2022 Power Players in Education

Erik Joerss helps shape the legislative agenda around New York City charter schools, building grassroots and media campaigns, while directing the lobbying efforts of the organization to build an environment that allows charter leaders to create great public schools and families to access them. He is an active political volunteer, from assisting with a multilingual voter helpline for Biden/Harris 2020 to holding memberships in the Brooklyn Democrats’ County Committee and the Bay Ridge Democratic Club. Erik spends his free time with his wife, daughters, and Fasha the dog.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
In Mayor Adams’ own words — we need to scale up excellence. So let’s bring more public charter seats to New York City. Every charter is unique, but what they all share is the structure of autonomy and accountability that allows new ideas and methods to flourish as long as it helps children learn. School choice is something that middle-class and wealthy families take for granted, whether it’s switching neighborhoods, moving to suburbs or paying tuition. Charters provide some of that choice to those without the financial means to spend their way out of an underperforming school.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
The ability to create a school culture where grownups are rowing together on behalf of students is a prerequisite to a sustainably excellent learning environment where achievement is celebrated, students are free from harassment and bullying, and families are engaged as the third leg of the education school (a metaphor I learned from former NYC Council Education Chair Danny Dromm). While this isn’t unique to charter schools, it is a deliberate part of the model.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
Despite my best efforts to underperform my abilities in high school, Mr. Harry Anderson, who taught my U.S. History class, and Mrs. Olga Dufour, English Literature, went above and beyond to keep me engaged, from bringing me with them to volunteer at soup kitchens on weekends, to exposing me to programs like the Model Congress/U.N. to force feeding me great books, they refused to give up on my sometimes lazy, careless, unaware self. The impact of a great teacher isn’t always obvious in the moment, but the results can be lifelong.

Dr. Larry D. Johnson, Jr., is an equity-minded leader who was named the second president of Stella & Charles Guttman Community College in 2021.  Dr. Johnson began his higher education experience as an English and reading instructor. Recognizing the importance and power of representation, he committed to securing middle- and later senior-level positions that would afford him a seat at the table to foster inclusive programming for diverse student populations. Since his arrival to Guttman, President Johnson has collaborated with campus and external leaders to reimagine the Guttman model.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
A learning experience that stands out was attending and graduating from Florida A&M University, one of the leaders amongst HBCUs. At FAMU, I was not just a number but an individual that saw myself in the professors and administrators. FAMU fostered a sense of belonging where I could bring my authentic self, which allowed me to mature to become a champion and advocate for low-income, first-generation, and underserved communities. Each professor that I encountered challenged me to think deeply about what it meant to be a Black man majoring in English literature, while holding me accountable to meeting the rigors of the coursework.

Councilmember Rita Joseph was elected in 2021 to represent District 40 in Central Brooklyn. Before serving in the City Council, Ms. Joseph was a public school teacher, a community activist, and a proud union member. As a teacher for 22 years, Councilmember Joseph worked to ensure that her students, colleagues, and parents had the tools they needed to be successful. Councilmember Joseph is focused on improving public schools, fighting for affordable housing, combatting the climate crisis, and achieving real criminal and social justice reform for New Yorkers.

Alan Kadish, M.D. is president of the Touro University System, the largest Jewish-sponsored educational institution in the U.S. Before becoming Touro’s second president, Dr. Kadish distinguished himself as a prominent cardiologist, dedicated teacher and researcher, and experienced administrator. Dr. Kadish has helped Touro expand its unique offerings for Jewish and underserved communities while becoming a top-tier institution for the study of health sciences and medicine. As one of the largest health care educational systems in the U.S., Dr. Kadish has positioned Touro to lead a new era in medicine.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
Policymakers can continue to increase TAP funding so that income is not a barrier to a college education. They can also be cognizant of the costs of regulatory mandates. While those mandates are certainly not solely responsible for increasing college costs and thus, tuition, they do play a role. Policymakers can allow colleges and universities greater flexibility in providing educational programs for students from nontraditional backgrounds. These include distance education and placing standardized tests, both entrance and licensing exams, in the proper context as relates to diverse student populations.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
Students from diverse backgrounds and experiences must feel equally empowered to engage in classroom discussions. Colleges must train professors to provide this type of environment in their classrooms and they must also encourage students. The classroom should be a non-judgmental place that is available for open exchange. Colleges and universities should try to strike the proper balance between promoting free speech and ensuring that all students feel comfortable in the classroom.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
From a very young age, I engaged in cooperative learning where I had the opportunity to work with peers to tackle challenging material. In high school, this process was engaged in my Jewish Studies classes and, in college, it was used in science classes. In both settings, I had the opportunity to discuss, analyze in depth, and question without being judged. Cooperative learning created an environment that was both qualitatively and quantitatively different from a classroom setting. Having partners with whom I was able to form personal and intellectual relationships truly contributed to my academic development.

