Staff

Jonathan V. Cann

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B.A., Asian Studies, Bard College.
Jonathan V. Cann is the author of 11 books and has also worked on video games and comics. Interests include art, photography, and hiking.
718-361-3133 x6717

Elizabeth Dunn Canty

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B.A. English & Communications, Boston College; M.A., Education, CUNY Brooklyn College; M.A., School Counseling, New York University. Worked previously as New York City Teaching Fellow & Secondary English teacher at Harry Van Arsdale High School, as Guidance Intern & Health Teacher at BHSEC Manhattan, and as Guidance Counselor & Study Skills Instructor at Bard Early College Academy.  Founding staff at BHSEC Queens.  Special trainings include: Options College Access training, Suicide Prevention, Respect for All with a special focus on anti LGBTQ-bias, Opportunity Gaps for students of color, Adult Basic Literacy, and Project Adventure Ropes Course.
718-361-3133 x6923

Justin Casale

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B.A., Psychology and Education, Muhlenberg College; M.A., School Counseling, Boston College

Erika Cubano

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Brianna Grant

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Laura Hymson

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B.A., American Studies, Wesleyan University; M.A., Gender/Cultural Studies, Simmons College; Ph.D., American Culture, The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Taught at Rutgers University-Newark; Hunter College; and University of Hartford. Areas of research include 20th century U.S. cultural history, with a particular focus on the historical constructions of race and gender; branding and advertising; and globalization.
718-361-3133 x8002

Angel Johnson-Telesca

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BA, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY; M.Ed. in Counseling and Human Development, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY. Angel brings over 18 years of College Counseling and Guidance experience from the New York City school system and private sector.  Professional interest include providing mentoring and counseling to underrepresented students in areas where access to secondary educational opportunities may not be readily available.
718-361-3133 x6823

Wilfredo Pagan

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718-361-3133 x6613

Adam Rhodes

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718-361-3133 x6625

Olga Russell

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B.A., Biology, Bard College; M.A., Social Studies, Russian State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia; M.A., Microbiology, Columbia University.
718-361-3133 x7315

Crystal Sandiford

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718-361-3133 x6635

Brittany Brown

Carrie Anne Tocci

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Ph.D, Contemporary Learning and Interdisciplinary Research, Fordham University; Ed.M, English Education, Teachers College; MFA, Creative Nonfiction, Teaching Fellow, Georgia College; MA, Poetry/English, City College; BA, Urban Studies, Fordham University. She is the recipient of various scholarships, community service and writing awards, including the Academy of American Poets Prize. Her research explores adolescent engagement and motivation to read. Prior to BHSECQ she served students from grade 5 through college in New York City, Westchester, the American South, and South America. Taught: English, composition, research, creative writing, social studies/humanities, ENL, and special education. Her poetry and prose appear in several journals, most recently Adoptee Voices, Ocean State Review, and Voices in Italian Americana.

Christopher Chilas

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B.A. Mathematics, Cornell University; M.S. Mathematics Education, St. John’s University; New York City Teaching Fellows; 2017 Math for America Fellow. Taught mathematics at the Lehman Alternative Community School and New Roots Charter School.  Worked as Academic Advisor at the University of Georgia.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7619

David Hopp

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David Meskill

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A.B. cum laude, Modern European History, Harvard University; M.A. mit Auszeichnung, Medieval and Modern European History, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität; Ph.D., Modern European History, Harvard University.
Taught at Harvard College; Boston University; M.I.T.; Colorado School of Mines; and Dowling College, as well as at several middle schools in an exchange program in Japan. Published the book Optimizing the German Workforce: Labor Administration from Bismarck to the Economic Miracle in 2010. Articles, reviews, and chapters on economics in Germany, the history of psychology, and intellectual history have appeared in the journals Critical Review; Essays in Economic and Business History; German History; The Historical Society; and History of Psychology. He is currently working on a book that proposes a revision of historical method.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7706

David Price

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B.S., Mathematics, The University of Chicago; M.A., Teaching of Secondary Mathematics, Bard College; 2011 Math for America NYC Fellow. Prior teaching experience at The Bronx Academy of Letters and MS 223: The Laboratory School for Finance and Technology.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7719

Ezra Nielsen

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A.A., Literary Studies, Simon’s Rock College; B.A., Sarah Lawrence College; M.A., Rutgers University; Ph.D., Rutgers University. Taught at Rutgers University and Sarah Lawrence College. Research interests include Henry James; 19th century American literature; the history and theory of the novel. Currently at work on a memoir involving family history.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7815

Fizza Chowdhury

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Education: Masters in Occupational Therapy, Stony Brook University, Class of 2015
Teaching/working history: DOE since 2023, in schools since 2015
Areas of research or expertise: Executive Functioning
Areas of interest: Sensory Processing, Learning Disabilities, Cultural Influences

