One of the things that makes the JCC’s Teen and Young Adult Center program so special is the staff. We have the most amazing staff; they truly care about all of the participants and work hard every day to make the program unique.

The staff creates activities that expand the participants’ horizons while increasing cognitive, communication, social, and physical skills. The staff gets to know all of the participants and is able to respond to their individual needs. Each of our staff members has worked with the special needs population in a variety of ways and nurtures the participants’ appreciation of art, animals, and music.

Lynne Carvel is the coordinator of the program. Lynne has a B.A. from Newberry College in South Carolina. She has many years of experience working with children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in a variety of schools and care settings, including the Youth Development Center campus school for socially and emotionally disabled boys who were adjudicated delinquent by the Pennsylvania courts, in public schools in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and in a day program for preschool children with special needs. Prior to working at the JCC, she worked for Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic as a therapeutic staff support person and as a TSS at the JCC’s after-school Clubhouse program. Lynne has fostered two children with intellectual and physical disabilities and has rescued many dogs and cats. She has volunteered in her community and serves on the board at New Horizon Theater. She has coordinated the JCC Teen and Young Adult Program since 2007.

Iris Pirchesky graduated from California University of Pennsylvania and attended Carlow University for Art Therapy. She has had internships at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind and Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

She has worked with geriatric patients as well as people with mental health issues and cerebral palsy, the intellectually disabled. hearing impaired, visually impaired, traumatic brain injured, physically challenged.  Iris has been with the Teen and Young Adult Center at the JCC since 2007.

Jonathan Carvell graduated from CCAC and has worked at the JCC’s Teen and Young Adult Center since 2013. Previously, he worked as a digital satellite cable installer and at the

Family Division of the Court of Common Pleas. Jonathan has a foster sister with special needs and mentored a friend’s brother with special needs for many years. Besides working at the JCC, he is employed by a behavior agency as a habilitation aide and companion.

Suzanne Kuban graduated from Bowling Green State University and is working on a masters in education at Gannon University. She has worked in junior high and high school settings and been employed the last eighteen years at Forbes Road Career & Technology Center as a special populations coordinator. Suzanne also worked at Southwestern Human Service as a TSS and at Mercy Behavioral Health as a habilitation aide in homes as well as at summer camps such as J&R Day Camp.

We are truly grateful for the staff members who dedicate their afternoons to helping the Teen and Young Adult Center flourish.

For questions regarding the program, please contact Meredith Brown at 412-697-3520 or mbrown@jccpgh.org