Meet The Team
Natalie has over eleven years experience serving disadvantaged families in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area.
Much of her experience comes from her prior work as a W2 case manager, where she assisted clients suffering from
mental illness. Here Natalie saw first hand the struggles many women faced trying to get out of poverty and
move into family sustaining employment. Natalie received her undergraduate degree from the University of
Wisconsin - Milwaukee in Psychology with a minor in English. She also has her Master's degree in Counselor
Education from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater and is a Nationally Certified Counselor. Natalie
completed her master's level internship at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Career Development Center
where she served UW - Milwaukee students and alumni with career exploration and professional development.
As the Life Coach / Coordinator of the Life Impact Program, Natalie is directly involved with assisting students
in meeting their personal, academic and professional goals and is also responsible for creating and maintaining
program structure and policy. Natalie has presented on the Life Impact Program and Student Parent issues at
multiple conferences including the Wisconsin Academic Advising Association (UW - Parkside, Kenosha, WI), the
Wisconsin Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (Wausau, WI), the Midwestern Regional College
Board (Chicago, IL) and the National College Board (NY, NY). The Life Impact Program was selected as one
of the recipients of the 2008 Program Achievement Award granted by the State Council on Affirmative Action
and State of Wisconsin Office of State Employment Relations.
Natalie is a member of Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) and Higher Education Alliance
of Advocates for Students with Children (HEAASC). She also serves as a co-advisor to the UWM Student Parent
Association and is a member of the UWM Lactation Support Program Committee.
Jermesha West is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Cultural Foundations of Education from the
School of Education at the UWM; she expects to graduate in December 2009. Jermesha has worked and volunteered
in the educational field and in the community for almost nine years. Jermesha's educational focus was in
Secondary Education Broad Field Social Studies. After her student teaching she felt could have a greater
impact outside the classroom and in the community. Therefore, she changed her major to Community Education.
She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Community Education in 2006 from UWM. After she obtained her degree
she worked for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee as part of the Spark Reading Program. She
provided literacy help for K5-3rd grade students. Jermesha, also was a Program Assistant for the Boys and
Girls Club's Community Learning Center (CLC) program, there she created programs that provided emotional and
academic support for young girls. Currently, Jermesha works as a part-time Family Service Provider for
Alternatives in Psychological Consultation; this allows her to assist families with youth transitioning
in and out of the system and back into the home.
Jermesha takes great pride in assisting people in urban areas as well as working for programs that help
to break cycles of poverty. She enjoys volunteering with youth and families that come from urban areas.
Jermesha's volunteer experience includes: Big Brother Big Sister Program which caters to youth from low-income
areas and the Circle of Hope Program, which provides mentoring to children with an incarcerated parent.
Jermesha aspires to create a non-profit that provides youth and their families with various services and
outreach within the community.
In her position as Life Coach Assistant she assists student parents by providing them with support,
encouragement and help with resources and growth opportunities. Despite the fact that Jermesha is not a
parent, she has witnessed the struggles and barriers of being a student parent through her sister who was a
teenage parent; her mother also was a single parent. Jermesha has a great respect and admiration for student
parents and considers it to be an excellent opportunity to be a part of the Life Impact Program.
Bianca started her Master's Program in Urban Studies with a specialization in Race, Class, Gender, and
Ethnicity at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in spring 2008. She graduated from Northern Michigan
University in December 2007 with a BS in Political Science/Pre Law and a minor in Criminal Justice.
Bianca spent the last seven years involved in the Black Student Union. From August 2003 to December 2007,
Bianca served as the Northern Michigan University Black Student Union President. During her term as president,
Bianca focused on enhancing services to the minority population, tutoring fellow peers, working with
administration on policy goals, and assisting student in the Black Student Union organization in setting
personal goals. Bianca has also served as a student member of the Ethnic Cultural and Diversity Committee
which annually holds the UNITED Conference (Uniting Neighbors in the Education of Diversity). In 2006 she
received an Award for Excellence for her Teaching Assistant position at Northern Michigan University. She has
volunteered and worked for many years with at-risk and emotionally disturbed youth which is a life time
commitment for her. With the experiences she has had and her new life at UWM she is working towards a career
in the Non-Profit field working with underprivileged persons in an educational setting.
As the Tutor Peer Advisor of the Life Impact Program, Bianca connects with program participants to address
all barriers to academic success. She provides individual as well as group tutoring on all subjects and also
guides students to all other academic based resources on-campus and on-line based on the student's specific needs.
Bianca also works with students struggling with time management issues and test preparation techniques.
Amanda has worked in a variety of social service settings throughout her career. The majority of her work has been
with low-income single parents. Amanda earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and a Master's degree in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. During her graduate
work she worked in the Career Counseling Department at the University of California - Berkeley helping students to
discover their educational and career goals. In September of 1998, she became a National Certified Counselor (NCC).
Amanda volunteers with Life Impact on a regular basis and assists with a variety of program tasks and special projects.
