Staff and Volunteers

Click on a staffperson's name to view their biography.

PARENT ORGANIZING

América Calderón Parent Organizer

Jhonna Turner Parent Organizer

PUBLICATIONS

Don Allen Publications Director

Derrick Weston Brown Bookseller

Orisanmi Burton Bookseller

Lauren Cooper Senior Publications Coordinator

Monét Cooper Bookseller

Stefanie Cruz Bookseller and Social Media Advisor
Ewurama Ewusi-Mensah Bookseller

Brittany Fenison Bookseller (Substitute)

Linda Finkel-Talvadkar Bookseller (Substitute)

Gowri Koneswaran Bookseller (Substitute)

Gavin Hutchinson Bookseller

LaTissia Mitchell Assistant Bookstore Manager

James Morgan Bookseller

Katie Seitz Bookseller

Yasmine Taylor-Hart Bookseller

Jozi Zwerdling Bookseller

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Cecelia Alvarado Early Childhood Equity Initiative, Project Director

Lisa Brown Deer Community Outreach and Youth Organizing Director– McComb, Mississippi

Judith Perez Civil Rights Movement, Associate Project Director

Jenice View Civil Rights Movement, Senior Professional Development Specialist

ADMINISTRATION

Allyson Criner Brown Associate Director

Deborah Menkart Executive Director
Jonathan B. Tucker Communications and Development Associate

SPECIAL PROJECT CONSULTANTS/VOLUNTEERS

Enid Lee Virtual Scholar
Amber Massey, CivilRightsTeaching.org Website Upgrade and Promotion

Alana Murray Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching
Elizabeth Zinar, Volunteer Bookstore and Author Events

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BIOGRAPHIES

Don Allen, Publications Director

Don has been working in bookstores and libraries since his Kent State college days when the South African anti-apartheid/divestment movement reached the campus. His first political lesson about government lying was when Reagan fired his dad for being a striking member of PATCO, the air traffic controllers' union. Don used his bookstore experience and those political lessons to become Teaching for Change’s first bookstore manager upon the founding of Busboys and Poets. After 5 years in the bookstore, he is looking forward to bringing his experience to the entire Teaching for Change publications department.

Don seriously believes that Naomi Klein is walking strongly in the footsteps of sorely missed Howard Zinn as a writer/activist. When not reading Klein’s tweets and newsletters, Don enjoys international mysteries by writers such as Colin Cotterill, Donna Leon, and Qui Xiaolong. Don and his wife, Kelly, live in Takoma, D.C. with a cat named after a Twain character. He often spends his free time rooting for last place baseball teams and against publicly funded sports stadiums.

Cecelia Alvarado

A former Senior Associate and director of a national early childhood leadership initiative at the Wheelock College in Boston, Cecelia was Chairperson of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Department at Santa Barbara City College from 1982-1997. This California native is a former president of the California Association for the Education of Young Children. In addition to directing the Early Childhood Equity Initiative at Teaching for Change, Cecelia currently consults with the National Council of La Raza and ZERO TO THREE while teaching in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University and supervising teachers in the D.C. Public Schools. Cecelia’s 30 year-old son, Adam, shares her passion for art and his encouragement has led to the development of her new website www.artforceceliaalvarado.com where her mosaic, fiber art and jewelry pieces can be seen.

Derrick Weston Brown, Bookseller
Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in creative writing from American University. He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University. He is a graduate of the Cave Canem summer workshop for black poets and the VONA summer workshop. His work has appeared in such literary journals as Warpland, Mythium, Ginsoko,

Drum Voices, The Columbia Poetry Review, and the online journals Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Howard University’s Amistad, LocusPoint, and MiPOesias. Published by the Busboys and Poets imprint of PM Press, his first book of poetry, Wisdom Teeth, is available here.

Derrick is a bookseller and poetry book buyer for Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore. As the first Poet-In-Residence of Busboys and Poets, he is the founder and curator of The Nine on the Ninth, a five-year-old monthly poetry series, and helps coordinate the poetry programming at the 14th & V location. He teaches poetry and creative writing to an amazing crew of seventh and eighth graders at Hart Middle School in Southeast Washington, D.C., and to a small class of high school students at the Emerson Preparatory School in Dupont Circle. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland.

