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Friday, January 2, 2015

MEET THE BAT LEADERSHIP TEAM!


BRITTANY ALEXANDER

BRITTANY ALEXANDER
Brittany currently teaches sixth grade Language Arts in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. This is her eighteenth year of teaching, though the majority of her career has involved teaching students with special needs in elementary settings. Brittany has taught in multiple school districts, but she’s finally found the school where she wants to stay. Brittany joined BATs on the second day of the group’s founding. She had been learning and following the actions of groups like Save Our Schools, Dump Duncan, and Occupy NEA. One by one, all of these groups began sharing the invitation to BATs. The mission statement of BATs is what ultimately pulled her in, though. Ever since the eye-opening experience with Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 and its eventual repeal, she has become more active in the political aspects driving education.


TINA ANDRES

TINA ANDRES
Tina Andres is a middle school math teacher in Santa Ana Unified School District, a large, urban district in Southern California which serves a large population of English Language Learners and students living in poverty. Tina has been teaching for 27 years at both the middle school and elementary levels. She has taught all levels including teacher training courses for elementary math teachers. Tina currently oversees a math class for Special Needs students which is taught by several student teachers in small groups. She enjoys working with incoming student teachers from a local university, she has up to eight student teachers per school year. She serves as a Union Representative for her local. Tina joined BATs very near the beginning of the group after witnessing many unwelcome changes in the teaching profession mostly due to NCLB. BATS has been a second home to Tina over the past year and a half. Attending the BATs March on DC last July was a fantastic experience for Tina.


REBECCA ARMSTRONG


Rebecca Armstrong teaches 3rd grade.  She has been a public school teacher in Michigan since 1991.  She has seen the negative impact of corporate greed and flawed government policy on education.  She felt isolated in her concerns, and her distress about trends in public education kept her up night after night.  When she joined BATs over a year ago she found, and continues to find, ways to add her voice to those of other like-minded people in the effort to take back our public schools.  She is a moderator for the national group and an administrator for Michigan BATs. 





SARA ATTLESON
SARA ATTLESON
Sara Attleson is a Teacher/Librarian. Due to budget cuts in her district (Albuquerque Public Schools) she is also a classroom teacher, teaching Lit Strategies and Media Literacy. She is in her 38th year as an educator and all of her years have been in public schools in New Mexico. She has been a BAT since the very beginning (June 2013). Sara became a BAT because she found a group that was fighting the corporate take-over of public education, a struggle that she has been fighting for years. Joining BATS has verified for her that there are thousands of others who are fighting the fight and this brings her comfort to be in the company of so many who “get it.” As an out-spoken activist in her local union, Albuquerque Teachers Federation, she has been organizing, educating and agitating her colleagues to raise their voices against the corporate billionaires who want to dismantle public education. BATS is a great fit for her and she is honored to have met so many vocal activists. Whenever others ask her about her plans to retire, her response is “when every child in this country receives the quality education they have a right to, when every educator receives the respect they deserve and when every corporate interest is out of public education, then maybe I’ll think about it.”




JEANNE BERRONG


JEANNE BERRONG
California native Jeanne Berrong is a proud graduate of public schools in the Golden State. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Jewish Studies from Cal State Fullerton and a Master of Arts in Education from Claremont Graduate University. Jeanne has been an adolescent educator for 25 years, primarily serving as a high school English teacher. Increasingly concerned by standardized testing and the privatization of public education, Jeanne came to believe that parents, students and teachers have an obligation to unite and advocate for the renewal of public education. Feeling an affinity with the group’s mission, she became a member of the Bad Ass Teachers Association soon after its inception. Jeanne currently serves as Diploma Programme Coordinator and Theory of Knowledge instructor for an International Baccalaureate World School in the San Gabriel Valley.


