19.Spring.2014

A New Orleans charter network takes on special education 38 Overcoming dyslexia 44 

Alumni Magazine / SPRING 2014 / Edition XX 

Latisha Justice 

has a learning 

disability. It should 

determine how we 

teach her. But will 

it decide her future? 

1 One Day • SPRING 2014

Letter TO THE ALUMNi COMMUNITY 

ARE YOU 

READY TO 

LEAD? 

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Superintendent of the Hampton Bays Public School, NY 

For more information or to attend 

an upcoming Webinar, visit: 

www.shu.edu/go/edleadertfa 

Contact: 

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(973) 275-2417 • albert.galloway@shu.edu 

Rethinking special education 

Dear fellow alumni, 

Down at the end of the eighth 

grade hallway, there was 

a classroom of nine or ten 

students whose names I never 

learned. They were in a selfcontained 

special education class 

and rarely mixed with other 

students. They didn’t participate 

in the school-wide poetry slam, join field trips, or contribute to 

the after-school literary magazine. There almost seemed to be 

an invisible line between them and the rest of the school. 

The division extended beyond the students down the 

hall. Their teacher was a fellow corps member, but I don’t 

remember ever talking with her about learning strategies or 

sharing units and resources, as I did with other teachers at 

my school. More than once I heard general education teachers 

refer to their most disruptive students as “special ed” (though 

these students did not receive services), making the term 

sound more like a judgment than an instructional program. 

I taught language arts and social studies, and many of 

my eighth graders had significant problems with reading 

and writing. Whether the cause was undiagnosed learning 

disabilities or whether they had simply been promoted year 

after year through failing schools, it’s impossible to know. 

In the end, it doesn’t matter. Like the students down the 

hall, my kids faced extraordinary challenges and needed 

highly individualized instruction to gain ground. And yet 

the students in special education also had to contend with 

social stigma and a tacit though pervasive belief—even from 

many of the adults in the building—that not much could be 

expected from them. 

In the last two decades, the education reform movement 

has forged a compelling narrative around the influence of 

race and class on student achievement. Yet the conversation 

around disability has been remarkably muted considering its 

outsized impact on the educational outcomes of children of 

color from low-income communities. 

When I interviewed Latisha Justice for the cover story, it 

was painful to see such a bright young woman so disempowered 

by her disability—partly because it was easy to imagine how, 

in a different setting, she might flourish instead of flounder. 

In the absence of a proper diagnosis of her reading disability, 

Justice has struggled for years in all of her classes with 

damaging effects to her self-esteem and future prospects. 

But what if she were a student at Denver Academy, 

where Philippe Ernewein (G.N.O. ’94) leads a program for 

children with special needs that fundamentally honors their 

individuality and teaches to their strengths, not their deficits? 

Who would Latisha Justice be if her school were focused on 

maximizing her abilities, not compensating for her disability? 

Johannah Chase (N.Y. ’05), who heads up special education 

implementation for the New York Department of Education, 

says education reformers must come to recognize that students 

with disabilities are not marginal groups, but rather primary 

stakeholders in the fight for educational equity. 

“We have to break the assumption that special ed is 

‘other,’ ” Chase told me. “When you focus on kids with the 

most challenges, you figure out solutions that are applicable 

to everyone. This is really about figuring out how to leverage 

the world of special education for all kids.” 

Warm regards, 

Ting Yu 

N.Y. ’03 

Editor 

400 South Orange Avenue • South Orange, NJ 07079 

One Day • SPRING 2014 3

contents 

Features 

dO NOW 

You’ve always had the talent and passion. 

Now get the resources. 

12 Take 5 

Sophia Pappas (New Jersey ’03) is leading 

the charge in New York City to increase 

the number of students enrolled in highquality 

pre-K programs, starting in the most 

underserved neighborhoods. 

18 spotlight on... 

South Louisiana often sits in the shadow of 

New Orleans during conversations about 

school reform in the Bayou State. But thanks 

in part to the work of alumni in the region, 

South Louisiana is coming into its own. 

28 Something Special 

Special education was conceived to meet the needs of children who learn differently. 

Yet in schools across the country, the 6.3 million students with disabilities lag far 

behind their nondisabled peers. They struggle to learn within a system that emphasizes 

procedural compliance over academic achievement—leaving ability rights advocates to 

ask: Has special education become a legitimized pathway for low expectations? 

38 

Hope Renewed 

Charter schools have a poor reputation 

for serving students with disabilities, but 

New Orleans’ ReNEW Schools is turning that 

rep on its head—and hoping other charters 

find creative ways to do the same. 

20 postcard 

Teach For Lebanon fellow Sahar Machmouchi 

uses her love of Arabic and theater to inspire her 

students—many of them refugees, most of them 

girls—to strive beyond society’s expectations. 

22 corps 360 

Barbecue, the blues, and now frozen yogurt. 

Delta Dairy, started by Suzette Matthews (Delta 

’08) and Matty Bengloff (Delta ’07), is on its way 

to becoming a Cleveland, Miss., institution. 

24 media 

Saladin Ambar (N.Y. ’90) deepens our 

understanding of Malcolm X; Joe Wilkins (Delta 

’02) writes poems of the open road; Tyrone 

Simpson (L.A. ’91) examines segregation 

through the lens of literature; Sara Cotner (S. 

Louisiana ’00) tackles cooking with kids and 

wedding planning without losing your mind or 

your last penny. 

You joined TFA to apply your passion and intelligence. Now take it to the 

next level with Project L.I.F.T., a public/private partnership in Charlotte, 

NC. We are committed to recruiting, rewarding, and developing top 

educators to empower the lives of 7,500 children in nine promising public 

schools. With master teacher roles, performance bonuses, leadership 

opportunities, professional development and an unwavering commitment 

to all students, this is the perfect time for you to further your career and, 

more importantly, create successful students….all in a public school setting. 

Visit us at applytoLIFT.org today. 

44 

Becoming Sammie 

Across the country, millions of students with 

disabilities move from class to class, grade 

to grade, working harder than average but 

only sometimes getting the supports they 

need. Let’s meet one of them. 

50 

Perspectives on Ability 

Three alumni—Taniesha Garrison (Metro Atlanta ’03), Brent Bushey (G.N.O. 

’99), and Adele Jackson (S. Louisiana ’02)—share their personal stories and 

beliefs about what is possible when we see the person, not the diagnosis. 

55 INNOVATOR 

News is great, but not if students can’t read it. 

Newsela, a website founded by Matthew Gross 

(N.Y. ’94) and Dan Cogan-Drew (Georgia ’94), 

makes news stories more accessible. 

58 Post-its 

Nine alums among Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in 

education; new resources to find a new job; a 

scholarship for aspiring businesspeople. 

63 ALUMNI NOTES 

Cover and top photo by Michael Schwarz. Middle photo by Ted Jackson. Bottom photo by Sara Rubinstein. 

4 One Day • SPRING 2014 One Day • SPRING 2014 5

CONTRIBUTORS 

One Day 

tEACH FOR AMERICA Alumni Magazine 

Grow Your Career at Achievement First 

brent bushey 

calvin hennick 

(G.N.O. ’99), who 

(N.Y. ’04), a frequent 

wrote an essay 

about his daughter 

Madeleine on p. 51, 

serves as the 

executive director 

of the Oklahoma Public School Resource 

Center, a new nonprofit that supports 

public education by providing resources, 

expanding networking opportunities and 

advocating on behalf of public schools. 

When he’s not working, Brent spends time 

contributor to One 

Day, wrote “News 

Makers” on p. 55. 

Hennick writes about 

education and other 

topics for publications like the Boston 

Globe, Scholastic Instructor, and Scholastic 

Administrator. He also teaches writing at 

the University of Massachusetts Boston 

and Grub Street, an independent writing 

center in Boston. Hennick earned a master’s 

Editor 

Ting Yu (N.Y. ’03) 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01) 

editorial associate 

Tim Kennedy (Delta ’11) 

art director 

Maria Burke 

350 

Number of hours that 

Achievement First devotes 

annually for teacher and leader 

learning and development 

90 

Percent of teachers and leaders 

who report that someone at 

Achievement First supports their 

learning and development 

with his two daughters and his wife and 

best friend, Kirsten Wright. 

Sara Rubinstein 

of fine arts degree in creative writing from 

UMass Boston, and his fiction has appeared 

in Bellevue Literary Review and Baltimore 

Review. When he’s not writing, Calvin 

EXECUTIVE Vice President, 

Alumni Affairs 

Andrea Stouder Pursley (Phoenix ’02) 

is a Minneapolisbased 

photographer 

specializing in 

portraits and lifestyle 

imagery, striving 

with each shot to 

capture her subject’s “dual nature.” Her 

photos are featured in the story “Becoming 

Sammie” on p. 44. Rubinstein has been a 

enjoys building block towers and watching 

his 3-year-old son knock them down. 

ted jackson is a 

Pulitzer-Prize-winning 

photojournalist with 

the (New Orleans) 

Times-Picayune. He 

has covered the fall of 

Share your news 

Write to onedayletters@teachforamerica.org 

and tell us what’s new in your life. Notes 

may be edited for length and clarity. Digital 

photos are welcome. 

90 

Percent of principals and 

deans who returned to 

Achievement First to lead 

this year 

64 

Percent of Achievement 

First principals and 

deans who served as 

TFA corps members 

professional photographer for more than 

15 years. Her work has taken her to 18 

countries, more than 35 states, and all 

across Minnesota. Her work was recently 

the Berlin Wall, the 

Persian Gulf War, and political upheaval 

in Haiti. His photos are featured in the 

story “Hope Renewed” on p. 38. In 2003, 

Advertise in One Day 

For information, please email 

tim.kennedy@teachforamerica.org. 

featured in Communication Arts magazine, 

a leading trade publication for visual arts. 

michael A. 

schwarz is an 

independent 

photographer based 

in Atlanta. He is a 

three-time Pulitzer 

Prize nominee 

and a winner of the Dag Hammarskjöld 

Award for Human Rights Advocacy 

Jackson photographed “LEAP Year,” a local 

story about one eighth-grade classroom’s 

preparation for the state’s high-stakes test. 

His photos won the 2003 Community Service 

Photojournalism Award from the American 

Society of News Editors. Through the years, 

he has covered the physical destruction 

and emotional trauma of earthquakes and 

hurricanes, most notably Hurricane Katrina. 

The Times-Picayune staff won a Pulitzer 

Prize for public service and another for 

breaking news coverage of Katrina. 

One Day 

is published by 

Teach For America Alumni Affairs 

315 W. 36th St., 6th floor 

New York, NY 10018 

onedayletters@teachforamerica.org 

TFA 

15 

Achievement First falls within the 

top 15 percent of U.S. workplaces 

for employee satisfaction, 

as measured by Gallup 

6 

Additional full days 

of professional 

development devoted to 

your content area 

Journalism. He photographed the special 

education cover story on p. 28. Schwarz is 

a Baltimore native and a graduate of the 

Rochester Institute of Technology. 

Teach For America corps members and alumni play an integral part in 

Achievement First’s expanding network of high-performing, college-prep, 

K-12 public charter schools in NY, CT and RI. To learn more about career 

opportunities, please visit us at www.achievementfirst.org/team. 


1 ONE DAY • FALL 2013 

As the Dallas Independent School District strives to become the premier urban school district 

in the nation, Teach For America corps members and alumni have contributed significantly to the 

district’s transformation. 

Corps members and alumni are serving in the classroom, the principalship, central office, senior 

leadership, and even on the Board of Trustees. All are impacting change in Dallas. 

Join our hard-working team by contacting Human Capital Management: 

■ Lindsay Coshatt (Charlotte ’06) • Design Manager • lcoshatt@dallasisd.org 

■ Larena Flemmings (Houston ’02) • Senior Talent Leader, Secondary Schools • lflemmings@dallasisd.org 

■ Carmen Darville (Houston ’06) • Chief of Human Capital Management • cdarville@dallasisd.org 

“In a large and diverse urban school district like 

Dallas ISD, there are many opportunities like 

mine to impact the academic achievement of 

students. I now contribute to the sustainable 

success of our campus while continuing to 

grow in my leadership role.” 

Quinton Courts 

Dallas ISD Assistant Principal 

New Jersey-Camden ‘06 

JOIN THE TRANSFORMATION IN DALLAS 

INBOX 

Getting political 

When President Obama announced 

his visit to my D.C. school during my 

first year teaching seventh grade, 

Edgar popped into my classroom 

excitedly. He wanted to ask the 

president about the DREAM Act. 

Why? I asked. Because Edgar was 

undocumented. 

My heart sank. I realized that 

Edgar was ineligible to to apply 

for federal financial aid for college. 

Suddenly I felt that by pushing 

college in my classroom, I’d been 

peddling a lie. “Don’t worry,” Edgar 

said. “Things will change by the 

time I graduate.” 

Edgar is about to be a junior, and 

little has changed. So I read with interest 

last issue’s interview with Elisa 

Villanueva Beard about Teach For 

America’s new willingness to speak 

up on issues of public policy like the 

DREAM Act. “It’s our right and 

responsibility,” she said. I applaud 

her vision. 

But I challenge Beard and other 

alumni to reconsider the notion that 

it’s “not political, it’s a question of 

educational equity.” It is political, 

and that’s okay. As an organization 

with 32,000 alumni, we’ll only create 

policy change for educational equity 

if we get comfortable with the power 

in our numbers and begin organizing 

for political influence. A good way to 

start is by listening to our students 

and their families about the pressures 

they feel are most important 

in their lives. 

Edgar and millions of other kids 

are counting on courageous adults to 

change things for them. If not us, who? 

If not now, when? 

TFA steps up support of DREAMers 50 Diversity drives culture at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate 52 

ALUMNI MAGAZINE / FALL 2013 / EDITION XIX 

DREAM 

DEFERRED 

Miguel is one of the 65,000 undocumented 

students who will graduate from U.S. high 

schools this year. He dreams of a bright 

future, but can he get there? 

teaching “All children” 

Only 65,000 undocumented students a 

year make it to high school graduation. 

Another 1.4 million do not. 

Almost one-fourth of those who are 

deported have children who are U.S. 

citizens. Each year, 3,000 kids are placed 

into foster care following their parents’ 

deportation. Meanwhile, thousands of 

deported U.S. children do not have 

citizenship in their parents’ country of 

origin and are unable to attend school. 

Thank you for putting Arizona 

DREAMer, Miguel Ruiz, on the cover 

of One Day. TFA deserves praise for 

extending Deferred Action for Childhood 

Arrivals recipients the opportunity to 

serve as corps members, but Miguel’s 

story reminds us that we shouldn’t pat 

ourselves on the back just yet. TFA must 

stress that “one day, all children” includes 

both undocumented students and the 

U.S. citizen children of undocumented 

parents. Until Congress fixes this nation’s 

broken immigration system, Miguel, his 

family, 11 million aspiring Americans, 

and 16 million individuals who are a part 

of mixed-status families will face persisting 

academic and economic uncertainty. 

olga’s story 

Soon after President Obama announced 

his executive order, DACA which grants 

eligible undocumented individuals a stay 

from deportation, I received a phone call 

from an alumna of IDEA Public Schools 

in the Rio Grande Valley. Olga Prado, a 

graduate of IDEA, a first-generation 

college graduate, and a DREAMer, wanted 

to know if there was anything we could 

do to help her pay the $6,000 in legal fees 

required to prepare her and her sister’s 

DACA applications. 

In January 2013, in partnership with 

the University of Texas at Austin School 

of Law (an effort led by Tina Fernandez 

[N.Y. ’94]), IDEA hosted free clinics 

to help our local DREAMers apply for 

DACA. Olga completed her application 

and, a few months later, she received 

deferred action. 

Like so many DREAMers, Olga was 

brought here as a young child by her 

parents, immigrants who came to America 

in pursuit of greater opportunities for 

their children. Olga and her sister worked 

hard, honored their teachers, and found 

ways—big and small—to give back to their 

community. Olga defied the odds—earning 

her high school diploma and graduating 

from college in four years, joining the 

only 8 percent of low-income students 

who do this. 

Olga is now a teacher at her alma 

mater, IDEA College Prep Donna, and 

leads her sixth graders, some of whom 

are DREAMers, toward extraordinary 

academic results. 

This was made possible by everyone 

who came together for Olga, and for our 

DREAMers in the Rio Grande Valley. As 

IDEA’s chief schools officer, JoAnn Gama 

(R.G.V. ’97), often says, “When everyone 

else says no, we say yes.” 

Veronica madrigal (D.C. Region ’10) 

Rio Grande Valley, Texas 

Unai montes-irueste (L.A. ’98) 

Los Angeles 

Phillip garza (HOUSTON ’03) 

Rio Grande Valley, Texas 

3700 Ross Ave., Dallas, TX 75204 • (972) 925-3700 • www.dallasisd.org 


Fist Bump / Sequoyah Middle School / Doraville, Ga. / Feb. 15, 2014, 9:15 a.m. 

Upbeat and witty, Michael Roblero, 13, loves watching wrestling and soccer. He jokes about becoming a “video 

game tester” when he grows up. Roblero also has cerebral palsy, a congenital neurologic disorder that affects 

movement and muscle coordination. He gets around mainly by wheelchair with help from his aide Gariel Pineiro, 

left. Roblero’s math resource teacher Allison Bohl (Metro Atlanta ’11), right, believes his disability led past teachers 

to underestimate his potential. “He hadn’t been taught to work with fractions, integers, or decimals,” Bohl says. 

He had never passed a standardized test until last year, when he passed all of them and earned the school’s “most 

improved” award for math. “It’s truly not that we’re doing anything extraordinary—it’s that we expect him to pass, 

and he met those expectations,” Bohl says. “Now he can say, ‘I know I’m capable of doing this.’” 


Do now 

Coding in Carolina • The gifted gap • Malcolm X revisited • Alums leading Atlanta • D.C. and Tennessee take flight 

When more kids attend high-quality pre-K, New York City wins, says Sophia Pappas. “There are tremendous 

long-term benefits—everything from higher incomes to lower rates of teen pregnancy and juvenile crime.” 

take five 

Across the country, more than 

1.3 million kids attend pre-kindergarten programs, up 

from 700,000 in 2001. New York City has been at the forefront of this growth 

under the leadership of Sophia Pappas (New Jersey ’03), executive director 

of the district’s Office of Early Childhood Education. Since 2001, the number 

of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K programs from the Bronx to Brooklyn has 

risen from 35,000 to 59,000. In the current school year alone, the city’s highestneed 

areas saw an increase of 4,000 seats. Pappas, 32, aims to provide pre-K 

access to all 4-year-olds, beginning with neighborhoods most in need—and to 

ensure beyond question that each site is an inspiring place to begin a lifetime 

of learning. The prognosis is promising: a 7-to-1 return on financial investment 

in high-quality pre-K, according to conservative estimates—and studies show 

academic gains are even higher for children growing up in poverty. 

By Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01) 

Photo by Tamara Porras 

1What skills and talents are amplified 

in a great pre-K teacher, as opposed 

to an elementary or high school 

teacher? What’s unique is that when we 

talk about school readiness, oftentimes 

we’re talking about adjusting children to 

their first formal learning environment. 

So when a pre-K teacher thinks about 

gains that need to be made, she or he 

needs to think about skills in all areas of 

development—cognitive skills, language, 

and literacy, but also social-emotional 

skills, and the ways in which kids 

approach learning. 

2Do pre-K teachers have different 

responsibilities when it comes to 

engaging families? Families tend to be 

more involved at the beginning of their 

child’s education, so pre-K teachers 

need to think really strategically about 

how to hook them, and how to help 

them navigate the school system. You’re 

equipping parents with the skills and 

knowledge they need to be an effective 

partner and advocate for their child for 

the next 12 years. 

3A lot of states and school districts 

are looking to expand early childhood 

options. What are the smartest 

ways to go about that? It’s important to 

look at expansion through the lens of 

access, participation, and quality. We 

look at how many kids are enrolled in 

kindergarten in particular areas, versus 

the pre-K options available. If there’s 

a service gap but parents aren’t taking 

advantage of existing options, then you 

have to unpack why that is, and address 

that. Is it a lack of information? Are they 

not wanting the options available? Or is 

it something else? 

Then there’s the quality part—whatever 

the setting, you need to build in quality 

assurance at all stages, from the application 

process to the classroom efforts 

to whatever levers you have after that. 

And you have to think in relation to the 

K-12 system. Everything we do is focused 

on school readiness, so you need to have 

aligned learning standards. 

4As enrollment has increased, a 

lack of high-quality leadership 

has hampered many early-childhood 

efforts. How are you addressing that? 

In terms of building our pipeline, we 

established an early-childhood leadership 

institute this fall—part of a larger 

initiative called FirstStep NYC. The 

institute is housed at a new, full-day, 

year-round site in Brownsville—one of 

our most at-risk communities—serving 

children 6 weeks old to 5 years old. We 

expect the institute to train and develop 

more than 1,000 high-quality pre-K educators 

over the next five years. What’s 

key is that we’re supporting the existing 

workforce with scholarships, targeted 

training, and peer-learning communities, 

but we’re also building a pipeline 

of future leaders by partnering with 

organizations like TFA, JumpStart, and 

institutions of higher education. 

5What are the signs for parents 

that their child is in a high-quality 

early-childhood program? Every parent 

is looking for something a little different, 

but you want to make sure this is a 

welcoming environment for you and your 

child. It may not be a completely opendoor 

policy, but there should be chances 

to visit. And intentionality is important. 

It’s a good sign if they’re focused on 

learning objectives in all areas— 

cognitive, language, social-emotional, 

physical—and they have ways to 

regularly observe and monitor progress. 

You want your kids to have opportunities 

for active, hands-on learning, and to 

make choices about their learning—but 

also to know there’s purposeful planning 

to make sure all kids are getting what 

they need to be successful. 

by the numbers 

Modern gifted and talented education has its roots in Cold 

War-era, Sputnik-fueled fears that America’s best and brightest were 

falling behind. Fifty years later, gifted programs are widespread but vary 

significantly in scope and implementation—in most states, the decisions 

about funding, identification, and instruction of gifted students are left 

to local school districts. One enduring criticism of gifted education is 

the under-representation of minority students in gifted programs, with 

African American and Latino children under-represented by as much as 

50 percent, according to some estimates. 

PERCENTAGE OF K-12 STUDENTS ENROLLED IN GIFTED 

AND TALENTED PROGRAMS, BY RACIAL BACKGROUND 

7 % % 

7 

4 

% 

12 

% 

5 

6 

% 

% 

All students 

White students 

African American 

students 

Latino students 

Asian American/ 

Pacific Islander 

students 

Native American 

students 

Source: 2009 Civil Rights Data Collection—Estimated Values for United States, Office of 

Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education 


do now 

do now 

Chisom Onuorah (middle) shows off her web design skills at the Northampton Summer STEM 

Program’s parent and community night. Co-founder Grayson Cooper (E.N.C. ’12) (top right) looks on. 

The summer after his first year teaching 

at Northampton County High School 

in Conway, N.C., Dale Hammer (E.N.C. 

’11) tried to launch a summer program 

for his Advanced Placement Calculus students. 

He was defeated by the cost of busing 

students from the county’s farthest 

reaches, more than 40 miles away. 

But luck struck in the fall. A chance 

meeting between Hammer’s girlfriend, 

Elizabeth Chen (E.N.C. ’10), and a North 

Carolina state legislator led to an introduction 

to the state’s superintendent of 

public instruction, who agreed to earmark 

$50,000 for Hammer’s idea. The 

Northampton Summer STEM Program 

was born. 

Hammer conceived the four-week 

program solely to serve AP Calculus 

students—the school had never had a 

student pass the AP Calculus exam. But 

the vision soon broadened—driven, in 

part, by community demand—to include 

other math and science courses. Hammer 

then partnered with fellow teacher 

Grayson Cooper (E.N.C. ’12) to expand 

enrollment to all grades and introduce a 

technology component. 

“[Web design] is something we saw as 

a definite entry point into future oppor- 

making summer count arkansan advantage 

Children as young as 18 

tunities,” Cooper says. “We really aimed 

for a level of professionalism and authenticity, 

pushing [students] further than 

they thought they were capable.” Students 

soon were designing websites for local 

businesses, including an internal site 

for Teach For America’s Eastern North 

Carolina region. 

Bethany Martin, a Northampton senior 

who worked on the Teach For America 

project, says she’s hoping to inspire 

girls in earlier grades to get involved 

in Web design, a male-dominated field. 

“You have to push your way inside the 

boys’ club and realize this skill is valuable 

for everybody. When you’re female, 

it’s even more valuable—you’re very 

marketable.” 

The program’s first-summer results 

were promising—across the various 

courses, student practice test scores 

rose an average of 28 percentage points 

between the first day of class and the 

last. Hammer and Cooper plan to double 

enrollment to 80 students next summer 

and potentially branch out into adult 

education. Eight of Cooper’s students— 

including four who participated in the 

summer program—will take the AP 

Calculus test in May. 

“I view our service to the community 

right now as building trust in our 

schools,” Hammer says. “I hope our 

program shows [families] that, yes, we 

can get your children the opportunities 

and access to the education that they 

really deserve.” 

“Web design is something we saw as a definite 

entry point into future opportunities. We 

really aimed for a level of professionalism and 

authenticity, pushing students further than 

they thought they were capable.” 

In its first year, the Arkansas Teacher Corps attracted 135 applicants—nearly half of them originally 

from low-income communities, says the program’s executive director Benton Brown (Delta ’09). 

Adam Sweatman, a first-year teacher 

in Pine Bluff, Ark., overheard his students 

one day talking about Oceans, a locally 

renowned fried fish and chicken joint. 

“I said, ‘Hey, I like Oceans!’” Sweatman 

says. “They were like, ‘Mr. Sweatman, 

you know Oceans?’ ‘Yes! I’m from here!’” 

Sweatman’s Arkansas roots are 

more than just a folksy perk; they are 

key to his work as an inaugural member 

of the Arkansas Teacher Corps, 

a program that recruits graduates of 

Arkansas colleges and universities to 

teach for three years in underserved 

areas of the state—like Teach For America 

writ local. 

“I think it’s inherent in so many 

people…to want to help individuals in 

their home,” says ATC executive director 

and Arkansas native Benton Brown 

(Delta ’09), who developed the 

program in 2012 with the support of the 

University of Arkansas. “We’re able to 

tap into that.” 

Brown taught in the Delta town 

of Helena, Ark., before moving for family 

reasons to a school in Bentonville, a more 

affluent district in the northwest part of 

the state. “I knew when I left Bentonville 

[to found the ATC] they were going 

to fill my position with a very good math 

teacher,” Brown says. “I didn’t know that 

when I left Helena.” 

Lee Vent, superintendent of the 

Clarendon School District, about 70 

miles east of Little Rock, struggles each 

year to hire enough great teachers. 

“Our pay scale is not competitive,” he 

says. According to state data, first-year 

teachers make nearly $13,000 less per 

year in Clarendon than they would in 

wealthier parts of the state. Without the 

help of two ATC fellows and one Teach For 

America corps member this year, Vent 

says, “there was no way humanly possible 

to fill those positions.” 

In all, 21 ATC fellows were placed in 

9 school districts, after a summer training 

modeled in part on Teach For America’s 

summer institute. Jared Henderson, 

executive director of Teach For America 

Arkansas, where the corps numbers 

189, says the programs see themselves 

more as partners than competitors. “We 

both have a mindset that our mission 

is first and foremost about increasing 

opportunity for as many kids as quickly as 

we can.” Tim Kennedy (delta ’11) 

findings 

months may reveal a 

language gap based on family 

income level—younger than 

previously believed. Researchers 

from Stanford University measured 

toddlers’ response time to 

instructions such as “Look at the 

ball,” and found that children from 

low-income backgrounds, on 

average, took about 25 percent 

longer to respond. The gap persisted 

in follow-up tests six months later. 

(Stanford Report, September 2013) 

Great teachers, brace 

yourselves: Assigning more 

students to top instructors—even 

when that means above-average 

class sizes—may lead to better 

results for all of a school’s 

students. Researchers found that 

achievement among eighth graders 

could increase by a measure of 2½ 

weeks of classroom time when a 

school’s “highly effective” teachers 

have up to 12 students more than the 

average class size. (The Thomas B. 

Fordham Institute, November 2013) 

1 + 1 = a better learning 

experience for kids playing 

math video games, whether 

competitively or as partners. 

Researchers at New York University 

and the City University of New York 

found that students adopted a 

“mastery mindset” when paired with a 

peer, making the educational aspects 

of the game more effective than when 

played alone. Another plus: Playing 

with a partner made the games more 

fun, too. (Journal of Educational 

Psychology, November 2013) 


do now 

do now 

from corps members to 

board members 

Four alumni aim to rebuild trust in Atlanta’s schools 


In July 2011, news of Atlanta Public Schools’ widespread cheating 

scandal shocked the city and drew national attention. More than half 

of the district’s 65 elementary and middle schools were implicated, and 

ultimately 35 educators—including then-superintendent Beverly Hall—were 

indicted on charges ranging from making false statements to theft and 

racketeering. Trust evaporated overnight from a system that had been 

perceived as on the rise, and thousands of struggling students lost out on 

honest assessments of their academic progress. 

In 2013, each of the nine of seats on the Atlanta Board of Education was 

up for election, offering the city hope for a fresh start. Four of the candidates 

were Teach For America alumni, and all of them won: Eshé Collins (Metro 

Atlanta ’02) now represents a southeast Atlanta district, while Courtney 

English (Metro Atlanta ’07), Jason Esteves (Houston ’05), and Matt 

Westmoreland (Metro Atlanta ’10) secured the board’s three citywide 

seats. “Restoring faith that APS can work for our kids will be a huge hurdle, 

and we can’t do it alone,” says English, now the board chair. “We’re going to 

need the community to stand up in a powerful way to help make it happen.” 

Eshé Collins’ mother didn’t want to 

gamble on her children’s education, 

so when it came time for school, she 

sent them to live with their grandmother 

in the suburbs. “I was a child 

with two lives,” says Collins, a project 

director with Jumpstart early education. 

“At school [in DeKalb County], 

I was challenged intellectually and 

invested socially, and I came home on the weekends to my 

childhood friends having babies at 16.” More than 25 years 

later, the schools in Collins’ neighborhood are still subpar. 

“Part of why I ran is because I just got tired of years and 

years of failure,” she says. “It’s personal for me.” 

Collins on being the only woman of color 

on the board: 

“It matters to me in a lot of ways. It definitely increases 

the level of accountability and transparency I must 

have to my community. I am the only black woman 

on the board of a district where the majority of homes 

in our lowest-performing communities are led by 

single, African American mothers. I feel obligated in a 

very personal way to be that voice representing their 

concerns and their needs.” 

Courtney English 

grew up in Atlanta, 

where he took seventh 

grade social 

studies in the same 

classroom where he 

taught it later as a 

corps member. He 

was elected to the 

school board in 2009, and is the only incumbent 

to be re-elected after the cheating 

scandal. Throughout the campaign, he and 

his alum colleagues endured criticism related 

to their Teach For America affiliation, 

but it didn’t stick. “Parents want high-quality 

teachers, good principals, safe learning 

environments, a responsible and equitable 

use of resources,” English says. “Ultimately, 

people selling conspiracy theories about 

a corporate reform movement didn’t gain 

traction, because that’s not what parents 

were concerned about.” 

English on what to expect 

from the new board: 

“I think you’ll see three things. 

One, a focus on school autonomy. 

We’ll be looking to decentralize 

operational systems to give the 

people closest to our kids the 

ability to allocate resources as 

they see fit. Two, a focus on 

wraparound and support services 

dealing with issues of poverty, 

workforce development, parental 

literacy rates—things that impact 

our kids long before they walk 

through the school doors. And 

three, early childhood education 

will be absolutely critical. We’ll 

move quickly to provide universal 

pre-K to every kid who plans on 

attending Atlanta Public Schools.” 

Jason Esteves went to law school to address the issues 

he saw holding back his students at Houston’s Fonville 

Middle School—issues like a flawed juvenile justice system 

and a lack of wraparound services. After earning his law 

degree from Emory University in Atlanta, he returned to 

Houston to see his students graduate from high school, and 

was struck by how many of them had dropped out. “I realized 

that my two years in the classroom were not enough,” 

says Esteves, who continues to work full time as a business 

litigator. Serving on Atlanta’s board “represents my best opportunity to have that 

direct impact on kids.” 

Esteves on the board’s mandate: 

“During the campaign, every winning candidate—TFA or not— 

made it pretty clear that we were going to work very hard to take 

money away from the central office and put it in the classroom, 

where it belongs. And the city responded by electing us by a 

very large margin.” 

While a student at Atlanta’s Grady High School, Matt 

Westmoreland sat in college-prep classes with mostly 

white, mostly upper-income peers, even as Grady’s student 

body was majority minority. As a corps member, he 

saw that same gap play out district wide. Westmoreland 

started to attend school board meetings, but quickly 

became frustrated. “It was adults bickering, rarely 

doing anything to help my kids.” So he made the difficult 

decision to run, even though a victory would require leaving 

the classroom. “I spent the day with amazing kids, but we had a system 

that wasn’t doing what it needed to do to get them ready to succeed.” 

Westmoreland on choosing a new superintendent: 

“Our job is to hire an awesome superintendent who will re-energize 

parents, students, teachers, and leaders in the school system, and 

take to heart the idea that decisions about education are best made 

by the people closest to kids. That refrain was repeated so much 

throughout the campaign that I think we have people in Atlanta who 

really believe that, and a board that does, too. We’ll hire someone 

who’ll make that happen.” 


do now 

do now 

corps connection 

One Day asked corps members who teach special education: 

What has surprised you the most about being a special education teacher? 

South Louisiana corps members celebrated the school year’s close at a supporter’s home in New Roads, La. 

spotlight on 

South Louisiana 

Alicia Escobar 

(N.Y. ’12) 

9th-12th grade special 

education 

“I teach special education 

in an integrated coteaching 

(ICT) setting. Coming into Teach 

For America, I had this idea that I would 

be teaching 30 kids in a classroom all my 

own—my decisions and choices. But in an 

ICT setting, you’re 100 percent reliant on 

your co-teacher, and I also work closely 

with our guidance counselor, other special 

education teachers, my special education 

coordinator, my principal. It’s about 

working together, bouncing ideas off one 

another constantly, and figuring out what 

works for all of our kids.” 

Lauren Levy (L.A. ’13) 

9th-11th grade special 

education 

“When someone says 

‘special education,’ 

people immediately 

think moderate to severe [disabilities], like 

cerebral palsy or Down syndrome. The 

biggest surprise for me was working with 

children who have ‘hidden’ disabilities, like 

visual or auditory processing disorders. A 

lot of them have no idea—even at 15, 16, 

17—that they should use their disability 

to empower them and speak up for 

themselves. You really do become an 

advocate for them, teaching them what their 

own rights are and how they can get what 

they need in order to succeed in school.” 

Karlena Riggs 

(Oklahoma ’12) 

3rd-6th grade special 

education 

“It’s really my students’ 

resilience that has 

surprised me the most. Most of them 

have been in special education for a 

while—months, if not years. School has 

always been a struggle for them, but 

they just keep coming back excited to 

learn and can still be excellent students 

when their needs are met. If school had 

been such a struggle for me, I can’t 

imagine how hard it would have been 

to make myself go, even in elementary 

school. But they keep giving their best 

effort. It’s astonishing and inspiring.” 

As Louisiana integrated its public schools 

following Brown v. Board of Education, 

thousands of white students from the Baton 

Rouge area fled to private—and often allwhite—alternatives. 

The effects linger—today, 

students of color make up more than 

80 percent of the region’s school systems. 

In 1990, South Louisiana became one of 

Teach For America’s six charter regions, 

but it took years to develop the momentum 

necessary for progress beyond individual 

classrooms, says Michael Tipton (N.Y. 

