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| Sue Fine,
Executive Director
Sue Fine has worked in education for over
fifteen years. She began her career as an elementary school teacher,
and spent ten years split between teaching at the Hungerford
Infant School in London
and The Calhoun School in New York
City. Over the course of these years, Sue
became a school-based leader focused on supporting inquiry and project
based learning. In 2002, Sue began her four year tenure at Pace University
's
School of Education,
first as the Director of the Teach For America Program, then as Director of
the Alternative Certification Programs, and, finally, as Co-Chair of the School of Education
in New York City
.
At Pace, Sue focused primarily on the needs of new educators, and led
the faculty's efforts to authentically connect the work of full-time
teachers to their graduate studies. Most recently, Sue has worked
within one of the Network Teams in the Empowerment Schools as the Deputy
Network Leader for Instruction, supporting over 20 middle and high schools
in implementing the initiatives of the Department of Education. Sue
received her B.S. in Elementary Education from the
University of Illinois-Champagne,
M.A. in Educational Psychology: Remedial Reading and a Ph.D. in Politics
and Education from Teachers College-Columbia University.
| Jude Alfaro, Research Associate
Jude Alfaro has spent 10 years working with youth and education based
non-profits. She spent over 5 years working under different capacities at
Teach For America nationally and at the New York Regional office. As Director of Operations for Certification and Placement, Jude was responsible for finding teaching placements for over 400 teachers as well as assuring that over 1,000 teachers were following city and state regulations. Much of Jude's work has centered on teacher support, having worked extensively with alternative certification teachers through Teach For America and most recently at the School of education with Pace University. Jude earned a B.A. from Cornell University.
| Joseph Binder, Grants Writer
Joseph Binder brings six years of not-for-profit experience to his position. Before joining UA Joseph founded and served as the Principal Strategist for Ambit Communications, a consultancy with expertise in not-for-profit fundraising, marketing, and research. Ambit's many clients included the Smithsonian Institution, New York University, the Museum of Science and Industry, Covenant House, KaBOOM!, and Two River Theater Company, among others. Previously, he served as Grants Manager for Chicago Children's Theatre, where he was instrumental in growing the company into the city's largest theatre for children and families. Joseph earned his B.A. in English from Northeastern Illinois University.
| Marcus Davis, Office Manager
Marcus Davis brings over 8 years of experience in business and project management. He most recently held the position of Project Manager for Academy Fire Protection (AFP), where he oversaw installations for corporations on a national level. While at AFP, Marcus directly worked with large scale budgets, developed proposals, and managed sub-contractors. Prior to his project management venture, Marcus played a key role as Business Manager for the Intrepid Museum of New York City. His success as Business Manager at Intrepid found him spearheading a new museum's initiative for the Washington, DC Navy Yard Memorial in the summer of 2006. Marcus is extremely excited to be part of Urban Assembly, and enjoys playing a role in shaping the lives of youth.
| Yvonne Ervin, Director of Development
Yvonne Ervin has worked in development in New York City for more than a decade. She held the top development positions at the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center, Bailey House and Hazelden New York, and was Executive Director of the Candies Foundation. She recently joined the board of directors of Women in Development NY and was on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter for six years. She is also the Executive Director of the Western Jazz Presenters Network and serves as Vice President of the Jazz Journalists Association. Before moving to New York, she was the Executive Director of the Tucson Jazz Society, the largest jazz society in the country, and was Marketing Director for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Yvonne has held seminars on fundraising, audience development and marketing for many national conventions and was a marketing and artist career development consultant for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the National Jazz Services Organization. She wrote a curriculum for the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Kennedy Center for the Arts to teach presenters the arts of presenting jazz. Trained in group facilitation methods and skilled in organizational development and planning, she holds a B.A. in Journalism and Music from the University of Arizona.
| Patrick D.
