Biographies of the presenters at 92Y’s Wonderplay Conference are available below.
Drew Alexander
Drew Alexander is the Head of Léman Manhattan Preparatory School with its two campuses on Broad and Broadway. He came to Léman Manhattan in 2011 after seven years as director of the Anglo-American School in Russia with students representing sixty nationalities and two campuses in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Drew's other international assignments include leadership positions at Cairo American College in Egypt and Singapore American School. He originally hails from Arkansas but moved his young family to Alaska in the mid 80's. He brings more than 30 years of education experience from pre-K through grade 12, both in the U.S. and internationally, which uniquely qualifies him to be a leader in New York City education and to guide the diverse Léman Manhattan community.
back to top
Joan Almon
Joan Almon is director of programs at the U.S. Alliance for Childhood which she co-founded in 1999. The Alliance builds partnerships of individuals and organizations committed to providing a healthy and creative childhood for all children. Joan leads workshops and gives lectures on child development and play and has authored many articles and book chapters. She was formerly a Waldorf early childhood educator and has been a consultant to schools around the world.
back to top
Joan Avallone
Joan Avallone has been a Pediatric Occupational Therapist for 21 years and received her training at Columbia University. She has a private practice and works with children from 21 months through adolescence. As part of her practice, she treats pre-school children at the Child Development Center of the Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services. In addition, she consults with mainstream preschools and lower schools, and conducts workshops with schools, teacher organizations and parents about sensory integration and the development of handwriting.
back to top
Marina Bers
Marina Umaschi Bers is an associate professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development and an adjunct professor in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University. She heads the interdisciplinary developmental technologies research group. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote children's positive development.
Professor Bers has conceived and designed diverse technological tools ranging from robotics to virtual worlds. She conducts studies in after school programs, museums and hospitals, as well as schools. She has worked in the U.S., Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Costa Rica and Thailand. Her recent research focuses on how new technologies such as robotics, that extend the possibilities of traditional learning manipulatives, can be successfully used to promote math, science, technology and engineering education in early childhood. Her book Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom was published by Teacher's College Press in 2008 and Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: From Playpen to Playground was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.
back to top
Ruth Bettelheim
Dr. Bettelheim has practiced as a psychotherapist and executive/life coach for many years. She is a writer and lecturer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, Family Mediation Quarterly and Greater Good. She contributes regularly to The Huffington Post.
She has undergraduate and advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and UCLA in psychology, educational psychology, comparative education and social work and received further training from leading psychoanalysts and psychiatrists including her father, Bruno Bettelheim and "Analysts to the Stars" Gerald Aronson and Milton Wexler.
She has been a mental health consultant for numerous private schools for normal, gifted and learning-impaired children, as well as for Operation Head Start. She has taught developmental psychology at The Claremont Graduate School, The California School for Professional Psychology and The Center for Early Education.
back to top
Ann Biddle
Ms. Biddle has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer and choreographer for the past 20 years. She was the Co-Director of the Dance Education Laboratory at 92nd Street Y (1996-2000) and a Founding DEL Faculty member with Jody Arnhold. Ms. Biddle has designed and taught numerous courses for DEL including Foundations in Dance Education (Jody Arnhold), Planet Dance, Dancing in Early Childhood, Dance and Nature, Teaching from Transformation to Inspiration (Tina Curran) and Dance and Literacy (Barbara Bashaw). She has partnered with Urban Bush Women, Doug Varone, Flamenco Vivo, Jose Limon Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, New York City Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ms. Biddle was a contributor to the NYC Department of Education’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12 and has been a NYCDOE Blueprint professional development facilitator since 2005.
