. ASP also received its first significant seed capital from these leaders to establish its flagship location: a 31,000 sq. ft. performing arts and development center on 42nd Street in New York City. Since then, ASP has expanded to Newark in 1999, the San Francisco Bay Area in 2007, Chicago in 2008 and Dallas in 2013.
Ms. Kurlander pioneered the ASP's "involvement philanthropy" model, which personally engages C-suite leaders, Fortune 500 executives and other caring adults to create a greater direct impact in the communities where ASP reaches young people. With an unparalleled track record of 20+ years of annual growth during her tenure, ASP teams have raised $150 million in private support from hundreds of thousands of individual supporters and more than 500 corporations and foundations nationwide.
As a leader who protested racial injustice from her earliest days as a grassroots organizer in the late 1980s, Ms. Kurlander continues to champion racial equity and lead in diversity initiatives. In 2021, ASP was featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as a highly successful model for diversity and culture change within the nonprofit sector. Ms. Kurlander established ASP's Council of Grassroots Organizers, a forum for ASP leaders to explore urgent issues of our time-including racism, identity, poverty and justice. In 2020, Ms. Kurlander and ASP Vice President and Dallas City Leader, Antoine Joyce, co-created Operation Conversation, ASP's virtual performance-based, bridge-building initiative that addresses the social and racial divides in America.
ASP received several awards under Ms. Kurlander's leadership, including the Southern Methodist University's 2016 Simmons Luminary Award for ASP's extraordinary commitment to improving lives through education. One year earlier, ASP received the International Association of Chiefs of Police/Cisco Community Policing Award for its innovative police-community relations program, Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids, in partnership with the New York City Police Department. The Volunteer Referral Center honored Ms. Kurlander in 2014 at their 25 th Anniversary Gala for her leadership in volunteerism. Ms. Kurlander serves on the boards of The Arts Community Alliance and the All Stars Project.
Ms. Kurlander has decades of experience in all aspects of performance and theatrical production. She began her career as a working actor, touring nationally with the Broadway tour of Biloxi Blues. Her work as a director has been recognized with six AUDELCO Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre, including Outstanding Director of a Musical for Sally and Tom (The American Way) by Fred Newman and Annie Roboff and Outstanding Ensemble Performance for Playing with Heiner Müller. Other directing credits include Clare Coss's Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington, produced with New Federal Theatre and starring Kathleen Chalfant, and Newman and Roboff's Coming of Age in Korea, co-directed with acclaimed modern dancer Desmond Richardson.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer and Director, Fidelity Management & Research Company
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- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Chief
- Community Development Officer
- Senior Vice President
- Senior Vice President / Chief Youth and Community Development Officer / Director, ASP of NY
- Senior Vice President / Chief Youth and Community Development Officer and Director, ASP of NY
Gloria Strickland is the Senior Vice President/Chief Youth and Community Development Officer and the Director of the All Stars Project of New York (ASP of NY). As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Ms. Strickland works to creatively advance the ASP's standard of excellence for youth programs around the country, train program leaders and staff and implement community-based strategies that engage leaders and policy makers in the All Stars Project's mission.
As the Director of ASP of NY, she will be working closely with ASP's Senior Leadership Team, local leaders and staff and other New York stakeholders on the design and implementation of a plan to reimagine and recreate our first and largest market in ways that advance ASP's strategic vision and operational capabilities in 2022 and beyond.
From 1999 to 2018, Ms. Strickland served as the founding Director and later as the City Leader of the All Stars Project of New Jersey where she helped establish the Afterschool Development movement locally. During her tenure, the ASP of New Jersey grew to reach over two thousand underprivileged youths each year in Newark and Jersey City and to engage the support of more than a thousand individuals and corporations in the Garden State.
She was instrumental in the opening of the Scott Flamm Center for Afterschool Development in downtown Newark (2013 - 2020), which played a significant role in advancing All Stars and Afterschool Development to a next level of influence and impact in New Jersey. She also spearheaded a groundbreaking partnership with the City of Newark and Mayor Ras Baraka, leading to the development of Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids in Newark in which hundreds of police officers and young people have participated since 2017.