Orisanmi Burton, Bookseller
Orisanmi is an information professional, writer, educator, and father. His has written on politics, sports, culture, and education for publications such as The Village Voice, The Green Magazine, NV Magazine, and SET Magazine. For the past decade, as a youth and leadership development specialist, Orisanmi has developed and published interactive curriculum, facilitated international study programs, and provided consulting services to educators nationally. To address the lack of media literacy and critical consciousness being taught in the public school system he created a liberation reading group for high school students and co-developed Realitycheckonline.org, a youth media initiative and youth-led blog. He has training and expertise as a research librarian, web developer, records manager, and digital archivist. He was a 2008 American Library Association Spectrum Scholar and has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Brazil.

América Calderón, Parent Organizer

Usually, I am asked if I was named because of the “country” so I use my name to educate people that America is not a country but a continent. I am from Guatemala. I was forced to flee my country in 1982. For the first six months in the U.S.A., I did not get a bed because I thought the “revolution” was going to win and we could go back soon. Twenty five years later, I am still here, we did not win the revolution, nothing has changed back in my country, but I got a bed. I started working for Teaching for Change with the Tellin’ Stories Project in February 2008 as a program manager and community organizer. I like working with such a diverse group of women in a collaborative, supportive way that I could not get anywhere else. I have three children: one lives in Mexico, one in Pittsburgh, and the youngest is finishing college in Providence, RI. I love biking to work, swimming and my passion is doing ceramics. My great accomplishments are my children.

Lauren Cooper, Senior Publications Coordinator

Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, Lauren fled the 110°+ summers as soon as she could to attend the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies in California, an alternative college that presumes students are inquisitive individual learners, not passive consumers of education. She discovered how wonderful and challenging learning can be when the student is able to actively participate in the educational process. She studied media and sociology, and graduated in 1998 with a BA in Visual Sociology: Film and Societal Issues.

With an interest in independent media, she worked at the Phoenix New Timesback in Arizona, and then the Independent Press Association in San Francisco, accumulating six years of professional publishing experience ranging from editorial to distribution, from marketing to client and vendor management. She was able to fuse her educational and publishing experience when she joined the Teaching for Change staff in 2007. As senior publications coordinator, she handles marketing and outreach, bookstore bookkeeping, organizational vendor accounts, and is a coordinator of the Zinn Education Project. She’s Native American (Creek and Pima) and enjoys “being around books and the people who read them.”

Monét Cooper, Bookseller

The library, poetry readings, bookstores, thrift stores, weekend flea market on U and 9th -- you can always find Monét Cooper anywhere you find a book. Now a middle school teacher in the D.C. area, this Georgia Peach hopes her students find the same power of words in the stories, poems and articles they discover in her classroom as she did in her parents' kitchen. Educating a child is an act of justice, which means empowering a child to own the processes of thinking, acting, speaking, questioning and self-empowerment. When she is not teaching or peddling books, you can find her in one of D.C.'s museums, writing, talking to her ridiculously dope grandma in Georgia, reading a favorite book and perfecting the baking and eating of German Chocolate Cake (and trying not to burn anything in the kitchen). In the winter months she dreams of hot and sticky Atlanta summers in the pool with a glass of lemonade. She gives a panoply of shout outs to her 8th grade reading students, who continue to achieve their best with excellence and sans excuses.

Allyson Criner Brown, Associate Director

Allyson Criner Brown joined Teaching for Change in September 2010 as associate director and program manager of Tellin' Stories, our nationally recognized approach to family engagement. A former middle school teacher, she has experience ranging from working with disadvantaged youth to partnering with business and community leaders. Allyson holds a master's degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from The George Washington University, and she has received awards from the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators. Allyson is driven by experiences in the field and managing programs in community based nonprofits that focus on education, youth development and social justice.

A native of Oakland, California, Allyson is an avid cyclist who enjoys the bike lanes and trails of the metro DC area. In her spare time, she also enjoys cooking, exercising and reading recommended books from the history and literature sections in Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore.

Stefanie Cruz, Bookseller and Social Media Advisor

Stefanie discovered Teaching for Change while working as a Youth Development Coordinator for Sister to Sister/Hermana a Hermana (STS/HAH) in Washington, D.C. and The Phipps Development Corporation in New York City. She was inspired by the curriculum guides and book recommendations provided by Teaching for Change and witnessed firsthand the power of such titles as Warriors Don’t Cry, The Skin I’m In, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf and No Mirrors in My Nana’s House. Each of the young people she has mentored and worked with taught her more about herself and left an imprint that she carries with her everyday. Stefanie attributes her own passion for empowering young people to her mother who sacrificed herself to give Stefanie the tools she needed to succeed. That journey began on the upper west side of New York City, where she attended public and parochial schools before traveling across the country to attend Pepperdine University. Stefanie joined the office of Michigan Congressman Sander Levin five years ago and currently serves as the Director of New Media and Internship Coordinator. In her free time she enjoys volunteering in her daughter's school, dropping in on circle time, and reading stories to the class.

