Karen Feldman, Executive Director
Karen founded Young Voices in 2006 to address the need for an authentic youth voice in policy-making in Rhode Island. Karen has extensive experience in successfully pushing for policy change at the local and state level through her work at Young Voices. She also brings over twenty years of experience in the youth leadership field, including program implementation, organizational management, and financial oversight. Karen founded Youth In Action in 1997, and served as its Executive Director for eight years. Under her leadership, Youth In Action grew from just an idea into a nationally recognized entity, reaching more than 10,000 young people from its four-story building. Karen has a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and a Master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Peter Chung, Deputy Director
Peter was born and raised in the Fiji Islands. He studied at the University of the South Pacific majoring in Geography and Demography. In Fiji, Peter started out as a young volunteer with Save the Children Fiji. His passion and enthusiasm for youth development helped him establish Kids Link Fiji, Fiji’s first ever youth led initiative. Peter worked at national and international levels to advocate for children’s rights in Fiji and its pacific island neighbors. In 2008, Peter represented his organization at an awards ceremony in New York City in which Kids Link Fiji was awarded UNICEF’s International Child Led Organization of 2008.
Most recently, Peter worked at the Providence Youth Services YMCA as a Site Coordinator, managing academically-aligned Out of School Time programs for school-age youth. Since joining the Young Voices team, Peter has initiated our Leadership Training Academy at a new Providence high school, supported the students to create an extensive research report to drive youth voice in school redesign, and partnered with the school leadership in the actual redesign of the school.
Gretta Schaaf, Director of Academic Innovation
Gretta started as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Young Voices in 2015 to research and design college access and success programs. Since then she has worked in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls organizing high school students to advocate for the change they believe in. Currently, she is based at Blackstone Academy, where she facilitates the leadership transformation academy after-school, teaches two CIP courses, and directs BACS 2.0 (a student-led task-force that is leading the redesign of Blackstone Academy).
Gretta is a 2019 New Leaders Council Fellow and a 2014 Newman Civic Fellow. She is a Justice Talks facilitator and has co-taught courses at Providence College including Community Organizing and Introduction to Service in Democratic Communities.
In her free time, Gretta enjoys going to yard sales, turning trash into treasure, reading, and doing anything outside!
Eric Calogianes, Program Manager
Eric was born on Long Island, New York and received his B.A. in English Education from Stony Brook University. In 2008 he moved to Rhode Island where he served as a City Year Project Leader and led 40 Providence youth in an afterschool service-learning program.