Our Faculty

K “Yawa” Agbemabiese

Program Chair. BA, Ohio State University; MA, PhD, Ohio University.

Dr. K. “Yawa” Agbemabiese is currently faculty of Special Education at Bard DC and teaches elective courses in History and Women and Gender Studies. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Foundations, as well as a graduate certificate in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Ohio University. Dr. Yawa completed a Masters of Art Degree in International Affairs, African Studies from Ohio University, and a Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Studies from The Ohio State University. Her current research focuses on education and gender dynamics amongst the Anlo Ewe of Ghana. Dr. Yawa is the founder of the Charles A. and Norma J. Grooms Education Foundation, which sponsors girls’ education in Abor, Ghana, and the owner of Dunenyo Education and Training Center, Abor, Volta Region of Ghana,West Africa.

Victoria Bampoh

BS, MPhil, University of Cape Coast; MS, PhD, Syracuse University.

Dr. Victoria Bampoh grew up in Ghana but in 2006, she moved to America with a scholarship to pursue a PhD program in chemistry at Syracuse University, New York. She completed her doctoral degree in 2012 and was employed as a lecturer at the University of Minnesota, Rochester. At the University of Minnesota, she was involved in Innovative Teaching and Learning research for four years and then moved to Maryland in 2016. She taught chemistry at Bard High School Early College, in Baltimore, from August 2016 to June 2020. Besides teaching, she loves gardening, traveling, playing the piano and singing Christian songs with her husband, Bismark, and son, Benard, every Sunday at church.

Andrea Beaudoin-Valenzuela

PhD, University of Cincinnati; Literacy Studies, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Andrea Beaudoin Valenzuela is a language, culture and literature teacher originally from Bogotá, Colombia. She holds an MFA in creative writing in Spanish and a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures. Her scholar interests include contemporary Latin American literature, creative writing, gender studies and disability studies. She loves animals, cooking and reading.

Alessandra Berg

BS, Pennsylvania State University; MEd, Arcadia University.

Alli has been teaching in science for over twelve years in an urban setting. Her first teaching role was as a 9th grade physical science teacher at Esperanza Academy in Philadelphia. She then served as science department head from 2008 to 2015, working to establish STEM focused curricular majors such as engineering and health science. She has worked to create inquiry-focused curriculum through first-hand experiences and hands-on exploration. She moved to the DC area in 2015 and has worked in both charter and public schools before coming to Bard. She is very excited to be working the Physics team.

Armin Bonifacio

MA, University of the Philippines – Southwest.

Armin obtained his bachelor’s degree in business from De La Salle’s CDD, a school for the working. He then pursued graduate studies in special education and focused his research on utilizing technology to meet the diverse needs of learners. He is hoping to finish his PhD in Curriculum Studies. For years, Armin worked as an instructional designer and as a special education teacher at different high schools.

Virginia Butler

PhD, University of Maryland, College Park; BA, The College of William and Mary

Dr. Butler received her Ph.D. in English Literature with a specialization in 19th Century British studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. Before joining Bard DC, she taught courses at both The University of Maryland, where she was awarded the James A. Robinson Award for Teaching Excellence, and Loyola University. Her research interests include narrative closure, postcolonial studies, and gender studies. She is the 2019 winner of the Bruce Harkness Award for scholarship on Joseph Conrad and was a 2021 finalist for the J.H. Stape Prize for best article published for the year in the peer-reviewed journal “Conradiana.”

Alysia Childs

PhD, University of Texas at Austin; MS, Georgetown University; BA, Spellman College.

Native Washingtonian and graduate of the DC Public School System, Dr. Childs earned a B.A. in Spanish from Spelman College, where she researched extensively in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil, and Argentina. In 2001, Dr. Childs began teaching Spanish at a public high school in Georgia and 3 years later began her graduate studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Her Masters’ research focused on race, ethnicity, and identity formation amongst African descendants in Latin America. She earned an M.S. degree in International Development and continued that research into her doctoral studies at The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Anthropology. Dr. Childs’ research critically-engages social activism (in the U.S., Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and Colombia), educational disparity in U.S. public educational systems, and student outcomes in higher education institutions in the U.S. In 2015, Dr. Childs began working as an Anthropology Professor at Fayetteville State University before returning to DC in 2020.

Maya Cyrus

BS, Howard University; MSEd, University of Pennsylvania.

