Speakers

Mark D. Levine is the Council member for the 7th District of the New York City Council, which includes the Manhattan neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, West Harlem, Washington Heights, and part of the Upper West Side. He is chair of the City Council’s health committee and is co-chair of the Manhattan delegation.

The Community Education Council 3 covers the west side of Central Park and a section of lower Harlem. Lucas has worked extensively with parents, schools and senior DOE leaders to support the launch of the Russian Dual Language Program at PS145 (UWS) in September 2017. His support has been essential during the early phases of the Italian DL initiative and the subsequent launch of the Italian program at PS242. His efforts to provide funding to underserved schools in D3 are ongoing. Lucas is a proud parent of two NYC public school students.

Venice-born Annavaleria Guazzieri joined the Education office at the Consulate General of Italy in New York in 2016. She holds a MA in Oriental Languages (Hindi) and a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching. She has extensively researched second language acquisition, cooperative learning and content based language with a focus on the role of new technologies in teacher training. Before arriving in New York, she worked as a Superintendent of primary and secondary schools and promoted Art, Music and Science projects with a focus on multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue.

Angela Manessis is a Bilingual Preschool Special Education Teacher at Kennedy Children’s Center where she is in her third year as a head teacher. She graduated from Lehman College in May 2019 with a Masters in Bilingual/Dual Language Early Childhood General and Special Education. Angela is also a current graduate student in Neuroscience at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to working at Kennedy, Angela has served a role as a teacher in both preschool, lower elementary, and middle school mathematics.

Sheila Blachman is the Doctoral Lecturer, Program Coordinator of Special Education Bilingual Programs at Lehman College. Dr. Blachman received her PhD from Teachers College, Columbia University in Educational Leadership. Dr. Blachman has taught for over 30 years, in both a school district settings in Conneticut and then as a professor at Lehman.

Jenny Prince is a Bilingual Preschool Special Education Teacher at Kennedy Children’s Center where she is in her second year as a head teacher. She graduated from Bank Street College of Education in May 2018 with a Masters in Bilingual/Dual Language Early Childhood General and Special Education. Prior to working at Kennedy, she worked in a variety of school settings from Head Start to Middle School in both teaching and administrative roles since 2012. Jenny has been passionate about dual language education since learning about it in college. She feels that bilingual education would benefit all of our children, especially those children who speak more than one language already. Over the past five years she has focussed on special education and the idea that all children should have access to high quality play based education.

Ellen Mc Hugh has been employed by Parent to Parent of NY State since 1995. Parent to Parent of NY State’s New York City office began as a one person office in Brooklyn and has expanded to six employees in the NYC area. Our new offices are located at 25 Beaver Street, in downtown Manhattan.

Shanitah Young served as educator and curriculum leader in Dallas, Texas. She was able to introduce educational innovation by championing mindful learning at campus and district levels. Today, Shanitah is working to expand her capacity as a leader. She is champion for educating the whole child and advancing policy agendas that create equity across race and socio-economic lines. Having served in research labs at various medical schools and the NIH, Shanitah values the science behind the experiences of her scholars. This spring, she will graduate with an MS in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College.

Francesco is one of the co-founders of InItaliano. Sardinian born, he has been exposed to several languages since a very young age – from Sardo to Ladin, Portuguese, Polish and French. Francesco is now fully French-Italian bilingual and has become anglophone since his moving to the US.
He is a PR professional and supports multilingualism and the preservation of minority languages.

She was born in Brittany (France). She was brought up speaking Breton and French. In her twenties she was well aware of the importance of keeping the Breton language alive and got involved in helping to open a Breton speaking school in Diwan (France).

Daniel Parcerisas is President of the Catalan Institute of America (CIOFA). CIOFA’s mission is to foster a sense of community among Catalan expatriates and Catalanophiles living in the New York area, including sponsoring regular Catalan language courses. Daniel grew up in Barcelona in a Catalan-English bilingual household and attended a Catalan-Spanish-French trilingual school. He holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Master’s in City Planning from UC Berkeley. He currently works in New York City managing investments in affordable housing. Daniel and his wife are raising their young daughter in Catalan and English and supporting her learning Spanish.