Ms. Biddle has taught overseas at the National University in Costa Rica as a Fulbright scholar and at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana. She worked closely with the late Alan Lomax as a Choreometrics analyst. Ms. Biddle’s writing has been published by the Jerome Robbins Foundation (Opus Jazz Teacher’s Manual, NYC Ballet) and the Dana Foundation. Ms. Biddle is the founder of Stories in Motion, LLC., an early childhood dance and literacy based organization which is currently being launched nationwide. She is currently a co-writer for 92Y’s original Wonderdance early childhood initiative, a visiting artist at UMass Dance Department and Mt. Holyoke College, and Interim Director of the Dance Department at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School. She has an MA in Dance Education from Columbia University and a BA from Kenyon College.
back to top
Christina Bingel
Christina has studied and written about the importance of clay in young children’s cognitive, emotional, physical and social development. While a staff member of the 92Y Nursery School, she developed a clay curriculum for three-year-olds. She teaches ceramics in after-school programs, camps and workshops and has worked for artist Will Barnet, American Academy of Arts and Letters and The Cleveland Museum of Art. She continues to create her own work at a pottery studio located in Manhattan.
back to top
Tracy Birkhahn
Tracy Birkhahn is currently the learning specialist at the 92Y Nursery School and a mental health consultant for Project SEED (Supporting Early Emotional Development) at nursery schools throughout Westchester County. Tracy also has a private practice in Irvington, New York where she provides counseling and training for parents of young children.
back to top
Betsy Blachly
Betsy Blachly is an adjunct at Bank Street College, and the music specialist at Bank Street School for Children and Family Center, a position she has playfully held for 35 years. She is a certified music therapist and works with children at risk in a family shelter in the Bronx, in addition to her private practice.
back to top
Christopher Clouder
Christopher Clouder FRSA is currently CEO of the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education which speaks for 670 European Steiner schools in 26 countries. He writes and gives lectures internationally on topics such as play and imagination and cultural evolution. He has published numerous books and articles on education and childhood. In 2009 he was appointed Founding Director of the Botin Platform for Innovation in Education which is working across the world to promote social-emotional education and creative learning in educational practices and policies.
back to top
Rose Coffield
Rose Coffield is originally from Oakland, California. She has been a preschool teacher at the Riverside Church Weekday School for the last six years. In addition, she is the Director of the Weekday School's Summerside Program. Most recently, she was selected as the recipient of a NY Blackboard Award for her work using video in order to access and build empathy in young children. Rose has an MA in Early Childhood Education from NYU.
back to top
Patricia M. Cooper
Patsy Cooper is an associate professor of early childhood education at Queens College, CUNY. She is the author of The Classroom All Young Children Need: Lessons in Teaching from Vivian Paley, as well as numerous articles on early literacy, children’s literature and effective teaching. A former school director and classroom teacher, she is a frequent presenter to professional, school and parent groups on early literacy development, curriculum and behavior management.
back to top
Deborah Damast
Deborah Damast is the Artistic Advisor of the Dance Education Program at NYU Steinhardt and Master Teacher of technique, pedagogy, production and choreography courses. She is the Artistic Director of Dance Concerts and Kaleidoscope Dancers, and directs a yearly study abroad /cultural dance exchange program to Uganda. Her choreography has been shown in NYC venues including Ailey/Citigroup, Judson Church, Riverside Church, Peridance, University Settlement, World Financial Center; and internationally in Italy, Japan, Korea and Uganda. She teaches dance at LREI and conducts professional development for the NYC Department of Education and the DEL program at 92Y. She received the Graduate Student Star Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence at NYU, and the National Dance Education Organization’s Outstanding Dance Educator Award. She has been on the faculty of Peridance Center, The Dance in Education Fund, 92Y, The Oregon Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet Education Department, the Harvey School, among others and has co-created the Move N Groove Kids video series. Deborah has presented papers and choreography at NDEO, CUNY Graduate Center, and ACDFA conferences and has served on the Board of Directors of NDEO and currently with NYSDEA. She is a co-teacher for 92Y Wonderdance, and has directed a children’s choreography workshop at the Yard in Martha’s Vineyard. She holds an MA in Dance Education from NYU, a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase and DEL certification.
back to top
JoAnn Deak
JoAnn Deak, Ph.D., is a widely recognized educator and psychologist who works with parents and teachers in their roles as guides or 'neurosculptors' of children. Dr. Deak’s perspective is best described on her website "Every interaction a child has, during the course of a day, influences the adult that child will become."
In the 1980's, Dr. Deak worked with the Laurel School as a consulting psychologist, where she participated in a six-year study with Harvard and a team of researchers led by Carol Gilligan. She currently consults with organizations, schools, associations and parenting groups across the United States and internationally.