A former teacher, Melissa Katz is now an inclusion and equity advocate for historically underserved populations in New York City charter schools. As director of The Collaborative for Inclusive Education, an initiative of the New York City Charter School Center, she oversees a team of five, serving over 200 charters across the city, to provide training, coaching, and resources to ensure the success of their special populations. Melissa advocates on behalf of schools for the equitable treatment and oversight of charter students with disabilities and language justice for English language learner communities.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
In my work with The Collaborative for Inclusive Education, we support centering the needs of our most vulnerable populations when setting policy. We also leverage the many hours we spend every week in schools to advocate for policies that are grounded in current, practical experience.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
The Collaborative for Inclusive Education’s mission is to empower schools to create inclusive learning environments that ensure equity and access for all. In our work, we champion frameworks such as integrated co-teaching, Universal Design for Learning, and culturally responsive-sustaining teaching. These frameworks emphasize student-centered supports and student-driven learning and de-emphasize the “othering” of students based on ability, language, culture, and race.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
I’m grateful for all my learning experiences in Spanish and French. Speaking multiple languages has broadened my understanding of other cultures and has opened so many doors for me in both my personal and professional life. It also helps me lead with empathy in my work supporting multilingual learner communities.

Dr. James Kemple is the executive director of The Research Alliance for New York City Schools and research professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Dr. Kemple is well known for his work examining career and technical education, assessing the impact of various school reform efforts, and exploring conditions and trends in New York City’s public education system.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
An important first step is to build a robust system of education equity indicators — focused on the opportunities and resources available to students, not just their outcomes. This can inform efforts to invest most heavily in schools and communities with the highest levels of need. We should also collect rigorous evidence about strategies to improve educational equity, and use that information in future policy decisions. Finally, it is important to recognize how factors outside of school affect children’s academic experiences and outcomes. True equity in education will only be possible if we address larger social, economic, and racial inequalities.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
There is growing awareness that schools are not simply collections of individual teachers and students; they are also organizations with structures, practices, and norms that can either hinder or support effective teaching and learning. When we think about strengthening the core organizational capacity of schools, research suggests we should focus on things like students’ feelings of safety, relationships between students and staff, leadership, collaboration among educators, the quality of instruction, and family engagement.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
I probably learned more math teaching middle and high school students than I did as a math major in college. In the same way, as a researcher, I find that I learn more from data and analyses when I take the perspectives of educators and policymakers for whom I hope my work will be most useful.