Garyne Berkoh

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Graciela M. Báez

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B.A., Spanish Language and Literature / Latin American & US Latino Studies, Fordham University; Ph.D., Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University.
Doctoral dissertation: “Las diosas de América: Concealed Symbols of the Great Mother in Latin American Literature.” Areas of Inquiry include Latin American Literature, Pre-Hispanic Myth in Contemporary Literature, Mutterecht, Indigenous cosmogonies (Andean, Mexican, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, Amazonian), Trans-national-Trans-cultural Visual Culture, and U.S. Latino/a Literature and Translation. Taught at New York University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). Former multi-lingual recruiter and executive headhunter with interpreting and translation experience in corporate, academic, entertainment, legal and diplomatic arenas.
Phone: 758-361-3133 x6606

James Antonaglia

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B.S., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Ph.D., Physics, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Joshua Marshack

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A.B. Anthropology (with College Honors), Washington University in St. Louis; Ph.D., Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Marshack is a biological anthropologist who uses our closest living relatives, the great apes, as a jumping-off point to study the evolution of social behavior, elucidate the origins of status changes in humans, and challenge biological determinism, scientific racism, and race reductionism. He has published on the social behavior and ecology of wild savanna chimpanzees, as well as on the evolution of lethal aggression. He enjoys working with students seeking answers to big questions about the past to better shape our future. He has conducted fieldwork on wild chimpanzees at a site called Fongoli in the Republic of Senegal and on bonobos at the Ape Initiative in Des Moines, Iowa. He has taught at Grinnell College, Dickinson College, and Colgate University.

Joshua Mukhlall

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B. Sc., Chemistry, University of Guyana; M.A., Chemistry, Queens College; Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Dissertation: “Chiral sulfurization for synthesis of antisense oligonucleotides.” Post-doctoral Research Fellow: research conducted at Queens College (CUNY) and Brookhaven National Laboratory; Project title “Synthesis and Characterization of Cyclic Phosphonium Ionic Liquids.” Taught at Queens College and LaGuardia Community College. Research articles in Inorganica Chimica Acta; Journal of Sulfur Chemistry; Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids; and Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. Research interest: Investigation of chiral ammonium-based and phosphonium-based ionic liquids for potential use as solvents in stereoselective organic reactions.
Phone: 718-361-3133 xTBA

Holly Brown

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B.A., History and Spanish, Wellesley College; M.A., Middlebury College; Ph.D. candidate, Spanish and Luzo-Brazilian Literatures and Languages, The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York. Taught language and short story at Princeton University and Hunter College; Bilingual Education and Spanish pedagogy at The City College of New York; and College Preparedness and ESL at LaGuardia Community College. Publications include At the Crossroads of Modernity: Fernando Pessoa’s Intersectionist Poetry. Interests include medieval and early modern Spanish and Portuguese literature.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x6606

Irene Lam

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B.A., American Literature and Psychology, Hunter College; M.S., Education, City College; M.S., Chinese Linguistics, East China Normal University, Shanghai. Research interests: Social linguistic research and analysis of the signs in New York City; modern Chinese literature. Taught in New York public schools and in the Middlebury College summer language program. Chinese calligraphy writings shown at numerous exhibitions in New York City and Canada. Board of Directors of The Association of Chinese Calligraphy in America; Member: Hua Xia Chinese Calligraphy and Overseas Chinese Instrumentalist Orchestra.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7737

Jacqueline Allain

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Jacqueline Allain is a historian whose wide-ranging research and teaching interests span the British and French colonial Atlantic world, slavery and emancipation, feminist political economy, and, more recently, the history of public education in the United States. Publications include “Make Me Live Long Enough: Mapping Social Reproduction in the French Antilles, 1830-1900,” Atlantic Studies (2025), “Maria Griffin, et al: Slavery’s Intimate World,” Journal of Women’s History (2022) (winner of the 2021-22 Best Article Award from the Journal of Women’s History and the Duke University Libraries’ Chester P. Middlesworth Award), and “‘They are Quiet Women Now’: Hair Cropping, British Imperial Governance, and the Gendered Body in the Archive,” Slavery & Abolition (2020). Her writing can also be found in the Routledge Handbook of Afro-Latin American Studies, the Adam Mathews Digital primary source collection Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives, and the journals History Compass and Metropolitan Universities. She is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Duke University, among other awards and fellowships.