KELLY ANN BRAUN
KELLY ANN BRAUN
Kelly Ann whose name means “Warrior Maiden (Kelly) Full of Grace (Ann)" is a widowed (RIP, Rich ‘01) mom of five children between the ages of 15-27, but has played a “make-a-difference” role in literally hundreds of children’s lives through babysitting, counseling, sponsoring, ministering, tutoring and yes, ‘educating’, but never in a typical classroom setting. She has 1 1/2 years Early Childhood Education, and is 6 credits (or $2038 and a long story) shy of BS in ED -Integrated Social Studies 7-12 from YSU, with a specialized slant in historical human geography and foods history. She graduated from two separate College-level Inductive Bible Studies (11 years total).. She has homeschooled all five of her children for 26 years with 4 more years to complete, but has the whole time been on the peripheral of public education through babysitting children before and after school for years, through being a Afterschool Language Arts Program Leader, through helping drop-outs and adults to get their GEDs, and most recenly through owning an Education-related micro-business. The shop was a consignment store for Teacher Resources. It was through this venture that Kelly was in contact withliterally hundreds of teachers in a two-hour radius in any direction of Youngstown, Ohio (including W.PA) . From about Jan. or Feb. of 2013 it was the tension, tears and terror tales of those teachers (all by now friends ) that led her to search fervently for how to help them. One fateful night in June of 2013, she hammered angrily on the keyboard, typing into the searchbar—-”Is anyone DOING ANYTHING to fight all of this Common Core stuff?’ And the answer that popped up was Badass Teachers Association. On Nov. 2nd of that same year, she and her children were sadly forced by complete lack of sales for two months prior, to close the doors of their dream. Peasron had panicked the teachers as they scrambled to “be aligned’. Kasich killed their joy and composure and corrupted their confidence. Kelly, takes the badass role of amplifying teachers’ voices in this BATtle very seriously to heart, soul and mind.



MATT CHONKA

MATT CHONKA
Matt Chonka is a High School science teacher who has taught for the past 10 years in Washington state.   Matt's undergraduate work was in biochemistry and his master's in curriculum and instruction focused on authentic assessments.   A member of BATs since July 2013 he initially got involved while doing personal research on the CCSS.  Now having gone down the rabbit hole and found the deception being perpetrated he makes it his cause to inform everyone he can.








DR. DEBORAH CORNAVACA


DEBORAH CORNAVACA
AND
BATMAN
Deborah Cornavaca has her academic degrees in anthropology/archaeology and is a parent of three children in public schools in NJ. She is the Legislative Director at a progressive political organization that advocates for family friendly policies, including strong public schools. She has worked as a public school advocate in various capacities since 2010 and joined the BATs in 2013 to support and join efforts with teachers who have the courage and conviction to boldly take on corporate reformers and the damage they have brought to public education. Deborah has worked extensively in school funding, charter schools, high stakes testing, student privacy and school facilities.













WILMA De SOTO

WILMA De SOTO
Wilma is currently an ESOL teacher in a school that has K-6 student. She is certified in several states from K-12, Instructional I and II in Music Ed., Spanish, School Program Specialist, (which is the equivalent of ESOL in my state,) and Elementary Education under the G.W. Bush Highly Qualified Teacher edict. Her undergraduate studies were at Oberlin College AND Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Double Major in Music Ed. and Foreign Language. She has an M.A. from LaSalle University in Bilingual/Bicaltural Studies and Spanish. She was one of the first graduates of this program. LaSalle University stole her thesis and made another course for their Bilingual/Bicultural Studies and then did not ask her to teach it. She has taught people from K-12 in at least 15-20 language groups. She has been involved in many political issues regarding her students from around the world. Her students, worldwide, STILL keep in touch and honor her by saying how much I have taught them and helped them with the issues involving their countries by teaching them to speak, read and write in English. Many of them are political activists around the world and in the US.  This is the last year she will do this work in poor inner-cities with immigrants. 




MARY CARR DICKER
MARY CARR DICKER

Mary is a teacher in Michigan with two grown sons. She has taught for over 25 years in 3rd grade and middle school (Language Arts, World Studies and Reading). She has a Master’s Degree in Curriculum, Instruction and Leadership. She became a BAT from the very beginning because she saw what was happening to her students since NCLB and she wanted and needed a voice and found it through the BATs. She is active in the daily BAT actions and especially enjoys learning and sharing with other parents and educators through the National BATs Pinterest page


