Sr. Paulette LoMonaco & Jane Quinn, Visiting Fellows

Over the years the Pinkerton Foundation has welcomed distinguished leaders in a variety of fields to join us for a year as Visiting Fellows.  We have benefitted greatly from their work, wisdom, and friendship. This year we are fortunate to have not one but two legendary leaders—Jane Quinn and Sister Paulette LoMonaco—joining us as Fellows. Friends and colleagues since they met in the nonprofit management program at Columbia in 1984, they will be working together to compile a comprehensive history of after-school programs in New York City. The project is sponsored by the Partnership for Afterschool Education with the support of Pinkerton. We are excited to see—and learn from—the results.

Sister Paulette LoMonaco was running a group home for girls in Manhattan when she was tapped to lead Good Shepherd Services in 1980. In the four decades since then, the tiny agency has grown to become a major pillar in New York’s social service architecture. Before her retirement in 2019, Good Shepherd had more than lived up to her ethos of “going to where the need is greatest,” serving more than 30,000 young people and their families in comprehensive, community-based programs in South and Central Bronx, and Red Hook and East New York, Brooklyn.  The programs include innovative “transfer schools” for over-age, under-credited youth, high-quality after-school programs, as well as programs for young people touched by the foster care or juvenile justice systems. Despite Good Shepherd’s explosive growth—and her emerging role as a fierce policy advocate–Paulette managed to lead the organization with the same twinkle in the eyes, gentle good humor and nurturing spirit that animated her early direct service work. Although sidelined by injury from what she calls her “wannabe” golf career, Paulette’s retirement includes work on several boards and consulting with Good Shepherd’s global programs.

Jane Quinn has been a leading figure in the worlds of social service, philanthropy and youth development for more than five decades. Her work has ranged from direct service with children and families to research and advocacy.  Armed with a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and, more recently, a doctorate in urban education from CUNY, Jane has served as program director at both the Girls Clubs of America and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. In addition, she directed a national study on youth organizations for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and was the principal author of the 1992 Carnegie study entitled “A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours.” At Childrens Aid from 2000 to 2018, she directed the National Center for Community Schools. Her interest in time management is more than academic. Jane has also co-authored three books, including “The Community Schools Revolution” published in 2023, and somehow managed to squeeze in a daily swim for more than fifty years.