AARP Experience Corps National Office

AARP Experience Corps Senior Leadership

Lester Strong — Vice President & CEO, AARP Experience Corps — has served as a leader in educational entrepreneurship and development. He was the chief development officer for the BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) Foundation, which also provides tutoring and mentoring services to underserved children. His efforts doubled the foundation's endowment and propelled expansion from three to five cities: Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, New York and Springfield, Mass. A longtime proponent and practitioner of meditation, he was also CEO of the SYDA Foundation, an educational organization that provides instruction in yoga and meditation in 46 countries. He spent 25 years in the television industry as an executive, producer, reporter and anchor in Charlotte, N.C. (WBTV), Atlanta (WSB), New York (ABC Entertainment) and Boston (WHDH). His work earned him a host of national and regional awards, including five regional Emmy Awards and a White House commendation from President Ronald Reagan. He serves as a member of the board of trustees for both the Noyce Foundation and Editorial Projects in Education (Education Week). He holds a bachelor's degree from Davidson College and is a graduate of the Columbia Business School's Institute for Non-Profit Management.

Amy Zandarski-Pica — Adviser, Strategic Innovation, Analysis & Planning — has spent nearly 15 years focused on building community capacity through direct service, advocacy and partnership development. She has played a leadership role on the Experience Corps program team since 2005. As the national director of programs, Zandarski-Pica sets the policies guiding a wide range of activities that are essential to the day-to-day functioning of Experience Corps and its network of affiliates. Core responsibilities include three major areas of work: affiliate growth and program expansion, performance measurement and evaluation, and program quality assurance and compliance. She holds a master's in social work from the University of Maryland-Baltimore, with a concentration in management and community organization. She completed graduate fieldwork in program management and policy development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Special Needs Assistance.

Barb Quaintance — Managing Director — has a rich history of collaborating with volunteers, running national programs, creating AARP’s service initiative "Create the Good," developing AARP’s field structure and creating AARP’s annual Day of Service. She established AARP's Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program, an early model of what ultimately grew into the State Health Insurance Programs (SHIP). She led the effort at AARP to bring Experience Corps into AARP in July 2011. She continues to be AARP’s lead on national service and civic engagement. She is a graduate of University of Southern California and the University of Illinois.

Eric Boven — Adviser, Strategic Innovation, Analysis & Planning — organizes the strategic planning process and ensures that the current operating environment is integrated into planning efforts. He also works with each department to capture narrative and data that inform organizational growth strategy. He brings to the role a decade of nonprofit management experience, including multiple roles within the Experience Corps network in the fields of fundraising, marketing, finance and administration. Previously, he led the finance and administration team for the national office. He also headed the fundraising efforts for Generations Incorporated, Boston's host to Experience Corps, from 2001 to 2006. He is a former AmeriCorps VISTA member, and is a graduate of Calvin College.

Laura Chambers — Drector, Field Services — has over 20 years of front-line advocacy experience. She served as the deputy executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, as the chief operating officer for Civic Ventures and as vice president of the Advocacy Institute. She is also a former Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Senegal. She is a graduate from the College of William and Mary and has studied at Harvard University. She is the chair of the WAMU Community Council and vice chair of Impact Silver Spring.

Lynn English — Director, AARP Foundation Relations — has over 20 years of experience in fundraising and program planning with local and national organizations and is an expert in foundation, corporate and government grant writing. She has extensive experience in virtually all facets of development including small and major gifts, prospect research, special events, and managing board and volunteer fundraising. She has served as a development executive for organizations such as The Latin American Youth Center, Year Up National Capital Region, Center for Community Change and others. She is also an experienced facilitator and trainer. She holds a B.A. in English from Georgetown University and an M.A. in English from the University of Maryland.

Ron Mezo — Planning & Operations Officer — manages the finances and operations associated with the strategic goal of doubling the program in order to serve 40,000 students. He has over 15 years of senior level nonprofit management experience, including business management consulting and executive coaching. He has served as the senior director of administration and finance for the Henry L. Stimson Center, where he successfully restructured financial management and secured federal government contracts. Prior to this, he served as the chief financial officer of Advocacy Institute, where he served on the leadership team that managed a $25 million Ford Foundation signature program. He also served as interim CEO during the founders' transition at Advocacy Institute.

Susan Siegel — Manager, Education & Evaluation — has over 12 years of nonprofit leadership experience and 20 years managing an education consulting service.  For 10 years she led the Research, Evaluation and Learning Management team at the national office of Communities In Schools, where she was responsible for promoting knowledge development and training on the CIS model of integrated, school-based student services, internal and external research and evaluation of the model, and quality assurance through a national accreditation system. Most recently, she was the vice president, programs at MENTOR, The National Mentoring Partnership, again responsible for training, research and evaluation, and the design and implementation of an accreditation system for quality mentoring.  She holds master’s degrees in instructional design and measurement and evaluation from the University of Pennsylvania.