Staff
Jennifer Casap Vollmann
Executive Director
Jennifer Vollmann grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She attended Santa Clara University and graduated with a double major in Political Science and Religious Studies. She spent her college summers in Thailand, Tanzania, and India volunteering and finding adventures like electrocution, hiking though the Himalayas covered in leeches, hitch-hiking and hanging out with gorillas in Uganda, and meditating at Buddhist monasteries. After college she followed her passion for politics and Africa and moved to Kenya to run a parliamentary campaign for women candidates. While in Kenya, Jennifer started a NGO which provides scholarships to high school students. Jennifer’s experiences working, volunteering, and traveling abroad challenged her to inspire others to think critically about the world’s problems and work towards change. Jennifer’s heart will always be in Kenya and she is looking forward to growing sweet potatoes and drinking chai on her shamba in Kenya.
Chantal Sheehan
Senior Advisor
Chantal Sheehan has served as the Executive Director of New Global Citizens since 2010 and has been on staff since 2009. New Global Citizens works to empower young people everywhere to become engaged global citizens, providing them the tools to become the next generation of globally minded leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. Recently heralded as one of the USA's Top Ten Youth Service Programs by the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy, New Global Citizens is gaining recognition as a national leader at the cross-section of global competency and youth service.
Chantal's 10 year career has spanned the fields of accounting and financial management, international business, and nonprofit leadership. She's worked in the US and internationally, and has always incorporated the values of both servant leadership and global citizenship into her life and career.
Chantal holds a Masters degree in Management from the SIT Graduate Institute and a Bachelors from the University of South Florida. She has served as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees of World Learning and as a Strategic Advisor to the International Development Exchange. Chantal also serves as a mentor for Prescott College students, and is an active volunteer in the local community.
Courtney Klein
Senior Advisor & Co-Founder
Courtney is an Arizona native and a graduate of Arizona State University's Barrett Honors College where she received her degree in Nonprofit Leadership & Management. Courtney was the Founder and Executive Director of Youth Re:Action Corps, a nonprofit organization launched in her senior year at Arizona State University on a $1,000 seed grant with a mission to educate, empower, and invest in young people to change the world. In 2008, upon the merger between Youth Re:Action Corps and New Global Citizens (formerly Youth Philanthropy Worldwide), Courtney assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer for New Global Citizens.
In 2008, Courtney was named by bizAZ as one of "35 Entrepreneurs under 35" and in 2007 was named one of "20 Woman to Change Arizona by 2020" by Arizona Woman Magazine and the Arizona Republic. In 2006, Courtney was profiled in the Arizona Republic as one of Arizona's most intriguing Chief Executives, highlighted as one of the six to watch. Additionally, she was honored by the Phoenix Business Journal's Power Book as a "Power Generation Up-and-Coming Leader." In 2005, Courtney was honored as a Hon Kachina Honoree and in 2002 was named Woman of the Year by the Diocese of Phoenix.
Steffany Arzate
Team Mentor
Steffany Arzate grew up in Chicago only three miles away from the
historic Wrigley Field and moved to Arizona at the age of ten. A city
girl at heart, her love of architecture and fashion had always
convinced her that she would one day become an interior designer. But after reading both Nicholas Kristof’s Half the Sky and Greg
Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea, Steffany became increasing interested in international relations and women’s education in the developing world. Convinced that they needed to do something, Steffany and fellow team mentor and friend Noemi Gonzalez began an NGC team at their school. There Steffany served as the Community Education Chair as her team worked alongside the Afghan Institute of Learning. Steffany is currently a freshman at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and hopes to pursue a degree in Culture and Politics with a concentration in International Development. Her interests include indigenous textiles, fair trade products, and Chicago Cubs baseball.
Catherine Chiang
Team Mentor
Catherine grew up in Palo Alto California and currently attends Foothill College in Mountain View California where she is pursuing a degree in political science. Her half- Chinese, half French background along with her Indian stepfamily offered her a multi-cultural upbringing that gave her an appreciation for diversity of the world's people. Cat is especially close to her French heritage: she travels regularly to Paris to visit her family and speaks fluent French. Some of Cat’s favorite hobbies are playing the violin, dancing, and playing volleyball. During her freshman year of high school Cat’s interest in philanthropy lead her to start and co-lead her high school’s NGC club which in turn fueled her career goal of beginning her own non-profit that could ultimately combat the same world challenges NGC faces. Cat has since participated in service programs in Tanzania and in New Orleans, and currently leads the Foothill College New Global Citizens Club. After working with NGC for 5 years as a club member, Cat is excited to share all the ideas and knowledge she has gained with the teams she is mentoring.
Maggie Eads
Team Mentor
Maggie is a Junior at Arizona State University, majoring in Global Studies and History and loves it! Her biggest passion is learning about other cultures and their impact on a global level. She also loves to travel. That passion started in high school when she was able to travel to England and France with her Model United Nations team. She hopes to either become a Foreign Ambassador Officer with the United States government or work for a non-profit overseas. Maggie is a Supervisor at Franklin Covey Products, an organizational and planning company. (She's one of "those" list-making kind of people.) In her free time, she loves to cook and is a Food Network junkie. She is very excited to be a Team Mentor at NGC and believes that students, when they have a passion for something, can make a huge impact.
Noemi Gonzalez
Team Mentor
Noemi Gonzalez grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and graduated from University High School in Tolleson with the class of 2011 moving on to study Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU’s Downtown campus. She is hoping to double major in English, Psychology or Global Studies next spring. However, as of now, she sees herself as a potential journalist seeking to portray the genuine truth of the world through her written word, seeking to end oppression one word at a time. (She highly esteems Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times columnist!) She started as the Advocacy Leader of Tolleson NGC and now hopes to be of guidance as a Team Mentor.
Janessa Schilmoeller
Team Mentor
Janessa Schilmoeller recently graduated from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN with a BA in International Relations. Janessa started the first NGC group in Minnesota in 2006 and is excited to support new club leaders share NGC with their own communities. Janessa enjoys salsa and swing dancing in addition to traveling and eating really foods from around the world. She has participated in several study abroad trips in the Middle East and Africa. Her favorite experience was spent living with a Bedouin family in rural Jordan. Janessa recently returned to Minnesota after spending the summer working at an international scholarship camp in New York. Back in Minnesota, Janessa is the Director of Alumni Relations for the Louis August Jonas Foundation MN Alumni Association and is actively involved with organizations building relationships with the Somali refugee community in the Twin Cities. In the future, Janessa intends to join the US Foreign Service as a Public Diplomacy Officer in hopes of building bridges of understanding between the Middle East and the United States through cross-cultural educational programs.
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