Veronica Reed (Executive Director)
Veronica M. Reed, Executive Director of Start the Adventure in Reading, holds a B.A. in Political Science from Creighton University and a M.A. in Public Policy from Georgetown University. The first 20 years of her career consisted of leadership and management positions in the public, private and non-profit sectors focused primarily on community development, customer satisfaction, performance improvement and research and evaluation in Washington, DC, Indianapolis, and Houston. That experience included time as executive director of the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development, senior project manager at the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, and senior account performance manager in the petroleum industry. Since returning to Louisiana in 2008, Veronica has held a deputy director position with the City of New Orleans, a director-level position with New Schools for New Orleans and worked as a management consultant focused on public education reform and non-profit operations.

Amanda Chittenden
Amanda Chittenden holds a B.S. in Marketing from the University of New Orleans. After beginning her career working as a Media Coordinator at a local advertising agency, Amanda ventured into the world of non-profits when she became the Public Relations Manager at The Blood Center. Before joining STAIR, she spent time at Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans working as a program manager recruiting schools in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes and the volunteers needed to deliver programming to the students in those parishes. Due to her extensive marketing and PR experience, her position evolved to Marketing Manager where she led all communications activities. She is the VP of Membership for the Public Relations Association of Louisiana-New Orleans Chapter.