Abe Abullarade, Program Coordinator
Abraham was born and raised in San Francisco and has a strong passion for working interactively with young people in his community. For the past three years Abraham has participated as a youth group mentor in his church. His responsibilities include coordinating group events and facilitating weekly discussions on important issues that young people face in today’s society. He earned his B.A. in Broadcasting Communication’s from San Francisco State University. After graduation he interned for Kaiser Permanente’s Public Affairs Department in San Francisco, wherein he assisted in the organization of various events and health fairs. He is honored to join a team of talented Spark staff who are committed to empowering youth by working closely with their community.

Chris Balme, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Chris has seen the education system from a variety of angles and is dedicated to helping students find motivation and inspiration. He has taught with the Breakthrough Collaborative and worked as a National Science Foundation Fellow, developing and teaching new science curricula in the Philadelphia public schools. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, Chris moved to San Francisco and founded a successful tutoring cooperative, serving youth throughout the Bay Area. In 2004, Chris co-founded Spark with fellow educator (now Spark Board member) Melia Dicker. He was honored in July 2008 with the Bay Area's Jefferson Award for Public Service, in honor of Spark's accomplishments for Bay Area youth. Through his experience teaching and through numerous research visits to schools around the world, Chris has developed a belief that hands-on, self-motivated learning and community building are keys to educational change.

Jen Bloomer, Program Manager
Jen has lived and taught youth all over the world. A native of Colorado, Jen earned a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Middlebury College in Vermont. She spent the next several years working with street children in Guatemala, AIDS orphans in Kenya, and Karen refugees on the Thai/Burmese border. These experiences reinforced her belief in the importance of education and the necessity of empowering children to take responsibility for their own learning. After studying painting in Italy, Jen returned to the U.S. and worked at a middle/high school leading art therapy groups for teens. Jen has led backpacking trips for youth in Colorado. Jen's own passion for creativity and learning adds to her enthusiasm for working with students and encouraging them to find their voice. She brings to Spark a strong belief that education is the way to affect change in the world.

Von Diaz, Development Manager
Von Diaz comes to Spark with a background in social justice advocacy and activism, and a commitment to empowering young people to be agents for social change. As Directors' Associate for the WAND (Women's Action for New Directions) National Field Office in Atlanta, GA, she worked as Membership Coordinator, Chapter liaison, and coordinator for WAND's student program STAND (Students Take Action for New Directions). She also worked as Associate to the WiLL (Women Legislators' Lobby) program of WAND with GA State Senator Nan Grogan Orrock. As an activist, she has focused on ensuring social justice and human rights for the local Latino community. Von has previously worked providing direct services for at-risk youth for the Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence shelter. She has also been involved in her local arts community for several years, both as Gallery Manager for the Barbara Archer Gallery and as a violinist in the Agnes Scott College Community Orchestra. She holds a degree in Women's Studies from Agnes Scott College with a concentration in Spanish. She is very excited to join the Spark team and contribute to success of this rapidly growing organization.

Gail Fisher, Associate Director
Born in New York and raised in Venezuela, Gail brings the enthusiasm and skill that come from years of experience and a variety of roles as a child advocate. She began her professional life as a social worker working with children and families. Later, as an attorney, she co-founded a divorce mediation practice committed to helping parents minimize the negative impact of divorce on children. Gail has held leadership roles in several youth programs, including having developed a summer internship and job-mentoring program for high school students in San Francisco. Gail holds two Master's degrees from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in both Social Service and Law and Social Policy, as well as a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

Katie Griffin, Grants Manager
Katie joined Spark first as intern, learning the ins and outs of running a nonprofit organization, and now focuses on making Spark a financially sustainable organization through corporate and foundation funding. She holds a B.S. in Biology from The University of San Francisco and recently completed a degree in Classical Vocal Performance at San Francisco State University. Katie has always been a concerned citizen and an active volunteer in her community. By working at Spark, she hopes to help transform education into a process that will allow students to increasingly direct their own learning and personal development.

Joyce Kinney, Office Manager
A San Francisco native, Joyce has a wealth of experience in the management of busy, growing offices. She brings seasoned knowledge from her work in account management, customer service, accounting, and other key organizational functions. Joyce is excited to build systems to support Spark’s growing enrollment and impact. When she’s not streamlining and improving Spark’s systems, she can be found pursuing her interests in singing, acting, writing, and movie directing.

