DAE, a Connecticut nonprofit democratizing access to 21st century digital career and life skills for underrepresented youth, is pleased to announce the addition of two new board members, Claire O’Hare (of New Canaan) and Stuart Sidle, Ph.D. (of Hamden). O’Hare and Sidle will be instrumental in guiding DAE’s mission to equip young people with the skills, mindsets, and interpersonal capabilities needed to be successful upon graduation and form healthy, humane communities.
Claire O’Hare has spent her career building nascent businesses into industry leaders. O’Hare was early to join Facebook in 2008 where she launched and led sales development and strategy for the rapidly growing global sales teams. On the management side, O’Hare created tentpole programs to increase engagement and alignment between Facebook and its customers, catapulting the company into the upper echelon of partners for the world’s largest advertisers. She is perhaps best known, however, for the development of the Client Council, a first-of-its-kind business collaboration between Facebook and its most influential global marketing partners.
Prior to Facebook, O’Hare launched Yahoo!’s first sales training and executive leadership development initiative, YES (Yahoo! Enrichment Series). She also founded Livewell Design, an e-commerce fine jewelry line, which scaled to over $3 million in sales and was sold to OpenStore in January 2022. Early this year, O’Hare created COH & Co, a consulting firm based on her mantra “you can’t create the future without trust.” COH & Co creates “councils” – a space for creators to exchange and explore new ideas. Claire brings together the best and brightest builders in tech to solve the most important and immediate issues impacting business growth.
“I am thrilled to be involved with DAE – leveraging my experience to both scale their programs and deepen their impact with current and future students,” shared O’Hare.
An industrial-organizational psychologist, Stuart Sidle, Ph.D., is the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a professor at Mercy College. In addition to these roles, he is currently directing a significant government grant-funded initiative designed to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students attaining degrees in STEM majors. Sidle was previously at the University of New Haven, where he wore many hats, including Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Faculty Development, and has also held faculty positions at DePaul University and Saint Xavier University.
Sidle’s research interests include the impact of leadership behavior on worker job satisfaction, engagement, and job stress, leadership assessment and development, employee surveys, and stereotyping in the employee selection process. He has presented his research at national conferences, including the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the Academy of Management, and has published articles in journals such as the Academy of Management Perspectives, Organizational Research Methods, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and the Journal of Business and Psychology. Outside of academia, Sidle has extensive management consulting and executive coaching experience.
“We are excited to welcome both Claire and Stuart to our Board of Directors,” said a.m. bhatt, DAE’s founder and CEO. “Claire’s unique expertise and extensive background in bringing people together to inspire collaboration and tackle complex challenges will be a huge asset to DAE as we continue to grow in the years ahead. Stuart’s wealth of knowledge in the areas of program, curriculum, and faculty development also make him an ideal choice to help ensure that our growth over the next five years occurs in a way that maintains our educational standards.”
Open to all high school students, DAE’s programming is designed to both rapidly increase the mastery of technology skills and develop the personal and interpersonal skills required to form healthy and humane communities and workplaces. With a 91% retention rate, the nonprofit is giving students the tools and support needed to shape their own future and the world around them.
DAE is located within the Synchrony Skills Academy at 777 Long Ridge Road in Stamford and at 770 Chapel Street in New Haven. To learn more or submit a scholarship application, call (203) 401-8768 or visit myDAE.org. For the latest news and updates, follow @myDAE.community on Facebook and @dae.community on Instagram.