Dr. Deak has written several books, including How Girls Thrive and Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters. Her first children's book was published in 2010. She is presently working on a series of books which will be a trilogy: Brainology 101 for Students, Brainology 101 for Teachers and Brainology 101 for Parents.
back to top
Asher Delerme
Asher Delerme is the executive director of C.A.S.A, Inc. -- a multicultural behavioral health services agency based in southern New England and is initiator and founding partner of Areyto Apartments supportive housing in Bridgeport, CT. A renowned Latin jazz percussionist, Asher has toured the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, Japan and played Carnegie Hall with such luminaries as Paquito De Rivera, Pete Seeger and Jimmy Sabater. Asher is a founder and principle member of the award-winning World Beat band, MIKATA (All of Us) and serves with the Commission for the Arts and Young Audiences of Connecticut.
back to top
Lella Gandini
Lella Gandini taught at both Smith College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the Erikson Institute in Chicago in 2004 and the Smith College Medal from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 2008. She is Reggio Children’s United States liaison for the dissemination of the Reggio Emilia approach, and serves as associate editor of Innovations in Early Education: the International Reggio Exchange.
Lecturer and author of many articles and book chapters about early childhood education in Italy, she is co-author and co-editor of the first, second and now third edition of The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation. Other books include Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials; Bambini: The Italian Approach to Infant/Toddler Care; In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia; and Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Children and Teachers from North America. With George Forman, she produced videos presenting and examining projects in the schools of Reggio Emilia, including An Amusement Park for Birds. She is the author of several books for children in Italian. She is a board member of the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA).
back to top
Amelia Gambetti
Amelia Gambetti was an educator in the Reggio Emilia municipal preschools for twenty five years. During this time she shared her experience in seminars and workshops in Italy and abroad. She also worked on the creation and subsequent updates of “The Hundred Languages of Children” traveling exhibition of the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia. She collaborated on the new exhibit “The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children” research group and coordinates the North American version for Reggio Children.
Currently, Amelia is the co-chair of international network coordination, the international liaison and responsible for project promotion and development at Reggio Children/International Centre. She is a member of the managing coordinating group of Reggio Children/International Center.. She is a member of the editorial board of Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange, and the Reggio Children Liaison for the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA). In the United States, many articles have been published on Amelia Gambetti’s experiences in Reggio Emilia, as well as her early childhood education work with educators, parents and children in North America.
back to top
Celia Genishi
Celia Genishi is professor of education and program coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program, the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her books include Ways of Assessing Children and Curriculum; Ways of Studying Children (with Millie Almy); Diversities in Early Childhood Education: Rethinking and Doing (with A. Lin Goodwin); The Need for Story: Cultural Diversity in Classroom Community; and, Children, Language, and Literacy: Diverse Learners in Diverse Times (with Anne Haas Dyson). She is a recipient of an Advocate for Justice Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, in recognition of sustained achievement in education research.
back to top
Betsy Grob
Betsy Grob is on the faculty of the Bank Street College of Education, where she teaches graduate students and supervises their field placements. She has an extensive background as a classroom teacher and has taught kindergarten and first grade in a variety of school settings. In addition, Betsy has conducted staff development for pre-kindergarten through fourth grade teachers, both in New York City and internationally with a focus on block-building and social studies.
back to top
Beverly Falk
Beverly Falk is professor and head of the graduate programs in early childhood education at the School of Education, The City College of the City University of New York. She has served as a teacher, administrator, researcher and consultant at the school, district, state and national level. Currently, she is the editor of The New Educator, the quarterly journal published by Taylor and Francis in collaboration with the City College of New York's School of Education.
back to top
Barry Goldberg
Barry Goldberg is a sculptor who has taught at the 92Y Nursery School for thirty years, and was an instructor in the innovative art program Red, Yellow, Blue and Glue for three- to five-year old children also held at the 92Y. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union and was awarded the Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1987 and 1989.
back to top
Wendy Goldstein
Wendy Goldstein has been on the faculty of the 92Y Parenting Center for nearly a decade. She teaches Little Explorers, Parkbench, Twos Together and Threes Together. She has a master’s degree from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University, and an AB in history from Bryn Mawr College. Before joining the parenting center, she worked as a psychotherapist with adolescents and teens.
