STAFF

Elizabeth Barrow – President, Founder

After completing her Masters Degree in Education at the University of Georgia, Ms. Barrow pursued her dream and became a professional ballet dancer in New York City. Following her ten-year dance career, she became a full-time teacher and the Director of Faculty at the prestigious Ballet Tech, The New York City Public School for Dance. She ran the ballet department there for thirteen years and oversaw auditions of more than 35,000 students. She has been teaching for more than twenty years, and is currently on the faculty of Ballet Tech. Teaching and working with New York City public school students for more than 20 years motivated her to develop a program to further serve these same students.

Earl Hagan – COO, Founder

For fifteen years, Earl Hagan worked in the theatre and film industry, in New York City and throughout the United States. In 1994, Mr. Hagan began to apply his acting and directing skills to the running of a small company, transforming a fledgling mom-and-pop business into a multi-million dollar organization. As the culmination of one of his life-long dreams to build and run his own organization, Mr. Hagan has brought all of his experience and passion in the field of youth development to the creation of our Connections Programs.

In addition to his youth development experience, he has traveled throughout the country for the past 25 years facilitating workshops on leadership, management, branding and marketing, communication and business development.

Stacey Engels – Program Manager

Stacey Engels has been working in the field of after school education in New York City since 2002, when she co-created High 5 Tickets to the Arts’ Teen Reviewers and Critics (TRaC) Program, which she directed and taught until 2005. A writer, Stacey has been Playwright in Residence with companies in New York and Toronto, has received numerous grants, fellowships and residencies and has worked extensively as a freelance creative writing teacher. She has been with Creative Connections since 2009, when she came on board as an after school Success Coach.

Larissa Neale – Marketing Manager

Larissa Neale brings to Creative Connections extensive experience in online marketing and communications, with a focus on social media. She has helped build successful programs at Sanofi-Synthelabo, American Express, and Driver Digital, developing online platforms for collaboration and revenue generation. Larissa has also blogged professionally and appeared on-camera for The Frugalicious Show.

Success Coaches:

About Creative Connections partners with over 50 schools in New York City. Many of the Success Coaches who implement our programs are working artists and entrepreneurs; all of them have extensive teaching experience and undergo comprehensive facilitator training with Creative Connections. Our coaches are college graduates, great role models and have a driving passion to work with inner city youth.