Emily Wolff is the Director of Community Programming for the Broadmoor Improvement Association and the Andrew H. Wilson Charter School. She graduated from Bard College with a Bachelors of Sociology and completed her senior thesis on progressive early childhood education in urban school districts. Emily began working in New Orleans in 2006 offering therapeutic expressive arts workshops to children experiencing trauma from displacement, poverty and loss. She served as the co-creator and co-director of the Wilson Summer Enrichment Program from 2008-2011. She is the recipient of the President Leon Botstein Prize and Christina R. Tarsell Service Award.

LaToya Cantrell is president of the Broadmoor Improvement Association and Broadmoor Development Corporation. She is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana and has over ten years of executive management experience in the non-profit sector. Ms. Cantrell is committed to volunteer service as Vice Chair of the Broadmoor Charter School Board, Board Member of the Salvation Army of Greater New Orleans, Arts Council Committee of Greater New Orleans, Neighborhood Partnership Network, 4-H Foundation of Louisiana, Smart Growth Louisiana and the National Association of Bench and Bar Spouses.

The Opportunity/Challenge

The AWC is a $2 million renovation of the old St. Matthias School and a capstone of the Education Corridor in Broadmoor. It eliminated the largest piece of blight in Broadmoor and created a home for New Orleans’ arts and wellness practitioners. The Broadmoor Arts and Wellness Center serves an average of 750 youth and adults each month through critical counseling and mental health services, dance and fitness programs, art therapy classes and early childhood literacy groups.

Impact

• Raised $2 million to renovate and open the Broadmoor Arts & Wellness Center.
• Offers free and affordable fitness programs, counseling, holistic wellness services and creative arts classes that serve 350+ youth, adults and seniors each week.