(In Alphabetical Order)
Hawa Allan –Ms. Allan is a lawyer and writer of cultural criticism whose work has appeared in Best African American Essays: 2009. She previously worked at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and is a graduate of The University of Chicago and Columbia Law School.
Limarys Caraballo – is Assistant Professor of English Education in the Department of
Secondary Education at Queens College, City University of New York. She
earned her doctorate from the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at
Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was also a General
Research Fellow. Her research interests include students’ multiple
identities and literacies, academic achievement, and curriculum studies.
As a former teacher, administrator, and consultant in public and
private secondary schools, she is especially interested in culturally
grounded and socially just literacy curricula and pedagogies.
Melanie Fallon-Houska – Ms. Fallon-Houska serves as Director of the Random House, Inc. Creative Writing Competition and World of Expression Program.
Matthew Finch, Ph.D. – Matt Finch is an international education consultant who has worked with students across the age ranges from 4 years old to 40, from the mountains of Peru to the schools of Bedford-Stuyvesant. His specialty is community outreach and educational partnership between public bodies, business, non–profits and educational institutions. He has written for print and online media around the world and spoken in the British House of Commons on ‘Giving the Gift of Literacy’.
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.
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.
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 is the Executive Director of Publicity at Picador, the literary trade paperback imprint of Macmillan. He grew up in Maine, studied literature at Middlebury College, and lives in New York City.
Aliya J. Newkirk – Partner of a Manhattan private-practice law firm specializing in business transactions and commercial litigation, Ms. Newkirk also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Logic and Argumentation at the College of New Rochelle School of New Resources. The recipient of a B.A. degree in Political Science and Art History from Rutgers College, Ms. Newkirk subsequently earned her J.D. degree from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
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.
Susanna Pitzer grew up in the beautiful wide open fields of Kansas. She has been a BtB author for 4 years and her book Not Afraid of Dogs is a favorite with our school kids. Susanna has won many awards, including The Golden Kite Award, Kansas Notable Book Award and the Keystone into Reading Award. Her books have been recommended by the International Reading Association, the Children’s Book Council, The Horn Book, and the School Library Journal, and she has been featured on the PBS show, “Between the Lions”.
Francine Prose – Ms. Prose is the author of the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer, as well as fourteen books of fiction, including A Changed Man, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. A film of her novel, Household Saints (1981), was released in 1993. Her stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, and Harper’s, where she is a contributing editor. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, and was a Director's Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. In addition, she has taught literature and writing for more than 20 years at major universities.
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.
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.