Fagan, Director of Business Services/Operations
Patrick Fagan has spent more than a decade in government and the nonprofit
sector after having been awarded a prestigious New York City Urban
Fellowship in 1995. Most recently he served as a regional network
specialist for the Department of Education, earning a place in the
department's inaugural management training program. Patrick has acquired
additional experience in operations, project management and budgeting at
the Mayor's Office of Operations, the Departments of Health and Homeless
Services, and the Fund for the City of
New York. He received his B.A. from Hofstra University
and an M.B.A. in Finance/Management from Baruch
College's
Zicklin School of Business.
| Laura Gagne,
Co-Director of Student Opportunities
Laura Gagne most recently served as Youth Programs Manager at Citizens Committee
for
New York City
,
where she managed a service learning and internship program. Laura paired teachers with community
based organizations to execute youth-initiated service projects, while
developing the capacity of small nonprofit and grassroots organizations to
implement internship programs. Laura
has extensive professional development experience and has delivered
numerous workshops and trainings on topics such as literacy, conflict
resolution, service learning, and engaging youth in community action. She has also mentored and trained new
Teach for
America
corps members in classroom management and culture, instructional planning
and delivery, and learning theory. Entering the field of education through the Teach for
America program, Laura taught first grade in
New Orleans, LA
and middle school in Newark
, NJ.
At
Newark Charter
School,
she
collaborated with other teachers to establish school-wide academic and
behavior expectations, developed a comprehensive literacy curriculum and
founded a track team and service club. Laura received her B.A. from
Colby
College
and has a M.A. from the Graduate Theological Union in
Berkeley, CA
where she completed a thesis on citizenship education in public schools.
| Jeffrey Garrett, Achievement Coach
Jeffrey Garrett has worked in the field of education in a variety of capacities. He began his career as an undergraduate admissions officer at Dartmouth College. As a student and young professional, he taught and worked with young people in the public school system. Some of the many places he's taught include: Saint Paul, MN, Newark, NJ, White River Junction, VT, and Boston, MA. His formal classroom teaching began in East Harlem where he taught 10th grade Global History. Most recently, he taught 12th grade U.S. Government and Politics at the Urban Assembly's Bronx academy of Letters. In his time in the classroom, Jeffrey consistently served in a wide array of leadership roles including coordinator of advisory programs, and social studies department leader. He received his undergraduate degree in Government from Dartmouth College, and his Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of education in Teaching and Curriculum.
| Yahaira Gil,
Student Opportunities Manager
Yahaira Gil has over five years of experience working in the non-profit sector
focusing primarily on youth and family services. Most recently, she was a case manager for
Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC, providing connections to mentoring for youth
in the juvenile justice system. She
previously worked at the Association to Benefit Children, providing
families and children the connection to social services in order to prevent
entry into the NYC foster care system.Yahaira earned her B.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
Psychology and is currently pursuing her
Masters in Public Administration.
| Jon Green,
Co-Network Leader / Director of Instruction
Jon Green is the Senior Instructional Coach serving Urban Assembly
principals. Jon entered education as a sixth grade earth science instructor
immersed in project based learning. This formative experience guided his
work teaching ELA and history to second language learners for six years at
Manhattan
International
High
School
. After spending two summers leading
New York City Teaching Fellows as a Field Advisor, Jon became a lecturer at
Pace
University
. Over the past three
years at Pace, he has taught methods, literacy, adolescent development, and
teacher researcher classes to Teach for America and New York City Teaching
Fellows graduate students. This most recent position has afforded Jon the
opportunity to work with teachers as a mentor at
Pace
High School
and to consult with other schools around the city. At the moment he is
working on a book of urban education case studies with a number of
professors from Pace. Jon has a B.A. in English from The University of Vermont, and a M.S. in Education from The New School University.
| Luke Janka, Achievement Coach
Luke Janka has been involved with the education of New York City's youth since 2000, as a high school English teacher. Since 2002, Luke taught at Humanities Preparatory Academy, a small alternative transfer school. While at Humanities Prep, Luke was actively involved in the school's continually successful efforts to reform New York State's standardized testing system. A trained peer mentor, Luke also led a bi-weekly professional learning community designed to improve teachers' instruction. Luke received his B.S. in Secondary English Education in 2000 from New York University's School of Education. He also received his Ed.M. in School Development from Harvard Graduate School of Education's School Leadership program in 2005, where he worked with Ted and Nancy Sizer. Luke is a National Board Certified Teacher.
