Powerful Voices helps girls reach their potential by instilling confidence and offering guidance to high risk teenagers and girls in juvenile detention.
Powerful Voices |  Because Strong Girls Become Strong Women

Staff

Rita Alcantara
Program Director
Rita was born and raised in south Seattle by two amazing Filipino parents. For a short time, she ran away to a place with a bit more sun, attending Santa Clara University and earning a B.A. in Studio Art and Art History. After graduating, Rita promptly returned to Seattle, its comforting rain and the strong community that surrounded her here. After a few years working as a photographer, she felt compelled to give back to the very community that raised her and so began her journey in the world of non-profit arts education and youth development. Rita is excited to join the PV team and feels honored to be considered a colleague among individuals of such passion and caliber. Rita loves karaoke, hip-hop, traveling, eating, being brown and being a girl.

Tyler Bosma
Office Manager
After a boring but privileged suburban Seattle upbringing, Tyler attended the UW, doing his bachelors studies in Linguistics. After college, he moved to the Georgia, where he had an amazing learning experience (along with some culture shock) while he worked for two years in a rural factory. He then started courses in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, focusing on queer theory along with race, class, and gender studies. Through his work at Powerful Voices, Tyler is involved with the Children, Youth & Family Sub-Coalition of the Seattle Human Services Coalition and the Safe Schools Coalition. Tyler loves working at Powerful Voices, and is excited DAILY to be a part of such amazing and important work in support of girls. In his free time, Tyler volunteers for the United Way Free Tax Campaign and takes service trips to New Orleans through a scrappy little non-profit called Katrina Corps. Tyler also works as Operations Coordinator for another great Seattle non-profit -- Seattle Works, and is excited for the changes that increased volunteerism will bring to our community.

Madeleine Clifford
GirlsRAP AmeriCorps Intern
Madeleine was born and raised in Seattle; she’s lived in Columbia City, Capitol Hill, West Seattle and the Central District. Her biracial upbringing as the child of a Jamaican immigrant father and a white mother has provided her with the unique ability to appreciate racial difference and to struggle for understanding. Finding her own path was difficult, but creativity — particularly the written word and performance — motivated her to claim her voice and share her experiences with others. She became involved with the Seattle spoken word scene through Youth Speaks in high school. She then went on to attain a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis at UW. Currently, she emcees in a hip-hop duo called Canary Sing. Madeleine is enthusiastic about interning for Powerful Voices this year especially when it comes to teaching workshops, learning from young women, and helping equip girls with the tools they need to reach their potential.

Devon De Leña
Outreach Coordinator
Devon de Leņa was born and raised by two very progressive parents in a not so progressive town (Bellevue WA). She is proud to say that she has four amazing sisters and grew up in a large tight-knit family. After transferring to Western Washington University to finish her undergraduate degree she joined a campus outreach group called Women's Empowerment and Violence Education. Her experience revealed the injustices of women in her community and inspired her to create a self designed B.A. in "Cross-Cultural Women's Empowerment." After graduating Devon traveled to Kenya to work with adolescent girls on healthy lifestyle choices and HIV/AIDS. Devon is thrilled to be the Just Serve Americorp Member for PV this year. On her off time Devon enjoys watching movies, cooking and relaxing with her rambunctious family.

Sarah Insel
Case Manager
A Californian by birth and a social worker by training, Sarah learns from all people and things she interacts with -- however, she learns the most valuable things in her life from young people, nature and community. After two years of living in New York City primarily for school, she decided Seattle was the place for her to return to continue learning. While in New York Sarah worked with the Osborne Association's NY Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents, and facilitated the Correctional Association's Juvenile Justice Project SAFE Passages Program for LGBT youth. Most recently in Seattle she's worked at the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program and Passages Northwest, a girls’ outdoor education organization. Sarah brings a liberation framework to her self-awareness, anti-violence and anti-oppression collaborations with young people and constantly promotes youth-led solutions and advocacy. Her personal organizing centers the experiences and wellness of incarcerated transgender, gender variant and queer young people, social work education and issues of refugee resettlement. Sarah loves using her hands, watching (weather and power) change, exploring multiracial identities, being silly, backpacking, political education, unicorns and her siblings. She is thrilled to be a part of the PV community.

