Christy Olsen

Christy Olsen is a youth advocate at heart. She is a mentor, connector, and crisis manager who believes deeply in building strong teams and creating safe spaces where everyone belongs. Christy is also a mother, daughter, caregiver, and pet lover who carries empathy into every role she holds and uses resilience, love, and purpose to uplift others and help communities thrive. 

Christy was born and raised in Queens by a single mother. She struggled academically and was placed in special education, which brought both challenges and growth. During her time there, Christy first understood a powerful truth: life often mistreats people without reason—because of disability, race, or socioeconomic status. That realization helped shape the advocate she would become. In high school, Christy founded a dance company at the Fort Totten Youth Center. Her dedication led to a job as Assistant Center Director at the youth center when she was just eighteen years old, beginning a lifelong career rooted in youth development, advocacy, and community building. 

Christy has worked for the Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation (NIDC) since 2001. She currently serves as their Youth and Family Services Director, managing youth, teen, and community event programs that serve over 1000 participants and employ over 100 workers. She built NIDC’s Youth and Family Department by focusing her programming on literacy, social-emotional learning, civic engagement, and life skills; these core concepts became NIDC's 4 Pillars of Youth Programming, preparing children not only for academic success but for a fulfilling future as caring and responsible leaders. Christy looks at every young person holistically and understands the importance of engaging caretakers and families alongside youth.  

Christy has forged programmatic partnerships, founded NIDC’s cheer team, launched Care Closets with free toiletries available to community members, and helped develop Family Advisory Boards so that parents and caregivers feel involved and heard. She goes above and beyond every day to expand the opportunities and pathways available to her students, constantly seeking new initiatives, new ideas, and new ways to engage and support NIDC’s youth. Through everything, Christy has remained steadfast in her purpose: to save the world one person at a time.