Inayah Ansari

Thirty-three-year-old Brooklyn Native Inayah Ansari is a Black Muslim woman who has worked in the youth development field for 10+ years working in and running as well as writing SEL curriculum for after-school programs in New York City. In Spring 2020, she received her BA degree in Black Studies and Sociology from The City College of New York (CCNY). While this was a long time coming, Ansari wanted to show herself and her participants that it’s never too late to achieve any goals that you have. Currently, Ansari is a master’s student at The CUNY Graduate Center pursuing a degree in Childhood and Youth Studies. A huge advocate of after school and Early Education Programs or what she calls “supplemental education,” it is her belief that access to supplemental education programs is a child’s right and as a right, these programs must be funded adequately so that all children can experience safe, equitable and fun spaces where they can learn and thrive.  

Kelly Brady

Kelly Brady is in her 7^th year as an NYC public school teacher, and currently a PhD student in Urban Education at CUNY.  Kelly is an adjunct professor at City College in their Master’s in Theatre Education program and has served as a teaching artist and former Director of Education with Drama Club, NYC, a non-profit providing theatre training to incarcerated youth.  Kelly is a board member of the New York State International Thespians Society and is an Arthur Miller Foundation Fellow.  She holds an MsEd from Pace University, a BFA from the University of Evansville, and an MFA from NYU.

Jacqueline De La Cruz

 Jacqueline De La Cruz is an M.A. student studying Urban Education in the Liberal Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center. As a graduate of NYC public schools, Jacky is committed to learning about structural inequity in education and collaborating with stakeholders to find innovative ways to reduce barriers to students’ success. She has worked under former Mayor de Blasio’s Community Schools initiative first as an AmeriCorps member and Parent Organizer at a high school in District 9 in the Bronx, and then as a Community School Director at an elementary school in District 6 in Manhattan. Her research interests are career education and youth development programs. Jacky has a B.A in History and Hispanic Studies from Columbia University.  

Shobita Mamphilly

Shobita Mampilly is a poet and scientist, with over twenty years of teaching experience in urban communities from Brooklyn to Bangalore, India. She is currently a doctoral student in Urban Education at The Graduate Center of City University of New York. As a founding member of the non-profit By All Means Leadership Alliance (BAMLA), she is developing the Chem4All initiative to provide access to young adults interested in health-science careers. Through The Anonymous Indian Trust, she collaborates with local scientists and activists in India to publish and deliver the Trashonomics curriculum, encouraging government-run schools in rural and urban India to teach solid and liquid waste segregation at source.

A graduate of Columbia University and The New School, Shobita presents her unique approach to science education globally, through her workshop entitled “Teaching Social Justice through Radical Science Curricula,” presented last year at the NAIS People of Color Conference. Shobita continues to evolve in her role as Science Department Chair as she mentors new teachers and develops socially relevant curricula by radicalizing science education on our planet.

Joliette Mandel

Joliette Mandel is expected to graduate from CUNY Graduate Center in May 2022 with her master’s degree in Liberal Studies concentrating in Urban Education. Joliette’s research is focused on finding more accurate, equitable assessments for students in bilingual elementary classrooms that can replace standardized testing. Joliette is in her fourth year of teaching at Samara Community School, a dual-language school in District 12 of the NYCDOE. In 2018, she received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and TESOL at Boston University’s School of Education. She is passionate about incorporating project-based learning into her classroom and supporting the dual-language mission at her school. Joliette hopes to continue learning and growing as an educator through her studies and research.

Sunisa Nuonsy

Elena Romero

Elena Romero is a third year Ph.D. student studying Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include District 15, Latinx parent engagement, middle school admissions, parent choice, and diversity, inclusion, and equity. She served on the Community Education Council for Brooklyn Educational District 15 (CECD15) from 2013-2019. Romero was an education appointee under former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and served as the former Co-Vice President of CECD15. She is a single mom of three daughters who attend an elementary school in District 13 and a middle school and high school in District 15. Romero is currently Assistant Professor, Marketing Communications, at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) and TV Correspondent and Producer for LATiNAS on CUNY TV. Romero has a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications and an M.S. in Publishing, both from New York University.

Juliet Young

Juliet Young is an education consultant and a Ph.D. student in the Urban Education department at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research interests include education for youth civic knowledge and engagement, community and youth activism in public school design, curriculum and policy, and participatory action research. As a consultant for UNICEF and other international organizations, Juliet supports curriculum design and educator training on programs for adolescents affected by violent conflict and other humanitarian crises, using participatory, project-based learning methodologies that support their social and emotional wellbeing and skill development as they take action to influence their communities. Her work has taken her to more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and central Europe. All of Juliet’s work in education is inspired by her first ten years as a humanities and social studies teacher at a Brooklyn public high school, and the diverse, dynamic, restless, exasperating, courageous and brilliant adolescents who were her students.

 

About David C. Bloomfield

David Bloomfield is Interim-Director of Urban Education Ph.D.at the CUNY Graduate Center and Professor of Educational Leadership, Law and Policy at Brooklyn College (CUNY). The author of American Public Education Law and a Contributor to The Daily Beast and other publications, he received the first Paul Robeson Prize in Minority Legal Studies from Columbia Law School and holds certification as a school district superintendent and principal. Prof. Bloomfield is available for expert testimony in education-related proceedings, consulting, public speaking, and press commentary.

Bloomfield brings broad professional background to this work. His experience includes public, independent, and religious education; public and private law practice; school district administration; government agency and elected official staff positions; not-for-profit management; and higher education. He served as an elementary and middle school teacher; Law Clerk to Hon. Robert L. Carter (S.D.N.Y.); Associate in the Education Practice Group at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C.; Assistant New York City Corporation Counsel; General Counsel, New York City Board of Education; General Counsel and Senior Education Adviser to the Manhattan Borough President; and Executive Director for public education programs at the Partnership for New York City. His extensive volunteer activities include service on not-for-profit boards and as an elected parent member and President of New York’s Citywide Council on High Schools. Bloomfield earned his J.D. at Columbia School of Law and M.P.A. in Domestic and Urban Policy from Princeton.

Research Interests: School Leadership; District Governance; Federal, State and Local Education; Law and Policy