In 2010, Michele Joseph had just been diagnosed with cancer, which led her to think deeply about her value to her community and what she wanted to achieve. She recognized that her son, along with other underserved youth, did not have the opportunities to develop soft skills (such as critical thinking, creative problem solving, and empathetic leadership) needed for college and a career. She deeply believes that every student has the capacity to positively impact their communities and ultimately the world, yet underserved students may not be given the opportunity to do so. Hence, she founded SGAP Leaders.

Prior to founding SGAP Leaders, Joseph held several senior and entrepreneurial positions. She secured roles as the Senior Vice President of a boutique marketing firm in New York City, and the Director of Brand Strategy, Training and Execution for klick consultants LLC – her brand marketing consultancy – where she aligned teams through clear messaging. Michele lead teams within the information technology, engineering, e-recycling, nonprofit, federal government (DOD, HHS), and small business sectors. Ms. Joseph also partnered with the corporate brand management team at Verizon Communications as the manager of merger issues. She also worked as the strategic marketing representative for the Government Systems division of Silicon Graphics, Inc where she developed successful target marketing initiatives for DIA, DISA, NSA and Lockheed Martin.  

Joseph attained her MBA in strategy and marketing from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, and her BSc in Biology/Environmental Sciences from Catholic University of America. She taught marketing, public relations, and entrepreneurship to high school, undergraduate and graduate students. She was a runway model for Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and the house model for Liz Claiborne – Sports.

At present, she is a board member of Nonprofit Montgomery and co-leads the Advocacy Committee. She is an Amber Fellow with the Montgomery County Black Collective as well as a member of the Downtown Silver Spring Rotary. She launched the for-profit arm of SGAP Leader entitled NEXT GENERATION INC, and mentors young adults affiliated with her Alma Mater. She resides in Silver Spring, Maryland and enjoys museums, travel, tandem sky-diving and acrylic painting.

Teri has over eight years of experience in event design, planning and execution. She has been an operations manager for Smart Snacks Food Program, under the Manna Food Center umbrella. She earned two certifications: social media marketing and grant writing. In addition, Teri speaks and writes Spanish fluently.

Ms. Abrahams  acquired her JD in Media and International Law from New York Law School, and her BA in International Relations from the University of Delaware. She resides in NJ with her husband and enjoys international travel.

Ting Huang attained her BA in Psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and worked as a research fellow. Her studies focused on online learning and student satisfaction during COVID-19. She facilitates our THINK DESIGN workshops and is currently a graduate student at Towson University where she focuses on Experimental Psychology which will prepare her for a role as a Psychological Researcher for Social Change.

Ms. Huang spearheaded an initiative entitled BRIAN’S STORY, where she wrote a script and assembled a team to commemorate Brian, who passed away of ALS while in a nursing home during the Pandemic. Brian was a recipient of the Encouragement Project, which Ting also managed. She resides in Towson, Maryland with her feline family.

(Natalia) Hao Guo earned her Masters of Communication, Culture and Technology (STEM) with a certificate in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown University. She acquired her BA in Economics from Stony Brook University.

Natalia researched, developed and presented the Climate Clinic on electrical transportation for the Climate Clinics & Sustainability Challenge as well as the case challenge. In collaboration with Hang Liu, she also researched and designed our impact report.

She has extensive experience as a financial and market research analyst and is certified in SPSS, SQL, Python, R, and Tableau and resides in San Francisco, CA.

Lauren teaches global studies at John Hopkins University. She attained her doctorate in education. In addition, she has worked with Congress and Amnesty International. She authored books on how to use the world wide web more effectively to increase global awareness and on issues related to reducing educational imbalance in access or opportunity in the United States, and around the world.

Lauren is gender fluid and resides in Maryland with her family.

Monica has nearly a decade of collective experience in marketing automation, global innovation marketing operations, and marketing coordination.
She has extensive experience in B2B and B2C marketing, marketing automation, demand generation, lead management, meeting and event planning, project management, and trade shows. 

Monica is the Senior Marketing Operations Specialist at Lyra health. She acquired her BA in management with a Marketing concentration and Spanish minor from Hood College. She resides in the state of Maryland with her husband and lovely daughter.

Jung has held various development positions including those at Seton Hall University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Jersey City Museum and the Jewish Museum in New York City. Jung is an accomplished author and poet. She obtained her B.S. from Rutgers, M.A. from NYU, and M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University. She resides in NJ with her talented daughter.