Katie Krummeck, Program Development & Evaluation Manager
Katie has been a teacher for five years, working with both middle and high school students. After graduating from Whitman College, she received her secondary education teaching certificate. Shortly thereafter, she co-founded a small, independent middle and high school where she taught for three years. Built on a foundation of community-based, interdisciplinary learning, Palouse Community School's progressive approach closely mirrors the educational philosophy at Spark of making education relevant to their passions. Most recently, Katie taught English at Yunnan University in southwest China, and trained election workers for the City of San Francisco. She is extremely excited to join Spark in its mission to engage and empower students as life-long learners.

Julie McGuire, Development Director
Julie's passion for providing educational opportunity to all children has been a hallmark of her career. Julie became interested in education reform while leading a mentoring program for inner city high school students as an undergraduate in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from college, she worked as a Director at Score! Educational Centers in the Bay Area, where she ran a tutoring center serving over 400 children. Prior to joining Spark, Julie worked as a management consultant, where she served on the firm's nonprofit advisory board and helped both for- and not-for-profit organizations realize their strategic intent. Julie holds a BA in History from Yale University, and an MBA and Master's in Education from Stanford. In her spare time, Julie enjoys running, hiking, road biking, visiting museums, good food and traveling. She's thrilled to have the opportunity to put her business skills to work in guiding the development of such a promising and inspiring organization.

Lupita Rodriguez, Program Coordinator
Lupita Rodriguez grew up in Southern California, and before graduating from SFSU with a BA in Psychology, took a year to study in Germany. She is now is committed to working with youth as a role model, resource and mentor. She comes to Spark with a wealth of knowledge and experience from working with educational Non-profits and youth in San Francisco for the last 6 years. She believes in building supportive, caring, long lasting relationships with the students, teachers and community to ensure our youth have the necessary tools to succeed

Jon Spack, Director of Consulting
After receiving his BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jon began a nine-year career at Citizen Schools. He began in 1999 as a Teaching Fellow and later took on the organization's Boston area recruitment and training for over 1,000 volunteers. While eventually leading Citizen Schools' volunteer support nationally, Jon was one of 50 professionals selected for the Boston's Future Leaders Program, sponsored by Harvard Business School. In 2005, Jon moved to California to launch a new Citizen Schools program at Monroe Middle School in San Jose, CA. Jon received his MS in Non Profit/NGO Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and was selected as an Education Pioneers Bay Area Fellow and supported Summer Search through an intensive five-year strategic planning process. As Director of Consulting Jon plans to leverage his years of educational program management and his academic exposure to take Spark to new communities in California and elsewhere nationally. Originally from Brookline, MA, Jon speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has lived in Seville, Spain and traveled extensively in Brazil, Morocco, Panama, Israel, and Europe.

Jose Vadi, Program Coordinator
Jose Vadi has been instructing teenagers throughout the Bay Area since the age of 19. While completing his B.A in History at UC Berkeley, Jose worked extensively with Youth Speaks, the nation's leading literary non-profit, to create and present creative writing curriculum for a series of after-school writing workshops for youth ages 13-19. Originally from Los Angeles, Jose brings a great deal of creativity and enthusiasm to the program, and enjoys working to empower and cultivate the next generation of young leaders.  Jose is also a writer/performer and was recently awarded the 2008 Shenson Performing Arts Fellowship from the San Francisco Foundation.

Nathalie Wade, Community Outreach Manager
A strong believer in the power of learning, Nathalie Wade has devoted her career to various aspects of education. While studying child development and international relations at Tufts University, Nathalie conducted aproject on the rural education system in a Senegalese village which motivated her to further explore the world where learning, community and social justice meet. Her interests led her to teach in the US and in Guadeloupe, lead a high school abroad program for The Experiment inInternational Living, and design the French language curriculum for a Connect18 exercise education course. In the Bay Area, Nathalie has worked with multiple nonprofits, including for HEROES, the volunteer program for the Oakland Unified School District, as Director of Volunteer Projects. She is thrilled to be part of the Spark team and looks forward to bringing community members and students together to promote a positive, connected society, ultimately giving students a chance to explore their futures in a whole new way.

Mason Learns to Fly

Mason is one of several Spark students who have pursued a dream of learning to fly with a trained Apprentice Teacher.