Our Students Label

Meet our Students

 

 

Linda Chen - Born and raised in Seattle and a product of the Seattle Public Schools, Linda completed a B.S. in Psychology and the teacher certification program at the University of Washington. She taught at Seattle’s Hawthorne Elementary School. She then moved to New York to teach at P.S. 165 in Manhattan and to complete her M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, focusing on elementary literacy. She continued her career as as a staff developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and then returned to New York City schools as a regional instructional specialist in literacy for Region 3 in Queens.    

 

Missing the direct connection with children and the ability to impact substantive change in a school community with teachers and parents, Linda became and is currently  the principal of P.S. 165 in Manhattan. She is also co-author of Balanced Literacy for English Language Learners, K-2, and is primarily dedicated to providing access and opportunities for students of color and English language learners. 

 

“I am thrilled to return to Teachers College to be part of this cohort in the newly designed Urban Education Leaders Program,” says Linda. “I hope through this program to be able to impact change that will equip leaders to improve educational opportunities for teachers and students in urban school districts. My interests are primarily in the areas of equity and instructional leadership.  I look forward to our work together in the next few years!"

 

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Karren Dunkley - Karren came to the United States from the island of Jamaica, where she graduated from St. John’s University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science, secondary education, and international law and diplomacy. While pursuing these studies she won a fellowship from the Organization of American States and an Outstanding Graduate Student Grant. She served as an instructor of core courses at St. John’s in the departments of government and politics and education. Karren also received a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She currently serves as internship coordinator for the Summer Principals Academy at Teachers College.

 

Karren is the co-founder and executive director of Uhuru Incorporated, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the emotional and educational empowerment of children in developing countries. To this end her organization has sponsored numerous scholarships to provide educational and physical support to needy and at-risk students. Her scholarly interests include educational equity, social justice, and curriculum development.

 

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Francisco Durán - Francisco will serve as a Regional Superintendent in the Philadelphia Public School District during the 2008-2009 school year. Francisco has been a principal for three years and an assistant principal for five years in both the San Francisco Unified School District and New Haven Unified School District. He has a diverse background of fourteen years in education, serving as an activities director, athletics director, and teaching Spanish, social studies and language arts.  

 

Born and raised in New Mexico, Francisco began his career in the Albuquerque Public Schools as a paraprofessional in special education while earning his bachelor's degree in middle level education from the University of New Mexico. He went on earn a master's degree in Educational Administration from San Francisco State Univeristy.

 

"In order for ALL children to be successful we must begin to make some serious changes, it is simply unacceptable that Latino and African-American students are disproportionately not meeting achievement standards" he says. Growing up he became more and more aware of the inequities students of color had to face at school. He says "I decided at a young age that I would go into the field of education in order to make a difference for those who were often left out of the picture. My goal is to continue to do this kind of work and help facilitate and foster necessary change at the district level with regard to both students of color and our English learner populations.

 

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Bernard Gassaway - Born in Macon, Georgia, Bernard and his family moved to New York City when he was a young child. He graduated from the New York City public schools and LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, where he was president of the Minority Cultural Society. He earned his first master’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany in public administration.

 

Bernard taught at P.S. 40 in Jamaica, New York, Boys and Girls High School (English and computer literacy), and Intermediate School 59 in Springfield Gardens. While there he completed his second master’s degree in education administration at Baruch College, then became an assistant principal at Junior High School 192, St. Albans, and then assistant principal of pupil personnel services at Far Rockaway High School.

 

Bernard was the first African-American principal at Beach Channel High School, where he received the New York State Title I Distinguished Educator Award. In 2001, the borough president’s African-American Advisory Council named him Queens Educator of the Year.

 

After five years as principal, he became Director of New School Initiatives for the Alternative Schools Superintendency. In 2003 he was appointed Senior Superintendent for Alternative Schools and Programs for the New York City Department of Education and a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.

