Faculty and Staff

David Allen

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BFA, Creative Writing, Brooklyn College; MFA, Creative Writing, The University of Michigan, Advanced Certification in School Leadership, Brooklyn College. Taught English at Brooklyn Technical High School, The Dalton School, Bushwick Outreach Center, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall, Phillips Academy, The University of Michigan and Brooklyn College. Served as Assistant Principal, English at Art and Design High School. At The University of Michigan, he received the Hopwood Award in Major Fiction. His poems and stories have been broadcast and published in several New York City outlets.

Nicole Basile

BA, MA, Comparative Literature, New York University; PhD, Latin America and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University. Taught Spanish language and content courses at Columbia University and Stony Brook University. Research interests include the History of Science, Food Studies, Gender Studies, and Experiential Education.

Mark Cheng

B.S., SUNY Stony Brook; Ph.D., University of Washington; M.S.T., Fordham University.

A Brooklyn native who was raised by the NYC public schools that he is now teaching in.
At the University of Washington, he conducted material research using multidimensional spectroscopy techniques and has published peer-reviewed scientific articles in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B and Optics Letters.

Teaching interests include Conceptual Physics, General Chemistry, Web Development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), Java Programming and iOS App Development (Swift).

Roger Davy

M.Ed. Brooklyn College – Brooklyn, NY – Students with Disabilities
BA Northeastern University – Boston, MA – Radio and Television Production / African-American History
John Dewey HS – Brooklyn, NY – Business Major

Worked in District 16 – Brooklyn, NY from 2018 – 2024 Supporting Students with Disabilities, D16 Math Champions, My Brother’s Keeper, and Success Academy After School test prep.

Before becoming an educator I worked in the music industry. This includes G-Unit Touring as the Music Tour Manager and Tour Coordinator. I was also the Music Production Manager. I have traveled to 30% of the world’s countries with musicians, dancers, and staff. I also worked for Ujima Sound Productions as Operations Manager, Musician Manager, live performance management and television performance coordination. I am the cool uncle in my family.

Meghan LeBorious

BA, Art History, Tufts University; BFA, Painting & Mixed Media, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; MFA, Sculpture, Installation, & Mixed Media, Queens College; MS, Education, Hunter College. Certified to teach Mindfulness, Mindful Schools. Certified teacher of the 5Rhythms – a dance and movement mindfulness practice; and trained in Restorative Justice practices. Recently published first book “Teaching Mindfulness to Teens as a Path of Empowerment.” Believes that everyone has gifts and everyone is needed for what they bring.

Andrew Levine

B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Chemistry; M.S.T., Boston College, Chemical Education; Ph.D., The CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College, Chemistry (Nanoscience sub-discipline); Has published peer-reviewed research articles in the following journals: Angewandte Chemie, Science of Advanced Materials, Nanoscale Advances, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Chemical Communications, and Chemical Science. Research interests include nanomaterials, organic photovoltaics, and climate change. Hobbies include 3D printing, cooking, and astrophotography.

Kendra Mahabir

B.A., Biology Major, Literature of the African Diaspora Minor, Brooklyn College; A.A., Liberal Arts, Bard High School Early College Manhattan

Denise Marks

B.Sc, Recreation Education, Herbert Lehman College; M,Sc, Recreation Education, Herbert Lehman College, Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, MAT, Teaching Exceptional Learners, Relay GSE, Certificate MEXOXO – Take The Lead, Cornell University.

Taught Special Education, at New Pathways Academy. Served as Special Education Liaison, IEP Teacher, ELA Skills Teacher, Therapeutic Recreation Director, Recreation Coordinator, and Recreation Therapist in Health Care Industry, Taught English at St. Joseph’s Convent Girls High School St. Vincent & The Grenadines, and Wismar Hill Primary School, Guyana. Featured in the Bronx Special Education Newsletter.

Clay Matlin

BA, Politics, Oberlin College; MFA, Art Criticism and Writing, School of Visual Arts; PhD, American History, University of Rochester. Taught philosophy, history, and art history in the Visual and Critical Studies and Honors programs at SVA for over a decade. Has published catalog essays for artists and in the Brooklyn Rail, CUNY Advocate, and Black Perspectives. Peer reviewer for Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Lives in Brooklyn with his wife, two kids, and adopted bulldog, Beauty.

Jonathan Megnauth

CUNY Queens College – Applied Mathematics and Economics (B.A.); Pure Mathematics (M.A.) CUNY Hunter College – Secondary Education (M.A.)

Taught at Maspeth High School and Hawtree Creek Middle School. Currently adjunct mathematics faculty at CUNY City Tech and a founding mathematics teacher at BHSEC Brooklyn.