’05), the region’s executive director and a 

Baton Rouge native. Policy changes made 

in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 

accelerated reforms, and alums started to 

move into leadership positions—not only 

at schools, but within the government and 

local nonprofits. “We’ve spent the last seven 

years building up that base of people to 

rally around a shared vision of progress for 

our students,” Tipton says. “Now, the reform 

movement in the region is far bigger than 

we are, and Teach For America can play one 

role among many partners pushing toward 

the same vision of excellence.” 

fast facts 

6 Number of parishes served by corps members | 444,526 Population of 

East Baton Rouge Parish, the region’s largest | 83 Percentage of students 

in East Baton Rouge Parish School System who qualify for free or reducedprice 

lunch | 88 Percentage of students of color in East Baton Rouge Parish 

School System | 82 Percentage of parish students who are African American 

did you know? 

Almost 5 percent of the residents of Pointe Coupee 

Parish, a corps member placement area, speak French 

or Cajun French as their home language. 

stats 

1990 

Year placements started 

South Louisiana’s alumni in leadership roles 

include Bethany France (S. Louisiana ’02), director 

of Louisiana A+ Schools; Chris Meyer (G.N.O. ’04), 

founder and CEO of New Schools for Baton Rouge; 

and Lucas Speilfogel (S. Louisiana ’10), executive 

director of the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition. 

THRIVE, the state’s only charter boarding 

school, was founded in Baton Rouge in 2011 by 

Sarah Broome (S. Louisiana ’08) and is one of fewer 

than 10 such public schools in the entire country. 

Baton Rouge’s annual Mardi Gras parade has 

become an unofficial homecoming for Teach For 

America South Louisiana. 

158 

First- and second-year 

corps members at the 

start of the 2013-14 

school year 

185 

Alumni in region 

63 

Percentage of alumni 

in education 


do now 

Photos by Nour Ayoub 

Q Tell me about your students. 

A “I have about 150 students from 

kindergarten through sixth grade. 

They’re from all over the region— 

Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt— 

but the consistent factor for them is 

poverty. In wealthier areas, schools 

take it upon themselves to do fundraising, 

but in poor areas, that’s not as 

prevalent. One example is extracurricular 

activities—they were nonexistent 

at our school until I started the 

drama club. And that’s been so important 

to students’ happiness in school to 

be able to work with them outside of 

the classroom.” 

Sahar Machmouchi grew up in rural Lebanon challenging societal expectations all the way to her master’s degree. Now she hopes her students can do the same. 

Greetings from Lebanon 

Teach For Lebanon is part of the Teach For All network operating in 32 countries around the world 

By Tim Kennedy (Delta ’11) with translation by Amal Muna 

Lebanon’s population has with book bags, supplies, and even temporary 

schools. But for educators like Teach For 

grown by a third since 2011, 

as more than 1 million Syrian Lebanon fellow Sahar Machmouchi, incredible 

refugees—including nearly challenges remain as she leads students from 

400,000 school-aged children— diverse educational backgrounds, impacted by 

have fled there to escape a the trauma of warfare, and sharing poverty as 

brutal civil war. The nation’s a common denominator. “The language that 

ministry of education and international 

relief agencies have taken steps to ac- 

you would think it was a 20-year-old talking,” 

these students are using to describe their pain, 

commodate the influx—the ministry extended says Machmouchi, who teaches Arabic and drama 

in the city of Saida, about 30 miles south 

the school registration deadline this year by a 

month to ease access for newly displaced students, 

and many refugees have been provided given the hardships they’ve 

of Beirut. “They’ve had to mature very quickly 

seen.” 

Q Your school is all-girls, except 

for some mixed-gender classes in 

the early grades. How does this 

impact your teaching? A Given the 

poverty in the area, education is valued 

a bit more for boys than it is for girls. A 

lot of girls end up leaving school after 

sixth grade—they stay home and help 

their parents, or take a job, or they even 

get married. Part of what’s really 

difficult for me is trying to change 

perceptions—to get them to see themselves 

in education long term. I talk 

about how I struggled and worked two 

jobs to finish my master’s degree in 

journalism. And especially in the older 

grades, I try to incorporate a lot of 

gender conversations to prepare my 

students for the dynamics in higher education 

settings. With sixth grade drama 

students, I include a boy character in 

every sketch we perform. It’s a conversation 

point in my classroom.” 

Q Most of your students’ parents 

aren’t highly educated. How do 

you work with them to support 

this shift in students’ perceptions? 

A “I often go outside of the bounds 

of my teaching. For example, I’m a 

coordinator with the World Human 

Rights Forum—an international 

group of human rights activists and 

organizations—and I work with the 

(Top) Machmouchi’s school is in Saida’s Old 

City, home to a large and mostly poor population 

of refugees from around the Middle East. 

(Bottom left and right) Machmouchi’s passion 

is for the Arabic language and its potential to 

improve society by raising students’ standards 

for news and dialogue. 

community that way. I also work with 

friends—one of whom works for the 

local government, and another who 

leads parent workshops on topics like 

positive discipline. Because many of 

the parents are not educated, they 

don’t necessarily know how to support 

their own children’s learning. Through 

the work, I’ve seen a lot of parents open 

up when they see how attached their 

students are to me as a teacher, and to 

their schoolwork. They ask, ‘How did 

you make this happen?’ That’s an 

opening to talk about positive ways to 

get kids to study and want to learn.” 

Q You teach formal Arabic, as 

opposed to the colloquial Arabic 

used for daily interactions. What’s 

the value of formal Arabic, 

which is incredibly difficult to 

learn? A “Formal Arabic is the 

language of the media and the 

government. If you turn on the news, 

or pick up a book, no matter what 

country it’s from, it’s going to be the 

same. It can be drastically different 

from spoken Arabic—it can feel like a 

different language. But without it, we 

can’t be active citizens. We can’t 

be well versed in other languages or 

navigate a global world if we don’t have 

a grasp of our own language. I truly 

believe that the more we raise 

the quality of our own language, the 

better the quality of society. The output 

we show to the world will be of a 

better quality.” 


do now 

corps 360 

fro-yo, delta style 

“Yogology” plus Cheetos creates a small-town hangout 


here’s a bright-orange hue to swirls of frozen 

T 

yogurt at Delta Dairy in downtown Cleveland, 

Miss.—and a crunchy kick unknown to fro-yo shops 

from Santa Monica to Park Slope. “Hot Cheetos,” says 

proprietress Suzette Matthews (Delta ’08), as if Flamin’ Hots are 

an obvious choice alongside fresh fruit, Oreo crumbles, and other 

do-it-yourself toppings. 

Suzette opened Delta Dairy in April 2013 with her business 

partner and now husband Matty Bengloff (Delta ’07). The hot 

Cheetos—“regional flair,” Matty says—help differentiate the locallyowned 

shop from the fast-food chains lining Cleveland’s main drag 

half a mile away. 

Delta Dairy also serves up a green-and-white twist cone in late 

August to welcome students at nearby Delta State University, where 

the school colors are green and white, and the unofficial mascot is 

the Fighting Okra. But the local touch only goes so far: The green 

coloring masks vanilla, not veggie, yogurt. 

Suzette and Matty moved to the Delta to join the corps—Suzette 

from rural Texas, Matty from New York City. They met and 

fell in love—both with each other and with the town of Cleveland, 

population 12,000, and recently named by Smithsonian magazine as 

America’s second-best small town for travelers. They decided to stay. 

Matty had long entertained the idea of opening a business, and 

Suzette had more than once wished for a frosty fro-yo in the land of 

fast-food soft-serve. They imagined a gathering place for anyone in 

the community—kids, teachers, college students, lifelong residents. 

“The biggest need was for someplace to go after school, or after 

dinner, or on a Sunday afternoon. The space is just as important as 

the product,” Suzette says. 

They researched chain operations, but chains’ exorbitant upfront 

costs led them to go it alone. They visited every frozen-yogurt shop 

in a five-hour radius; they studied soft-serve machines; they even 

attended “yogology” training four hours away in Russellville, Ark. 

The yogologists “gave us these really interesting facts about 

people who like yogurt,” Matty says. “Only 10 percent of your yogurt 

population likes the tart kind—those are the real yogurt fanatics.” In 

fact, the majority of Delta Dairy’s patrons don’t call it yogurt at all. 

“They call it ice cream,” Matty says. 

Longtime Cleveland resident Homer Sledge, Jr., comes in almost 

every Sunday. His father founded the Nehi Bottling Company in 1927 

to provide soda pop for the people of Cleveland, and Homer and 

his son continue the business today. Each week, Suzette and Matty 

Matty Bengloff and Suzette Matthews opened Delta Dairy in what had been an 

empty storefront. “The town is going through a kind of rebirth,” Matthews says. 

relish his business advice. “They’ve owned a business for so long, 

they know all of the joys and the woes,” Matty says. 

Sledge is one of many regular customers, from kids whose eyes 

pop at the lineup of toppings to college students on a study break 

and native Clevelandites on a downtown stroll. “We’re really proud 

of how diverse our customer base is,” Suzette says. “The Delta can 

still be really segregated, and we have people from all over town. No 

matter who you are, we welcome you.” 

in the news 

“It is time to admit 

that the SAT and ACT 

have become far too 

disconnected from the 

work of our high schools.” 

David Coleman, president of the College Board, 

announcing on March 5, 2014, an overhaul of the 

SAT college entrance exam 

fyi 

In 2002, Congress passed the No Child Left 

Behind Act, adopting an ambitious plan to 

reach 100 percent student proficiency by 2014. 

Twelve years later, that remains a distant goal. 

The law is in political limbo—it expired in 2007, 

but its mandates carry over until Congress 

passes a replacement. Federal funding for its 

major components has plateaued at about 

$20 billion per year, roughly half of what 

the government originally authorized. And 

despite incremental improvements across the 

board, proficiency rates—especially for lowincome 

children—continue to lag. 

pulse check on nclb 

Low income students at or above proficient 

All students at or above proficient 

4th grade math 

2003 

2003 

2003 

15% 

32% 

8th grade math 

2003 

12% 

29% 

15% 

31% 

16% 

32% 

2013 

2013 

4th grade reading 

2013 

8th grade reading 

2013 

25% 

42% 

20% 

35% 

20% 

35% 

20% 

36% 

The above proficiency figures were determined by the National Assessment 

of Educational Progress. Each state also uses a unique assessment, and 

results of these assessments are not comparable. 

Tommy Rappold, Post-Bac Pre-Med 

From Computer Information Systems to Medicine. 

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270-HS-TFA-mag 


do now 

do now 

media 

rethinking malcolm x 

Saladin Ambar (N.Y. ’90) uncovers a brilliant lost speech 


In 2009, Saladin Ambar (N.Y. 

I 

’90) was a first-year political 

science professor at Lehigh 

University teaching a course 

on black political thought. While preparing 

the portion on black nationalism, he read a 

little-known speech delivered by Malcolm X 

in December 1964 at the Oxford Union, the 

prestigious debating society at Oxford University. 

In it, the civil rights leader defended a 

statement by defeated presidential candidate 

Barry Goldwater: “Extremism in the defense 

of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit 

of justice is no virtue.” Ambar recognized the 

speech as an undiscovered gem of the era— 

both rhetorically brilliant and revelatory of a 

Malcolm X no less radical than his younger 

self but far more nuanced in his understanding 

of race relations and power dynamics in 

the United States and abroad. Ambar, who 

taught high school history for 17 years in New 

York City and Princeton, N.J., before earning 

his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, proceeded 

to immerse himself in Malcolm X’s diaries 

and travelogues, interview his contemporaries, 

and trace his steps from Harlem to 

Paris to Oxford. In January, he published 

the sum of his efforts: Malcolm X at Oxford 

Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era. 

Over the course of researching and 

writing this book, what was the most 

significant shift in your understanding 

of Malcolm X? As a younger man, there 

was a sort of bias I had toward the early 

and more radical career of Malcolm X—the 

Malcolm without the beard, a member of the 

Nation of Islam, fiery, certainly radical, and 

in many ways more off-putting to whites. In 

some senses, that earlier Malcolm has been 

identified as the “true” Malcolm—and as 

a teenager and in my early 20s, I held that 

view. My research led me to conclude that 

the Malcolm at Oxford was certainly no less 

“true” than the earlier Malcolm, but someone 

whose thoughts had matured, who was very 

sophisticated in his understanding of the 

complexity of human nature. The Malcolm at 

Oxford, I think, is in many ways more heroic 

than the earlier figure I’d confronted, because 

he was open to change, and open to seeing 

the world in a more complicated way. 

In his speech, Malcolm X spoke 

about schools as an example of an 

injustice perpetrated by whites on 

African Americans. Is there any way 

to guess what he’d think of the 

school reform movement today? My 

guess is he would’ve put “empowerment” 

at the forefront of any understanding of 

reform—the idea that black folks needed to 

be strong participants in changing their own 

local school conditions. I think he would’ve 

asked what role African Americans are 

taking in their own local achievement and 

administration, and what are the resources 

being allocated to their schools—public 

or otherwise. He certainly understood that 

the public school system had failed African 

Americans, and him personally, and he no 

doubt would’ve chastised much of current 

education policy—and more than anything, 

the still-deplorable state of many schools. 

You suggest that by the time of the 

Oxford speech, his ideas about race 

and power had been significantly 

complicated. In what direction was 

he moving? His trip to Mecca [in 1964], 

and more broadly his trip to the Middle East, 

changed that binary of black-white that he 

had as an American. When he met Algerian 

revolutionaries who were what most people 

would define as white, it really floored him, 

because the ideology of black nationalism 

really had no place for a white revolutionary. 

He had to step back and see that for what it 

was. And I think he also understood that there 

was truly a class dimension to the nature of 

struggle worldwide—that global capitalism 

presented its own host of challenges, and 

that race alone as a window to these problems 

was not going to be sufficient. He wrote 

in his diary, in so many words, that black 

nationalism is insufficient. 

Having said that, I think one of the 

contributions of the book is that it suggests 

that Malcolm X didn’t, and perhaps we 

shouldn’t, abide an all-too-easy postracial 

view of the world, given that so many of the 

conditions that concerned Malcolm about 

the lives of people of color in America 

and around the world are still with us. He 

certainly understood that these conditions 

were very much tied to race, but that there 

were more elements to the problem than 

race alone. 

You write that Malcolm X’s foundational 

ethic “requires revolutionary justice 

to flow from the people upward.” 

What were some other tenets of his 

radical philosophy? I think, first and 

foremost, being honest with yourself, and being 

honest about the nature of political struggle. 

If there’s anything that made—and I think 

makes—Malcolm X such a powerful figure, it’s 

that there was nothing in the way of sugarcoating, 

nothing in the way of some kind of 

palliative to present the world other than what 

it was. People crave authentic leaders today— 

they really desire someone to be completely 

honest, to use language that is unfettered 

and apolitical. 

What do you most wish you could ask 

him? I think more than ask him anything, I 

would wish to thank him. I have to say, especially 

when I was in Oxford, there’s a bit of 

survivor’s guilt. In Oxford, I purposely stayed 

in the same hotel where he stayed—the Randolph 

Hotel. And as I walked its corridors, I 

Notes from the Journey Westward | White Pine Press 

Joe Wilkins (Delta ’02) opens Notes from the Journey Westward, his second published collection of poetry, with an 

epigraph from Bob Dylan’s 1975 album Blood on the Tracks: “We drove that car as far as we could, abandoned it out 

west.” Like Dylan in the mid-70s, Wilkins, a writing professor at Linfield College in Oregon, writes about landscapes, 

drifters, highways, and other folk-music themes from a perspective that is intimate but clear-eyed—Americana 

stripped of sentimentality. The 50-plus poems in Notes are not linked by narrative—some, like the title poem, are set in 

pioneering times while others (“Now That It Has Been Many Years, and I Have Moved Far from Mississippi”) seem more 

autobiographical. But they share Wilkins’ gifts for clipped imagery (“think how your hands, watching your father as a boy, 

hung useless as bright wings”) and striking phrasing (“Blink and cry but this earth is all/you’ll ever see.”). 

Ghetto Images in Twentieth-Century American Literature | Palgrave Macmillan 

Tyrone Simpson’s (L.A. ’91) Ghetto Images in Twentieth-Century American Literature explores how six American 

novelists have depicted the effects of urban segregation over the past 80 years. The “ghetto,” Simpson argues, is 

not merely a consequence of racial tension and urban decay; it is a construct that actively fuels discrimination and 

limits opportunity. Simpson focuses each chapter on a specific author and text—from Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers 

to John Edgar Wideman’s Two Cities—ultimately tracing how six very different writers interpreted the “ghettoization” 

of the 20th-century American Rust Belt. Simpson is an associate professor of English, urban studies, Africana 

studies, and American culture at Vassar College. 

Kids in the Kitchen: Simple Recipes That Build Independence and Confidence 

in the Montessori Way | CreateSpace Independent Publishing 

Parents, put down your knives. Now, give them to your toddlers. Okay, okay—not a sharp knife—but you’ve got the 

idea, according to Kids in the Kitchen: Simple Recipes that Build Independence and Confidence in the Montessori Way, coauthored 

by Sara Cotner (S. Louisiana ’00). “Even the youngest child can work in the kitchen with the right guidance,” 

writes Cotner, founder of Montessori For All, a nonprofit working to open and lead public Montessori schools in 

diverse communities. Kids in the Kitchen offers simple recipes and helpful tips, like advice for setting up kid-friendly 

kitchens (keep toddlers’ utensils in a low cupboard, for example, and keep healthy snacks on the lower shelves of the 

fridge). Recipes range from tzatziki dip to banana and strawberry muffins, and detailed pictures accompany each step. 

A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and 

Affordable Celebration | Voyageur Press 

was thinking that when he was walking those 

corridors, when he walked up those very old 

steps of that beautiful hotel, he was thinking 

of security. He was thinking, “I might not 

make it down to the lobby. I could be shot 

at any moment.” He was fearing for his life. 

In many ways, the life I have, and the life so 

many middle-class African Americans have, 

is possible because of him and other leaders 

of his time. I have to say I felt a deep sense of 

gratitude for him, and a sense of sadness that 

I couldn’t thank him personally. 

Cotner is also the author of A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration, which 

encourages couples to resist the pressures of the “wedding industrial complex” by planning the “vision-first” wedding 

that best suits them, with tips like adopting a wedding “mantra” (e.g. “Our marriage is more important than the 

wedding.”) and using a worksheet to decide whether to “retain, revise, reject, or reinvent” the more traditional elements 

of a wedding. “There’s so much cultural baggage about what makes a wedding a real wedding,” Cotner writes. “This 

book focuses on how to reclaim the real purpose of a wedding: community, connection, commitment, and fun.” 


do now 

do now 

unprecedented gains 


E 

ducators, parents, 

and students in 

Tennessee and Washington, 

D.C., have reason to be proud: 

2013 results of the biennial 

National Assessment of 

Educational Progress showed 

their students’ growth to be 

greater than anywhere else in 

the country. 

KEVIN 

HUFFMAN 

(hOUSTON ’92) 

Q: What drove the gains? 

A: Ultimately, we believe it’s two 

things: higher standards for our 

kids, and higher standards for the 

adults working in the system. 

Q: Once you gathered the overall positive 

results, where did you focus more in-depth? 

A: For us, it was looking at the different subgroups, and the 

places where we’re making significant progress and lesssignificant 

progress. Does that line up with what we’re seeing on 

other assessments? Do we have a plan of attack for making sure 

we’re improving everywhere? The other piece is about making 

sure we have strategies in place to continue improving at a fast 

pace. We moved from the 40s in national rankings to the 30s. 

And not only that: The two states (D.C. is considered a state for 

the purposes of national testing) showed the greatest-ever growth 

over a single testing cycle. The test also compares progress across 

a sample of 21 urban districts, including D.C. Public Schools, which 

educates about 56 percent of the city’s public school students. In 

every grade and subject, DCPS students showed greater growth 

than any other tested district. 

Outcomes are hardly where they need to be—overall, D.C. still 

lingers near the bottom compared with other large cities nationwide, 

and Tennessee’s results place it in the lower-middle compared 

to all states. But the trend lines show promise. 

More than 1,000 alumni contributed to the results—teachers, 

parents, school leaders, and system leaders. Kevin Huffman 

(Houston ’92) has been Tennessee’s state education commissioner 

since 2011, and Kaya Henderson (N.Y. ’92) has led DCPS since 

2010, after taking the reins from Michelle Rhee (Baltimore ’92). 

Kathy Hollowell-Makle (D.C. Region ’98) is the 2013 DCPS 

Teacher of the Year and a 16-year district veteran. “We’re 

absolutely moving in the right direction,” she says. “I see a great 

sense of pride in the work teachers are doing, and that relates 

directly to student progress.” 

That’s great progress, but none of us wakes up and comes into 

work thinking we want to be 35th in the nation in education. 

Q: When the results are broken down by 

student groups, many of the same gaps show 

up that have plagued schools for years. 

How does that play into your strategy 

moving forward? 

A: For our students with disabilities and our English language 

learners, what we saw on NAEP mirrors what we’ve seen already 

on our state assessments. Those are areas of focus for us, and 

the NAEP scores reinforced the strategies that we have in place. 

If we come back in two years and those students still have not 

made strides, then I’ll be scratching my head. One thing we’re 

proud of is that we significantly increased the number of students 

with disabilities who took the NAEP. Previously, Tennessee 

excluded a huge portion of students with disabilities—they were 

excluded on some tests at rates of 40 to 50 percent. We cut that 

in half, and we know there’s still room to grow. 

Q: NAEP doesn’t measure the inputs that 

drive student outcomes. Can you say with 

any certainty that the reforms you’ve 

implemented have made a difference? 

A: That’s technically true. But at the same time, I would say it’s 

not accidental that Tennessee and D.C. are implementing many 

of the same reforms on the same timeline with the same fidelity—and 

to see that, it is perfectly reasonable to hypothesize 

that those are in fact drivers of results and those are things that 

other states might reasonably want to emulate. There are a lot of 

people who don’t like what those drivers are, and therefore are 

very resistant. But to put it simply, I don’t think it’s accidental 

that Tennessee and D.C. had the largest gains in the country. 

KAYA 

HENDERSON 

(N.Y. ’92) 

Q: What’s driving 

the gains? 

A: First, I think it’s the attention 

we’ve paid to people quality—the 

quality of our teachers, our school 

leaders, our support staff, our central office staff. Then, three years 

ago, we created an academic plan to change the teaching and 

learning happening in the classroom. Getting great people is only 

part of the solution—giving them the tools and resources they need 

to succeed is the other part. 

Q: When DCPS’s scores are broken down into 

student groups, the gap between white, 

mostly higher-income kids and lower-income 

students of color is actually growing in 

places. How can you address that? 

A: One thing we know for sure is that the population of D.C. has 

one of the largest gaps in the country regarding race and economics, 

so some of this is simply the reality of the kids in our classrooms. 

Clearly, we’re growing our white kids at a pace that’s good 

for them, and we have to be experts at catching up many kids who 

come to us already behind, and actually accelerating them. It’s 

STATE RESULTS 

4th grade 

math growth 

1 Tennessee 

2 Washington, D.C. 

(district and charters) 

3 Arizona 

4 Indiana 

5 Hawai‘i 

4th grade 

reading growth 

1 Tennessee 

2 Washington, D.C. 

(district and charters) 

3 Minnesota 

4 Indiana 

5 Washington (state) 

literally about taking kids and moving them multiple grade levels 

in one year, and that’s what we have to get good at. Here’s the 

challenge for DCPS: We have to innovate to catch up. But at the 

same time, we have to go beyond. Because even if we catch up to 

where everyone else is, that’s not good enough. 

Q: Teach For America has been operating in 

D.C. since 1992, and more than 2,000 alumni live 

in the region. Do you see the organization in 

any way relevant to these results? 

A: We have corps members and alumni in our classrooms; four of 

the seven people on my leadership team are alumni; we have an 

astounding number of alums in the central office; a number of our 

principals are alums; some of my instructional superintendents 

are alums. If I look at the statewide results, many of the charter 

leaders are alums, and many charter teachers are alumni or corps 

members. Teach For America has changed the talent pool in the 

city—and it can share in the statewide victory with us because 

it’s people who have delivered these results, and many of those 

people are Teach For America alumni. 

Q: What do you make of many in the media’s 

temptation to throw cold water on positive 

results? 

A: You know, sometimes I want to say, ‘Tell me what I 

should be doing. Should I pooh-pooh these completely 

outsized gains because we’re not yet where we need to 

be? Or do I recognize that with a whole lot of work, people 

have moved us from an F- to a D or a D+?’ No, we’re not 

at an A yet, but you don’t get to an A by staying in the F pile. 

If we only celebrated goal attainment, that would be antithetical 

to what we tell our kids. How do you get to where you’re 

going? Through steady progress. Not incremental progress, 

but radical progress. And that’s what we’re bringing to D.C. 

Public Schools. People who have thrived on DCPS’s 

dysfunction are very, very upset that we’re actually making 

progress. But we’re gonna keep on bringing progress, 

we’re gonna keep on bringing change, we’re gonna keep 

on knocking it out for our kids, because that’s what 

they deserve. 

URBAN DISTRICT RESULTS 

8th grade 

math growth 

1 DCPS 

2 Charlotte 

3 Fresno 

4 Los Angeles 

5 Milwaukee 

8th grade 

reading growth 

1 DCPS 

2 Fresno 

3 Baltimore 

4 Milwaukee 

5 Los Angeles 


SOMETHING 

SPECIAL 

By Ting yu (N.Y. ’03) 

Photographs by Michael Schwarz 

Special education was conceived to meet the unique 

learning needs of students like Latisha Justice. But is 

the system empowering or oppressing its students? 

“Since I have an IEP, it follows me,” says Latisha Justice, 

16, at Tri-Cities High School in Atlanta. “People make fun 

of me. Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.” 

Latisha Justice bounces in her chair, feet tapping the ground. 

Justice is slight and jittery—not unlike the subatomic particle 

she is studying at the moment. “How many electrons give you 

a full valence?” asks her teacher, Andrew Fuller (Metro Atlanta 

’12). Justice and the four other 10th graders in Fuller’s physical 

science class at Tri-Cities High School in Atlanta are poring over 

laminated periodic tables, filling out charts of atomic mass, protons, and 

neutrons for various elements. Vivacious with a wide smile, Justice keeps 

up a near-constant chatter as she taps her calculator and writes down the 

answers. When she raises her hand to share, she answers correctly. But 

when Fuller praises her and asks her to state the element’s name, she 

hesitates then reads chlorine aloud as “Tyrone.” Her classmates erupt 

into laughter, and Justice turns quiet for the first time that morning. 


“When I first came to this school, I got bullied 

and teased. People make fun of me because I’m 

in small-group classes. They say, ‘She’s dumb. 

She’s the retarded girl.’ I feel sad like, why are 

you all doing this to me?” 

“I like literature, even though that’s the main struggle I have,” Justice says. “I like to read stories about real people with problems and how they can help themselves be better.” 

ative,” Justice says. “My reading just… 

stops me.” 

Justice’s IEP states that she has a 

“specific learning disability,” a term 

that belies remarkable ambiguity. SLD 

is the most common referral category for 

students who receive special education 

services. Nationwide, 41 percent of students 

with IEPs have this designation 

which includes disability categories, 

ranging from dyslexia to developmental 

aphasia to brain injury. It’s defined 

as an imperfect ability to listen, think, 

speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical 

calculation. 

“Practically every kid has SLD on 

their IEPs. It makes no sense,” Fuller 

says. “There’s no time or effort or individualized 

planning dedicated to solving 

problems for each child. It’s so frustrating. 

Why has no one ever stopped to 

Justice, 16, has struggled with reading 

since first grade when she was held 

back at the teacher’s recommendation. 

Her mother, Keeshan, says Latisha was 

evaluated in third grade and received 

her first Individualized Education Program 

(IEP), a tailored instructional 

framework for each child who receives 

special education services. 

Since then, Justice has been educated 

in both co-taught inclusive classrooms 

(a general education classroom with two 

teachers, one a special educator) as well 

as small-group settings like Fuller’s science 

class. She says her main problem 

is comprehension, but it’s clear that 

even decoding the words themselves can 

be confounding to her. Since reading 

affects one’s ability to access material in 

every class, her frustration has seeped 

into all of her coursework. “I’m very cresay, 

‘Why can’t Latisha read?’ ” 

Teachers, he says, are essentially 

left on their own to identify underlying 

issues and come up with strategies to 

address them—often with students 

who are profoundly behind. “We’re in 

10th grade, and Latisha’s reading at 

a third grade level. I have kids who 

can’t read at all,” he says. “I’m teaching 

them sight words. I have a whole 

box of flashcards in my room. I’m in a 

position where I’m trying to figure out: 

Do I stop teaching science and teach 

the kids who can’t read? Then what 

about my kids who need to learn science 

to be successful in college? With 

some of my kids, we need to go back to 

the foundations of math and reading. 

We can’t start with how to balance a 

chemical equation when you can’t add 

five plus five.” 

Justice receives accommodations such 

as having extended time to finish work 

and getting her tests read to her but can’t 

name any strategies she has been taught 

to address her reading issue. “The teachers 

just say, ‘Keep on trying,’ but they 

don’t help. Or when I ask questions, they 

say I’m complaining too much and to just 

sit and wait. That’s when I feel anxiety. 

They look at me like, ‘Why are you having 

this problem?’ And I’m like, because 

I have this issue that I’m trying to overcome 

and y’all are not helping me, just 

making more pressure on me.” 

As dictated by her IEP, Justice 

takes all of her core subjects—math, literacy, 

science, and social studies—in 

small-group settings. The only time she 

interacts with general education peers is 

during electives like business and Spanish. 

Justice likes having more one-on-one 

time with teachers and fewer distractions, 

but says the social stigma of being 

in a special education class can be 

unbearable. “When I first came to this 

school, I got bullied and teased,” she 

says. “People make fun of me because I’m 

in small-group classes. They say, ‘She’s 

dumb. She’s the retarded girl.’ I feel sad 

like, why are you all doing this to me?” 

In Fuller’s class, she has found a 

haven. “He’s fun, but he’s serious,” she 

says. “I know a lot about science now— 

stuff I didn’t think I’d know. He can get 

on people’s nerves because he makes 

everything hard for us, but we come out 

of his classroom knowing stuff. He’s the 

only teacher who can teach and it stays 

in our heads.” 

Fuller says a bright student like 

Justice could excel in a general education 

classroom given the right supports. 

He’s pushing for a clearer diagnosis of 

her reading disability and believes she 

needs more individual assistance. 

Yet he’s disheartened by what he 

sees as a deeply embedded culture of 

low expectations that permeates special 

education programs in low-income 

communities, where students who don’t 

meet academic standards are routinely 

promoted. Rather than seeing special 

education as a way of differentiating for 

kids who learn differently, Fuller says, 

“it becomes a place to keep kids quiet, so 

we can teach other kids.” 

Breaking the silence 

For all of its flaws, No Child Left 

Behind got one thing powerfully right: 

It shined a light on huge disparities in 

student achievement that had long been 

obscured by school-level performance 

data. Suddenly marginalized groups 

such as low-income students of color and 

students with disabilities surfaced as 

urgent priorities. 

The new data galvanized reformers 

and helped them fashion a powerful 

narrative about the influence of race 

and class on educational equity in the 

United States—a narrative that has 

largely succeeded in raising the profile 

of students in low-income communities. 

So why, more than a decade later—and 

despite persistently terrible academic 

outcomes—do children with disabilities 

garner little more than a whisper in the 

education reform conversation? 

The world of special education is labyrinthine 

and, in many ways, esoteric 

to the general public, which has limited 

awareness of students with disabilities 

and their challenges. With its tangle of 

laws and regulations, segregated placements, 

and unfamiliar diagnoses, special 

education can seem somehow separate 

and detached from the way “our 

kids” are taught. 

Johannah Chase (N.Y. ’05), the chief 

operating officer for special education for 

the New York Department of Education, 

says the lack of urgency and action on 

behalf of children with disabilities won’t 

change until reformers come to see that 

the fight for these students’ rights is in 

every way the fight for all students. “We 

have to break the assumption that special 

ed is ‘other.’ There’s not a bifurcated 

special-ed-versus-general-ed world,” she 

says. “Special ed isn’t for those kids over 

there who have some type of need so 

extreme we can’t possibly expect your 

average teacher to meet their needs. 


“I have a vendetta against making work easy,” says Andrew Fuller (right), who was taught in a restrictive 

special education setting from 1st through 12th grade and could “barely read” when he graduated. 

That’s deeply problematic, not only for 

kids with disabilities, but it’s the wrong 

approach for public education. When you 

focus on kids with the most challenges, 

you figure out solutions that are applicable 

to everyone. This is really about 

figuring out how to leverage the world of 

special education for all kids.” 

Oppression or empowerment? 

As recently as the early 1970s, 80 percent 

of American children with disabilities—roughly 

1.75 million children— 

had no protected right or access to a 

public education. Nearly 200,000 people 

with disabilities were institutionalized, 

many of them children. Those who were 

educated were schooled at home or at 

private facilities. 

Special education advocates speak 

passionately about the movement for 

“ability rights,” marking as a key turning 

point the Education for All Handicapped 

Children Act—now known as the Individuals 

with Disabilities Education 

Act—passed in 1975. IDEA mandates 

that all schools receiving federal funds 

provide students with disabilities with 

“a free and appropriate education” in the 

“least restrictive environment.” 

Despite progress, there are deeply 

troubling trends that point to a separate 

and unequal reality for the 6.3 million 

students in the United States who currently 

have IEPs. Nationwide, these students 

are vastly underperforming their 

peers in general education. 

A recent report from the U.S. Department 

of Education reveals huge gaps in 

state graduation rates between students 

with disabilities and their nondisabled 

peers. The 2013 National Assessment of 

Educational Progress shows that nearly 

70 percent of fourth graders with disabilities 

scored “below basic proficiency”—the 

lowest designation—in reading, 

with only 11 percent scoring proficient 

or advanced. (That’s compared with 27 

percent and 38 percent, respectively, for 

nondisabled students.) This despite the 

fact that the majority of students with 

IEPs do not have disabilities that would 

prevent them from achieving at grade 

level, if given the appropriate supports. 

“Millions of children with disabilities 

are getting an abysmal education,” says 

Dr. Douglas Fuchs, a leading researcher 

and chair of the special education 

department at Vanderbilt University. 

“Gross underachievement is a fact, and 

it can’t be explained by the disability. 

The degree to which these students are 

behind begs for a real explanation.” 

Many special educators believe that 

strict federal enforcement of IDEA 

regulations—but little emphasis on 

achievement—has bred a misguided obsession 

with access and compliance with 

no accountability for achievement. Too 

often IEPs “are done poorly and not for 

the right reasons,” Fuchs says. “They’re 

treated by educators as a legal document 

instead of as an educational document 

that is essential to the current and longterm 

future of the child.” 

Both Mississippi and South Carolina, 

for instance, earned top marks for meeting 

federal requirements for compliance 

last year, while posting appalling graduation 

results for students with disabilities. 

State-reported data showed that half 

of South Carolina’s students with disabilities 

drop out of school, and only 23 

percent of Mississippi students with 

IEPs earn diplomas—43 percentage 

points lower than the rate for nondisabled 

students. 

The U.S. Department of Education’s 

Office of Special Education Programs has 

announced plans to monitor more closely 

“performance indicators”—such as participation 

in state general assessments 

and graduation rates—for students with 

disabilities, to induce a shift toward “results-driven 

accountability.” States that 

report poorly on these measures may be 

subject to improvement plans or loss of 

funding, but OSEP says the use of statelevel 

assessment results likely won’t 

happen for another five years. 

Another serious concern, Fuchs says, 

is that too few teachers possess specialized 

knowledge of how disabilities 

affect learning and how to differentiate 

instruction in a meaningful way. IDEA 

recognizes 14 categories of disability that 

encompass a huge range of diagnoses. 

