Kyra Bethel

Board of Directors

Kyra Bethel

Board Member

Kyra Bethel is a Program Manager at Dreams for Change, a San Diego non-profit organization. She specializes in launching comprehensive workforce development programs that focus on teaching the value of introspective work to yield outward success, while simultaneously providing innovative career pathway opportunities to program participants.

As Program Manager with Dreams for Change, Kyra oversees the Coastal Roots Kitchen program, which teaches youth and veterans to operate and manage an organic food truck at the Leichtag Foundation’s Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas, CA. Program participants learn food procurement best practices and menu development; obtain a food safety certification; and acquire highly marketable skills by providing an authentic farm-to-table eating experience for customers.

Prior to her work with the Coastal Roots Kitchen program, Kyra was the Program Manager of MAAC YouthBuild, a workforce development program offered by the MAAC Community Charter School in Chula Vista, CA. Within one year, Kyra restructured the program to provide opportunity youth with the resources needed to earn their diploma while receiving hands-on training in solar panel installation and green construction. She established mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations like G.R.I.D. Alternatives and Habitat for Humanity to provide high-quality training opportunities for program participants.

A Chicago native, Kyra began her career in workforce development after creating Foundations for Success, a work readiness course focused on helping youth and adult participants develop the soft skills and daily life habits that are essential to personal and career achievement. She taught the course while working as a Work Readiness and Life Skills Instructor at the Black United Fund of Illinois, and often incorporates the course curriculum into newly launched programs to stay directly connected to participants.

Kyra graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine; and after enduring Midwest and East Coast winters for most of her life, she thoroughly enjoys living in sunny San Diego.