We are excited to introduce Team YAF for the Boston Marathon!
The Marathon is less than a month away! If you're interested in supporting our runners or checking out their progress, visit our team's crowdrise page here !
Meet Our Runners!
Ami Fatula is the Chief Financial Officer of a real estate firm in Boston, a mother of two children, and currently living her fullest life so far, in her 39th year. She loves signing up for races in her free time, many of them long obstacle course challenges and other endurance events. This led to 26 official races in 2018 and a desire to take on her biggest challenge yet -- the 2019 Boston Marathon. Ami is honored to run on behalf of Team YAF to support children who may not be fortunate enough to have someone who can advocate for them in school as well as in court. This is a personal mission for her as a mother: to teach her kids that there are people out there willing to give their time and resources to those less fortunate and that she is running her biggest race yet in order to give a voice to all the children served by YAF.
Originally from New Jersey, Leigh Ann Johnson came to Massachusetts to attend law school. She is an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County. The work of YAF is something near and dear to her heart as she believes that quality education is the key to a successful future. Growing up, her father worked in low income areas as a teacher and would bring her to the areas he taught to show her that not everybody was as lucky as she was. As an attorney working in the criminal justice system, she sees the relationship between education and the court system on a daily basis. She knows that YAF is focused on ensuring at-risk students stay in school and receive the academic resources and support they need to succeed. In her free time (when she is not busy training for her first marathon), Leigh Ann enjoys playing softball and eating delicious food.

While Becca Keddy has run many road races, including a handful of half marathons, she has yet to run a full marathon, and in recent years has had the desire to make the Boston Marathon her first! Becca resides in Sharon, MA, with her wife, Heather, and their two cats, Al and Pepe. She is the Controller at Great Hill Partners, LP, a private equity firm in Boston. What adds extra meaning to running the marathon for YAF is that Becca’s wife worked for the Youth Advocacy Division for four years as a social service advocate. Her involvement opened Becca’s eyes to the importance of advocating for our youth rather than criminalizing them. Becca couldn’t be more excited to run the Boston Marathon for Team YAF to support their mission of ensuring access to education advocacy for the state's most vulnerable kids.
Elizabeth Levitan is an attorney with the EdLaw Project, the primary initiative of YAF. Her passion for working with youth began prior to law school when she ran a high school transition program for low income youth in north Philadelphia. She has been with the EdLaw Project since September 2017 -- representing young people who are involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems on special education and school discipline matters. As an attorney with EdLaw, she works to support court-involved young people across MA by ensuring that they are receiving the education, services, and support they need to succeed. Elizabeth is also a regular runner, and has completed five half marathon's and one full marathon in the past six years. She is excited to fulfill one of her dreams of running the Boston Marathon while also having the opportunity to support the work of YAF!

Youth Advocacy Foundation