Sophia James

The WCS at Yale University is a non-partisan, non-profit, issue neutral leadership program, whose mission is to increase the number and influence of women in elected and appointed office in the United States and around the globe.

The school’s mission is to provide the very best training in the world for women who want to run for office or who want to move up the ladder to higher elective office. In particular, the school trains women to run political campaigns and to advance their careers in public service. Every year more than a thousand women from around the world apply to the WCS at Yale for a class of 60-75. Participants are put through an intense political immersion program designed to teach campaign skills, strategic assessment, and improvisation taught by experienced campaign operatives.

The program not only helped me advance in my career but served as a training and confidence tool to help me continue community empowerment in women and educational issues. As I speak, the need for adequate representation of women and minorities in government continues to increase. I plan to use my knowledge and skills from WCS to make local and state government more responsive to the needs of children and families. I seek to build relationships and advance critical policies to address local and statewide issues that most impact our communities.

Provide management coordination of the work, record-keeping, and project controls for the Sandy Recovery Project, which include restoring power and operation to 30 sewage pump stations throughout New York City.
• Facilitate coordination of cost controls, schedule control and other task administration to comply with NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requirements.
• Manage set-up of Construction Management Information Systems to support work

Improved the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery for the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory council (ECAC) through collaborative research, workgroup initiatives and enhanced coordination of state health, education and human services systems. Consulted with leaders of other state programs to identify best practices and recommend services and budgeting solutions.
• Organized and led capacity building and quality improvement workgroup meetings for high-level state agency administrators and organization directors to improve outcomes for children and families.
• Participated in needs assessment and quality improvement for Head Start and other youth and early learning initiatives to help decrease disparities in access and utilization.
• Worked on grant proposal for the first Race to the Top application, which successfully secured program funding.

Managed academic projects seeking gains in student achievement and increased utilization of academic services. Supervised the STEP Tutoring Program and up to 20 student tutors. Developed weekly workshops on youth and career development and produced quarterly reports on curriculum activities.