Jamila Walida Simon
BCTR Outreach Specialist Jamila Walida Simon has assumed a new position as the associate director for innovation in youth programming at the Bronfenbrenner Center. BCTR Director Anthony Burrow created the position in November to build opportunities and generate partnerships among the youth development projects at the BCTR.
“A key strength of the BCTR is the deep work of our individual projects that focus on youth development and experiences,” Burrow explained. “Yet, beyond the good works produced by each of these projects, we also have an opportunity to identify new insights that may emerge between different combinations of them. This new associate director position will help us to identify and capitalize on these insights.”
Simon’s experience working with youth development programs and her current role as civic engagement specialist with the New York State 4-H Youth Development Program allows her to make connections that will better serve youth across the state.
“Jamila is always looking for opportunities to create and advance programming to serve a wider scope of youth,” Burrow said. “Through this new position, Jamila’s excellence and creativity promises to help the center’s youth-facing projects find points of synergy and enhance the contributions we can make to our community partners.”
Encouraging innovation in youth programs will be a key focus, Simon said. “I’m excited for the opportunity to address the ‘why’ of youth programming,” she said. “I want to look for places where people are innovative in building connections that help young people and communities thrive. What an amazing place to be when the director of the BCTR helps you to experiment for the sake of learning!”
Simon is especially focused on sharing evidence-based practices among youth programs. For example, she said, evidence shows that youth programming is more effective when it reaches or considers the entire family.
While COVID-19 has created a challenging environment for youth programming, it has also propelled innovation that can reach more families, Simon said.
“These are challenging times, but what are some ways we can breathe new life into our programs?” she said. “Right now, there is innovation everywhere in how youth programming is done. We can capitalize on that to make long-lasting improvements.
“We just have to ask ourselves, ‘Where are the new spaces we can occupy and create, and do things a little bit differently?”
Simon grew up in New York City. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Wells College in environmental science and policy values and a master’s degree in natural resources from Cornell University. As a master’s student, she explored community gardening to alleviate poverty in Durban, South Africa. She has served as a project coordinator for the CYFAR CITY Project, a Cornell Cooperative Extension project that encouraged youth to conduct community improvement projects in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY. And she has served as a project manager at Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, where she oversaw Cornell students who served as volunteers in her 4-H after-school programming. Currently, Simon is looking forward to earning her doctorate degree in global development at Cornell with an interest in innovations in food insecurity in Tompkins County.
