Rae Nelson is GYA’s current Board President, as well as a gap year author, researcher, parent, and Vice President of Haigler Enterprises. She is co-author (with Karl Haigler) of The Gap-Year Advantage: Helping Your Child Benefit from Time Off Before or During College (2005) and Gap Year, American Style; Journeys toward Learning, Serving and self-Discovery (2013).

Rae has held leadership positions in education policy and practice in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. These include serving at The White House as Associate Director for Education Policy and as Vice President/Executive Director of the Center for Workforce Preparation, a not-for-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. For the last twenty years, she has consulted with companies of all sizes and educational institutions to help ensure current and future workers have the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to fulfill their potential. She has a B.A. in English from Cornell University and a M.A. in Public Policy and Communications from The American University.

Dr. Ritza Santiago has researched international and domestic gap year programs and related topics for the past eight years, conducting postsecondary surveys with teens in the northeast region of the US. Her dissertation explores how her research participants (gap year students) finalized the decision to take a gap year during the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved factors such as poor communication from their committed institutions and input from family members. Similarly, all participants stated that they hadn’t previously considered a gap year; however, the effects of COVID-19 allowed the option to be explored. Each participant reported this “detour” as a positive experience and would recommend it to their peers.

Kate Warren is a Research Director and Accredited Gap Year Counselor at the Center for Interim Programs. She has engaged in numerous program site visits to learn, first-hand, what Interim students encounter during a gap year. Internationally, Kate has seen outdoor education programs in Ireland, witnessed a range of options in Israel from dance centers to eco-villages, experienced a wildlife conservation program in Canada, and traveled throughout Turkey. In the US, she has visited room-and-board political internships as well as experimental communities focused on alternative methods of urban development. She spent a day as a blacksmith student, and observed students attending a gunsmith course.

Kate’s colleagues refer to her as a “super sleuth” in recognition of her steadfast quest to locate new gap year opportunities worldwide; her due diligence on programs is unparalleled. With background training in sociology at the College of New Jersey, she works in tandem with Holly Bull to match students’ interests with vetted and appropriate programs as they embark on their journeys of exploration and personal growth.

Complementing her professional life, Kate has held many civic volunteer positions and has a passion for music. She is Chair of the Princeton Affordable Housing Board, former secretary of the Witherspoon Jackson Development Corporation Board of Directors, former Chair of the Housing Authority of the Borough of Princeton Board of Commissioners, a life member of both the NJ State Firemen Ladies Auxiliary and Mercer County Firemen Ladies Auxiliary, and President of her local auxiliary, as well as past Vice President of the County auxiliary. Kate is politically active, having run for public office on several occasions. And, in addition to having been a member of several choral groups, she fulfilled a lifelong ambition to perform at Carnegie Hall as well as play Mother Ginger in “The Nutcracker.”