DEIRDRE CRUZ, PH.D.

Program Manager

​​As a Program Manager at Literacy Trust, Dr. Deirdre Cruz combines her passion for early literacy learning with supporting educators. This passion for early literacy learning came from Dr. Cruz’s time working in Title I schools within the city of New York. She then channeled her desire to see equity in education by studying Literacy in infancy as part of her doctoral journey. Dr. Cruz’s mentors inspired her to pursue a career where she can help and support fellow educators. Dr. Cruz believes in the Literacy Trust mission to support educators that help students gain academic achievement through early intervention reading support.

Dr. Cruz has experience teaching grades Kindergarten through college in public and private settings within the five boroughs of New York City. Dr. Cruz received her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Connecticut, her Master’s degree in Childhood Education from St. John’s University, and her Ph.D. in Literacy from St. John’s University.

Dr. Cruz loves spending time with her family and friends. Dr. Cruz enjoys reading, yoga, HIIT, and visiting with family and friends near and far.

KRISTEN D. BEACH, PH.D

Academic Advisor

Kristen D. Beach, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research centers on design and evaluation of reading interventions for K-8 students with or at risk for reading disability, with a focus on comprehension and vocabulary development and instruction. In partnership with practitioners, she supports implementation and evaluation of reading interventions.

OLESYA HREB

Senior Manager of External Relations

As the Senior Manager of External Relations at Literacy Trust, Olesya supports the Executive Director and Literacy Trust team in projects related to external communications, government and community partnerships, and development. She believes that oftentimes non-profit organizations bridge the gap for work that government entities are not adequately completing. Olesya believes that Literacy Trust's work is a prime example of an educational need being filled by a non-profit organization, as many students across NYC schools continue to struggle with literacy. With a personal connection to Literacy Trust's mission, Olesya is proud to work within the External Relations Department, which in turn supports the program team in continuing to do the impactful work it does through early literacy intervention.

Before joining the Literacy Trust team, Olesya worked at the New York State Assembly. She oversaw community relations, event-planning, district office budgeting, and internal professional development. Prior to her role in the government field, Olesya worked at a medical practice to establish administrative protocol and streamline patient inquiries. Olesya earned her Bachelor's degree in Public Policy at New York University, where her educational focus was economics, policy analysis, and sustainability studies for U.S. cities.

When Olesya is not at Literacy Trust, she enjoys reading and hiking.

SINDHI POLUBOTHU

Data & Systems Consultant

As a data consultant at Literacy Trust, Sindhi helps track, organize, and summarize its data and information. She is interested in utilizing her data skills to impact and improve social policy issue areas at mission based organizations such as Literacy Trust. 

Prior to joining the team, she worked with data and CRMS at various non-profits focused on climate change, financial insecurity, government reform as well as presidential campaigns. She received her Master’s from Columbia University in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences and her Bachelor’s at Boston University in Business Administration. She is a certified Salesforce Data Architect and Administrator. Outside of work she enjoys rock climbing, gardening, sci-fi/fantasy novels, and board games.

CARLY DUFFEY

Senior Program Manager

As a Senior Program Manager, Carly supports schools and teachers with the implementation of the Sound Partners program. While teaching and as a graduate student, she learned the importance of early literacy interventions and how they can positively impact the learning trajectory for students. Through professional development, coaching, and relationship building, Carly hopes to enable instructors to feel confident and successful when teaching Sound Partners. 

Prior to joining Literacy Trust, Carly was a teacher, literacy specialist, and policy advisor. She taught middle school, elementary school, and coached teachers on best practices to support emerging English language learners with reading, writing, and speaking skills. As a policy advisor, she worked with the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and a Denver Public School Board member to analyze the implementation of past policies and provide recommendations for future decisions. Carly earned an M.A. in Education Policy and Social Analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

In her free time, Carly enjoys going to the park with her daughter, yoga, reading historical fiction novels, and finding the best coffee shops.

