Rehearsal for Life Announces New Executive Director: Boston-Based Nonprofit Names Robert Kordenbrock to Leadership Post

Rehearsal for Life, a nonprofit leader in Boston-area’s creative youth development sector, proudly announces its new Executive Director Robert Kordenbrock. Robert joins Rehearsal for Life, as it begins its 30th anniversary, having most recently been the Executive Director of the Fenway Community Center which serves over 45,000 residents of the Fenway neighborhood.

Robert’s career spans nearly two decades of experience in the education and non-profit sectors with a focus on youth development and corporate social responsibility. He has served as a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools; an AmeriCorps National Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools in Malden where he worked with 8th graders to support their social-emotional and academic development; Director of the Red Oak After School and Summer Programs at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School for the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center; and interim Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors at JP KidsArts. Robert then shifted his focus to nonprofit capacity building and volunteer engagement with a director role at Building Impact and a leadership role Common Impact. Later, at Fenway Community Center, Robert launched diverse program offerings to foster a more inclusive and representative culture at all levels of the organization. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the formation of a coalition of six local organizations to launch Fenway Cares. Robert has also served on several nonprofit boards of directors, most recently as Co-Chair of the Boston Music Project and is currently involved with the Housing and Development Committee of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council.

 “I’m so excited to join Rehearsal for Life and after 30 years, we are stronger than ever,’’ Kordenbrock says. “I am inspired by its dynamic programs that use process and performance to promote social-emotional learning and social justice to educate and empower Boston-area youth.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Robert to our organization,” shares James Benenson, Chair of the Board of Directors for Rehearsal for Life. “We are honored to have someone with his unique skill set and passion for social emotional learning and look forward to his leadership as we begin this milestone year.”

Robert holds a Master of Business Administration from Boston University Questrom School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Arts, Sociology and Political Science from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a Teaching License, Secondary Instruction from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Serving youth from historically under-resourced Boston neighborhoods, Rehearsal for Life provides unique, theater-based programs to help students develop key social-emotional skills and make empowered choices in their lives, schools and communities and face real-life challenges through dialogue, creativity, and performance. To find out more about their programs, visit: www.rehearsalforlife.org.

Rehearsal for Life follows the philosophy that theater process and performance can develop crucial social and emotional skills in young people, preparing them to cope with difficult situations now and in the future. Over the last 30 years, Rehearsal for Life has served more than 80,000 young people at more than 125 schools and community groups in Greater Boston and beyond and continues to use theater as a vehicle for social change. Rehearsal for Life’s mission is to strengthen young people’s social and emotional skills for every stage in life, through dialogue, creativity and performance. www.rehearsalforlife.org

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