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2008-09
Fellow Bios
Teachers Network Leadership Institute (TNLI)
Chicago Fellows 2008-09
Melissa Auer began teaching five years ago in Southern Ohio. Now in Chicago, Melissa currently teaches kindergarten at John J. Pershing East Magnet School. She received her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Ohio Northern University, and her master’s degree in Elementary Reading and Literacy from Walden University.
Melissa has received Chicago Foundation for Education, Donors Choose, and Oppenheimer Family Foundation grants which have provided her students with hands-on, rich learning experiences. She also visited elementary and middle schools in China through The College Board and Hanban during the summer of 2008. With her wealth of knowledge gained from the trip, she has been working with her school’s Mandarin teacher to incorporate China’s language and culture into all curricular areas.
Melissa is very excited about her newest project in which she will teach an after school technology course in which students will learn how to use Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint in order to share their learning with their teachers, families, and friends.
Marcella Ellis became a teacher just recently by accepting a position in a third-grade classroom at Namaste Charter School in the fall of 2007. She brings with her ten years of professional experience in university administration and nonprofit management, in addition to her love for children. Originally from San Diego, California, Marcella received her A.B. in political science and history from Columbia University in New York, and completed an M.S. in elementary education at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy in Evanston, Illinois. While at Northwestern, she was the inaugural recipient of the Marjorie Gosselin Fitzgerald Fellowship for Elementary Education.
While in San Diego, Marcella helped to lead a Women's History Museum and contributed to the founding of the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame. Her work in university administration led her to establish a National Scholarships Program at Texas A&M University, recruiting and developing students who competed successfully for national and international fellowships, such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Udall, Astronaut, and Goldwater Scholarships, and the NSF Graduate Fellowship. In this respect, she has transferred her skill at helping university students discover, cultivate, and share their talents and strengths to the elementary classroom, where she loves to help young children experience a similar sense of personal achievement every day.
Narineh Gharashor is a TNLI Senior Fellow. As a first year TNLI Fellow, Narineh’s research focused on using care and communication to develop a cohesive classroom community. Narineh earned her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education at California Sate University of Los Angeles, where she taught primary grades for six years. Her other experiences include teaching ESL to at-risk youth, educational consulting, and directing an international organization in the Republic of Armenia.
Upon her return to United States, Narineh earned a teaching certificate and her Masters in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. Currently, she serves as a support person for new teachers of Inner City Teaching Corps and is completing a second Masters program at Roosevelt University in Educational Leadership. She is in her fourth year of teaching for Chicago Public Schools.
Traci Grant has been teaching for twenty-three years, eleven years at a private therapeutic school and twelve years with Chicago Public Schools teaching Special Education in pre-kindergarten through eighth grades. Traci has taught students from all backgrounds including autism, cognitive delays, hearing impairments, emotional behavior disorders, and physical handicaps. Traci has been a Lead Mentor, Mentor, and Coach for teachers within the Chicago Public Schools’ GOLDEN mentoring program.
Currently, Traci is the Lead Teacher under the REAL/TAP program at Coonley Elementary. She is also an Exceptional Needs Parent Support Group teacher liaison for Coonley Elementary, and as of 2007, received her National Board certification in the area of Early Childhood and Young Adulthood/Exceptional Needs. She received a B.A. from Loyola University and a M.J. (Master of Jurisprudence) from Loyola University Law School in Chicago, Illinois.
Traci is the recipient of multiple grants and awards from the Chicago Foundation for Education, Donor’s Choose, Kohl’s Children Museum, and the Chicago Community Trust’s Arts Education. As a recipient of the Chicago Foundation for Education’s Study Group Coach Grant, Traci leads a group of teachers from across the city in learning methods for using visual strategies to aid communication, organization, and social participation for students with disabilities. Although a strong advocate for inclusion, Traci believes that we should see a child as a “whole” person when advocating for their best interest.
Debra Harland was inspired by volunteering at her sons elementary school, and came to teaching as a second career after twenty-five years in the business world. She returned to college and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education. Since then Debra has received a Masters of Arts in Special Education. She is currently in her fourth year of teaching for the Chicago Public Schools in a self-contained, cross-categorical classroom at New Field Primary. She has won grants and participated in study groups with the Chicago Foundation for Education and The Golden Apple Foundation. She has also written and won grants from Donors Choose that have benefited her students and her classroom.