I was born in Washington, DC to two engineers, who met while students at Howard University. I graduated as the valedictorian of my class from Archbishop Carroll High School in 2006. Following in my parents’ footsteps, I attended Howard University, majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Music. In 2010, I was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society, earned my license to teach Math in DC, and graduated summa cum laude from Howard. From there, I went to Philadelphia to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. For the last 9 years, I have been teaching Math in various middle and high schools in Washington, DC. Also, I am a proud Ward 7 homeowner.

Yumin Deng

BS, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University; MEd, Shenzen University.

I have been active in international education in China and the US for over six years, working in both teaching and counseling roles. What motivates me is seeing my students become self-confident learners, seeing them achieve their goals, and watching them develop new language and cross-cultural skills. I hold a master’s degree in Education with a focus on student mental health and a Bachelors in Computer Science. My teaching style draws on this background by bringing technology to the classroom and emphasizing interpersonal student engagement. I’m very excited to part of Bard DC’s community!

Hany Eldeib

BS, MS, Cairo University, Egypt; MS, PhD, University of Virginia.

Dr. Hany has extensive experience in teaching Mathematics, Engineering, and Information Technology courses at university and high school levels. He taught at a number of universities in the Washington, D.C. areas including George Mason University and the University of the District of Columbia. He is a veteran of the satellite communications industry and is an advocate of STEM education for youth.

Julie Fisher

PhD, University of Delaware; MA, George Washington University; BA, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Julie A. Fisher is a historian and faculty member at Bard High School Early College in Washington, DC. She has previously worked with the Yale Indian Papers Project, the National Park Service, and the American Philosophical Society. When she is not hiking or deciphering old handwriting, she is looking for new food to try.

Roseanna Gossmann

BA, Mills College; MS, PhD, Tulane University.

Originally hailing from rural northern California, Roseanna completed her undergraduate studies in Mathematics and Biology with a special emphasis on Education at Humboldt State University and Mills College. She is passionate about math education and educational access, and has a background working with students from prekindergarten through college in extracurricular, event, and in-school settings. She has spent more than a decade learning and teaching math, and has also dabbled in teaching biology, theater, and other subjects. Roseanna earned her PhD in Mathematics from Tulane University in New Orleans in 2018. Her research interests include computational biofluid dynamics, modeling elastic bodies and fluid-elastic interactions, deformation of collapsible tubes, stokes flow, and female reproductive health, as well as mathematical biology and computational mathematics more generally. She applied these in her doctoral research exploring the elastohydrodynamics of a simplified human birth model. When she isn’t teaching and math-ing, Roseanna enjoys spending time with her husband and their small gaggle of kids and pets, reading, writing, playing music, and being mediocre at crossword puzzles.

Patrick Harhai

BA, Portland State University; MA, Brandeis University.

Prior to joining the faculty at Bard DC, Patrick taught in university and experiential settings in the U.S. and abroad. He also served in a variety of campus-based roles at the Bard Early College campuses in DC and Baltimore. Passionate about community and justice, Patrick is interested in restorative teaching practices that inspire collaboration and connectedness in the classroom. He earned his BA from Portland State University and his MA from Brandeis University.

Kim Huynh

BS, Western Michigan University; PhD, University of Maryland.

Dr. Kim Huynh received her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park. She previously taught Chemistry courses at UMD and Carleton College. Dr Huynh’s passion for teaching is rooted in her desire to help more students successfully complete science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees, which notoriously have a high drop-out/failure rate. She strives to teach students how to understand and appreciate the role of chemistry in their lives by not only teaching the material, but explaining why students should care about the material being taught. By drawing connections to the familiar and concrete through real world examples, Dr. Huynh shows students how the material is relevant to them. For over a decade, Dr. Huynh has taught a variety of students from kindergarten to graduate students in a wide range of settings. Outside the traditional classroom, Dr. Huynh enjoys outreach teaching opportunities (e.g. at-risk afterschool programs and STEM awareness events) because she loves to see students of all ages get excited and engaged in chemistry!

Parul Kashyap

PhD, St. John’s University; MS, St. John’s University; MA, CUNY Hunter College; BA, CUNY Hunter College.

I was born and raised in Patna, India and moved to New York in 2002 when I was 13 and have been a New Yorker since then, till I moved to the DMV area this past summer. I got my PhD from St. John’s University in 2018 in Biological Sciences. My doctoral research focused on studying the molecular mechanism of Transient Receptor Protein (TRP), a family of ion channels found all over the different parts of the body that are involved in sensing various sensations, ranging from pressure to heat (from food). During my doctoral studies, I took a year to teach at The NYC Charter High School at AECI in the South Bronx and loved the experience of working with high school age students and brining the accessibility of science closer to them. The experience of working with high school aged students was enriching that led me to teach at the same high school and teach courses in Biology and Epidemiology and then college Forensic Science with a joint collaboration thorough Syracuse University. Along with teaching, I also introduced various STEM focused after school clubs to allow students to have access to science outside of the classroom. Outside the classroom, I enjoy reading books and attending book clubs, going on road trips with my family and my personal mission to explore as many National Parks in the United States.