Jennifer Kaplan

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B.A., Near Eastern Studies (Arabic language and literature concentration), University of California, Berkeley; M.A. and Ph.D., Comparative Literature, New York University.
Taught Arabic at Columbia University and Comparative Literature at New York University. Editor, Arab Studies Journal, 2002-2007. Fellowship at the American Research Center in Egypt, researching the history of children’s literature in Egypt, 2007-2008. Research interests include contemporary Arabic literature; immigrant literature in France; and representations of childhood.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7615

John Grauwiler

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B.A. Art History, Bard College; M.A. Special Education, Long Island University. 10 years experience as a special education ICT teacher in English.
718-361-3133 x7731

Jon Leizman

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B.A., Philosophy and Mathematics, St. John’s College, Annapolis; M.A., Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., Philosophy and Sports Administration, Union Graduate School. Bacon Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
Coached college basketball, soccer, and tennis in California, Florida, and Connecticut. Coached high school basketball, soccer, baseball, and tennis in California and New York. Taught public and independent high school physical education, English, and philosophy in California and New York. Taught philosophy as a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Author of Let’s Kill ‘Em: Understanding and Controlling Violence in Sports (University Press of America, 1999); Short Term Trading (McGraw-Hill, 2002).
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7710

Jordan Shapiro

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B.A., History, Columbia College; M.P.A., Princeton University; Ph.D., African History, The University of Michigan. Taught history at The University of Michigan, University of Oregon, University of California, San Marcos, Queens College (CUNY), and Yeshiva University High School for Boys.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7906

June Morrison Jones

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B.Sc., Chemistry, Brooklyn College; M.A., Science Education (Chemistry), Brooklyn College; M.P.H., Health Science, University of North Texas School of Public Health; Ed.M., Organization and Leadership, Teachers College of Columbia University; Ph.D., Health Studies, University of North Texas. Administrative Internship, Teachers College of Columbia University. Worked as academic team leader and served on the curriculum and oral defense committee at Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College; served as department chair and lead teacher in Dallas Independent School; served as coach for students preparing for national and international science competitions. Presented papers at conferences on international AIDs (Bangok, Thailand ) and Infectious disease (Argentina). Publications include “The Role of Geographic Information System in Syphilis Prevention and Elimination,” Journal of Urban Health, and “Geographic Information System and Case Studies in Health,” Interactive Teaching and Learning across Disciplines and Cultures. Research interests include health disparities; social determinants of health; and geographic information systems and disease.

Katharina Kempf

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B.A., Politics, Law and Society and Cross-Cultural Relations, Bard College at Simon’s Rock; M.A., Global Journalism and Latin American & Caribbean Studies, New York University.
Taught English in Oaxaca, Mexico, 2007-2010. Articles on politics in Mexico have appeared in La Voz, Bard’s Spanish-language magazine. Research interests include U.S.-Mexico relations; leftist politics in Latin America; and human rights.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7737

Kent Freeman

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B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Cincinnati; S.M. & Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Harvard University; M.A., Mathematics Education, New York University.
Chartered Financial Analyst; 2009 Math for America Fellow. Worked for fifteen years in the financial industry. Taught mathematics at Ohio University. Research interests include applications of mathematics to finance and electromagnetic phenomena.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7919

Laura Schneider

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MFA, the City College of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
Awarded paid Teaching Assistantship, Connor Tuition Award & Connor Travel Abroad award; Summa Cum Laude
MA in Art Ed., New York University, New York, NY
Achieved K-12 Certification, Summa Cum Laude
BA, Carleton College, Northfield, MNArt History Major, Art concentration. Awarded Hyslop-Warnholtz Fellowship; Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude

Working across disciplines, my art practice challenges personal and historical narratives through portraying the complexities of memory, language, the archive, and the ego. I have a Master’s in Art Education for Social Justice (NYU, 2011) and a Master’s in Fine Arts in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice (City College, 2015). Since 2011, I have enjoyed teaching in many spaces including prisons and probation centers, public schools, and colleges. Before teaching with BHSECQ, I was Senior Lecturer of Visual Art at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus and also the Associate Director of the MFA in Art & Media for its inaugural year (2021-2022). After six wonderful years teaching at NYUAD, I moved back home to Brooklyn. I currently have a studio at Brooklyn Art Space in Greenpoint and continue to show work and participate in residencies. I have had the pleasure of exhibiting work in fascinating places, including Berlin, Venice, Sydney, Almería, Sharjah, São Paulo, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi.