Tanya Kim
Executive Director
At PV she integrates her passion for the arts, youth development and leadership development. She has over twelve years of experience in implementing and managing youth programs. She is a member of the Minority Executive Directors Coalition, Asian Pacific Directors Coalition, Seattle/King County Gang Prevention Taskforce, Juvenile Detention Oversight Committee, Washington Women’s Foundation Impact Assessment Committee and Women Business Owners. Outside of PV, Tanya serves on the Minority Advisory Board to the President of Western Washington University (WWU) and served on the Korean Community Counseling Center Board of Directors. Tanya is a graduate of WWU (1997) and completed Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders (2008).

Alma Dea Michelena
Development Associate
Bio coming soon.

Ann Muno
Senior Program Analyst & Advocate
Ann helped found Powerful Voices in 1995. Her social work experience spans the past fifteen years, including work with schools and community organizations, and is rooted in a deep commitment to the next generation of girls. Through her much-cherished involvement in Powerful Voices, Ann has the opportunity to see girls take hold of their potential and flourish, staff and volunteers create educationally exciting spaces for girls, and the community invest in girls' lives. One day, she'd also enjoy the opportunity to study how female adolescence differs for Italian-American and Italian girls. Ann is an Illinois native and has lived in Seattle since 1990. She is the proud mother of five children.

Molly Pencke
Instructional Coordinator, STAGES
Molly Pencke was lucky enough to grow up in the south end of Seattle with her amazingly supportive parents and big sister, who is one of her best friends. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2002 and earned her B.A. in Community Studies with a minor in Education. During her time there she was the queen of internships and interned at elementary schools, in a juvenile detention center, with youth mentoring organizations, and internationally with a human rights organization in Nicaragua. After college, she could not wait to get back to Seattle to start her career in youth empowerment. While looking for work she took a detour and ended up getting her cosmetology license and has been a part time hair stylist ever since. Molly’s recent experience in organizing and working for social justice came from her work as a youth counselor at a residential shelter for homeless and displaced youth and as a program manager working with residents in affordable housing. She is thrilled to be part of the Powerful Voices team and is actually excited to go to “work” most days. She enjoys reading, creative writing, painting, dancing, singing if no one is listening, building relationships, keeping the peace, eating, and traveling. In the future she will found a youth empowerment non-profit and plans on writing at least one novel, becoming fluent in Spanish, traveling the world, and becoming a mother.

Emma Sando
STAGES AmeriCorps Intern
Emma grew up in a small, suburban town just outside of Boston MA, but her heart was really farther north in the White Mountains, where she spent much of her youth hiking with her family. Moving to the Midwest to attend Carleton College, she received her B.A. this past June in International Relations, a degree which allowed her to pursue her passion for social justice and human rights. During her time at Carleton, she spent five months in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied children’s rights law and worked with youth who were living on the streets. It was a life-changing experience, which opened her eyes and her mind. She returned to Buenos Aires in the summer of 2008 on a fellowship from her college to assist in the start-up of a grassroots NGO for street children. Upon returning to the U.S., she began to question her involvement in another country when there was still so much to be done to fight injustice at home - from whose systems of oppression she has benefited all her life. She is thrilled and grateful to have the opportunity to work with Powerful Voices and its AMAZING staff, who inspire her daily with their courage, dedication, and integrity. In her free time she enjoys running around Seattle’s beautiful parks, hiking, cooking, and singing.

Sarah Walczyk
Director of Development and Marketing
Sarah Walczyk joined Powerful Voices in November 2006. Sarah brings several years of substantial fund-raising experience to Powerful Voices, having worked and volunteered with other non-profit organizations in the Seattle area since 1998. Before coming to PV, Sarah worked at YouthCare, where she developed a passion for fundraising for at-risk youth. Sarah is very excited to be part of the PV family and is eager to work with the community to promote PV’s programs for adolescent girls. She received her B.A. in Arts History and Museum Studies from The Evergreen State College. In her free time, Sarah enjoys listening to music, cooking, volunteering, and watching movies.

Gloria Womack
STAGES Instructional Coordinator
Gloria was born in Florida but was raised in Ohio. While living in Ohio she obtained her B.A. in Criminal Justice from Our Lady of Lourdes College. Gloria has always worked in the social service industry, including working with youth in residential care, juvenile corrections and Girl Scouts. Prior to joining PV Gloria worked as the Program Manager for the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program which focuses on girls whose mothers are incarcerated in the state of Washington. Gloria has always had a passion for working with at-risk and underserved youth. She believes in advocating for them and providing them with tools and resources to help them have a successful future. Outside of working with youth Gloria enjoys dancing, playing pool and reading and watching Sci-Fi.