WYSE Hires New Executive Director FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Susana Cáceres, (213) 488-4942 July 16, 2003 (Los Angeles) The Board of Directors for Women and Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE), a project of Community Partners, is delighted to announce the appointment of Susana M. Cáceres as our new Executive Director. Susana comes to this position after serving as WYSE's Development/Administrative Coordinator for the past six months. As Development/Administrative Coordinator, Susana oversaw the implementation of the WYSE Womyn Network-an initiative to pair professional women with our college mentors- while managing all the developmental and administrative operations of the WYSE National Resource Office. She translated our evaluation system into Spanish, increasing WYSE's capacity to serve monolingual mentees, initiated partnerships with new funders, and implemented new systems to improve our outreach to volunteers and supporters. Needless to say, she has already moved WYSE significantly closer to our mission of providing middle and high school girls with the resources and support necessary to make informed decisions about relationships, sexuality, their futures, and create community change. Prior to joining WYSE, Susana was Program Coordinator for the Statewide Migrant Student Leadership Institute at UCLA. She was also a Fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington. D.C. where she worked on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans as well as with the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN). A long time community activist, as a high school student, Susana joined Community Coalition's youth group. Susana is a firm believer in the power of mentoring and has been a mentor for high school students, undergraduates applying to graduate school and for members of her family. Susana's family immigrated from El Salvador in the 1970's. She is first generation American and one of the first in her family to graduate from college. She earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies with a graduate concentration in Women's Studies from the University of California Los Angeles. While there, she played a leadership role in Raza Womyn de UCLA and helped coordinate their annual Chicana/Latina Conference where 600 middle and high school girls attended workshops on a variety of topics such as, gender, cultural issues and attending college. Susana completed her undergraduate studies at Cal State Long Beach where she majored in Human Development with a minor in Spanish Translation. A native of Los Angeles, Susana grew up in the areas of Pico Union and South Central. We are extremely pleased that Susana has chosen to serve Women and Youth Supporting Each Other as Executive Director. We look forward to many years of continued growth and success under her leadership.