SPARK’s leadership team creates the scaffolding for SPARK girls’ activism, working closely with the SPARKteam to develop and carry out activist campaigns.
Dana Edell, PhD. Co-Director, SPARK is an activist-scholar-artist and has been the executive director of SPARK since May 2011. From 2002-2012, she was co-founder/executive director of viBe Theater Experience. Since 1998, Dana has produced and co-directed more than 70 plays, 7 CDs of original music, 8 music videos and 3 radio episodes all written and performed by girls. She has over 15 years of experience as a teacher and leader in arts and advocacy programs with teenage girls. Before moving to New York City, she co-founded and directed Inside/Out Performing Arts, a theater-making program for girls affected by the juvenile justice system in San Francisco and worked for three years as a theater artist-in-residence in NYC public elementary and middle schools. She was also the Co-Chair of the Girls’ Participation Task Force in the Working Group on Girls at the United Nations. She has spoken as an expert on girls’ issues on ABC’s 20/20, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Fox & Friends, BBC and NPR. Dana teaches education, qualitative research methods, and theater and social change courses at New York University and the City University of New York. She has a BA with honors in Classics/Ancient Greek from Brown University, an MFA in Theater Directing from Columbia University and a PhD in Educational Theater from NYU.
Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. (Co-Director, SPARK) is a community activist, professor, and SPARK co-founder. She is co-author, with Carol Gilligan, of Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girl’s Development, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year that helped spark an international debate the lives of girls and redefined our understanding of female development. Lyn has written four other books in which she investigates the relationship between girls’ anger and social class, examines the cultural phenomenon of “girlfighting,” and critiques the messages that media and marketers direct at both girls and boys. Her most recent work focuses on scaffolding girls’ resistance and activism. She co-founded Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a nonprofit that educates about and supports girls as social change agents, and in collaboration with HGHW’s Girls Advisory Board, created Powered By Girl (PBG), a media activism website for teen girls. Lyn received her doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology and was a founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girl’s Development. She is Professor of Education at Colby College in Maine. She’s super proud that her daughter, Maya, is a SPARKTeam blogger.
Montgomery Jones (Social Media Co-Coordinator) is majoring in children’s literature and theatre for the young and minoring it marketing at Eastern Michigan University. She is hoping to enter the book publishing industry upon completion of her degree. In addition to school she’s also a nanny a Girl Scout troop leader, a member of Black Student Union, a mentor, and reviews films. She’s been a part of SPARK for 3 years and greatly admires the people she works with.