Lisa Brown Deer, Community Outreach and Youth Organizing Director– McComb, Mississippi

Raised in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Lisa’s passion for community and youth leadership began in high school as she held district and national offices with Kiwanis International’s youth organization K-Club. Her organizing skills were developed during the years she spent working as a professional Manager and Business Analyst. In 2006 she decided to make a change from the world of business so she could invest her energy in youth development. In 2009, she joined the McComb School District family as a special education teacher. In this same year, she began a campaign of youth motivation and leadership, reorganizing McComb High School’s Parent, Teacher, and Student Organization by adopting the philosophy “Let’s stop looking for our future leaders and help create them.” As president of the PTSO she organized several events that allowed students to exercise their voices including “Hear Me Roar” the city’s first ever Teen Summit. This Summit included separate mentoring sessions for boys, girls and parents, a town hall meeting for students with administration at the panel and over 60 volunteers from the surrounding community. A new dialogue began with youth beginning to realize the power of their voice and the community recommitting to the importance of their role as partner with the youth and schools.

Ewurama Ewusi-Mensha, Bookseller

Ewurama Ewusi-Mensah is an editor, a publishing consultant, a lifelong lover of books, and a strong believer in literacy as a tool for self-empowerment. After stints in Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois, the California native landed happily in the District of Columbia several years ago. When she is not at the bookstore, she assists authors and publishers through her work at Sea Never Dry Editing and Publishing Services and volunteers with another DC organization, the Washington Literacy Council.

Brittany Fenison, Bookseller

A proud native of Southern California, Brittany earned her BA in Theatre from San Diego State University and then moved to Saint Louis, Missouri to work for the nation's largest African American theater company, The Black Rep. In the summer of 2009, she moved to D.C. to work within the Dean of Arts office at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She first gained interest in social justice and multicultural studies as a teenager with a performance troupe Socially Together and Naturally Diverse United Performers (S.T.A.N.D.) in which she traveled across California performing educational plays about racial tolerance and individual dignity. She has since traveled to South Africa, Central America, and Europe in pursuit of cross-cultural experiences. Her passion falls within multicultural studies, the arts and youth.

Linda Finkel-Talvadkar, Bookseller

Linda has been a bookseller for Teaching for Change since August 2007. She loves advocating for TFC and helping customers fall in love with the stores selection of books -- especially the children's collection. Since 2005, Linda has served as a Commissioner on the District of Columbia's Commission on National and Community Service. Linda's professional and volunteer background is rooted in education, public and community service. Her education experience includes serving as principal and guidance counselor of St. Ann's High School at St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home; supervising student-led diversity workshops in high schools; directing an elementary before-school program; managing a "City at Peace" educational performing arts production; and substitute teaching. Her community service endeavors have focused on family and educational institutions involvement in Martha's Table, D.C. Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity International. Linda's public service volunteering includes serving as press secretary for her respective ward, and state political party committees as well as for a national presidential campaign.

Gavin Hutchinson, Bookseller

Gavin Hutchinson hails from the island of Jamaica, where he was a very eager high school student, excelling in mathematics and the sciences. There was little surprise in 2000 when he attended the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida to study Aerospace Engineering. Somewhere along the way though, Gavin discovered his passion for the humanities and social sciences and eventually earned his bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Communication, International Relations and Information Technology. He returned to Jamaica in 2006, soon to become a talk show host on nationally syndicated radio and a communications coordinator for the Bob Marley Group of Companies. He also traveled to Toronto, Canada as a regional coordinator for Ignite The Americas---- a youth arts forum staged under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS). Back in Kingston, he helped to launch the Berhane Selassie Art Gallery in February 2010, after which he worked to establish Manifesto Jamaica, a youth led non-profit organization that empowers young people through arts and culture programming. Following the staging of its first festival in October 2010, Gavin decided that it was a good time to step aside and has since relocated to Washington, D.C. to continue his journey. "Bookman," as he is often called, is very much in his zone as a bookseller, surrounded by our selection of progressive titles.

