Debra Whitehead speaks around the country helping people in organizations work more effectively together by sharing her expertise in education, training, organizational development, and human resources.  Licensed through aha! Process as a presenter of Bridges Out of Poverty, Debra collaborates with others to create stable, sustainable communities in Boulder and NE Denver.  Her early career experience as a special education teacher with troubled youth and a human resources manager in corporate manufacturing continues to inform her work as a trainer and consultant from Rocky Mountain Human Services (formally Denver Options, Inc.).  Debra works with communities, nonprofits, for profit organizations and even NASA on occasion.  She has two daughters, one at CU and the other in high school.

Kara Edin is Program Coach for the Boulder County Circles Campaign, working with low-income families who are on their way, sustainably, out of poverty. She is a certified Bridges Out Of Poverty Trainer. Kara has been with Boulder County Community Action Programs, the lead agency for Circles, for over eleven years, coordinating a speaker’s bureau on poverty issues, a Latina lifeskills program at five different middle and high schools in Boulder County, and co-chairing an annual Hmong Statewide Education Conference.  Ms. Edin has chaired the Diversity Leadership Team, been on the Circle of Directors for Vox Feminista, was on the national steering committee for the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, and been a member of the Boulder Valley Multi-Ethnic Action Committee and the Caesar Chavez planning committee for two years.  Before joining Community Action Programs, Kara coordinated the Family Literacy program for four years.  Ms. Edin has a BA in Psychology and is the mother of two adult daughters.

Debra and Kara will be joined by one of Boulder County’s Circle Leaders who is benefiting from the Circles Campaign and working to get out of poverty.