Eleanor “Nelly” Lambert

PhD, Catholic University of America; MA, St. John’s College, Annapolis; MA, Georgetown University; AB, The University of Chicago

Nelly Lambert has been teaching literature and philosophy for the Bard Early College network since 2015 and is a Faculty Associate with Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. She specializes in comparative poetry, modernism, Shakespeare, and philosophical and spiritual approaches to literature; after completing her doctorate on humor in poetry, she spent seven years coediting a multi-genre 1920s South Asian hagiography, supported by a grant from the Library of Congress. Dr. Lambert has received additional fellowship awards from the Lannan Foundation, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the American Association of University Women and is presently focused on a collaborative book about the inspiring work of fellow teachers. Passionate about leading students to think authentically, deeply, and fairly, Dr. Lambert has special love for Bard because nowhere else can you learn so rigorously and playfully in the same beat.

Hsuan-Ying Liu

BA, Yuan-Ze University; PhD University of Arizona.

Dr. Hsuan-Ying Liu received her Ph.D. in Chinese Applied Linguistics with specialization in Teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language from the University of Arizona. Before joining Bard DC, she was the Director of the Chinese Studies Program at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Liu has substantial experience in teaching a wide range of courses (from first-year Chinese language to advanced culture courses) as well as from different institutions (from pre-college to college levels). Her research interests include Chinese Sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Chinese language pedagogy in high school and college settings.

Carolyn Marcille

PhD, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; BA, SUNY Fredonia.

Hello! I’m Dr. Marcille, and I love working for Bard High School Early Colleges. I have wanted to be a teacher my whole life, and being able to give free college education to my students is the most rewarding daily work I can possibly imagine. My academic work has to do with science fiction in South Asia, and the study of how the science fiction literature of colonized places is necessarily different than the West.

Pedro Rodrigo Marino-Lopez

Literacy Studies, Universidad Nacional de Colombia; MFA, Universidad Nacional de Colombia; PhD, University of Cincinnati.

PhD in Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures (Spanish), with a Graduate Certificate in Film Studies from the University of Cincinnati. M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the National University of Colombia, and B.A in Literary Studies from this same university. Previously worked in the fields of academic publishing, translation and second language acquisition. His research interests include contemporary Latin American literature, contemporary Colombian narrative, creative writing, digital humanities, and film studies. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia.

Gabriel Morden-Snipper

BA, Oberlin College; MA, Hunter College.

Gabriel Morden-Snipper, a DMV native, has taught at independent and public schools in Brooklyn, NY and Washington, DC for ten years. Prior to joining the founding faculty at Bard DC, he taught at Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC). Since 2018, he has provided professional development for other DC-area teachers as a Math for America Master Teacher. He spends as much of his spare time as possible outdoors with his family. He earned his BA in Politics from Oberlin College and MA in Adolescent Mathematics Education from CUNY Hunter College.

Gal “Gili” Nagar

PhD, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; MA, Tel Aviv University; BA, Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo

Dr. Nagar is an educator who is committed to quality education and to advance knowledge and the practice of teaching and learning in a changing global society by focusing on innovation and the strengths of diversity. He has teaching and research experiences in both settings – college level and secondary education level. For almost two decades he gained experience in working enthusiastically and effectively with students in different schools (public, charter, and private schools) from New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Tel Aviv (Israel). He also has experience in designing and teaching Math Ed courses for teachers. Before coming to Bard Early High School College, Dr. Nagar was the Math Department Chair and STEM faculty advisor at Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central). He designed innovative and unique learning programs in math and science to engage students in conceptual learning and to support learners in developing meaningful mathematics knowledge and thinking skills. He worked on three NSF-funded projects with leaders in the field of mathematics education to look at teachers’ mathematical knowledge and meaning. He was also one of the founders of the non-profit organization – Educating for Excellence (Israel) – that supports thousands of children and teenagers from low socioeconomic backgrounds in realizing their potential for excellence. He led and coordinated the STEM4Girls annual day at UMass Dartmouth, and he was the initiator of Professional Exemplification: Creating Supportive Net for Teaching Quality project that supported secondary mathematics teachers to develop expertise.

