Board of Directors

(Board Officer)

Zach joined the Hilltown Youth Recovery Theatre in 2012 as a freshman in high school:

“When I graduated high school, I was hired as the music director. After that summer, I attended Oberlin College to study music. I quickly realized that the people I was meeting in conservatory spent all day in the practice rooms alone, hard at work on their scales and articulations. This was incompatible with my time at Hilltown Youth, teaching music to 70 kids, hitting the trees for percussion, creating a jazz group on a flying trapeze, and getting over 100 people singing together outdoors. What I loved about music was what it did with people. So, I decided to study psychology instead and dive deeper into Hilltown Youth. I founded our first Winter Recovery Intensive as a school project. After graduating from Oberlin, I was hired as Hilltown Youth’s first salaried employee, and spent the year creating systems that would set us up for growth.” After holding down the associate director position for a year and setting us up for crazy, mad growth, Zach matriculated in the psychology program at Antioch University where he is pursuing his Psy.D.. Despite the rigors of a high powered clinical and research environ, Zach remains one of our most popular guest artists and facilitators at recovery events: “Returning to HYRT reminds me of the immense gratitude I have for Jon and the whole community. Leading these workshops helps me maybe as much as the people who are there to be helped. The world needs more spaces like this, and honestly so do I. The community holds itself together, and loves every single person it holds.”