 

“I remain committed to challenging an educational system that was designed to undereducate its participants, particularly children of color,” says Bernard. He is currently chairman of a not-for-profit organization committed to improving the lives of youth, families, and communities. He is also the author of Reflections of an Urban High School Principal, an educational consultant, and the proud father of a homeschooler, Atiya.

 

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Monica George-Fields - Monica is the principal of New York’s P.S. 153, the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Elementary School. The school is in the heart of West Harlem, where Monica herself grew up, and faces many challenges. When she arrrived at P.S. 153 in 2002, she was the fifth principal there in five years. Since then she has provided a sorely needed sense of continuity to the school community.

 

Monica began her career in Manhattan’s District Five as an elementary school teacher, and later became a math coordinator. She holds a master’s degree in reading from City College and is a graduate of the educational leadership program at Bank Street College of Education. She has also worked at the district level as a curriculum congruency coordinator and an attendance improvement and dropout prevention coordinator.

 

Among her accomplishments at P.S. 153 was the creation of an innovative professional development program aimed at retaining new teachers, a project carried out in partnership with Dave Barger, the president of JetBlue Airways. “My goal is to create a school second to none in Harlem,” says Monica. “Every day I strive to encourage my staff to provide a solid academic, social, and emotional experience for the children.”

 

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Ronn Johnson - Ronn is the executive principal of the YMCA Young Leaders Academy, a co-ed charter school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Located in the heart of the inner city, the Academy, now in its sixth year of operation, serves more than 700 students at two campuses in grades K to 8. Ronn has held a lead administrative role in the school since its inception as an African-American Male leadership program known as the Youth Leadership Academy. It has served more than 4,000 students in Milwaukee and has been replicated in Racine, Wisconsin, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Atlanta, and London, England. Ronn played a key role in the development of each site.

 

“I am excited and humbled to have been selected for the 2007 cohort of the Urban Education Leaders Program at Teachers College,” he says. “I aspire to be among the top learners, thinkers, and instructors who will challenge my perspectives, broaden my thinking, and expand my knowledge so that I may better serve children in urban communities. This experience will also help me fulfill my goal of being a lifelong learner.”

 

Ronn is a Milwaukee native. He holds a B.A. degree from Marquette University in interdisciplinary human development and an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in administrative leadership. He has a long list of awards and accomplishments. “I firmly believe,” he adds, “that ‘from those to whom much has been given, much is expected.’

 

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Fidel Ahumada Montero - Fidel’s family immigrated to the United States from the small province of Colima, Mexico in the 1980s. “Although I was young, the reality of poverty, marginal schooling, and social stratification was very real,” he says. “The support of my teachers, and a small miracle, opened the way to my post-secondary schooling and my success in the field of education.” Fidel’s goal is to serve students facing conditions similar to those he experienced.

 

Fidel earned a bachelor’s degree in social science teaching and a master’s degree in school administration from Brigham Young University. He has taught at the middle school level, consulted at the elementary and secondary level, and worked in both large urban settings (Los Angeles) and small developing communities. Currently he is an administrator at a large high school in Utah.

 

“My expectations are to deepen my understanding of how urban educational systems can close the widening gap between children living in poverty, in particular children of color, and their academic counterparts,” he says. “I hope to gain tools that promote academic, socio-political, and institutional changes to improve the conditions of at-risk students at a local and national level. My inspiration is drawn from the sacrifice my parents made in immigrating to this country, and the unconditional love of my wonderful spouse and two dynamic children.

 

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Michael Selkis - Michael’s roles as a father, a husband, and an educator have shaped his path thus far, he says. “I consider myself an educator first, as that role is innately linked to my most profound responsibility: fatherhood.” He grew up all over the world as the son of a career military man. His family finally settled in Princeton, New Jersey, where he spent his high school years. He now lives in Saratoga Springs, New York with his wife and two children.

 

Michael received a B.A. in philosophy and political science at St. Michael's College in Vermont, an M.Ed. from Quinnipiac University, and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. He spent time in Poland with the Peace Corps and also lived in Mexico for two years, teaching English and directing an English school. He taught in Raleigh, North Carolina and San Francisco, and has been a school administrator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and now in Ballston Spa, New York, where he is currently principal of an elementary school with 600 students.

