MARLENE FOX

Cresthaven Foundation Board Member

Marlene is a life-long youth development professional and has worked to end generational poverty in low-income communities by creating equitable pathways to success for children, staff, and families.  She began this journey as a junior at Howard University when she served as a youth worker in an afterschool, homework help program in S.E. Washington, DC. There was no name for this work in the late 1980’s, but Marlene knew what young people did between the hours of 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm was extremely important and could change the course of their lives .

The work later became the field of youth development and Marlene’s career follows a path of professional success and great personal reward. She worked with policy advocates and helped expand the concept of wrap-around, school-based services, but ultimately it was the community-based model that led her to settle at the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) one of the nation’s best known youth serving organizations in New York City. Over the course of 25 years at HCZ, Marlene served in various increased levels of executive leadership from developing, implementing, and managing key multi-site, place-based initiatives including the Harlem Children’s Zone project, K-12 afterschool programs, the Promise Academy Charter Schools and finally the HCZ Healthy Harlem program. Marlene has a big laugh and feels strongly about the importance of community! She received a BA from Howard University, and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. Marlene and her husband Derrick have three grown children, Imani, Kyra and Micaiah - who are all educators.