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From left, Palo Alto High School freshmen Ben Rotblatt, Jeremy Revlock and Yerem Istanboulian align street number stencils before painting the number on the curb of a home in Midtown on May 22, 2012. The work was part of their service through Youth Community Service. Embarcadero Media file photo by Veronica Weber.
From left, Palo Alto High School freshmen Ben Rotblatt, Jeremy Revlock and Yerem Istanboulian align street number stencils before painting the number on the curb of a home in Midtown on May 22, 2012. The work was part of their service through Youth Community Service. Embarcadero Media file photo by Veronica Weber.

Palo Alto resident Mora Oommen began serving as Youth Community Service's executive director on July 1. Courtesy Youth Community Service.
Palo Alto resident Mora Oommen began serving as Youth Community Service’s executive director on July 1. Courtesy Youth Community Service.

Youth Community Service, a nonprofit founded 30 years ago to provide volunteer opportunities to students through school service clubs in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, named Mora Oommen as its new executive director on July 1.

“As we face both a global health pandemic and a national reckoning of structural racial injustices, our youth will be leading the way in shaping and imagining the world anew. As the executive director, I am honored to learn and grow with them,” Oommen told this news organization in a statement.

Oommen previously served as executive director for Blossom Birth & Family, a center supporting new and expecting families, from 2008 to 2017. She is a founding member of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s Doula Volunteer Program and served on the boards of the Palo Alto Recreation Foundation, Mother’s Symposium, California Avenue Area Business Association and Castilleja School Association.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and earned a master’s degree from the University College of London’s Institute of Education. She lives in Palo Alto with her husband and daughter.

Leif Erickson, who led the Palo Alto-based organization for the past 16 years, will be working alongside Oommen during the transition. He will stay involved with the nonprofit as a member of the board of directors.

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