Ms. Strickland has a forty-year record of commitment, innovative leadership, and service to our country's poor communities. Prior to joining the ASP, she served as Executive Director of the Somerset Community Action Program (SCAP) and Somerset County Head Start in New Jersey. She has served on numerous committees and taskforces to advance the quality of outside of school with teenagers and children, and she received a Distinguish Leader Award in Service from Rutgers University's Graduate School of Education.
Ms. Strickland has a bachelor's degree from Hofstra University and a Master's in Educational Psychology from New York University.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
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- RBC Real Estate Capital Partner
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- Southern Asset Service Corporation
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- Chairman Emeritus
- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
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- Chief Financial Officer
- Vice President
- Inc
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
As Vice President/Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Irina Robin oversees all financial operations for the All Stars Project (ASP). Prior to this role, Irina was Director of Finance and Administration and played a key role in maintaining the organization's financial health and stability. Since 2019, Irina has directed the day-to-day financial operations of the organization, including financial management, accounting practices, budgeting and forecasting. In addition, she works with the ASP's Chief Executive Officer and President to ensure that the organization's operating budget is in support of and aligns with overall strategies. Before joining the ASP in 2016 as Controller, Irina worked as a manager for a large accounting and advisory firm. She has more than 10 years of extensive, hands-on nonprofit accounting, auditing and financial reporting experience. Irina is a Certified Public Accountant and has a BBA from Baruch College.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President / Organization Design and Change and a Member
- Senior Vice President / Organization Design and Change and Market Leader, ASP of Chicago
Jeannine Hahn is Senior Vice President/Organization Design and Change and a member of the Executive Leadership Team, where she works with the All Stars Project's (ASP) Chief Executive Officer on risk management and compliance, as well as focusing on succession planning and leadership development for the organization. Jeannine is also Director of the ASP of Chicago, where she runs the day-to-day programming and operations.
Prior to her current position, Jeannine served as Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer (1992-2021) and Chief Operating Officer (1992-2020), during which time she oversaw ASP's financial and human resource operations and worked with senior leadership on ensuring the organization's short- and long-term growth and stability. Jeannine has a long history of contribution to the ASP that began in the late 1980s, when she produced some of the first All Stars Talent Shows in Boston, MA. In the early 1990s, she managed the organization's door-to-door canvasing operation, generating over $800,000 annually and introducing thousands of donors to the organization. Jeannine's fiscal guidance was crucial both before and after the ASP's 2002 decision to purchase a 31,000-square-foot facility on 42nd Street in Manhattan and turn it into a performing arts and development center. In 2007, she led a team to refinance the mortgage, enabling a renovation of the center's façade and mechanical systems. Additionally, Jeannine was responsible for overseeing the budget and schedule of the construction project.
Raised in Arlington Heights, Jeannine is a devoted Cubs fan. She attended school at the University of Iowa, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Education and played volleyball for the Hawkeyes.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Development
- Vice President / Development
As Vice President of Development, Jenny Zak is responsible for all fundraising and philanthropic partnerships across the organization nationally. Ms. Zak's leadership and oversight include national fundraising strategy; principal gift operation; management of the organization's dynamic base of individual, corporate and foundation philanthropic partners; and leadership of the ASP's national development department that creates local ‘involvement philanthropy' activity in New York City, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas and the San Francisco Bay Area. Ms. Zak works closely with the ASP's CEO and the President on philanthropic partnership strategy and interfaces with the CFO and Board of Directors' Finance and Audit Committee as a member of the budget planning team.
Throughout her tenure with the ASP, most recently as Director of Development from 2017 to 2019, Ms. Zak has played a central role in building out the New York fundraising operation, establishing a New York board, managing the Development School for Youth Trustees' leadership bodies, overseeing and coaching staff in New Jersey, Dallas, San Francisco and Chicago, and creating and leading the ASP's top events, including our National Gala at the Lincoln Center. In addition to managing some of the ASP's most significant corporate and foundation relationships, Ms. Zak has proudly worked with thousands of individual philanthropists who have helped the ASP achieve record fundraising milestones.
