Board of Directors

Wesley Brown

Author of the novels Tragic Magic and Darktown Strutters; the plays Boogie Woogie and Booker T and Life During War Time; and the anthologies Imagining America and Visions of America.

Patricia Hampl

Regents Professor of English at the University of Minnesota; author of Blue Arabesque, I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory, Virgin Time, and A Romantic Education; recipient of numerous awards, including MacArthur, Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships.

Herbert Kohl

Author of a score of books, including 36 Children, Growing Minds, I Won’t Learn From You, and She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott; founding director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

Bernard Levine

Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Advisors.

Phillip Lopate

Editor of The Art of the Personal Essay; author of Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Being with Children, about his experiences as a teaching artist with Teachers & Writers Collaborative; professor at Hofstra University.

Walter Dean Myers

Author of numerous novels for young adults, including The Young Landlords and Motown and Didi; the biography Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary; and the history book Now Is Your Time: The African-American Struggle for Freedom.

Leslie Newman (Treasurer)

Professor of law and director of lawyering and legal writing, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; and professor, Advanced Writing Program for honors rabbinic students, Yeshiva University.

Ron Padgett

Author of many books of poems, including Great Balls of Fire, You Never Know, and How to Be Perfect, and the biographies Joe and Oklahoma Tough; Teachers & Writers Collaborative publications director from 1980-2000.

David Rogers (Secretary)

Emeritus professor of management and sociology, Stern School of Business, New York University; and author of 110 Livingston Street and Mayoral Control of the New York City Schools.

Steven Schrader (Co-Chair)

Author of the short story collections Crimes of Passion, On Sundays We Visit the In-laws, and Arriving at Work, and the memoir What We Deserved; publisher of Cane Hill Press; former Teachers & Writers Collaborative director.

Nancy Larson Shapiro (Co-Chair)

Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative from 1979-2005; co-editor of The Point: Where Teaching & Writing Intersect.

Robert Silvers

Editor, The New York Review of Books; a founder of Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

Alexandra Tyler

Vice president, digital marketing and social media, TIAA-CREF.

Carmen Valle

Author of Diarios robados (Stolen Diaries), De todo da la noche al que la tienta (The Night Gives All to Those Who Tempt Her), and El Entre La Vigilia y el Sueño de Las Fieras (Wild Animals Between Waking and Dreaming); professor at NYC College of Technology/City University of New York.