back to top
Gabrielle Greenberg
Gabrielle Greenberg has been on the faculty and has played a key role in the growth and expansion of the Parenting Center at 92Y for over 25 years. She works with parents and caregivers, babies and toddlers, and co-leads the separation programs for two and three year olds. She is a co-author of the 92Y Wonderplay Best Practices Handbook and has also developed a parenting series for teen mothers living in group home settings and for women in prison as they prepared to re-unite with their young children.
back to top
Marcy Guddemi
As president and CEO of the Gesell Institute of Child Development on the Yale campus, Dr. Guddemi leads the Institute in its mission of promoting the principles of child development in all decision-making for young children worldwide. Dr. Guddemi is a widely recognized expert in early childhood education, assessment and learning through play. She has worked in Head Start, held teaching positions at Texas State University, University of South Carolina and University of South Florida.
Dr. Guddemi shifted her career focus to assessment and worked at CTB/McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Assessment, Inc. and Pearson Learning Group. Dr. Guddemi is an active member and officer in the American Associations for the Child’s Right to Play (IPA/USA), also serving as a representative at United Nations conferences and other child advocacy gatherings.
back to top
Nina Jaffe
Nina Jaffe is an award-winning children’s book author, folklorist and storyteller on the graduate faculty of Bank Street College. Her publications include: The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition (PJ Library selection) and The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth from Puerto Rico/ La flor de oro: Un mito taino de Puerto Rico. Nina is featured presenter and co-producer of “Multicultural storytelling, music and community-building: Resources for dual language learners in Head Start” – a PD webcast for the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center of The Office of Head Start, Washington, DC.
back to top
Heather Kaplan
Heather Kaplan has taught at the 92Y Nursery School for five years. She holds a master’s in both early childhood and early childhood special education from Hunter College. Her goal is to reach every child through a rich variety of learning and social activities.
back to top
Jen Katz
Jen Katz is an Early Childhood Educator, Dance Educator and Performer in New York City. She began her dance training at The Long Island High School for the Arts, where she also served as a faculty member. She has taken courses, and participated in dance education trainings at the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at 92Y. She recently completed Module 1 of the CMA program at LIMS in NYC. Jen has been an early childhood teacher for 9 years at the 92Y Nursery School. Committed to integrating dance into the early childhood classroom, she has given professional development workshops, and presentations to early childhood educators in NYC and at national conferences including NDEO, ATIS and the 92Y Wonderplay Conference. Jen is also a contributing writer for WonderDance – a multisensory, and interdisciplinary early childhood dance curriculum at 92Y. She is a student of improvisation and performs with Claire Porter’s PORTABLES. She recently premiered Lady Lamp at the DanceNow Festival. Jen has a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MA in Dance Education from NYU.
back to top
Lilian Katz
Well known around the world as an early childhood leader and role model, Lilian continues to observe early childhood professionals at work in other countries and to speak at international conferences, symposia and workshops. These events allow her to learn about and share information on the early childhood practices she observes in other cultures, such as those in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She has lectured in all 50 U.S. states and in 43 countries, and she has held visiting posts at universities in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, India, Israel, the West Indies (Barbados campus) and many parts of the United States. In 1997, she served as Nehru Professor at the University of Baroda in India.
She is the recipient of numerous honors, including two Fulbright Awards (India and New Zealand), an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt.) from Whittier College in Whittier, California, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Göteborg University in Sweden.
Lilian Katz's scholarly work in such areas as the distinctions between mothering and teaching, parenting preschoolers, children's social development, teacher growth and development, dispositions as a goal of education, the differences between self-esteem and narcissism, mixed-age grouping, and the Project Approach have substantially enriched the knowledge base of our field. She continues to reflect on the conventional wisdom of our field and to take issue with our most dearly held preconceptions. Few others of her generation have contributed so much to the development of the field of early childhood education.
back to top
Jessie Klein
Jessie Klein is the author of The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America’s Schools. She is a sociology and criminal justice professor at Adelphi University. Her writing appears in many scholarly journals as well as the popular press including The New York Times, USA Today and CNN.com. She hosts a regular blog on PsychologyToday.com and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. Dr. Klein has served as a supervisor, school social worker, college adviser, social studies teacher, substance abuse prevention counselor and conflict resolution coordinator.