DR. MICHAEL FLANAGAN

MICHAEL FLANAGAN
Dr. Michael Flanagan has been a social studies and special education teacher in New York City public high schools for the past 19 years. He earned his BA and MSEd at Lehman College CUNY while working as a school aide and a paraprofessional in the Bronx for 10 years. He completed his Doctorate in Special Education at Columbia University’s Teacher College in 2006.  Michael joined the BadAss Teachers Association on June 17th, 2013, after a friend added him to the group. He became a BAT moderator and administrator shortly after that.  Although new to educational activism, Michael feels he can help fight for teachers and students as a member of BAT, standing up for teachers who have been scapegoated by the corporate reformers and their political shills.  Michael is proud to work with the leaders of BAT and promises that we teachers will be the last ones standing when all is said and done. Being BadAss  is not a membership in a Facebook group, it is a state of mind. So Knuckle up and guard your grill. 5 shows a day. ^0^


MARIA GLASS

MARIA GLASS
Maria retired in June after 23 years of teaching.  She came to teaching in her 30s after becoming an ESL adult instructor upon her arrival in the US from Europe.  She started as a middle school bilingual Language Arts teacher in AZ and moved to VA, where she taught HS English and creative writing. Maria became a BAT in early July of 2013 while researching her archenemy,  Pearson. Now living in NC, but still spending much time in VA with her granddaughter.









LORRI GUMANOW

Lorri Gumanow is a retired special educator from the NYC Department of Education. She
LORRI GUMANOW
continues to teach as adjunct faculty at Hunter College-City University of New York. Lorri has 8 years of special education classroom teaching experience (2 years in Flint, MI, and 6 years in New York City), working with middle school students with Learning Disabilities and Emotional Disabilities. In addition, Lorri has 22 years of experience as a special education professional development specialist in NYC, working for the New York State Regional Special Education Technical Assistance and Support Center (RSETASC, formerly SETRC) in Region 10. RSETASC is a statewide professional development network supported by the NYS Education Department, funded through IDEA. During her time with RSETASC, Lorri created, collaborated on, and presented hundreds of large and small group presentations and multi-day training sessions on special education topics including: inclusion, collaborative team teaching, IEPs, positive behavior supports, learning disabilities, explicit instruction, multisensory reading instruction, parent workshops, special education laws and regulations, assistive technology and universal design for learning, team building and collaboration. She has presented at RSETASC statewide conferences, as well as special education conferences in NJ. She has an Ed.M. in Urban Special Education and Learning Disabilities from Teachers College-Columbia University, and a BA in Special Education-Developmental Disabilities from Michigan State University. Lorri is also the parent of a teenager with disabilities. She has been a member of BATS since September 2013, and found the group serendipitously through a Google search related to opting out of testing for her son. Since her retirement from the public school system, she has poured her energy into fighting standardized testing, Common Core Standards, and the attempted dismantling of the special education profession in public schools, as well as higher education, through BATS and other local social justice organizations. Lorri is proud to say she lives in Brooklyn, NY.







MIKE HARRIS

MIKE HARRIS
After graduating from Kenyon College in 1982 with a degree in religion, Mike Harris kicked around in banking and insurance before becoming an alternate route candidate in New Jersey's experimental program in 1986. For the past 29 years he has been a high school social studies teacher, supervisor and coach. Concerned over high stakes testing and Governor Christie's attacks on public education, funding, teachers and unions, Mike joined UOO and began educating himself about so called school reform and its consequences. He has been a BAT from the very early days in June 2013 and has been part of the Moderating team for over a year.











SUE GONCAROVS

SUE GONCAROVS
Sue is a retired Teacher.  She taught visual Art for 22 years.  She has been a BAT for 16 months. Sue came to BATs because Kindergarten testing/removal of one Fine Arts graduation requirement/marginalization of Visual Arts as a core curricular subject K-6. Sue is originally from NY and received her higher education in Massachusetts.










KATHLEEN HAGANS JESKEY

KATHLEEN HAGANS JESKEY
Kathleen Jeskey is a 6th grade teacher on the Spanish side of a dual immersion (Spanish/English) program. She has been teaching since 1987. She holds certifications in ESOL and Spanish. She has been an education activist with Oregon Save Our Schools since 2009 and a BAT since June of 2013 when she  found BATs via the Dump Duncan Facebook page. She was born in Iowa and has also lived in California and Hawaii. She currently lives in Oregon.






