TNOYS is Excited to Welcome Fedora Galasso as Our New Executive Director

The TNOYS Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Fedora Galasso as the organization’s new Executive Director. “Fedora was selected after an extensive search,” said TNOYS Board Chair Joel Levine, “her impressive background, proven leadership skills, and deeply-held commitment to Texas’ young people make her the perfect candidate to lead TNOYS into the future.”

Fedora joins TNOYS with experience serving young people in a variety of government and nonprofit settings. She has worked at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and Health and Human Services Commission where she connected youth and families to needed services through the Community Partner Program, Community Resource Coordination Groups, and other resources. As the Southern Director of Young Invincibles, she spearheaded Texas initiatives to ensure that young people have a voice in policy decisions that greatly impact their lives. Fedora’s professional achievements include a proven fundraising track-record, policy advocacy wins, and leadership in building coalitions across sectors. Fedora attended Texas A&M University at Commerce for undergraduate studies and has two master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin: a Master of Public Affairs degree with a concentration in Social and Economic Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and a Master of Social Work degree with a concentration in Community and Administrative Leadership.

Throughout her career, Fedora has consistently demonstrated the values of TNOYS. As she told the TNOYS leadership, “My entire career has been devoted to ensuring the safety, well-being, and economic opportunity of children and youth. Beginning with my first job working directly with families and children in the child protection system in rural Texas to my most recent job ensuring that young people were involved in developing the policies that impact their lives, I have been passionate about empowering young people and communities.” Fedora is dedicated to centering the voices and experiences of diverse youth and young adults in shaping Texas policies and programs.
 
Fedora is uniquely positioned to build upon TNOYS’ advocacy and programmatic success and its standing in the field. “I am delighted that Fedora will take the reins at TNOYS,” reports Christine Gendron, TNOYS’ outgoing Executive Director. “Fedora is committed to advancing equity and inclusion in youth-serving systems, elevating youth voices, integrating research and data into policy and practice, and collaborating across systems. She will be an outstanding leader to drive the organization forward.”
 
TNOYS is furthering many exciting programs to impact youth-serving systems and organizations, including policy advocacy, training and program development, effective youth-adult partnership, and much more. As an organization that cares deeply about systems-change for young people, TNOYS is also redoubling our efforts to support equity and inclusion in everything we do. 

We welcome Fedora in her new role as the TNOYS Executive Director. Fedora looks forward to getting to know our members and our many partners throughout the state of Texas.
 
Fedora succeeds Christine Gendron, who has been the Executive Director of TNOYS for the last eight years. You can read the announcements that went out last March about Christine’s transition on the TNOYS blog here.