NADA BSEIKRI

Nada Bseikri is an Assistant General Counsel at Robinhood. Prior to joining Robinhood, Nada was the First Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer at Apple Bank where she focused on privacy in consumer and commercial banking activities. Prior to joining Apple Bank, Nada served as the Assistant Director of Privacy at the University of Washington, a globally ranked R1 research institution, and supported privacy consulting clients across jurisdictions and industries at TrustArc. Before shifting towards privacy, Nada practiced as an attorney in the Seattle area with an emphasis on trade secrets, entity formation and governance, and business transactions.

In 2012, Nada earned her juris doctor degree at Wayne State University Law School. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington in 2008, double majoring in political science as well as law, societies, and justice. She is a Fellow of Information Privacy with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“IAPP”) and holds a variety of certifications including the IAPP’s CIPP/US, CIPP/E, and CIPM.

PATRICIA VADASY, PH.D

Academic Advisor

Patricia Vadasy is a Senior Research Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. She led the development and the research on the Sound Partners program.

Patricia directed a series of randomized control trials on supplemental instruction in beginning word reading skills. Her research has examined features of beginning phonics instruction, and approaches and details of preschool alphabet instruction. She conducted two efficacy studies of vocabulary interventions for kindergarten and middle-school students. Her reading research was funded with grants from the Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. These school-based research studies were conducted in the greater Seattle area, in public schools serving large numbers of minority and low-income students.

Patricia earned her M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health and Ph.D. in Education at the University of Washington. She currently co-directs projects funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHHD) on bilingual academic STEM vocabulary learning for English learners and their parents, and a bilingual mobile app for parents of preschoolers who have a sibling with special needs.

In her free time Patricia loves to cross country ski and be outdoors with her border collie rescue.

BARBARA GUNN, PH.D

Academic Advisor

Barbara Gunn is a Senior Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. She received a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Oregon, and has a background in early reading instruction, curriculum development, and school-based intervention research. She formerly taught grades 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, which gave her the opportunity to use a wide range of reading programs. She knows how important it is to support teachers with evidence-based professional development and quality instructional materials to ensure that all their students become successful readers.

Barbara led the development and research of a language and literacy program for pre-school children at-risk for reading disabilities, and co-authored a kindergarten reading program. Over the last 20 years she has been a principal or co-investigator on Institute of Education Sciences and National Institutes of Health funded projects. She has conducted her research in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, and Texas schools, with a focus on the prevention and remediation of reading disabilities, English oral language development, and observations of effective instructional practices.

In her spare time, Barbara enjoys camping and hiking with family and friends in the Pacific Northwest.

MICHAEL E. GRUEN

Vocationally, Michael E. Gruen is the CEO of Exposure Labs, Inc. and is a lapsed founder who served as SVP Product and Technology of FundThatFlip.com, a direct lender of discretionary capital for real estate projects. He’s also advisor to several companies ranging from enterprise cloud governance to online photo journalism. Recreationally, he runs, cycles, and writes (both in English and code). Geographically, Michael travels when he can when he’s not at home in New York, NY or Block Island, RI. Pedantically, he maintains a well-structured index of his activities at michaelgruen.com.

KAREN DANIELS

Karen Daniels is the President & COO of Charter School Business Management and FOREsight Financial Services for Good, which empower charter schools and nonprofits with financial knowledge and services.  In addition to overseeing a team of 50+ employees, Karen is primarily responsible for ensuring that the needs of all CSBM/FS clients are met. Since joining the company in 2008, Karen has worked with hundreds of charter schools and nonprofits and has presented at numerous workshops and conferences around the country, providing professional development to leadership teams, board members, finance leaders and operations professionals.

Karen is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including Profiles in Diversity Journal's "Women Worth Watching", which acknowledges women who have distinguished themselves in executive careers and was also a winner of SmartCEO magazine’s Executive Management Award for her accomplishments as COO.

CHRISTINA TETTONIS

Christina Tettonis is honored to be superintendent of The Hellenic Classical Charter Schools (HCCS).  The New York State Education Department has designated HCCS as a reward school for the last several years. It ranks among the top charter schools (Pre-K to 8) in New York City for exceeding targets in student achievement, school environment and student progress.    
 
