Tanisha DeLeon, who grew up in Dorchester and Hyde Park, has been named deputy director of Youth Options Unlimited Boston, the city’s Office of Workforce Development announced last month.
YOU Boston works to change the lives of high-risk and court-involved teens and young adults. The work includes helping young people re-enter their communities following incarceration and supporting young people as they cope with violence and trauma in their neighborhoods.
YOU Boston combines individualized services, such as case management, education support, and job placement.
In her new role, DeLeon will manage the development and implementation of YOU’s programming with the goal of providing Boston’s most vulnerable youth with equitable access to education, employment, and career advancement opportunities, the city said on its website.
“Tanisha’s experience will help us strategize to better serve these young people,” said Trinh Nguyen, the city’s chief of Worker Empowerment, in a statement.
Isaac Yablo, the city’s senior advisor for community safety, said DeLeon’s experience closing opportunities gaps among vulnerable populations will be critical in this role.
“I look forward to working with her to provide life changing opportunities to some of our most at-promise youth and young adults,” Yablo said.
DeLeon said she was thrilled about the new opportunity, according to the announcement about DeLeon’s new role.
“Just as some startup founders find success after their 10th attempt, I wholeheartedly advocate for creating opportunities for second, third, and fourth chances for youth to develop their potential and achieve success,” DeLeon said in the announcement. “Each endeavor, regardless of its outcome, provides valuable lessons.”
DeLeon has a long-standing interest in closing opportunity gaps for the underserved. She attended Centre College as a Posse Scholar where she earned a B.A. in anthropology and sociology.
Most recently, she served as the strategy and insights manager at Western Governors University, where she worked to identify and address organizational capability gaps while supporting underrepresented college students, the announcement said.
DeLeon previously assisted underserved business owners in raising capital and establishing their operations as the senior program director of social impact at Gener8tor. She played a pivotal role in nurturing and expanding access to venture capital for education technology businesses across the country.