Gowri Koneswaran, Bookseller

Gowri Koneswaran is a poet, singer, and lawyer whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Sri Lanka. Her advocacy has addressed animal welfare, the environment, and the rights of prisoners and the criminally accused. She was a Lannan Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library and has been a featured poet at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and Campus Progress’s Protest Through Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Bourgeon, Lantern Review, and she released her first chapbook, Still Beating, in 2010. Gowri was a member of the 2010 D.C. Southern Fried Slam team and serves as the program director at BloomBars community arts space in Columbia Heights. She is working on a book The AlternaGirls: A Girl's Guide to Changing the World and was acknowledged in Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety. Learn more about Gowri's poetry at http://notherelong.wordpress.com.

Amber Massey, Website Specialist Volunteer
Amber studied Africana Studies and Psychology at Vassar College. She later worked in the communications department of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), where she led an interactive campaign to extend AIUSA’s work and presence in the blogosphere. She served as manager for development communications at the Center for American Progress, and now works at a small knowledge management consulting firm where she helps write, edit and develop electronic communication and web products for early childhood educators. Amber is a writer at heart, and hopes to continue to use her pen to help translate progressive ideas into policies and action that strengthen families, communities, and society. Amber explains, "My interest in community building and social change is heavily influenced by my family, and particularly my grandfather — a community builder, activist and organizer during Birmingham’s Civil Rights Movement."

Deborah Menkart, Executive Director

Raised in D.C., Deborah’s activism began in junior high school when she protested D.C.’s “taxation without representation” and the “dresses-only” dress code for girls. The dress code changed, but D.C.’s colonial status continues. Her perspective on the world was shaped by being the first born in the U.S. of European immigrants on both sides of her family and being raised by a single mother who worked as a dressmaker. During the 1970s Deborah lived in San Diego, California, where she worked as a shipyard electrician and was active in the antiwar, women’s, international solidarity, and labor movements. Through all of these experiences she decided that for any social justice movement in the U.S. to succeed, a change in pre-K - 12 education is essential. Since 1989 she has been pursuing that goal in her work at Teaching for Change.

LaTissia Mitchell, Assistant Bookstore Manager

LaTissia Mitchell is the new Assistant Manager of Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore. She relocated to D.C. in May 2010 after an unbelievably long sojourn in Michigan. While working on her PhD in English, she began working at Shaman Drum Bookshop as book buyer. Finally, her lifelong love of books found a compliant partner to give her free books. LaTissia also worked as an editor, including with Michigan Feminist Studies. Her education includes a BA in Comparative Literature from Stanford and a MA in English Literature and Language from the University of Michigan. Her PhD, forthcoming, will also be from Michigan. LaTissia believes that true literacy is not simply an ability to read, but a willingness to analyze and question what is read. She loves talking with customers about books and Teaching for Change.

James Morgan, Bookseller

Aside from his role as a Teaching for Change bookseller, James works for Higher Achievement, a year round academic enrichment program for middle school students in the DC Metro area, as the Assistant Director of Higher Achievement’s Ward 6 center. Hailing from a family of educators, James had always envisioned himself a teacher but it was not until graduate school where he became passionate toward narrowing the achievement gap and working to provide educational equity for all students. James, like Teaching For Change and Higher Achievement, is dedicated towards empowering students and providing them with the tools to be impactful members of society. Through the continued work of both organizations, he is confident that the achievement gap will begin to narrow and our system will shift towards increased educational justice.

Dr. Judith Perez, Civil Rights Movement Associate Project Director

Judith is excited to merge her passion for social and racial justice, civil rights, education, and sociology as the Associate Project Director for the Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Initiative in Mississippi working on a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation called “A Community of Promise: Building Strong Schools and Neighborhoods Through History, Activism, and Collaboration." Judith was first introduced to the curriculum and resources provided by Teaching for Change as an Assistant Faculty member for the National Equity Center’s Summer Civil Rights and Social Justice Training Institute, held at UCLA. As a faculty member, she taught modules and supervised research projects on the historical framework of civil rights and social justice, organizational and moral leadership development, and organizing and advocacy techniques to a national cohort of student leaders. Judith has also taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY and Fordham University, where she taught courses such as Modern American Social Movements and Old and New Minorities in the United States.

Judith received her Ph.D. in Sociology, with a concentration in Diversity and Inequality from Fordham University, where she also obtained advanced certification in Latin American and Latino Studies. She received her Bachelor’s in Communication Studies from Canisius College and her Master’s in College Student Personnel Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University and is now based in Washington, DC.

