Executive Director

Coleen Stevens Porcher has worked for almost 30 years in educational and social services organizations, serving in executive and institutional advancement roles. Coleen’s life and career have been filled with advocacy, philanthropy, and service, with an emphasis on social justice. As a young girl growing up in Jamaica, she was greatly influenced by her civically-engaged great-grandmother, Icylyn Fouché, who brought her to rallies and backyard meetings with civic/political leaders in pursuit of universal primary education. This ancestor instilled in her a love of learning and a sense of the importance of education as a crucial means for materially poor families to escape poverty and have a better life. These values remain with Coleen today as she works to ensure that vulnerable children have critical access to education, starting with early childhood care.

Coleen immigrated to the United States at 14 years old, where she attended public schools in New York City and lived with her grandmother in East New York, Brooklyn. Armed with her great-grandmother’s sense that education was the means to advancement, she graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in Spanish. She then earned a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.

Coleen has volunteered with a number of nonprofit organizations, including Governor Phil Murphy’s Third Sector Advisory Council, the Center for Nonprofits of New Jersey, Child Care Aware of New Jersey, and The Door, a NYC-based, adolescent drop-in center. Coleen has also served on the boards of St. John’s Episcopal Church (Montclair, NJ), St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Fairfield, CT), and the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Fairfield County) Chapter.

In addition to her nonprofit work, Coleen has volunteered on a number of political national and local political campaigns, all for candidates who emphasized equity and fairness as core values. Throughout her life and career, Coleen has been committed to the cause of social justice, advocating for the voiceless
and marginalized members of the human family — especially women and children, and more recently LGBTQ youth and families.