Staff

Carey Harris, Executive Director
Carey has been with A+ Schools since its inception serving as co-director, then deputy director before being appointed Executive Director in May 2007. Prior to joining A+ Schools in October of 2003, Carey was the Executive Director of South Side Local Development Company – a nationally recognized community development organization that develops residential and commercial real estate, develops and manages community plans, and engages in a variety of programs to build and support human and physical  development in South Pittsburgh.  Before joining the South Side LDC, Harris worked at the Mon Valley Initiative – a coalition of community development organizations- as a community organizer and lead organizer. Carey is a graduate of Temple University and holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.  She is a Certified Economic Development Professional and a graduate of EPLC’s Education and Policy Fellowship.  Carey serves on the Board of the Birmingham Foundation and is a Trustee of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church Nursery School.  Carey resides on the South Side with her husband John Werling and their three young children Audrey, Lilly, and Jamie.

Rebekah Jenkins, Program Assistant
Rebekah Jenkins, Program Associate.  Rebekah Jenkins has been on staff at A+ Schools since June 2004 when she was hired to work as a graduate intern for A+, assisting with the creation and compilation of the Pittsburgh Afterschool website.  Soon afterward she was hired as the Program Associate to assist with a number of initiatives and ongoing projects.  Rebekah holds a Masters in Public Policy & Management from the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University where she was a Housing and Urban Development Fellow.  She also has a Bachelors in Interdepartmental Marketing & Communications from Chatham College.  She is a graduate of the Fellows Program in Public Affairs with the Coro Center for Civic Leadership and has served time as a VISTA volunteer with AmeriCorps.  She is an active member of the Church of God and Saints of Christ and serves as Dean of Academics for their soon to be accredited Word of Faith Bible School.  Rebekah resides in Beechview with Peter, her husband of 5 years and her daughter Lauren.  All three of them are anxiously awaiting the new addition to their family who will be arriving very soon.

Mayada Mansour, Program Director
Led by the view that it is a moral imperative for a quality education and the opportunities it affords to be equally accessible to all people, Mayada’s career path has happily brought her to A+ Schools, where her role is to manage and implement projects that empower communities to take action on improving the educational system in Pittsburgh Public Schools. To the organization, Mayada brings a B.S. in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also studied abroad in Brazil and Denmark. Professionally, she brings 3 years of experience as an Education Coordinator for Mission Discovery, a Carnegie Museum-based after school program and summer camp at the Hill House Association and the knowledge and skills she grew through a year as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Mayada currently serves as a trainer for Coro participants and as an adjunct trainer for the Pittsburgh Emerging Leadership Academy (PELA). Originally from New Castle, PA, Mayada currently lives in Bloomfield and has faith that through the work of the entire community, Pittsburgh Public Schools can be one of the best districts in the nation.

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