The American Place Theatre

Board of Advisors

Authors

The American Place Theatre's Author Advisory Board is comprised of many of the distinguished authors and artists who have been engaged with Literature to Life programs over the past fifteen years.

Ray Bradbury

Claude Brown (in memoriam)

Jonathan Safran Foer

Cristina Garcia

Khaled Hosseini

Sue Monk Kidd

Lois Lowry

Frank McCourt (in memoriam)

Tim O'Brien

Jeannette Walls

Educators

The American Place Theatre family includes an active Board of Advisors from diverse backgrounds in the field of education: teachers, principals, and consultants. These skilled and thoughtful leaders provide vital advisement as we build and strengthen Literature to Life programming throughout the year. We are so grateful for the significant role they play.

Bernadette Anand

Margaret Borger is a native New Yorker who is currently in her sixth year as librarian for Irwin Altman Middle School 172 in Floral Park, Queens. As the Project Arts coordinator at MS 172 she has worked successfully with the Literature to Life program for the last three years. Before that she served the literature needs of young adults as a representative of the Connecting Libraries and Schools Project for the Queens Borough Public Library. She is a drama graduate of the High School for the Performing Arts in NYC and a lifelong lover of literature and performance.

Cynthia Copeland

Matt Corallo

John DeMelio's educational career has spanned numerous assignments from teacher to principal to Deputy Superintendent in the New York City Department of Education. As an educational consultant he has collaborated with The American Place Theatre supporting professional development for teachers relocating to N.Y.C. to work in the public schools. John is passionately committed to literature, the arts and public education.

Ellen Kaplan

Lee Klein

Julie Mann is an ESL teacher at Newcomers High School in Long Island City, Queens where she has run a human rights program for the past 14 years. In addition, she is the coordinator of professional development for the school. Julie has had a relationship with The American Place Theatre for close to a decade, as an educator receiving training, taking students to performances, and having residencies with teaching artists.

Christine Olson is a Social Studies teacher and Teacher Co-Director at The James Baldwin School, a small public high school located in Chelsea. Christine was one of the founding teachers of the James Baldwin School, a replication of Humanities Preparatory Academy, where she taught for five years prior to founding JBS. A Nationally Board Certified teacher of Social Studies, Christine also teaches prospective teachers the importance of interdisciplinary learning and project-based instruction at Teachers College.

Rebekah Shoaf is an English teacher and founding faculty member of the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction in New York City. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University in 2000 and her master’s degree in Secondary English Education from Lehman College of the City University of New York in 2005 as a New York City Teaching Fellow. She has received funding and fellowships from numerous sources, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and the Fund for Teachers. In 2005 she created “Shakespeare on the Roof,” an annual production of student-directed Shakespearean scenes performed on her school’s midtown-Manhattan roof-deck. She has taught ninth, eleventh, and twelfth grade English and currently teaches Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for seniors.

Lisa K. Winkler has taught middle school Language Arts and currently is a consultant in the Newark, NJ public schools under the federal Striving Readers grant of No Child Left Behind legislation. She's an instructor in the Literacy Education department at New Jersey City University. She's interviewed authors and reviewed books for professional journals and also writes for Education Update, a New York City-based newspaper. She holds a Master's of Education from New Jersey City University and a BA from Vassar College.