The Rev. Chaz Howard, C'00, Associate Chaplain of the University of Pennsylvania, directs the CHORDS Program, a partnership linking the University's Office of the Chaplain and the Center for Community Partnerships with West Philadelphia communities of faith, schools, and neighborhood organizations. He also teaches PACE - Cross Cultural Education out of the Graduate School of Education while also serving as Adjunct Faculty at the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, where he is completing his Ph.D. When not on campus or in the classroom, Chaz also serves as the President of the Greater Love Movement, an educational anti-poverty non-profit organization. For the past four years he has led the popular Greater Love Institute, a summer program challenging college students across the Philadelphia area to think about homelessness and participate in community service. He has also served as the Executive Producer of the Souls
of Poor Folk Project, a multimedia campaign to raise awareness about poverty through an original music project and an original documentary film shot by students (see www.thesoulsofpoorfolk.org for more information). Chaz has also edited a book, also titled The
Souls of Poor Folk, which will be published before the end of 2007 (Rowman and Littlefield).
As an undergraduate, Chaz majored in Urban Studies and African American Studies. While living in Du Bois College house, he kept busy serving as President of the United Minorities Council, Chief of Sphinx Senior Honor Society, a member of The Inspiration a capella singing group, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Today he lives in the Philadelphia are with his wife Lia, C'00 and two daughters Charissa Faith and Annalise Hope.
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Since 1997, Ms. Farah Jimenez has served as Executive Director of Mt. Airy●USA, a nonprofit real estate development corporation leading efforts to strengthen the residential and commercial environment in Northwest Philadelphia's historic Mt. Airy neighborhood. The past three years reveal most visibly the impact of her organization's work — delivering more than $35 million of private investment to Mt. Airy, 150 new jobs, 40 new businesses and spurring the much-talked about Mt. Airy renaissance. Her leadership has grown a small two-person staff into a multi-million dollar nonprofit with 12 staff, three subsidiary companies and $8 million in real estate development completed in 2006 and $40 million in its pipeline through 2009. Currently, under Ms. Jimenez' leadership, Mt. Airy●USA is laying the groundwork to become the leading regional nonprofit developer of mixed-use and mixed-income communities.
Ms. Jimenez received her BA and JD from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Community Development Advisory Board of the US Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. She was recently elected to the Fairmount Park Commission and has served on various international, national, as well as local boards and commissions — amongst them several Penn alumni boards, including the Trustee's Council of Penn Women, the James Brister Society, the Association of Alumnae, and as co-founder of the Endowed Scholarship of the Association of Latino Alumni.
Always certain to express a viewpoint, Ms. Jimenez can be seen doing so
on Sundays as a regular panelist on WPVI's "Inside Story," a news commentary
program on Philadelphia's ABC affiliate. Farah is married to attorney
and fellow Penn alum, David Hyman C'75, MA'76.
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In June 2006, Esperanza C. Altamar, GFA'00 joined the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) as the Manager of Community Programs. Ms. Altamar earned an Master's of Fine Arts from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 and a BA from Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Before joining the PMA, she was the Assistant Curator of Education for Community Programs at the Albright- Knox Art Gallery. Ms. Altamar also worked as the assistant to Kirk Varnedoe, the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, at New York's Museum of Modern Art. She brings to the PMA her experience in museum programs and community involvement. As an artist and educator, Ms. Altamar has facilitated community events, workshops, and presentations at Taller Puertorriqueño, Perkins Center for the Arts, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Arts Studio, University of Buffalo, and the Race & Reconciliation Conference of the City of Buffalo, NY.
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