AHA! Welcomes New Executive Director, Pilar Montoya

AHA! Is thrilled to announce that Pilar Montoya has been named Executive Director. Ms. Montoya brings to her position at AHA! over 25 years of business and financial management for private companies and non-profits. She is a strategic thinker, a problem-solver, and a phenomenal implementer.

She has been at the forefront of social norm change initiatives, including national-level initiatives promoting education, health, teen pregnancy prevention, and youth development. She has successfully secured and managed grants exceeding $1.2 million; has headed corporate-sponsored programs; and has led national youth-focused initiatives with budgets in the multiple millions.

She has been honored as one of America’s Top 100 Women in STEM by US News and World Reports; as Inspirational Leader of the Year by San Diego Magazine; with a California Assembly Resolution for efforts with Latino youth; and was featured as a Woman in Leadership in that organization’s publication two years in a row. She was recognized as Volunteer of the Year by the Child Abuse Prevention Council and as an exemplary volunteer by the American Cancer Society.

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“It is truly an honor to join the founders and Board of Directors of AHA!. This organization is at the forefront of Social-Emotional Learning ⎯ one of eight non-profits nationwide selected by the Susan Crown Exchange to create a best-practices field guide for implementing SEL After-School. As we guide thousands of youth in growing socially, emotionally, and as a positive, accepting community, and as we train hundreds of educators in the evidence-based AHA! method, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help this organization to have further expansion and impact.”
– Pilar Montoya, Executive Director