Jacquelyn Santiago

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Age: 37

Title: Chief Operating Officer

Company: COMPASS Youth Collaborative Inc.

Location: Hartford

Hometown: East Hartford

College: Trinity College (undergraduate)

Bio

Jacquelyn “Jackie” Santiago is chief operating officer at COMPASS Youth Collaborative Inc. “Youth are my inspiration and my deepest desire is to see them thrive in our communities” is how Santiago describes her motivation for helping schools and youth succeed. She is a champion for equal opportunities for youth, a dynamic youth development trainer, and an advocate for at-risk youth. To foster success in youth, Santiago has played an increasingly important role creating and developing after-school programs, creating comprehensive school day supports for schools, and creating impactful outreach and crisis intervention programs for at-risk youth.

Santiago graduated from Trinity College with a major in sociology and is currently completing her Master's Degree at the School of Business at Quinnipiac University. She began her career as an education organizer at Hartford Areas Rally Together before joining COMPASS in 2001. Santiago serves as an internal leader that develops performance management processes that measure and evaluate progress against goals for the organization and builds and supports high-performance teams at COMPASS. She oversees all programs, including the COMPASS community violence prevention program.

She is also a mom to a 12-year-old son.

Q&A

I prepare for the unexpected in life by….. I pray daily for guidance so that God can grant me serenity and guide me through life's unexpected situations that may be out of my control.

I plan and prepare as best as I can in my daily life. I am responsible in my daily living and ensure that I meet all my obligations like paying my bills, saving money, getting insurance, and treating people well, etc.

When unexpected situations arise, I am confident that I have prepared as fully as possible yet there may be life situations that are out of my control. So I remain flexible and adapt to the situation as best as I possibly can or find ways to make change depending on the situation.

If there is one person whose life and career you want to imitate, who would it be? Oprah Gail Winfrey is my role model in life. Winfrey was born into impoverished conditions and struggled through life challenges including sexual abuse. Oprah began her career in radio broadcasting, however, she is now an example of perseverance, resilience and hope for the world. She is more than her millions of dollars, she is an inspiration for people. With her as an example, I expect to continue to be a role model for youth.