Youth Today has a new permanent home. The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) is thrilled to announce that it is the new publisher of Youth Today as part of its broader fiscal sponsorship of the Alliance for Youth Thriving.
Karen Pittman and Merita Irby will join the IEL as senior fellows to continue to lead these interconnected efforts. Pittman and Irby are partners in Knowledge to Power Catalysts, the organization that stepped in a year ago to give Youth Today a temporary home to secure its 35+ year legacy. Pittman, who has been a regular columnist in Youth Today since 1992, will continue her role as editor-in-chief. Irby will continue her role as the Alliance’s managing partner, engaging 40+ national partners in collaborative action, and take on a larger editorial role in Youth Today.
The work and legacy of Pittman and Irby is synchronous with IEL’s 60+ year history of building and supporting movements in service of lifting up leaders and equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to transform their communities through education with collaborative solutions.
Pittman and Irby are perhaps best known for co-founding the Forum for Youth Investment (in 1998) and, more recently, serving as governing partners of the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance. In 2022, the duo left the Forum, joining forces with Katherine Plog Martinez to create KP Catalysts. Together, they pursued big swing projects like the launch of the Alliance for Youth Thriving and the stabilization of Youth Today.
Launched in 2025, the Alliance for Youth Thriving is a coalition of coalitions, campaigns, networks and leaders that work together to align efforts, share resources, and drive cross-sector change to build community-wide learning ecosystems where all youth can thrive.
Youth Today, the essential go-to resource for leaders and practitioners across the allied youth fields, will serve as the official communication arm of the Alliance for Youth Thriving while still providing timely news and thought leadership “from and for people who believe that when youth thrive we all thrive.”
“Through this partnership, IEL, the Alliance for Youth Thriving and Youth Today are better positioned to change systems through people,” shared IEL President Eddie Koen. “This work will have several focal points, but most immediately will focus on engaging IEL’s various networks of Community Schools, Family Engagement and youth development leaders as ready champions of learning ecosystem stewardship and incorporating the Science of Learning and Development principles into the various strategies and frameworks that support and improve learning for all children and youth.”
“Having IEL as our fiscal sponsor is the gift that keeps on giving,” shared Pittman. “Knowledge to Power Catalysts was created to look for catalytic opportunities to galvanize the allied youth fields. We are proud to have been able to launch the Alliance for Youth Thriving and acquire Youth Today. And we are thrilled to join forces with IEL to add capacity as these big bet projects mature.”
“It’s an honor to become a small addition to IEL’s 60+ years of movement building,” added Irby. “Every program and initiative within the IEL family that we uncover as we move forward reinforces our excitement. The potential for partnerships within IEL that can further strengthen the Alliance is amazing. IEL embodies what we’ve always believed: that maximizing the success of young people means optimizing the people, places, possibilities and systems across the whole learning ecosystem. Community-wide, year-round, never-too-late learning is essential for our young people to thrive.”
Youth Today readers will continue to see the features they love, such as grant announcements, research-grounded op-eds and front-line stories from and for the field. With increased contributions from Alliance members and capacity from IEL, we hope to add new features and more regular contributors in the coming months, including deeper coverage by, for and about youth 16 to 25 as they transition to adulthood.
If you are interested in contributing to Youth Today as a reprint partner, writer, advisor, funder, or advertiser, please reach out to talkwithus@kpcatalysts.com.