 

“I am very excited to be attending the Urban Education Leaders Program at Columbia, as it will afford me more opportunities to reflect and learn as both a person and an educator,” he says. “I believe very strongly that educators have a responsibility to provide every child with an opportunity to succeed. It is our job to remove any obstacles that prevent children from reaching their potential. I am hoping that through my studies and my interactions with other dedicated and passionate professionals I will build my capacity to be an advocate for all children. I aspire to be a superintendent of a diverse community. I am interested in re-evaluating our educational system so that our schools are better equipped to handle the new challenges that face today's youth.

 

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Mary Skipper -  Mary grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts and moved to Boston 15 years ago. She and her husband, Peter, a religion teacher, have three children, two in college and one in high school. She attended Tufts University, majoring in English and Latin, and later earned an M.A. in Latin and Greek, also from Tufts. She also holds a master’s in Education Policy and Management from Harvard.

 

“I knew in junior high that I wanted to be a teacher,” says Mary. During the first nine years of her career, she taught Latin, Greek, math, and computers to middle and high school students. In 1997 she was appointed director of TechBoston, a Boston Public Schools initiative to prepare students for careers and post-secondary education in high technology. “During this phase of my life, I realized the powerful and positive impact technology could have on teaching and learning,” she says.

 

In 2002, she became the founding headmaster of TechBoston Academy, a public high school funded by the Gates Foundation. “Designing a school from scratch on paper and bringing it to fruition has been a very special blessing for me,” says Mary. “I truly enjoy going in to work every day.”

 

Her goal is to become an urban superintendent in New England, with a special interest in defining and developing new models of systemic partnership in small school redesign efforts. “Three words I would use to describe myself,” says Mary, “are playful, curious, and driven. I love learning, traveling, and meeting new people. I am looking forward to getting to know and to working with the other members of the UELP cohort to create a better and brighter future for urban education.

 

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Jason Snyder - Jason serves as a White House Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to the Fellowship, Jason taught social studies for six years in public secondary schools and for one year at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing.

 

Jason also practiced education and appellate law at Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he advised school districts and drafted briefs in appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Among his community activities, Jason founded a Cub Scout pack in a public housing development, represented children as a guardian ad litem, and served on the Board of Trustees of a public charter school.  “Like many passionate educators,” he says, “my experiences have inspired me to find ways, including through educational leadership, to improve teaching and learning for low-income students often weighed down with low expectations.”

 

Jason earned a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law, a M.Ed. from U.C.L.A., and an A.B., with honors, in Public Policy from Stanford University. He served as student body co-president at Stanford and Editor-in-Chief of the California Law Review at Berkeley. In his free time he enjoys tennis, soccer, travel, and spending time with his wife and daughter.

 

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Michelle J. Walker - Michelle is a first-generation American of Caribbean descent; her family is from Trinidad. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, attended public schools, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School. She holds an undergraduate degree in government and Africana studies from Cornell University and a master of arts in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

 

Michelle currently serves as Chief Accountability Officer for the Saint Paul Public Schools. She oversees research, evaluation and assessment, school improvement, Title I and other federally funded programs for the 41,000 student district.  Prior to joining the SPPS executive team, she held various positions in educational administration and youth development in New York City and Washington, D.C. Most notably, she served as chief of strategic planning and policy for DC Public Schools and senior adviser for education to D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

 

“As a cohort member I look forward to exploring the extent to which effective leadership, distinct and apart from governance or management, can transform school systems to better respond to issues of disparity,” says Michelle. “I hope to use my doctoral degree to continue work in the educational arena and better influence sound policy development and implementation at the organizational, municipal, state, and federal levels.

 

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David Weiner - David began his career teaching kindergarten and first grade in the Boston area, then worked as a third-grade teacher and literary specialist in the San Francisco Unified School District. He served as principal of Alvarado Elementary School in San Francisco for three years before moving to New York City to become principal of P.S. 314 and then P.S. 503, its successor.