Marina Woronzoff

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B.A., French and Russian, Smith College; M.A., Slavic Languages and Literatures (specializing in linguistics) and Ph.D., Russian Literature, Yale University. Recipient of Giles Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities; and Edward H. Butler Fellowship. Taught Russian language at Sarah Lawrence College; Russian language and literature at Yale University; published on Anna Akhmatova; worked as editor and writer for edf.org and non-profit foundations preserving Russian culture and history; translator and contributor for New York Review of Books Blog; research interests include feminist criticism; gender theory; Russian women poets.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7715

Matthew Cohen

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B.A., Politics, Law, and Society, Bard College at Simon’s Rock; M.A. and Ph.D., Government, The University of Texas.
Research on international conflict; international political economy; the relationship between domestic and international politics; political methodology and econometrics and game theory. Dissertation used statistical analysis and formal models to explore the role of US and Iraqi domestic politics in the 2003 war in Iraq. Served in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan from 2000 to 2002.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7706

Matthew Carlberg

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B.S., Electrical Engineering, Columbia University; M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; M.A., Teaching Secondary Mathematics, Bard College; 2010 Math for America Fellow.
Previous teaching experience at International Community High School in the Bronx; East Side Community High School in Manhattan; and University of California, Berkeley, as a graduate student instructor. Publications on 3D modeling of indoor and outdoor environments using camera and laser data have appeared in IEEE conferences, including 3D Processing, Visualization, and Transmission and International Conference on Image Processing. Co-inventor on a pending patent for asynchronous digital circuits, including arbitration and routing primitives.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7719

Zachariah Pickard

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B.A., University of King’s College; M.A. and Ph.D., English, University of Toronto.
Taught at Tufts; New York University; The New School; and The Cooper Union. Expertise in twentieth-century poetry. Has been published in Twentieth-Century Literature; American Literature; and American Literary History. Authored a scholarly study of the poet, Elizabeth Bishop.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7915

Michael Cetrangol

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B.M., Music Education, Piano and Voice, University of Dayton; M.M., Jazz Studies, Purchase College SUNY, Conservatory of Music. Teaching appointments include the New York City public school system; University of Dayton; and The Miami Valley School. Courses taught include Choir, Music Theory, Jazz Ensemble, Music Fundamentals, Improvisation, Piano, and Voice.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x6634

Michael Woodsworth

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B.A., History, McGill University; M.A., Journalism, New York University; Ph.D., History, Columbia University. Teaching Fellow, Columbia University, 2006-2012. Areas of research include New York City history; American political history; Canadian-American relations; and the welfare state. Formerly a newspaper editor; writing has appeared in The Nation; The Daily; and Bookforum; as well as the International Journal of Canadian Studies.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7706

Mike Herrod

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BA, Columbia University; MA in Television, Radio, and Film, Syracuse University.
Mike Herrod recently concluded his training with the New York City Teaching Fellows, and is currently working on his Masters in Education at Hunter College, focusing on special education. Mike worked most recently in the publishing industry, and is also the author and illustrator of several books for children. He lives in Jackson Heights, Queens with his wife and two young sons.

Olga Ramos

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A.A., Bard High School Early College; B.A. Psychology, Bard College; M.S. candidate, Urban Affairs, Hunter College. Trustee Leader Scholar at Bard College and founder of the Young Rhinebeck Youth Program: Life, Learning, and Language, 2005. Worked in admissions at BHSEC for more than ten years, first as Admissions Coordinator, then as Smart Scholars Outreach Coordinator. Olga has a long-standing commitment to outreach into the NYC public schools and particularly in recruiting students to BHSEC who come from disadvantaged academic and economic backgrounds. Research/interests include urban public education, program evaluation, early college initiatives and community activism.
718-361-3133 x6913

Peri Mason

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B.S., Ecology, University of Georgia; Ph.D., Biology, Wesleyan University. Dissertation: studied the interactions and defenses of herbivores, plants and insects. Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she continued work on the interactions between plants, the insects that feed on them, and the predators, parasites and pathogens that attack the insects. She has taught both Animal Behavior (Purchase College) and Evolutionary Biology (University of Colorado).

Rachel Ford

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Rosa Lee

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B.A., Chemistry, University of Washington; M.Ed Secondary Education in Mathematics, Boston College. Prior teaching experience at Quincy Public Schools in Massachusetts before joining BHSEC Queens.

Sara Machleder

B.A., Chemistry, Goucher College; Ph.D., Biophysics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Articles published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science; and the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Research interests include the role of dynamics in catalysis; and finding new methods for identification of the reaction coordinate.
Phone: 718-361-3133 xTBA

Sean Mills

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B.A., English and Music, Knox College; M.F.A., Fiction, Sarah Lawrence College.
Taught at Hofstra University and Knox College. Copy Chief at Random House; Senior Production Editor at Doubleday; Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Published in Growing Up Gay/Growing Up Lesbian: A Literary Anthology, and in several journals, most recently Hobart and the Emerging Writer’s Network. Currently at work on a novel and a collection of essays.
Phone: 718-361-3133 x7717

Shavone Blunt

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BA.  English and Communication