Board of Advisors
(in alphabetical order)

Orville Lawrence Bell – An English instructor at Harvey Milk High School, Mr. Bell is a member of the founding faculty at that school. Before joining Harvey Milk, he worked as an English literature instructor and a dramatic artist at the University of Ghana, the University of Maryland, and Montgomery County Public Schools.

Melanie Fallon-Houska – Ms. Fallon-Houska serves as Director of the Random House, Inc. Creative Writing Competition and World of Expression Program.

Chris Fleming –Chris Fleming served for a decade on the Chelsea Day School Board of Directors, including eight years as president.  As co-chair of the Parent Association Literary Committee at Little Red School House Elisabeth Irwin High School, she helped organize book weeks and author visits to every classroom.  She has also worked in production for Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival.  Ms. Fleming began working with Behind the Book in winter 2005.

E. R. Frank – In addition to her professional career as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, Ms. Frank is also an author of young adult literature. Her first novel, Life Is Funny, won the Teen People Book Club NEXT Award for Young Adult Fiction and was a top-ten American Library Association 2001 Quick Pick. Ms. Frank's other novels are America, Friction, and Wrecked.

Barbara Korein –Barbara Korein began working with Behind the Book at the beginning of 2009.  Ms. Korein has an MA in Arts Education and a teaching certification from NY State in Art Education for K-12.  She worked for more than a decade as a photographer, writer and editor of a local Westchester newspaper before beginning her career as an art teacher.  She has taught photography and studio art in three different school districts as well as at the Westchester Center for the Arts.  Ms. Korein works with Behind the Book to develop art curricula, teach art components of programs and photograph visits and events

Pat Levenson – Ms. Levenson was a special education teacher in the New York City public schools for thirty-two years. For many of those years, she also served as an elected United Federation of Teachers representative. Since retirement in 2005, Ms. Levenson has worked as a special education teacher and program development specialist at a Brooklyn public school.

Wenhsin Lee – Ms. Lee is a Manager of Channel Strategy and Development at American Express. Prior to American Express, she worked in credit research in the Health Care group at Standard & Poor’s and investment banking at Deutsche Bank. She received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a B.A. in Public Policy from Stanford University.

Julia Love – Ms. Love is the Director of Corporate Partnerships at iMentor. Prior to joining iMentor, she served as the Director of Communications at the Resource Foundation, where she managed strategic philanthropic programs and sustainable initiatives for corporations and organizations working in countries in Latin America and South America, as well as in the United States. Ms. Love also worked as a research analyst at Euromonitor International and a consultant at the London School of Economics. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, a Master’s degree in Public and Economic Policy from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s degree from Duke University. Ms. Love serves on the Strategic Planning Committee of Behind the Book.

Annmarie McLeoud – For nearly twenty years, Ms. McLeoud has been an educator in Bedford-Stuyvesant's public schools. During that time, she served for two years as a District Mentor assisting new teachers. Ms. McLeoud is currently a librarian at Community School 21 in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

James Meader - Mr. Meader studied literature and Chinese at Middlebury College before moving to New York and joining the publicity department at Picador, where he is publicity manager. Picador, the literary paperback imprint of Holtzbrinck Publishers, publishes paperbacks from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt & Co., and St. Martin's Press, in addition to trade paperback originals. Picador authors of fiction and nonfiction include Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Chabon, Michael Cunningham, Jeffrey Eugenides, Thomas L. Friedman, Marilynne Robinson, and Anthony Shadid; National Book Award winners Jonathan Franzen, Shirley Hazzard, Richard Powers, and Susan Sontag; Nobel Prize winners Heinrich Bï¿∏ll, Herman Hesse, and Amartya Sen; and National Book Critics Circle Award winners Jim Crace and Philip Gourevitch. Picador˙s bestselling authors include Paul Auster, Augusten Burroughs, Anita Diamant, Joseph Kanon, Lorrie Moore, Salman Rushdie, and Tom Wolfe.

Sandra Payne is the Assistant Director for Education Outreach at The New York Public Library where she formerly served as the Coordinator of Young Adult Services.  Coming to NYPL in 1981, she began her career at the Wakefield Branch Library in the Bronx. She was recently elected serve on the board of ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association.  A visual artist creating installations, sculpture, and digital movies, she works out of a teeny tiny space in the East Village.  She received a  BFA  from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from the University of South Florida.  Upon arriving in New York City, she enrolled in Long Island University's School of Library and Information Science at C.W. Post where she received an MLS degree.

Raymond Stefan Pultinas – For more than sixteen years, Mr. Pultinas has taught American Literature and Literary Criticism at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Since 1996, he has also taught in the English Education Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. Mr. Pultinas is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation in Education on constructing his high school English classroom as a "public space." His goal is to create the Baldwin Center, named after one of DeWitt Clinton's most celebrated alumni and serving as a place for inquiry, research, and the dissemination of young peoples' opinions in publications and public forums.

Doreen Rappaport –Ms. Rappaport is the author of many historical fiction and nonfiction books for children. As a former teacher at a freedom school in McComb, Mississippi, Rappaport was inspired to write about African American history. Her books include Martin's Big Words, Nobody Gonna Turn Me Round, and The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, among others.

Brian O. Selznick – An illustrator of numerous children's books, Mr. Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott Award for The Invention of Hugo Cabret and a 2002 Caldecott Honor for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. Other books he has illustrated include Frindle, The Doll People, and A Week in the Woods. Mr. Selznick has also authored two children’s books, The Houdini Box and Boy of a Thousand Faces.

Ned Vizzini – At the age of fifteen, Mr. Vizzini began writing for New York Press. At seventeen, he was asked to write a piece for the New York Times Magazine, which led to the publication Teen Angst? Naaah.... when he was nineteen. Judy Blume chose his next book, Be More Chill, as a Today Show Book Club selection. Now 24, Mr. Vizzini’s latest book, It's Kind of a Funny Story, was published in spring 2006.

Rita Williams-Garcia - Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of six distinguished novels for young adults: Jumped, No Laughter Here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies, Fast Talk on a Slow Track, Blue Tights, and Like Sisters on the Home Front. She has also published a picture book and has contributed short stories to numerous anthologies. Williams-Garcia's works have been recognized by the Coretta Scott King Award Committee, the Bologna Book Fair, the PEN/Norma Klein Award, the American Library Association, and Parents' Choice, among others. She has served on the National Book Award Committee for Young People's Literature and is on faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts for the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program.

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