OWEN JACKMAN
OWEN JACKMAN
Owen Jackman has taught Middle School Special Day class in Sacramento for 14 years. Owen got his undergraduate degree in political science/history at UCLA and got his teaching credential and Masters degree at Sacramento State University. Owen has been very involved in the political involvement committee's in his local and State Union(Sacramento City Teachers Association, California Teachers Association). Owen joined BATS after hearing Diane Ravitch mention them at an event she spoke at for the Sacramento City Teachers Association a few years ago. Owen feels strongly that BATS are one of the last lines of defense against school privitization. While Owen is a dedicated and ardent union member. One of the things Owen really likes about BATS are that they can act with lightning speed while unions can sometimes move slower than molasses in January. Owen brings his many years of political activism (his first campaign was Walter Mondale's presidential run against Ronald Reagan in 1984) to the BAT Cave. Owen assists the BAT Cave with election strategy and planning and is a de facto /pro bono"political consultant"


DR. DENISHA JONES
DR. DENISHA JONES
PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University. She has taught kindergarten, preschool, served as a campus based preschool director, and taught college for over 10 years. Currently she is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Howard University. Her research interests include service-learning, dealing with challenging behaviors, the de-professionalization of teaching, and promoting diversity in education. She is an administrator for both Badass Teachers Association and United Opt Out. She has also been a strong figure in the Save our Schools movement.


TERRY KALB
TERRY KALB
Terry Kalb has lived in NY all her life. She has an MS Ed in Early Childhood Sp Ed, and BA in Sociology. She taught for 34 years in public school special education- first in early intervention (Birth-4) and then middle school Social Studies and ELA. Terry was a building union rep for many years. As the mother of a gay son who came out as a teen, she became involved with the Long Island Gay And Lesbian Youth (LIGALY) organization, and did outreach on creating safe schools for LGBT kids. She also served on the Shoreham-Wading River School Board. Terry joined BATs in the summer of 2013 and was thrilled to become a national admin that September. Activism through social media can only effective if it is also connected to real world grassroots organizing, and Long Island has been in the forefront of the test refusal/opt out movement in NY. NY BATs is working very closely with our allied parent groups across the state to inform and ignite our communities against privatization, Common Core, high stakes testing and VAM. This inspired a new career as a Sp Ed/parent advocate as the impact of corporate ed reforms in NY threaten IDEA protections and services to our kids with disabilities. Being a BAT has created opportunities for public speaking, collaboration, and connections all over the country. We are building a movement that will save our public schools and our profession! 


EJ SAVAGE KELLY
EJ SAVAGE KELLY WITH
MELISSA TOMLINSON 
Server and web site administrator for several sites around the web he has been doing web and graphics design for 16+ years. He has been involved in activism for much of his life participating in such things as OWS, LGBT Movement, and of course the fight for a better education when he was introduced to BAT by Love Light in 2013.  EJ’s passions lay in technology and the arts. He has been working with the Adobe systems for many years as well as photography and music. He is also an IT specialist. He is always willing to lend a helping hand so do not hesitate to ask if you see him around




MARLA KILFOYLE
MARLA KILFOYLE
Marla Kilfoyle began her adventure into the Badass Teacher Association by way of being a parent advocate on Long Island in such groups as Parents and Teachers Against Common Core and LI Opt-Out. Marla has been a teacher in the Social Studies Department at Oceanside High School (NY) for 27 years. She is also an NBCT and has a MS in Education from Queens College.  In addition, Marla coached the Oceanside Girl’s Track and Field team for 15 years and runs her district’s social science research program.  She also works as an education advocate in LI Opt-Out and NYSAPE .  Marla has been the General Manager of  the BATs organization since June 17, 2013. 