Yolanda Nieves

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Instituto Tecnológico de Puerto Rico, Associates Degree Has worked in Elementary, Middle and a High School setting as a Parent Coordinator, Payroll, Purchasing, Pupil Accounting and Principal’s Secretary since 2010.

Russell Nurick

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B.A., English, The State University of New York at New Paltz; M.A., English, The University of South Carolina at Columbia; Advanced Teaching Certificate, Secondary English Education, City University of New York at Lehman College; Ph.D., English, The University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His doctoral dissertation adds to conversations about literary representations of black suffering begun by critics such as Saidiya V. Hartman, Hortense Spillers, and Brandon Gordon. It does so by looking at African-American writers, ranging from Frederick Douglass and Henry Bibb to Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates, as they reflect on their felt obligation to represent black suffering and as they encounter risks of doing so. Dr. Nurick has three short publications on Elie Wiesel and one on Edythe Mae Gordon and is preparing articles for publication on David Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident, Gayl Jones’ Corregidora, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. He recently presented on Bernice L. McFadden’s Sugar at The National Black Writers Conference (March 2024) and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching G-d at the South Central Modern Language Association Conference (September 2024).

Christine Publik

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Christine was a special education teacher (8 years) and Coordinator of Student Activities (5 years) at Liberty Avenue Middle School in East New York where she transformed the staff and student culture through the Sunshine Committee and Culture Team, developed a culturally responsive Morning Meeting Advisory program and curriculum that incorporated social justice and mindfulness, developed the school’s curriculum for Restorative Justice Circles, and founded and coached the school’s district-winning debate team. Now at Bard Brooklyn, she hopes to be the bridge to connect students from the area into an early college high school.

Samantha Scully

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AA, Liberal Arts, Bard High School Early College Manhattan; BA, Dance Major, Political Science Minor, Hunter College; MSEd in School Counseling, Alfred University

Jaime Shearn Coan

B.A., Comparative Literature, San Francisco State University; M.F.A., Creative Writing, City College of New York; Ph.D., English, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Jaime Shearn Coan’s research interests include queer and trans of color history and cultural production, resistance literature, life writing, archives, and performance. He is a former Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice (ISGRJ) at Rutgers-New Brunswick and Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow at ONE Institute. His dissertation, “Corporeal Archives of HIV/AIDS: The Performance of Relation,” was supported by a CUNY Dissertation Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NYPL). He is currently at work on a study of the late Haitian-American poet, playwright, and activist Assotto Saint, and recently authored the introduction to Sacred Spells: Collected Works of Assotto Saint.

Mikhail Shklyar

BA, Mathematics, Columbia University; MPhil, Mathematics, CUNY Graduate Center; Advanced Teaching Certificate in Mathematics, Hunter College. Taught Mathematics at Hunter College High School; Medgar Evers College Prep; CUNY Hunter College; CUNY Baruch College.

Shawn Steele

BA, Political Studies and Italian Studies, Bard College; MA, History, CUNY Queens College; Advanced Certificate in Adolescent Social Studies Education (Grades 7-12), CUNY Queens College; MSEd, Educational Leadership, CUNY Queens College. Began his professional career as Attendance Coordinator and Admissions Coordinator at Bard High School Early College Queens from 2011-2015. Taught History of the Americas, World History, and Twentieth Century Intellectual History at Bard High School Early College Queens from 2015-2018. Also served and as Associate Dean of Students, AP Coordinator, Social Studies Department Chair, and teacher at Broome Street Academy Charter High School, in association with The Door, a Center of Alternatives, in Manhattan, from 2018-2024. Formerly held a trustee position on the Locust Valley Central School District Board of Education from 2017-2023. At CUNY Queens College, he received the Emerging Scholar Award in the field of Educational Leadership. He is, and always will be, a New York Mets fan.

Rashan Umari-Stacker

Adelphi University – Master’s in Health Education
Stony Brook University – Bachelor’s in Multidisciplinary Studies

Worked in Longwood Central School District from 2019 to 2024.

Taught in various classroom settings within the Special Education department for 5 years, with a focus on promoting student wellness and adaptive physical education. Coached varsity football and basketball, as well as other sports such as lacrosse and tennis. Served as the strength and conditioning coach for most major programs, contributing to the athletic success and development of student-athletes.

I was also the Assistant Coordinator for the My Brother’s Keeper program district-wide (K-12), focusing on empowering students and promoting initiatives such as academic success, health and wellness, and financial literacy.

Kay Zeng

Kay Zeng
Language Faculty
B.A., Chinese & Psychology, Hunter College; M.A., Mandarin & ESL Education, New York University. A dedicated Mandarin language educator with 7 years of experience teaching high school students. Supervised and led her students to win 1st and 2nd prizes in the prestigious “NYU Chinese Rock That Movie” competition.