Because disabilities manifest differently 

for each child, figuring out the most effective 

intervention can be like detective 

work. Charters are often criticized for 

relying too heavily on inclusion models 

and contracting outside specialists who 

don’t know the students as well, because 

they lack the funding and resources to 

provide such services in house. 

“Students need teachers who are 

skilled in the art and science of assessing 

and differentiating at a highly individual 

level and who also possess technical 

knowledge,” Fuchs says. “We no longer 

have teachers who become masters of six 

different ways of teaching reading and 

four different ways of teaching math. 

Special educators today are trained to 

co-teach. In many places, they’re glorified 

aides to the general education 

teacher. A very large number of students 

with disabilities require an intensity of 

instruction that simply is not provided 

in the majority of special ed classrooms.” 

Philippe Ernewein (G.N.O ’94) is the 

director of education at Denver Academy, 

an independent private school in 

Colorado for children with learning differences. 

DA has a long track record of 

student success, and last year sent 90 

percent of its students to two- or fouryear 

colleges. A 20-year veteran special 

educator, Ernewein says the school’s 

core philosophy is asset-based and one 

that honors individuality and multiple 

intelligences. Differentiation is key. 

“We have a curriculum. It has flexibility. 

It’s not uncommon for us to ask 

kids: ‘How are you smart?’ Let’s say 

you’re a graphic artist learning about 

literary devices like simile, alliteration, 

or metaphor. How would you show 

what you know? You might create a billboard, 

or a website, or a logo. We give 

students an opportunity to be creative 

and explore a different way of showing 

what they know.” 

DA’s website carefully avoids the 

term “disability,” and Ernewein concedes, 

“We don’t give that term a lot of 

currency here.” Students begin the year 

by taking Myers-Briggs and Strengths- 

Finder personality assessments. School 

staff is getting training on ideas in a 

book called The Dyslexic Advantage, 

which talks about the benefits of a dyslexic 

learning style. Ernewein says that 

tremendous gains are possible when students 

are educated in a way that inherently 

values their differences. 

Although DA enjoys resources most 

public schools don’t have, Ernewein says 

committing to asset-based differentiation 

costs nothing: “We have autonomy as 

leaders of our classrooms. You have control 

over how your content is delivered, 

what kind of process and interactivity 

your kids have with that content, and 

how they’re going to show you what they 

know. We have this idea that we’re going 

to do school the way it was done to us, 

and I think that’s a great injustice. Let’s 

challenge that pedagogy.” 

Dr. Thomas Hehir, a Harvard professor 

and former OSEP director under 

President Clinton, made the case for an 

asset-based approach to teaching in his 

seminal 2002 article “Eliminating Ableism.” 

In it, Hehir calls for applying the 

architectural principle of universal design—conceiving 

of buildings with the 

assumption that people with disabilities 

would use them—to special education. 

“We often try to retrofit the child with 

inappropriate interventions after they 

“It’s not uncommon for us to ask kids: ‘How are 

you smart?’ ” says Philippe Ernewein of his school’s 

asset-based approach to special education. “We give 

students an opportunity to be creative and explore a 

different way of showing what they know.” 


Why are so many 

black students in 

special ed? 

18 

students with 

%of disabilities are 

26 % 

of students 

identified as 

intellectually 

disabled 

are African 

American 


Research suggests that some of the overrepresentation 

of students of color in 

disability categories may be attributed to 

factors linked with poverty—poor nutrition, 

greater exposure to environmental toxins, 

physical or substance abuse. Health issues, 

especially prenatal ones, can play a 

role in future disabilities. 

But University of Miami professor Beth 

Harry says it’s telling that overrepresentation 

occurs only in categories such as 

emotional disturbance, mild intellectual 

disability, and specific learning disabilities—where 

identification is not based 

on a medical evaluation but a subjective 

process that may be swayed by a child’s 

behavior, race, and other factors. 

The evaluations themselves may be 

unreliable, Harry says. “I.Q. testing is 

known for having biases that are culturally 

and socioeconomically based. They don’t 

test your naked intelligence; they test what 

you’ve had the opportunity to learn.” 

Vanderbilt’s Douglas Fuchs cautions 

that poor academic performance may trigger 

inappropriate special education referrals. 

“Unfortunately, in a lot of low-income 

communities, there are poorly functioning 

schools. So you have kids with low performance 

who are not disabled but who are 

simply undereducated or not educated. If a 

child is doing poorly, and if the instruction 

is also poor, no one should be leaping to 

the conclusion that the kid has a disability.” 

have failed in school,” he wrote, “rather 

than design the program from the beginning 

to allow for access and success.” 

Ernewein and Hehir raise an interesting 

idea: What if special education 

programs—or even better, entire school 

systems—were designed from the get-go 

to be flexible, rigorous, and welcoming 

to a wide diversity of learners? What if 

children like Latisha Justice weren’t 

seen as burdens on a system that need to 

be “accommodated,” but rather individuals 

with a unique set of challenges and 

strengths deserving of respect? 

all teachers are special EDUCATORS 

Ryan Mick (G.N.O. ’09), who leads Teach 

For America’s national training and 

support for special education, says the 

organization is beginning to embrace the 

notion of universal design as it makes 

significant changes to its training and 

support of special education corps members. 

“Rather than thinking about our 

special educators as this discrete group 

of people, we should be thinking about all 

of our teachers as special educators and 

preparing them as such,” he says. “Our 

goal is to see people with disabilities as 

an integral part of our work and see disability 

as something we consider in all 

the choices we make. There is a privilege 

of silence we take when we don’t talk 

about those issues. It’s not okay for us 

to be silent on this anymore, and I think 

we’re on the cusp of changing that.” 

Nationwide, 1,300 corps members 

are placed in special education. Placement 

is driven by district needs and varies 

greatly. A few regions have no special 

education corps members, but in New 

York City, they make up a fifth of the 

region’s 1,200 corps members. Next year 

Los Angeles expects that nearly 60 percent 

of its incoming corps will be placed 

in special education. 

Critics complain that corps members 

lack adequate training to teach students 

with the most challenging needs. Dhathri 

Chunduru (Metro Atlanta ’08), who 

leads the team that supports Atlanta’s 

60 special education corps members, believes 

some of the criticisms are valid. 

Since the implementation of IDEA 

differs from state to state and district to 

district, historically much of Teach For 

America’s support has been regionally 

driven. Regions with a higher proportion 

of special education corps members 

tend to have multiple coaches on staff 

with specialized training, but regions 

with fewer such corps members often 

have no dedicated staff support in special 

education and are instead supported 

by general education coaches. 

For too long, Chunduru says, the 

organization relied on the rhetoric that 

special education was just an extension 

of good teaching. “It is good teaching, but 

there’s so much more,” she says. “We fall 

into the trap of thinking there’s a best 

practice for teaching a kid with a certain 

disability. What we need is specialized 

training on how to make sense of the 

manifestation of a disability. We need 

teachers who are able to analyze and 

problem solve.” 

In 2008, as part of an increased focus 

on differentiated support at institute, 

Teach For America hired its first special 

education curriculum designer. The 

team has been steadily building capacity 

since then. 

Chunduru has been encouraged 

by recent shifts in the organization’s 

stance toward special education. “Our 

discussion around diversity is changing 

to include ability—that gives me 

hope,” she says. More concretely, this 

summer four of the largest special education 

placement sites—New York, Los 

Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta—will 

pilot institutes dedicated to teaching 

special education tenets and skills to 

corps members in both general and 

special education placements. 

In time, Teach For America’s “unique 

impact can be in special education,” 

Chunduru says. “I see our corps members 

doing incredible things every day. 

They’re mainstreaming kids and building 

knowledge with their parents about 

how to be a warrior for their children. 

I have principals and veteran educators 

saying that their expectation for what 

kids with disabilities can achieve has 

been radically blown out of the park. 

That’s the value we bring—making 

the world question their beliefs about 

what’s possible.” 

27 % “I always tell them, ‘You’re the best kids in the building,’ ” says Sheena Varghese (center, during a typical 

of students 

identified as 

emotionally 

disturbed are 


WHEN Success looks different 

The eighth graders in Sheena Varghese’s 

(Metro Atlanta ’11) classroom at Harper- 

Archer Middle School are not learning 

the Pythagorean theorem, analyzing 

themes in literature, or examining Georgia’s 

role in the American Revolution. In 

fact, her instruction does not resemble 

anything close to the learning objectives 

laid out in Georgia’s eighth grade 

standards. That’s because Varghese 

teaches students who have moderate intellectual 

disabilities (MOID). Students 

with MOID generally have I.Q.s ranging 

between 40 and 55 and make up just 

over 1 percent of the special education 

population. 

Varghese’s students likely will never 

attend college and some may never 

write their own names. Three of her 

eleven students are nonverbal. Yet, 

if anything, her sense of urgency as 

their teacher has only increased with 

this awareness. “Their instruction and 

education are no less critical to their 

quality of life and to giving them maximum 

independence so they can live the 

lives they want,” she says. 

Varghese was the only 2011 Atlanta 

corps member to teach in a self-contained 

classroom of students with significant 

disabilities. Since Georgia has no functional 

skills curriculum, Varghese read, 

researched, and talked extensively with 

veteran APS special educators at other 

schools to design units geared toward 

helping her students become as independent 

as they can be beyond school. “It’s 

left up to each teacher to decide what 

they’re going to do for the year,” she says. 

morning warm-up in February). “I love hanging out with them—they’re so much fun!” 

“It was a lot of trial and error.” 

Now in her third year of teaching, 

Varghese says her understanding of 

what her students need has evolved radically. 

“At first, I went into it with a very 

academic achievement focus—looking at 

grade-level standards and trying to pare 

them down to what might actually apply 

to my classroom—which is completely the 

wrong way to go about it. Over the years, 

I’ve realized that academics are a component 

of what my students need to learn, 

but the best outcome is based on so much 

more—all the different domains of independent 

living. So now I base what I do in 

my classroom off of those life skills.” 

When I enter Varghese’s room, the 

class is just settling into their chairs after 

a jubilant morning dance session to 

the thumping beat of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.” 

Seated at three round tables, the 

students gaze at the Promethean board 

where Varghese is displaying individual 

goals based on their IEPs on a slide 

titled “Path to Independence,” and praising 

each child’s progress on benchmarks 

like knowing a certain number of sight 

words, counting coins and mixed change, 

handwriting, and controlling impulses. 

Students receive points for mastering 

independent tasks such as tying 

one’s own shoes or eating breakfast unassisted, 

as well as for teamwork. “We 

prioritize teamwork as a character skill 

because their job is probably going to be 

working as part of a team,” Varghese 

says. She also tracks goals on the wall 

with highlighted bars to show them their 

own progress. 

“People don’t think my students need 

to know their goals,” Varghese says. “I 

think they do. People think that they 

can’t know them because they’re too 

low-functioning—like, ‘What’s the point? 

They’re not going to understand it.’ But 

they do understand. And they want to 

learn it if they understand why they 

need to learn it. It’s the same way you 

would teach any student in any setting; 

hitting the rationale helps motivate 

them. I don’t think most of them have 

had that opportunity before—having a 

depth of knowledge of what they’re doing 

and why it matters. And it works.” 


Varghese started a program at her school called 

Peer Advocates that brings mainstream students 

into her classroom as volunteers. Seeing her 

kids forge positive friendships with their nondisabled 

peers “gives me hope,” she says. 

Next Varghese plays a short clip of 

the local TV station’s weather report. She 

points out areas of the map and symbols 

that indicate different weather patterns, 

and the students discuss whether the 

temperature that day is hot or cold. The 

class discusses how they might dress for 

their trip on Friday to a local Publix grocery 

store where they’ll practice finding 

and purchasing items they’ve planned to 

buy in advance. 

Varghese takes her class on weekly 

neighborhood trips—a program called 

community-based instruction—to teach 

them practical daily living skills. She 

is the only middle school teacher in 

the district who does this, though Varghese 

says research shows CBI is a best 

practice that should begin in elementary 

school. 

Later they break into smaller groups. 

Varghese works with one group on clap- 

ping and counting the number of syllables 

in different words and documenting their 

progress. Two students work on computers 

completing sample job applications. 

The aide, Ms. Fox, takes a group of five to 

a side room to review flashcards of community 

signs such as walk, exit, danger, 

in case of fire use stairs, push, and pull. 

“I think there can be huge gains 

made,” Varghese says, but she acknowledges 

that progress for her students 

looks different from what her fellow 

corps members are striving for. “High 

expectations isn’t setting a bar that 

80 percent of my students pass a test, 

or demanding a set number of my students 

get to college,” she says. “It’s a 

daily thing for my students, not making 

too many allowances for them, pushing 

them to do things for themselves even 

when it’s hard.” 

Varghese’s toughest challenge is a 

13-year-old boy named Dionta (dee-ONtay) 

Rucker. Dionta knows 22 of the 26 

letters of the alphabet and attempts to 

articulate about 100 words. He has excellent 

phonemic awareness and can identify 

the starting consonant of most words. 

Because of a sensory perception issue, 

Dionta is prone to collapsing or falling 

off his chair when he hears a loud noise. 

Time is not a concept he understands. 

Dionta has a significant developmental 

delay. He didn’t speak at all until 

the third grade and now receives speech 

language therapy and physical therapy 

for gross motor skills. Varghese is 

teaching him sign language to help 

him communicate. 

She believes that with the right supports, 

Dionta will someday be able to live 

in a group home and hold a part-time 

job. (Some of her other students will 

be able to work full-time, live independently, 

and manage their finances with 

some assistance.) But getting there will 

require sustained, consistent, and highly 

individualized instruction that accounts 

for Dionta’s unique needs. 

Dionta “is very loving,” Varghese 

says. But with certain triggers, his behavior 

can escalate to unmanageable 

levels. “I’ve asked for nonviolent resistance 

training because I sometimes have 

to restrain him. He’ll punch other students 

in the face. He’ll kick you and bite 

you. He’s slapped me in the face.” 

“I’ve learned to engage with him 

when I know it’s right. Individual accommodations 

sometimes mean that he gets 

different treatment—he can do things 

some other kids can’t. It’s not lowering 

expectations but understanding who he 

is and how he is able to learn.” 

Varghese channels a lot of effort into 

convincing parents that independence is 

a worthwhile goal. Many of them expect 

their child to live with them indefinitely. 

“What you don’t want is them living 

at their parents’ houses for the 

rest of their lives,” Varghese says. “Because 

when their parents pass away 

and there’s no one willing to take care 

of them, they’ll go to a government-run 

institution,” where, she says, they can be 

susceptible to abuse or neglect. “That’s a 

big wake-up call for parents, but also a 

really hard conversation to have.” 

She also trains parents on how to become 

more effective advocates for their 

children. “If teachers aren’t teaching 

our parents in poverty, who have been 

stripped of so much voice in education, no 

one is going to teach it to them,” she says. 

“There’s a lot of finesse to getting what 

you want in special education. If you 

have legal representation, if you cite law 

in writing, you’re going to use far fewer 

words and make far fewer attempts to 

get what you want for your child.” 

That said, it grates on Varghese that 

special education teachers and parents 

have to fight so hard just to have their 

children valued in basic ways. During 

her first year teaching, Varghese 

says her principal never set foot in her 

room. The teacher she replaced used 

to watch soap operas during the day. 

“The jobs are hard to fill, so when you 

have someone in the job who is being 

kind to the students, that’s [considered] 

good enough.” 

“I’m trying to help my kids to want to live independently,” says Varghese (practicing life skills with Dionta 

during a trip to Walmart in March). “I’m trying to show them it’s okay to fail—you just have to keep trying.” 

Varghese says even in some of the 

integrated classes at her school, teachers 

write off students with disabilities. “I 

hear all the time, ‘I can’t teach that kid,’ 

or ‘Take your kids over there,’ ” she says. 

“I’ve heard a teacher call a kid retarded 

in front of a whole class. How do you recover 

from that as a 12-year-old?” 

Beyond minimum compliance with 

the IEP process, Varghese says the district 

shows little interest in her students’ 

progress. Her kids participate in the 

Georgia Alternate Assessment, a portfolio 

evaluation that Varghese says is less 

about her students than “about my ability 

to keep up with the paperwork and 

the hundreds of pages of documentation 

that I turn in in March.” 

Her desires are simple. “I want the 

state to recognize that these students 

are important enough to write a curriculum 

for them,” Varghese says. “That 

says something. You don’t even have a 

curriculum for them? You treat them 

disposably. They just push them along 

until they get institutionalized. You 

need a standardized expectation of what 

should be done in these classrooms and 

what can be accomplished. A lot of it 

is the mindset of what people actually 

think these kids can do.” 

That includes helping her students 

to see that what they can do is defined 

by their efforts, not their disability. “It’s 

about understanding that special education 

is a service—it’s not a label,” Varghese 

says. “My kids feel so much shame 

from the term special education. I tell 

them all the time: All this means is that 

you learn differently, and you need different 

things. When it’s approached like 

that, it can be very empowering.” 

Greenville, Mississippi 

Roads less traveled 

In the United States, 1.5 million students 

with disabilities live in rural areas, where 

geographic isolation and scarce resources 

can put extra pressure on already strained 

special education programs. 

Attracting special educators to rural 

regions and keeping them is difficult. 

“Often you’ll find general education 

teachers who were put into a special 

education room because [the school] had 

nobody else,” says Belva Collins, the chair 

of the Department of Special Education at 

the University of Kentucky. 

Such teachers may also have to teach 

students with a greater diversity of needs— 

from more common disabilities to the most 

severe ones. Therapists and specialists 

often are contracted to cover large 

geographic areas. And accessing services 

can be a real hardship for families. Collins 

knows a mother who grappled with sending 

her son on a three-hour bus ride to get 

services or keeping him home on the farm. 

Technology will play a vital role in the 

solution. The 2014 Farm Bill has earmarked 

$50 million over the next five years for 

the development of rural broadband, 

and some districts have begun providing 

supplementary services, such as speech 

pathology, via Skype. A handful of graduate 

programs are also pioneering virtual 

professional development for special 

educators. West Virginia University offers 

free online classes for teachers who agree 

to continue teaching special education for 

at least two years after completing the 

program. “Every year more people are 

connected,” says WVU’s Barbara Ludlow. 

And that “allows more rural areas to 

have access to specialized services.” 

Tim Kennedy (delta ’11) 

Photo by Elizabeth Lewis 


Before joining ReNEW, Liz Marcell’s (R.G.V. ’99) dissertation research focused on students with disabilities in charter schools. “Overwhelmingly, kids with 

disabilities are in inclusive settings [at charters],” she says. “That’s associated with positive outcomes for a lot of kids, but terrible outcomes for others.” 

By Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01) photographs by ted jackson 

A New Orleans charter school network is 

bucking charters’ bad rap for neglecting 

students with special needs 

Last summer, Liz Marcell (R.G.V. ’99) was notified that two students, both 

of whom used wheelchairs, had enrolled at ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy 

in New Orleans—one of five ReNEW charter schools in the city. The threestory 

school is slated for renovations this summer, but until then, it has 

no elevator. “Some schools would say, ‘We’re not taking them—we’re not 

handicapped accessible,’” says Marcell, the network’s executive director of 

intervention services—elsewhere called special education. “We say, ‘Okay, 

we’re buying a stair climber.’” 

The decision was simple, she says, 

because it fit perfectly within one of the 

network’s foundational values: that every 

student, regardless of ability, deserves 

an excellent education tailored to his or 

her unique needs. “At the end of the day, 

there is a real commitment here truly to 

serving all kids. That mindset has to be 

there,” Marcell says. In 2010, she was 

the first person hired by ReNEW’s cofounders—before 

they had even received 

their charter. 

Nationwide, the charter movement 

has earned a poor reputation for serving 

kids with disabilities—for some schools, 

a “no excuses” approach hasn’t applied 

equally to all students. In fact, a couple 

of excuses are cited consistently, neither 

of which fully explain the problem: First, 

that charters can’t afford kids with special 

needs—they don’t have the economy 

of scale compared to traditional districts 

to provide adequate resources and services. 

Secondly, that charters, which tend 

to be relatively new and staffed by young 

teachers, lack the institutional knowledge 

and expertise to run quality special education 

programs. 

The reality nationwide is that charters 

do serve a lower percentage of students 

with disabilities. A 2012 report by 

the U.S. Government Accountability Office 

found that students with disabilities 

make up about 8 percent of charter school 

enrollment, compared with 11 percent of 

traditional public schools—though in 

a handful of states, including Nevada 

and Pennsylvania, charters serve a 

greater percentage. 

The report, which recommended more 

federal attention to the issue, suggested 

several factors contributing to the gap, 

including a lack of adequate resources 

for charters in some states, and parental 

choice. For example, some parents 

may find that a charter’s unique mission 

doesn’t align with their child’s special 

needs, or that the charter’s capacity to 

serve their child pales compared to the 

district’s resources. 

The GAO report also found anecdotal 

evidence—though no comprehensive 

data—of charter operators illegally discouraging 

children with disabilities from 

attending their schools—a common criticism 

leveled at the charter movement. 

Even charters that do serve students 

with disabilities often lack the resources 

to implement comprehensive specialneeds 

programming. Whereas ideally 

schools have in-house specialists who 

work regularly and closely with students 

to provide therapy or services to students, 

charters often hire outside contractors to 

come in and provide speech and occupational 

therapy, and perform students’ annual 

Individualized Education Program 

(IEP) evaluations. The result is a more 

piecemeal approach to providing for students’ 

needs than well-functioning districts 

can provide. 

n New Orleans, post-Katrina 

school reform fueled an unprecedented 

expansion of charter 

schools. Today, nearly 90 percent 

of the city’s students attend a 

charter—and on average, charters serve 

a higher percentage of students with special 

needs than the few remaining traditional 

district schools. For many students, 

New Orleans’ reforms have proved to be a 

great thing—citywide academic outcomes 

have improved steadily since 2006. But 

for students with special needs, the reforms 

too often left them flailing. 

Kathy Kilgore is a 40-year special 

educator and founder of New Orleans’ 

SUNS Center, which provides schools 

with special education support services. 

In the first years after Katrina, she says, 

charters had little support from the state 

when it came to setting up quality programs 

for students with disabilities. “On 

the one hand, the schools were trying to 

be innovative and meet the needs of kids, 

but often because of untrained or inexperienced 

staff, their interventions were 

one-size-fits-all,” she says. 

The results were dismal. In 2008, the 

graduation rate for students with disabilities 

in the Recovery School District—a 

group of 101 schools overseen by the state, 

66 of which are in New Orleans—was less 

than half the rate for their peers without 

disabilities. The same year, nearly 95 percent 

of the district’s eighth graders with 

disabilities failed the state assessments. 

In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center 

filed an ongoing civil rights lawsuit 

against the Louisiana State Department 

of Education, arguing that New Orleans 

students with disabilities fail to receive 

services required under federal law. 

“Every time I hear about charters not 

doing this work well, it fuels me,” Marcell 

says. “Our outcomes are abysmal, and 

the services provided are abysmal, and 

there’s no greater need than for a focus on 

really quality services and support. The 

research shows that 85 to 90 percent of 

kids with disabilities are able to perform 

on grade level. That’s not happening.” 

Still, she is heartened by improvements—in 

2012, 39 percent of New Orleans 

students with special needs scored 

“basic or above” on state assessments, up 

from about 11 percent in 2005. 


Andrea Smith Bailey (G.N.O. ’99) has spent most of her career teaching students with severe emotional disabilities, balancing patience and compassion with an 

unwavering focus on academics. “I could validate their behaviors till the cows come home,” she says. “But that wouldn’t change the fact that we have a job to do.” 

Marcell and others admit that charters 

are at a financial disadvantage when 

it comes to serving kids with special 

needs. “One of the biggest limitations of 

[the Recovery School District’s] current 

funding formula is that it does not provide 

adequate resources to cover the average 

per-pupil cost of the highest-need 

students,” says Josh McCarty, a spokesman 

for the nonprofit New Schools for 

New Orleans. “Currently, dollars are distributed 

based on the disability diagnosis 

alone, and not based on the total care 

provided to a child.” McCarty provided 

an example: Under the current formula, 

a high-functioning autistic child is funded 

at the same level as a severely autistic 

child—though as individuals, the former 

may be fully mainstreamed, while the latter 

may require several costly therapists 

and a full-time aide. 

ReNEW counters the charter movement’s 

poor reputation for enrolling kids 

with disabilities—about 14 percent of the 

network’s 3,390 students have IEPs, compared 

with a 10 percent citywide average. 

State test data specific to students with 

disabilities has not been made available 

since 2010-11, ReNEW’s first year. But 

standardized assessments are a small 

piece of students’ overall achievement, 

Marcell says. So ReNEW has become 

focused on IEP goal mastery, measured 

by a tracker launched this year where 

teachers enter detailed academic and 

behavioral outcomes. “Our goal is 100 

percent mastery of IEP goals,” she says, 

“and it looks like we may fall short of 

this in year one, but we’ll continue to 

refine our approach to tracking and 

attaining it.” 

To meet students’ needs, Marcell 

hustles for grant and private funding. 

Even so, she’s constrained. “We’re 

meeting expectations, but we’re not 

able to do what you’d see in a really 

affluent community for, say, an autism 

classroom,” she says. “You’d have 

applied behavioral analysis, you’d 

have sensory stimulation. So, we can 

know that’s what we’re shooting for, 

but without private funding we can’t 

get there.” 

ReNEW manages the funds it does receive 

to operate five programs tailored for 

kids with special needs. The five-school 

network has a classroom of 3-year-olds— 

half with disabilities, half developing typi- 

cally—two classrooms for students with 

severe autism spectrum disorders, one 

“community skills” classroom for middle 

school students with moderate cognitive 

impairments, a high school for students 

up to 22 years old who are missing credits, 

and two “therapeutic classrooms” for 

students with serious psychiatric disabilities. 

Each program relies on intense differentiation 

and student schedules flexible 

enough to include small-group settings, 

mainstream settings, early start times, 

late start times, and counseling sessions. 

Through the Recovery School District, 

ReNEW students with the most severe 

disabilities generate for their school an additional 

$15,000 on top of their per-pupil 

funding. The therapeutic program, for 

example, costs about $600,000 per year— 

which goes to two teachers, three paraprofessionals, 

one full-time counselor, a psychiatrist, 

and supports frequent field trips 

and professional development, like crisisprevention 

training. Per-pupil funding for 

the program’s 14 students brings in about 

$350,000, leaving the school on its own 

to find the additional dollars each year 

through state and private grants. New 

Schools for New Orleans, which serves in 

part as a clearinghouse of philanthropic 

dollars, recommended the program for expansion 

in 2014-15. 

Andrea Smith Bailey (G.N.O. ’99) 

teaches the third-through-fifth-grade 

therapeutic classroom; she also has a master’s 

in counseling. Many of her students 

perform on or even above grade level but 

suffer from behavioral disabilities stemming 

in part from traumatic life experiences—family 

members murdered or incarcerated, 

physical and emotional abuse, 

chronic neglect, a lifetime of bouncing 

between homes and guardians. “We only 

hear the tip of the iceberg,” Bailey says. 

After more than 10 years working with 

students with behavioral disabilities, Bailey 

has learned to focus her attention inside 

the classroom, and not on their lives 

outside. “I want us to be in tune with kids’ 

lives, but I don’t want us to match that 

tune,” she says. “Our job in a lot of ways 

is to create four walls that feel different, 

where kids have an experience to latch on 

to and to say: ‘I knew how to control things 

in there. My decisions are what mattered, 

my efforts are what mattered, I knew how 

to get what I needed.’ And then to translate 

that experience elsewhere.” 

She reminds them daily that success 

opens doors for them, and that unfair as 

it may seem, the world doesn’t stop for 

their problems. The goal is a successful 

transition back to general education 

classrooms—something that all but two of 

them do for at least part of the day. “They 

may have challenges along the way, but it 

doesn’t change the fact that I want them to 

know what they need to do to get to where 

they want to be.” 

Results have been promising. Suspensions 

have dropped dramatically—prior 

to the program, each student had received 

the maximum 10 days; this year, only 

one student has been suspended, once, 

for two days. Academically, students in 

the program have grown, on average, 1.5 

reading levels each year. Three students 

have exited the program fully—they’re 

still receiving special services, but in an 

inclusive setting. 

Half a mile away at ReNEW Accelerated 

High School, students between 

16 and 22 years old work in computer 

labs at their own pace to earn credits 

toward a high school diploma. They 

attend school for four hours a day—either 

a morning or an afternoon shift— 

and they study only two core subjects 

at a time. Many have their own kids, 

many have jobs, some have been incarcerated. 

The computer labs are divided 

by subject area (math, science, 

English, and social studies) and each 

is staffed with three teachers. Each 

lab has a small adjacent room for 

pull-out direct instruction based on 

computer assessments. 

“This is about rethinking the high 

school classroom—for all kids, not just 

those with IEPs,” says Emily Perhamus 

(G.N.O. ’09), who oversees the high 

school’s intervention services. “We have 

a whole lot of kids who’ve been identified 

with a disability, and a whole lot 

more who never have,” she says, explaining 

that some weren’t in one place long 

enough to be evaluated, and some fell behind 

for reasons other than a disability. 

From her shared office, Perhamus 

describes a former student, Shadrica, 

who despite cognitive delays persisted 

until she earned a diploma. “I’ve never 

seen anyone work so hard to retain information. 

But in June, she was able to 

graduate, and now she’s enrolled at a 

local community college. She’s someone 

who wouldn’t have had a school to go to if 

this school didn’t exist,” she says. 

Shadrica is one of 129 graduates in 

the school’s 2 ½-year history. In 2012, 

18 students earned a diploma, followed 

by 90 more in 2013. This year, up to 

100 graduates are expected by June. 

In addition, the attendance rate has increased 

to 81 percent, up from 68 percent 

in 2011-12. 

The successes keep Marcell motivated, 

despite a constant thirst for more 

and better information about how to 

serve kids with such tremendous obstacles 

to overcome. But if successful strategies 

are to be found, she’s hopeful that 

ReNEW can serve as an inspiration to 

other charters to redouble their efforts. 

“Charters are supposed to be places 

where innovation and flexibility result 

in cool things happening for students, 

and increased outcomes,” Marcell says. 

“I’m excited about the possibility that 

charters can be the place where there’s 

room for that level of innovation and 

experimentation to think about how we 

serve students with special needs. That’s 

invigorating.” 

Jennifer Boyce (Delta ’03) leads ReNEW’s community skills class for students with moderate intellectual disabilities. 

“To be able to teach skills like how to shop, or to be toilet-trained—that changes a kid’s life,” Boyce says. 


1893 

BROWN V. BOARD 

OF EDUCATION 

1954 U.S. Supreme Court strikes 

down “separate but equal” laws. 

1852 

Massachusetts becomes first state to 

pass a compulsory education law requir- 

The constitutional guarantee of 

ing students aged 8-14 to attend school. 1922 

Massachusetts case Watson v. City of 

1927 

equal protection—so paramount 

1961 

Columbia professor Elizabeth Farrell 

Cambridge upholds the exclusion of a 

In Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court 

to the civil rights movement—becomes 

the foundation of the ability 

founds the Council for Exceptional Children, 

“mentally retarded” child from public 

validates the right of states to forcibly 

the first American intellectual disability 

school for being too “weak-minded” to 

sterilize “the unfit,” including people 

rights organization. 

rights movement. 

benefit from instruction. 

with disabilities. 

Findings from a panel appointed by 

President Kennedy prompt new legislation 

funding university research and community 

facilities for people with disabilities. 

1900s 

1800s 

1966 

The Bureau of Education for the Handicapped 

is created within the U.S. Department 

of Education. 

1973 

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 

1973 is the first federal civil rights law that 

guarantees the rights of individuals with 

disabilities, prohibiting discrimination 

by any federally funded programs 

or services. 

1967 

The number of Americans with 

disabilities living in state-run institutions 

peaks at 194,650. 

EAHCA 

1975 The Education for All 

Handicapped Children Act 

(EAHCA) guarantees—for the 

first time—the right to a “free, 

appropriate, public education” 

for all children with disabilities. 

1970 

Congress’ Education of the Handicapped Act 

(EHA) establishes a legislative definition of 

learning disabilities and authorizes funding 

for “model centers” for the education 

of children with disabilities. 

1982 

The Supreme Court rules in Hendrick 

Hudson District Board of Education v. 

Rowley that Individualized Education 

Programs for students with disabilities 

are not required to “maximize the potential 

of handicapped children,” only to 

guarantee a “basic floor of opportunity.” 

JANUARY 6, 1972 

A Peabody Award-winning television 

exposé sparks a national furor over 

the horrifying conditions and abuse at 

Willowbrook State School for people with 

disabilities, New York’s largest state-run 

institution. The school is closed in 1987. 

1990 

The EAHCA is reauthorized as the 

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 

expanding the categories of disabilities 

eligible for services, among other improvements. 

The Americans with Disabilities 

Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination 

based on disability in employment and 

most other sectors. 

May 5, 1972 

After the landmark lawsuit Pennsylvania 

Association for Retarded Children v. 

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the state 

agrees to provide a free public education 

for children with mental retardation, 

reversing previous legislation. 

1997 

IDEA is reauthorized, strengthening the 

disability evaluation process and requiring 

most students with disabilities to 

participate in state- and district-wide 

assessments. 

Mills v. board 

of education 

august 1, 1972 Mills v. Board of 

Education of District of Columbia 

decrees that lack of funding 

cannot be used as a reason to 

deny educational services to 

children with disabilities. 

2000s 

2002 

The Elementary and Secondary Education 

Act is reauthorized as the No Child Left 

Behind Act. With few exceptions, the test 

scores of students with disabilities are 

included in measures of whether schools 

are making “adequate yearly progress.” 

the ability rights 

movement 

through the years 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is less than 40 years old. For 

the majority of U.S. history, public schools had no legal obligation to educate 

or accommodate students with disabilities. The cultural shifts that made IDEA 

possible were the culmination of a century’s worth of advocacy and struggle 

that ran parallel to the civil rights movement. By Tim Kennedy (Delta ’11) 

2004 

IDEA is reauthorized with stricter 

standards for documenting “response to 

intervention” treatment for students with 

disabilities, including the presence of 

“highly qualified” teachers, researchbased 

instruction, and repeated 

assessments at “reasonable” intervals. 

2012 

According to an awareness survey 

conducted by the National Center for 

Learning Disabilities, 90 percent of 

respondents know that terminating 

an employee over a learning disability 

is illegal, and 84 percent agree that 

students with disabilities deserve extra 

classroom time and attention. 

MARCH 

24, 2014 

Thanks to new rules from the 

Department of Labor, federal contractors 

will be encouraged to meet a goal 

of having 7 percent of their employees 

be people with disabilities—potentially 

creating 600,000 jobs for individuals 

with disabilities. 

Photo sources: MadMarlin (Flickr, CC BY 2.0); chbrenchley (Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); 

Steve Rhodes (Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); Shutterstock. 


Becoming 

Sammie 

By Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01) photographs by sara rubinstein 

For this story, I set out to find a high school student with a fairly 

typical learning disability—one of the millions of students who 

struggle daily, often unnoticed, with tasks most people find effortless— 

like reading or basic computation. I sought the kind of kid who sits in 

every classroom in the country—the kind who works twice as hard as his 

classmates, usually to land in the middle of the pack. I wanted to spend 

enough time with him, his teachers, and his family to begin to see life as 

he sees it. Sammie Watkins, Jr.’s story asks us to reconsider our notions of 

academic success—to see that accomplishments are sometimes relative, 

but not the work put into them, nor the pride at their completion. 


ammie Watkins, Jr., flops his backpack on a 

table at Brooklyn Center High School, just north 

S 

of Minneapolis, and pulls out his homework—an 

essay for sociology class about his family. 

“My family is from Mississippi we moved to Minnesota 

in 2001,” he writes. “My mom is a single parent, I have 3 

brothers and two of them lives with me and 1 lives with my 

dad in Mississippi.” 