Born in Ukraine, Ms. Zak grew up in Brooklyn, where she currently lives with her husband and young son. Ms. Zak first became a volunteer with the ASP in 2004 while she was a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. She received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 2009 and completed the Columbia Business School Senior Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Operations
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
As Vice President/Operations and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Jessica Massad ensures national operational excellence and plays a central role in developing, implementing and innovating All Stars Project (ASP) strategies, policies and practices. She works with the ASP's President and other key leaders on developing short- and long-term organizational planning and strategy, and she oversees human resources and an expanded information technology function. Jessica first joined the ASP staff in 2003 to help manage the ASP's Performing Arts and Development Center on West 42nd Street and, from 2009 to 2020, was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the facility's operations. Jessica has been an All Star since 1982.
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- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
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- RBC Real Estate Capital Partner
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- Member of the Board of Directors
- Insurance Consultant
- President, U.S. Field Operations and Chairman ( Retired ), Environmental Ironshore, Inc.
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Secretary of the Board of Directors
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- Director
- Vice President
- Vice President / Director, All Stars Project of Chicago
- Vice President / Director, ASP of Chicago
Lauren is Vice President / Director of the All Stars Project (ASP) of Chicago and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. As part of her responsibilities, Lauren builds relationships with community leaders and nonprofit partners to establish the new Hub for Youth Development in downtown Chicago, as well as develops local fundraising initiatives and the stewardship of regional board members and philanthropic partners. Lauren was previously the Associate Director of ASP of Chicago from 2020 to 2022 and oversaw the program team and regional operations.
Lauren was introduced to the ASP in 2012 when she completed the Activist for Social Development Fellowship. She joined the New York staff that same year as the Assistant to the ASP's President and CEO and as PR /Marketing Manager.
A native Wisconsinite, Lauren graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa with a major in anthropology and concentration in global development studies.
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- Office of the New York State Attorney General
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Chairman of the Board of Directors
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- Vice Chair, Volunteer Engagement )
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Senior Director, Corporate and Foundations Relations
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- Chairman
- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Vice President
- Vice President / City Leader, ASP of New Jersey
Shadae McDaniel is the Vice President/City Leader of All Stars Project of New Jersey (ASP of NJ) and a member of the Senior Leadership Team. She works closely with regional board members on advancing ASP of NJ's strategic impact and oversees the planning and execution of all programming, operations, non-profit partnerships, and community-building activities. Shadae also partners with ASP's VP/Development on carrying out local fundraising efforts and stewarding relationships with local board members and leading philanthropic partners. In addition, Shadae directs the Development School for Youth (DSY) nationally and provides leadership to the Development Coaching program.
Shadae was the City Leader of ASP of NJ from 2019-2020. She first met the All Stars when she attended an Afterschool Development Conference in 2014. A year later, she was hired as a Senior Program Manager and promoted to Director of Youth Programs six months later. In each of these roles, Shadae has played a key role in growing ASP across the Garden State through the expansion of the DSY to Jersey City, the launch of Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids in partnership with Mayor Ras Baraka and the Newark Police Department, and other program initiatives. She also leads the Afterschool Development Working Group, which convenes community leaders, front-line practitioners, educators, innovators, and others to help advance the impact and influence of afterschool development across NJ.
Passionate about performance and a dancer for much of her life, Shadae spent the 15 years before she joined ASP working in the local, state, and federal non-profit sector. There, she provided innovative community-based education for thousands of young people and their families in underserved communities. Shadae is listed as one of ROI-NJ's 2020 Influencers: People of Color and named by Newark Venture Partners as one of the 10 Bad Ass [Girl] Bosses of Brick City.
Shadae earned a bachelor's degree in health sciences at Howard University and a master's degree in social work from Rutgers University. She lives in West Orange with her husband and young daughter.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- RBC Real Estate Capital Partner
- Management