 

In New York he served as the only school representative on the Chancellor’s Accountability Reporting Inventory System, which chose the new $100 million data and accountability system for the city’s public schools. He is a member of the NYC Fair Student Funding Committee, which created the new funding formula for the public schools, and has testified before the City Council about school reform efforts. In 2004 Greatschools.net featured David in the video “What Makes a Great Principal.”

 

In San Francisco, David campaigned for the passage of Proposition A and Proposition H, which increased funding for all schools. The mayor named June 6, 2003 as “Principal David Weiner Day” in the city. “As a principal,” he says,

 

“I have focused on closing the achievement gap and on improving the performance of all students. I have continually worked to help other schools improve their performance by meeting with principals and teachers.” David’s goal is to be superintendent of an urban school district, and he believes that the UELP will give him the skills and experience to be a successful district leader. “I will continue to focus on equality and high achievement for all students in the public schools, but especially those who have been underserved,” he says.

 

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Jennie Wu - Jennie was born in Taipei, Taiwan and moved with her family at the age of four to Plano, Texas, where she attended school until going to college at Stanford University. She majored in history with a minor in biology. During junior year at Stanford she became interested in urban education and started taking classes to learn about the American education system.

 

After college Jennie entered the Los Angeles Teaching Fellows program, then began teaching science at Crenshaw High School. She also volunteered as faculty adviser for the flags team, working with the marching band. At the same time she attended classes at Loyola Marymount University, where she earned a master’s in education. She devoted much time to educational equity issues, working with faculty, administration, and district officials, and with a parent and community organization to bring more resources and educational justice to Crenshaw and nearby urban schools.

 

After teaching at Crenshaw for three years, she moved to Shanghai, China and Taipei, Taiwan for one year to improve her Chinese language skills. She also taught English to high school and college students, judged English speech competitions, and tutored students in various subjects.  

 

Upon moving to New York for the Urban Education Leaders Program, Jennie worked for a charter school management organization in Harlem and is currently working on educational leadership program research at Teachers College.  

 

“I hope that through the Urban Education Leaders Program I will be better equipped to face the often daunting obstacles that stand in the way of educational equity and justice for students that attend urban public schools,” says Jennie. “I hope that the program will both broaden and deepen my understanding of problems facing urban education and will be able to lead me to a position that will allow me to tackle these problems head on, so that students will be able to receive the quality education that they deserve.”  

 

Urban Education Leaders Program - 2009

 

Ruby Ababio-Fernandez - Ruby was born in Accra, Ghana and moved to the United States just before her 11th birthday. As an immigrant child from Ghana, Ruby faced many social and academic challenges that left an indelible imprint and shaped her life’s journey and choices as an advocate for children.  

 

Ruby will begin the 2009-2010 school year as the principal of the Mattahunt Elementary School in Boston.  Previous to this appointment, she was the principal of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School and Alexander Hamilton Elementary School after serving as a Boston Principal Fellow. Prior to her role as a principal, she enjoyed six successful years as an English Language Arts teacher, literacy specialist and a literacy coach assigned to the John W. McCormack Middle School in Dorchester. Over the course of her tenure at the Boston Public Schools, Ruby assumed substantial leadership roles in schools which include coordinating school-based professional development workshops that supported the implementation of district initiatives such as Readers and Writers Workshop, facilitating instructional leadership team meetings and mentoring new teachers.  

 

Ruby is the first person in her family (both maternal and paternal) to acquire a college degree. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Framingham State College and a master’s degree from Lesley University where she’s served as adjunct faculty in the Graduate School of Education. Ruby is a “product of possibilities” and believes that it is her charge as a school leader to create conditions that highlight the possibilities in teachers and students.  

 

When she is not working, Ruby loves spending time with her loved ones and shopping.  

