Beyond the Bars’ Board of Directors play a pivotal role in both shaping the vision of the program and overseeing that it is carried out. The board is made up a mixture of leaders from all different parts of the city with different careers. One constant is that they are leaders who are driven to provide a strong program for our youth.
Board of Directors
Rollo Dilworth
Chairperson of the Board
Rollo Dilworth is Professor of Choral Music Education and Chair of Music Education and Therapy at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in choral music education, Dilworth conducts the “Singing Owls” Campus/Community Chorus. His choral publications can be found in the catalogs of Hal Leonard, Colla Voce, and Santa Barbara. His primary objective is to use choral music as a tool to address the social-emotional needs of youth, enabling them to make good decisions, set goals, express their emotions in positive ways, and be productive citizens in their communities. Beyond to the Philadelphia area, Dilworth maintains active engagement with urban youth choral programs in Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and New York.
Khalia Robinson
Co-Vice Chairperson of the Board
Khalia Robinson: Upon watching the public school system change over the years, Khalia knew after graduating from Clarion University of Pennsylvania that she would have to get involved in keeping the arts in education. From this thought came opportunities to work with WUSL Power 99’s ‘28 Schools in 28 Days’, and co-creating the event ‘Putting The Neighbor Back In The Hood’ with WPEB 88.1 community radio.
These days, Khalia works as a Program Director for Philadelphia’s premiere literacy non-profit agency Mighty Writers, and does consultations and workshop facilitations for her start-up virtual community center, The1st Day Of Destiny.
Kevin Brown
Co-Vice Chairperson of the Board
Kevin Brown is a dynamic community organizer through West Philadelphia’s People’s Emergency Center. Whether it is organizing programming for youth and Powelton Village residents, facilitating spaces for different community organizations or serving on Neighborhood Advisory Committees Kevin is a busy individual.
Deep Shah
Treasurer
Deep Shah is a Philly born native who grew up in the far Northeast area of Philadelphia and currently resides in Francisville. Deep graduated from Villanova University with a Bachelors of Science with majors in Accountancy and Management Information Systems. Deep is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of Pennsylvania and has worked as a tax consultant at KPMG for over two years.
Jondhi Harrel
J. Jondhi Harrell, JUST LEADERSHIP FELLOW USA 2016, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC) in Philadelphia. TCRC offers comprehensive services for prisoners and formerly incarcerated people in the areas of re-entry, pre-entry, and advocacy. He plays a leadership role in numerous organizations, including the National Committee of Alternatives to Violence Re-Entry Program, the Formerly Incarcerated and Families Working Group of Decarcerate PA, the Coalition against Mass Incarceration (CAMI Philly), the Re-Entry Coalition of Philadelphia and the Quaker Network to End Mass Incarceration. Jondhi is co-founder of the Transitional Services Coalition and the BLOC Party (Build Lobby Organize Campaign), the movement to forge returning citizens of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania into a cultural, social, political, and economic coalition. He is a frequent guest lecturer on the topics of Mass Incarceration, Social Injustice, The New Underground Railroad, and Re-building Black America at universities, colleges, churches, organizations and community events. Jondhi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Service Management from the University of Phoenix and is a Master’s in Social Work candidate at Temple University.
Charles Fishburn
Director of Data Team
With over 10 years of management in the Corporate management world at locations such as JP Morgan, Charles Fishburn brings significant amounts of experience in analyzing data to make decisions on strategic planning. He is currently the Director of Digital Strategy & Analytics at Comcast and brings his expertise to helping Beyond the Bars better work to collect data regarding our impact in regards to system change. He is incredibly skilled at working to interpret data to evaluate ways how our organization can best serve our community
Julius Brown
Director of Curriculum Team
Julius Brown (He, Him, His) is a radical educator focused on intersectional equity. As a radical music educator, Julius creates social-action directed, student-centered, democratic environments of creativity that deconstruct hegemonic structures of oppression with student-empowered leadership and artistry. Julius believes the identities of students should be validated and affirmed in content, structures, and systems through the lens of equitable proportionality.
Julius works on the national scale by envisioning, planning, and promoting large scale professional development opportunities for music educators. He is in high demand as a clinician and instructional coach surrounding anti-racist and intersectionally equitable approaches teaching.
Julius is also a faculty member of Cultural Connections By Design, where he teaches anti-racism, and DEI to corporations, educational organizations, and individuals. He creates self-interrogating, vulnerable environments that combine internal exploration with external action within anti-racism/anti white oppressorship.
Julius is a past recipient of the National Harriet Ball Excellence in Teaching Award, and has been teaching in K-12 Public Education for over 18 years.
Pat Cassidy
Music Outreach Fundraising Director
Pat Cassidy is a touring member of the Districts, a Philadelphia based band that has performed at festivals and venues across the world. PAt has used his connections within the greater Music Community to set up various fundraising opportunities such as benefit shows and Live Track EPs.