As a senior, the act of writing finally comes easily, he 

says. But even now, once the words are on paper, Sammie’s 

brain plays a trick. When he goes back to read the essay 

he just wrote, he squints his eyes, scratches his head. The 

words are a puzzle, demanding focus and patience to decipher 

and comprehend. 

“Reading is not my subject,” he says. At the end of period, 

he stuffs the sociology draft in his backpack and stretches as 

he stands, revealing the 6 ½-foot wingspan that on the basketball 

court makes him the Centaurs’ best defender. 

Sammie has a reading disability—the catch-all term is 

dyslexia. “It’s a headache,” he says. And he means it literally: 

His brain hurts from trying to do something it was never 

designed to do. In fact, recent neuroscience shows that even 

the best readers weren’t born with a brain designed to read. 

Reading happens because our brains rearrange circuits designed 

for other purposes entirely—purposes like hearing, 

seeing, and remembering. But for about 15 percent of English 

speakers, reading circuits don’t form efficiently or at all— 

words in a dyslexic brain get caught in neural detours and 

traffic jams, making understanding painfully difficult. 

Signs of trouble showed up early for Sammie. “It kinda hit 

me when he was 5,” says his mom, Tracy Hoskins, recalling 

her son darting around their home in the small Delta 

town of Hollandale, Miss. He was a natural athlete but slow 

to pronounce even simple words. “Wasn’t till 7 or so that he 

could really communicate,” she says. In ways she couldn’t 

quite define, Sammie reminded Tracy of her husband, his father—and 

she worried, because she had watched Sammie Sr. 

struggle to read as long as she had known him. 

She observed what researchers have begun to prove: Many 

learning disabilities are rooted in genetics, and a child’s early 

speech patterns can indicate later struggles with reading. A 

young child may hear a word perfectly, but within his brain, 

the storage of the sounds is so imprecise that when he uses 

the word, it comes out garbled—ba might become pa. Years 

later, when it comes time to assign letters to sounds, a b may 

as well be a p, and on the scale of the entire alphabet, each 

word on the page becomes a puzzle. 

In 2001, Tracy moved to Minnesota with Sammie and his 

two brothers. Throughout elementary school, she knew her 

son was trailing his peers. But his teachers blamed his age, 

she says. “I was listening to them say, ‘He’s the youngest in 

his grade, takes time for him to catch up.’ But by the end of 

fifth grade, I said something’s gotta give.” 

During the summers, Sammie spent carefree hours in Hollandale 

with his dad and his brothers, playing basketball 

night and day. Sammie Sr. taught his sons everything he 

knew—not just to shoot well, but to understand the whole 

court, to know his teammates’ strengths and weaknesses, 

and to strategize as if basketball were a chess game played 

at full speed. Sammie Sr. had been a great basketball player, 

too, but left scholarships on the table when he couldn’t hack 

college academics. 

When Sammie returned to Minnesota in the fall of 2007, 

a sixth grade reading assessment placed him at a secondgrade 

level—he could read words like “please” and “town,” 

but missed ones like “quietly” and “frightened.” Finally, at 

the close of seventh grade, after years of falling further and 

further behind, he received his first formal evaluation for 

special needs. 

Sammie “would be predicted to have a great deal of difficulty 

in processing verbal information considered typical 

for his age,” it said. It recommended academic material 

presented in small chunks, with colorful pictures. 

The evaluation called out his strengths, too—a good shortterm 

memory, tested by exercises like repeating back a string 

of words or sounds—and nonverbal processing, like moving a 

game piece strategically across a board. 

But then there was his behavior: “Mom reports that he 

has anger issues,” the report said. He had been referred for 

therapy, but no one followed through. “Mom feels as though 

Sammie shuts down when he doesn’t know how to do school,” 

it said. 

In eighth grade, Sammie received mostly Cs, but he was 

stuck at a second-grade reading level. Teachers noted his 

apathy in class and a failure to complete his homework. He 

skipped school when he felt like it, started fights when he felt 

like it, and talked back to his teachers. 

Holly Andersen (Twin Cities ’09) was a first-year corps 

member at Brooklyn Center, a combined middle and high 

school, when she became Sammie’s special education case 

Holly Andersen (Twin Cities ’09) has been Sammie’s case manager since 2009. “His kindness has come out. He has such a good heart, but for a long time 

there were barriers to seeing that. I think as he’s figured himself out more, and as school has fallen into place, Sammie is more able to be that person.” 

reading happens because our brains rearrange 

circuits designed for other purposes entirely ... 

but For about 15 percent of english speakers, 

reading circuits don’t form efficiently or at all. 


“right now, if sammie were a book, i finally got into 

chapter one,” says basketball coach lamii zarlee. 

Sammie is applying to colleges in Mississippi and Minnesota. “I am worried about how college will be,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll be getting the same help 

I get now.” But there’s a critical difference between Sammie earlier in high school and Sammie on the verge of graduating: “Now, I know how to ask for it.” 

manager—a role she holds today as well as being the district’s 

lead secondary special education teacher. She is energetic and 

animated, throwing her hands out as she describes countless 

times when eighth grade Sammie would rip up papers or tests 

in silent protest. “He’d just come into my room and say he 

wasn’t going to do it, and that was it,” she says. 

Holly recalls the first time Sammie read to her: “He read 

me a paragraph—I’ll guess it was at about a fourth grade level. 

I remember it was an African folklore book, and the only 

word he needed help with was ‘hippopotamus.’ When he was 

done, he wouldn’t talk to me, and he just put his head down 

and cried—silent tears, and he wouldn’t talk to me anymore. 

I said, ‘Sammie, you did really well! You missed one word— 

you did really well!’ And he put his head down and cried.” 

Holly spent long hours figuring out what would work best 

for him. “He’d come down and say, ‘I’m not gonna do this test.’ 

And I’d pretend I didn’t hear him correctly. I’d go over there 

and say, ‘Okay, let’s figure out how to do this,’” she says. 

They spent much of ninth and tenth grade working on 

writing—hours spent over papers, color-coding each sentence 

by topic, and then rearranging the sentences, by color, into 

paragraphs. Holly worked with the school librarian to secure 

more audio books, which have proved critical to Sammie’s access 

to reading. She would read aloud with him, too—books 

like The Outsiders and Of Mice and Men. Slowly, as Sammie 

became more comfortable, he would read aloud to Holly, and 

they would discuss the themes that had been locked behind 

the words: friendship, loss, growing up. 

By 10th grade, teachers noted an improvement in his writing 

skills, and his reading had notched up to a fifth grade level. 

His behavior was still inconsistent, but better than it had 

been in middle school. By 11th grade, he had become more 

willing to ask for help when he needed it—a critical skill for 

an often taciturn student. He no longer tore up tests, and he 

more often turned in his homework. 

But like any kid, Sammie was contending with more than 

his schoolwork. There was basketball, a social life, family. 

His dad, in many ways his idol, still lived in Hollandale— 

home to Sammie’s happiest memories, but one of his saddest, 

too: In 2007, Sammie Sr. was sent to prison on a drug 

conviction. He served two years, mostly while Sammie was 

in middle school. 

When his dad was in prison, “it took a whole lot outta 

Sammie—because he was used to going down there, seeing 

him every summer, every holiday,” Tracy says. He became 

more withdrawn, more temperamental. “As he got older, I 

saw a lot of stuff changing about him, but the anger just kept 

on coming out, kept on coming out.” 

In the winter of his junior year, just as he was making 

progress in the classroom, Sammie quit Brooklyn Center’s 

basketball team one game before the regional championship 

that could’ve sent them to the state tournament. It was 

a matter of pride—he didn’t feel he was getting the playing 

time he deserved, and he blamed his coach. “I didn’t think at 

the time,” he says. “I just wanted to quit.” 

His last school summer came. He spent August in 

Mississippi, playing basketball till midnight under an alleyway 

streetlamp with his brothers and his dad. They knew well 

enough not to press him about quitting the team—if Sammie 

expresses one thing, it’s that he doesn’t like to say much, and 

basketball is the time when no one expects him to say anything 

at all. His mind clears, he can be perfect. But somewhere in 

his thoughts, he says, he considered his dreams—graduating 

from college, playing basketball as long as he could. “I just 

thought to myself, I want to be better,” he says. 

No one around Sammie can quite explain what happened 

next, but to call it by what it’s always been: “He grew up,” 

Tracy says—no one more astonished than she. “He said his 

senior year was gonna be different—he just changed.” 

Sammie’s basketball coach, Lamii Zarlee, is also the middle 

school dean. He has known Sammie since seventh grade, 

when Sammie would sit with him and sulk after being sent 

out of class. “I deal with kids during these wonder years, and 

normally by ninth or tenth grade, that maturity kicks in,” 

he says. “It just took Sammie a little longer. And he’s still 

opening up. Right now, if he were a book, I finally got into 

chapter one.” 

Sammie earned a B average his first senior semester. He 

read The Road, Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 

survival tale of a boy and his father—he even skipped open 

gym one afternoon to continue reading it. He’s back on the 

basketball team, one of three captains, averaging 16 points 

and 7 rebounds per game. He’s deciding between colleges 

in Mississippi and Minnesota. “I’m just focusing more,” 

he says. 

O 

n a winter evening following practice, Sammie 

sits beside his little brother and across from 

Holly, in a corner booth at a Chinese restaurant 

near the high school. His gray T-shirt reveals tattoos on his 

wiry biceps—one in memory of his grandmother and one of 

a basketball hoop with a cross. 

“I’m average,” Sammie says. “I feel I’m average at 

all subjects.” 

Holly cocks her head, as if trying to recognize the young 

man who once refused even to begin his schoolwork. “Do you 

think you always felt like you were average?” 

Sammie laughs quietly, and then looks to the side. “I felt 

like giving up. I thought I was going to be at the ALC”—the 

district’s alternative school—“by 12th grade.” 

Holly is quiet for a moment. The exchange is, in a way, 

her exit cue, she says later—not because average is the end 

goal, but because it’s the place where she can begin to bow 

out, where her daily supports are no longer a necessity. 

Average doesn’t reflect Sammie’s potential—far from it. But 

it reflects how far he’s come. 

“Look at you,” she says. “Are you proud you stayed?” 

He raises his eyebrows; a shy smile escapes. “Yeah,” 

he says. 


Perspectives 

on Ability 

Faith 

Taniesha Garrison (Metro Atlanta ’03) doesn’t complain 

about having to advocate constantly for her daughter’s 

education. “Faith was born at 24 weeks. She was a pound and 

six ounces,” says Garrison, who runs the team that designs 

professional development for Atlanta corps members. “She’d be 

pulling at all the tubes and wires, and I thought, this kid has 

worked so hard just to be here. So, it doesn’t matter how much 

I fight, I can never fight that hard.” 

Faith began showing symptoms of autism when she was 2. 

At 4, she began pre-K and Garrison met a teacher who would 

fundamentally shape the way she approaches Faith’s education. 

Ms. Williams sent home a daily log of Faith’s activities 

and progress. “She was interested in what I wanted for Faith, 

not just what she saw of Faith.” And she encouraged Garrison 

to plan backward from her aspirations for Faith, not only 

what she saw in the day to day. Ms. Williams held Faith to a 

high standard, teaching her numbers and letters, and worked 

with Garrison to find learning strategies that worked for 

her daughter. 

“All the pushing I did after that was based on the fact that 

I saw my child, at the very beginning of her academic career, 

making so much growth,” Garrison says. 

Since then, things have been harder. Two years ago, Garrison, 

a single mother, had to hire an attorney during a protracted 

dispute with Faith’s school over behavioral support. She 

estimates her daughter lost about 18 months of learning time. 

Today Faith is 12 and being taught in a self-contained sixth 

grade classroom. Garrison says she wants her daughter to be 

ready to pass the GED by the time she’s 22, and then “she and I 

will work toward getting ready for community college.” 

But partnering with Faith’s school to meet this goal remains 

a challenge. She recounts a recent frustration when 

she saw that Faith’s report card had grade percentages with 

no data behind them. “I said, ‘This is so disempowering to 

me as a parent. I can’t make decisions or give you good input 

on what her goals need to be because you haven’t given 

me any data on her performance or progress.’ It’s so hard to 

say that. I have a degree from Harvard, but I still walk into 

those meetings and my pulse is racing. It’s the most intimidating 

thing ever. Because they don’t know who Faith is and 

they’re not as invested in her future as I am. And hearing 

people say things like, ‘This would be too advanced for your 

child’—that hurts. It doesn’t make me angry. It just hurts. 

This is my child. I think they do care, but I need you to put 

up the periscope and see that this isn’t just one year. This 

is her life. The stuff we do right now has an impact on her 

life forever.” 

Garrison holds to the optimism she feels every day with 

her daughter. “She’s a great kid. She just makes me hopeful. 

I think a lot times people look at kids with disabilities, especially 

those with severe ones, and they’ll see the disability 

but not the person. I see the person. So it’s my job to get Faith 

to a place where everyone can see who she is and all the talents 

she brings to this world.” 

Brent Bushey, Madeleine, Charlotte, and Kirsten Wright 

Madeleine 

by Ting yu (N.Y. ’03) Faith with her mom, Taniesha Garrison 

by Brent bushey (g.n.o. ’99) 

I vividly remember the moment the doctor entered our 

hospital room. She introduced herself as a geneticist and said 

matter-of-factly, “Your daughter has trisomy-21, more commonly 

known as Down syndrome.” The news came three days after 

the emergency birth of our daughter, Madeleine, two months 

before her due date. She weighed just 2 pounds, 9 ounces. 

My wife Kirsten and I had met nine years earlier as Teach 

For America corps members teaching special education in New 

Orleans. While my mind was racing with the doctor’s words, I 

remember looking at Kirsten and thinking that if any couple is 

equipped to handle this, it’s the two of us. The doctor answered 

a few of our questions, handed us a book about raising a child 

with Down syndrome and walked out. 

When we first introduced Madeleine to the world, we 

made a conscious decision about how we would raise her. In 

an email to family and friends, we announced the birth of 

our daughter who, by the way, had Down syndrome. From 

that very first moment, we set the tone that Madeleine was a 

person and not a diagnosis. We were open and honest to 

anyone who we spoke to that while her birth was neither 

what we expected nor what we had hoped for, we were 

thrilled nonetheless. 

Now, as the parents of two daughters, that same mindset 

drives our parenting philosophy—and it helps us create 

equity in our home. Madeleine’s younger sister Charlotte was 

born two years later, and she’s the typically developing child 

that we always expected. 

“From that first moment, we set the tone that 

Madeleine was a person and not a diagnosis. 

While her birth was neither what we expected 

nor hoped for, we were thrilled nonethless.” 

When Madeleine was 4, we decided to split her schooling 

between a self-contained school and the Center for Young 

Children, a private preschool run by the University of Maryland, 

where she would be taught in a classroom with typically 

developing children. It had taken us 2½ years of meetings 

and waiting to get her into CYC—Madeleine was the first 

child with Down syndrome to be enrolled in the program in 

24 years—but once there, she thrived. Madeleine enjoyed rotating 

between activities of her choosing, and engaging with 

her peers gave her opportunities to learn by observing classmates 

and responding appropriately. 

Her classmates benefited, too. One girl initially looked at 

Madeleine like she was an alien, but after spending a year in 

class together, I saw the same girl play with and include our 

daughter in all the activities at a Fourth of July party. It was 

another reminder that inclusive education is important for all 

students, not just those with disabilities. 

Today, Madeleine, 5, attends kindergarten in an inclusion 

school in Edmond, Okla., and she continues to thrive. Our 

guidance to her teachers is simple: We want them to hold high 

expectations for our daughter. We know that it can be hard for 

educators to hold high expectations for children with special 

needs—especially one as loving and cute as Madeleine—but 

excusing her from difficult tasks will only hold her back as 

she develops. We also share our belief in developing a “growth 

mindset” and stress that praising effort is a critical component 

to Madeleine overcoming challenges in life. 

At the end of the day, we aren’t naïve and we know that 

Madeleine’s diagnosis of Down syndrome will present challenges 

and limitations that Charlotte won’t have to face. We 

know our expectations and desires for Madeleine may differ 

from her own goals. Still, we want the same thing for both our 

daughters: to live happy, enriching lives that enable them to 

use their talents to the fullest in whatever path they choose. 

And we’re thankful for the two wonderful girls we’re raising, 

one of whom just happens to have Down syndrome. 

Brent Bushey and his wife Kirsten Wright met as special education 

corps members in New Orleans in 1999. Brent heads the 

Oklahoma Public School Resource Center and Kirsten works 

for Teach For America’s school leadership initiative. They hope 

more alumni will join them in the fight for Oklahoma’s kids. 


Adele 

It was a sunny day and our kitchen was warm and 

bright when my world changed. Voice shaking and eyes watering, 

my mom sat me on her lap and told me I would be 

leaving first grade and returning to kindergarten. She rocked 

me on her lap as I started to cry. The school had informed my 

mother that I was “progressing poorly.” Even now, I remember 

my heart sinking as I began to understand that there 

was something “wrong” with me, but nobody, least of all me, 

knew what it was. 

I don’t remember what sparked the multitude of tests I 

underwent during my first failed attempt as a first grader; 

I have more memories of being tested than learning during 

this time. I passed school hearing tests, but the school’s 

psychological testing indicated I had no visual or auditory 

memory. My parents disagreed with the results—and my 

first grade teacher’s assessment of my academic ability— 

and sought additional private testing, which revealed I had 

learning differences related to articulation, writing (dysgraphia), 

and word memory (dysnomia). They recommended 

my hearing be retested. 

At first the transition back to kindergarten was fine. For a 

time, I was permitted to go back to my first grade classroom a 

few times a week to read with my group because I was a “good 

reader.” I loved going back and feeling “normal” for a moment. 

After getting my hearing aids, I stopped going back to my 

reading group. My life in special education had begun. 

With the hearing aids, my world went from ordinary to 

loud. My new world was hazy and accompanied by headaches. 

I protested the new devices by throwing them down the stairs 

and screaming. 

It took about five months after going back to kindergarten 

until we learned I was hard-of-hearing. I have a 

moderately severe sensory hearing loss—meaning I hear about 

60 percent less than the average person. My parents fought 

for services which included speech therapy and a hearing 

itinerate. With their advocacy I met some of the world’s best 

special educators. 

Still, school was difficult. Teachers told my parents I would 

never go to college. Doctors discouraged my parents from paying 

for independent evaluations, saying their expectations 

were too high and to trust the school’s initial tests. The messages 

I got as a student echoed my parents’ experience: I was 

not allowed to enroll in AP classes and teachers often told me 

to find “someone smart” with whom to study. These experi- 

ences led me to check “special education” as my teaching preference 

on my Teach For America corps member application. 

By now I have been involved with special education 

for more than two decades, the last 11 years as a special 

educator. As a teacher, I’ve met some of the most amazing 

students, but I almost didn’t join TFA because of my insecurities. 

I questioned how my difficulties with articulation and 

spelling would impact my ability to teach. I wanted the best 

for my students. I stressed over classroom management, fearing 

that I wouldn’t hear problems in my classroom. But I knew 

that I couldn’t expect my students to grow and reach for their 

dreams if I didn’t overcome similar challenges. 

To date, I have taught math, English, history, and reading 

to middle school students in both special and co-taught general 

education settings. I know firsthand the importance of having 

individualized high expectations for each student. I strive 

to define students by their abilities, not their disabilities. 

I have made, for now, the choice to stop wearing hearing 

aids, and I embrace my “hearing loss” as one of my core ingredients. 

I would not change my experiences for the world; 

they have made me a better teacher, alumna, and hopefully, 

a better parent. 

When I was invited to write this essay, I hesitated because 

I was frustrated by the lack of response to requests I 

had made for accommodations during TFA’s 20th anniversary 

summit in 2011. Without a sign language interpreter or closed 

captioning on the screens, I ended up missing much of the programming. 

By writing this, I hope to help TFA re-evaluate its 

definition of diversity to include ability. When a program for 

educators models advocacy for all students by accommodating 

its teachers and alumna, it creates a world of empathy and 

high expectations for all students. 

As TFA identifies ways to make its program more 

diverse—and, in turn, more inclusive to teachers who can 

relate to our students—the program should recruit corps 

members who come from a variety of learning backgrounds. 

TFA might also develop a more diverse application system 

so that potential corps members would be able to highlight 

their strengths. 

Ultimately, this benefits the students TFA serves, and it 

strengthens our movement. 

Adele Jackson (S. Louisiana ’03) is a veteran special education 

math teacher in Washington, D.C. 

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Dan Cogan-Drew (Georgia ’94), left, and Matthew Gross (N.Y. ’94) founded Newsela in 2013 and are thrilled by its growth. “It has spread like wildfire,” Gross says. 

News Makers 

Looking to provide teachers with leveled, high-interest nonfiction materials, two alums turned to current events 

by Calvin Hennick (N.Y. ’04) 

f Matthew Gross (N.Y. ’94) and 

I 

Dan Cogan-Drew (Georgia ’94) 

had their way, this story would 

be written at a third grade level. 

And a fifth grade level. 

And a 10th grade level, too. 

That’s the innovation behind Newsela, 

a website the two launched last summer 

that allows kids to change the reading 

level of news articles with the click of a 

button; it also tracks students’ topics 

of interest and results on short quizzes, 

then recommends more news stories— 

each of them automatically leveled to suit 

the students’ reading ability. 

“Teachers are really desperate for nonfiction 

content,” says Gross, the company’s 

CEO. “Finding something that’s in- 

teresting for kids is really hard. Finding 

something that’s on the right level for every 

kid in the class is next to impossible.” 

The site started in a free beta mode 

and quickly gained thousands of new 

users, Gross says—though he wouldn’t 

specify an exact number. Newsela is still 

free for students, but in February the 

company launched a paid-subscription 

version for schools, offering features 

like access to student quiz data and the 

ability to assign articles electronically to 

students. Schools can access the service 

for $18 per student per year, or flat rates 

of $2,000 per grade or $6,000 per school. 

The scramble for nonfiction reading 

materials is due in large part to Common 

Core literacy standards, which emphasize 

“authentic texts” that students 

might encounter in daily life, like magazines 

and newspapers. Gross—who before 

starting Newsela helped New York 

educators implement the standards as 

executive director of the Regents Research 

Fund—says there was a panic 

around the Common Core when it was 

first adopted, and that Newsela was 

built specifically “from the Common 

Core up” to help address the need for 

high-interest nonfiction. 

“High-interest” and “news” don’t always 

go together for kids, who aren’t 

typically keen followers of filibuster 

threats, profit projections, or Iran’s nuclear 

ambitions. But many of the stories 

on Newsela are relevant to kids’ daily 


lives, touching on subjects like childhood 

obesity, bullying, and zero-tolerance discipline 

policies in schools. And, Gross 

says, the mere fact that students have 

the freedom to choose from multiple topics 

helps to boost engagement. 

In addition to giving teachers access 

to good content, the company wanted 

to upend the stereotype of clunky educational 

technology by making Newsela 

“instantly understandable” for kids and 

teachers, says Cogan-Drew, the company’s 

chief product officer. 

“As a teacher, if you turn to it and 

ask, ‘How are my kids doing?’ the 

software can’t come to you speaking 

Greek,” Cogan-Drew says. “It’s got to be 

super simple.” 

Newsela’s writers take cues from a 

computer program that helps them match 

their vocabulary and sentence complexity 

to a range of Lexile levels, and then 

the writers make their own judgments 

about how to present the chronology of 

an event, as well as how to incorporate 

the prior knowledge that students need 

to make sense of some stories. 

So, the original version of a Stateline 

article about Amazon’s proposed drone 

delivery service starts with, “Not so fast, 

Jeff Bezos”—taking for granted that 

readers are familiar with the e-commerce 

giant, its chief executive, and his 

plans to deliver packages via unmanned 

aircraft. The story explains how “the 

economic temptation of aerospace jobs” 

led Virginia to “all but gut the moratorium” 

on drones that the state had 

passed with the help of “tea partiers and 

civil libertarians.” 

At a lower reading level, the article 

starts with two short paragraphs defining 

what drones are, in basic terms. “No 

pilot flies inside,” the story explains. 

“Some are as small as a remote-controlled 

toy. Others are as big as a regular 

plane.” The “moratorium” from the more 

difficult version becomes a “ban” here, 

and the “economic temptation” turns into 

a “chance for new jobs.” The “tea partyers 

and civil libertarians” vanish entirely. 

Erica Welch, a fifth grade teacher at 

the Boston Teachers Union School, uses 

Newsela in her classroom for close-reading 

exercises, and says her students are 

drawn to articles about animals, science, 

and controversial legal issues. 

Welch says her students were particularly 

jazzed reading an article about—of 

all things—a decline in the sardine population 

off the West Coast. “As we were 

reading, they immediately made the 

connection to their ecosystems unit,” she 

explains. “We really had to think about 

the food web, and what that means for 

the sea lions that eat sardines, and what 

that means for the plankton that get 

eaten by the sardines.” 

“They love these strange topics that 

they don’t get to hear about in their everyday 

books,” Welch says—“something new 

and exotic that they’ve never heard of.” 

Alma means soul. 

TEACH 

your heart out. 

1 

3 

2 

Need help getting 

started? Our Teach 

For America Grant 

Program helps new 

programs get off 

their feet! Visit our 

website to apply. 

The National Speech & Debate 

Association is proud to partner 

with Teach For America! 

Our free resources and professional 

development sessions are designed 

to help Teach For America corps 

members and alumni in meeting 

Common Core State Standards as 

well as building successful speech and 

debate programs at your school. 

MA ’12 

Atlanta ’11 

Delta ’09 

Delta ’05 

MA ’13 

MA ‘12 

New Mexico ’12 

4 

Visit www.speechanddebate.org/TeachForAmerica or 

email info@speechanddebate.org for more information. 

Join us: 

www.almadelmar.org 


post-its 

Nine Teach For America alumni featured in 

Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” in education 

Katie Beck (G.N.O. ’08), 27, chief operating officer, 4.0 

Schools—an education incubator designed to bring educators, 

entrepreneurs, and technologists together. 

Dan Carroll (Bay Area ’09), 26, cofounder, Clever—an 

information-management system that makes student data transferrable 

across dozens of programs. 

Alejandro Gac-Artigas (Greater Philadelphia ’09), 25, 

founder, Springboard Collaborative—a Philadelphia-based summer 

program targeting the literacy gap. 

Elliot Sanchez (G.N.O. ’08), 27, founder, mSchool—a startup 

that supplies adaptive educational hardware and software to 

after-school programs in Louisiana. 

Beth Schmidt (Bay Area ’07), 29, founder, Wishbone—a web 

platform that helps at-risk high school students participate in 

extracurricular activities through the support of online donors. 

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge (Bay Area ’08), 28, director, 

Startup Weekend Education—a recurring event that brings educational 

visionaries together to create start-ups—in one 54-hour 

marathon session. 

EVAN STONE (N.Y. ’07) and SYDNEY MORRIS (N.Y. ’07), 29 and 

28 respectively, cofounders, Educators 4 Excellence— an online 

community that connects teachers who want to make their voices 

heard in the education reform debate. 

Caryn Voskull (Bay Area ’09), 27, manager, School Model 

Innovation, Rocketship Education—one of the fastest-growing 

charter networks in the country, with an emphasis on instructional 

technology and blended learning. 

WOULDN’T 

YOU LIKE … 

A MOMENT TO RECHARGE? 

AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN? 

THE CHANCE TO CONNECT? 

! 

Considering a 

career transition 

or looking to build 

your professional 

network? Visit 

Teach For America’s 

new job board! 

The mobile-friendly Teach For America Job 

Board & Talent Community is up and running. 

Thousands of opportunities are already 

posted, and we will be holding several resume 

collections this spring with employers seeking 

Teach For America alumni. 

Log in at www.tfanet.org/job to get started. 

If you have questions or want to post roles as 

a hiring manager, contact us at jobboard@ 

teachforamerica.org. 

Business school scholarship available to Teach For America alumni 

The University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business is offering a scholarship package, including 

full tuition, to interested corps members and alumni. More information on the scholarship can be 

found at http://tippie.uiowa.edu/fulltimemba/admissions/scholarships.cfm, under 

the section “AmeriCorps Service Distinction Award.” 

J U LY 17-18 

2014 

Find It All At The 

Teach For America 

Educators Conference 

LAS VEGAS 

Nevada 

Connect with educators from across the country 

Learn in sessions on a broad range of topics including Latino issues in education 

Recharge and let us celebrate you 

LEARN MORE AT www.teachforamerica.org/educatorsconference 


alumni contacts 

National Alumni Affairs 

Executive vice president, 

Alumni Affairs 

Andrea Stouder Pursley (Phoenix ’02) 

andrea.pursley@teachforamerica.org 

EDUCATIONAL leadership 

Ann Best (Houston ’96) 

ann.best@teachforamerica.org 

School systems 

leadership institute 

Ellen Winn 

ellen.winn@teachforamerica.org 

Alumni diversity and 

Regional support 

Melinda Wright (N.Y. ’94) 

melinda.wright@teachforamerica.org 

alumni engagement 

Myra Palmero 

myra.palmero@teachforamerica.org 

Talent Matching 

Seth Saavedra (Connecticut ’07) 

seth.saavedra@teachforamerica.org 

career Leadership 

Kate Williams Coppola 

(Greater Newark ’02) 

kate.williams@teachforamerica.org 

School Leadership 

Hilary Lewis (G.N.O. ’01) 

hilary.lewis@teachforamerica.org 

Social Entrepreneurship 

Naya Bloom (D.C. Region ’94) 

naya.bloom@teachforamerica.org 

Teacher Leadership 

Shannon Wheatley (R.G.V. ’04) 

shannon.wheatley@teachforamerica.org 

private sector careers 

Christina Chinnici 

christina.chinnici@teachforamerica.org 

Regional Alumni Contacts 

alabama 

Khadijah Abdullah (S. Louisiana ’06) 

khadijah.abdullah@teachforamerica.org 

APPALACHIA 

Will Nash (S. Louisiana ’06) 

will.nash@teachforamerica.org 

ARKANSAS 

Kara Smith (N.Y. ’08) 

kara.smith@teachforamerica.org 

Austin 

Lindsay Fitzpatrick (N.Y. ’04) 

lindsay.fitzpatrick@teachforamerica.org 

BALTIMORE 

Jane Lindenfelser (S. Louisiana ’05) 

jane.lindenfelser@teachforamerica.org 

BAY AREA - OAKLAND 

Charles Cole 

charles.cole@teachforamerica.org 

BAY AREA - RICHMOND 

Piper Pehrson 

piper.pehrson@teachforamerica.org 

BAY AREA - SAN FRANCISCO 

Cris Garza (Mid-Atlantic ’03) 

cris.garza@teachforamerica.org 

BAY AREA - SAN JOSE 

Percilla Ortega (Bay Area ’08) 

percilla.ortega@teachforamerica.org 

CHARLOTTE 

Lisa Guckian (N.Y. ’06) 

lisa.guckian@teachforamerica.org 

CHICAGO 

Jessica Zander (St. Louis ’06) 

jessica.zander@teachforamerica.org 

COlorado 

Rachel Kelley (Baltimore ’00) 

rachel.kelley@teachforamerica.org 

CONNECTICUT 

Alexys Heffernan (L.A. ’02) 

alexys.heffernan@teachforamerica.org 

D.C. REGION 

Zenash Tamerat 

zenash.tamerat@teachforamerica.org 

DAllas–Fort worth 

Lacey Pittman (G.N.O ’08) 

lacey.pittman@teachforamerica.org 

delaware 

Catherine Lindroth 

catherine.lindroth@teachforamerica.org 

DETROIT 

Amy Lybolt 

amy.lybolt@teachforamerica.org 

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA 

Sara Price 

sara.price@teachforamerica.org 

GREATER NASHVILLE 

Brian Gilson (Memphis ’07) 

brian.gilson@teachforamerica.org 

GREATER NEW ORLEANS 

- LOUISIANA DELTA 

Jeffrey Fingerman (G.N.O. ’03) 

jeffrey.fingerman@teachforamerica.org 

GREATER PHILADELPHIA 

Claiborne Taylor (Houston ’02) 

claiborne.taylor@teachforamerica.org 

HAWAI‘i 

Jacob Karasik (New Mexico ’09) 

jacob.karasik@teachforamerica.org 

HOUSTON 

Shundra Cannon (Houston ’95) 

shundra.cannon@teachforamerica.org 

INDIANAPOLIS 

Jason Simons (E.N.C. ’08) 

jason.simons@teachforamerica.org 

jacksonville 

Darryl Willie (Delta ’02) 

darryl.willie@teachforamerica.org 

kansas city 

Ann Wiley (Charlotte ’05) 

ann.wiley@teachforamerica.org 

las vegas valley 

Amanda Keller 

amanda.keller@teachforamerica.org 

Los Angeles 

Nicole Delaney (L.A. ’98) 

nicole.delaney@teachforamerica.org 

massachusetts 

Deirdre Duckett (Baltimore ’93) 

deirdre.duckett@teachforamerica.org 

Memphis 

Nefertiti Orrin 

nefertiti.orrin@teachforamerica.org 

Metro Atlanta 

Ariela Freedman (Chicago ’00) 

ariela.freedman@teachforamerica.org 

miami-dade 

Kiesha Moodie (Houston ’08) 

kiesha.moodie@teachforamerica.org 

milwaukee 

Amal Muna 

amal.muna@teachforamerica.org 

Mississippi 

Elizabeth Harris (Delta ’05) 

elizabeth.harris@teachforamerica.org 

NEW jersey 

Michele Mason 

michele.mason@teachforamerica.org 

new mexico 

Nate Morrison (New Mexico ’08) 

nate.morrison@teachforamerica.org 

New York 

Craig Weiner 

craig.weiner@teachforamerica.org 

NORTHEAST ohio 

Holly Trifiro (Baltimore ’07) 

holly.trifiro@teachforamerica.org 

SOUTHWEST ohio 

Jaime Kent (D.C. Region ’08) 

jaime.kent@teachforamerica.org 

oklahoma 

Mary Jean “MJ” O’Malley (Oklahoma ’09) 

mj.omalley@teachforamerica.org 

Phoenix 

Lauren Forrester (N.Y. ’10) 

lauren.forrester@teachforamerica.org 

rhode island 

Rachel Greenman (Greater Newark ’06) 

rachel.greenman@teachforamerica.org 

Rio Grande Valley 

Militza Martinez 

militza.martinez@teachforamerica.org 

sacramento 

Nik Howard (Greater Philadelphia ’03) 

nik.howard@teachforamerica.org 

san antonio 

Anna Trigg (Metro Atlanta ’11) 

anna.trigg@teachforamerica.org 

San Diego 

David Lopez (Houston ’10) 

david.lopez@teachforamerica.org 

South carolina 

Josh Bell (Charlotte ’08) 

josh.bell@teachforamerica.org 

South DAKOTA 

Marion Katz (South Dakota ’07) 

marion.katz@teachforamerica.org 

South Louisiana 

Laura Vinsant (S. Louisiana ’07) 

laura.vinsant@teachforamerica.org 

st. louis 

Mallory Rusch 

mallory.rusch@teachforamerica.org 

TWIN CITIES 

Kyrra Rankine (N.Y. ’99) 

kyrra.rankine@teachforamerica.org 

washington 

Angela Burgess (Phoenix ’04) 

angela.burgess@teachforamerica.org 

Don’t see your region listed here? 

Contact jillian.rodde@teachforamerica.org 

2,398 scholars 

276 teachers 

1 mission: 

www.DemocracyPrep.org 


ALUMNI NOTES 

alumni notes 

Katie and Matthew Hooten (Phoenix ’02 and ’04) tied the knot at Orcas Island, Wash., on Aug. 3, 2013. They met at a Phoenix all-corps event in 2005. 

Katie writes: “While it wasn’t love at first sight, Teach For America events continued to bring us together year after year until we did actually fall in love.” 