back to top
Steve Kurtz
Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP, is the Senior Director of its ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute, as well as Director of its Selective Mutism Program. Dr. Kurtz is the developer of several important innovations in the assessment and treatment of SM, including the SMICS behavioral assessment and the Brave Buddies program. Dr. Kurtz earned his doctorate in 1985 from Washington University in St. Louis. He holds a Diplomate in cognitive and behavioral psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology, for which he also serves as a volunteer examiner. He is the chair of the Treatment Adaptations Taskforce on the Advisory Board of PCIT International; a board member of the Selective Mutism Group (SMG); a member of the American Psychological Association, the New York State Psychological Association and the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies; and a fellow in the American Academy of Behavioral and CognitivePsychology. An expert commentator, he has appeared on numerous programs addressing child mental health, including NBC’s Today, CBS’s The Early Show, ABC's Nightline and PBS’s Keeping Kids Healthy.
back to top
Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis is a teacher and author, as well as the founder and director of the Touchstone Center for Children. Begun in 1969, the Center is an interdisciplinary arts organization that sponsors and creates a variety of programs in schools and environmental centers that explore the life of the imagination and its relation to the natural world.
His recent books of essays and reflections include When Thought is Young, Living By Wonder and Taking Flight, Standing Still: Teaching Toward Poetic and Imaginative Understanding. In addition, he has published a variety of picture books in collaboration with Ezra Jack Keats, Ashley Bryan, Ed Young and Debra Frasier. He has lectured widely and taught at the Bank Street College of Education, Queens College, Lesley College, Western Washington University, Rutgers University and City College of New York.
back to top
Susan Linn
Susan Linn is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has written extensively about the effects of media and commercial marketing on children. Her articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and her commentaries can be heard on NPR's Marketplace. Her book, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood has been praised in publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal and Mother Jones and has been published on four continents. The Boston Globe called Dr. Linn's new book, The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, "a wonderful look at how playing can heal children."
Dr. Linn is co-founder and director of the national coalition Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. In 2000, she was appointed to the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Advertising to Children. She has been featured on Sixty Minutes, Now with Bill Moyers, World News Tonight, Dateline and in the acclaimed film, The Corporation. She received the American Psychological Association's Presidential Citation for her work on behalf of children.
An award winning ventriloquist, Dr. Linn is internationally known for her innovative work using puppets in child psychotherapy, pioneering this work at Children’s Hospital in Boston, where she used puppets to help children cope with their hospital experiences. She has also written and appeared in a number of video programs designed to help children cope with challenging issues. With Family Communications, Inc., the producers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Dr. Linn created Different and the Same: Helping Children Identify and Prevent Prejudice. The series won the 1996 Media Award from the Association of Multicultural Educators and is presently being used in forty-seven states around the country.
back to top
Jean Mandelbaum
Jean Mandelbaum is now retired after many years of being the director of All Souls School in Manhattan. She served on the faculties of CCNY and Bank Street College, and was a consultant for the New York State Department of Education. Jean visited the schools of Reggio Emilia in 1993 and 2007. She and her staff of All Souls attended many US conferences dedicated to American interpretations of the Reggio approach.
back to top
Gillian D. McNamee
Gillian D. McNamee, Ph.D., is professor of child development and director of teacher education at the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development in Chicago, Illinois. She works closely with early childhood teacher candidates as well as with teachers in schools, particularly those serving children and families in challenging social and economic situations. She is currently working on a book, Teaching Friends: What’s Common and Core in Young Children’s Learning in School.
back to top
Vivian Paley
Vivian Gussin Paley writes and teaches about the world of young children. She examines their stories and play, their logic and their thinking, searching for meaning in the social and moral landscapes of classroom life. A kindergarten teacher for 37 years, Mrs. Paley brings her storytelling/story acting and discussion techniques to children, teachers and parents throughout the world. She is the recipient of the 1987 Erikson Institute Award for Service to Children and a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989.