 

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Sarah Benis Scheier-Dolberg - Sarah grew up in rural Vermont and has spent the last 13 yesrs living, working, and studying in Boston; Philadelphia; Tokyo, Japan; Chengdu, China; and Managua, Nicaragua. At Tufts University she earned her master’s degree, completed her teaching license for high school Social Studies, and conducted research on Bilingual Education and English Language Learners in Massachusetts public schools. In her work with Boston area school districts and educational non-profit organizations, Sarah has developed expertise and led professional development for K 12 teachers and administrators, including topics such as: Community Service Learning High School Social Studies Curriculum Development, High School Literacy Curriculum Development, Adapting K12 Curricula for English Language Learners, Database Development and Implementation, and Participatory Action Research. She has held a variety of teaching and leadership positions in both traditional and non-traditional education settings, most recently working in the Boston Public Schools coaching and teaching Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Special Education at the high school level.   Sarah completed her bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College where she met her husband and studied Education, Political Science, and Latin American Studies. They have both recently relocated to New York City as graduate students, and Sarah plans to pursue school and district leadership position in the New York area in conjunction with her work as part of the UELP 2009 Cohort.    

 

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Carol D. Birks - Carol is a native of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Previously, she has served as a teacher, a program manager for a school reform initiative, an assistant principal, an administrative fellow to a college president and an adjunct professor. Currently, she is principal of her alma mater, Warren Harding High School. Since her appointment as principal of Warren Harding High School, she has received local and statewide recognition for her success in leading school reform efforts.   

 

Birks obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree from Hampton University. In addition, she has obtained a Masters of Science Degree from the University of Bridgeport, and an Advanced Degree in Educational Leadership from the same institution. She has also completed the Executive Leadership program at the University of Connecticut and currently holds a superintendents’ certification in the state of Connecticut.  

 

Birks’ educational philosophy is based on a quote by Joseph K. Hart in which he stated that, “No child can escape his community... The life of the community flows about him, foul or pure; he swims in it, goes to sleep in it, and wakes to the new day to find it still about him. He belongs to it, goes to sleep in it, nourishes him, or starves him, or poises in him the substance of his life.” Birks finds this quote to be one of the most profound statements she ever read. It has had a direct impact on how she views the role of educational leadership. Birks wanted to attend the UELP Program because she wants to engage in inquiry and discover ways to impact the type of community in which students are educated. She also wants to ascertain how she can build the capacity of the community and leverage school and community resources to affect positive student outcomes to scale.

 

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Clover Codd - Clover began her teaching career in Seattle after earning her Master’s degree from the University of Washington Teacher Education Program in 1998. Shortly after she entered the Danforth Educational Leadership Program at the U of W in 2003 and became the principal of Loyal Heights Elementary School for the next 5 years. This past year she worked as a staff developer in the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College and will now be returning to Seattle as a school principal. Clover has entered the Urban Education Leadership Program with aspirations of becoming a Chief Academic officer and eventual superintendent of an urban school district. Clover’s passion is curriculum and instruction.  

 

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Scott Crawford - born and raised in southeastern Ohio, Scott Crawford has spent much of his adulthood trying to live anywhere else. After earning his bachelor’s from Cornell and his master’s from Ohio State, he traveled widely, living in New York, Washington, D.C., Colorado and Puerto Rico before landing for a decade in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He and his wife lived and taught on St. John where they founded and headed the island’s first high school. Moving back to the mainland two years ago, Scott is now the director of the Global Community Center at Lees-McRae College, a small liberal arts college in western North Carolina, where he is developing the college’s international programs.  

 

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Linda Curtis-Bey - Linda was born an army brat in Fort Riley, Kansas. Her family of ten eventually settled in New York City where she attended NYC public schools. She attended Sarah Lawrence College as an undergraduate and received a Masters degree in Occupational and Environmental Health from Hunter College. Teaching is not Linda’s first career. She worked at IBM and Pan Am and home schooled her children in their elementary years.   