1990 

Claire Bellin (N.Y.): I submit 

this note in loving memory 

of charter corps member 

Carleen Moreno Mora 

(N.Y. ’90), whose daughter 

continues to blossom in the 

New York City public school 

system. Carleen serves as 

an inspiration, especially 

to those in traditional 

public schools and those 

serving bilingual/bicultural 

populations. Sadly, she also 

taught us about the difficulty 

of diagnosing and treating 

rare autoimmune syndromes. 

Martha Galvez (L.A.): I joined 

TFA in 1990, and 22 years 

later, and I am still in the 

education field! Currently, I 

am an instructional coach in 

a small school in Los Angeles 

Unified. Though things have 

changed in the education 

field, I am still excited to 

come to work every day and 

do my part for our kids. 

Paul Hopkins (E.N.C.): I am 

in my seventh year as the 

science teacher for grades 

six through eight at The 

Grammar School in Putney, 

Vt. My two daughters come 

to work with me each day. 

After more than 23 years in 

the classroom, I feel more 

excited than ever to teach! 

Faye Lewis (G.N.O.): I 

recently earned a doctorate 

in educational leadership 

from Rowan University and 

am living in Somerset, N.J., 

with my husband, Darren, 

and our daughters, Maya (8) 

and Alexa (7). I am looking for 

other educators to co-write 

articles on the achievement 

gap and the AP racial gap. If 

you’re interested, contact me 

at fayelewis01@aol.com. 

Ermita Metoyer (L.A.): I’m 

encouraged to continue the 

fight for academic equality 

every time I read an issue 

of One Day. Thanks to all 

TFA alums who are in the 

trenches every day. Your 

continued success is a 

constant reminder of why we 

do what we do. Thanks to the 

organization for giving me 

the opportunity to partner 

with you! 

Beverly Neufeld (L.A.): I am 

an original corps member 

(“OC”). I taught in Compton 

and Inglewood before 

teaching Orthodox Jews. I 

wrote a screenplay based 

on my experiences and now 

consult and develop films. 

Tom Rinaldi (N.Y.): Twenty 

years after leaving teaching, 

I’m now a correspondent for 

ESPN. My experience as part 

of TFA’s charter class was 

invaluable. 

Hayne Shumate (N.Y.): 

I celebrated 20 years of 

marriage with Katie this 

year. Duncan is an eighth 

grader (the grade I taught). 

TFA has thankfully made it to 

Fort Worth, Texas, where we 

reside. 

Nathaniel Smith (L.A.): 

I am living in Western 

Washington, where my wife 

Maria Jarusinsky (L.A.), 

and I are still teaching 23 

years after our charter year. 

I teach in an alternative 

middle school, and Maria 

teaches a dual-language 

kindergarten class. We have 

three kids, one each in high 

school, middle school, and 

elementary school. 

Claire Walsh (N.Y.): I have 

been teaching in the same 

New York City school since 

1990. I’ve gotten used to 

hearing students say, “You 

taught my Mom/Dad.” How 

time flies! 

1991 

Gabriel Brodbar (Houston): 

I continue to serve as the 

executive director of the NYU 

Reynolds Program in Social 

Entrepreneurship, a crossuniversity 

program I began 

in 2006. 

Natasha Diephuis (Houston): 

I am an ELD teacher at 

Clifton Middle School in 

Monrovia, Calif. I work with 

students who have recently 

immigrated from Jordan, the 

Phillipines, Vietnam, China, 

Guatemala, and Mexico. I am 

in my 23rd year of teaching in 


ALUMNI NOTES 

match.corps 

smooth moves By Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01) 

Photo by Jenny Auerbach 

redefine possible 

emily ries 

Practiced Teacher 

AP Psychology Teacher 

Course Leader 

yes prep north central 

Left Naima Beckles and Sam Rosaldo (both L.A. ’99) setting sail on life and love in 2001. Right The Beckles-Rosaldo clan at their Harlem home, with sons Micah 

(left), 2, and Gabriel, 5. “We’re conscious of not being helicopter parents, but right now, we feel like it’s the right time to spend a lot of time with our kids,” Sam says. 

I 

t was late summer of 2000, and R&B singer D’Angelo 

was on a wildly popular world tour. Sam Rosaldo (L.A. 

’99) and his buddy bought tickets for the show at the 

Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Two guys, four tickets. It was 

Sam’s job to find dates. 

“Naima was who I wanted to ask,” Sam says, talking about 

Naima Beckles (L.A. ’99). He had admired her from afar, 

entranced by her smile and her dance moves. “But it was gonna 

be hard, because I didn’t really know her, and I was interested in 

her.” So he asked almost every other woman he knew, with no 

takers. Then, he and Naima had a chance meeting at a Teach For 

America event, and he felt a surge of confidence. 

He called that evening, she said yes. “It was so Gidget! And I was 

a big Gidget fan,” Naima says, referring to the 1960s sitcom about 

a boy-crazy teen whose suitors always asked her out by phone. 

By the fall, they were dating and—it being L.A.—starring in a 

movie together. Naima’s friend was a student at the University 

of Southern California’s film school working on a short film 

about a black woman and a white man at a crossroads in their 

relationship. Naima and Sam got the casting call. 

“It was a little cheesy,” Sam admits. Naima clarifies: “It was 

a lot cheesy.” But both on-screen and off, the couple stuck 

together. (The film, unfortunately, never hit the box office.) 

After three years teaching in L.A.—Sam at an elementary 

school in Long Beach, and Naima at a high school in Watts—the 

couple moved to Washington, D.C. where Naima taught at a 

middle school for court-involved juveniles and Sam worked for 

D.C.’s state office of education. 

Taking a cue from Hollywood, the relationship saw its share of 

D.C. drama. Naima’s teaching job was stressful and exhausting, 

and Sam suffered bouts of commitment-phobia. But it was in 

D.C. that a mentor gave Sam advice the couple still honors: “He 

said, ‘When my wife and I get into an argument, we say something 

good is about to happen.’ That really resonated—knowing 

that those times when it feels hopeless, and you can’t imagine 

coming to a resolution—that once you do, your relationship will 

be stronger.” 

In 2004, they moved to Harlem, where Naima took a job at 

a middle school on the Upper West Side, and Sam earned his 

master’s before taking a position as a middle school teacher 

in the South Bronx. “We spent a lot of time on the weekends 

working together, planning together, and we both understood 

the need to go to bed early,” Naima says. 

They married in New York City in 2006. Today, Sam is a director 

for the city’s alternative schools and programs, working to 

transition students from jail or treatment to neighborhood 

schools or adult programs. Naima is a doula and childbirth 

educator, working partially with Harlem organizations to provide 

doulas for low-income women. Since 2008, she has also been an 

at-home mom to sons Micah, 2, and Gabriel, 5, who attends a 

public school four blocks from their Harlem home. 

D’Angelo, the R&B mega-talent who started it all, has had 

a tough decade. And neither Sam’s nor Naima’s acting career 

ever really took off. But careers spent serving kids and schools 

have created a happy home: “It’s been nice to have a partner 

more or less in step career-wise, in work that’s related, that 

we both understand,” Naima says. “That’s been really helpful— 

and fun.” 

WHERE GREAT TEACHERS 

COME TO BE EXCELLENT 

learn more about how yes prep is redefining possible 

in teacher development. visit yesprep.org/careers. 


Educating for College, Preparing for Life 

Show Gratitude is one of the 26 principles of A Disciplined Life®. 

Thank you to the Teach For America corps members and 

alumni who teach and transform lives at Perspectives. 

Become an A Disciplined Life Ambassador at Perspectives 

and help students develop positive self-perception, 

healthy relationships, and the tools for productivity. 

Learn more and join our team at www.pcsedu.org 

public, non-charter schools, 

and my husband and I are 

having fun raising our kids, 

Nicolas (7) and Daniella (4). 

Cheryline Hewitt (G.N.O.): I 

have a TFA mentee who was 

born in 1991, my first year as 

a teacher! I am pursuing a 

Ph.D. in education at Walden 

University. 

Kimberly Jacobson (L.A.): It 

is fun to be back at Stanford 

d.school as an Edu Fellow. I’m 

working on building creative 

confidence in educators so 

we can co-design the school 

system we want for the 21st 

century. I am prototyping this 

in partnership with San Mateo 

County School Districts and 

Mitzi Johnson (N.Y.): I am 

attending Duke Divinity 

School and seeking 

ordination as an elder in the 

North Carolina Conference of 

the United Methodist Church. 

Jill Joplin (Houston): I am 

entering my 13th year of 

working hard and being nice 

within the KIPP Team and 

Family. 

Mark Levine (N.Y.): On 

Sept. 10, 2013, I won the 

Democratic nomination 

for New York City Council, 

Seventh District. 

Kristina Montague (S. 

Louisiana): Shoutout to all 

of the Corps ’91 “pioneers.” 

Tom and I have been together 

for over 22 years and have 

two beautiful children. 

He has opened a butcher 

shop, and I am launching 

an angel fund supporting 

female-led growth ventures 

in the Southeast (www. 

thejumpfund.com). We are 

working with local alumni to 

build support to bring TFA to 

Chattanooga. 

Harry Olmstead (S. 

Louisiana): I was reappointed 

as a commissioner for the 

Iowa City Human Rights 

Commission and serve as 

vice chairperson. I also 

serve on the Johnson County 

Paratransit Advisory Board 

where I am vice chairperson. 

I also received the Chuck 

Wood Memorial Award from 

the Iowa Rehabilitation 

Association for “achieving a 

high level of independence, 

self reliance, and self 

sufficiency in the community.” 

Mark Rubin-Toles (Bay Area): 

One of the changes I’m most 

proud about at my current 

school is the development 

of a procedure that places 

students in advanced 

coursework by default, 

rather than erecting barriers 

to participation in rigorous 

work. 

Elizabeth Smith Rousselle 

(G.N.O.): I just celebrated 

my 15th year teaching 

Spanish and French language 

and literature at Xavier 

University of Louisiana. My 

husband and I are in our 

fifth year of a mega-longdistance 

marriage—I am 

in New Orleans, and he is 

at the Georgetown School 

of Foreign Service in Doha, 

Qatar. 

Joyce Ycasas (Houston): Still 

in the Bay Area! 

1992 

Tom Buffett (L.A.): I 

am working with state 

policymakers to help design 

supports to help leaders in 

low-performing, high-poverty 

schools in Michigan improve 

instruction and increase 

student achievement. 

Michael Farabaugh (R.G.V.): 

My wife, Kate Bancroft, and 

I welcomed our daughter 

Maeve on July 9, 2013. Big 

brother Silas is already 

teaching Dad about the 

adjustment. 

Kristen Guzman (L.A.): 

My husband and I officially 

adopted our son in July 2013, 

even though we’d already 

been a family since 2010. 

I’m battling lymphoma after 

getting the diagnosis in 

June 2013. I’m confident I’ll 

beat this! 

Martina Hone (Bay Area): 

Although no longer on 

Fairfax School Board, I 

remain committed through 

Coalition of The Silence to 

ensuring poor kids hidden in 

the shadows of affluence of 

Fairfax still have a voice and a 

fair chance to reach their full 

potential. 

Dennis Lee (Houston): To 

all the ’92 corps, especially 

Houston, I hope that your 

lives are exactly as you 

wish them to be. I’m living 

in Southern California, so 

contact me if you’re in 

the area. 

Todd O’Bryan (L.A.): I 

continue to teach computer 

science at my alma mater and 

welcome project ideas for my 

advanced students that would 

benefit other schools. 

Caleb Perkins (Delta): 

Newark Public Schools is a 

great place for TFA alumni 

to develop their talents 

while making a significant 

contribution. I hope you will 

consider joining the many 

TFA alums already engaged 

in our efforts to dramatically 

improve outcomes for this 

district’s students. 

Deepa Purohit (Baltimore): 

I love my job as director of 

voice and speech coaching 

at TFA. I run one-on-one 

coaching sessions and group 

workshops based on my 

belief that the voice is the 

seat of leadership. I also 

contract privately through 

my own company (Finding 

Your Authentic Voice) to coach 

education leaders to speak 

from their true voice about 

their work. 

V. Andres Sasson (Houston): 

I am a married father of 

two great kids, ER doctor 

and medical director, 

entrepreneur, and CrossFit 

junkie living in South Florida. 

Jennifer Swender (Houston): 

My newest children’s book, 

Count on the Subway (Knopf), 

will come out in spring 2014, 

with illustrations by Dan 

Yaccarino. 

1993 

Stephanie Addison-Fontaine 

(New Jersey): I have 

remained a tireless advocate 

for children and educational 

equity. I have served as a 

consultant, raised money, 

assisted new school 

development, and furthered 

my passion for learning. I’m 

also a mom of two bright 

students, married to a TFA 

alum, and looking to pursue 

my Ed.D. 

Laura Alluin (L.A.): After 

10 years teaching in Los 

Angeles, then 10 years as 

vice principal in San Diego, 

I am now excited to be an 

elementary principal with 

SDUSD. So far, it is going very 

well. I have one daughter in 

second grade at a Spanish 

immersion magnet school 

here in the district. 

Marian Bradshaw (N.Y.): I’m 

still teaching and working 

in China in a private school. 

I love living overseas 

and appreciate the travel 

opportunities it affords me. 

Sonja Cao-Garcia (L.A.): I am 

a mother of three beautiful 

children, a wife, and a 

principal. I am so fortunate to 

have this very busy, full, and 

wonderful life! 

Sarah Fain (E.N.C.): I had a 

baby! She’s pure bliss. 

Robert Hannon (D.C. 

Region): I serve on the 

board of Valor Collegiate 

Academies in Nashville, 

Tenn., as secretary. In 2013, 

we received a charter for a 

5-12 school and will open with 

a single fifth grade in August 

2014. We are in the process of 

building out our management 

team and recruiting students. 

Very excited about our future 

here in Nashville. 

Bryant Howard (Bay Area): 

I am working as a contract 

coach for endurance athletes 

in Portland, Ore. This past 

year we launched a new 

training facility and have 

developed multiple national 

champions and world 

championships qualifiers. 

Visit www.o2endurance.com 

for more information. 

Erika Lomax (D.C. Region): I 

was appointed as a personnel 

officer on Baltimore County 

Public Schools’ talent 

acquisition team. 

Paige Panzner-Kozek 

(N.Y.): I am the co-founder 

of smallTALLmedia.com, a 

creative venture that provides 

custom graphic design, 

illustration, and short films 

to make events unique and 

memorable. Our clients 

include private companies, 

nonprofits, and schools. We 

welcome the opportunity 

to work with the TFA 

community! 

Suzanne Ritter (S. 

Louisiana): Chris and I own 

a small strategy consulting 

firm in Bethesda, Md. As a 

consultant, I use visual tools 

and graphical facilitation 

practices to help groups 

achieve difficult conversation 

goals. As a coach, I help 

clients create an inspiring 

vision for themselves as 

leaders and help them act on 

being the kind of parent or 

leader they want to be. 

Joel Romero (Bay Area): 

Last fall, my wife and I were 

fortunate enough to start 

San Francisco Expeditionary 

School, a small alternative 

private school that hopes 

to balance rigorous 

individualized academic 

instruction and a strong 

hands-on project-based 

component to educating our 

children. 

Dustin Stuhr (Houston): I 

continue to teach special 

education in upstate New 

York, where my wife, Michelle 

(Houston ’94), and I are 

raising three children. 

Rita Wright (L.A.): I am 

currently living in West 

Covina, Calif., and I have 

worked as a literacy 

specialist in juvenile court 

schools since 2009. 

1994 

Neil Dorosin (N.Y.): I work 

with three economists, one 

of whom is the 2012 Nobel 

laureate, helping districts 

and charter partners all 

over the country to create 

universal enrollment 

systems. 

Ruth McCoy (Houston): I 

have started a graduate 

program in special education 

leadership. 

Elizabeth Patterson 

(R.G.V.): I currently serve 

as treasurer of the Houston 

Bar Association Labor and 

Employment Section and 

volunteer as the approved 

and waiting coordinator for 

the Houston Gladney Family 

Association for adoptive 

families. 

LaMarr Darnell Shields 

(Baltimore): Educate! 

Organize! Mobilize! Give back! 

1995 

ALUMNI NOTES 

Leslie Abrew (N.Y.): I was 

appointed principal of Bryant 

School in Teaneck, N.J. 

This unique school serves 

400 regular and specialeducation 

students in a pre- 

K/K setting. I am excited to 

work with this adorable group 

of children and lead this 

thriving learning community. 

Aaron Brenner (R.G.V.): This 

past summer, I transitioned 

from KIPP Houston to 

co-found and lead a new 

organization, The One World 

Network of Schools, which 

focuses on building a global 

network of transformational, 

breakthrough schools. As 

of last fall, we had partner 

schools operating in Mexico, 

India, and Israel. In the near 

future, partner schools will 

open in Chile and South Africa. 

66 One Day • SPRING 2014 

Chicago 


ALUMNI NOTES 

Elizabeth Cuevas (L.A.): I had 

my baby boy, William Gabriel, 

on Feb. 22, 2013. He joins big 

brothers Christian (10) and 

Nathaniel (8). My oldest son 

is a special education student 

with autism and is very 

smart, and my middle son 

has tested gifted and is also 

very smart! I would like TFA 

to work on creating strong 

specialeducation programs 

for children with disabilities. 

Erin Grace (S. Louisiana): I 

am the lucky, happy, sleepdeprived 

mother of three 

beautiful children, ages 7, 

5, and 3. I’m also a full-time 

newspaper columnist. 

Kettisha Jones (Houston): I 

recently relocated to Tulsa, 

Okla., where I oversee 11 

schools as an instructional 

superintendent. I am also 

a member of the inaugural 

cohort for TFA’s School 

Systems Leadership 

Fellowship. 

Kimberly Lewis (D.C. 

Region): I was asked to 

make a huge jump from 

kindergarten to third grade 

honors. My school is piloting 

an honors program this year. 

Javier Ortega (Bay 

Area): After working as 

an assistant principal at 

a middle school for five 

years, I have returned to 

the classroom to teach 

computer applications and 

web design classes. I love 

the extra time that I now 

enjoy with my two young 

children as a result of this 

move. 

Christopher Shaffer 

(E.N.C.): I am a school 

improvement coordinator 

for the Corry Area School 

District outside of Erie, Pa. 

I am finishing my Letter of 

Eligibility (superintendent/ 

assistant superintendent 

certification) in Pennsylvania 

through Edinboro University. 

Jennifer Steinberger Pease 

(L.A.): My husband Scott 

and I welcomed a son, Rhys 

Carson Pease, on April 1, 

2013. Rhys joins his older 

brother Hayes, who is 3. 

1996 

Lesley Balta (R.G.V.): I have 

been a teacher for 18 years 

and am a mentor to a brand 

new teacher. I have been 

married for seven years and 

am a mother of a 4-year-old 

named Lucas. 

Jada Best (N.Y.): I am the 

teacher leader for science at 

Clearwater Middle School in 

the Bermuda Public School 

System. My daughter Aiyara 

also attends a public primary 

school. I believe that I am 

making a difference every day 

in the lives of students, and I 

will continue to do this work 

while living abroad. 

Jill Cohen (L.A.): I 

completed my doctorate in 

administration, planning, and 

social policy from the Harvard 

Graduate School of Education 

in March 2013. 

Patricia Dippel (Houston): 

I founded and run Families 

Empowered, which works to 

ensure that Houston families 

are empowered to engage 

in a marketplace of schools. 

We inform parents to make 

informed choices for their 

children. 

Sarah Fang (Phoenix): 1996 

alums: We’re still missing 

our dear friend James Foley 

(Phoenix ’96), who was 

kidnapped by an unknown, 

armed group while reporting 

from Syria. For more 

information, please visit 

www.findjamesfoley.org. 

Matthew Koch (Bay Area): 

While I do not work directly 

in the field of education, 

through my efforts as a 

licensed psychotherapist, I 

hope to offer the individuals 

and families with whom I 

work more opportunities 

to strengthen their 

own understandings of 

themselves, reaffirming 

their identities and clarifying 

paths they find more fitting for 

themselves. 

Vonda Orders (Houston): I 

am an affordable housing 

attorney and the general 

counsel for the D.C. 

Department of Housing and 

Community Development. I 

live in the District of Columbia 

with my husband and two 

sons, ages 9 and 8. My sons 

attend public school in the 

District of Columbia. 

Anna Peterson (N. 

Louisiana): I am the manager 

of data and training at Achieve 

Minneapolis for the STEP- 

UP program. STEP-UP is a 

job training and internship 

placement program for 

thousands of Minneapolis 

low-income youth. 

Cynthia Skinner (D.C. 

Region): I am just wrapping 

up a year as the co-chair of 

a design team of community 

volunteers developing a 

youth master plan for the city 

of Alexandria, Va., which is 

designed to be a framework 

for aligning services and 

efforts across the city to 

effectively serve the needs of 

children and their families. 

Kalin Tobler (D.C. Region): I 

welcomed my first child, Ruby 

Moon Tobler, on May 5, 2012. 

She is a treasure, and from 

her love of Post-It notes, quite 

probably a future teacher! 

I am also completing my 

master’s of science teaching 

at the Center for Science 

Education in Portland, Ore. 

1997 

Michael Beiersdorf (L.A.): 

I was selected as one of 

Los Angeles Unified School 

District’s 2013 Teachers of 

the Year. 

David Crumbine (Houston): 

So much of what I felt when 

I started teaching was the 

isolation on the island of 

education. I would love to 

help TFA teachers, veteran 

and new. Feel free to reach 

out—I’d be glad to help 

with management, lesson 

planning, unit planning, and 

introducing your passions 

into the classroom. 

Gina Desai (Phoenix): In 

2011, I left my position as 

assistant principal at Estrella 

Middle School and started 

teaching full time at Glendale 

Community College. From 

2011-2013, I continued 

working in schools as an 

aspiring principal through 

the Rodel organization. I 

also became certified in 

developmental education 

through the Maricopa 

Summer Institute, and I am 

currently on the leadership 

board of the Phoenix 

Collective. 

Abigail Glassenberg (Delta): 

I recently published my 

second craft book, Stuffed 

Animals: From Concept 

to Construction. I live in 

Wellesley, Mass., with my 

husband, Charlie, and our 

three daughters, Roxanne, 

Stella, and Josephine. 

Margaret Leaf (G.N.O.): I 

have the privilege of serving 

as assistant principal at Edna 

Karr High in New Orleans 

when I am not collaborating 

with my husband of seven 

years, super-teacher Charles 


ALUMNI NOTES 

WHERE WILL 

YOU TAKE US? 

JOSEPH EDELIN » HOUSTON ‘02 

10 TH GRADE DEAN » KIPP ATLANTA COLLEGIATE 

Joseph created a culturally relevant social studies curriculum 

that inspired his 7th grade class to engage deeply with their 

own African American heritage. 

Now he’s widening his impact as a founding leader at a new 

KIPP high school, building a school-wide culture that will 

spark a love of learning in even more students. 

Elissa Aten (Baltimore ’92), husband Elliott, and daughter Lindsey, 9, raced Running with Ed on 

May 18, 2013—a 38-mile team run and fundraiser for Park City, Utah, public schools. Elissa is 

also the race’s fundraising chair, and didn’t do too shabby of a job: The event pulled in $157,000. 

Greiner, to raise a daughter 

and son in Algiers, La.! 

Having been hard at work 

educating the students of 

my hometown for 16 blessed 

years now, I can tell you that 

the future of New Orleans 

looks bright indeed. Go Karr 

Cougars—second to none! 

Jill McLaughlin (L.A.): My 

husband and I welcomed a 

baby girl, Maggie Beth, in 

January of 2013. I recently 

became a school principal. 

Nora Olsen (Houston): My 

husband and I welcomed 

our son Benjamin Alexander 

Dorado Olsen last October. 

He will soon be a year old, and 

boy, has he changed our lives! 

I am grateful to be a stay-athome 

parent and to have time 

to reflect on what teaching 

and TFA has taught me about 

children and education. 

Alex Sienkiewicz (L.A.): 

I work for the U.S. Forest 

Service in the Greater 

Yellowstone Ecosystem, and 

live with my wife and three 

children in Livingston, Mont. 

Come visit! 

70 One Day • SPRING 2014 One Day • SPRING 2014 71 

1998 

Gillian Bazelon (N.Y.): I live in 

Philadelphia with my husband 

Joel and two children, Harper 

(8) and Trevor (6). My nonprofit 

organization, Investing in 

Ourselves, inspires positive 

lifestyle behavior change in 

underserved communities. 

Yuisa Davila (N.Y.): For 

the past three years, I am 

very proud to have worked 

with New York city and 

state initiatives that aim at 

supporting growth and raising 

the standards for teacher and 

curriculum development, as 

well as language learning for 

“new and native” students. 

Kelly Harris Perin (Delta): 

Last year I started Little 

Bites Coaching (www. 

littlebitescoaching.com). We 

partner with organizations, 

schools, and individuals (and 

lots of TFA alumni!) to help 

them work more efficiently 

and sustainably. Zach Perin 

and I also welcomed kid No. 

3—Millie Scout—in January 

2013! 

Stephanie Ives (N.Y.): Since 

leaving the position of 

director of education and 

community engagement 

at American Jewish World 

Service, I have been 

consulting to Repair the 

World and helping launch a 

service-learning/communityorganizing 

fellowship for 

recent college graduates. 

Michael Leahy (Bay Area): 

In the last 14 months, my 

wife and I were married, our 

son was born, and I lost my 

mother. 

MenSa Maa (D.C. Region): 

I am leading William Hall 

Academy, a pre-K-8 public 

school in Capitol Heights, 

Md. I’m still figuring out what 

I will be when I grow up. 

Shoutout to D.C. Region ’98. 

Erin Mathes (L.A.): I am 

teaching in the medical 

school at UCSF. Our 5-yearold 

just started kindergarten 

at the SFUSD school across 

the street. We are loving the 

community at school. 

Allison Ohle (N.Y.): I am 

living in San Diego and 

helping to start the first new 

graduate school of education 

in California to open in 20 

years. My husband and I have 

two awesome kids: Jackson 

and Anika (rhymes with 

Hanukkah). 

Kimberlee Sia (Greater 

Newark): My husband, 3-year 

old daughter, and I moved to 

Denver this June and couldn’t 

be happier! I love my new role 

as the executive director for 

KIPP Colorado. My wonderful 

team of leaders and teachers, 

many of them TFA corps 

members/alums, are doing 

great things for the students 

of Denver. 

1999 

Sharon Collins (N.Y.): I 

became a mom once again! 

My husband and I welcomed 

our second son, Mateo 

Joaquin, into the world on 

Feb. 1, 2013. We continue 

to reside in New York City, I 

teach at Bronx Prep Charter 

School and my older son Alexi 

just started kindergarten 

at a public school in our 

neighborhood. 

Stephanie Dean (Delta): My 

husband, Nathan; daughter 

Evelyn; and I welcomed our 

second child, Julian Michael 

Cicero, to the family in July, 

2013. 

Adele Fabrikant (N.Y.): 

My husband Shane and I 

welcomed a son named Owen 

on Aug. 2, 2013. His 3-yearold 

sister Anna and dog Riley 

are thrilled! 

Alisha Graves (D.C. Region): I 

co-founded and launched the 

OASIS Initiative, a project of 

the University of California, 

Berkeley. OASIS aims to 

help prevent a humanitarian 

catastrophe in the Sahel 

within our children’s lifetime 

through education of 

adolescent girls, improved 

access to family planning, 

and adapting agriculture to 

climate change. My husband 

and I have two beautiful little 

children. 

Stephanie Klupinski (L.A.): 

I recently changed jobs 

and states! I moved from 

Columbus, Ohio, to Honolulu. 

After working for three years 

as vice president of legal 

and legislative affairs for 

the Ohio Alliance for Public 

Charter Schools, I am now the 

organizational performance 

manager for the newly 

created State Public Charter 

School Commission. 

Mark Meier (G.N.O.): I taught 

elementary and high school 

in New Orleans with TFA, and 

I just wanted to let the world 

know that my debut novel, 

Wisecrack, is now out. I’m 

donating part of the profits to 

charities. 

Pablo Mejia (R.G.V.): I am 

leading the personalized 

learning initiatives at IDEA 

Public Schools, including the 

$31 million Race to the Top 

District Grant. Sylvia and I are 

celebrating our 10th wedding 

anniversary, and Daniel 

started middle school this 

year. Alejandro and Diego are 

both proud IDEA students. 

Nicole Nielson (Bay Area): 

I just got appointed to a 

three-year term on the New 

York City Bar Association 

- Education & the Law 

Committee—and was thrilled 

to find that there are three 

other TFA alums on the 

committee! 

Wanda Roberson (Houston): 

I celebrated 10 years of 

marriage on Nov. 22, 2013! 

Matthew Schmitt (G.N.O.): 

I’ve landed a spot in Deana 

Carter’s band! I play piano/ 

keys on her new album, 

Southern Way of Life, which 

came out Thanksgiving 2013. 

Megan Sustar (G.N.O.): 

After teaching in Greater

ALUMNI NOTES 

New Orleans and Colorado, I 

returned to the St. Louis area 

to pursue a degree in nursing 

and am now a busy stay-athome 

mom for our three 

little girls. I have many fond 

memories of our ’99 training 

days in lovely Moody Towers! 

Hi to Aki, Joan, Mr. Powers, 

and the rest of our amazing 

summer training group. 

Jessica Vasan (Houston): I 

serve as a part-time project 

director at TNTP on its 

partnership with my original 

placement district, Houston 

ISD. I’m also fortunate to have 

a couple days a week with 

my sons (Kieran, 4, and Kyle, 

3) and daughter (Priya, 10 

months). 

Gregory Wong (Delta): I am 

still a practicing attorney 

in Seattle, with a focus on 

education, constitutional, 

public policy and election law, 

public entity, and nonprofit 

issues. Louise Wong (N.Y.) and 

I have three great kids who 

are now in second, fourth, and 

sixth grades. Life is good! 

2000 

Cheyenne Batista Sao 

Roque (N.Y.): We recently 

opened the doors to our 

second school, East Harlem 

Scholars Academy II! I’m 

extremely proud to broaden 

EHTP’s reach and build upon 

our legacy in the El Barrio 

community. Come visit! 

Tommy Brewer (Metro 

Atlanta): I was selected to 

co-chair one of four statewide 

strategic initiative teams, 

helping to establish the 

comprehensive strategic 

direction for the newly 

reconfigured After School 

Division of the California 

Department of Education. 

California’s After School 

Division administers the 

largest statewide allocation 

of out-of-school time grant 

dollars in the country, as 

well as federal 21st Century 

dollars. 

Melissa Casey (New Jersey): 

Xiomara Padamsee (N.Y. ’97) 

and I welcomed our daughter 

Alexandra Grace Padamsee 

Casey on Aug. 24, 2012. We 

couldn’t be more thrilled! 

Matthew Delfino (G.N.O.): 

Lizzy Holt and I relocated to 

Greenville, S.C., with our boys 

Max (3) and Clay (1). We are all 

enjoying the outdoors, peach 

season, and time with family! 

Nicole Dorn (Baltimore): I 

am excited to announce the 

birth of my son, Peter Dorn, 

and can’t believe he will be 

turning 1 this November! He 

and big sister Elinor (who will 

turn 4 in April) are enjoying 

our new house in Belmont, 

Mass. Please drop us a line 

if you’re ever in the Boston 

area! 

Amber Field (N.Y.): I am 

enjoying my work with 

KIPP NYC teachers and 

instructional coaches as 

the director of professional 

development opportunities. 

I’m also loving family time 

with my husband and two 

daughters. 

Ariela Freedman (Chicago): 

I left a faculty position at 

Emory University and am 

working for TFA as the 

managing director of alumni 

affairs in Atlanta. 

Anna Mae Grams- 

Pullappally (Chicago): I am 

so proud to be entering my 

10th year as a team leader at 

Chicago International Charter 

School-Bucktown! Last 

year my graduating eighth 

graders were the first group 

of kindergarteners that I 

worked with in 2004. My own 

daughter, now a third grader 

at CICS-Bucktown, tells me 

every day how lucky she is to 

have the best teachers in the 

world. 

Michael Herring (Bay Area): 

I lead efforts to improve 

teacher evaluation in Chicago 

Public Schools as director of 

educator effectiveness. 

Melissa Jones (N.Y.): I’m 

currently working at Adobe, 

building scalable systems 

to train teachers on creative 

ed-tech integration. 

Maya Khanna (Bay Area): 


triplets into our lives on Aug. 

20, 2012. Our three beautiful 

girls are Matilda, Marietta, 

and Camila. 

Bill Kottenstette (R.G.V.): 

I recently took a position 

as executive director of a 

fully articulated P-12 public 

Montessori charter school 

and am constantly looking 

for great teachers who would 

love to further their impact 

by teaching using Montessori 

methods. I recently moved 

to Arvada with my wife Diane 

and our three kids, Charlotte 

(8), Kathleen (5), and James 

(5 months). 

Heidi Leintz (Bay Area): My 

husband and I welcomed our 

second son, Dante, in the 

summer of 2013. 

Terri Nostrand (D.C. Region): 


out third son, Finn McHenry 

Nostrand, to the family in 

February 2013. When not 

outdoing each other for the 

role of baby comedians of the 

year, my older boys attend a 

Washington, D.C., Chinese 

immersion public charter 

school where several of their 

teachers and the assistant 

principal are/were TFA. 

Crystal Perry (Metro 

Atlanta): As pilot program 

director, I serve as the lead 

implementer of the summer 

pilot partnership between 

BELL, Y-USA, each local Y 

association and the school. 

At each site, teachers 

use methods that engage 

scholars, and the learning 

is evident in the rooms 

through “artifacts” on the 

walls, the scholar work and 

the excellent teacher lesson 

plans. 

Sheri Pierce (Chicago): On 

Oct. 10, 2013, we welcomed 

our second child, Trace, to 

our family. 

Carolyn Reed (D.C. 

Region): In February 2013, 

we welcomed home our 

daughter, Grace (1), who 

joined her brother Ashton (3). 

Cornelia Ryan (Metro 

Atlanta): My husband, John, 

and I celebrated our fouryear 

wedding anniversary 

this past October. I also got 

the opportunity to dance at 

Augusta’s Arts in the Heart 

Festival and in the Molate’ 

Productions stage play When 

the Church Doors Close. Great 

things are happening with the 

Ryan family! 

Simona Supekar (L.A.): I just 

received my MFA in creative 

writing from UC Riverside 

and will be teaching English 

at Pasadena Community 

College in the fall. I miss a 

lot of my fellow ’00 corps 

members and hope y’all are 

well! 

Kelly Vaughan (N.Y.): I 

married Ivan Willig in 

Brooklyn, N.Y., this summer! 

Leslie Wang (Houston): 

For the last several years, I 

have been a program officer 

at Houston Endowment, a 

regional foundation, where 

my portfolio is focused on 

early childhood and youth 

development opportunities. 

My husband, Brian, and I are 

busy with work and our two 

girls, Olivia (4) and Evelyn (2). 

2001 

Ayana Allen (Houston): In 

June 2012, I was appointed 

post-doctoral fellow of 

The Urban Education 

Collaborative at UNC 

Charlotte. 

Diego Avila (Houston): I have 

started my own solo law 

practice after three years 

of law firm life. I recently 

successfully represented 

a low-income client in a 

potential life sentence 

defense trial. 

Brian Blacklow (Delta): I 

accepted a job as a master 

educator with District of 

Columbia Public Schools 

last year. I now have two 

children, Maggie (4) and Leo 

(1). Both are devoted Red 

Sox fans. 

Barry Brinkley (L.A.): I 

recently transitioned to 

the director of community 

development role at 

Rocketship Education. 

I’m excited to support 

the expansion efforts 

of Rocketship here in 

Washington, D.C. 

