Anita Benavides Mennucci is the Executive Director of GENaustin. Prior to joining GENaustin, she was a consultant for MGT of America, a public sector management consulting and public affairs firm, specializing in marketing, communications, and change management.

Anita has extensive research and program development experience developed from working with various revitalization and social service efforts. She served as the Program Director of the Travis County/Southwest Key Program's Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) developing, implementing, and managing an instructional and therapeutic program for juvenile offenders. Under her leadership, the school was recognized as a model program in the state by the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. Anita was later promoted to Communications Director for the Southwest Key Program, a national non-profit corporation, serving over 1,200 youth and families and employing over 500 staff in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Anita was the Associate Director of the Austin Project, an initiative that coordinated the efforts of governmental entities, service providers, and neighborhood leadership to revitalize areas of east Austin. She has also worked two sessions in the Texas Legislature and interned in the U.S. Congress. Anita was recognized as a semi-finalist in the 2002 Austin Under 40 Awards for her community service which includes membership in Leadership Austin and Junior League, as well as volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House, cooking meals for families, and Zavala Elementary, teaching at a summer reading camp.

Anita holds a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government from the University of Texas at Austin.

Katherine Fitzgerald

Katherine Fitzgerald is GENaustin's Interim Director of Programs. Kat has a BS in Psychology from the University of Houston and a Masters degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Kat started her career as a consultant working for Andersen Consulting in their Systems Consulting and later Change Management practices. Professionally, she has focused on helping businesses and organizations achieve their objectives for growth and change. Kat served as Project Coordinator for the City of Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, Summer Youth Employment program. As Coordinator, she oversaw all aspects of planning, development and implementation of the program which provides opportunities to over 800 youth each summer in Austin. After moving to New Orleans, Kat worked for a growing business, and led the implementation of infrastructure for the company’s first Inventory and Point of Sales System. She was also responsible for all staff training.

Born in Colombia and growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, at the age of 14 she moved to Houston and suffered from severe culture shock. She believes a program like GENaustin could have greatly helped her through the tough transitions of her childhood to become more confident and empowered woman. Kat is currently commuting to GENaustin, living in New Orleans and hopes one day to return to Austin. She enjoys running. She is excited to help GENaustin expand its programming and voice beyond its current boundaries.

Barb Steinberg is a Licensed Master Social Worker who has been licensed by the state of Texas since 1991. She has an undergraduate degree in Social Work from Southwest Texas State University and a graduate degree in Social Work from Rutgers University. Currently, Barb is the Director of Programs for GENaustin.

Her professional experience has included conducting psychotherapy and counseling with individuals, families and groups of all ages, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds. Her work also encompasses training professionals throughout the state of Texas on issues related to at-risk children. Barb has worked within the schools conducting support groups, in private practice as well as inpatient and outpatient treatment settings. She has experience with a variety of mental health issues such as mental illness, brain injury and neuropsychiatric disorders, depression and suicide, eating disorders, physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and anxiety and adjustment disorders. Barb has owned her own corporation whose mission was to enrich the development of young girls and help them become happier, more confident young women. Strong components in this course were personal boundaries and safety, nutrition, body image and self-esteem.

Barb's own challenges through adolescence and her clinical experience working with young women, has led her to focus her energy and skills on the successful development of girls. It is her goal to assist girls in realizing their immense talent and value to better equip them for the challenges of womanhood.

Nicole Basham is GENaustin's clubGEN coordinator. Formerly a member of the Speaker Series Committee and the Co-Chair of the Rachel Simmons major speaker event in January 2004, she has been involved in GENaustin as a volunteer for over a year. Nicole grew up in Austin, across the street from one of the concerned moms that founded a nonprofit called The Ophelia Project, which eventually became GENaustin. After receiving degrees in government and Spanish from William & Mary, she moved to the Washington, D.C. area and began working in the international science group at The Nature Conservancy. Soon afterwards, Nicole began fundraising for programs addressing climate change and marine conservation, among others. In 2003, Nicole and her husband decided to leave the traffic and harried pace of D.C. and return to Austin. After a brief stint at Travis County�s Parks Department working on environmental grants, she joined GENaustin. Nicole has been active in trying �to make a difference� since childhood through community service. Outside of work, Nicole enjoys playing soccer, traveling, eating, and watching indie movies. /p>

Laura Donnelly was born in New York City, and was moved to the Garden State by her parents for better schools and fresher air. Upon graduating Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, Laura headed back to NY, happily exchanging fresh air for a fresh world. There she became a book publicist and freelance journalist, working for authors from a range that included former President Jimmy Carter and Sista Souljah. Living in New York, Laura became a mentor to a 10 year old girl, and realized the urgency of boosting girls' esteem prior to high school. She also noticed there was a lack of any media for pre-teens and teen girls that emphasized self-confidence and upon moving to Austin, TX, she started a Latina girls magazine titled, Latinitas.

Laura brings experience and passion to the GENaustin staff, contributing to all aspects of its operations and programs by serving as GENaustin's Community Relations Coordinator. She continues Latinitas in her free time, as well as documentary filmmaking, where she has produced a work titled "Capirotada: A Little Mix of Everything," a Latina girl's perspective on her culture and life, which was featured in the nationally acclaimed South by Southwest film festival.

Christine Carlucci, originally a volunteer in GENaustin's Resource Development Commitee, is GENaustin�s oriGENal voice program coordinator. As coordinator, Christine will be overseeing the oriGENal voice tobacco free campaign by organizing the program�s girl advisory board. The girls are trained to produce messaging that encourages their peers not to use tobacco. A native New Yorker, Christine moved to Houston with her family in middle school, but returned East for college, where she received degrees in Public Relations and Business from Loyola College in Maryland. Upon graduating, she headed to the country of Belize, where she taught, mentored, and coached soccer at Mount Carmel High School. On a trip home to Houston she headed to Austin for a weekend and fell in love with the �Live Music Capital of the World�. Immediately, she packed her bags, moved and started a job at Fleishman-Hillard, a global communications consultancy, before transitioning to company subsidiary Lois Paul Partners, which focuses on strategic and tactical counsel to high-technology companies.

Christine comes to the oriGENal voice coordinator position with a passion to serve others. She recently worked at the American Cancer Society as a Cancer Information Specialist. She also enjoys music, skiing, soccer and smiles.

Veronica Barrio - Prior to becoming GENaustin�s webmaster, Veronica Barrio worked extensively on Oracle applications and was a web customer relationship lead for National Instruments where she managed teams of programmers and web designers. She graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 with a degree in Management Information Systems and now runs her own web business, www.veronicabarrio.com, where she helps develop Websites for several national and international clients. Born in Mexico and raised in Texas, Veronica enjoys traveling to Latin America. Veronica�s focus at GENaustin is updating and expanding the oriGENal voice part of the GENaustin Website by adding more images, features, polls and also maintaining content for the oriGENal voice pilot program in Temple, Texas.

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