TEDDY GROSS
Executive Director
tgross@CommonCents.org
Teddy Gross is the founder and executive director of Common Cents, a national not-for-profit educational organization, which specializes in designing citizenship programs for children and young people, and supporting their work in schools throughout the country and across all demographic divides.

The organization started in 1991, and grew out of the desire of a four-year-old child to help a homeless man in New York City. As the girl’s father, Teddy responded by developing the Penny Harvest, which has continued to evolve over 17 years, and is now a robust year-long program that uses philanthropy service-learning to teach the skills of democratic participation, moral reasoning, and community building to children during their first decade of school. Under his leadership, a lab at Common Cents continues to pilot new models and programs in civic development.

Teddy's interest in innovating social justice programs is the natural outgrowth of a lifetime's work as a journalist, newspaper editor, children's book author, and playwright. He has served as the editor in chief of The Phoenix, a Boston weekly paper. His career as a playwright began at the prestigious Eugene O’Neill National Playwright Conference, where he was a resident for two summers, and continued with many plays and productions, both in regional theatres across the country and off-Broadway. He is also the author of a children’s book, and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on service-learning and civic engagement.

Under Teddy’s leadership, the Penny Harvest has become the largest child-philanthropy program in the United States, helping to nurture a new generation of caring, informed and capable young people.
 
LAYLA CHRISTINE MALAVET
Common Cents Fellow/ New York City Civic Corps
lmalavet@CommonCents.org
Layla Christine Malavet was born in Angeles City, Republic of the Philippines and immigrated to the United States of America at the age of ten. She has lived in multiple locations throughout the country to include: North Carolina, Arizona, Rhode Island, Virginia and Hawaii. Layla received her BA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006, and studied Psychology and Anthropology. After graduation, Layla worked as an Account Manager for the "Strategic Accounts" division of the Corporate Executive Board in Washington, D.C.. Passionate about giving back to America and the communities within which she has lived; Layla volunteered as an ESL Teacher for Arlington, VA for two years - teaching Language and Life-skills to new American immigrants. Layla's life is characterized by her passion for volunteerism and service to America. She has volunteered through multiple organizations with great empathy and respect for those she serves. Layla is very proud to join Common Cents as part of the New York City Civic Corps, and is committed to serve this extraordinary organization with pride, passion and purpose!

MAGDALENA POLEC
Common Cents Fellow/ New York City Civic Corps
mpolec@CommonCents.org
Magdalena, raised in Poland but a New Yorker for fifteen years, joined Common Cents in August 2009 as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with the newly founded NYC CIVIC Corps service. After a few years dealing in the area of visual arts such as film production and photography, she found herself wondering how she can use these mediums to spread messages about the environment, education, poverty and health awareness. She gained her initial experiences via service learning that lead to her interests in civic engagement at Brooklyn College where she received her B.A. in Psychology. Through the Brooklyn College Community Partnership (BCCP) Magdalena began to realize the impact of service learning toward youth development. She performed direct service with NYCares to find ways to interact with youth in the city and joined her current position with NYC Service to continue to develop her interests with youth development and education.