Staff
Click on a staffperson's name to view their biography.
PARENT ORGANIZING
America Calderon Tellin' Stories Parent Organizer
PUBLICATIONS
Don Allen Publications Director
Lauren Cooper Senior Publications Coordinator
Derrick Weston Brown Bookseller
Brittany Fenison Bookseller
Linda Finkel-Talvadkar Bookseller
Katie Seitz Bookseller
Sonia Valencia Bookseller
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Cecelia Alvarado Early Childhood Equity Initiative, Project Director
Jenice View Civil Rights Movement, Senior Professional Development Specialist
ADMINISTRATION
Allyson Criner Associate Director (starts Sept. 7)
SPECIAL PROJECT CONSULTANTS
Enid Lee Virtual Scholar
Alana Murray Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching
Jill Weiler Tellin' Stories
Jill Weiler Tellin' Stories
BIOGRAPHIES
América Calderón
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 in 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.
Dyana Forester
Dyana was raised in Washington, D.C. but spent summers in Kansas City, KS, where she was born. Because of her mother's occupation as an undercover police officer they lived in every quadrant of the district, from Mt. Pleasant, NW to Southern Avenue, SE. Dyana and her younger sister both graduated from D.C. Public Schools and credit their mother’s consistent involvement in their education to their success. Currently, Dyana is working with the Tellin’ Stories Project as a Parent Organizer, merging her previous experience as a union organizer and her role as a mother of two into one dream job. “I love working with parents to connect them to the resources they need to be actively involved with their children's education. I learn from them and they learn from me. Together we work to make a difference.”
Lauren Cooper
Born in Phoenix, AZ, Lauren fled the 110°+ summers as soon as she could. With an interest in independent media, she’s accumulated 8 years in professional publishing including the Phoenix New Times and Independent Press Association. Since standardized testing week in 3rd grade, she’s dreaded the drudgery of school. At the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies (University of Redlands), she discovered how wonderful and challenging learning can be when the student is able to actively participate in the educational process. She now takes satisfaction in providing the materials to make school enriching to other 3rd graders and beyond. At Teaching for Change she coordinates publications marketing and outreach, bookstore bookkeeping, and special projects including the Zinn Education Project. She’s Native American (Creek and Pima) and enjoys “being around books and the people who read them.”
Don Allen
Don has been working in bookstores and libraries since his Kent State college days when everyone was protesting against apartheid in South Africa. He learned for the first time that the government lies when Reagan fired his dad for being a striking member of PATCO, the air traffic controllers' union. Since that time, it has been harder and harder to find truth coming from our elected leaders.
Don seriously believes that Franny and Zooey is a much better Salinger novel than Catcher in the Rye and Dostoyevsky was the greatest novelist to walk the planet. Don and his wife, Kelly, recently left Mount Pleasant to live in Takoma, D.C., where he spends his free time rooting for last place baseball teams (The Nats and the team from Cleveland), being terrorized by their ferocious cat, and plotting to turn the yard into a garden.
Don seriously believes that Franny and Zooey is a much better Salinger novel than Catcher in the Rye and Dostoyevsky was the greatest novelist to walk the planet. Don and his wife, Kelly, recently left Mount Pleasant to live in Takoma, D.C., where he spends his free time rooting for last place baseball teams (The Nats and the team from Cleveland), being terrorized by their ferocious cat, and plotting to turn the yard into a garden.
Derrick Weston Brown
Derrick 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. In 2006 he released his first chapbook of poetry entitled The Unscene and is currently working on his second chapbook/manuscript tentatively entitled Gist. He also teaches an amazing group of 6th and 7th graders at Hart Middle School in S.E. Washington, D.C. He is the Poet-In-Residence at Busboys and Poets bookstore and restaurant. He is a native of Charlotte, NC, and currently resides in Mount Rainier, MD.
Derrick 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. In 2006 he released his first chapbook of poetry entitled The Unscene and is currently working on his second chapbook/manuscript tentatively entitled Gist. He also teaches an amazing group of 6th and 7th graders at Hart Middle School in S.E. Washington, D.C. He is the Poet-In-Residence at Busboys and Poets bookstore and restaurant. He is a native of Charlotte, NC, and currently resides in Mount Rainier, MD.
Linda Finkel-Talvadkar
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.
She earned a Master of Education in student development administration in higher education at American University, and an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She also has specialized training in mediation, leadership and parenting education.
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.
She earned a Master of Education in student development administration in higher education at American University, and an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She also has specialized training in mediation, leadership and parenting education.
Brittany Fenison
Allyson Criner
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.
Katie Seitz
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.
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.
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.
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).
Allyson Criner
Allyson Criner graduated from the University of North Carolina and taught seventh and eighth grade in St. Louis as a Teach for America corps member. After serving as the volunteer coordinator for St. Louis SCORES, she started a free math and reading tutoring program for the YMCA of Greater St. Louis that continues to serve hundreds of children. Allyson has served as a grant reviewer for the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, worked extensively with the St. Louis Public Schools, and has volunteered as a writing coach with College Summit for the past four years. Currently she is earning an MPA at The George Washington University with a concentration in nonprofit management.
Deborah Menkart
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 belief in her work at Teaching for Change.
Jonathan B. Tucker lives and works in Washington, D.C., melding art and activism with his work as a performer and educator. Winner of the 2010 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 for two years (2009 and 2010) on the Busboys and Poets 11th Hour Slam Team and is frequently working in schools and community organizations leading workshops on spoken word performance poetry. He hosts a weekly open mic at Bloombars, a community arts space in Columbia Heights, and volunteers regularly with City at Peace DC, a theatre arts group that teaches nonviolent conflict resolution and cross cultural understanding to teenagers through the arts. Learn more about his recent and upcoming shows, events and adventures at jonathanbtucker.wordpress.com.
Jill Weiler
At Teaching for Change from 1998-2009 with our Tellin' Stories Project, Jill is inspired by parents who use their passion, courage and power to transform schools for all children. She was an English teacher in the D.C. Public Schools for eight years and one day would like to return to writing poetry with adolescents in a public school setting. She has a Masters degree from Ohio State in Educational Policy and Leadership focused on Curriculum and Instruction and co-directed the D.C. Area Writing Project for two years. She lives in Brookland, D.C. with her three kids, David, Jacob and Maria, all who attend D.C. Public Schools; her husband Steve, whose work in the field of international development has many common threads of that of Tellin’ Stories; and her dog Lacy, a sweet black lab.
