The campus network is headed up by young people who are passionate about enabling students to change their campuses and solve community problems.

Amy is honored to serve as SDCN’s first Executive Director.  Amy brings a passion for - and over 10 years of experience working with - individuals and organizations to create inclusive environments.  As an undergraduate at Duke University, Amy co-founded the student-run Center for Race Relations and the Common Ground diversity immersion retreat to create safe spaces for meaningful interaction.  After participating in the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in Pittsburgh, Amy earned a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School, where she received the Dean’s Diversity Fellowship and Dean’s Leadership Fellowship.  Amy's research has focused on both best practices for training change agents in inclusion and the relationship between social entrepreneurship and economic development.  She has presented internationally on social entrepreneurship, and has developed and conducted diversity trainings and strategy sessions for clients in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors.  Prior to joining the SDCN team, Amy worked at ICF International, consulting for federal agencies on diversity, inclusion and leadership development.   In partnership with the board, staff, campuses, and community, Amy works to build the SD movement and to create a cadre of culturally inclusive leaders.  Amy is a board member of Operation Understanding DC.  Hailing from Shaker Heights, Ohio, she lives in Washington, D.C. with her sister, who was an SD moderator at Princeton.

Rhonda’s role focuses on shaping the student experience of Sustained Dialogue. She has worked to develop leadership & training materials, provide students with useful evaluative tools, and to inspire students to organize and moderate Sustained Dialogue since joining the SDCN team. She became involved in SD during her freshman year at Princeton University, where she majored in Sociology. She credits her time as a participant and moderator of SD with teaching her the unwritten complexities of community relationships and empowering her to challenge norms surrounding them. She is currently helping to support the formation of a student-led SD initiative in Addis Ababa. Rhonda is from the South Jersey shore, and now lives in Washington, D.C. where she enjoys cooking, book club meetings, and frequenting Busboys and Poets.

Chris Wagner joined SDCN in June 2007 and served two years as a Program Director, focusing both on supporting students involved in SD nationwide and continuing SDCN’s organizational development.  He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2007 with a degree in psychology.  He became involved in SD as a freshman and spent his last two years moderating dialogue groups and serving as the club’s president.  Combining his academic and extracurricular interests, Chris conducted two research projects focusing on the impact of SD on student participants, including his senior honors psychology thesis.  Chris grew up in West Springfield, MA and currently resides in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C.  He enjoys biking in Rock Creek Park and recently joined a neighborhood tutoring program.  Following his position at SDCN, Chris hopes to spend some time abroad prior to applying to graduate programs.

LaTia trains students to organize and moderate Sustained Dialogue.  LaTia Walker graduated from The Colorado College in 2009 with an American History–Political Science major, as well as Urban Studies and Race & Ethnic Studies minors. At CC, LaTia joined the SD initiative during her freshman year, and eventually came to serve as Chair. Raised in Denver, Colorado, LaTia has been serving as a Program Director with SDCN since June 2009. She is extremely excited to join the SD movement at the national level, and work with student organizers as they plant the seed of effective social change in their communities.

Sasha is excited to be a part of the SDCN team this summer. She will be graduating with the Class of 2011 at Duke University with a major in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. On campus, she has been working with the Center for Race Relations to create safe spaces for meaningful dialogue and to promote social justice. Sasha is currently serving as the Co-Director of a four-day immersion retreat, Common Ground, which brings over 60 students together to participate in activities and dialogues focused on issues of identity. She is looking forward to learning volumes from this organization and the people who work here and will carry these lessons with her to Duke’s campus and beyond.

Jami Lephew is thrilled to be an intern at SDCN for the summer of 2010. As an undergraduate at McDaniel College, he is working on initiating SD on his campus in the fall and addressing the need for change on his campus. Some of his projects as an intern include preparing for the Student Leadership Retreat, creating an SDCN newsletter, preparing for moderator workshops, and gaining support from corporations and businesses. He is double majoring in political science and Spanish, and his passion is development in Latin America.

Julie is currently a junior at Susquehanna University, majoring is Psychology. She recently joined SDCN, this past winter and is currently one of the nine founders of Sustained Dialogue on Susquehanna’s campus. Julie is actively involved in many extracurricular activities some of which include working with the Center for Diversity and Social Justice (CDSJ), Admissions Office, Presidential Office, while also acting as the Diversity Council Liaison in SGA on her campus. She most recently participated in SD’s 7th Annual National Summit at Princeton this past March. Julie is extremely excited to be an SD intern this summer and looks forward to furthering her knowledge of SD so that Susquehanna can push for several strong dialogue groups this coming fall.