Meet the Team

Amina Sillah, PhD
President
Amina Sillah, PhD is the President of JOYE. Dr. Sillah is an educator, entrepreneur, international development analyst, an experienced nonprofit manager and urban policy analyst. In her many roles, she combines her education and experience to help nonprofits, local governments and private institutions from a variety of vantage points. Her expertise has helped countless organizations to improve service quality and strengthen institutional capacities through training, education, and strategic planning.
An avid promoter of youth development, Dr. Sillah is the current CEO of Global Youth Innovation Network. She has also served as a mentor for entrepreneurs at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, a grader for the Mandela Washington Fellowship – Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), and as a subject matter expert for the World Bank Youth Summit. She is also the co-founder of Krysalis Global Solutions (KGS), a capacity building organization.
In addition to her role as the President of Jurarim Organization for Youth Excellence -JOYE , Dr. Sillah currently serves on the board of several other nonprofits as well. She holds a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Urban Government and a PhD in Public Administration and Management.

Marcy Cox
Vice President

Ragan Brown PhD
Director of Education
Ragan Brown, PhD is the Director of Education at JOYE. A professional in the field of Education and Child Development, Dr. Brown, thrives on tapping into the interest of a child, and building on their strengths to help them unlock their potential. She is driven by her passion and purpose to positively impact the lives of children and other educators. Dr. Brown is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and speaker.
With over 15 years of service as an educator, her expertise lies in reading intervention, executive functioning, dyslexia, educator professional development, new teacher support, and self care.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Patholoand Audiology, Master of Business Administration with a Management Concentration and obtained a PhD in Early Childhood Development and Education. Dr. Brown’s research centered around Positive Youth Development.

Holly Thedford
Sponsorship Director

Sharon Fore-Guillory
She is a Corporate Sales Training Manager with Charter Communications and realizes that her occupation gives her the opportunity to impact people of all statuses. Sharon is passionate about helping others and shares her compassion for the community by partnering with organizations that are making a difference in the lives of all people.
She is an avid reader and loves to study Bible History. She serves in ministry as the leader of the Women’s Ministry and co-leads the Marriage Ministry with her husband Earl, at St. James Baptist Church in Pilot Point, TX. She is the mother of 6 amazing daughters, 1 awesome son and loves being Gigi to Kinsleigh, her first granddaughter. Her motto is: “You don’t h have to be GREAT to START – but you have to START to be GREAT.”