 

As a parent, Linda supervised the peer mediation program, ran the multi-cultural parents’ library and held a position on the PTA executive board at her children’s school. She began teaching as a substitute teacher in the school her children attended. Because of her background in math and science, Linda left the classroom to become a math and science staff developer which lead to a district position as the math and science coordinator and then to a position at central board. In 2001, Linda began as the Assistant Director of Mathematics and Science for NYC public schools and then became the Director in 2003. She is responsible for supporting Department of Education initiatives focused on increasing the performance of students in math and science including the management of a staff of 38, a $2M Title IIA budget and an $8M Title IIB budget. Initiatives have included implementing a citywide math and science core curriculum, providing professional development for administrators and math and science educators, videotaping math and science classrooms and developing resources and tools for educators, administrators and parents. Linda has also led new teacher professional development and Comprehensive School Reform initiatives at the district level and has taught undergraduate and graduate students at Brooklyn College and Bank Street College.

 

Linda’s hopes to have significant impact on transforming the teaching of mathematics and science in NYC schools especially in schools that serve students most in need and to help students develop the confidence and skills they need to become productive members of society.  On the way she hopes to implement a meaningful and rigorous environmental and sustainability curriculum. Linda has raised six children, loves to drink good wine, eat great vegetarian food at wonderful restaurants (or cook), relax and enjoy the company of family and friends!  

 

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Ramon Gonzalez - Ramon has been a life long educator. He started teaching in 1995. He taught technology, English, and mathematics to 6th and 7th graders. The Merrow Report, a nationally syndicated show on education, spent the entire year documenting Ramon and his 6th grade class at IS 44. The recordings evolved into a three part series called “Growing up in the City”, a program about race, education and identity in New York City. It continues to air on PBS 10 years later! Ramon has also written about adolescent issues and urban gangs. He contributed a chapter called “Welcome Home Boyz: Building Communities through Cultural Capital” in a book titled Adolescent Gangs: Old Issues, New Approaches edited by Curtis Branch, a professor at Columbia University in 1999.  Ramon found through his research that some of the major issues that deeply influenced young people to join gangs were their need for a familial structure, lack of a clear vision of their future, and few models of success. These findings would serve as the basis for his school which was founded in 2003.  

 

Ramon Gonzalez is the founding principal of MS 223-The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, a middle school in the South Bronx. Ramon started his school in one of the most dangerous middle schools in NYC at the time. Less than 10% of his students were at grade level in reading and mathematics when the school was created. Six years later, 65% of his students are on grade level in English and 85% in math. Ramon’s community activism has deeply influenced his school. Students take courses in financial literacy and participate in a school-wide economy where they can earn, save, and spend “school bucks”. He was named a 2007-2008 Cahn Fellow for Distinguished Principals at Teachers College/Columbia University. He currently serves as a mentor for interns from City University, Baruch College and Mercy College. He holds a BA from Cornell University, a MS from City College, a MA and Ed.M from Teachers College Columbia University.  

 

Fun Fact: Ramon spent five summers in his youth tipping cows, hiking, and skipping rocks during his summer with a family as part of the Fresh Air Fund. Over that time he thought the most dangerous ghetto was less scary then walking alone through the woods in Vermont!  

 

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Edward Grande - Edward taught for eight years at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark, New Jersey. While in this role, he instructed students in the various levels of mathematics from basic skills to Advanced Placement and worked diligently to help guarantee that all students were receiving the quality education to which they were entitled. In addition, he assumed a number of extracurricular responsibilities, including serving as an advisor to the student council. For the past two years, he has remained in that district as the K-12 content area supervisor of mathematics, world languages, business, and technology. He works to improve the continuity of instruction by, for example, developing curricula and providing teachers with professional development. He has also taught and advised students at the college level during evenings and on weekends.   

 

As a former master’s student at Teachers College in the Summer Principals Academy, he examined the weighted student formula, high school reform, and alterative approaches to the traditional dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Arlene C. Ackerman. He also conducted a study on ways to increase student performance in mathematics and sections of this paper are to appear in the forthcoming third edition of Coghlan and Brannick’s Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization. Prior to coming to TC, he studied at Rutgers University and earned a B.A. in mathematics and an Ed.M. in mathematics education. He is looking forward to returning to TC as a student in the Urban Education Leaders Program. Through his future interactions with faculty and fellow students, he hopes to become even more equipped for my continued role in the fight for social justice.  

