Owning Your Narrative with Elizabeth Santiago

Reimagining Youth Work

This episode is a compelling discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Santiago about why it's important for young people to own their narratives. Through the telling of her own story, Dr. Santiago helps us to understand why it can be harmful to tokenize young people, why students of color require support navigating higher education spaces, and how her own story influences her game-changing work at MENTOR.

Dr. Elizabeth Santiago is the Chief Program Officer for MENTOR. In this role, she is responsible for and actively involved in the management of programs and services for a wide range of stakeholders. She works with a team to implement a continuous quality improvement process throughout the program and service areas, focusing on systems and process improvement. Prior to MENTOR, Elizabeth gained extensive experience in program management and development, instructional design, curriculum development, training and professional development with organizations such as Jobs for the Future, Simmons College, Babson College, Houghton Mifflin, and World Education. She has specific experience in working with vulnerable or marginalized youth and the systems and people that serve them. She has taught high school equivalency courses within school districts, community-based organizations and through unions, and managed the GED/high school equivalency program at the Harriet Tubman House in Boston, MA. She has also built a professional development service for teachers and principals designing education programs for first generation college goers. Elizabeth earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College and a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Technology, Innovation and Education Program. She recently earned her PhD in education studies at Lesley University.

Follow Elizabeth on Social Media

Twitter: @esantiagoMENTOR

Check out MENTOR The National Mentoring Partnership: https://www.mentoring.org/