| Elizabeth Kelly, Director of Research & Evaluation
Elizabeth Kelly has worked in the field of education for over 20 years and is driven by her own experience as a child growing up in New York City. After working as a classroom teacher in the 1980's, she studied cognitive development so she could understand more about how people learn and how people teach. Elizabeth has taken her knowledge and skills from developmental psychology to her work in a variety of settings to help people and organizations (like a school, a firehouse, or an office) as they learn and change all the time. Elizabeth earned her B.A. in Religion and Political Science from New York University and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Educational Research Association.
| Chris Maestro,
Student Opportunities Manager
Chris Maestro has worked within the field of
education for the past ten years. Chris started as a global history teacher at the High School for
Enterprise
, Business, and Technology (EBT) in
Brooklyn.
For
two years he taught high school history while assuming many other
responsibilities at the school, including coordinator of student
activities, debate coach and senior class advisor. He left to join Learning Leaders, an
organization that recruits and trains NYC public school volunteers. Chris was responsible for managing the
volunteer program of District 29 in Brooklyn and District 32 in
Queens.
A
desire to again work one-on-one with students led Chris to pursue an opportunity
in the
South Bronx.
Chris became a community coordinator and
global history teacher at
Banana
Kelly
High
School
, a small New Visions high school in
Hunts Point.Following a short stint
abroad, Chris returned to NYC and assumed his most recent role as Director
of the LEAD
After School Program in the Parkchester /
Castle Hill area of the
Bronx
. He supervised an energetic and creative
staff of teaching artists and managed an after school program of over 150
teens that included a thriving dance program, internship program, poetry,
and hip hop classes at the Bronx DJ Academy. Chris received his B.A. from
Binghamton
University
and is currently pursuing
a Masters in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable
Communities.
| Devoynne
Prophet, Executive Assistant
Devoynne Prophet brings many years of administrative experience in the
private, public, and nonprofit sectors to her role at the Urban Assembly.
Most recently, she was administrative assistant to the head of school at
the
Abraham
Joshua
Heschel
School
. For the past
three years she has volunteered as a reading and language arts teacher to
elementary school students and a mentor to teens at an after-school program
in
Harlem
. Devoynne is currently pursuing
a double major in Sociology and English at
Herbert
H.
Lehman
College
,
CUNY, where she was invited to join the Lehman Scholars Honor Program.
| Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Information and Technology Manager
Juan Carlos Rodriguez joins Urban Assembly after traveling and working with the federal government for 2 years. During this time, he used state of the art technologies to work on criminal cases for prosecution on the state, federal, and international levels. All of his work with the federal government is confidential and highly classified. Previous to this position, Juan Carlos was Business Manager at The CityKids Foundation; a non-profit arts organization serving young people ages 13 to 19. As Business Manager he created and executed event budgets, managed relations with contractors and vendors, created and coordinated all production and special projects related activities, as well as coordinated all interdepartmental logistics. Juan Carlos holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice and a minor in Theater from John Jay College for Criminal Justice. He will be returning to John Jay this winter to continue his M.A. in Public Administration.
| Sharon Slate,
Director of Finance and Administration
Sharon Slate has worked in the nonprofit sector for many years. During 12
years as Director of Finance and Personnel at the CityKids Foundation, she
created annual budgets and accounting and cash management systems, managed
payroll, grants, and contracts receivable, oversaw annual audits, and
managed all financial and administrative functions, improving fiscal and
operational efficiency dramatically.
Sharon
earned her B.A. from
Columbia
.
| Perrin Wicks,
Co-Director of Student Opportunities
Perrin Wicks has over a dozen years' experience in capacity building,
philanthropy, and youth development program management. Most recently, she
was a senior consultant for Community Resource Exchange, providing
management assistance to nonprofit and community-based organizations
serving poor people with HIV/AIDS. Her previous posts include two years as
the Program Associate for Youth Development at the Ford Foundation and
three years delivering theater education programming to
New York City
public schools. Perrin
holds a master's degree in Public Administration with a concentration in
Public and Nonprofit Management from NYU, and a B.A. from Yale.
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