EPIC's list of speakers and presenters who spoke at the March. We assembled a group of individuals consisting of teachers, community leaders, authors, poets, film-makers, activists, students and parents who generously offered their voices to this movement to PUT TEACHERS FIRST!
MYRA SAWYERS: Myra Sawyers has spent over twenty years as an advocate for change. During the 1992 elections, she worked on many grassroots campaigns in California which led to several statewide democratic victories. In 1993 she moved to Washington, D.C. where she spent six years working as an aide for U.S. Representative Patsy T. Mink. Following her work on Capitol Hill, she began teaching first grade in The Plains, Virginia. In 2004 she founded Educators for Progressive Instructional Change (EPIC), a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect, inspire and motivate teachers to become an indomitable force for education reform. She has been featured in local, national and international articles dealing with education reform. Myra graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California and holds a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia.
THE RUBBER ROOM DOCUMENTARY: (http://www.rubberroommovie.com/): 10 Minute Trailer
KAREN HORWITZ: (http://whitechalkcrime.com/ ) Karen Horwitz graduated with honors from the University of Illinois, Champaign where she earned a B.A. in Elementary Education in 1966. She taught elementary school for four years before starting a family. She felt a calling to teach elementary students so that she could share her strength in preparing children to succeed as students and as citizens, goals that she believes require talented teachers to be realized. When teaching jobs were scarce during the 1970’s, she worked in business as a sales representative and as a marketing director for an educational film company. However, teaching always was her first love. She eagerly returned to elementary teaching in her forties after earning an M. Ed in Reading at National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois in 1992. Upon discovering the unbalanced, destructive power structure in teaching, she began working as an activist to expose why our schools are so dysfunctional. She co-founded NAPTA, National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse, and launched its website at EndTeacherAbuse.org in 2002 and published a book, White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail in 2008, as well as launched an accompanying website and blog at WhiteChalkCrime.com. She has raised three children and has three grandchildren who inspire her to do the work of exposing the truth about Education; she believes that they, as well as all children, deserve better - much better.
Members of the National Association for Prevention of Teacher Abuse (NAPTA)
KANDISE N. LUCAS: Kandise N. Lucas is an extraordinary, passionate and powerful advocate for children that has single-handedly taken on the most oppressive systems that have served as obstacles to the progress of ALL children, regardless of disability, economic status, race, religion or origin. Dr. Lucas has served as an international speaker and conference facilitator for organizations such as the Black Administrator of Child Welfare, in addition to presenting for various school districts and state agencies. CONTACT INFORMATION: KANDISE N. LUCAS FOUNDER/ CEO, LUCAS EDUCATIONAL ADVOCACY, LUCASEDUCATIONAL@YAHOO.COM, “EMPOWERING, EDUCATING AND ENCOURAGING EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION,” PH#:804-248-8656.
BENNETT PACKMAN: Bennett Packman graduated from Brooklyn College with Honors in 1981. He played collegiate basketball at Brooklyn College and City College of New York. He taught physical education and coached basketball in New York City until he relocated in 1997 to Miami to teach at Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In 2003, while at American High School, he was told that he would be teaching driver education. He was given a directive by administrators to take driver education courses with MOTET, a school that was issuing bogus academic credits to its students. Disturbed by this compromise of student safety, Packman refused that directive and was then told by his principal, "I hope you are a very good teacher Mr. Packman because we are going to single you out." Packman blew the whistle on the sham school and as a result found himself out of work for an entire year. Packman's testimony led to a grand jury investigation that resulted in indictments and convictions with MOTET's chief administrator sentenced to jail time. Dozens of teachers were either fired or resigned for having taken the course. Due to this reprehensible experience, Packman speaks nationally to teach the public about the plight of teachers - forced to perform unethical and illegal acts or suffer teacher abuse. He can be reached in Florida at: 305-931-5090.
ARMAND A. FUSCO, Ed.D.: Armand A. Fusco, Ed.D. began his career in education as a teacher in 1958. He quickly moved into administrative positions, and in 1971 became superintendent of schools in Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1980, he resigned his position to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship with the Boston Labor Mgmt. Center, specializing in Total Quality Management principles and practices for school districts.
Following his fellowship, he served as superintendent of schools in Branford, Connecticut from 1985 until his retirement in 1992. Dr. Fusco later became a professor of education and director of teacher intern programs at the University of Bridgeport. He has authored many professional works and published numerous articles dealing with all aspects of school operations and activities. In 2005, he published School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust. He resides in Guilford, Connecticut, with his wife of 55 years, Dr. Constance M. Fusco, who is a retired assistant superintendent of schools. They have four children, fourteen grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He can be reached at fusco.a@comcast.net or at 203-453-1301.
