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Mary Sliwa - COO and Executive Director
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Taking The Guardian Angels "Beyond The Streets"
 Mary Sliwa serves as C.O.O. and Executive Director of The Alliance of Guardian Angels, Inc. Her responsibilities encompass all aspects of the organization's administration and management, along with fundraising, marketing and professional staff development. Under Mary's leadership, The Guardian Angels programs have grown exponentially over the years - from the original community safety patrols begun in 1979, The Guardian Angels now provides training, support and community empowerment programs throughout the world focusing on Community Safety, Professional Development for Educators, School-based Anti-Bullying Coursework, and Internet Safety. Under Mary's leadership, CyberAngels, The Guardian Angels' Internet safety initiative, was honored with a President's Service Award for volunteer community service in 1998. Mary has played an integral role in translating The Guardian Angels philosophy into formalized classroom training and online and seminar-based coursework for educators and students.
Mary's decade-long involvement with The Guardian Angels follows a distinguished career as both a corporate executive and a professional educator. Prior to joining The Guardian Angels in 1996, Mary managed advertising sales and marketing activities for Capital Cities/WABC Radio, and won the network's prestigious "Circle of Excellence" award. In addition to ABC, Mary has also held leadership roles at CNN/Headline News, WPLJ Radio, WPAT Radio and WRKS Radio. While at WPAT, Mary was instrumental in developing a groundbreaking "Say No to Drugs" campaign.
Serving as Executive Director of The Guardian Angels has allowed Mary to bring her professional management skills to a worthy cause that also builds on her extensive experience as a professional educator. After studying at Monmouth College and earning degrees magna cum laude in Special Education for Handicapped Children, and Elementary Education from William Paterson College, Mary also earned graduate certificates from the Sterling Institute and the Wharton School of Business. Using her educational training, Mary pioneered an approach to teaching handicapped children to communicate and interact with others by using a unique blend of humor and animated puppets. Mary utilized this experience to create "Rocky," the sheepdog mascot of The Guardian Angels.
Carrying her knowledge to The Guardian Angels, Mary has driven the organization to develop innovative approaches to safety education and training, while administering the organization professionally and effectively. Today the organization conducts a variety of formalized educational training sessions, including: "Teach the Teachers," an initiative hosted in partnership with universities to train educators in preventing school-based violence; Anti-Bullying and violence prevention seminars for teachers and students; and CyberAngels Internet safety programs for parents and educators.
Contact:
E-mail Mary@GuardianAngels.org
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