Carolyn Jones began teaching for Chicago Public Schools in 2000 as a Kindergarten teacher at Mt. Vernon Elementary School. In 2001 Carolyn continued her teaching career at Carrie Jacobs Bond Elementary school as a second grade teacher in a classroom that seemed to have difficulty holding a permanent teacher. Since then she has taught from Kindergarten through fourth grade at Bond, been a Literacy Intervention Teacher, and she is currently the Lead Literacy Teacher for K-3 teachers and students at Bond. She received her Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education and Masters’ degrees in Teacher Leadership and Language and Literacy from Roosevelt University.
Carolyn has been the awarded CFE’s Study Group grant and has been a Donors Choose recipient. She is also awaiting results of NBPTS after completing the candidacy process for the Early/ Middle Childhood Literacy Certificate during the 2007-2008 school year cycle. Carolyn hopes to impact the lives of the students she works with by working to build a foundational love of literacy and all of its components!
Venita McDonald is a veteran teacher of twenty years with the Chicago Public Schools. She has a Masters of Science in Reading from Chicago State University. Eight years ago she earned her National Board Certificate in Early Adolescence Science. Throughout her teaching career she has mentored Chicago Public School teachers and she has mentored a high school teacher through the National Board Process. She currently teaches 6th grade science at Marquette Elementary School in Chicago.
Venita has received Teacher Incentive Grants from the Oppenheimer Family Foundation that enhanced her earth-space instruction. She has served as a key leader for NSTA’s Building a Presence network, team leader for the School Leadership in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Institute, member of CPS Science Fair Operating Committee, Field Museum Ambassador, NASA Educator and Team leader for Operation Chemistry. Annually, Venita has presented and coordinated science workshops for Chicago Public School students and parents. She has also served as a 4-H school leader for over 10 years.
Dorothy Drew Pandel is currently a fifth grade teacher at Fulton Elementary School. Prior to this, she was the Manager for the National Board Certification and School Teams Achieving Results for Students (STARS) Program for the Chicago Public Schools. She worked with teachers across the city as they pursued National Board Certification. Prior to this role, she was an elementary school teacher, pre-school teacher, and an exceptional needs educator.
She holds numerous teaching credentials. She has Illinois teaching certificates in the areas of elementary education, learning disabilities, social and emotional disorders, English as a second language-special education, and administration. She also holds an Illinois Master Teaching Certificate in Middle School Education. She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2000. She was one of the first twenty teachers to achieve this advanced credential in the Chicago Public Schools. She completed her Doctorate in Education at Loyola University.
Presentations include: U.S.-China Conference on Education, Illinois Charter School Conference; Council for Early Childhood Education Conference; Chicago Public Schools’ Principal Conference on National Board Certification; Chicago Foundation for Education Conference; Phi Lambda Theta Annual Meeting; Illinois Council for Exceptional Children; Council of Great City Schools Conference; National Board Academy Conference; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Annual Conference; the Illinois State National Board Conference and Chicago Public Schools’ Area 1,2, 3, and 6 Education Fairs. Pandel has also made presented to numerous schools, local school councils, and principal groups in Chicago about National Board Certification, support programs, professional development, and teacher leadership.
Pandel has received numerous awards and honors including the Oppenheimer Award, Chicago Foundation for Education Grants, Rochelle Lee Fund Awards, The McKinley Park Civic Association Teacher of the Year Award, the Target Teacher Award, and the Fulbright Japan Teacher Award.
Julie Pienta received her B.A. in Elementary Education from the DePaul University and her M.A. in Administration from St Xavier University. She is currently working on her second M.A. in Reading at University of Illinois, Chicago. Julie has taught fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at the same Chicago Public School, Marquette Elementary, for the past seven years. She received National Board Certification in Literacy: Reading and Language Arts in 2007, is mentoring other NBC candidates, was nominated for the Drive Award in April of 2008, and is currently the lead teacher of changing her school’s curriculum through Standards Based Change.
Julie has won grants through Donor’s Choose and is currently the teacher leader of a $3.5 million dollar grant for her school that will extend over the next four years. In addition to hosting the first Community Art Fair in her school’s neighborhood, Julie is part of a team who matched female students with mentors from corporations in Chicago, and works with the local community to find students in need of school supplies, clothes, or gifts during the holidays.
Julie is concerned with working with students of poverty and in troubled urban areas. Her focus, instruction, and education are centered on improving her school, leading other teachers, and providing the most successful education for her students.
Leah Radinsky returns as a TNLI Senior Fellow. Leah became a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools sixteen years ago, when she began teaching kindergarten and preschool at Inter-American Magnet School, a dual-language school. She has also taught first grade at Ortiz de Dominguez Elementary School, and is currently the Bilingual Lead and ESL pullout teacher at The Chicago Academy on Chicago’s northwest side. She received her bachelor’s degree in music from the University of North Carolina, and her master’s degree in Educational Leadership, with ESL and bilingual endorsements, from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Leah has received Chicago Foundation for Education and Rochelle Lee Grants for her classroom, and was granted the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award in 1997. Leah has presented at conferences nationwide on language development and second language acquisition.
