Annette L. Gantt has been the executive director of Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection since 1997. Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection is a not-for-profit youth development organization in Rochester, New York. She joined the agency in 1993 as a youth advocate and has worked in youth-related organizations close to 15 years. As a youth advocate she identified students at the middle school level who were at-risk of dropping out of school and worked to build a holistic support network which would enable them to graduate from high school. Prior to joining HW-SC, she was staff assistant at the National Center for Education and the Economy where she provided administrative support to the Program Director who was responsible for the development and implementation of education reform initiatives within the city school district. Annette received her Bachelors of Science in Social Work from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in Management from Roberts Wesleyan.