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Camp Philosophy

Introducing Aloha’s First DEI Manager

By The Aloha Team

A bunch of row boats next to the docks on the lake.

Dear Aloha Family,

I am thrilled to share with you today that Arlynn Polletta will be the Aloha Foundation’s first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager.

Arlynn Polletta headshot.
Arlynn Polletta

An educator for the past 17 years, Arlynn comes to us from the Pingree School (grades 9-12) in South Hamilton, MA where she is the Equity & Inclusion Coordinator and Lead Facilitator for the White Educators for Anti-Racism group. In those roles, she leads DEI initiatives; designs and presents trainings for faculty, staff, and students; facilitates dialogues during weekly DEI sessions; creates and curates resources, and works with individual faculty members on anti-racist curriculum.

Like most educators (and camp staff!), Arlynn wears multiple hats. She is the Theatre Director at Pingree and also the Founder and Director of Improv-2-Improve, a social justice theater troupe designed to help students in creating original artistic work focused on raising awareness about racism, discrimination, inequity, and systems of oppression.

Verna Cleveland, Trustee and Chair of the DEI Task Force, shared, “Arlynn’s extensive training and experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion work will be a tremendous asset to the Aloha Foundation team. She is an engaging and intuitive communicator—and is deeply committed to building coalitions within multi-cultural communities, which will help to address inequities in our social norms and operations.”

This spring, Arlynn will complete her Ed.S. degree in Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds an M.A. in Theatre Education & Applied Theatre from Emerson College and a B.A. in English Literature & Theatre/Movement Studies from Manhattanville College.

We invite you to watch a short video introduction Arlynn created for our community.

The search committee worked diligently with me to review more than 200 applications and conduct interviews with the final group of candidates. I’d like to thank each of my colleagues for their commitment to this process: Verna Cleveland (Trustee and Chair of the DEI Task Force), Taylor Brown (Aloha Camp Program Director), Ross Cannon (Hulbert Program Director), and Katie Knowles (Director of Education & Partnerships).

The DEI Manager position is a 6–8-month role, focused on implementing our short-term DEI objectives and helping us develop our long-term goals. Once we know more about our needs for the future, we will add a permanent role.

The Polletta family—Arlynn, her partner Enrique, and their two children, Wyatt (13) and Adeline (11)—will finish out the school year in Massachusetts and move to Vermont in June. We can’t wait to welcome them!

Aloha,

Vanessa

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