Fatimah Burnam-Watkins 

(Baltimore): I continue 

to work for TFA as the 

executive director of New 

Jersey! We are celebrating 

20 years as a region in 2014, 

and I’m excited for everyone 

to join us as we set the 

stage for the next five years. 

I continue to live in New 

Jersey with my husband of 

nine years and my 6-yearold 

triplets. 

Cassandra Duprey (Delta): I 

gave birth to my second son, 

Malcolm, in January 2013. 

He joins big brother Quill, 

born in April 2010. 

Joanne Forster-Coffin 

(L.A.): My husband and I 

became parents to baby Levi 

in April 2013. 

Sarah Godlove (D.C. 

Region): I got married 

about two years ago, and 

my husband and I welcomed 

our first child into the world 

in January 2013. After 

maternity leave, I returned 

to a new role at NWEA as 

the product manager of 

assessment. In this role, 

I’ll be setting the strategic 

vision and creating multiyear 

roadmaps for NWEA’s 

assessment portfolio. 

Balancing family and work 

is a challenge, but we’re 

enjoying it so far! 

Marianne Herrmann 

(Houston): Since teaching for 

four years at my placement 

school in Houston, I worked 

for three years on TFA’s 

Houston regional team, 

got married, joined TFA’s 

admissions team, and 

had three kiddos (Noah, 

Micah, and Ava). I’m really 

enjoying researching how 

to best identify qualities of 

highly effective teachers for 

students in the communities 

we partner with. 

Fatima Jibril (Baltimore): 

I am a proud founder and 

board member of Creative 

City Public Charter School, 

a progressive elementary 

school that focuses on the 

arts and project-based 

learning. 

David Kloker (New Mexico): 

I am working as a literacy 

coach in San Francisco 

Unified at Sanchez 

Elementary, still passionate 

about universal literacy. 

Julie MacFetters (G.N.O.): 

After five years in temporary 

trailers on a campus that 

still included the flooded 

former school building, 

my school, Akili Academy, 

just moved into the historic 

William Frantz building in 

New Orleans—the school 

Ruby Bridges helped to 

integrate in 1960! 

Heather Michel (Houston): 

Hello Teach For America 

alumni! I am happily married 

with two kids and living in 

San Diego. I just received my 

doctorate in education from 

UCSD. 

Elizabeth Mulligan 

(Chicago): My husband, 

Marty, daughter Maeve (12 

months), and I relocated 

to the Washington, D.C./ 

Baltimore area this past year 

for Marty’s work. I am proud 

to be a stay-at-home mom... 

for now! 

Naomi Nunez (L.A.): I just 

moved to Memphis, Tenn., 

from Los Angeles so my 

husband, Matt Seigel 

(L.A.), can help start some 

Aspire schools in the new 

Achievement School District. 


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Shannen Coleman Siciliano (Baltimore ’03) and her husband, Marc, welcomed baby Korina Helene Siciliano on Sept. 22, 2013. Shannen, a community 

organizer on behalf of Baltimore schools, was a co-finalist with Yasmene Mumby (Baltimore ’08) for the 2013 Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership. 

I just gave birth to a set of 

twins and will be home with 

the babies for a year! It’s 

been a busy year. 

Sean Ottmer (New Mexico): 

I, along with two other TFA 

alums, Katie Hulskamp 

(New Mexico ’05) and Tom 

Ponce (New Mexico ’09), 

have opened South Valley 

Academy Middle School. 

Ellen Sale (Delta): I am 

working hard and being nice 

every day as the founding 

principal of KIPP Bloom 

College Prep, our newest 

middle school in Chicago. 

I am very grateful to lead 

our incredible team. Come 

visit us! 

Margery Yeager (D.C. 

Region): I was thrilled to 

welcome a son, Jonah Henry 

Sriqui, on May 30, 2013. He’s 

looking forward to attending 

public school in D.C. in just a 

few years! 

2002 

Evan Anderson (Bay Area): 

In addition to leading my 

school through a successful 

accreditation process, my 

wife and children have also 

moved into a new home, 

which we built with Habitat 

for Humanity Greater San 

Francisco. 

Rosalie Asia (N.Y.): On June 

29, 2013, I married my best 

friend, Tim Stocker, in front 

of friends and family on the 

beach in Puerto Rico. We are 

pleased to announce that we 

are expecting twins in April 

2014! 

Lisa Barrett (Bay Area): I 

recently graduated from 

INSEAD Business School in 

Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and 

France. I’ve been able to do a 

number of engagements with 

small-to-medium enterprises 

looking to scale, as well as 

companies and investors 

entering new markets in 

the United Kingdom, United 

Arab Emirates, and United 

States. It’s been an incredible 

experience to build this global 

perspective and network. 

Elaine Berndes (Chicago): 

After teaching for three years 

in my placement school, I 

went on to head up recruiting 

at New Leaders in Chicago 

before being tapped to cofound 

what is now The Ryan 

Fellowship. Last year, we 

happily recruited TFA alumni, 

constituting 50 percent of our 

2014 Ryan Fellowship class. 

Full-circle moment. 

Nicole Bissonnette (R.G.V.): 

I just finished law school 

and, inspired by my TFA 

experience, will be working 

to promote and protect the 

interests of immigrants and 

children in a poor community 

in my home state. 

Matthew Bowman (N.Y.): 

After my two years, I taught 

at KIPP Bayview Academy 

with an amazing team. In 

2011, I cofounded EdSurge, 

now composed of an inspiring 

group of edupreneurs, and 

helped launch the Phaedrus 

Initiative, a blended, innercity 

Catholic school network 

run by some of the most 

dedicated people on the 

planet. 

Lindsay Butler (L.A.): I 

started working for New 

Leaders last summer as the 

director of the Emerging 

Leaders Program for 

Rocketship Education. I’m 

working with 18 assistant 

principals, helping to grow 

their leadership skills and 

prepare them for the next 

step in their careers. They 

are great, New Leaders 

is fantastic, and I’m really 

enjoying the work. 

Sarah Cole (Phoenix): My 


first child, Miriam, in August 

2012. 

Peter Cook (G.N.O.): I 

recently led a reorganization 

of the Jefferson Parish Public 

School System outside New 

Orleans. I am currently 

working with the district 

to improve their lowestperforming 

schools and to 

increase the participation of 

low-income students in 

AP courses. 

Hillary Dark (L.A.): After 

12 years at my placement 

school, I decided to transfer 

to another school site. I am 

www.jobs-charterexcellence.org 

CALLING ALL 

ALLIES & RELATIVES 

We believe our students and their families are the 

leaders of the movement for educational equity. 

Teach For America-South Dakota is calling all aspiring 

allies and relatives to help fuel this community-driven 

movement. Together we can cultivate leadership 

among Lakota students - as they are the future leaders 

of their communities, tribes, and our nation. Join us. 

Contact Marion Katz at marion.katz@teachforamerica.org 

or (646) 265-4613 for more information. 


HONOR 

EXCELLENCE 

ALWAYS TRY 

RESPONSIBILITY 

TEAM 

Be the change. 

Teach. 

www.hiawathaacademies.org 

Minneapolis, MN 

Growing to 5 schools to close one of the 

largest achievement gaps in the country 

still proud to be a Compton 

Unified School District 

employee, but I now have 

less of a commute and get to 

see my own children more 

waking hours of the day! My 

new school has been very 

welcoming. 

Paige Dommerich Newhouse 

(N.Y.): My husband, Jack 

Newhouse, and I had our 

second child together, a boy 

named James Dommerich 

(J.D.). 

Rachel Fortune (E.N.C.): I am 

currently teaching online for 

Florida Virtual School and 

have seen firsthand the huge 

impact online learning can 

have for at-risk students. 

Roberto Garza (R.G.V.): I am 

seeing some amazing work 

being done in the Rio Grande 

Valley to help education 

become a pivotal issue for 

the region. 

Mira Goodman (Bay Area): 

I married Judd Goodman on 

July 3, 2011, in my hometown 

of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. 

Katie Brown and Joan 

Ferng (both Bay Area) were 

in attendance. I recently 

completed my master of 

science in occupational 

therapy, and I currently work 

with adults in a hospital 

setting and kids in an 

outpatient setting. 

Vanessa Gutierrez-Pozen 

(L.A.): I love my life. I am a 

stay-at-home mama of two 

beautiful spirits and am 

guiding them through this 

thing we call life. It is not 

glamorous, but important. 

I plan on ruling the world 

someday, but for now I am 

happy to support my rockstar 

educator of a husband, 

darling divas 1 and 2, Bosco 

and Mr. Noodles, five hens 

and two cocks. 

Kerry Hurd (Detroit): I am 

currently a reading and ESL 

teacher at Groveport Madison 

High School in the Columbus, 

Ohio area. My husband, Paul; 

son Nolan; and I welcomed 

our daughter Avery in May 

2013. 

Jenese Jones (St. Louis): 

I was elected to the role of 

commissioner for Single 

Member District 5B05 in 

Washington, D.C. I chair the 

governmental accountability 

and education committees 

for my commission. I beat my 

incumbent by 55 percent in 

the November 2012 election. 

I continue to serve my 

community as an educational 

advocate. 

Bejanae Kareem (Metro 

Atlanta): As an urban educator 

of 10-plus years and TFA alum, 

I have launched a STEM and 

grant education consultancy. 

Check out my Facebook 

page and receive updates on 

grants and STEM resources: 

facebook.com/bkconsultancy. 

Joel Latorre (Baltimore): 

After 11 years in the 

classroom serving lowincome 

and underprivileged 

students, I have attained my 

administrator endorsement 

and hope to influence my 

students with greater impact 

in the near future. 

Brad Leon (G.N.O.): I just took 

a new role as Shelby County 

Schools’ (formerly Memphis 

City Schools) chief innovation 

officer. I am working with 

schools in our district that 

perform in the bottom 5 

percent, with charter schools, 

and with virtual schools. 

Sarah Lubow (Houston): My 

husband, Adam Lubow, and I 

welcomed Emily Julia Lubow 

on July 30, 2013. We are all 

enjoying life in Brooklyn, N.Y., 

and would love to hear from 

old friends! 

Emily Marques (Phoenix): 

My husband, Francisco, and I 

welcomed our first son, Mateo, 

on New Year’s Eve 2012. 

Rochelle McConico (G.N.O.): I 

graduated with my MBA from 

Hult International Business 

School, and now I’m the 

human capital manager for the 

Recovery School District. I’m 

excited about the future! 

Candice McKinley (Metro 

Atlanta): I would like to 

applaud my courageous TFA 

colleagues who are running 

for the Atlanta School Board: 

Jason Esteves (Houston 

’05), Matt Westmoreland 

(Metro Atlanta ’10), Eshé 

Collins (Metro Atlanta), and 

Courtney English (Metro 

Atlanta ’07), gladiators that 

are going to do whatever it 

takes to improve our system 

for our children. 

Emily Molloy (Delta): I’m 

thrilled to announce that I’ve 

just welcomed my first baby, 

Declan Robert Molloy. 

Dione Moultrie King (S. 

Louisiana): I received my 

Ph.D. in Social Work from 

the University of Georgia and 

am currently an assistant 

professor at the University 

of West Florida Department 

of Social Work. My husband, 

Steven, and I welcomed a set 

of twins (Langston Carter and 

Lauren Camille) on August 

29, 2011. 

Joey Murphy (St. Louis): I have 

just begun my ninth year of 

teaching, and I cannot imagine 

pursuing any other profession. 

Thanks, TFA! 

Ambe Olinga (Metro Atlanta): 

I am the coordinator of STEM 

for 27 schools in South Fulton 

County. 

Kelley Pomis (E.N.C.): In the 

past four years, I married my 

TFA sweetheart Aaron Pomis 

(E.N.C.), bought a home in 

Charlotte, N.C., and we now 

have had two beautiful boys, 

Nicholas (almost 2 years) and 

Alexander (3 months). 

Michael Ripski (G.N.O.): My 

wife, Morgan, and I had our 

first child, Clyde Michael 

Ripski, on July 8, 2013. 

Nathaniel Schwartz (Delta): 

Seneca Rosenberg (Bay Area 

’01) and I just welcomed our 

second child to our family. We 

live in Nashville, Tenn., where 

I work for the Tennessee 

Department of Education. 

Alison Smith (L.A.): We were 

thrilled to welcome our son 

Matalino on Jan. 3, 2012! 

Adie Tate (Metro Atlanta): My 

husband, Ian, and I welcomed 

our second child, Owen 

Michael, on Oct 26, 2013. 

Big brother Henry is thrilled 

with the new addition to the 

family. Ian is working as an 

emergency medicine physician 

at North Colorado Medical 

Center, and I left TFA staff 

after five years to stay home 

with the boys. We are living in 

Denver and loving it! 

Justin Vernon (E.N.C.): 

My wife, Amy, and I have 

two children (Jackson and 

Stella) and currently reside 

in Salem, Mass. I am the 

founding principal of the Roger 

Clap Innovation School in 

Dorchester, opened in 2011. 

Lena-Prudence Wiegand 

(L.A.): I love getting the 

magazine — it helps me stay 

in touch with issues regarding 

education. 

Rebecca Williams (Metro 

Atlanta): We recently 

Public Schools 


ALUMNI NOTES 

Candy Crush? Angry Birds? LOLCats? Whatever it is, these kids are thrilled. When Kathrin Petzold (Phoenix ’01) isn’t busy wowing youngsters with her 

iPhone, she’s a pediatric nurse supervisor with Doctors Without Borders. Petzold is currently working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

welcomed a daughter to our 

family! 

Jodi Yoser (E.N.C.): My 

husband Jon and I welcomed 

our second child, Andrew, on 

April 29, 2013. 

2003 

Ramiro Arceo (Baltimore): 

I am currently the director 

of family and community 

engagement for the 

California Charter Schools 

Association. My role is 

to organize and mobilize 

parents to support their 

charter schools. 

Patricia Baney (Metro 

Atlanta): My husband, Greg; 

son William; and I welcomed 

James Daniel to our family on 

Oct. 7, 2013. 

Ben Bhatti (Metro Atlanta): 

I am the producer of 

eduCAUTION, a documentary 

on college, debt, and 

the American dream. 

eduCAUTION has almost 

150,000 views on YouTube 

and 7,000 Facebook followers 

and will debut at SXSWedu in 

Austin, Texas. 

Joseph Bielecki (Bay Area): 

In August of 2013 I opened 

Summit Public School: 

Denali, a next-generation 

grades 6-12 school serving 

students in the Bay Area 

as part of the network of 

Summit Public Schools. 

Denali opened with a 

founding class of 134 sixth 

graders, and we’re excited 

about our growth to come. 

Peter Buis (Delta): I have two 

sons (3 and 2). I am a better 

parent because of teaching. 

Also, I feel that I am a better 

teacher because of being a 

parent. 

Andrew Calcutt (N.Y.): 

You do not have to be the 

smartest person in the room 

to become extraordinarily 

successful. But you do have 

to work extraordinarily hard. 

And if you can find a passion 

for learning, that work will 

not feel that hard. 

Tanya Cornely (Greater 

Philadelphia): My husband, 

Kieran, and I welcomed twin 

boys on April 30, 2013. Sean 

and Grady join their sister 

Olivia and brother Quinn in 

our love. 

Tina DeLaFe (Miami-Dade): 

I am a literacy coach at 

SouthTech Academy in 

Palm Beach County and 

an instructor/training 

facilitator at FAU for SAT, 

GMAT, and GRE test prep 

courses in math, verbal, 

and writing. I am leading the 

transition to Common Core 

in all subject areas at my 

school site. 

Maria Dunlap (Metro Atlanta): 

My husband and I welcomed a 

daughter in October 2011. 

Tamilla Eldridge-Mason 

(N.Y.): I am excited to share 

that I recently finished 

my second master’s in 

educational leadership and 

I am looking forward to new 

adminstrative opportunities. 

As a wife and mother of two, 

this was quite a challenge, 

but I enjoyed the journey. The 

learning process never ends, 

and this is also what we want 

for our students. 

Christine Fowler (N.Y.): We 

are in Costa Rica, and I’m still 

working in education, just on 

the publishing side of things. 

Still, with four kids at home, 

my classroom management 

experience is coming in handy! 

Vanessa Garza (L.A.): My 

husband, Pablo Garza (N.Y. 

’02), and I proudly send 

our oldest, Vida, to our 

neighborhood public school 

for kindergarten. Julian, 

her little brother, is eager to 

join her. 

Megan Gibbs (Houston): 

Ben Gibbs (Houston) and 

I are living in Houston and 

are proud parents to our 

2-year-old twins, Abby 

and Henry. I am dean of 

instruction at YES Prep East 

End and just finished my 

fifth year with this amazing 

organization. 

Susannah Gordon-Messer 

(E.N.C.): My team at MIT 

just released The Radix 

Endeavor, a massively 

multiplayer online game 

to help teach biology and 

math. Sign up to play at 

radixendeavor.org! 


ALUMNI NOTES 

Developing Leaders 

in Public Service 

John Glenn School 

of Public Affairs 

Gain practical, professional experience that will help kick-start your 

career in public service by earning an M.P.A., M.A. or Ph.D. from the 

John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. 

For more information about the Glenn School’s partnership with 

Teach For America visit glenn.osu.edu or call 614-292-8696. 

JOHN GLENN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

Daniel Grissom (E.N.C. ’08), in glasses, spent the 2012-13 academic year teaching language arts at Heritage International School in Kampala, Uganda. 

thE Educational rEvolution has 

comE to dEtroit 

You want to grow, lead, 

change the world. 

Alexander Guevara (L.A.): 

I was recently engaged to 

Rachel Kerr (L.A. ’04). I 

recently accepted a position 

as talent recruiter for TEAM 

Schools, focusing on our 

expansion into Camden, N.J. 

Jennifer Hembrick-Roberts 

(Chicago): I gave birth to my 

daughter, Nia, in June 2012. 

My article, “Leadership for 

More Equitable Schools 

through Service Integration,” 

was recently published in the 

Handbook of Research on 

Educational Leadership for 

Equity and Diversity. 

William Heuisler (L.A.): I 

got married to Dr. Latoya 

Green-Smith in March 2013. 

I teach in South Los Angeles, 

and my wife is a pediatrician 

in Wilmington, Calif. 

Carrie Holmes (Baltimore): 

2012-2013 brought me 


two kindergarteners of 

my own who force me to 

sit on the other side of the 

teacher’s desk and trust 

the educational wisdom and 

knowledge of someone else to 

challenge and inspire my kids. 

It has been humbling and 

excruciating. Looking forward 

to first grade this year. 

Marcus Hughes (Metro 

Atlanta): So why do I Teach 

For America? I teach because 

poverty, educational inequity, 

racial, sexual and physical 

discrimination are all too 

prevalent. I teach because I 

have two beautiful boys who 

look like Trayvon Martin. 

I teach because I was that 

black kid from the inner city 

who utilized the pathway of 

education to open doors of 

opportunity. As an alum, I still 

Teach For America because 

I can’t stop fighting for our 

children. 

Stuart Johnston (Baltimore): 

I was accepted to the North 

Carolina Principal Fellows 

Program, and I am working 

toward my master’s degree in 

school administration at UNC 

Greensboro. 

Elizabeth King (Greater 

Philadelphia): After 71/2 

wonderful years working for 

my kids’ representative in 

Congress, I am now working 

for the Children’s Defense 

Fund—new location, same 

mission. I have had the 

chance to reconnect with 

some of my awesome longago 

middle schoolers. Blown 

away by all that they’re doing 

now as adults! 

Kate Lipper-Garabedian 

(Metro Atlanta): My husband 

and I moved back to the 

Boston area last fall after 

three years in D.C.—with two 

new members (5-month-old 

Harrison and our cockapoo 

Baryn) in tow. I’m continuing 

to work in education law and 

policy with EducationCounsel 

LLC. 

Maile Martinez (Phoenix): 

In September, I started 

a new job as YouthSpark 

engagement manager 

at Microsoft. I will be 

traveling around the country 

connecting educators and 

education influencers to 

YouthSpark programs. I hope 

to connect with lots of TFA 

alumni, corps members, and 

staff! Check out microsoft. 

com/youthspark to learn 

more. 

Kathleen Masterson 

(Phoenix): Since my TFA 

days, I’ve become a public 

radio journalist, telling 

people’s stories, mostly 

about science, environment, 

and social justice issues. I 

work hard to stay involved 

in classrooms, teaching 

occasional workshops with 

826 in D.C. and at several 

universities. 

Anna McCartney-Melstad 

(New Mexico): I’m based in 

Johannesburg, working on 

malaria control throughout 

Africa. 

Stacey Mitchell (E.N.C.): 

Joining her brothers Solomon 

(4) and Mason (2), Theresa 

Saige made her debut in our 

family on May 19, 2013! 

Marlin Padilla (N.Y.): This 

year my son turned 1 and it 

has been an absolute thrill to 

watch him grow and develop 

his very own personality! 

Jimmy Pascascio (L.A.): 

I recently took a leave of 

absence from the classroom 

to focus on Music Notes, an 

wanted: 

Strongly committed 

school leaders and 

teachers for elementary 

and high school teams 

Visit the EmploymEnt opportunitiEs 

page on our website at 

americanpromiseschools.org 

Making Urban Schools Great 

We make it possible. 

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• Joyful environment, intellectually rigorous curriculum 

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asc e nd

ALUMNI NOTES 

Maggie [Pettit] Kizer (Colorado ’09) married Lyle Kizer on Aug. 24, 2013, in Seattle. The 

wedding followed a turbulent week marked by the loss of Maggie’s father to cancer. 

education music company 

that I founded with a 

colleague. We use music to 

make students love math 

by creating songs and 

music videos aligned to the 

Common Core. 

Rebecca Purtell (Greater 

Philadelphia): Ten years 

ago, two corps members 

and I found ourselves lost 

in the Kensington area of 

Philadelphia trying to find our 

placement school. Today, my 

husband and I own a house 

and proudly call Kensington 

home. 

Diane Reis (S. Louisiana): 

I am enjoying a year as 

chief resident in Dallas and 

recently married the love of 

my life. I was honored to have 

fellow S. Louisiana corps 

members Marisa Wolf (’02) 

and Bo Hilty at our wedding. 

Erica Rounsefell (D.C. 

Region): I am a foreign 

service officer for the U.S. 

Agency for International 

Development, currently 

serving a yearlong tour in 

Kabul, Afghanistan, where 

I am working on technical 

education development for 

Afghan youth. 

Allison Scheff (G.N.O.): I 

joined the Massachusetts 

Department of Higher 

Education to lead the 

Commonwealth’s statewide 

interagency STEM initiative 

as the executive director of 

STEM and of the Governor’s 

STEM Advisory Council. 

Leslie Shaw-McGee (New 

Jersey): This year I stepped 

into the instructional 

specialist role after teaching 

third and fourth grade for 

nine years. This is my first 

step into an administrative 

role that I hope will segue 

into an assistant principal 

role once I complete my 

administration program in 

January. 

Carrie Spaulding (Phoenix): 

After nine years in the 

classroom, I now help 

parents and educators with 

communication, building 

a positive and inclusive 

home or school culture, 

and helping children build 

resilience. Known as The 

Thirtysomething Coach, I 

also specialize in helping 

thirtysomethings who aren’t 

who or where they want to 

be with their relationships, 

careers, and lives (www. 

carriespaulding.com). 

Cara Volpe (Houston): At the 

end of 2012 I left New York 

City and the world of fulltime 

employment to live in 

Brazil for an extended period 

of time and to travel the 

world—something I’ve been 

talking about for years! What 

a learning experience, in so 

many ways. 

Bernard Weber (Delta): 

Kelly and I married in 2008 

and have two boys, Teddy 

(4) and Luke (2). I became 

the assistant principal at 

Williamston Middle School 

this fall. 

2004 

Mahesh Alur (Chicago): My 

wife and I had our son, Toby, 

in January 2013! He is such 

a joy! 

Steve Bartha (S. Louisiana): 

Elena Forzani (S. Louisiana) 

and I, of New Hartford, Conn., 

are happy to announce the 

birth of our daughter, Giuliana 

Karen Bartha, at 12:33 a.m. 

on November 3, 2013. The 

little bundle of joy weighed 

6 lbs 7 oz. and measured 19 

inches long. Guiliana is our 

first child. 

Lori Baxter (R.G.V.): In 

August I began my new 

position as rehabilitation 

director for Hillside Health 

Care International in 

Southern Belize. Besides 

treating patients in the clinic, 

villages, and homes, I will be 

leading disability awareness 

presentations in elementary 

schools throughout the 

district. I recently led a 

workshop for preschool 

teachers on how to effectively 

instruct children with special 

needs. 

Alex Breland (Chicago): On 

June 23, 2013, my beautiful 

wife, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, 

gave birth to my beautiful 

daughter, Natalie Juanita 

Breland. 

Kelly Cassaro (N.Y.): My 

husband, Michael, and I 

welcomed James Porter 

Cassaro on Feb. 25, 2013, 

with love and gratitude in 

Brooklyn, N.Y. 

Lisa Coleman (Charlotte): 

My husband, Donald Curtis, 

and I are happy to announce 

the birth of our first child, 

Langston Isaiah Curtis, on 

Sept. 2, 2013. 

Jonathan Cosner (Houston): I 

am a mental health counselor 

serving low-income clients 

throughout the Columbus, 

Ohio area. My wife, Helen 

McClaugherty Cosner 

(R.G.V.), is currently happily 

teaching sixth grade reading/ 

language arts at Gahanna 

Middle School South. 

Laura Cummings (Chicago): 

I was recently named 

the managing director of 

program for the Chicago 

region of OneGoal. 

Rina Deshpande (N.Y.): In 

2012, I finally self-published 

my first children’s book, 

inspired by my former 

students who were boldly 

learning English while 

mastering third grade 

concepts, by my beautiful 

Indian-American family and 

by my loving dog, Sasha. It’s 

called Cupcake. More 

to come! 

Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca 

(Houston): I graduated 

with my M.A. in socialorganizational 

psychology 

from Columbia in May 2013 

and assumed a new role 

as senior implementation 

researcher at K12 Inc. 

Maria Garner (Houston): In 

early October 2013, Greeni 

Recycling, the Houston-based 

event recycling company I 

co-own with my husband, 

diverted 8 tons of recycling 

from the landfill at Original 

Greek Festival. 

Michael Green (N.Y.): 

Opportunity continues to 

peek its head around the 

corner. I was promoted to a 

supervising attorney at my 

company and am anticipating 

more growth to come! 

Elliott Hood (Las Vegas): 

Beginning in April 2014, I 

will serve a one-year legal 

clerkship for Judge Robert 

Bacharach on the Tenth 

Circuit Court of Appeals 

in Oklahoma City. My wife, 

Caroline Hult (Las Vegas), 

a vice president on TFA’s 

admissions team, and I will 

relocate to Oklahoma City 

from our current home in 

Colorado. 

William Jenkins (Metro 

Atlanta): I finally found the 

time to go back to school 

myself. I’m currently 


getting my MBA from the 

Wharton School of Business 

through their program 

for executives while also 

continuing my work as White 

House liaison for the Obama 

Administration. 

Meghan Kelly (Baltimore): 

I work as an engineer to 

help “Keep Tahoe Blue,” 

as a regional coordinator 

for SheJumps.org getting 

more women outside, and 

as a semi-professional skier 

appearing in the Pretty Faces 

movie in 2014! 

Meg Lally (G.N.O.): G.N.O. 

2004: We are having a 10-year 

reunion in June for our corps 

in New Orleans. Save the 

date! 

Saniya LeBlanc (D.C. Region): 

I finally got my Ph.D. in 

mechanical engineering 

and am returning to D.C. 

as an assistant professor 

at The George Washington 

University. 

Benjamin Lev (N.Y.): I am 

currently serving as a New 

Leaders resident principal in 

Corona, Queens, and looking 

forward to opening a new 

school next year. If anyone 

would like to be part of the 

founding team, please contact 

me at BenjaminGLev@gmail. 

com. Thank you! 

Anna Maldonaldo (Houston): 

Since I left teaching, I had 

a second child—a boy. And 

because of the age difference 

with my first child, I spent 

last year juggling having a 

kindergartener and a high 

school senior ... whew! This 

past August, I proudly (and 

sadly) sent my first child to 

UT in El Paso, Texas, while my 

son is proudly in first grade, 

where he doesn’t have to take 

naps. 

Emma McCandless 

(R.G.V.): I am back in the 

classroom after relocating 

to Connecticut and am 

loving teaching eighth grade 

composition at Achievement 

First in Hartford! 

Eva Miles (L.A.): 2013 was a 

year of checking off goals. I 

completed my doctorate in 

May (teacher education in 

multicultural societies) and 

got promoted as an assistant 

principal in August. I packed 

and purged many teachingrelated 

files. It has been a 

challenging and thrilling 

journey so far. Next goal: 

finding balance. 

Tolulope Noah (L.A.): I 

earned my doctorate in 

education from USC last year 

and completed my ninth year 

as a classroom teacher (fifth 

and sixth grade). I am now a 

full-time college professor 

at Azusa Pacific University, 

where I teach and prepare 

future teachers. I also started 

a personal blog called “Office 

Hours,” where fashion, 

faith, and education meet: 

officehoursblog.tumblr.com. 

Efe Osagie-Odeleye 

(Houston): Since my days 

in Houston back in 2004, I 

have developed my career in 

global philanthropy. I am now 

a happily married mother of 

one living in Lagos, Nigeria, 

and working to enhance 

educational opportunities for 

the nation’s youth. 

Akshai J. Patel (Phoenix): 

Alumni-founded Phoenix 

Collegiate Academy, the 

first “no excuses” charter 

school in Arizona, has grown 

since 2009 and is now on the 

verge of realizing its vision to 

provide disadvantaged South 

Phoenix students a K-tocollege 

pathway. 

Tianay Perrault (Metro 

Atlanta): I am currently in 

my final course working 

toward my doctor of 

education leadership with 

a concentration in teacher 

leadership. My future 

aspirations are to work 

on teacher professional 

development and curriculum 

development with a focus on 

instructional technology at 

the district office level. 

Samantha Pownall (E.N.C.): 

I am now an adjunct 

professor of law at New 

York Law School, where I 

teach an education law and 

policy clinic with a focus on 

representing students who 

have been suspended and 

arrested from public schools 

in New York City. 

Jesse B. Rauch (D.C. 

Region): I completed my 

first year as the executive 

director of the D.C. State 

Board of Education in 

November 2013. I expect to 

continue working on issues 

affecting all students in the 

District of Columbia. 

Marissa Rowley (Charlotte): 

My husband, Travis Rowley 

(Charlotte), and I happily 

welcomed our first baby, 

Layla Charlotte, on Aug. 6, 

2013. 

Colin Seale (D.C. Region): I 

am now an associate attorney 

at the Las Vegas office of 

Greenberg Traurig, LLP. My 

practice focuses on litigation, 

intellectual property, and 

charter school public bond 

finance. 

David Small (L.A.): I had a 

baby girl this year with my 

wife, Liz! 

Laura Swartz (Delta): My 

husband and I now live in 

Portland, Ore., and we have 

a baby boy named Jack. I 

am a licensed attorney in 

Oregon, and I’m working as 

a mediator, facilitator, and 

the primary caregiver for 

our baby. We live just down 

the street from Lucy Amory 

(Delta ’04), her husband, 

Robby, and their little baby 

girl! 

Lauren Taiclet (N.Y.): I 

married Raymond Canada 

(N.Y. ’02) on July 7, 2012. 

We met while teaching in 

Washington Heights. 

Kelly Weatherby (Houston): 

The college version of 

myself would be bemused to 

know that, as of December, 

I am officially an army 

wife. I recently relocated 

to Fayetteville, N.C., to live 

with my fiancé, Adam, who 

is stationed at Fort Bragg. 

I spent the last five years in 

Brooklyn, N.Y., working at 

different points for TNTP, the 

New York City Department of 

Education, and TFA. 

Shannon Wheatley (R.G.V.): 

My wife, Lara, and I welcomed 

Caroline Sofia Wheatley into 

our family last May. We love 

her very much! 

Kristen Zenobia (R.G.V.): 

I married the man of my 

dreams on Oct. 27, 2012! 

2005 

Joseph Almeida (N.Y.): I 

became an advisory board 

member for the America 

Achieves Fellowship for 

Teachers and Principals, a 

national fellowship of about 

100 effective teachers and 

principals. 

Jeffrey Becker (Houston): My 

wife Kate and I welcomed our 

first child, Augustus, into the 

world last summer. 

Matthew Bragman (L.A.): On 

Sept. 17, 2013, my wife and I 

welcomed a beautiful baby 

girl. We could not be happier 

to have little Molly Elizabeth 

Bragman in our lives. 

Hunter Brown (S. Louisiana): 

I recently married Tiffany 

Compagno (S. Louisiana 

’10), and we have both 

started pursuing master’s 

of educational leadership 

degrees at LSU. 

Isaac Cardona (Houston): I 

had the opportunity to work 

and graduate with some 

amazing Teach For America 

alumni in my Summer 

Principal’s Academy cohort at 

Columbia. (Aja Settles [New 

Jersey ’04], Lander Arrieta 

[Miami-Dade ’08], Amanda 

Hageman [Houston], Juliana 

Worrell [New Jersey ’04], 

Paul Chin [L.A. ’06], Kevyn 

Bowles [N.Y. ’09], Annette 

de la Llana [D.C. Region ’02], 

Jessica Azani [N.Y. ’09], and 

Jess Deimel [Mid-Atlantic 

’08], to name a few). 

Caitlin Coe (N.Y.): I married 

Peter Coe (N.Y.) on Aug. 17, 

2013. 

Susan Crandall (N.Y.): I 

moved to State College, 

Penn., to pursue a Ph.D. in 

School Psychology at Penn 

State University. I also gave 

birth to a baby boy, Noah, last 

August! 

Elizabeth Dooley (R.G.V.): I’m 

working at an environmental 

think tank in Berlin, 

Germany, on agricultural, 

environmental and climate 

change policy issues in the 

European Union. 

Laura Draper (R.G.V.): My 

son, Atticus William Draper, 

was born July 5, 2013. 

Lauren Evans (D.C. Region): 

I am a foster parent to three 

kids. 

Jessica Forman (Houston): 

After eight years in the field 

of education, I am excited to 

report that I have returned to 

school. I am looking forward 

to expanding my skills, 

knowledge and network in 

my Leadership at Education 

Performance program at 

Vanderbilt University. 

Tanya Franklin (L.A.): In 

May I graduated from UCLA 

School of Law, and I currently 

serve as the inaugural 

education law public service 

fellow. My placement is with 

Mental Health Advocacy 

Services, where I represent 

kids in special education 

and discipline matters. I 

also support and monitor 

the implementation of 

restorative justice (RJ) at a 

few schools in LAUSD, as our 

district moves to RJ in all 

schools by 2020. 

Jennifer Freeman (Metro 

Atlanta): I recently received 

the Harriet Ball for 

Excellence in Teaching Award 

at KIPP National Summit in 

Las Vegas. 

Whitney Gibbs (Metro 

Atlanta): I have been 

practicing criminal defense 

for a few years now. I 


with the Flint Circuit 

Public Defender’s Office 

in McDonough, Ga. I am 

married and have a 7-month 

old daughter. 

Kathryn Hansen (Phoenix): I 

am currently working on my 

Ph.D. in anthropology with a 

focus on education’s impact 

on the identity of language 

minority students. 

Brenda Hatley (Greater 

Philadelphia): I married my 

love of three years, Justin 

Hatley, in November 2012 

and joined him in Seattle, 

where I am now teaching 

kindergarten! 

Jared Hove (Delta): I’m 

excited to be serving as 

senior director of partner 

engagement at Teach For All, 

working with organizations 

in the Middle East, South 

Asia, and Africa. My wife, 

Anna Mims (Delta ’04), and I 

welcomed our daughter Celia 

to our family this past May. 

Elaine Hume (G.N.O.): After 

12 years in New Orleans, I 

moved back to my hometown 

of Charleston, S.C., in June 

and got engaged in August. 