John Peasant Jr.

BME, Alabama State University; MM, University of Tennessee; PhD, University of Florida.

A native of Cataula, Georgia, Dr. Peasant recently completed doctoral studies in music education at the University of Florida. His research areas involve the use of digital games in the music classroom and social justice with music education pedagogy. As an educator, Dr. Peasant has experience teaching music in grade levels from Kindergarten to college for over a decade. As a saxophonist, he predominately performed throughout the First Coast of Florida within classical and commercial settings. He has played under the baton of Frank Ticheli, Jack Stamp, Richard Saucedo, and other composers. Dr. Peasant has also shared the stage with artists such as Frankie Beverly and Maze, Kem, the Whispers, and many other R&B artists.

Tongji Phillip Qian

BA, Carleton College; MFA, Rhode Island School of Design.

Tongji Philip Qian is a visual artist and the founder of TPQ Studio. His artwork addresses the limit of an artistic practice through drawings, prints, and “prepared” sculptures. His writing on teaching and art criticism, on the other hand, focuses on conditions of students, institutions, contexts, and variations. Qian received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and his BA from Carleton College.

Lindsay Raymond

BS, Eastern Connecticut State University; MS, American University.

Lindsay Raymond strongly believes that Health Education is fundamental for the development of health literacy – the ability to understand and make informed decisions about health. Ms. Raymond holds a Master of Science in Health Promotion Management from American University and a Bachelor of Science in both Physical Education and Health and Fitness Management from Eastern Connecticut State University. She has ten years of diverse teaching experiences in DC Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Connecticut Public Schools and has co-authored Health Education Curriculum for DC Public Schools. In addition to her teaching role at Bard, Ms. Raymond is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200), and teaches Yoga, Barre, and Spin classes. Outside of teaching, Ms. Raymond enjoys exploring DC on bike and foot, and spending time with her family, friends, and goldendoodle.

Michael Sigrist

BA, MA, Miami University; PhD, SUNY Stony Brook.

Dr. Michael J. Sigrist trained in philosophy and has a special interest in the philosophy of history. His research focus and publications range over topics in ethics, value theory, personal identity, and the philosophy of literature. He is co-editor of Time and the Philosophy of Action published by Routledge in 2016. After living in Germany doing research at the University of Cologne, Dr. Sigrist moved to DC to teach philosophy in the Philosophy Department at George Washington University. He has also previously taught at American University and George Mason University. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Miami University, and a PhD from Stony Brook University. He lives with his three children in a beautiful neighborhood in Ward 7.

Nathan Sparks

BS, University of Maryland, College Park.

Mr. Sparks is a DMV local from Frederick, Maryland. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park for his bachelor of science degree in environmental science and policy, with a minor in sustainability studies. He volunteered with students at Northwestern High School through College and Career Pathways for five semesters before beginning graduate courses in teaching at UMGC. His passion for environmental science lead him to the teaching profession and guides his personal activities. When not teaching or studying, Mr. Sparks spends time jogging around the national mall, biking or walking to complete errands, socializing with friends in the DMV, cooking or baking vegan foods, and listening to music or podcasts while cleaning his apartment.

Cassandra St. Vil

BS, Buffalo State College; MSW, University of Michigan; PhD, Howard University; MSEd, Hunter College; MSEd, Harvard University.

Cassandra “Dr. Cass” St. Vil has committed her career to teen leadership development, having worked with (or immediately around) teenagers for nearly 20 years. She is a trained Africanist, social worker and experienced high school teacher. A Teach for America, Peace Corps and Fulbright Scholar alumna, she has worked with adolescents and adults in youth development, internationally, in over 30 countries. She is a graduate of Howard University’s doctoral program in African Studies, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Hunter College and the University of Michigan School of Social Work. The first of her five degrees was completed at Buffalo State College.

Daniel Williams

PhD, Columbia University; BA, Rutgers University.

I have a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology, with experience in higher education for 20 years. I have done neuroscience research published in peer reviewed journals. I have taught Biology (General Biology, Genetics, Anatomy & Physiology, and other courses) at many different schools, including Winston-Salem St Univ and Brooklyn College/CUNY. I enjoy a good baseball game, science fiction, taking long walks, and would like to travel more. I am originally from southern New Jersey, so if I sound funny saying “water” or “hot dog” you now know why.

Eric Wistman

• ewistman@bhsec.bard.edu

BA, Hamilton College; MAT, University of Massachusetts.