Elizabeth Kennedy is a community organizer, educator, and former national director at Multiplying Good, where she led a national leadership program for young changemakers aged 5-25. Before joining the New York City Office of the Public Advocate, she worked with P-Tech schools to build mentoring at the New York City Department of Education. At iMentor, she grew its impact, supporting first-generation college students as program manager and program director. Elizabeth holds her B.A. from Trinity College and is an alumna of the NYU Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service program, the Community Fellows Program from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, and the Executive Program for Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
Everything starts with community, so policymakers should be building with community, especially young people. Oftentimes while adults praise young people for their ideas, they need to follow that up by implementing those ideas with and alongside young people, ensuring young people take up space to make key decisions, lead, and grow. Policymakers can remove barriers to education by removing all segregating practices, policies, and laws. Equitable access to education means ensuring that those most historically and presently marginalized are not only involved, but also represent key, valued relationships you are invested in and constantly accountable to in the work that you do.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
Education is about liberation and so must reflect that with the arts; mental wellness; culturally responsive education; healing-centered practices; school staff who are representative of the children they teach; environmentally just school systems; plentiful supportive adults such as nurses, social workers, guidance counselors, and peer counselors; a sensitivity to restorative justice; extracurriculars; language justice; and neurodiverse models. It’s an environment where white supremacy is questioned and rooted out. There, a strong student-led and peer-to-peer learning community is upheld and grown.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
Upon completion of a hard first day of deep, vulnerable relationship building in a fellowship, each fellow was read aloud letters specifically written to us by those we love. The letters were cheering us on in our educational and leadership journeys and were there to remind us who we always have been as we continue to grow. It was a moving activity as a community, bringing incredible insights to us all. The thoughtful intentionality of that activity helped me better understand the many ways we build transformative, liberatory spaces rooted in care and love in the smallest to biggest ways.

Since 2016, Michael Kohlhagen has served in his current position as the chief executive officer of the Center for Educational Innovation. Mr. Kohlhagen started his work at CEI as director of education and school improvement specialist. With an eye on equity and innovation, under his leadership, the CEI continues to have a significant impact on the lives of the students of New York City. Kohlhagen came to CEI as an experienced superintendent of schools. Over his career in education, he has been successful in initiating change to improve outcomes.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
We must advocate for and facilitate a true paradigm shift in our post-pandemic world. We can address equitable access to quality education by taking the steps to ensure long term equitable resource distribution for all schools. An effort must be made to improve conditions for the teaching workforce in public schools, create true supportive pipelines to recruit the best and brightest, most diverse teachers of the future, representing all communities, prepared to teach future generations of our students in all of our communities. We must engage students in new ways and prepare them for the new world of work.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
We now understand the importance of school climate, wellness, and safety planning as crucial elements of public education. We must ensure safe and healthy schools with coordination and communication to better meet the ever-changing needs of students, families and communities. We must continue to value the importance of social emotional learning; strong health and mental health support; restorative practices, including a strong system of communication; and support by law enforcement and community safety professionals.

Describe a learning experience from your own education that stands out.
You never know the impact that any member of the educational community will have on each child. We must find ways to engage students and facilitate the mentoring and coaching opportunities that will foster that spark and internal motivation in each and every child. We’ve all experienced the one teacher who took interest, helped us find our pathway, guided us through difficulties, and encouraged our success. As school leaders, finding a way to help students make connections is an integral part of our responsibility as we help to shape engaging, healthy, successful, and positive school communities.

In her current role as president and CEO of the School Construction Authority, Nina Kubota is overseeing the SCA’s largest ever Capital Plan at $20.6 billion, and that will add 60,000 seats and create and improve the school buildings that children need and deserve. She has served at the SCA since 1998. Prior to serving as senior vice president for capital plan development and implementation, Kubota served as vice president of capital plan management from 2013-2020. She has also worked in various roles at SCA’s Architecture and Engineering Department and Administrative Services.

What can New York policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality education?
Participation and partnership with policymakers has always been critical to the success of our projects and our schools. As an example, through their support we recently launched the IDEAS initiative, which stands for Innovative, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible Spaces. This new IDEAS undertaking will foster the creation of dynamic and innovative learning spaces in ways that empower communities, respond to students’ voices, encourage new partnerships, and advance diversity, integration, and inclusion. These efforts will further support the DOE’s work to promote equity and excellence by providing access to 21st century learning opportunities to more students across New York City.

What conditions or resources are conducive to a safe and effective learning environment?
The SCA undertakes an annual assessment of the condition of our existing buildings. This evaluation allows for the prioritization to provide safe and comfortable learning environments. This includes making sure all schools are in a state of good repair, enhancing safety and security systems, expanding the functional accessibility of our facilities, and providing technological upgrades to science labs, libraries, and auditoriums, and upgrades to bathrooms and physical fitness facilities.