I’m looking forward to new 

career opportunities and a 

Charleston wedding! 

Philonda Johnson 

(Houston): I am excited to 

celebrate my fifth year as a 

Founding Principal at KIPP 

DC: Discover Academy. 

Last August, I earned my 

M.S. in leadership from 

Northeastern University CPS. 

In January 2014, I began my 

Ed.D. work in organizational 

leadership at Northeastern 

University CPS. 

Kristen Kell (Greater 

Philadelphia): I got married 

to Matthew Hittenmark, who 

I met teaching, on Aug. 24, 

2013. 

Colin Kikuchi (Phoenix): I got 

married in March 2013, and 

life is great! Working hard to 

finish my Ph.D. dissertation. 

Jessica Kresevic (Charlotte): 

In June 2013, I accepted 

a full-time role as an 

effectiveness coach at TEACH 

Charlotte. Recently, I was 

able to coach an eighth grade 

teacher who teaches some 

of the same students from 

my third grade class in 2007. 

It is great to know that I’m 

still working to provide my 

previous students with an 

excellent education! 

Nate Lischwe (St. Louis): I got 

married to Rebekah Reimer 

(St. Louis ’10) on July 5, 2012. 

We were joined by joined 

by many family members, 

friends and loved ones, 

including a large number of 

people from the Teach For 

America community. 

Tyler Malotte (L.A.): I still 

love Sara Te (L.A.) and 

assume the feeling is still 

mutual. 

Julia Massey (N.Y.): My band 

released its third record this 

year and logged over 8,000 

miles on tour so far! 

Charles McClelland (S. 

Louisiana): In September 

2013 I received my master’s 

degree in mechanical 

engineering from UMass 

Amherst. 

Holly Meyer (D.C. Region): 

My husband, Eric, and big 

brother Matt welcomed Henry 

into our family last summer. 

Shari Moseley (L.A.): Hi class 

of 2005! I am so happy to say 

hello. Shoutout to all future 

TFAers! I’m doing well and 

would love to hear from you 

sometime. 

Crischelle Navalta (R.G.V.): 

Congratulations to my dear 

friend Jenny Corroy (R.G.V. 

’04) on her TFA Teaching 

Excellence Award and 

winning the Fishman Prize in 

2013. Thank you for inspiring 

me in our work. 

Ruth O’Gara (N.Y.): I received 

a faculty merit scholarship 

and a Teach For America 

scholarship to attend the 

master’s in social work 

program at the University 

of Denver. I am currently 

interning at a local Denver 

school and am interested 

in pursuing certification in 

school-based social work. 

Rachel Pakzadeh (Las 

Vegas): On May 12, 2012, my 


our first child, Ruby. Ruby 

was baptized in July, and her 

godfather is another TFA 

alum, Eric Rosecrants (N.Y. 

’06). 

Sarah Purcell (Phoenix): 

Throughout the first half of 

2013, I wrote and lobbied a 

bill at the Arizona Legislature 

with five friends that waives 

tuition fees for community 

college and universities in 

Arizona for kids exiting the 

foster care system. Gov. Jan 

Brewer signed it into law in 

mid-June 2013. 

Jessica Reineke (Phoenix): 

I live in Oklahoma City with 

my husband, Daniel, and our 

2½-year-old son Braver. 

Besides chasing Braver 

around and learning about 

the world through the eyes 

of a toddler, I co-teach eighth 

grade English at a wonderful 

school, Westminster School. 

Julia Roberts (St. Louis): 

Each year of dedicated efforts 

makes the difference for the 

children we teach. 

Leela Sarathy (N.Y.): Since 

graduating from medical 

school, I have begun my 

residency in pediatrics at 

Rhode Island Hospital/Brown 

University. It is my hope that 

as a health care provider to 

some of the nation’s poorest 

children, I am contributing 

to the movement to ensure 

educational opportunity for 

all. 

Rachel Seward (St. Louis): 

Between March and May 

of 2013, my husband and I 

bought a house, welcomed 

our first child—a daughter 

named Avery—and I began a 

role as deputy superintendent 

in St. Louis Public Schools! 

Erin Smith (Baltimore): I 

recently earned my Ph.D. in 

human nutrition, foods, and 

exercise with an emphasis 

in behavioral nutrition and 

physical activity and public 

school wellness policy 

analysis from Virginia Tech. 

Jesse Spevack (N.Y.): I got 

engaged to Jess Goldberg 

(N.Y.). Pretty lucky. 

Sarah Strom (D.C. Region): 

John Petersen (D.C. Region 

’06) and I were married 

on May 25, 2013, making a 

relationship that blossomed 

as corps members at Powell 

E.S. official. The wedding 

took place under umbrellas 

on the prairie on a cold, 

rainy Memorial Day in my 

hometown of Dixon, Ill. Anna 

Gregory (D.C. Region) was a 

bridesmaid. 

Heather Synold (Las Vegas): 

My husband, J.J. Synold (Las 

Vegas ’04), and I moved into 

our first home in March 2013. 

A week later, we welcomed 

our second daughter, Piper 

Ann! Piper joins big sister 

Grace Elena, who turned 2 

in May. 

Joshua VanderJagt 

(Chicago): In a time of such 

significant change and action 

within education reform, I am 

proud to be part of the TFA 

movement that has positively 

contributed to these efforts. 

While the efficacy and 

intentions of every player 

in this movement has been 

questioned, I feel strongly 

that TFA’s altruistic view has 

had a tremendous impact on 

the educational landscape of 

our nation. 

Erica Warren (S. Louisiana): 

I was married on April 29, 

2012, to Richard Warren of 

Lithonia, Ga. I also graduated 

with an MBA in marketing 

from Georgia State University 

in December 2011. 

Roxana Wells (Phoenix): 

My husband, Stewart, and I 

welcomed our baby boy, Ryan 

Rocco, on Nov. 7, 2012. 

2006 

Chike Aguh (N.Y.): I just 

graduated from the Harvard 

Kennedy School and the 

Wharton School, moved 

to Maryland and just got 

engaged. I am working to 

advance the use of education 

technology to help every 

student succeed. 

Russell Armstrong (Miami- 

Dade): Last August, I left 

my position as education 

policy advisor for Louisiana 

to become the chief growth 

officer at mSchool, winner of 

Teach For America’s National 

Social Innovation Award, with 

Elliot Sanchez (G.N.O. ’08). 

Michael Barnes (R.G.V.): I 

have relocated to Austin to 

pursue a Ph.D. in education 

policy at the University of 

Texas, and am maintaining 

my support for students and 

families as a P/T teacher 

providing reading intervention 

for a public charter school. 


Seeking the best of the best 

Excellent Teachers for Excellent Schools 

The Excellent Schools Network connects 

passionate, results-driven teachers to 

job openings at the highest performing 

Building Excellent Schools charter schools. 

Amy Benedetti (N.Y.): After 

teaching in New York City 

for five years, I moved to 

Hong Kong in 2011 to teach 

at an international school. 

It is amazing, even across 

the globe, how many Teach 

For America and Teach For 

All alumni and supporters I 

encounter on a regular basis. 

Teach For America’s strength 

as an organization is truly 

recognized worldwide. 

Stephen Bloom (Miami- 

Dade): I married Emily Elliott 

(L.A. ’05) on June 1, 2013, in 

Sandy Spring, Md. We recently 

moved to Baltimore, where I 

am attending graduate school 

for public health and business 

and Emily is working for an 

international-youth-focused 

NGO. 

Colleen Bonaccorso (N.Y.): I 

am a certified yoga instructor. 

Rachel Byron-Law (N.Y.): I 

released an indie-folk album 

last year, and have had a 

wonderful time seeing some 

of you on tour! www.arbielle. 

com. 

Sarah Chi (E.N.C.): I am 

currently a North Carolina 

Principal Fellow enrolled 

in the master’s of school 

administration program at the 

University of North Carolina 

at Chapel Hill. 

Jonthon Coulson (N.Y.): I 

am teaching the group of 

students I taught as seventh 

and eighth graders before 

I left to Indonesia for two 

years. This year, I’ll see them 

graduate! 

Taylor Delhagen (N.Y.): I am 

heading to Mysore, India, 

in 2014 with Fulbright to 

study how history teachers 

are instructed to facilitate 

lessons on the Indian 

Nationalist Movement and, 

in turn, how this impacts 

feelings of national belonging 

in and out of the classroom. 

Colleen Doyle (N.Y.): I am 

currently working in Early 

Intervention as a speechlanguage 

pathologist. I 

serve families of diverse 

cultures and socioeconomic 

backgrounds. I am able to 

ensure young children (3 and 

under) and their families 

are on the right path from 

the beginning. My TFA 

experience certainly shapes 

my work with my families and 

I am grateful for that! 

Jonathan Elkin (N.Y.): Nice 

seeing so many people at the 

TFA-NYC reunion. For those I 

missed: After teaching math 

in the Bronx, I went to D.C., 

and now I’m doing ed policy 

for Senator Hirono of Hawai‘i. 

Meanwhile, I met my wife in 

’08 while volunteering on the 

Obama campaign...it worked 

out! Come visit if you ever find 

yourself in D.C. 

Cole Entress (Chicago): I am 

now working with the Relay 

Graduate School of Education 

to avenge the subpar 

experience of corps members 

in education grad schools 

nationwide. Holla at me! 

Kevin Floyd (Charlotte): 

I have accepted a role as 

project manager and media 

specialist with NP Strategy in 

Columbia, S.C. This is a newly 

launched subsidiary of the 

Nexsen Pruet law firm, for 

which I am also employed. 

Ulises Garcia (L.A.): I 

recently became the ELD 

Advisor for Villa Park High 

School. 

Michelle Gieg (S. 

Louisiana): My partner 

and I, Meghan Thompson 

(Charlotte ’08), got 

engaged this year after 

meeting on staff at the 

Delta institute. We’ve also 

recently relocated back to 

Baton Rouge, La., where 

she recently joined the S. 

Louisiana regional team. 

Megan Godfrey (L.A.): I 

returned to Los Angeles in 

June 2013 with my husband 

and infant daughter to visit 

my former students and 

celebrate their high school 

graduation—a promise I 

made to them my first year 

in TFA when they were sixth 

graders! 

Gretchen Greenawalt 

(Greater Philadelphia): 

Danny Greenawalt and I had 

our first baby girl in January 

2013, named Perry Hannah! 

Holly Guzman (N.Y.): I 

graduated from University 

of Chicago Booth School of 

Business and Harris School 

of Public Policy with an 

MBA/MPP degree. I recently 

started a marketing role at 

Procter & Gamble. 

Michelle Hassler (Delta): 

Michael Hassler (Delta ’05) 

and I just had our first child, 

a boy named Heath. He was 

born on April 29. 

Tori Hines (L.A.): I 

graduated from Columbia 

with an MS in neuroscience 

and education with a focus 

on literacy acquisition 

and the development of 

creativity. A few months 

later, my husband and I 

welcomed our first child, 

Hunter Hines! 

Sadra Isaacs (N.Y.): Joshua 

Isaacs (N.Y.) and I were 

married on Aug. 4, 2012. 

Shani Jackson Dowell 

(Houston): Team Dowell now 

has four members. Randy 

(a fellow educator who 

launched KIPP Nashville) 

and I welcomed our son Joah 

to the family. He joins his big 

sister Selah. 

Kristen Jones (N.Y.): I 

published a book for young 

adults in 2013, entitled 

Nothing Like Me. It attempts 

to chronicle some of the 

pressures of the students I 

teach in a fictional format. 

Apply Today! 

buildingexcellentschools.org/ESNapply 

1. Review teacher job openings. 

2. Search job openings by keyword, city or school name. 

3. Complete online application and submit directly to schools. 

4. Schools will contact you if there is a good fit. 

Questions? Contact recruiting@buildingexcellentschools.org 

The Excellent Schools Network is a select group of the 

highest-performing schools founded by Building Excellent Schools 

Fellows. These schools work with BES—and one another—to 

sustain high levels of student achievement and grow to serve 

more students in urban centers around the country. 

Let us make the world your classroom... 

Master of Public Affairs (MPA) 

• Ranked #2 in the country by U.S. News and World Report 

• Exciting concentrations include: 

Nonprofit Management 

International Development 

Energy 

• Teach For America benefits that result in tuition savings: 

Waiver of Experiential Requirement 

Credit Hour Reductions 

www.spea.indiana.edu 

Emily Gorenz, MPA '10 

Teach For America Alum, ‘10 

Concentration: Nonprofit Management 

Current Position: Director of School Support 

at the Achievement Newwork, New Orleans, LA 


ALUMNI NOTES 

CAN YOU 

BRING IT? 

TEAMWORK PASSION DEDICATION HUMOR 

COMMITMENT OWNERSHIP EXCELLENCE 

ELLENC E 

Grant Stegner’s and Elizabeth Carmichael’s (both N.Y. ’08) journey began in the same CMA group at summer institute. Five years and countless lesson 

plans later (both are still teachers in New York City), they married in Erie, Pa., on July 13, 2013. Alumni present included (from left) Kayla Poole, Michael 

Keough, Lauren Cheak, Michael Duque, Claire Blide (all N.Y. ’08), Shyam Kannan, Osvaldo Mendez (both N.Y. ’09), and Belen Ramirez (N.Y. ’07). 

Mary Kearns (Connecticut): 

I am currently working at 

Baker College Prep as dean 

of students. Baker is one 

of two new campuses of 

Chicago’s Noble Network of 

charter schools that opened 

on Chicago’s South Side in 

August 2013. We are proud to 

be serving our 2021 college 

graduates! 

Michael Klein (N.Y.): On July 14, 

2013, my beautiful wife, Rachel 

Kantrowitz, and I were married 

at the Central Park Boathouse 

in the company of many TFA 

NYC alums, including Noah 

Green, Chike Aguh, Andrew 

Parsons, Jonthon Coulson, 

Lizzy Vogel (’07), Sam Ronfard, 

and Dan Wise (’04). 

Marguerite Lembo (N.Y.): 

My husband, John, and I 

welcomed our first child, 

Liliana Theresa, on April 29, 

2013! 

Adriana MacGregor (N.Y.): 

One year ago last fall, my 


a beautiful baby boy into 

our family. Becoming a 

parent has strengthened 

my commitment to creating 

equitable educational 

opportunities for all students. 

Siiri Marquardt (N.Y.): In 

May 2013, I graduated from 

Loyola University Chicago 

with my Ed.S/M.Ed in school 

psychology. 

Jennifer McEachern (N.Y.): 

I completed my MBA at 

Yale in May 2013, and in 

February 2014 I began as a 

senior consultant at Deloitte 

in Atlanta. In the interim, I 

taught a business planning/ 

entrepreneurship course to 

high school students in Prep 

for Prep and left to travel 

through Australia and Europe 

last October. 

Laura McSorley (D.C. 

Region): My husband, Tom 

Dallas McSorley (D.C. 

Region), and I are still loving 

living in D.C., where Tom 

is now a lawyer. I work to 

expand Teach For America’s 

impact in early childhood— 

reach out if we should 

connect. 

Rebecca Miller 

(Connecticut): On May 25, 

2013, I got married to Ben 

Rottman, and my collab 

members Eva Colen (Greater 

Philadelphia), Maggie 

Hughes (Baltimore), and 

Lindsey Rohwer (Chicago), 

as well as my Institute LS, 

Matt Radigan (G.N.O. ’98), 

were in attendance! I moved 

to Pittsburgh to start a triple 

boards (pediatrics, adult 

psychiatry, child psychiatry) 

residency at UPMC after 

graduating from medical 

school in June 2013. 

Erasmo Montalvan (D.C. 

Region): As a school 

director/principal on the 

southwest side of Chicago, 

I am working arduously 

to improve the social 

and academic outcomes 

of all students in urban 

education. 

Larry Neal (Delta): Whitney 

[Long] Neal (Delta) and I 

welcomed Audrey Claire 

Neal to our family on June 

24, 2013. We live in Atlanta. 

Susan Oba (N.Y.): I am 

currently teaching math and 

coaching teachers at KIPP 

Heartwood in San Jose, 

Calif. 

Kyle Palmer (Houston): 

I am working as an 11th 

grade AP Language and 

Composition teacher at 

Summit Prep charter high in 

Redwood City, Calif. 

Jessica Perez (N.Y.): I married 

David Fink, a fellow teacher I 

met at my placement school, 

on July 28th, 2013, in Lake 

View Terrace, Calif. We 

continue to work together at 

the Celia Cruz Bronx High 

School of Music. 

Kimberly Price (Miami-Dade): 

I won my first trial, preventing 

a client from spending 10 

years in prison without parole 

for a nonviolent drug offense. 

The jury took 13 minutes to 

acquit my client. 

Ajeenah Rasheed-Carroll 

(Metro Atlanta): I am living a 

blessed life as a mom to five, a 

wife of 13 years to an amazing 

husband, and a fourth-year 

MTLD on an incredible team in 

Metro Atlanta. 

Jenson Reiser (N.Y.): I am a 

third-year doctoral student in 

counseling psychology at UT 

Make more than a difference. Make your mark. 

Join Success Academy because you want to challenge yourself and 

scholars across New York City to achieve at a ground-breaking, history 

making level every day. With 22 schools serving grades K-8 and a high 

school opening in 2014, we seek individuals ready to become leaders, 

mentors, and role models to thousands of young people in grades K-12 

who are eager to learn—and deserve a world-class public education. 

Are you ready to transform education — for good? Learn more and 

apply today at SuccessCareers.org 


SuccessCareers.org 

© 

2014 Success Academy. EOE.

ALUMNI NOTES 

Austin. My research centers 

upon stress in educational 

settings. Clinically, I work 

with children and adolescents 

in an inpatient psychiatric 

facility. 

Sara Rubin (Las Vegas): I am 

enrolled in my final year of a 

school psychology graduate 

program at Illinois State 

University, and am serving 

as a full-time psychology 

intern at Evanston Township 

High School. I look forward 

to learning how to best meet 

the academic and socialemotional 

needs of students 

and applying this knowledge 

to my future practice as a 

school psychologist. 

Elizabeth Simpson 

(Memphis): Tim Flowers 

(Memphis) and I were 

married in Memphis, Tenn., 

on Nov. 2, 2013. 

Wrede Smith (St. Louis): Beth 

Kuhnhein (St. Louis) and I 

were married in Cincinnati 

on Dec. 8, 2012! Two fellow 

corps members were in the 

wedding party, and others 

were in attendance. 

John Stoneburner (L.A.): 

I recently became the 

chairman of the board for 

a charter school in Los 

Angeles. 

Andrea Swanson (Baltimore): 

Hello to the Baltimore Corps 

’06! Shawn and I wish a happy 

first birthday to Penelope, 

our daughter! We are living in 

Portland, Ore., and loving life! 

Kimron Thomas (N.Y.): I 

am currently working with 

the NY Collective of Radical 

Educators and the movement 

of rank-and-file educators 

to fight the privatization 

and corporate takeover of 

American public schools. Join 

me! kimronthomas@gmail. 

com. 

Lisa Thornton (Charlotte): 

Seven years after Shelby 

Rohrer and I were in the same 

collaborative CMA group in 

Atlanta institute, 2006, we 

reunited again as colleagues 

working for a leading charter 

school in South Minneapolis 

called Hiawatha Leadership 

Academy. I continued teaching 

at my placement school 

Our scholars are growing... 

Blackstone Valley Prep 

Mayoral Academy, 

a network of high performing 

charter schools in Rhode Island, 

will serve 7 schools 

and over 2,000 scholars, 

grades K-12, by the year 2017. 

and so is our team. 

2009 

in Charlotte, N.C., for four 

years before moving back to 

Minnesota. The TFA network 

came full cycle. 

Akay Tuncak (N.Y.): I have 

started business school at the 

University of Chicago Booth 

School of Business. 

Chelsea Vines (Metro 

Atlanta): I continue to teach 

in my placement school. 

Every year is a challenge 

because my students’ needs 

are different. No two classes 

are the same, and that is the 

beauty of teaching. I work 

hard, but I can truly say that I 

still enjoy it! 

Angela Washington (Metro 

Atlanta): I just got married 

on July 7, 2013! So I’m getting 

used to my students calling 

me a new last name after 

seven years. 

Abbey Weispfenning (E.N.C.): 

My husband Aaron and I 

welcomed a baby girl, Emma 

Fay, on Dec. 12, 2012. I also 

accepted a new role as an 

assistant principal in my 

placement district. 

Vincent Zabala (Hawai‘i): I’ve 

made a big move in the past 

two years to Southeast Asia, 

spending a year teaching 

in Thailand and currently 

working as a trainer and 

coach for Teach For Malaysia. 

2007 

Pamela (Swanson) Simaga 

(R.G.V.): I graduated law 

school in May 2012 and am 

working as an attorney at 

a school law firm. I also 

married Eric, the love of my 

life, in May 2013. 

Kristin Algier (Houston): I am 

excited to have moved back to 

Dallas to serve as the primary 

director at Uplift’s Heights 

Preparatory. This amazing 

school in West Dallas is 

creating the next generation 

of college graduates. It is not 

if they will go to college, but 

where! 

Nathan Arrowsmith 

(Phoenix): In May, I graduated 

magna cum laude from the 

Sandra Day O’Connor College 

of Law at Arizona State 

University and started work 

Make an impact: join us! 

2013 

in the fall as a law clerk for 

Judge David Campbell of the 

United States District Court 

for the District of Arizona. 

Erin Barksdale (Metro 

Atlanta): As of June 2013, 

I became the high school 

principal/director of a charter 

school, Hampton Preparatory, 

in Dallas. 

Ashley Bencan (Greater 

Philadelphia): Zach Bencan 

(Greater Philadelphia) and I 

have a 10-month-old baby boy 

named Jackson! 

Michael Billups (G.N.O.): 

Despite moving from the 

classroom into the cockpits 

of America’s Air Force, I am 

as resolved as ever that our 

nation’s biggest challenge and 

opportunity lies in the reform 

of our education system and its 

ability to provide all children 

with an excellent education. 

Charles Braman (N.Y.): I am 

currently the coordinator 

of special projects and 

extracurricular activities at 

Rise Academy, a KIPP school, 

in Newark, N.J. 

MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS 

THE NATIONAL TURNAROUND LEADER 

“ 

After Teach For America, I knew I wanted to 

continue making a difference in urban education 

and work somewhere with leadership opportunities. 

If you are committed to public education reform, 

then Mastery is the place for you. 

Matthew Troha, Greater Philadelphia ’03 and current Mastery Executive Principal 

” 

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION IN 

PHILADELPHIA SINCE 2001 

18 Mastery Campuses 

125 School Leaders 

47 Teach For America 

Alums Serving in School 

Leadership Roles 

Proudly Serving 

9,500 Families 

Join us today. 

Our team is home to a 2013 

National Milken Educator Award recipient* 

*a 2006 Teach For America alum! 

www.blackstonevalleyprep.org 

Click the “Careers” tab 

Teachers and leaders wanted in grades K-9 

To learn more and apply: 

www.masterycharter.org 


BE NOBLE. 

1 in 10 high school 

seniors in Chicago 

attends a Noble 

campus. 

Over 90% of 

Noble seniors 

choose to pursue a 

college degree. 

242 

Teach For America 

alumni are helping 

them get there. 

A critical mass is 

forming that will 

close Chicago’s 

opportunity gap. 

noblenetwork.org 


Calling All 

Role Models 

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools is 

looking for great teachers and is committed 

to providing a high quality education to 

every student. We are earning a national 

reputation for urban school reform and want 

the best educators to help us reach our goal 

of becoming the nation’s top performing 

urban school system by 2018. Join us. 

High Demand Opportunities: 

Math 

Chemistry 

Biology 

Spanish 

ELL\K-6 

ELL\7-12 

SERVE • INSPIRE • ACHIEVE 

www.mnps.org 

Exceptional 

Education 

The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) does not discriminate 

on the basis of race, religion, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual 

orientation, national origin, color, age, and/or disability in admission to, 

access to, or operation of its programs, services, or activities. MNPS does not 

discriminate in its hiring or employment practices. 

Tina Brunson (N.Y.): Stephen 

Green (N.Y.) and I met as 

corps members and recently 

became engaged while 

vacationing in Tanzania in 

2013. 

Alissa Byrne (L.A.): My 


second daughter into the 

world last spring. Savannah 

Byrne was born on May 11! 

Her older sister Mckinley 

(2½) is a proud big sister! 

Trisha Carlson (Baltimore): 

I’ve had two children of my 

own who make me appreciate 

and value elementary school 

teachers even more! I now 

teach at an alternative high 

school in Montana where I 

have the privilege of helping 

students earn high school 

diplomas on a schedule that 

works for each one. 

Rochelle Comeaux (Chicago): 

After Teach For America, I 

moved to Colorado, earned 

my Wilderness First 

Responder, then moved to 

Portland, Ore., to work as 

a guide for a wilderness 

therapy program. I later 

began working at a local 

gear shop and am now 

packing up to move to South 

America, where I will work 

on my Spanish, volunteer, 

and eventually come back to 

the States to work with youth 

once again. 

Stephanie Covill (Charlotte): 

Hey Charlotte ’07! I recently 

graduated from UNC Chapel 

Hill’s Master of School 

Administration program as 

a North Carolina Principal 

Fellow, and I am now serving 

as an assistant principal at 

Githens Middle School in 

Durham, N.C. 

Barbara Hope Crocker (N.Y.): 

I got married this fall and 

am still living and working in 

New York City with so many 

amazing TFA alums. 

Jared Dawson (Metro 

Atlanta): I am married to 

Dominique Dawson and 

together we have one child 

named Josiah. My family 

currently lives in Atlanta and 

works for Campus Crusade 

for Christ. We are working 

to see every student in 

Atlanta have an opportunity 

to respond to the message 

of Jesus. I also do a little 

photography and furniture 

restoration. 

Keith Dell’Aquila (L.A.): I 

married Kate Dove (L.A. ’10) 

and began work engaging 

charter school teachers in 

advocacy work as the director 

of teacher engagement 

with the California Charter 

Schools Association. 

William Dirickson (Houston): 

I have just been accepted to 

Officer Candidate School for 

the United States Navy! 

William (Sam) Duell (Bay 

Area): Laura (Bay Area 

’10), Robin (Corps ’23), and I 

recently moved to Oklahoma 

City to join the momentous 

education reform movement 

in Oklahoma. Drawn by family 

and a happenin’ place, I 


in the State Department of 

Education, where I work with 

all of the charter schools in 

the state to ensure quality 

school choice for kids. 

Charles Erker (Chicago): 

I graduated from Harvard 

Business School in May 2013 

and started as a consultant 

with The Boston Consulting 

Group in Chicago last July. I 

recently started volunteering 

with METROsquash and look 

forward to reacquainting 

myself with the Chicago 

winter. 

Casey Farmer (Bay Area): 

Galen Wilson (Bay Area ’08) 

and I, college sweethearts 

from University of San 

Francisco, were married 

on Sept. 1, 2013, in West 

Sonoma County, Calif. Over 

a dozen alums were there 

to celebrate! I am a policy 

analyst for an Oakland City 

Council member whose 

campaign I managed, and 

Galen works in public 

infrastructure financing at 

Goldman Sachs. 

Maria Formico (Bay Area): 

I’m working on my National 

Board Certification and 

planning my wedding for July 

2014. Life is great! 

Beth Freitas Clark (Greater 

Philadelphia): Last fall I had 

the great joy of marrying 

my craziest, smartest, 

most generous, and most 

handsome friend, Justin. 

We were elated to celebrate 

with our community, which 

included several Philly ’07 

alums. 

Darryl Glover (New Jersey): 

I am currently working 

hard to launch a creative 

company that will allow me to 

highlight the role of the arts 

in education. Our mission is 

simple: Expose all aspects 

of the creative industry to 

students in grades K-12 as 

a future career option. With 

proper guidance, the arts and 

entertainment industry can 

be more than “hobby worthy.” 

Stephen Green (N.Y.): Tina 

Brunson and I are engaged. 

Our love first blossomed at 

Pace University. 

Meredith Hartman (E.N.C.): 

I started my new role as a 

talent associate with KIPP 

Philadelphia Schools in July 

2013. This is my first year 

out of the classroom and I 

am enjoying learning how to 

recruit and select the best 

teachers for KIPP Philly’s 

students. 

Joanna Hefty (N.Y.): I’m 

so excited to join the 

academics team at Summit 

Public Schools. We’re doing 

amazing work through 

technology to support selfdirected 

learning! 

Gwen Hodges (Baltimore): In 

February 2013, my husband 

and I welcomed Benton 

Michael Shevlin Hodges to 

the family. 

Sarah Hunko Baker (N.Y.): I 

am principal and co-founder 

of Foundations College Prep, 

a new 6-12 charter school 

opening on Chicago’s South 

Side in 2014. I am co-founder 

with Executive Director Micki 

O’Neil (former TFA staff) and 

Dean of School Culture Emily 

Quiroz (D.C. Region). 

David Jordan (N.Y.): After 

completing my corps 

commitment, I have been 

thrilled to apply the rigor and 

data-driven analysis Teach 

For America has taught me in 

the Chinese context through 

Teach For China. I am more 

confident than ever that 

educational equity can be 

solved, both here and abroad. 

Marvis Kilgore (Houston): 

I have been named as a 

level coordinator at the 

Community College of Qatar 

in the English Language 

Center. 

Jordan Kutcher (N.Y.): I 

recently moved to Chicago 

with my fiancé. The wedding 

will be in May in Washington, 

D.C.! 

Adrian Larbi-Cherif (St. 

Louis): I am currently 

working on how to design 

schools to ensure that all 

students receive a quality 

math education. 

Whitney LeFevre 

(Baltimore): After graduating 

from medical school and 

getting married within 

two weeks of each other, I 

recently ventured back east 

to start my family medicine 

residency at Greater 

Lawrence Family Health 

Center in Lawrence, Mass. 

I work predominantly with 

a Latino population in an 

underserved community, 

working to end educational 

inequality by bettering the 

health of the neighborhood 

I live in. 

Meredith Levine (N.Y.): Still 

teaching, and still loving it! 

Allison Liby-Schoonover 

(Greater Philadelphia): I 

currently direct education 

policy for the president and 

majority leader of the Florida 

Senate. 

Axel Lucca (Bay Area): 

I am currently attending 

the George Washington 

University Physician 

Assistant program. I am 

also the House of Delegates 

representative for the 

Student Association of 

the American Academy of 

Physician Assistants. Can’t 

wait to start clinical rotations 

in May! 

Alexander Macaulay 

(Charlotte): After a year of 

waiting, the all-new LIFT 

Academy of West Charlotte 

high school is finally open! 

Each day we work to serve 60 

off-track seniors by helping 

them get all of the credits 

they need to graduate on time 

in June. 

Juan Pablo Martinez 

(Houston): I have been 

working for the past two 

years supporting the launch 

of Enseña por Colombia’s 

(my home country) first two 

cohorts. I am now splitting 

my time between the 

programs in Colombia and 

Argentina, two of five Latin 

American programs that 

are part of the Teach For All 

network. 

Jayda McGough (G.N.O.): 

After having twins during my 

second year, I got married 

to their father, a software 

engineer I met while in New 

Orleans. After moving to 

Seattle, we had another 

baby—boy No. 3! I recently 

founded an educational 

advocacy group, Friends 

of Arthur, named after 

one of my former students 

who passed away. I’m so 

excited to continue my work 

with students and families 

navigating the special 

education world. 

Daniel Meyers (New Jersey): 

I graduated from Yale Divinity 

School and was ordained in 

the United Church of Christ. 

I’m now working in higher 

education to help ensure all 

our students have access to 

faith-based communities and 

practices. 

Jonathan Moore (Phoenix): 

I have been named the 

principal of Dr. Bernard Black 

Elementary School in the 

Roosevelt School District. 

This is the school where I 

was first placed as a corps 

member teaching seventh 

grade social studies. It feels 

great to be back home in the 

community I love! 

Kathleen Nanney (Houston): 

After graduating from law 

school at the University of 

Texas, I am currently clerking 

for the Honorable Edward C. 

Prado of the United States 

Court of Appeals for the Fifth 

Circuit. 

Laura Nikiel (Memphis): 

Moving back home to Chicago 

was the best move I could 

make! I work for Noble 

Street Charter Schools as 

an environmental science 

teacher. I love every day that 

I have with the students, 

teaching them how to make 

the world a better place by 

protecting our environment. 

We also take students 

camping and to preserves to 

study how to preserve these 

places in the future. I couldn’t 

be more lucky. 

John O’Hara (L.A.): I married 

my beautiful wife, fellow Los 

Angeles corps member Dena 

Veth O’Hara, on Aug. 18, 2012. 

Jesse Palencia (Houston): 

I led my school’s (Juarez 

Community Academy in 

Chicago) senior class in 

attaining over $9 million in 

scholarship funds — highest 

in school history and secondhighest 

in the school area 

network. 

Erin Peacock (N.Y.): I recently 

received my master’s of 

social work from NYU. I 

am currently working for a 

nonprofit agency in the field 

of child welfare. 

Jarred Pfeiffer (Charlotte): I 

received my master’s of fine 

arts in ceramics from Kansas 

State University in May 2013 

and am currently the new 

ceramics professor at Cuesta 

College in San Luis Obispo, 

Calif. Last February, I won the 

Midwestern Association of 

School Councils Excellence in 

Teaching Award for graduate 

student teaching. 

Laura Powers (N.Y.): 

As a Leader U Fellow at 

Democracy Prep, I am 

working toward the mission 

each day of “work hard, 

go to college, change the 

world.” Through professional 

development with Democracy 

Prep and Building Excellent 

Schools, I look forward 

to helping expand the 

Democracy Prep Network in 

the next year. 

Kelly Quinney (Greater 

Philadelphia): I married 

Sam Quinney (Greater 

Philadelphia) on June 22, 

2013, in Charlotte, Vt. 

Alisha Ragan (L.A.): I am 

currently in my seventh year 

of teaching, with Uncommon 

Schools in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

I am an instructional lead 

teacher and also serve as 

an adjunct instructor at the 

Relay Graduate School of 

Education. 

Desiree Raught (D.C. 

Region): After Teach For 

America, I stayed in the 

classroom and found a 

variety of leadership roles 

within D.C. Public Schools. 

I currently write Common 

Core curriculum for all 

ELA teachers. I serve as an 

LGBT liaison for my school 

to ensure that all students 

have a safe, welcoming place 

to learn. DCPS is an exciting 

place to work, and TFA gave 

me the skills I needed to be a 

part of the reform. 

Catarina Rivera (N.Y.): I was 

a speaker for the second year 

at the national Latinos in Tech 

Innovation and Social Media 

(LATISM) conference on Sept. 

21, 2013. I was part of a panel 

on Latinos and obesity. 

Adriana Rosales (Houston): 

I am now a dean of students 

at my school, Coney Island 

Prep. 

Tammy Ruth (L.A.): I married 

Kacy Ruth (L.A.) in St. Louis 

on April 6, 2013. We both 

graduated from medical 

school and are now working 

Kristol Roberts (St. Louis ’07) writes: “I am proud and excited 

to welcome my first child, Kameron,” born in October 2013. 

at Naval Medical Center 

San Diego. I will go into 

pediatrics, and Kacy into 

urology. 

Bryan Sandala (Greater 

Philadelphia): I am currently 

serving as an instructional 

specialist for secondary 

literacy within the Palm 

Beach County School 

District, working with all 

teachers of grades 6-12. 

Stephen Sanders (N.Y.): I 

recently began serving as an 

assistant district attorney 

in the New Orleans area. 

This year I also married my 

wonderful wife, Karen. 

Melanie Schoeppe (Bay 

Area): I’m so excited to 

be a school leader at my 

placement school, Greenleaf. 

We’re expanding from a K-5 

to a K-8! 

Nithya Senra (L.A.): On Sept. 