 

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Nicholas Kappelhof.  An original product of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nicholas Kappelhof has spent the past ten years working in urban and sub-urban school settings. In his current position, Nick serves as Assistant Principal and Director of Guidance at Bronx Lab School in New York City.

His work in schools began at a non-profit agency in San Diego, where Nick was responsible for coordinating anti-violence campaigns in city schools. Upon graduating from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Communication, Nick continued his career teaching English at a sub-urban high school in the Bay Area and at an urban middle school in Brooklyn, New York.  

The experience of teaching in a highly successful sub-urban setting and in a depleted, under-performing urban middle school prompted Nick to begin his study of education reform and equity at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

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Tia Morris - New Jersey native, Tia Morris, began her formal teaching career in Harlem in 1998 when she joined Teach For America. In 2002, she left the New York City school system for Newark, New Jersey to help start a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) middle school, TEAM Academy. As a founding teacher, her language arts classes rose nearly 50 points to the 73rd percentile. A Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award winner, Tia designed the curriculum for Liberation Arts, a class based in social justice that develops critical thinking, speaking, and writing skills. This class is currently used throughout KIPP schools across the US.   

 

Now with three campuses, TEAM has grown into a network of college preparatory schools that seeks to help raise the quality of education for all Newark children. With its fourth school opening in August 2009 and plans for a fifth school in 2011, TEAM Charter Schools is now the largest charter organization in New Jersey.  As an Executive Committee member, Tia has played a key role in the organization’s strategic growth.  In her seven years at TEAM, Tia has been a classroom teacher, Grade Level Chair, High School Placement Coordinator, and Director of TEAM through College. She now serves as the Director of Community Engagement and sits on the TEAM Charter Schools Executive Committee. Tia completed her undergraduate studies at Seton Hall University, and holds a Master’s degree from The Bank Street Graduate School of Education.   

 

Tia joined the Urban Education Leadership Program with hopes to have a significant impact on urban education. She is particularly interested in exploring how strategic partnerships between families, schools, and community stakeholders can positively influence parental engagement and student outcomes.     

 

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Arnetta Rudisill - as a child, Baltimore native, Arnetta Rudisill loved, “playing school.” After experiencing success as a public relations director for her alma mater’s radio station, Morgan State University’s 88.9FM WEAA, she began her career in education.  No longer playing, she immediately began identifying ways in which lessons as a journalist and public relations specialist transfer into the classroom. After her first year of teaching she participated in the Project Site Support Teaching Residency program, in which she earned her Masters of Arts in Teaching Secondary English from Johns Hopkins University. She established and co-coached the City-wide Champions of the YMCA Middle School Debate League as Language Arts instructor at Lombard Middle School. After demonstrating student achievement and leadership abilities as a founding English teacher at The Academy for College and Career Exploration, where she also coached with the Baltimore Urban Debate League, she entered the New Leaders for New School program. Before the official conclusion of her residency, she was assigned as principal of Homeland Security Academy in Baltimore where Arnetta was able to make significant and unprecedented gains in student achievement and climate improvement.  

 

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Joyce Walker - Joyce recently accepted a positing with the education non-profit, Citizen Schools as Executive Director, Massachusetts. She will be returning to her home state to continue her work in education reform. Joyce grew up in Boston and was bused to a suburb for grades K-12 through a government funded program to desegregate Massachusetts suburban public school districts. Joyce is deeply committed to ensuring that all urban students receive a high quality education.

 

Joyce has over 10 years experience in business (including sales, marketing, corporate training and general management). After earning her MBA from Duke University she became a Broad Resident in Urban Education. Her prior roles in Education have included Special Assistant to the Chief Academic Officer in Baltimore, MD and Special Assistant to the Superintendent for Planning and Performance Management in Durham, NC.

 

When Joyce is not working, she entertains friends with her culinary skills or in-home tea tastings.