Our Team

YOUniversal was founded by three longtime youth educators. Across more than 30 cumulative years in youth development and sexuality education, our team has designed and implemented a peer-staffed sexual health textline, outreach STI testing, youth advocacy initiatives, gender-transformative violence prevention programming, pop-up sexual health events, culturally responsive mental health education, and a whole health peer support coaching program. Since launching YOUniversal, we have delivered youth programming across Pittsburgh and consulted with health, education, and human-service partners on intervention design, curriculum, facilitation, and evaluation.

José Garth

José Garth is the founder and lead consultant at YOUniversal Education Services. José is interested in positive youth development and healing-centered health and wellness programming. 

José has specialties in:

  • Intervention development

  • Curriculum development and optimization

  • Facilitation

  • Professional development training

  • Program evaluation

  • Program and project development

  • Sexual and reproductive health education

  • Positive youth development

  • Violence prevention strategies

  • Trauma-informed care

Prior to connecting the team at YOUniversal Education Services, José spent 20 years building a strong toolkit to serve their community as they worked in several capacities at youth-serving organizations. From working in a childcare setting to workforce development, sex education, violence prevention, and the training of facilitators, José has a well-rounded take on positive youth development. With a passion for learning and serving, they have stayed focused on refining tools to best suit the target demographics that they’ve worked with. There are many projects and programs that José has been proud to help build, with two highlights being the creation of a free and confidential text line for teens to ask questions called It's Ok to Ask Someone and launching the Violence Prevention Initiative at Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.

Outside of work, José enjoys spending time with their son communing with nature, taking in stage shows, playing video games, and attempting to wrangle their golden retriever, Gus. José dreams and actively works towards maintaining a business that upholds their personal values and allows folks access to meaningful work that also provides financial security.

Founder and Director of Community Relations

Wren Ritchie

Wren (they/she) facilitates spaces where people can be their authentic selves. They are The Director of Curriculum and Program Development at YOUniversal Education Services and are informed by 9 years of experience managing peer education programs across community groups, schools, and centers in Western Pennsylvania with specializations in:

  • Facilitation

  • Curriculum development and optimization

  • Program and project design

  • Youth leadership training and development

  • Professional and organizational coordination

  • Comprehensive sexuality education

  • Harm reduction and recovery

Wren earned their B.A. in Communication Studies and Journalism Minor from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They received their Inclusive Sex Coach certification from The Center for Empowered Sexual Wellness in 2022 and their SMART Recovery Volunteer Facilitator certification in 2023.

Wren believes that by engaging with the totality of ourselves, we are compelled  to work together to build a world that nurtures our collective humanity.

Current joy practices include biking, reading and writing poetry, exploring thrift stores, baking sourdough, studying yoga, star gazing, and being surrounded by loved ones and trees.

Director of Curriculum and Program Development
Director of Community Health Strategy and Evaluation

Katie Horowitz, MPH

Katie Horowitz is a public health professional and educator driven by seeking creative, resource-effective ways to remove barriers to health for communities impacted by structural racism, stigma, and health disparities, in all their forms. She is a founding member of YOUniversal Education Services and evaluation lead with specialties in:

  • Facilitation of: training & education, meetings, group and community processes

  • Intervention development/implementation

  • Research and synthesis of evidence-based practices

  • Grantwriting and management

  • Fiscal management

  • Coalition work

  • Curriculum adaptation and development

  • Monitoring and evaluation

  • People and project management

  • Writing, editing, and document design

  • On-the-fly and solution-oriented thinking

Katie brings her expertise and experience to YOUniversal Education Services where she facilitates opportunities to design interventions collaboratively and from the ground up, always by seeking real input from those impacted. She is dedicated and determined, with a core belief in listening with humility, meeting people where they are, and striving to act as a true partner to people and communities. Katie earned her Bachelor's in English Writing and her Master of Public Health in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. 

In her spare time, Katie loves to cook meals for friends and family, explore creeks and woods with her 8-year old, and go hiking with her sweet pooch, Banjo. When time and weather allow, she enjoys a coffee and a word game on the porch.

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