DR. KATHIE WING LARSYN
KATHIE WING LARSYN
Kathie Larsyn’s heart was left in Chicago, where she grew up, moving to AZ in the 80s to pursue higher education. She has a B.A. in English Literature, and minors in Women’s Studies, Comparative Religion, and Children’s Literature. Kathie also earned two master’s degrees, an M.Ed., and an M.C. at ASU. Her teaching license includes endorsements in 7-12 English, K-12 Librarian, and School Counselor. The last nineteen of her 28 years teaching were as a pre-k – 8 librarian in South Phoenix, AZ. She is also the mother to two daughters, one a professor of Education in WA, and the other a Kinder teacher, and Nonna to two grandchildren, and many foster babies, who bless her life.  One favorite educational experience that Kathie enjoys sharing is her summer as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow in New Orleans, where she participated in a class: Linking Gender, Genre, and Region in the Works of Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, and Kate Chopin.  Kathie became a BAT early in the summer of 2013. In BATs, she found a home with like-minded individuals fighting against destruction of public education and the profession of teaching. When Kathie was invited to become an administrator for BATs that fall, she respectfully accepted, and loves it!  Finally, having been forced into an early retirement, Kathie feels an acute responsibility to speak out loudly, especially since so many educators cannot speak out….fearing for their careers. Being a teacher never ends….it merely changes with the seasons of life. BATs is a place where teaching continues, and has brought a fresh, exciting reason to never stop learning nor sharing. Kathie plans to teach, collaborate, and fight with all BATs for the remainder of her life.


BONNIE CUNARD MARGOLIN


BONNIE CUNARD
MARGOLIN
Bonnie Cunard Margolin is a wife, mother, and Middle School Language Arts teacher in Florida. Certified in English and ESOL (K-12), Bonnie studied at University of Florida. She has been teaching English, Writing, and Language Arts for 24 years in FL public schools. Bonnie spends much of her free time advocating for public education. Working with a dynamic group of educators and parents for many years, Bonnie utilizes social media to fight privatization and high-stakes testing in FL. Through the combined efforts of many in her community, she helped to convinced her Lee County School Board to be the first county to opt out of state mandated tests (for a short while) and to revise their testing policies in 2014. She also joined with her local parent group to restore recess to her local elementary schools. Bonnie co-admins many websites for activists fighting to preserve public education including BATs, Wear Red for Ed, and Vote Your Kids. She supports many causes including Network for Public Education, United Opt Out, Awake the State, Save our Schools, and others. In the past, Bonnie has served on her union executive board, attending state and national assemblies as a delegate. Last spring, Bonnie spoke on the BAT panel at NPE’s first national conference in Austin, Texas.





LEE ANN  PEPPER NOLAN
LEE-ANN PEPPER NOLAN WITH DIANE
RAVITCH AND LARRY PROFFITT
Lee-Ann Nolan is a fifth grade math teacher in an elementary school on the outskirts of Memphis, TN.  This is her nineteenth year teaching, beginning her first 4 years in a Memphis urban school before moving to a neighboring county and teaching in a rural school.  She has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary K-8 and a master’s degree in Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment.
She is happily married to a video director from England who tolerates her obsessiveness with this.  They have three grown children and one 5-year-old grandson who rules their world right now.
She found BATs as she was growing more and more frustrated over the excessive testing required in the classroom, the crazy education reforms, and ridiculous requirements of students & teachers.   She has always maintained positive relationships with the parents of her students, so she spoke with them.  They were not aware of anything new.  She joined BATs not too long after BATs began and her addiction kicked into gear.  She is online in some format (FB, Twitter, researching,…) most of the day other than time spent in the classroom.  It was a relief to find other like-minded individuals who felt so strongly about education & children. They were also willing to fight for them.  This was the beginning of a very meaningful relationship.  She joined other groups and started local groups to spread the word to parents and to encourage teachers to speak out. 


 HEATHER POLAND

HEATHER POLAND
Heather Poland is a 7th and 8th grade English teacher in San Diego, CA who holds an Elementary Teaching Credential, a K-12 Reading Specialist Credential, and a Secondary English Credential.  She is also a parent to almost 7 year old twin girls who are in first grade. Heather has been teaching for 13 years, almost all of those years at the middle level. After increasing stress levels, and seeing the detrimental effects of the deformers to her students, Heather started a blog and Facebook Page, A Teacher’s Perspective. Soon after that, BATs was formed and Heather joined in the beginning, July 2013, getting involved immediately with actions and moderating the group. Heather has always been involved in education activism and sees BATS as a way to finally get teacher voices heard, and to make a large impact on educational policy.
As a parent, Heather helped to start a local parent and educator group concerned about the district her daughter attends, and has helped to educate and organize many local parents about Education deforms and standardized testing.



