The best and brightest: Here is Leadership Philadelphia’s 2020-2021 Keepers cohort

Philadelphia needs to fight to hold on to its best and brightest. One way the city can do that is by creating a network of young leaders and connecting them with institutional bigwigs — and each other — for mentorship and learning.

Leadership Philadelphia, the civic-minded professional development nonprofit, launched its Keepers program in 2015 to do just that in the hopes of encouraging impressive millennials to stay for the long haul. The seven-month, invitation-only program involves team building and presentations from the likes of Philadelphia Eagles President Don Smolenski and Mural Arts founder and Executive Director Jane Golden.

The Keepers class of 2021 kicked off October 22, and as usual, the group includes a number of social impact professionals, along with those involved in economic development, local gov, tech, entrepreneurship, and more.

This year’s class is two-thirds of its usual size, Executive Director of Engagement Jacqueline Lewis said, “so we can better focus on meaningful one-on-one connection in this year of virtual bliss.” Indeed, the cohort will be meeting via Zoom, as well as using a custom meetup app designed by Jarvus Innovations CTO and past Keeper Chris Alfano.

We recognize a number of names in this year’s class, including Office of Immigrant Affairs Executive Director Amy Eusebio, Philabundance Director of Sustainability Kait Bowdler, Pew Charitable Trusts Senior Associate Jason Hachadorian, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey Private Philanthropy Officer. Alex Hoffmaster, GreenLight Fund Philadelphia Associate Garridon Hankins — and, full disclosure, Technical.ly reporter Michael Butler.

Here’s the full 2020-2021 cohort:

• Alex Balloon, director, Tacony Community Development Corporation
• Kaela Blanks, senior specialist for diversity and inclusion, Aramark
• Kait Bowdler, director of sustainability, Philabundance
• John Brady, deputy executive director, Philadelphia Democratic Party
• Aaron Briggs, resident, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Michael Butler, reporter, Technical.ly
• Emily Callaghan, independent consultant
• Charlotte Castle, deputy chief of staff, City of Philadelphia Managing Director’s Office
• Michael Chow, co-director, Code for Philly
• Cari Dam, senior manager of sales operations systems, Comcast
• Joshua Davidson, CEO, ChopDawg
• Marisa Denker, director, Connect the Dots
• Le’Yondo Dunn, principal, Mastery Charter School
• Rachael Eisenberg, director of policy and planning, Office of Criminal Justice
• Lloyd Emelle, independent technologist
• Jessica Eskow, head of partnerships and community sales, NextFab
• Amy Eusebio, executive director, Office of Immigrant Affairs
• Menghan Fu, director of product management, Comcast
• Jason Hachadorian, senior associate, Pew Charitable Trusts
• Garridon Hankins, associate, GreenLight Fund Philadelphia
• Joseph Hill, principal of Cozen Public Strategies, Cozen O’Connor
• Alex Hoffmaster, private philanthropy officer., United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey
• Marieke Jackson, co-director, Code for Philly
• Brittany Jean-Baptiste, manager of reliability engineering, Comcast
• Chanelle Jones, associate, Ballard Spahr
• Eli Klein, assistant district attorney, Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office
• Filiz Leigh, senior individual giving officer, Curtis Institute of Music
• Marcos Lomeli, program coordinator, Ceiba
• Supriya Malapati, manager of software development and engineering, Comcast
• Lizzie Manning, senior experience designer, Think Company
• Miguel Martinez-Valle, bilingual city reporter, NBC10 and Telemundo 62
• Carlos Masip, builder, Northwest Holdings LLC
• Jason Mitchell, sourcing manager for supplier diversity and data analytics, AmerisourceBergen
• Michael Petruzzelli, director of policy and advocacy, National Council for Behavioral Health
• Eliza Pollack, director of innovation, City of Philadelphia
• Eli Prosper, site coordinator, PlayWorks
• Lorraine Marie Simonis, law clerk, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Masamba Sinclair, principal architect, Comcast
• Kathryn Stracquatanio, director of UX Engineering and experience design, Comcast
• Oscar Wang, founder and CEO, College Together
• William Weber, senior software engineer, Comcast
• Charity Wells, senior labor and employee relations analyst, City of Philadelphia