Editors
KAREN PITTMAN, publisher and editor-in-chief
karen@kpcatalysts.com
Karen Pitman oversees the overarching vision and direction of Youth Today. She is a founding partner of Knowledge to Power Catalysts. Pittman has made a career of starting organizations that promote youth development – including the Forum for Youth Investment, which she co-founded with Merita Irby in 1998. Pittman stepped away from organizational management to dedicate her time to galvanizing the growing interest in using science informed strategies to truly change the odds that all children and youth can be successful.
KATHERINE PLOG MARTINEZ, managing editor
katherine@kpcatalysts.com
Katherine Plog Martinez oversees all editorial content for Youth Today. Beyond this, she serves as the managing partner for Knowledge to Power Catalysts. Plog Martinez’s portfolio of clients includes local and national intermediaries and membership organizations in education and youth development. Prior to building her consulting business, Plog Martinez spent eight and a half years at Denver Public Schools (DPS) serving in roles including the director of Extended Learning and Community Schools and executive director of Whole Child Supports.
MERITA IRBY, strategic advisor and copy editor
merita@kpcatalysts.com
Merita Irby serves as a strategic advisor to Youth Today and is also the copy editor for all original content. Irby is a partner of Knowledge to Power Catalysts. She was the co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment which, along with Karen Pittman, she created and led for nearly 25 years. She has co-authored numerous works with Pittman and is also co-author of Urban Sanctuaries: Neighborhood Organizations in the Lives and Futures of Inner-City Youth – a seminal work in the youth development field.
Production
NICKOLAS BAGLEY, web producer, newsletter manager and content curator
Nick@kpcatalysts.com
Nickolas Bagley maintains editorial content for Youth Today. He also authors all content in Youth Today’s Grants, Reports, and Newsmakers sections, manages the general newsletters for the site and writes the Youth Today Grants Newsletter. Bagley graduated from the University of Georgia in 2017 with a double major — a bachelor’s of science in Atmospheric Sciences and a bachelor’s of science in Geography with a focus on Environmental Geography. He also earned a Geographic Information Science certificate.
