youth.gov Webinar: Meaningfully Engaging Young People: Principles, Strategies, and Success Stories

Dr. Stephanie McGencey is a strategic leader with over 26 years of experience in public policy analysis, program implementation, and executive leadership. She has extensive knowledge in nonprofit management, governance, fundraising, and expertise in youth development, mental health, juvenile justice, substance abuse prevention, public health, early care and education, and coalition building. Dr. McGencey has held senior positions in national membership associations—most recently as executive director of the American Youth Policy Forum--providing support, training, and policy analysis to their networks, and has worked across local health departments, community organizations, local government, and the private sector. Currently, she leads the Women’s Equity Center and Action Network (WE CAN), educating, engaging, and activating women of color to lead social change. Dr. McGencey holds degrees from San Francisco State University, the University of Michigan, and Walden University.

As Director of the Division of Children and Youth Policy, Amanda Benton serves as the Chair of the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP), which is composed of representatives from 25 federal departments and agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth. Among other activities, the IWGYP supports youth.gov and engage.youth.gov. She also oversees a team of analysts working on issues related to early care and education, child welfare, youth/adolescent development, and child poverty and well-being, including the Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council. She previously served as an ASPE Senior Social Science Analyst. In that role, she coordinated inter- and intra-agency policy work, managed research contracts, and conducted qualitative research. She worked on myriad topics of interest to HHS, including social capital, family and youth homelessness, virtual human services delivery, and human trafficking, among others. She previously served as the Director of Policy Outreach at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Amanda holds a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Trace is a 20-year-old public mental health activist from La Pine, Oregon, and a Kessler Scholar at Johns Hopkins University, studying public health and writing seminars with aspirations for a career in mental health policy and management. His research focuses on how storytelling can contextualize public health issues, specifically examining transnational movements for suicide prevention hotlines and the influence of the U.S. on Canada's 988 Suicide & Crisis Helpline. He is passionate about peer support, school mental health services, workforce development, and adolescent crisis intervention, and his advocacy has taken him to significant venues such as the White House, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, and the MTV VMAs. Featured on NPR, C-SPAN, and Bloomberg, Trace also enjoys exploring Baltimore and D.C.’s food scenes, hiking, and spending time with friends and family. A lifelong Lego enthusiast, he proudly owns all the botanical-themed sets.

Akshaya Aalla is a Senior at Whitney High School, where she strives to bring passion and impact to her campus and community. Her interests include exploring the intersections of public policy, race and ethnicity, and education to better understand how they impact society and our school systems. She has an extensive background in democracy, currently serving on numerous youth boards and coalitions, along with working for multiple state-sponsored advocacy organizations to combat women's inequity.

Diamond Lewis brings a unique perspective to the webinar having been a young person engaged in policy and systems change and now as a federal worker. She has an important point of view, having direct experience with the juvenile justice system and being able to leverage that lived expertise in her current role at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Diamond Lewis recently graduated from Regent University with a Master of Arts in Law and obtained her Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from the University of DC in 2020. Diamond began pursuing her passion for justice reform as a Court Services intern with the DC Pre-trial Services Agency. She then went on to become more engaged in her field through internships with various non-profit organizations. Through these non-profits, Diamond was able to lobby Congress on behalf of reform bills, write Opinion Editorials, and engage with the community to raise awareness about various justice reform initiatives. Diamond has also held numerous internships within the public service sector, including those at the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as well as various positions within the Department of Justice. She joined the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) as an intern through the Department of Justice’s Pathways Program and now serves as a Grants Management Specialist (Compliance) in the State Relations and Assistance Division (SRAD), where she works to uplift the voices of youth with lived experience.