Amy Gerstein, PhD, is the Executive Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University. With extensive ties to Stanford’s near-neighbor community as well as a national profile in the fields of education and youth development, Amy oversees a staff of researchers and policy analysts engaged in a program of rigorous youth sector research and capacity building that brings together and informs practitioners, policy makers, educators, and youth advocates. The Gardner Center’s youth sector perspective encompasses the multiple organizations and institutions that together make up the contexts within and through which young people move from infancy to young adulthood.