From left to right: Sara Silva (President, YouthBuild Leadership Council), Terry Moran (Executive Director, Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition), and John Valverde (President and CEO, YouthBuild Global). Terry Moran received the Distinguished Service award honoring his decades of leadership strengthening the YouthBuild network in Massachusetts and beyond.
Photography by Libby Greene
At this year’s YouthBuild Directors Association (YBDA) meeting in Washington, D.C., seven YouthBuild program leaders received 2026 Directors Awards before a crowd of nearly 150 of their peers.
The awards celebrate program leaders across the YouthBuild movement who demonstrate clear impact at their local program, support their students in achieving their goals and ambitions, and provide leadership for the entire YouthBuild network. This year, a Distinguished Service Award was added to the program in recognition of a longstanding YouthBuild leader and his decades of outstanding leadership, deep collaboration across the network, and abiding love for young people.
This year’s honorees are:
Director of the Year
Jerrell Morton, Job Point’s YouthBuild (Columbia, Missouri)
Innovator of the Year
Christopher Savage, CLC, Inc. YouthBuild Fort Worth (Fort Worth, Texas)
Support of Young Leaders Award
Brandy Stewart, CDSA YouthBuild (Enid, Oklahoma)
Global Impact Award
Shenaaz Chenia, YouthBuild Ventures UK (London, United Kingdom)
Service and Solidarity Award
Jill Johnson Skalbeck, YouthBuild St. Paul Westside (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Rising Star
Nicole Rioux, YouthBuild Fall River (Fall River, Massachusetts)
Distinguished Service Award
Terence “Terry” Moran, Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition
The YBDA comprises one program leader serving as a voting member from each affiliated YouthBuild program. The body meets each year to elect committee representatives, engage in peer-led workshops, share best practices, plan legislative and advocacy work, and provide support for programs. The YBDA carries out much of its work through the YouthBuild Leadership Council in partnership with staff of YouthBuild Global, including its president and CEO.
“Every young person who walks through the doors of a YouthBuild program does so because a dedicated leader made that program worth walking into,” said John Valverde, president and CEO of YouthBuild Global. “The directors we honor today are the reason young people reconnect to education, earn skills and credentials, and step into lifelong leadership. Their work is the foundation of everything this network and movement builds.”
Distinguished Service Award recipient Terence “Terry” Moran is a pillar of the YouthBuild movement in Massachusetts, whose decades of leadership have strengthened programs, deepened partnerships, and advanced opportunity for young people across the Commonwealth and beyond. Terry got his start in YouthBuild as the founder and first director of YouthBuild New Bedford in 1994, where he served for five years before he became the director of State Policy Development at then-YouthBuild USA, now YouthBuild Global. Terry has been the executive director of the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition since 2011, helping grow and sustain the number of programs in Massachusetts.
Beyond his formal roles, Terry has been a constant presence of wisdom, warmth, and solidarity for program directors across the network. His impact on the YouthBuild network endures in every program he has helped to strengthen and every young person whose life has been changed as a result.
“Terry has shown us what it looks like to love this work and these young people for the long haul,” Valverde said. “Decade after decade, he has shown up for the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition, for the directors in this network, and most importantly, for the young leaders at the center of it all. He is a true pillar of this movement and a dear partner to all of us.”
“Every young person who walks through the doors of a YouthBuild program does so because a dedicated leader made that program worth walking into,” said John Valverde, president and CEO of YouthBuild Global. “The directors we honor today are the reason young people reconnect to education, earn skills and credentials, and step into lifelong leadership. Their work is the foundation of everything this network and movement builds.”
Distinguished Service Award recipient Terence “Terry” Moran is a pillar of the YouthBuild movement in Massachusetts, whose decades of leadership have strengthened programs, deepened partnerships, and advanced opportunity for young people across the Commonwealth and beyond. Terry got his start in YouthBuild as the founder and first director of YouthBuild New Bedford in 1994, where he served for five years before he became the director of State Policy Development at then-YouthBuild USA, now YouthBuild Global. Terry has been the executive director of the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition since 2011, helping grow and sustain the number of programs in Massachusetts.
Beyond his formal roles, Terry has been a constant presence of wisdom, warmth, and solidarity for program directors across the network. His impact on the YouthBuild network endures in every program he has helped to strengthen and every young person whose life has been changed as a result.
“Terry has shown us what it looks like to love this work and these young people for the long haul,” Valverde said. “Decade after decade, he has shown up for the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition, for the directors in this network, and most importantly, for the young leaders at the center of it all. He is a true pillar of this movement and a dear partner to all of us.”