Jessica Rosenthal has begun her third year as a special education teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. This is her second year at Chicago Academy, where she teaches language arts, math, and any other content area needed to students in fifth and sixth grade. She previously taught at Chicago International Charter School, Basil Campus, for one year in the same capacity. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and a master’s degree in special education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
During her time at University of Illinois at Chicago, Jessica participated in the STEP=UP program and worked as a graduate assistant for the America Reads Program, servicing children in first through sixth grade in various Chicago Public Schools. Jessica received the Chicago Fund for Education Small Group Study Grant and Rochelle Lee Grant to enhance her classroom library this year. Last year, she coached cross-country for fifth through eighth grade boys.
Deborah Sheriff has been a Literacy Coach at Jenner Academy of the Arts in the Cabrini Green neighborhood for the past five years. In her seventeen years of teaching she has taught almost every grade from first to seventh. She is a National Board Certified teacher with a reading endorsement, and will soon complete her Masters in educational leadership.
Debbie has received many grants to improve student achievement from the Chicago Foundation for Education, Rochelle Lee, and Donors Choose. Debbie also works with Cabrini Green Tutoring, Working in the Schools, and Chicago Lights after school agencies to provide training for volunteer tutors.
Sabrina Silverstein just began her sixteenth year of teaching in the Chicago Public School System. She returns to TNLI this year as a Senior Fellow. She has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University and has achieved her National Board Certification as an Early Childhood Generalist. She previously taught Kindergarten for three years and has taught Prekindergarten for the past thirteen years. Sabrina currently uses her Bilingual Certificate and her English as a Second Language Endorsement at Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez School on Chicago’s west side.
Sabrina has won many awards from the Chicago Foundation for Education and the Rochelle Lee Fund that help her increase hands-on learning opportunities in her classroom. Sabrina was awarded the opportunity to study the Project Approach last year through the Kohl Children’s Museum which helped her increase parent and community involvement in school. Sabrina has coached basketball for kindergarten through eighth graders, collaborates with colleagues across grade levels and schools, and instrumental in implementing a school-wide nutrition and fitness theme at Ortiz last year.
Karon Stewart has been a math teacher with Chicago Public Schools for fifteen years. She has taught math in every grade from kindergarten through twelfth but prefers middle school because of the content and the energy. Karon received her BS in mathematics and her MS in curriculum and instruction from Chicago State University. In November 2007, she became National Board Certified in early adolescent mathematics. She received a grant from the Illinois Arts Council for her play, “In the Mines and the Minds of South Africa,” a musical about the origins of apartheid which she co-wrote, directed, and performed. She also received grants from The Career Communications group, Chicago State University, Donor’s Choose, Safe and Drug Free Schools, The Chicago Foundation for Education, Math 24, and Mathematica.
Janelle Thompson has been a third grade teacher at Alfred David Kohn Elementary School for the last four years. Prior to teaching, Janelle lived in our nation’s capital and worked as an on-air reporter, and later as a meeting planner. When she returned to the Chicagoland area in 2003, she began the process of becoming a teacher. She served as the In-School Suspension Supervisor for her former high school, West Aurora, and as a third grade paraprofessional at Greenman Elementary School. In March of 2005, Janelle was accepted into the alternative teacher certification program with the Inner-City Teaching Corp.
Since becoming a teacher, Janelle completed her second Master’s Degree, Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. She also holds a Master’s Degree in International Management from the University of Maryland. While at Kohn School, Janelle has served as the teacher representative for the Local School Council, coordinated several Family Math Nights and Summer School. Currently, Janelle is serving as one of four mentor teachers with the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), at her school.
Elizabeth Wilson became a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools in 2003 through the Teach for America program. She began teaching third grade at Theodore Herzl Elementary School, on the west side of the city in the North Lawndale neighborhood. She taught at Herzl for four years, teaching both third grade and fourth grade during those years. She currently is the Intermediate Team Leader at Chicago International Charter School-Basil Campus. She came to CICS-Basil, located in the Englewood neighborhood, in the fall of 2007 as a third grade teacher.
Elizabeth received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pitzer College in 2003, and her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 2005 from National Louis University. Last year, she achieved her National Board Certification as a Middle Childhood Generalist. She has won numerous grants through the Chicago Foundation for Education and Donor’s Choose. She has also worked for two summers with the Chicago Teaching Fellows as Deputy Institute Director and Fellow Advisor.
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