Big Brothers Big Sisters Elects Emily Chen Carrera to National Board

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America's board of directors has named Emily Chen Carrera as its newest member.  She will hold a three-year term.

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Chen Carrera's involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters began in 1992 when she became a volunteer mentor ("Big Sister") to a New York "Little" named Dennys.  She also served more than 10 years as a member of one of the nationwide mentoring network's local agency boards of directors; executive team; and advisory council.  During her service as a Big Sister, Chen Carrera and her Little Sister earned her local New York agency's "Match of the Year" honor.  In 1998, Chen Carrera became National Big Sister of the Year and the following year, she represented Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in Washington, D.C. at the Mentoring Initiatives Event hosted at the White House by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Emily has a strong passion for mentoring and a firm understanding of the impact our programs have on the lives of children," said Karen J. Mathis, president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.  "She exemplifies our commitment to serving children who face adversity and our accountability for helping them achieve positive, measurable outcomes, such as educational success, risky behavior avoidance, higher aspirations and confidence, as well as improved relationships.  Her experience and dedication to our mission will be tremendous assets to our board."

Chen Carrera began her career as a CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers and was previously a Vice President in Institutional Sales at Goldman, Sachs & Co.  She is a graduate of Georgetown University and served on the Advisory Board for the McDonough School of Business and also the University's Board of Regents.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. As the nation's largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters' mission is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.

Partnering with parents/guardians, schools, corporations and others in the community, Big Brothers Big Sisters carefully pairs children ("Littles") with screened volunteer mentors ("Bigs") and monitors and supports them in one-to-one mentoring matches throughout their course. The organization holds itself accountable for children in the program to achieve measurable outcomes, such as higher aspirations; greater confidence and better relationships; educational success; and avoidance of delinquency and other risky behaviors. Most children served by Big Brothers Big Sisters are in single-parent and low-income families or households where a parent is incarcerated. Headquartered in Philadelphia with a network of about 370 agencies across the country, Big Brothers Big Sisters serves nearly 250,000 children. Learn how you can positively impact a child's life, donate or volunteer at BigBrothersBigSisters.org.

SOURCE Big Brothers Big Sisters of America