28, 2013, Sergio Chinos (L.A.) 

and I got married in Newport 

Beach, Calif. We recently 

moved to the Washington, 

D.C., area, where Sergio 

is attending law school 

and I will be working as an 

attorney with the federal 

government. 

Toby Shepherd (N.Y.): I 

have taken a new position 

as the director of policy 

for Providence, R.I., Mayor 

Angel Taveras, where I 

helped win the $5 million 

grand prize in the Bloomberg 

Philanthropies Mayors 

Challenge! My wife, Kristina, 

and I also recently welcomed 

baby Judah, who joins big 

brother Elijah. 

Margaret Siller (Hawai‘i): 

I recently graduated from 

Northwestern University 

School of Law in May of 2013. 

After studying for the bar 

exam, I moved to Manhattan 

and recently began a job at 

Quinn Emanuel, a litigation 

firm. 

Brian Smith (New Mexico): 

I have returned to teaching 

yet again, this time as a 

math teacher at Santa Fe 

High School. This year, I am 

starting a Team America 

Rocketry Challenge team in 

addition to teaching. 

Jennifer Spalding (N.Y.): I 

was appointed principal of 

M.S. 821, a public school 

in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, 

N.Y. I am excited to continue 

working with the incredible 

students and staff in our 

school community, where I 

have taught for many years 

and was originally placed as 

a corps member. 


ALUMNI NOTES 

ALUMNI NOTES 

Travis Starkey (Delta): I 

just moved to Eastern North 

Carolina and rejoined Teach 

For America staff, and I now 

support corps members 

in the far eastern part of 

the state and am helping 

the region initiate a social 

entrepreneurship initiative. 

I also started a blog about 

the small-town South at 

greenfieldse.org. 

Taylor Stewart (Baltimore): 

I am now serving as the 

regional organizing director 

for LEE in Baltimore. I’m 

looking forward to working 

in the region I taught to 

advocate with our corps 

members and alumni to 

make our city a great place of 

opportunity for kids! 

Jaclyn Suffel (Memphis): I 

am working as the manager 

of curriculum and training 

with Stand for Children 

Memphis. Every day, I aid 

our community organizers 

in their work, train our 

amazing parent and teacher 

volunteers and empower 

them to take action on behalf 

of the children in our district. 

Currently, we are working 

with our members to gain 

funding to provide pre-K to 

every Memphis child that 

needs it. 

Sarah Tierney (N.Y.): 

Rebekah Nelson (N.Y.) and 

I ran the Triple Threat Half 

Marathon in August 2013 and 

have our sights set on many 

more halves and fulls! 

Sebastian Turner (N.Y.): I am 

proud to find so many fellow 

TFA alumni from multiple 

regions studying alongside 

me in business school. 

Jennifer Tyrell (E.N.C.): 

My husband, Shawn, and I 

welcomed a beautiful baby 

boy named Caleb Michael in 

July 2013! 

Daniel Velasco (Bay Area): 

I lead the Diplomas Now 

initiative in Boston and 

recently joined the charter 

cohort of part-time, online 

Ed.D candidates at Johns 

Hopkins University. 

Natalie Wagner 

(Philadelphia): My husband 

and I co-founded a nonprofit, 

The Institute for Student 

Health, which connects 

students to resources that 

help them live a healthy, 

active lifestyle. We teach 

cooking, gardening and 

fitness in schools, afterschool 

programs, and 

summer programs. We love 

seeing kids get excited about 

healthy living! 

Shaneeqwa Watson 

(Memphis): I am a newly 

barred New York attorney. 

I recently moved to the Big 

Apple to seek a position in 

public interest law. 

Wade Wilgus (Bay Area): 

I’ve been creating projectbased 

learning opportunities 

at Instructables.com, a DIY 

project-sharing website. 

Denise Woodward (L.A.): 

Our Science Olympiad team 

is gaining momentum in our 

third year with seven coaches 

and nearly 50 kids. We 

brought home the school’s 

first academic medals last 

February! 

Lauren Zabicki (New Mexico): 

My husband, Timothy Zabicki 

(New Mexico), and I had our 

third child, Mavrik Thomas 

Zabicki, last year. 

2008 

Ashley Adams (Greater 

Newark): I have just 

accomplished my second 

master’s degree and recently 

completed the New Leaders 

program. I am currently the 

assistant principal at my TFA 

placement school, University 

Heights Charter School. It is 

my sixth year at this school. 

Miriam Altman (N.Y.): I left 

the classroom to pursue 

an MPA at NYU Wagner in 

2011. I graduated from that 

program in May 2013, and 

while in school, co-founded 

Kinvolved, a social venture 

that offers schools/teachers 

technology to engage families 

to improve K-12 attendance. 

Their product launched in 

open beta on Sept. 13, 2013. 

Email miriam@kinvolved.com 

for more info. 

Blair Ashley (Bay Area): I am 

in my fourth year of medical 

school at the University 

of Pittsburgh School of 

Medicine, and I am currently 

applying to orthopaedic 

surgery residencies. My 

daughter, Lyla, just turned 4! 

Brittney Beck (E.N.C.): I 

am currently a doctoral 

fellow with the University of 

Florida School of Teaching 

and Learning, studying 

curriculum, teaching, and 

teacher education. My 

research focuses on the 

intersections of educational 

equity, culturally responsive 

pedagogy, social justice, 

and teacher education. I 

also serve as the graduate 

assistant for the Center for 

Leadership and Service. 

Andrew Bernier (Phoenix): 

I’m working to develop and 

teach the first full-scale, 

comprehensive sustainability 

program and curriculum in 

the nation for public high 

school students (www. 

crestsustainability.net). All 

the while I am working on 

my Ph.D in sustainability 

education and serving on the 

editorial staff of the Journal 

of Sustainability Education. 

Cassiopia Blausey (Las 

Vegas): In spring 2013 I was 

Good teachers 

can be great. 

That’s why we’ve designed a new online 

master’s degree program specifically 

for Teach For America corps members 

and alumni that is aligned with Teach For 

America’s Teaching as Leadership model 

and provides the knowledge and skills 

necessary to make a lasting impact in the 

classroom. 

To find out how you can become 

transformational in your teaching, visit 

education.jhu.edu/tfa or speak to our 

admissions team at 1-877-JHU-SOE1. 

named the editor-in-chief 

for the Journal of Law and 

Education at the University 

of Louisville Brandeis School 

of Law. On Oct. 13, 2012, 

I married Kris Blausey in 

Louisville, Ky. 

Reginald Bolding (Phoenix): 

I have returned to Teach 

For America, which felt like 

a fresh breath of air. It is 

great to be working hand 

in hand with people are are 

committed to closing the gap 

every day. 

Carina Box (Phoenix): Last 

year I moved to Seattle and 

am enjoying living in an area 

full of outdoor activity. I have 

also enjoyed volunteering 

with TFA in the Puget 

Sound region. 

Devin Branson (L.A.): I 

am back home in Western 

Washington after years in Los 

Angeles, but still continuing 

the fight for excellent 

education for all children. 

Casetta Brown-Gunn 

(Houston): I am currently a 

founding staff member at 

a school where I know that 

I’m making a difference. My 

move from Detroit to Houston 

through Teach For America 

made this possible! Thanks, 

TFA. 

Samuel Buchbinder (N.Y.): 

I got married this past July 

to Kimberly De Lorme (N.Y.) 

who I met on the cheese bus 

from St. Johns to M.S. 391 at 

institute. At our wedding we 

had a table full of friends from 

TFA. We are happily starting 

our married life together, both 

still as teachers in NYC. 

Jessica Burney (Metro 

Atlanta): I’m truly enjoying my 

role as an elementary math 

instructor for TFA! Working 

with first-year teachers 

to make sure they are 

successful in the classroom is 

very rewarding! 

Alexandra Caldwell 

(G.N.O.): I’ve just begun my 

last semester as an MPH 

graduate student at the 

Columbia University School 

of Public Health, studying 

health policy and outcomes 

research. This past summer 

I worked in the finance and 

strategy department of The 

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 

TB, and Malaria in Geneva, 

Switzerland, which was 

a blast. Looking forward 

to what comes next after 

graduation in December! 

Jennie Carr (Houston): After 

moving to Texas six years 

ago to teach pre-K, I am now 

happily staying home full time 

to teach my two little Texan 

sons. When they’re sleeping, 

I have time to work on the 

completion of my master’s in 

educational leadership. 

Wendy Chan (N.Y.): I will 

soon start my third year as 

a Ph.D. student in statistics 

at Northwestern University. 

I am excited to begin the 

research stage of my 

program. I am especially 

excited to participate in 

upcoming educational 

conferences and symposiums 

that will give me some 

direction in my research 

interests. 

Sarah Cole (Metro Atlanta): 

I’m working in Springdale, 

Ark., teaching ESL and 

regular classes to eighth 

grade students in English. 

Our school is Title I and we 

serve a primarily Hispanic 

and Marshallese community. 

Mark Congdon (E.N.C.): 

I graduated with my M.A. 

in communication studies 

from the University of North 

Carolina Greensboro in 

May 2013 while completing 

original research on the 

importance of a social justice 

education for at-risk students 

utilizing a culturally relevant 

pedagogy and servicelearning 

projects to help 

close the achievement gap. 

Kevin Cournoyer (Baltimore): 

In my sixth year of teaching, 

and yesterday I planned and 

taught an entirely new lesson. 

The learning never stops... 

Isabel Cueva (N.Y.): I am 

returning to Madrid, where I 

studied abroad, and teaching 

English at Madrid public 

schools. 

Jennifer Denny (D.C. Region): 

I graduated law school from 

Loyola Chicago in May 2013 

and took a job with the U.S. 

Department of Education in 

D.C. in September through 

the Presidential Management 

Fellows program. In my role, 

I ensure that our nation’s 

youngest learners have 

adequate special education 

support by working with 

states to improve their 

early intervention policies 

and procedures. 

Kenneth Dikas 

(Jacksonville): I am now 

a second-year student 

at Penn Law. I plan on 

practicing corporate law in 

Atlanta and serving on the 

boards of education-reform 

organizations and/or charter 

schools. I want to leverage 

my professional connections 

to better advocate for 

better schools. 

David Donaldson 

(Baltimore): I returned home 

to Detroit to become principal 

of the Detroit Institute of 

Technology at Cody with 

Detroit Public Schools. 

Herneshia Dukes (Metro 

Atlanta): This is my first year 

in the role of upper school 

assistant principal at KIPP 

New Orleans Schools. I’m 

thrilled to work with the most 

incredible students in our city 

and am honored to be in this 

movement. 

John Eshelman (Charlotte): 

After my two years teaching 

in Charlotte, I decided to 

move into the private sector. 

I am currently working as an 

account strategist at Google 

in Ann Arbor, Mich. I really 

enjoy working with clients 

and using data to bring them 

meaningful insights. 

Jillian Farland (Phoenix): 

Travis Farland and I married 

on July 6, 2013, at Maravilla 

Gardens in Camarillo, 

Calif. We bought a home in 

Ahwatukee, Ariz., and plan to 

stay in the valley indefinitely. 

Florence Fehlner (R.G.V.): 

I am working to continue a 

field trip to Washington, D.C. 

for our Alamo Middle School 

eighth graders. This will be 

the third year of Alamo to 

D.C., and we will be in D.C. 

June 1-5, 2014. If you’re in 

D.C. and would like to meet 

us, let me know. florence. 

fehlner@psjaisd.us 

Zoe Fonseca (N.Y.): I’m very 

privileged to be teaching 

fourth grade at Success 

Academy Bronx 1. I work 

with an extraordinary group 

of teachers, leaders, and 

families. Please come visit 

our school and join our team! 

Alicia Fremling (Greater 

Philadelphia): I am the 

director of a pet resort 

that offers overnight 

accommodations, doggie 

day care, and grooming. I 

manage a team of 30-plus 

employees and host 100-plus 

pets nightly. We also work 

with a number of rescues and 

board several rescue pets on 

a short- or long-term basis, 

as needed. 

Liliana Funes (N.Y.): After 

finishing the corps in New 

York, I moved to Los Angeles 

and became a teacher at 

KIPP Comienza Community 

Prep in Huntington Park. This 

past summer, I worked as a 

facilitator with Teach For All 

in Mexico, with alumni from 

Chile, Germany, England, 

and Italy, and many from the 

U.S. I’m excited to see how 

much more TFA and Teach 

For All will continue to impact 

education. 

Laura Garrison (Houston): 

If every day feels like a 

struggle, I understand you. 

But know even on your worst 

day, you are doing something 

that will impact someone’s 

life. YOU are the difference 

that a child desperately 

needs. 

Gillian Giannetti (G.N.O.): Hi 

all! I am in my last year of law 

school at the University of 

Virginia and recently married 

my college sweetheart. We 

are excited for my graduation 

and our next great adventure! 

Angela Gorney (E.N.C.): 

I am in my first semester 

of veterinary school at 

NCSU College of Veterinary 

Medicine. While my school 

load is heavy, TFA prepared 

me well for the stresses I 

face. However, I definitely 

took a time-out from my 

studies to help celebrate the 

marriage of Jenna Heitchue 

(E.N.C.) and Brian Boyle 

(E.N.C. ’07) in December 

2013! 

Derrick Green (St. Louis): 

Here’s a note in Haiku form. 

13-hour days/Maybe more. 

Maybe way more/Kids make 

it worth it. 

Fiona Gruver (N.Y.): I married 

Dylan Gruver (N.Y.)! We met 

at the TFA holiday party five 

years ago. 

Brody Hale (G.N.O.): I 

completed a Fulbright 

English Teaching 

Assistantship Grant in South 

Korea from 2011-2012, and I 

am now in my second year of 

law school at Boston College. 

Chanel Hampton (St. 

Louis): I recently took 

on the role of director, 

diversity recruitment and 

partnerships on our national 

recruitment team. This 

is a role we’ve never had 

before—uncharted water, 

infinite possibilities. I am 

awe-inspired when I think 

about the impact a diverse 

body of educators can mean 

in partnering with our 

communities and students. 

Here’s to the 2014 corps! 

Brian Hemsworth (Las 

Vegas): I piloted an SAT 

tutoring program at my 

local CrossFit gym to pair 

functional fitness with 

college preparedness. 

Ross Hogan (N.Y.): I am 

currently taking classes in 

educational administration 

in hopes of one day becoming 

an assistant principal or 

principal in a high-need 

urban school. My life mission 

is to effect change in our 

schools, and I try to work 

tirelessly every day to do 

that! 

Cory Hylton (Indianapolis): 

After teaching for three 

years, I am thrilled to have 

the opportunity to continue 

work with a number of 

amazing charter schools, 

though in a slightly different 

capacity. I now work to 

ensure the provisioning and 

maintenance of technology at 

most of my company’s many 

charter school clients! 

Kendra Johnson (Charlotte): 

I was a pioneer in my family 

by being a first-generation 

college graduate, and now I 

have set an example for what 

is possible for my students 

as well by becoming a firstgeneration 

professional 

student to receive an 

advanced degree! 

Tyson Jurgens (Kansas 

City): I recently relocated 

back to Kansas City, Mo., 

to assume the role of 

client success manager at 

Netchemia, national leader 

in human resource software 

exclusively for K-12 districts. 

In this role, I am training and 

coaching district personnel 

to leverage the innovative, 

cloud-based TalentEd suite of 

products into success in the 

classroom. 

Kevyn Klein (N.Y.): I live 

in San Francisco and 

lead a team at Edmodo 

called Teacher Support 

and Advocacy. Our online 

social-learning network 

gives students and teachers 

the tools to reach their full 

potential. I love being the 

bridge between educators 

and engineers. 

Ranked #2 by U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools of Education 


“We must remember that 

intelligence is not enough. 

Intelligence plus character – 

that is the goal of true education.” 

Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Classical Charter Schools prepare K-8th grade scholars in the South Bronx 

to excel in college preparatory high schools. Through a classical curriculum 

and highly structured setting, students become liberated scholars and 

citizens of impeccable character who achieve proficiency in and 

advanced mastery of New York State Performance Standards. 

SouthBronxClaSSiCal.org 

Marguerite Koelbl (D.C. 

Region): I married Sam 

Koelbl in Massachusetts 

on June 15, 2013. Mark 

Osborne (D.C. Region ’07) 

served as a groomsman. 

Also in attendance were Ryan 

Creighan (D.C. Region ’07), 

Abbie Wheeler (D.C. Region), 

and Camille Crary (D.C. 

Region). 

Callie Kozlak (D.C. Region): 

I am working in Chicago as 

the director of public funding 

strategy for a national 

education nonprofit called 

Citizen Schools. 

Megan Rose La Roche 

(Houston): I can’t believe I 

am entering my sixth year 

in the classroom! I’m at the 

amazing KIPP Sharp College 

Prep, which has a fine arts 

focus and an unparalleled 

culture. I’m excited to say I 

bought my first house. Now 

it’s time for me to consider 

my next steps...grad school? 

Social entrepreneurship? 

Family? 

Andrew Laurens (Metro 

Atlanta): Dana Ganapath 

(G.N.O. ’10) and I met at KIPP 

NOLA and have moved to 

Charleston, S.C., as of July 

2012. Dana is now manager 

of education initiatives 

at Charleston Promise 

Neighborhood, while I’m 

managing Historic Charleston 

Foundation’s development 

and outreach to new and 

existing constituencies in 

Lowcountry, S.C. 

Brandon Lichtinger 

(Chicago): After teaching 

for three years as a member 

of the 2008 Chicago corps, 

I accepted a position at 

Chardon High School in 

my home state of Ohio. In 

addition to teaching English, 

I also direct the fall plays. 

This year, we will stage 

a production of Thornton 

Wilder’s The Skin Of Our 

Teeth. 

Krizia Liquido (N.Y.): I moved 

to Barcelona, Spain, one year 

ago, just a few months after I 

got married in New York City 

(where I was placed by TFA 

and met my husband!), and 

we now have a 9-month-old 

baby girl. I serve as founding 

editor of Verily Magazine, 

where I’m committed to 

educating all women through 

strong lifestyle journalism. 

Jordan Loring (Chicago): In 

the two years since I have 

come on board at Arizona 

Charter Academy, the third 

grade percent passing AIMS 

math has improved from 35 

percent to 87 percent. This is 

due to the hard work that my 

colleagues and I have put in 

with the support from admin. 

Next year? 100 percent! 

Matias Manzano (Miami- 

Dade): It was a wonderful five 

years of service that I gave to 

the Miami-Dade community. 

I can say with pride that 

last year, 97 percent of my 

students passed the seventh 

grade mathematics FCAT 

with 78 percent scoring a 4 or 

better. I am back home in New 

York City now in law school. 

Anne McGuirk (Memphis): 

I returned to my placement 

region after a year away and 

am currently serving as an 

assistant principal in a school 

founded by one of my fellow 

’08 Memphis corps members. 

Jesse Metruk (E.N.C.): I 

married Stephanie Peirce on 

Aug. 10, 2013. Jeff Edwards 

(’07), Meg Eberle (’09), Megan 

Roberts (’07), and Meredith 

(Camby) Hartman (’07), all 

TFA E.N.C. alumni, attended. 

Lynsay Mills (G.N.O.): I’m 

teaching English I at Sci 

Academy. Love to G.N.O. ’08, 

especially those still in New 

Orleans—cannot believe 

we’ve been at this for six 

years! 

Mariel Montoney (E.N.C.): I 

have recently taken on a new 

role as regional manager 

with Envision. In this role, I 

educate, motivate, and inspire 

over 10,000 high school 

students a year from all over 

the nation that are interested 

in the field of medicine. 

Aubrey Nelson (Memphis): 

Lars Nelson (Memphis ’09) 

and I were proud to welcome 

our baby boy Henry Donald 

into the world in March 2013. 

Henry is a healthy baby boy 

and proud of his dad as Lars 

returns to his placement 

school, Freedom Preparatory 

Academy, after two years as 

an MTLD, to found their high 

school with the ninth grade 

class. #meanttobememphis 

Patrick O’Shea (E.N.C.): 

Sarah O’Shea (E.N.C.) and 

I welcomed our son, Henry 

James O’Shea, to our family in 

February 2013. 

Elizabeth Oviedo (Phoenix): 

As part of my role as 

marketing manager at 

Symmetry Software, I run 

Calculators For Kids. We 

provide class sets of graphing 

calculators to low-income 

classrooms in Phoenix to 

boost math and science 

achievement. Find me in the 

alumni directory if you’re 

interested in getting involved! 

Mandy Paquette (Memphis): 

I’m working with adults in 

my community who, for one 

reason or another, function 

on a low literacy level. 

It’s given me a whole new 

awareness of adult illiteracy. 

Take a look yourself some 

time, and appreciate the 

difficulties the people around 

you may be facing. 

David Pedra (Houston): I 

believe in the promise of One 

Day so that the students we 

teach will see success as 

having the option to choose 

what they want to do with 

their lives. 

Jessica Pietrowicz (Hawai‘i): 

Since leaving Oahu, Hawaii, 

and my placement school 

in 2011, I have had the 

opportunity to found the 

visual arts program at UP 

Academy Charter School 

of Boston. In addition to 

teaching art, I am co-teaching 

special education inclusion 

music and gym. I’ve also 

started an after-school dance 

program and am loving it! 

Luigi Racanelli (Phoenix): I 

graduated from law school 

and am clerking for a judge 

in the New Jersey Tax Court. 

Next year, I will be working at 

KPMG in New York City. 

Kelly Reinker (G.N.O.): 

Before graduating from LSU 

Law in May 2013, I started a 

program called Street Law. 

Street Law engages law 

students with Baton Rouge 

public high school students 

to talk about legal issues 

relevant to their lives. It 

provides them with positive 

interactions with the legal 

system and fosters critical 

thinking about how the law 

affects their lives. 

Anthony Reynoso (Greater 

Philadelphia): My father 

recently passed away in a 

tragic motorcycle accident. 

My TFA family, although 

hundreds of miles away, have 

helped my family a great 

deal in making it through this 

tragedy. Much love to Philly. 

John Rodrigues (Bay Area): 

My wife and I celebrated our 

daughter’s first birthday on 

Sept. 22, 2013. 

Robert Sanborn (South 

Dakota): I recently became 

the founding business 

operations manager for 

Rocketship Education 

in Nashville, Tenn. The 

first Rocketship school in 

Tennessee will open its doors 

in August 2014. 

Renee Schuppener (Chicago): 

I work for a healthcare 

software company that has 

many of the same beliefs 

as TFA and indirectly 

helps some of the same 

underserved populations. 

Miysha Shaw (Metro Atlanta): 

Hi Teach For America! Right 

now, I’m stuck in the library 

on 69th and York. I just 

started medical school, and 

I’ve been super busy studying. 

Jennifer Shields (Metro 

Atlanta): My daughter Audrey 

will be 2 this month! 

Antonia Simao (N.Y.): I 

am going into my second 

year working as a school 

psychologist at Success 

Academy Bronx 1. Our school 

and our sister school, Bronx 

2, were among the top scores 

in the statewide tests. In 

addition to serving this 

incredible population, I got 

married in June 2013. 

Ashley Snowden 

(Indianapolis): Facilitating for 

a homeschool organization 

was one of the best things 

that happened to me. I was 

able to couple my public 

education experience with 

my newfound knowledge 

for a powerful reward! 

Now, I’m confident I know 

the (educational) road I will 

travel! 

Erika Starr (Greater 

Philadelphia): I married the 

amazing man who has been 

helping me grade since my 

first year in the corps, John 

Celley, on Oct. 19, 2013! 

David Swank (South Dakota): 

My wife, Katey Lee Swank 

(South Dakota ’06), and I 

are expecting our second 

child. We continue to teach in 

the region. 

Alex Teece (Hawai‘i): Aloha to 

all my ’08’s from Hawai‘i!! 

Jasmin Torres (Connecticut): 

I’ve moved to Chicago to be 

an MTLD and am loving the 

windy city! 

Jerry Tsai (Las Vegas): I am 

vice president of Acceptd, 

the world’s largest arts 

admissions and recruiting 

network. We are passionate 

about providing students an 

easy and streamlined way 

to connect and apply to arts 

opportunities. 

Kathryn Ulrich (Metro 

Atlanta): “I am teaching 

kindergarten?” I thought 

to myself the night before 

teachers came back to school 

this fall. While excited, I was 

also nervous about my own 

ability to work with students 

that are so young. Reflecting 

now, I am reminded about 

how much we continue to 

learn and grow our practice, 

no matter how long we have 

been in the classroom. 

Melania Valverde (N.Y.): I am 

excited to still be working in 

New York City after having 

been a corps member here. 

As a program coordinator of 

college admissions at SEO 

Scholars, I get to work with 

highly motivated, low-income 

high school students. I can’t 

think of a better way to build 

on all the knowledge and 

skills I acquired through TFA. 

Nayda Verier-Taylor (L.A.): 

I am a second-year law 

student at the University of 

Michigan Law School. I spent 

last summer working for the 

Child Advocacy Law Clinic in 

Ann Arbor, Mich., advocating 

for youth involved in neglect 

and abuse proceedings. 

Tony Walker (St. Louis): 

I am proud to have cofounded 

a new initiative 

within Uplift Education. 

Each of our schools is now 

equipped with a licensed 

mental health professional 

to address student concerns 

and provide counseling and 

intervention. In addition, I am 

keeping busy with a small 

private counseling practice 

specializing in LGBT youth 

and adolescent issues, 

and am also a full-time 

Ph.D. student at Texas Tech 

University. 

Thurmeka Ward (N.Y.): I 

am serving as a learning 

specialist at the Girls Prep 

Lower East Side Middle 

School. I am on the board of 

a nonprofit organization, Far 

More Precious, that promotes 

self-worth and self-esteem 

in young girls. I am forming 

an organization that will 

empower women to pursue 

their dreams! I am currently 

98 One Day • SPRING 2014 One Day • SPRING 2014 99 

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writing a play, and I sing in 

the off-Broadway play Sing 

Harlem Sing. 

Katherine White (Houston): 

I finished my master’s in 

public administration and got 

married to my husband, Greg, 

who supported me through 

my years in the corps. 

Alison Wilson (Metro 

Atlanta): I graduated from the 

full-time MBA program at the 

University of North Carolina 

Kenan-Flagler Business 

School in May 2013, and I am 

now working at a job I love as 

an associate brand manager 

of ketchup at Heinz. 

Ryan Worley (G.N.O.): I 

recently started working for 

Afton Partners LLC, which 

provides financial consulting 

and related operational 

advisory services to public 

school districts, CMOs, 

foundations and private 

investors who support 

education reform. 

Linda Yu (L.A.): I’ve just 

graduated from law school 

and can’t wait to be part 

of the TFA movement for 

equality and educational 

opportunities. 

2009 

Charla Agnoletti (Colorado): 

By creating a community 

advisor position at Bruce 

Randolph School in Denver, 

I am strengthening the 

district shift to change school 

discipline paradigms from 

punitive to restorative. Our 

unique model of preventative 

and responsive approaches 

deepens restorative practices 

schoolwide to create a 

transformative school culture 

and community. 

Elizabeth Allen (Colorado): 

I am at the University of 

Washington School of Law, 

volunteering with immigrant 

populations and working on 

child welfare policy. Come 

visit! 

Margarita Alway (Delta): 

After completing my master’s 

degree in music education, 

I’m starting my first year 

teaching K-6 music with 

Aspire Public Schools in 

Oakland, Calif. I miss the 

Delta, but love exploring the 

Bay Area! 

Tim Anderson (Colorado): I 

recently transferred within 

Google to a new role with the 

Play for Education team. 

Kyle Bailey (Oklahoma): I 

feel so lucky to have spent my 

time in Tulsa, Okla., with my 

wonderful kiddos and equally 

lucky to have an impact on 

thousands of pupils across 

the pond with Teach First- 

West Midlands! Really feel 

as though I’m part of a global 

movement. 

Adnan Barqawi (Delta): I 

started my executive MBA 

at Owen Graduate School of 

Management, and in addition 

to my role at Asurion, I am 

the director of the Teach for 

America/Asurion Strategic 

Partnership, which allocated 

$250,000 to our partnership 

effots. 

Jayda Batchelder (Dallas - 

Fort Worth): As founder of 

Education Opens Doors, Inc, 

my team and I are partnering 

with schools and teachers in 

Dallas to empower students to 

strategically navigate through 

high school to college. We do 

so by raising students’ college 

expectations, confidence, 

and understanding of college 

knowledge and skills. 

Jackie Bello (Baltimore): I am 

working with Quad Learning, 

a startup that collaborates 

with community colleges to 

offer honors programs. It’s 

a lower-cost, higher-quality 

pathway to a four-year 

degree. A lot of our model 

is built around our student 

services advising, which I’m 

directing. 

Georgina Blackett (Bay 

Area): I have just moved back 

to my hometown (New York 

City) after teaching at my 

placement school in Potrero 

Hill, San Francisco, for the 

last four years and am looking 

to connect with other TFA 

alums in New York City! 

Adam Bonnington (New 

Jersey): I am in my third year 

of medical school, working 

daily in the hospital and 

clinics. I am seeing the effect 

that a lack of resources and 

education has on the overall 

well-being of individuals in 

low-income communities. 

Morgan Bowling (Baltimore): 

I am currently a second-year 

medical student at the West 

Virginia School of Osteopathic 

Medicine. I hope to go into 

pediatrics and specialize in 

community-based medicine. 

Niketa Brar (D.C. Region): On 

Oct. 13, 2013, I married fellow 

math teacher Joe Kurstin in a 

small ceremony in Oakland, 

Calif. 

Chantalle Carles (E.N.C.): 

Stefan Schropp (Charlotte) 

and I are engaged. We met 

while interning on Capitol Hill 

five years ago. 

Rebecca Cassidy (New 

Jersey): This May I will have 

completed my master’s 

of public policy from the 

University of Michigan’s 

Gerald R. Ford School of 

Public Policy. 

David Chen (Bay Area): As 

a full-time MBA student at 

MIT Sloan, I am constantly 

thinking about ways in which 

the ingenuity of business 

can create opportunities 

to improve the quality of 

education for all students. 

It is an exciting time for the 

intersection of enterprise and 

education! 

Megan Clayburn (R.G.V.): 

After two years in South 

Korea, I moved back to Texas 

with my husband. We’re both 

loving El Paso’s culture and 

excellent hiking/climbing 

scene. While he’s stationed 

at Fort Bliss, I am pursuing a 

master’s in literacy, working 

with wonderful kids at an 

after-school program, and 

teaching adult ESL classes. 

Lauren Comber (Baltimore): I 

recently joined the missiondriven 

team at American 

Honors in D.C. after four 

years of living and teaching in 

Baltimore City. I got married 

on June 29, 2013 in Baltimore 

and am now settling into the 

wonderful married life in 

Columbia, Md. 

Michelle Crawford (L.A.): 

In 2012/2013, I successfully 

completed my K-12 

administrative credential 

and education administrative 

master’s degree. I am 

currently working as an 

outreach director for 

Educators4Excellence in Los 

Angeles. 

Charlie Cummings (St. 

Louis): I’ve been working 

as a matchmaker between 

outstanding educators and 

policymakers since joining 

America Achieves in May 

2013. It’s exciting to support 

decision-makers who want to 

hear from the real experts— 

teachers and principals— 

when they’re working on 

policies that affect systems, 

schools, classrooms and 

students. 

Juan Danzilo (Houston): 

I am working to graduate 

from Duke University Fuqua 

School of Business. Due to 

get married to fellow Houston 

’09 corps member Katherine 

Beck in May 2014! We met 

in TFA. 

Chris Deal (Kansas City): 

Tracy and I welcomed our 

first child, Aidan Jerald, on 

June 11, 2013. Tracy is going 

to be staying home with him 

but will continue coaching 

basketball in the winter. We 

also bought an acreage with 

some farmland around it, and 

I have started farming with 

my dad on the side in addition 

to my engineering position. 

Angela Dixon (Phoenix): I 

recently purchased my first 

home in the same area I grew 

up. I am substitute teaching 

in this area as well and enjoy 

being part of the community 

I serve. I am focusing on 

growing my family but 

am excited to get my own 

classroom again once my 

children are older. 

George Dong (Chicago): I am 

the founder and co-CEO of 

Education In Sight. Check out 

our website, www.educationin-sight.org, 

and help us 

ensure that all students 

around the world will be able 

to see the board clearly in the 

classroom! 

Meaghan Dowdle (Chicago): 

I am currently working in 

Lawrence, Mass., in a district 

turnaround school that is 

modeled after our charter 

management organization’s 

historically successful 

charter school. I am proud to 

be working alongside several 

TFA alumni and current corps 

members from around the 

country. We believe every 

child deserves the best 

education and are dedicating 

all we have to providing it! 

Jamila Dugan-Eloi (D.C. 

Region): I love the corps 

of D.C. ’09! It is always so 

inspiring to see how many of 

us are still in the classroom 

and in education as a whole! 

Much love to all the 2009 

corps members out there! 

Stephanie Evans (Bay Area): 

I taught for two years as 

an SDC-NSH teacher in my 

placement school and am 

now entering into my third 

year as an SDC-NSH teacher 

in a different school. This 

is the first time I’ve had the 

same students from sixth 

grade until eighth grade. 

Watching them grow and 

feeling the bond strengthen 

between us makes every day 

worthwhile. 

Kyle Fahsel (E.N.C.): 

Stacie Payne (E.N.C.) and I 

were married almost four 

years after meeting at our 

placement school, NCHS 

West! 

Cary Finnegan (Connecticut): 

I finished up the 2012-2013 

school year in New York 

City, where I was teaching 

third grade at Harlem Prep 

Elementary, a Democracy 

Prep school. Currently I 

am teaching third grade 

in Jamaica Plain, Mass., 

at Match Community Day 

Charter School. I have loved 

being back in the classroom; 

third graders are the best! 

Lyric Flood (Houston): As 

a leader in the movement, I 

am a second-year assistant 

principal as well as an eighth 

grade math teacher and 

teacher coach. Every day, I 

work to make sure that every 

single KIPPster that walks 

through our doors has the 

opportunity to learn and 

grow at the rate of their more 

affluent peers. 

Jessica Francois (R.G.V.): 

I live in the Eastern Sierra 

of California. For the past 

two years, I have taught 

environmental education 

and have helped in the local 

school district. 

Maria Gandolfo (Charlotte): 

I am currently working at the 

best school in the country, 

the Milton Hershey School! 

Our students are wonderful, 

our campus is beautiful and 

our opportunities are what 

our children need to be 

successful! I am so proud to 

work for my school. 

Erin Gasparka (Hawai‘i): I 

have entered my second year 

of law school at the University 

of Wisconsin. I adore school, 

but certainly miss the 

students and community 

I had the honor to know in 

Kona, Hawaii. 

Rebecca Gieskes (Houston): 

I am currently working at 

the best charter school 

in the country, YES Prep 

(Northside!). I love what I do 

every day, and I love seeing 

our students learn and 

grow. Last year I married 

the best man in the world, 

Constantyn, and I love 


We believe in teachers who make a difference. 

Be a part of the Teach For America alumni 

network at FirstLine creating great schools in 

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Join us today. 

sharing my life and passion for 

education with him. 

Hannah Gluckstein (R.G.V.): 

I am back in school, studying 

international education policy 

at Harvard Graduate School 

of Education. I am learning so 

much from my peers who have 

experience with educational 

inequity all around the world. It 

gives me hope to see so many 

people working toward the same 

goal on a global level! 

Amanda Gonzalez-Burton 

(Baltimore): Drew Burton 

(Baltimore) and I were married 

on May 18, 2013, in New Jersey. 

The ceremony was performed 

by Nick Artenstein (Baltimore). 

Our BSSC football team was 

present to celebrate. 

Ruchi Gupta (Greater 

Philadelphia): I am coming 

off two years of traveling and 

working with Teach For All, 

renewing my commitment to 

education through learning 

international perspectives. I’m

19.Spring.2014

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