She received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for Lifetime Achievement in 1998. In 1997, her book, The Girl with the Brown Crayon, was given the Harvard University Press Virginia and Warren Stone Prize as the outstanding book about education and society. In 1999, the same book brought her the NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. Mrs. Paley received the John Dewey Society's Outstanding Achievement Award for the year 2000, and in 2004 was named Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts by the National Council of Teachers of English. Her other books are: White Teacher, Wally's Stories, Boys and Girls, Mollie is Three, Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays, The Boy Who Would be a Helicopter, You Can't Say You Can't Play, Kwanzaa and Me: A Teacher's Story, The Kindness of Children, In Mrs. Tully's Room, A Child's Work.
back to top
Ann Schaumburger
Ann Schaumburger is a working artist and educator. She teacher art at Little Red School House and Elizabeth Irwin High School. For many years she taught the "Arts Workshop for Teachers" at Bank Street College. This November, she will be having a one-person exhibition of her paintings at AIR Gallery.
back to top
Jean Schreiber
Jean Schreiber earned her master’s in early childhood education from Bank Street College where she is on the faculty of the Continuing Professional Studies Program. For more than two decades Jean developed and directed early childhood programs and parenting centers. She consults to a wide variety of schools across the country supporting the professional growth of educators and the social and emotional development of children and their parents. She also provides guidance to parents individually and in group settings.
back to top
Caren Shayne
Caren Shayne has been the studio teacher at the Brick Church School since the studio opened in 2009 and is responsible for implementing the art curriculum, inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Caren was a classroom teacher for 11 years and was also the art specialist, giving workshops and advising Brick Church faculty on various art techniques and materials. In addition, Caren assists other schools who are interested in creating their own studio space by providing consultations and workshops.
back to top
Alison Snow
Alison Snow works with three year olds at 92Y. She received her master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in curriculum development and teaching, and her bachelor degree from Vassar College. Alison has participated in the Wonderplay initiative at 92Y since its inception, and attended the North American Reggio Emilia conference in 2010.
back to top
Lydia Soifer
Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. a language pathologist, is assistant clinical professor of pediatrics in the Early Intervention Training Institute, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Soifer is the director of the Soifer Center for Learning and Child Development. As a parent educator, teacher trainer and staff developer, she specializes in the needs of children with deficits in learning, behavior and communications.
Dr. Soifer founded the Soifer Center for Learning and Child Development in White Plains, NY in 1991 and is currently its director. The Soifer Center is an interdisciplinary practice of speech and language pathologists, educational therapists and psychologists specializing in identifying individual learning styles so as to help children achieve their maximum emotional, academic and personal potential.
Dr. Soifer has acted as a frequent consultant to private and public schools, advising faculty on the identification and enhancement of learning for children with different learning styles. She has developed, customized and led workshops and in-service training programs.
back to top
Ron Taffel
Dr. Taffel is one of the most esteemed specialists in child rearing in the country. He is the author of eight books, the latest entitled, Childhood Unbound: Authoritative Parenting for the 21st Century, and over a hundred articles on parenting and professional training. He consults to schools nationwide, serves as chair of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, has a child and family therapy private practice in New York City and is the parent of two children. Dr. Taffel has been featured in The New York Times, on 20/20, Dateline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Primetime Live and Larry King.
back to top
Salavatore Vascellaro
Salavatore Vascellaro is a member of the graduate faculty at Bank Street College of Education. As a faculty member he teaches courses in curriculum in early childhood education, block building and dramatic play, and children’s literature; consults in NYC schools with teachers, administrators and families; and oversees the fieldwork of apprentice teachers. Before joining the Bank Street faculty he was principal of the New Lincoln elementary school. As a teacher of children he taught ages three through eleven in Head Start, Day Care and elementary schools. His focus on the essential role of trips as a vital force in the education of children and teachers is developed in his recent book, Out of the Classroom and into the World. He earned a doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University.
back to top
Dena H. Warren
Dena Warren has been a head teacher at the 92Y Nursery School since 1998 and has also been an administrator at 92Y’s Camp K’Ton Ton. She has held several roles in the camp administration and is currently the camp coordinator. Dena serves on the Wonderplay team at 92Y. Prior to joining the 92Y faculty, Dena taught kindergarten at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School and at the West Side YMCA CO-OP Nursery. Dena holds a B.A. in Elementary Education from Goucher College and a M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.
