Who we are

Amber Burnett has been an English/Language Arts teacher for middle and high school grades for 15 years. As a Fulbright Scholar, in 2008, she spent 8 weeks in Ghana West Africa to analyze how the economic needs of a country shape curriculum. The success of this framework in Ghana is what informs her ideology on developing curriculum  She is currently located at Abraham Lincoln High School and is looking forward to coaching this school year’s Speech and Debate Team. Amber is a fervent believer in the inquiry based and thematic approach in forging literacy skills. Those beliefs have guided her into creating the Youth Literary Forum where students ask what can the literary world teach us about the impact of social and economic injustice.
Stacey Carlough has been teaching secondary English at Freire Charter School in Philadelphia for 12 years and is currently the AP Literature teacher and English department chair. In addition to teaching, Stacey established and directed a student-led Writing Center and serves as the founding Director of a Teacher Development at her school. She holds a master's degree in English education from the University of Pennsylvania. She has presented at national conferences of the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Writing Project. Stacey is a founding member of Teachers Write Now.
Katrina Clark teaches at the Workshop School, a small project-based public high school in West Philadelphia. ​She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and St. Joseph's University and a member of the Caucus of Working Educators.
Jason Falconio has been teaching secondary science for twelve years in both public and charter schools in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Since 2010 he has been teaching at Freire Charter School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is currently teaching Biology and AP Biology. Past courses include Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, and General Science. In addition to teaching, he is also an instructional coach and the science department chair. He founded and directed several programs STEM programs including robotics. In the summer, he works for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth as a site director. He has his master’s degree in education leadership from Penn State. In 2017, he was named an ASCD emerging leader.
Jarrod Green has worked in early childhood education for over a dozen years and is currently the co-director of the Children’s Community School of West Philadelphia, a preschool serving children ages 18 months to five years. In addition to working as a preschool teacher and administrator, Jarrod has consulted privately with the families of young children, taught early childhood education classes at several community colleges, and led workshops at national early childhood conferences. His book, I'm OK! Building Resilience through Physical Play, was published in 2016 by Redleaf Press; he has also published a number of articles in national journals. He holds a master’s degree in early childhood education from San Francisco State University. More about Jarrod at http://jarrodgreen.net.
Jenny Lunstead taught first and second grade in Philadelphia public and charter schools for 11 years. Her interests in the classroom include teaching the readers' and writers' workshop model, socio-emotional literacy, and conflict resolution with young children. Jenny has been the lower school director at a Philadelphia charter school for the past three years. In this role she supports teachers, students, and families in kindergarten through fifth grade, with a focus on teacher coaching, curricular support, and professional development. She holds a master’s degree in school leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.
Alison McCartney
Kathleen Melville is a 9th grade teacher at the Workshop School, a small project-based public high school in West Philadelphia. She earned her bachelors in educational studies and English literature from Swarthmore College and a masters in teaching, learning, and leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been teaching for thirteen years in schools in Guatemala City and the Philadelphia area. She is a National Board Certified English teacher and a 2011 recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. She is a member of the Caucus of Working Educators. 
Maeve O'Hara Siu has been teaching secondary mathematics for eight years, in both public and private schools in Philadelphia and Denver.  She began teaching in the School District of Philadelphia upon graduation from Bryn Mawr College with a suma cume laude degree in mathematics, and went on to earn her master’s degree in curriculum and management.  She is a National Board Certified Teacher and a 2013 recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.  As a member of Teachers Write Now, she presented at the 2014 American Education Research Association conference.  Passionate about Philadelphia’s schools, she returned to the School District of Philadelphia in 2015.
Lisa Smulyan is the Henry C. and Charlotte Professor of Educational Studies at Swarthmore College. She teaches courses in educational foundations, adolescence, gender and education, and comparative education. Her teaching, scholarship, and administrative work focus on how historical, social, and cultural contexts influence teachers, teaching, and learning. Her publications include articles on teacher education and the liberal arts and the personal and professional development of women teachers and doctors and books, including Balancing Acts: Women Principals at Work (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001).​ You can learn more about her from her Swarthmore College profile.
Scott Storm is founding English teacher and the Department Chair at Harvest Collegiate High School, a New York City public school, where he also serves as Professional Learning Community Organizer and Director of the Writing Center.  Scott earned a bachelors degree in educational studies and English literature from Swarthmore College and a masters in educational leadership from Bank Street College of Education.  He has been teaching for a decade and is the recipient of the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation Teacher Development Grant for his project on Teaching for Social Justice.  Scott has written and presented papers on his classroom research for the National Council of Teachers of English, the Literacy Research Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the UPenn Ethnography Forum in Education.