ANNE PRITCHETT 
ANNE PRITCHETT
Anne Pritchett is an elementary special education teacher in Kansas City, MO.  She has been teaching for 35 years, all in urban schools.  Anne has been a BAT since June of 2013.  She is excited about networking with other BATs from all across the country.







LARRY PROFFITT
LARRY PROFFITT
Larry Proffitt is a second career teacher who has been a union activist from the word go. Larry served as president to the Tennessee Education Association's student program. As soon as signing a contract, Larry became involved heavily in his teacher's association and has served in offices up to and including president. He serves on the Legislative Contact Team for TEA and is very active visiting the state General Assembly for the Tennessee BATs. Larry is certified and qualified in all middle school subjects and is very active within his school in various roles. He has coached high school track, baseball, and football, as well as middle school baseball and football. His role is currently 7th grade Science at Dickson Middle and assistant football coach at Sycamore High School. Larry is a moderator for the National BATs and an administrator for the Tennessee BATs. Larry has been a BAT since July of 2013. He believes that a collaborative force of pro-public education advocates is the only way to overcome the misinformation that reform wealth has pounded relentlessly into the airways. Solidarity is a must!




MICHELLE MURPHY RAMEY

Michelle Murphy Ramey
Michelle Murphy Ramey is a third grade teacher from the state of Washington where she is in her tenth year of teaching. Her experience is in elementary but she has subbed in kindergarten through  8th grade.  Michelle is also her local's secretary and proud union member.  Michelle has been a member of BATs since the first week and was invited by another Washington educational activist.









DAWN NEELY RANDALL
DAWN NEELY
RANDALL
Dawn Neely-Randall is a fifth-grade Language Arts teacher from Ohio who likes to snap photos and travel in her spare time. After she wrote a lament about feeling so disheartened by mass standardized testing, it was picked up by the Washington Post and she subsequently wrote another piece about not wanting to throw her students to the "testing wolves" (who are still howling outside her classroom door). When BATs opened the cave to give her refuge in the spring of 2014, she was thrilled to hang around with a group of activists working hard to protect students and had a blast meeting many of them in person at the March in Washington last summer. Twenty five years of teaching; achieving National Board Certification; writing an education column for her local newspaper for two years; and now, advocating with all her might for legislators to back off from the political addiction of high-stakes testing, all Dawn really wants is to help give children their childhoods back and to be allowed to use their precious time learning.



TERRI MICHAL RECTOR

TERRI MICHAL RECTOR
Terri Michal has been advocating for the teachers and students in public schools in Alabama through her own grassroots organization that she created in Sept of 2012. While doing education research online she came across the Badass Teacher Association, at the time 'only' 6,500 members strong.  Right away she knew that it was an organization she had to be a part of. Within just a few weeks she became an Admin. She finds the information and support provided through the members of BATs to be invaluable to the battles being fought in her home state.  She's proud to say she no longer has children in the public schools as students, they are now teachers!


BECCA RITCHIE 
BECCA RITCHIE
Becca Ritchie has taught middle school in Washington State for 25 years. She has taught choir, general music, drama, study skills, Quest (adolescent development and communication) and computer education.  She joined BATs on the first day the page was founded after returning from Occupy the DOE II.  She has been involved in Save Our Schools, United Opt Out and Union work for her local and council.  She is also a member of WA BATs and works with other Washingtonians to design creative actions that draw attention to the corporate takeover of our schools by using music and art.  



DR. MITCHELL ROBINSON


DR. MITCHELL ROBINSON
Mitch taught music in upstate NY for 10 years, mostly high school band. He now works as a music teacher educator at Michigan State University.  Mitchell taught for 10 years in the public schools, 15+ in higher ed. ,all music.  Mitchell has an Administrative certification and a Ph.D. in music education. He has been a BAT for over a year, almost since the beginning!  Mitch is passionate about protecting public education from attacks from the corporate reform movement. He believes that we find ourselves in a "manufactured crisis," and that the vast majority of schools and teachers are excellent. Mitch is from Buffalo, NY, but has lived in Michigan for the last 15 years.  



