Development Board Members

Vision: To offer a diverse portfolio of rigorously engaging summer academic programming.

Mission: The JKCP Curriculum Development & Academic Advisory Board leverages the expertise of leading professionals in the fields of education, psychology, business and entrepreneurship. This elite board will collaborate to create, implement and perpetually improve world-leading summer academic programming for the benefit of the JKCP students.

Utilizing curriculum development methodology that is at the forefront of innovation in the field of education, JKCP is a world-leader at integrating soft-skills education, psychosocial development objectives and data analytics into their summer academic programming. The result are experiences that are rigorously engaging, challenging students to a journey of meaningful growth and real-world relevant application of their learning. JKCP alumni have greater self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-esteem, leaving our programs as empowered agents of positive change in their communities.

Dr. Troy Podell, Advisory Board Chair

Dr. Troy Podell is the Coordinator for Career Readiness for the Downingtown Area School District, managing a career education program including roughly 900 teachers and 13,000 students. Dr. Podell has also served as the K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Leader for the district and has taught multiple subjects at the top-ranked Downingtown STEM Academy. In addition to serving as the Academic Director of rigorous pre-college programs at Penn and Yale, he is a contributor to Smerconish.com, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Downingtown-Thorndale Regional Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Podell completed his doctoral course of study at the American College of Education, after earning a Master of Science in Adolescent Education from Mercy College, and Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting, Telecommunications, and Mass Media from Temple University.

Tina Wells, Advisory Board Member

Tina Wells is the CEO and founder of Buzz Marketing Group, an agency that creates marketing strategies for clients within the beauty, entertainment, fashion, financial, and lifestyle sectors. She’s spent nearly two decades connecting influencers and consumers to brand clients, and, since founding her company, she’s built up and managed a network of 30,000 “buzzSpotters” and 7,000 “momSpotters” to field monthly research for her clients.

An earlier iteration of her company, called BuzzTeen.com, was one the earliest news sites dedicated to providing teens with content in fashion, beauty, entertainment, health, fitness, lifestyle, academics, and world news. It also served as a liaison between teens and the companies that target the teenage demographic. In the late 1990s, Wells developed the Buzz Review Board, which regularly reviewed new products from companies like Candie’s, Aveda, and OPI.

Wells authored the youth marketing handbook Chasing Youth Culture And Getting It Right and the best-selling tween series Mackenzie Blue. She sits on the board for NPH USA, an international organization that helps raise over 3,500 orphan children in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to serving on the Young Entrepreneur Council, the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, and the board of directors for both the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and The Franklin Institute, she is also the current Academic Director of Wharton’s Leadership in the Business World program. Her long list of honors include Essence’s 40 Under 40, Billboard’s 30 Under 30, Fast Company‘s 100 Most Creative People in Business, and Inc’s 30 Under 30.

Dr. David Cambridge, Advisory Board Member

Dr. David Cambridge has spent his career bringing the world of business to classrooms. As a groundbreaking researcher, he looks to develop an understanding of Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Project Management, and Operations in future leaders. His academic credentials include an MBA, a Doctor of Education, a Master of Science in Biology, and Certificates in Finance and Project Management.

Anjali Bhatia, Advisory Board Member

Anjali has had a lifelong passion for education and helping students through entrepreneurship skills. She is currently the Country Manager of the USA & Canada for Crimson Education (www.crimsoneducation.org), which helps pair students with mentors and experts to help them stand out throughout high school. Anjali a 2015 MBA graduate of The Wharton School, where she was the recipient of the merit-based Joseph Wharton Fellowship. At Wharton, she majored in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing & Operations. Prior to Wharton, she worked as a Strategy & Innovation Consultant for Accenture, where she had a focus on education clients including the U.S. Department of Education and several nonprofits. She is the co-founder of LashBeePro (2014) and has previously founded two nonprofits, Discover Worlds (’06) and ChangeEducate (’09) – all focused around education. She completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroeconomics at Duke University, where she was the recipient of the full merit scholarship, the Robertson Scholarship (awarded to less than 1% of applicants). She is also a tea sommelier (pairing tea with foods) and loves matcha bubble tea!

Sherol Chen, Advisory Board Member

Sherol advocates for Machine Learning for Google Cloud, and works in Research at Google Brain for Machine Learning in Music and Creativity for the Magenta team. She’s taught Artificial Intelligence at Stanford and around the world in six different countries. Her PhD work is in Computer Science, researching storytelling and Artificial Intelligence at the Expressive Intelligence Studio.

Raquel Silva, Advisory Board Member

Raquel Helen Silva is originally from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She holds a BA in Government from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil and a BA in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Raquel recently completed her MA in Global Affairs focused on Gender and International Development from Yale University. Raquel’s areas of expertise are public diplomacy, international education, human rights, corporate responsibility, diversity & inclusion, which she developed by working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She currently leads Partnerships for NOIR FEST, a travelling film festival experience curating the finest visionary and aspirational Black diaspora content for theaters around the world, aimed at improving global perceptions of people of African descent.

Raquel is passionate about unlocking opportunities for individuals from underprivileged backgrounds, because access to education, foreign languages and experiential learning took her to places she would have never imagined. Raquel is a native speaker of Portuguese, fluent in English and has working knowledge of Spanish and French. A wanderluster, she has worked, studied and attended conferences in the United States, Canada, Peru, Brazil, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Lithuania, Ghana, Israel and China. She has spoken at TEDx, presented at the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum in Davos with Professor Klaus Schwab and introduced the speech of First Lady Michelle Obama at an official visit to Brazil. Raquel also appreciates hugs, handwritten notes, desserts and photography.

Cindy Schwartz-DeVol, Advisory Board Member

As a competitive tennis player for 35 years and golfer for 15 years, Cindy Schwartz-DeVol, Ph.D. understands the trials and tribulations of athletes. Along with her therapy skills and desire to help others, she brings her personal passion and empathy about sports endeavors. Sports are a wonderful metaphor for life, as we face adversities and work to cope with and overcome mental, physical, and emotional hurdles to reach our goals.

Cindy Schwartz-Devol is an expert in treating anxiety before or after competition, negative self-talk, trouble focusing in the moment and more.

Sam Sneed, Advisory Board Member

After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, Sam received his B.A. from Yale College and his J.D. from New York University School of Law. After serving as a judicial clerk, Sam became partner in a Philadelphia-based, multinational law firm where he concentrated on complex litigation, co-authored and edited respected books in his area and was a sought after program leader and speaker.

In addition, Sam was also an Internet pioneer and visionary. In 1994, he co-founded his first venture-funded company, in which he created award-winning web brands and secured innovative, content provider agreements with Microsoft and AOL.

Later, he co-founded a second venture-funded Internet company and oversaw the development of one of the first blog technologies, political social networking sites and online giving sites.

With this technology, Sam produced many of the early political shows on the Internet including the first Internet show from the nation’s capitol on AOL, and one of President Clinton’s first online appearances.