Christina is a fellow in The Cahn Fellows Program for Distinguished New York City Principals at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has also served as a member of the Deputy Chancellor’s Principal Advisory Group. In addition to Literacy Trust, Christina serves as a Board of Trustee for the Brooklyn Public Library, The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, and The Bay Ridge Federal Union. 
 
Christina was principal of Public School 170 for the NYC Department of Education from 2002- 2007.  She began her public school career teaching students at Public School 186 and Public School 105 in Brooklyn, New York. Her first teaching position was at Holy Cross Parochial School.    
 
Christina was born and raised in Brooklyn. She is the oldest daughter of Greek immigrant parents. She is married and has twin sons who just graduated college.

SUMEET CHUGANI

Sumeet H. Chugani is currently the General Counsel + Chief Compliance Officer at Cloaked. He was previously an Associate General Counsel at Coinbase and the FVP & Deputy General Counsel at Apple Bank. Prior to joining Apple Bank, he led Citizens Bank legal in merchant installment, personal loans, credit cards, consumer payments, and digital marketing.  Prior to his in-house roles, Mr. Chugani was a regulatory consultant at PwC, and a consumer financial services litigator at Akerman LLP and Diaz, Reus & Targ LLP.  During his time at Citizens, Mr. Chugani acted as head of diversity and inclusion for Citizens Bank Legal, and the Community Pillar of PRISM--Citizens Bank’s multicultural business resource group.

Mr. Chugani has led and continues to lead various civic and diversity-driving organizations, including being former president and director of the South Asian Bar Association of Florida. Mr. Chugani further pushes diversity and inclusion as a committee member of the Minorities in the Profession Committee of the New York City Bar, and the South Asian Bar Association of New York.  As a father of two, Mr. Chugani understands the trials and tribulations that come with teaching a child to read, and the level playing field needed for elementary school literacy. 

CATHLEEN COLLINS

Cathleen Collins currently serves at the Office of the President at Hunter College. Before her current role, she was the Senior Vice President at Capalino+Company, a NYC-based government relations and strategic consulting firm. Within her previous role in the firm’s Social Impact team, Cathleen assisted both nonprofit and for-profit clients in the areas of advocacy, strategic planning, and capacity building. Cathleen joined Capalino+Company in 2014, bringing over a decade of experience in the public sector, with a particular focus on education and youth development. She served as Chief of Staff at the School of Education at Hunter College, and previously held several senior positions at the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development during the Bloomberg Administration, where she oversaw the launch of a pilot program in adolescent literacy and managed the agency’s public-private partnerships.

Cathleen holds a Master of Public Administration Degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts from Providence College. She is also a graduate of the Coro Leadership New York program. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

REBECCA TESFAYE

Rebecca Tesfaye is an attorney at Morrison & Foerster LLP. As an associate at the firm, Rebecca focuses on advising banks and financial technology companies on various state and federal regulatory and enforcement matters.

Rebecca was first drawn to Literacy Trust’s mission after volunteering in reading programs in New York City schools. Here, she had first hand experience with children struggling to read at their grade level, and became interested in using her legal experience to help further Literacy Trust’s cause. In addition to her work with Literacy Trust, Rebecca serves as a mentor in the America Needs You program which provides career development and leadership training to first-generation college students.

Rebecca lives in Washington D.C. and enjoys traveling, running, hiking, reading, and spending time with her two-year old lab Bear.

SOPHIE SCHECHTER

Director of Program Development

As Director of Program Development at Literacy Trust, Sophie supports with reading intervention program. Formerly a Special Education teacher, Sophie knows how important the role of literacy is in a child’s early development. Therefore, Sophie is proud to work with an intervention program that gives literacy access to all students, regardless of ability.

Previously, Sophie taught 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades as the Special Education half of an ICT (Integrated Co. Teaching) classroom.  Sophie began teaching during undergrad in Gambier, Ohio, where she studied English at Kenyon College. After College, Sophie attained her Masters in Early Education and Special Education at Touro College. Since then, Sophie has taught in Harlem and Brooklyn.

When not at Literacy Trust, Sophie enjoys long walks in the park, relaxing on the beach, and playing with her cat. 

