Anytown Alabama Co-Director Team

Matthew Smith, ACE Executive Director and Anytown Co-Director
Matthew attended Anytown as a student delegate in 2003, has served as a staff advisor for Anytown since 2007, as well as a staff advisor for both PEACE Birmingham and Make a Change Leadership Institute. He is a certified life coach, teacher, and leadership trainer, and served as an AmeriCorps member facilitating discussions on dating and violence prevention and crisis management. He is also certified in Transformative Leadership for Organizational Development, Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Social Justice Leadership, and Crisis Prevention & Intervention. 

Anamaria Santiago, ACE Board Member and Anytown Co-Director
Anamaria has served as Anytown Alabama Co-Director since 2013 and as a staff advisor for Anytown since 2006, and as an advisor for Heritage Panel, PEACE Birmingham, and Make a Change Leadership Institute. She has experience teaching all age groups, from preschool to college, including as a therapeutic class teacher for children on the autism spectrum. Her master's thesis, "Rituals of Resistance in Contemporary Latino Fiction: Queering Masculinity, Matrimony, and Motherhood in the Works of Junot Diaz and Nicholasa Mohr" (2011) examined gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity in contemporary Latinx fiction. She teaches literature and composition at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She has been trained in the Birmingham PD/s Procedural Justice III as well as the University of Michigan's Intergroup Dialogue (IGD).

Kenton Kennedy, ACE Board Member & Anytown Co-Director
Kenton first attended Anytown as an advisor in 2012, and in 2016 became a Co-Director. He has volunteered and/or facilitated workshops for PEACE Birmingham, Make a Change, HICA, Habitat for Humanity, and the Social Y. He also worked on Mayor Williams Bell and REV Birmingham's Civil Rights District Vision Task Force. He is a certified basic life support provider and has been trained in Safety Awareness, Sexual Harassment & Gender Issues, Communication During Volatile Situations, Workplace Harassment & Violence Prevention, Interpersonal Communication, Diversity Training, Racial Harassment Prevention, Suicide Prevention, The Art and Science of Communication, and Developing Emotional Intelligence, among others. 

Joni Wiley, Community Non-Profit Partner and Anytown Co-Director
Joni has served the Birmingham community in various avenues, including working with students as a trained facilitator, serving as a community leader, and developing and overseeing social justice programs. In her last role as Coordinator of Social Justice Programs, Joni developed and implemented all of the YWCA's social justice programs, including the three major programs of Anytown Alabama, PEACE Birmingham, and Heritage Panel. 

Andrea Miller, ACE Programs Manager and Anytown Assistant to the Co-Directors
Andrea has served as a staff advisor for Anytown Alabama since 2018, as well as an advisor for PEACE Birmingham. She was awarded AmeriCorps Member of the Year during her time with the YWCA's Building Communities, Bettering Lives AmeriCorps program. Her work with ACE's Life Skills Education Program includes developing an extensive Social-Emotional Learning curriculum and incorporating elements of Trauma-Informed Care and social justice into the curriculum for children, teens, and adult volunteers. She serves as the President of the Tragic City Rollers, the Birmingham roller derby non-profit, and her work in 2020 includes co-founding and leading an Inclusion Committee and co-creating and implementing amendments for annual anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and conflict resolution training for the entire league.