Sardinia-born Giuseppe Corongiu is the founder of the “Coordinamentu pro su Sardu Ufitziale”, an association which promotes the preservation of Sardinian language. Dr Corongiu is a public administration executive, journalist, essayist, writer and translator, and leader of the Office of the Sardinian Language of the Autonomous Regional Authority of Sardinia, Italy, from 2006 to 2014.

As a scientist, he studied the technicality and legal aspect of minority languages, publishing several essays including Pro una limba ufitziale in 2006, and especially Sardinian a normal language (2013). He directed and coordinated several projects aiming at supporting bilingualism amongst children at an early age and the dissemination of multilingualism in Sardinia. He recently translated Antonio Gramsci’s childhood stories S’arbore de sos eritzos and a commemorative piece on English writer DH Lawrence travelling to Sardinia.

President of the International Funds for the Alsatian Language. Administrator of the “Haut-Comité pour le bilinguisme en Alsace-Lorraine” from 1992 to 2000. Covering since 2001 meetings from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues focusing on minority languages reconstruction. Was invited to speak at the first United Nations World Forum on minority languages in January 2016. Published “Langues régionales au bord du Gouffre”, in March 2015, on the situation of the 8 main Regional languages in Metropolitan France. Member of the board of “ABCM Zweisprachigkeit”, German Alsatian immersive school in Alsace-Moselle.

Expat writer, author, researcher and an experienced economist with a broad international background in finance, development, business research, statistics, project management, reporting, writing and communication.

Sharon Schanzer is a firm believer in the incredible cognitive and other benefits of bilingualism. As such, even as a monolingual Anglophone, she enrolled her son, Rémy, in a bilingual program at the age of three. He was first at EINY/L’Ecole and, since Kindergarten, has been a student at the Lycée Français de New York, where he is currently in sixth grade and completely bilingual. A native New Yorker, Sharon is an entrepreneur and currently runs her own graphic design and business consultancy, RLDGroup. She oversees communications as a volunteer for the Lycée’s parents association.

Dr. Claudia Calì is a musician, piano teacher and researcher. A native of Italy, Dr. Calì earned a Doctorate in Music and Music Education from Teachers College Columbia University. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Music Education at Queens College, Long Island University, and New York University. She devotes her energy to researching young children and their spontaneous musicality. Her research also brings attention to families and to the influences that music has on parent-child relationships. Such interest is rooted in her long experience, teaching piano to young children and their parents both in Italy and in the United States. Recently, she created and currently teaches an original music curriculum, “Musicali si Nasce,” for young children of Italian families in New York. “Musicali si Nasce” is inspired by her observations of young children’s spontaneous music-making and aims to cultivate in young children and their families a love for the Italian language through music.

Dr. Meryl Sole is a college professor, music researcher and mother to two young daughters. She is in faculty at both Fordham University and New York University where she teaches courses in music education, history and theory. Her research focuses on musical development in toddlerhood and musical parenting.

Dr. Evelyn Troester DeGraf is a German- born conductor, singer, music educator, and voice instructor who performs and teaches in New York. As a researcher, she studies ritual and performance preparation in leadership roles. Dr. DeGraf is also the founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed chamber choir The GHOSTLIGHT
Chorus.

Adriana is a Peruvian music educator based in NYC. She is currently the Manager of the WeBop program at Jazz at Lincoln Center and a Research Associate at the National Center for Children and Families at Columbia University. She obtained a doctorate in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University (2019) and her research interests focus primarily on young children’s development and well- being and the role that music plays in that process, especially for children in underserved populations.

Valentine Biollay is passionate about the role of music as a mode of acquiring language skills in young children. She joined the Lycée Français de New York in 2019, where she teaches music to children from Nursery-3 all the way to third grade. After obtaining a degree in acting in Lausanne and a Master’s degree in theatre from La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, she moved to New York City to pursue her musical interests. She earned a BFA in music from the City College of New York in 2014 and is also working on a degree in psychology in Paris. Valentine has taught music in French and led French sing-along immersion classes in various American and French schools in New York including TLB Music, FI:AF, and her very own class in Forest Hills, Les Piafs. Valentine is also the leader and vocalist of the Gavroche Jazz Band which performs French music throughout the city.

Gale Brewer has served the people of New York for over 40 years. In January 2014, she was sworn in as the Manhattan Borough President. From 2002-2013, she represented the Upper West Side and northern Clinton on the New York City Council.