back to top
Michael Weiner
Michael Weiner, LCSW, is an early childhood education consultant at the Riverside Church Weekday School, where he provides workshops and individual consultations to teachers. Previously, he was the senior child psychotherapist and supervisor at the Karen Horney Clinic in New York City. Currently, he is a child psychotherapist with a private practice in Manhattan specializing in childhood trauma, and an associate adjunct professor at LaGuardia Community College in the Human Services program. He received his degree from the School of Social Work at NYU.
back to top
Sara Wilford
Sarah Wilford is the director of The Art of Teaching Graduate Program at Sarah Lawrence College. She began her career as an early childhood and public elementary school teacher. She brings her wealth of experience to the world of education as a keynote speaker and workshop leader for seminars and conferences on early childhood education. She is a member of the editorial advisory board for Child magazine, a contributor to Scholastic, Inc. publications and an author, Tough Topics: How to Use Books in Talking with Children About Life Issues and Problems, What You Need to Know When Your Child Is Learning to Read and Nurturing Young Children’s Disposition to Learn.
back to top
Roberta Willenken
Roberta Willenken has been teaching 4’s and 5’s at the 92Y Nursery School for many years. She believes that creative and interesting group times are essential for building a thriving classroom community. She is the author of Learn the Alphabet Arts and Crafts, and a book on transition and meeting activities “in the works”, both published by Scholastic, Inc.
back to top
Paul Williams
Paul Williams teaches music in preschools and kindergarten and for the National Guitar Workshop. He is also a musician and singer songwriter writing for the musical theatre and Nickelodeon. In one of the longest running music engagements in New York City he played on Wednesday nights at the legendary "The Bitter End" from 1985 to 2007 and continues to write, record and perform in the New York area under the name Paul Clements.
He recently wrote "Reaching Out To say Hello" for 92nd Street Y's Educational Outreach Program and created the Music Room program for 92nd Street Y.
back to top
Elaine Winter
Elaine Winter is the preschool and early childhood director at Third Street Music School, and a proponent of quality children’s literature. Her experience includes lower school head at the Little Red School House (LREI), director of two toddler programs and director of admissions at Leman Manhattan Preparatory School. Elaine is also the Educational Consultant for the Educational Light School of Chess.
back to top
Katie Winter
Katie Winter has been designing educational environments for more than 15 years. In naming her as a "Tastemaker of the Year," House and Garden praised her firm's work as an approach that "provokes a child's imagination and allows room for it to be expressed." Representative projects include the Mt. Carmel School: Educational Playground, Harlem NY, the Mary Walton Children's Center: Early Childhood Play Area, City Housing, Harlem, NY and the Horace Mann Nursery School Library.
Her most recent work has focused on libraries, media centers and landscapes/play areas for educational institutions and public spaces. The firm's approach to playground design has been to utilize landscape and forms that are less prescriptive than traditional playground fixtures, and to create educational and recreational spaces that children can explore imaginatively. Her work has been featured in House and Garden, The CBS Morning News and New York City's Active Design Guidelines; Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design. Katie has a Masters of Architecture from Yale University. Before starting her own firm, she practiced at Skidmore Owings and Merrill and at Peter Gluck and Partners.
back to top
Jennifer Zebooker
Jennifer Zebooker is an early childhood educator, teaching two-year-olds through kindergarteners. For the last sixteen years, Jennifer has been the head teacher of classes for three year olds at the 92Y Nursery School in New York City. Jennifer received her master’s degree in early childhood development from the Bank Street College of Education. She has participated in numerous educational programs, including an opportunity to learn more about the Reggio Emilia approach in Italy.
back to top
Patricia Zuroski
Patricia Zuroski is the Director of Diversity Initiatives at Horace Mann School in New York City, where she was previously the Head of the Nursery Division. Prior to coming to Horace Mann, she developed and directed child care programs serving infants to school agers, including a corporate child care facility. She currently teaches curriculum in the early childhood masters program at Hunter College and is a graduate of Bank Street College in Educational Leadership.
back to top