AIXA RODRIGUEZ
AIXA RODRIGUEZ WITH DR.
YOHURU WILLIAMS
Aixa created and has grown the BATs DREAM page.  NYCDOE High School ESL Teacher Fordham University FCRH ’00 BS Psychology and Latin American and Latino Studies . Fordham University Graduate School of Education FGSE ’05. MST TESOL Bronx born Puerto Rican raised and still living there and teaching there. Lived and worked in Japan ’00-’01 which cemented desire to teach ESL  









PRISCILLA SANSTEAD

PRISCILLA SANSTEAD
BAT Co-Founder, is an education activist currently living with her family in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a graduate of Florida State University and holds an MBA/Marketing from the University of West Florida. Priscilla has experiences with a wide number of educational choices through her grown daughter. She was an active volunteer in schools – Montessori, Public Charter (1999 – 2000, before corporate deform), Public, Private, and Progressive – then transitioned to homeschooling through a CA state charter, and finally to unschooling with her autodidact daughter. A big advocate for libraries, she has run many school and public book sales. She assembled, funded, and operated a Florida public charter school library (1999 – 2001) and volunteered full-time for a private school library for a year. A volunteer nature guide for 6 years, she managed the volunteer group and led hundreds of school tours. She taught remedial math at a private college for a year, and became a vocal advocate for changes in math as well as reading education.




STEVEN SINGER
STEVEN SINGER
Steven Singer is a husband, father, teacher, blogger and education advocate. Before entering the education field, he was a professional journalist for 5 years. He has taught Language Arts for 12 years - mostly in 8th grade. He is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher, has a Masters of Arts in Teaching and undergraduate degrees in both Creative Writing and Philosophy. He can’t remember exactly when he became a Badass Teacher. Before the group was even incorporated, Singer had co-created an education advocacy group in Pennsylvania to fight Governor Corbett’s draconian school budget cuts. The group was called T.E.A.C.H. - Tell Everyone All Cuts Hurt. (He came up with the name.) In Corbett’s first year in office, T.E.A.C.H. was the leading opposition to Corbett and woke up many in the state to this battle. However, massive teacher furloughs dwindled its numbers until it was mostly just Singer holding a sign, shouting for all he was worth and typing on a computer. He joined the steering committee of Yinzercation, Great Public Schools Pittsburgh and worked closely with PSEA and moveon.org. He even spearheaded a highly successful petition campaign asking Pennsylvania officials to engage in civil disobedience and ignore the state’s unconstitutional voter ID law.  At some point in the early days of BATS, Singer saw a Facebook post about the organization and joined. He was delighted to find there were so many others out there just like him. He is so grateful to have found BATS. To him, it’s not just an advocacy organization - it’s a community. For more on Singer, please visit his blog Gadflyonthewallblog at http://www.gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com . For more on T.E.A.C.H. visit the organization’s Website at http://www.svteach.wikispaces.com .

MELISSA TOMLINSON
MELISSA TOMLINSON 
A teacher of students with special needs at the middle school level, realized that she was not alone in questioning the role of standardized testing in schools when she found the Badass Teachers Association. She was first pushed into the spotlight of fighting the methods of corporate educational reform when she faced Governor Chris Christie to ask about his public degradation of NJ Schools when they were rated one of the top three in the nation. Along with teaching and advocacy, Melissa runs the after school program in her school building, providing a place for students to receive extra educational assistance, exposure to career possibilities, and a safe place to be after school hours.
Melissa is the mother of two teenage sons and she fights for equitable education for all students, now and in the future.  Melissa became the Asst. General Manager of BATs in Dec. of 2013.



ROUSEMARY VEGA
ROUSEMARY VEGA 
Rousemary Vega is a 33 year-old mother of four public school children, Nidalis 17, Meleny 12, T.J 8, and Zamara 3 years-old. Rousemary became active when they closed down her children's school in Chicago. She has become one of the most outspoken and symbolic parents for the devastation of school closings on a family and community. She lives in Chicago♡ and became a BAT because she believes in their vision and actions they took. Rousemary believes that when you have educators fighting for the education and future of our children, parents move to the front lines and support such an organization. Rousemary loves the outstanding support BAT offers....in and outside the organization. Rousemary is honored to be a BAT and has been in the organization for a little over a year:)



KRISTIN VOGEL
KRISTIN VOGEL
Kristin Vogel is a Resource Specialist from the state of California. She is currently in her ninth year in education, having served in a range of schools, both public and private. She has a Masters in Childhood Special Education and a Masters in Education with a concentration in Special Education. Kristin has been a BAT since July of 2013. Laws and mandates that have been passed from the federal government continue to marginalize and underfund programs for students with special needs, and students from oppressed communities. As a teacher who views education through a social justice lens, the time has come to join collectively and act on what is wrong with our educational system. Kristin wants to see an end to the vicious cycle of toxic testing, as well as a well-funded program for students with special needs.



