Staff
Adam Berkowitz
Coach, College Assist Coordinator
Adam plays a key role in managing the College Assist program. He has been involved with New Heights since its inception and is involved in many facets of the organization, including coaching, program administration, development, events and public relations. He is an expert on college eligibility and NCAA Clearinghouse requirements and regularly lectures young athletes and coaches on the subject. Adam is a graduate of Dartmouth College (`93) and holds a Master’s Degree in Communications from Fordham University. He is also a Senior News Editor at the New York Daily News and has coached youth and high school basketball for the past 18 years.
Nick Blatchford
Coach, Founder & Executive Director
Nick is responsible for leading and managing the organization and overseeing all programs, finance, development, partnerships and operations. Nick also serves at the Vice Chairman of New Heights' Board of Directors. After spending three years as a teacher and coach at Intermediate School 90 in Washington Heights, Nick founded New Heights in 2001 as a program under the umbrella of The Children’s Aid Society (CAS), New York City’s largest and oldest family and youth service agency. In 2005, Nick successfully led New Heights’ spin-off from CAS, establishing it as an independent 501(c) 3 organization. In addition to his work at New Heights, Nick also serves on the Board of the SEEDS Foundation (Sports for Education and Economic Development in Senegal). Nick has a B.A. (`95) from Duke University where he majored in History and was a student-athlete.
Meghan Mackay
Director of Strategic Planning
Meghan Mackay has worked in education-related ventures for the past 17 years, including teaching sixth through twelfth grade literature and writing, developing educational software, crafting curricula, conducting profressional development programs for teachers and consulting on instructional design. Meghan has also worked as an exhibiting artist and started two art-related companies. She serves on the Board of the Foundation Academy Charter School in Trenton, NJ. Meghan graduated from Stanford University ('92) and holds a M.A. in Education from the University of San Francisco ('94). On the weekends, she plays a lot of ball (any kind) with her four boys.
Rocky Rosa
Coach, Program Coordinator
Rock coordinates all of New Heights programs, paying special attention to family relationships and sports-education integration. Prior to joining New Heights, he spent eight years as a Program Coordinator in the Children’s Aid Society’s Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program. Born and raised in New York City, Rock has more than 15 years of coaching and youth development experience.
Ted Smith
Coach, Associate Executive Director
Ted oversees all New Heights programs and operations and works alongside the Executive Director to help manage finance and development responsibilities. Born and raised in New York City, Ted played professional basketball in England from 2000-05. While in England, he worked as a Project Analyst at ARK (Absolute Returns for Kids), a social investor in charitable children’s projects. He received his Master’s Degree in Evidence-Based Social Work from Oxford University (‘04). Ted also did extensive youth development and coaching work in schools and community programs in the greater London area, and he wrote a weekly basketball and community news column for the BBC website. Ted received his BA in Psychology from Yale University (‘00). As a student-athlete, he was a basketball Academic All-Ivy (‘00) and District 1 Academic All-American.
Lauren Swierczek
Coach, Summer Academy Director
Lauren oversees the New Heights Summer Academy and manages the ongoing relationship between New Heights and the Riverdale Country School. In addition to serving as the Director of the New Heights Summer Academy, she also is the Director of Community Service at Riverdale. Prior to joining New Heights, Lauren received her BA in Sociology ('00) and her Master's in education ('06) from the University of Virginia (UVA) where she was a member of the Women's Basketball team. Upon graduating from UVA, Lauren served as the Director of Basketball Operations at UVA from 2000-2003. She then coached basketball at St. Anne's Belfield School and taught and mentored at Charlottesville High School.
David Tannenwald
Communications & Development Associate
David joined New Heights in October 2009 and manages a variety of development and communications projects. Prior to coming to New Heights, David spent the summer of 2009 in Ghana where he worked as a research assistant on a Harvard economic development study and did volunteer work with baseball. Before going to Ghana, David worked at the Center for Sport in Society at Northeastern University where he drafted a proposal recommending that President Obama create an office dedicated to sports. David graduated from Harvard College in June 2008 with a degree in Government. At Harvard, he wrote his thesis about government subsidies for professional sports stadiums, performed research about sports and municipal development at the Harvard Design School and worked for the Harvard Men's Basketball Team. David writes about issues connected to sport and development and sport and society at http://powerofsports.blogspot.com.
Kimani Young
Coach, Athletic Director
Kimani oversees the basketball program at New Heights and is responsible for the development of the New Heights coaching staff, the management of all travel teams and schedules and the implementation of the Saturday Skills developmental program. Prior to his arrival at New Heights in 2006, Kimani worked as a Program Director at the Police Athletic League (PAL) in Brooklyn, and he has more than ten years of experience as a coach and youth development professional in New York City. Kimani received his BA from the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) where he scored more than 1,000 points and played for legendary coach Don Haskins.