KANIKE MOBLEY

Program Manager

As a Program Manager at Literacy Trust, Kanika Mobley facilitates professional development and supports instructors across New York City with the implementation of our reading intervention program. Kanika’s core motivation has been the belief that all children can achieve their goals regardless of circumstance. She is also committed to ensuring that all kids have access to texts that make them feel seen, valued, and represented.

Kanika is an educator with over 20-years of experience in urban education. From classroom teacher to literacy coach, she has worked with teachers and leaders across the country, empowering them to reflect on data and their instructional practice while utilizing strategies to help students take pride in their learning. Kanika started her professional career as a Kindergarten teacher in Atlanta. She has a Bachelors in Child Development from Spelman College and Masters in Educational Leadership from Central Michigan University.

When she’s not at Literacy Trust, Kanika can be found caravanning her teenage son to basketball games, searching for children’s books featuring BIPOC characters, spending time with family and friends, and traveling to faraway lands.

LINDA ZHOU

Senior Program Manager

As a Senior Program Manager at Literacy Trust, Linda facilitates professional development and partners with NYC schools to guide instructors in the implementation of the Reading Rescue program.

In the past, Linda participated in AmeriCorps programs on the West and East Coast: first in City Year Los Angeles as a mentor and tutor for 7th graders and then in Reading Corps DC as a K-3rd grade literacy tutor. She has since taught Pre-K4 in DC charter schools for several years before joining Literacy Trust. Linda received her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Emory University and is planning to graduate soon with a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Outside of work, Linda spends her time trying out new recipes in the kitchen and exploring second-hand bookstores. 

ELISABETH “LIZ” SHOVERS

Program Operations Advisor

Liz currently serves as the Program Operations Advisor. Liz previously served as Literacy Trust’s Director of Program Operations. In her role, she designed and developed the professional development materials that Literacy Trust uses to train educators. She worked closely with the Academic Advisor, Executive Director, and the entire Program Team to ensure content is high quality, effective, and research-based. Liz believes in the power of consistent and strong professional development, and advocates strongly for programs like Literacy Trust that build capacity within schools by training existing staff in order to ensure sustainability.

Liz previously served as Executive Director of Global Language Project, an NYC-based nonprofit that supported students and teachers in cultivating their love for, and learning of, the many world languages that are spoken in the communities that Literacy Trust supports. During her eight years at GLP, Liz spent much of her time planning, designing, and collaborating on PD and curriculum. Liz started her professional life as a teacher, working with both kindergarten and first-grade students in Chicago, as well as supporting students abroad. She also has experience coaching teachers through the NYCDOE and in China and the UAE. Liz has a Bachelors in International Affairs and a Masters in Education.

CRYSTAL FLOYD

Associate Director of Program

As an Associate Director of Program at Literacy Trust, Crystal partners with New York City schools through facilitating professional development and providing ongoing support in implementing our reading intervention program. She believes that education is social justice, and that quality literacy instruction is a right that should be ensured for all students.

Crystal has served as a General and Special Education teacher and Special Education Program Coordinator at Charter Schools in Harlem and Brooklyn, instructing and advocating for students in grades 5-8. In her work she recognized first-hand the impact of literacy skill gaps over time and the compounded struggle students endure into adolescence and beyond. She received her undergraduate Education degree from the College of Charleston and her Masters in Special Education from the University of Tennessee, researching specifically in literacy and vocabulary development.

When not at Literacy Trust, Crystal enjoys a latte and people watching in the park, attempting new recipes, reading, singing along to music, and hanging with her pup, Jude.

CRISTY CUELLAR-LEZCANO

Senior Program Manager

Cristy Cuellar-Lezcano is an educator with over 23 years of experience in bilingual education. Her time in the classroom has been in both public-district and public charter schools, and she has experience as a reading specialist from her time at a Harlem nonprofit. Cristy most recently spent 8 years as a founding member of a school in the South Bronx, where she worked closely with its dual language program and was immersed in the different ways to approach reading instruction with emergent bilinguals. Ms. Cuellar-Lezcano was a Reading Rescue instructor for 3 years and also served as the school’s Reading Rescue Program Coordinator.

In her spare time, she loves doing yoga and playing board games with her 12-year old daughter.