DR. YOHURU WILLIAMS
DR. YOHURU WILLIAMS
The author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell, 2006) and Teaching U.S. History Beyond the Textbook (Corwin, 2008). He is the editor of A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present, Documents and Essays (Kendall Hunt, 2002), and the co-editor of In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement (Duke University, 2006), and Liberated Territory: Toward a Local History of the Black Panther Party (Duke University, 2009). He also served as general editor for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 2002 and 2003 Black History Month publications, The Color Line Revisited (Tapestry Press, 2002) and The Souls of Black Folks: Centennial Reflections (Africa World Press, 2003). Dr. Williams also served as an adviser on the popular civil rights reader Putting the Movement Back into Teaching Civil Rights. Dr. Williams’ scholarly articles have appeared in The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, Delaware History, Pennsylvania History, and the Black History Bulletin. He is the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Fairfield University. Dr. Williams is an administrator for the Badass Teachers Association.


STACEY WOLFF
STACY WOLFF
Stacey is an 18 year veteran middle school teacher. She has spent her entire career in the same district in Nevada teaching 8th grade ELA and advising the yearbook staff. Stacey joined BATs as a member and a moderator soon after BATs was established. She believes BATs is crucial to the continuation of the teaching profession as a whole and knows the day will come when the deformers are defeated and the teachers will once again be treated as the educated and trained professionals they are and be allowed to address the needs of all students in ways they know to be most effective. She has no plans on letting the deformers, politicians and oligarchs force her out of the job she genuinely loves and will continue to fight alongside her BAT brothers and sisters for as long as necessary. ^0^



KAREN WOLFE
KAREN WOLFE AND
JUAN CABALLERO
Karen Wolfe is a Los Angeles parent activist for public education. With a professional background in communications, she blogs about education issues, especially politics, and works to help shape media coverage about public schools and education policy. Through her writing and advocacy, Karen promotes public schools as a democratic institution and builds support for sustainable neighborhood schools. Her belief in professional educators as our best resource for forming education policy drives her involvement in political campaigns, school board accountability and the Badass Teachers Association. She and her husband have two children in Los Angeles public schools.





DR. AMY WOLPIN
AMY WOLPIN
Amy Wolpin is a retired elementary teacher and parent of two adult children who are both teachers. She is from WNY and lives with her husband, a retired social worker, near Northampton, MA. Amy has a BA in Art (Binghamton University), M.Ed in Open Education (Lesley University) and Ed.D in Mathematics and Science Education (UMass Amherst). Amy retired in 2011 after 36 years of public school teaching in Massachusetts in grade 3-6 classrooms, special education, math intervention and math coaching. Her dissertation, Becoming an Elementary Mathematics Teacher Leader, was a self-study of her professional development and her collaborative working relationships with teachers she coached while she was her school district’s Elementary Math Coordinator. In addition, Amy taught many workshops and courses in math methods and math content to both pre-service and experienced teachers. She served on and chaired district curriculum committees and was active in her union as a building and district rep providing counsel to teachers in pre-grievance situations. Since retiring, Amy has volunteered as a tutor, Sped/504 parent advocate, synagogue education director and math classroom assistant. Her biggest volunteer involvement is with BATs which she joined in December 2013. She joined to give support and voice to parents and educators fighting to preserve public education for all children from corporatization and privatization. She is an admin in BATs Math Geeks and   Massachusetts BATs.


Missing but hope to add soon are our other amazing team members
Pamela Nagler, Gus Morales, Donna Mace, Michael Pena, Juan Caballero, Roberta Reid



2 comments:

  1. This is IMPRESSIVE! I just KNEW as a BAT, I was in the company of greatness! Thank you all for your contributions to this cause!

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