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Can you tell us a bit about yourself, the foundation, and your grantmaking portfolio?

I am a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I have been at the Gates Foundation for four years. My responsibilities include national replication, which focuses primarily on assisting groups (called "intermediaries")that are starting and supporting networks of schools.

Within the area of education, we focus on schools-based work, research and evaluation, policy, and advocacy. On the schools front, one major initiative is the Early College High School Initiative, which gives students the opportunity to have a college-going experience and earn significant college credits, up to an associate degree, while still in high school.

Another major initiative is the Alternative High School Initiative, which serves primarily “over-age, under-credit” students who have struggled in traditional settings. It also helps students who have different learning styles. Additionally, we fund international schools for students who are recent immigrants as well as those that are focused on international studies and world languages.

How did you become involved in YTFG and why?

Our dollars, as significant as they are, are still limited and have always been intended to be catalytic. We feel that it is important to leverage other dollars - both private and public dollars - around the work that we support. Having a forum like YTFG is really helpful. For me personally, it was like a ready-made collaboration with other colleagues who are interested in the same topics and from whom I can learn because they struggle with similar issues.

How has being involved in YTFG helped you or your foundation?

I have been able to learn from both national and local foundations about what they are doing in their communities. Because we are the Gates Foundation, people often tend to shy away from working with us and think that because Gates is funding it they should place their philanthropic resources elsewhere. Being a part of YTFG and working with other foundations has helped change this perspective.

What relationships have you established as a member of YTFG?

Personally, I have established relationships with other funders both locally and nationally. In terms of the work that we are funding around different cities, it’s giving us insight into what the cities are doing that is really innovative, and the activities and initiatives in which they are involved.

My colleagues - who are more involved in YTFG on the policy front - are also learning a lot and able to make connections with groups that we didn’t know about before.

What are some of your current projects that relate to older youth issues?

As part of AHSI, we fund organizations that start schools that serve struggling students and out-of-school youth. Examples include the Maya Angelou Charter School, a Washington, DC, charter school serving foster care youth and adjudicated youth, as well as students that have struggled in mainstream schools. We have also funded The Big Picture Company and Communities in Schools, whose Performance Learning Centers in Georgia have had significant traction with disconnected youth.

If a grantmaker wants to focus on older youth issues, what's the starting point?

I think that as a funder, it’s important to connect to this network because there are people who have been focusing on these issues for a significant amount of time and are extremely knowledgeable. For someone heading up a program in one of these areas, working with a network of cities around these issues allows you to start to learn and get innovative ideas from other places.  

If you could choose a policy priority for 2008, as it relates to older youth issues, what would it be?

For me, and looking at the students that my grantees are funding, one challenge is that the graduation rate is currently counted as a four-year rate. If a student takes longer than four years, both the student and school are penalized.

But when you take a longer-term view of six years, you get a higher graduation rate. With these populations in particular, it may take students a little longer but if you give them that extra time many may make it. But that isn’t reflected in the way we measure graduation rates at this time.