Katie Seitz, Bookseller

Katie recently celebrated her tenth year in D.C., which has come to feel like home. She came here to attend Georgetown University in 1998, and became active in the campaign for an LGBT resource center while a student there. Since graduation, she has pursued numerous areas of activism, study and work, including her longtime association with INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, an internship at a dairy farm as a cheesemaker, and almost two years as administrative support for AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. She has spent time away from D.C. to live in London and Seoul, but always comes back in the end. Amongst her many talents, she is credited with drawing the wonderful chalkboard announcements at Busboys and Poets.

Jonathan B. Tucker, Communications and Development Associate

Jonathan B. Tucker lives and works in Washington, D.C., melding art and activism with his work as a performer and educator. Multiple winner of the C.O.U.P. (Community Oriented Underground Poet) Award from the National Underground Spoken Word Poetry Awards, Jonathan is passionate about youth development and the use of the arts as a means to connect with people. He has represented Washington, D.C. at the National Poetry Slam and is frequently working in schools and community organizations leading workshops on spoken word performance poetry. He is the Youth Programs Coordinator for Split This Rock, where he coaches the DC Youth Slam Team. He hosts monthly open mics and slams, and travels regularly performing and teaching poetry. Learn more about his shows, events and adventures at jonathanbtucker.com.

Jhonna Turner, Parent Organizer

From interning as an advocate for children in Ghana, Africa to starting an anti-war rally, Jhonna strongly voiced her opinion on equality, peace and civil rights for all. After college, she became an educational advocate for a small non-profit serving homeless families in transitional housing. There, it became apparent that D.C.'s educational system had major flaws and, in some cases, undeniably unjust to students and parents alike. Jhonna decided to push her work in advocacy further by attending Loyola University to receive a masters in Curriculum and Instruction focusing on social justice in the classroom. She also worked at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington D.C. as a Capital Teacher Resident teaching precocious, wonderful, energetic and incredibly smart 1st graders. She is now very happy to work with such amazing people at Teaching for Change and will continue her passion to empower parents in D.C. schools. A quote from Erasmus, which states, "The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth," keeps her inspired and motivated to make changes in the classroom so that each child has every opportunity and educational right to possibly become the future president of the United States of America.

Jenice View

Dr. Jenice L. View is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. For more than 20 years, View has worked with a variety of educational and nongovernmental organizations, including a public charter school, the Just Transition Alliance, Rural Coalition, the Association for Community Based Education, and LISTEN, Inc. to create space for the voices that are often excluded from public policy considerations: women, people of color, poor urban and rural community residents, and especially youth. She has a B.A. from Syracuse University, an MPA-URP from Princeton, and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University. View, a native of one of the last U.S. Colonies (Washington, D.C.), is the proud mother of two daughters, Ava and Leah. She hopes to pass on her inheritance of being a politically aware and socially active woman that she received from many including her paternal grandparents (among the first organizers in the Nation of Islam in the 1940s), and her parents (who have helped form and sustain many local D.C. community institutions)

Elizabeth Zinar, Volunteer Bookstore and Author Events

Elizabeth Zinar grew up on the Beltway and has returned to the Washington, DC metropolitan area after pursuing degrees in applied anthropology and community health. Her interest in the relationship of social issues to human development led her to into work that spanned across the areas of social disparities, public policy and family wellbeing. It was through these experiences that she became inspired by the value of community-based knowledge as offering a voice and a vehicle for social justice and social change. She combines her eclectic background in the social sciences with her love of the arts and of writing to work with the outreach and publications staff at Teaching for Change. She likes to spend her free time reading, writing, and walking along the banks of the nearby Chesapeake tributaries.

Jolillian T. Zwerdling, Bookseller

Jozi grew up in the D.C. metropolitan area and has returned to Silver Spring, Maryland after finishing her BA in American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Always passionate about social justice and the arts, Jozi began to combine the two in high school as a member of City at Peace DC, where she joined other teenagers in performing original musicals based on their lives. She continued to study and promote social justice through the arts and education during college, as a member of the arts advocacy group F.O.K.U.S. which aims to bring the diverse student body together through unique arts events & efforts, and as a Prisoner Creative Arts Program facilitator for theater and writing workshops in juvenile detention centers in the Detroit metropolitan area. She plans to continue working with young people to promote social justice, community building, and personal growth through the arts and education.

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