Executive Director, Newark Opportunity Youth Network 

With over 22 years of experience in youth development, Robert Clark is the first YouthBuild graduate to found a YouthBuild program in a major city--Newark, NJ. Since launching YBN in 2003, Mr. Clark has been instrumental in establishing its national reputation for promoting juvenile justice reform, re-entry programming for school-aged young people, and vocational training. He is also the leading visionary behind the Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN), a cross-sectoral city-wide initiative launched in 2016, that manages a collective of organizations committed to supporting Opportunity Youth, Including NJ's first Alternative Charter school: LEAD.

As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NOYN, Mr. Clark works tirelessly to provide quality educational and workforce development training to out-of-school youth and students who are off-track. His commitment to young people has shaped his service as a founding member of the My Brother’s Keeper Newark Advisory Council, and as a board member of the Newark Trust for Education and the Newark Workforce Development Board. Mr. Clark is a Boston native and holds a bachelor’s degree in Adult Training in Human Services from the University of Massachusetts.