Katherine Nance

Interim Executive Director

Katherine has been a part of ACE since 2015, serving as a board member and education consultant in the early stages of our organization. You may know her as Kat if you've been to Anytown—she's been a staff member at camp since 2015 and served as Co-Director in 2022. Most recently, she volunteered with our life-skills program in Fairfield City for the 22-23 school year. 

Anamaria Santiago

Director of Social Justice

Anamaria began her journey with ACE as one of its first board members when it was founded in 2016. After serving on the BOD for several years, including as its secretary, she decided to devote more of her time on cultivating the social justice programs that she helped ACE to acquire in 2020. These programs hold a special place in her heart, as she has worked with them consistently in some capacity for over 17 years after having been a Heritage Panelist, Anybuddy, and Make a Change participant while in high school. She has staffed Anytown since 2006 and has served as one of the camp's co-directors for a decade. She has experience teaching all age groups, from preschool to college, including as a therapeutic class teacher for children on the autism spectrum. She currently holds a full-time faculty appointment at a local university where she served as chair of her department’s DEIB committee from 2020-2022. She has received relevant training from the Literacy Foundation, the Center for Policing Equity, and the University of Michigan’s National Intergroup Dialogue Institute, among others, and has had the privilege of volunteering or consulting over the years with dozens of local nonprofits and advocacy organizations, including the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham's Unity Fund, One Roof, the Community Affairs Committee YP, HICA, the National Conference for Community and Justice, Ruffner Mountain, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and Youth Leadership Vestavia Hills. She was awarded the Ellyn R. S. Grady Nonprofit Volunteer of the Year from United Way of Central Alabama’s Ignite Awards in 2020. In her free time she works on her novel, crochets amigurumi, gardens, studies honey bee husbandry, and hikes with her husband and toddler son.