National Team

​Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD

Executive Director, Co-Founder
​​Terra Ziporyn Snider is an award-winning author of numerous popular health and medical books including The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health, The Women's Concise Guide to Emotional Well-Being, Alternative Medicine for Dummies, and Nameless Diseases. A Yale graduate and a Searle Fellow at the University of Chicago, Terra earned a doctorate in the history of science and medicine while conducting research in biopsychology. A former associate editor at The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Terra has also written extensively on a wide range of health and medical issues in The Huffington Post, The Harvard Health Letter, JAMA, Consumer Reports, Weight Watchers Magazine, Business Week, and Longevity among others.  Terra has been awarded science-writing fellowships by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Maribel Cabrera Ibrahim, MSEM

Operations Director, Co-Founder
Maribel Cabrera Ibrahim is the Facilities and Capital Projects Manager for the Anne Arundel County Public Library and head of the Maintenance and Delivery Department.  Her expertise in logistics, team building and process development has been used to manage the collaborative efforts of this growing national organization, including website development, newsletter publication, membership management, communications and project management. Maribel was recognized by her library peers with the 2015 Team Achievement Award for the Severna Park Library renovation and nominated again for the Individual Achievement Award in 2018.  Previously, Maribel served as a Project Engineer for FedEx Express and as an Industrial Engineer for General Motors.  During a nine year hiatus to raise her three young children, she also held various leadership positions with other community support groups, including Mocha Moms, MOMS Club® and MOPS before embarking on Start School Later. ​​

Kari Oakes, PA

Sleep 101/Let's Sleep! Project Manager
Kari Oakes is a regulatory and medical editor and analyst who has also practiced as a physician assistant in primary care, neurology, and emergency medicine.  The mother of two young adult children, Kari has been active in education and community development issues for many years, with a decade of involvement in Start School Later. Current service roles include membership on the community development authority of Middleton, Wisc., and chairing the city’s perpetual endowment.

Phyllis Payne, MPH

​Implementation Director
​​Phyllis Payne is a public health educator and science writer with extensive experience in community health education and outreach. A co-founder of SLEEP in Fairfax, the advocacy group that successfully ushered in healthy school start times in Fairfax County, VA. she has developed strategic plans for various organizations and built coalitions to support those plans, including designing and facilitating interactive workshops, conferences, and focus group discussions. A specialist in turning science into plain language and policy. Phyllis has created materials  for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases aimed at patients, caregivers, and health professionals about topics including sleep; kidney disease; diabetes; physical activity; heart, lung, and blood disorders; lupus; HIV, and school health policy. ​​

Elinore Boeke

Communications Director
Elinore Boeke is a communications consultant with a focus on health information technology. Previously she managed public affairs activities in the healthcare, maritime and recreation industries. Still not a morning person, and now with three teens in the house, she’s long been an advocate for Start School Later’s mission to educate all community stakeholders on the medical and scientific need for later school start times for adolescents.

Andra Williams Broadwater 

Chapter Director
Andra Williams Broadwater is an award winning education advocate, and became interested in school start times when she saw dazed local high school students on the bus at about dawn as a new mother. In 2014, she launched the Baltimore County chapter of Start School Later, and has worked on state level legislation in Maryland. Andra serves on the Baltimore County PTA Council and is an active volunteer in her kids' schools and her church. She has published resources under contracts with the U.S. Department of Education and received publication awards from AERA. Andra's background is in education policy and data, and is excited to lend her expertise to helping others effect local change to school start times. 

Brendan Duffy, CCSH, RPSGT

​Athletic Liaison
​Brendan Duffy is a Registered Sleep Technologist and Certified Sleep Educator with over 20 years of experience in clinical sleep medicine. He is the coordinator of a six-bed sleep center  at St Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, NY and has authored several articles and spoken nationally about the relationship between sleep and athletic performance.

Joy Wake

​Policy and Advocacy Director
Joy Wake has spent nearly 20 years – in classrooms, boardrooms, living rooms, and the California State Capitol – organizing her community to improve the lives of school children through meaningful, data driven, parent engagement, and advocacy. Most recently, she led outreach and advocacy for Start School Later California, which co-sponsored groundbreaking public health legislation that resulted in the passage of the first ever statewide law limiting how early classes can start at California public schools.  Joy is a past president of the American Marketing Association, Sacramento Valley Chapter; the Planning Committee Chair and co-founder of the San Juan Education Foundation; founder of the High School Parent Engagement Group; and recipient of the 2014 Spirit of San Juan Award for outstanding community volunteer. 

Inaugural Petition Delivery aka "Wake Up Wednesday", March 7, 2012
(L-R) Mary King, Heather Macintosh, Gioia Mapp, Terra Snider, Deniz Cribs, Maribel Ibrahim

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