TO BE HEARD DOCUMENTARY: (http://www.tobeheard.org/index.html): 11 minute Trailer
AMY SULTAN: Amy Sultan is the Director and Co-Founder of the Power Writers Program @ Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. For 10 years Amy served as Co-Executive Director of the Early Stages Program, a leading arts and education organization serving over 15,000 New York City public school children each year. She is currently acting as producer for a documentary, “TO BE HEARD”, a film exploring the artistic and emotional journey of a group of young Bronx poets. Amy is a former business agent for theatrical unions in New York City, where she represented designers and performers in film and theater. From 1990-94, she was Director for Film in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting where she co-founded and chaired the Mayor’s Coalition for Positive Action, a group formed to address under representation of minorities in the film industry. Ms. Sultan was the producer of the Nantucket Film Festival in 1996 and 1997.
ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA: Roland Legiardi-Laura is a documentary filmmaker and poet. His first documentary, AZUL, won 9 International Film Awards. He is currently directing and producing for PBS, TO BE HEARD, a feature documentary about The Power Writers Program, a program he co-founded with Joe Ubiles and Amy Sultan. Over the last 20 years, Roland has been on the Board of THE NUYORICAN POETS CAFÉ. He created the Fifth Night Screenplay reading series, which boosted more that 40 feature films into production. He has been a committed educator for much of his adult life, teaching in prisons, senior citizen centers and schools. Together with his friend and mentor, John Taylor Gatto, (also his eighth grade English Teacher), they started the Odysseus Group, a not-for-profit dedicated to the transformation of the American School System. They are currently developing a documentary trilogy called THE SECRET LIFE OF AMERICAN SCHOOLING, and they are planning to launch their anti-testing initiative THE BARTLEBY PROJECT, later this Fall. CONTACT INFORMATION: WWW.JOHNTAYLORGATTO.COM, INFO@JOHNTAYLORGATTO.COM or 212-529-9397.
JOE UBILES: Joe Ubiles is a poet, playwright, critic, teacher and activist. He has spoken and performed at Emory University, Brown University, New York University, Columbia Teachers College and many other non-academic settings. In 2005/ 6 he was awarded a Soros Open Society Institute Social Justice Fellow as a Co-founder of the Power Writers Program.
Student Speakers and Presenters:
KARINA SANCHEZ
PEARL QUICK
RAMON DEJESUS: Ramon DeJesus is a native of the Bronx NY, Ramon was awarded the Posse Foundation full tuition scholarship to attend Brandeis University where he majored in Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS). An interdisciplinary major, LALS afforded him the opportunity to better understand the history of the people of Latin America; a people who he identifies with and, up until that point, had felt were left out of the history books. Now, as a Brandeis alum, Ramon serves as a college counselor for a non-profit in Jamaica Plain, MA that helps Boston Public High School students get into college, graduate and go far in life.
JOHN TAYLOR GATTO: John Taylor Gatto was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a river town thirty-five miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Mr. Gatto attended public schools in Swissvale, Monongahela and Uniontown. After college, Mr. Gatto worked as a scriptwriter in the film business, was an advertising writer, a taxi driver, a jewelry designer and a songwriter before becoming a schoolteacher. He climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He left teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that "..he was no longer willing to hurt children." Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called, "An Evening with John Taylor Gatto", which launched a career in public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all 50 states and seven foreign countries. His books include: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), The Exhausted School (1993), A Different Kind of Teacher (2000) and The Underground History of American Education (2001).
EPIC has invited:
List updated: 9/18/08
MYRA SAWYERS: Myra Sawyers has spent over twenty years as an advocate for change. During the 1992 elections, she worked on many grassroots campaigns in California which led to several statewide democratic victories. In 1993 she moved to Washington, D.C. where she spent six years working as an aide for U.S. Representative Patsy T. Mink. Following her work on Capitol Hill, she began teaching first grade in The Plains, Virginia. In 2004 she founded Educators for Progressive Instructional Change (EPIC), a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect, inspire and motivate teachers to become an indomitable force for education reform. She has been featured in local, national and international articles dealing with education reform. Myra graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California and holds a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia.
THE RUBBER ROOM DOCUMENTARY: (http://www.rubberroommovie.com/): 10 Minute Trailer
KAREN HORWITZ: (http://whitechalkcrime.com/ ) Karen Horwitz graduated with honors from the University of Illinois, Champaign where she earned a B.A. in Elementary Education in 1966. She taught elementary school for four years before starting a family. She felt a calling to teach elementary students so that she could share her strength in preparing children to succeed as students and as citizens, goals that she believes require talented teachers to be realized. When teaching jobs were scarce during the 1970’s, she worked in business as a sales representative and as a marketing director for an educational film company. However, teaching always was her first love. She eagerly returned to elementary teaching in her forties after earning an M. Ed in Reading at National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois in 1992. Upon discovering the unbalanced, destructive power structure in teaching, she began working as an activist to expose why our schools are so dysfunctional. She co-founded NAPTA, National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse, and launched its website at EndTeacherAbuse.org in 2002 and published a book, White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail in 2008, as well as launched an accompanying website and blog at WhiteChalkCrime.com. She has raised three children and has three grandchildren who inspire her to do the work of exposing the truth about Education; she believes that they, as well as all children, deserve better - much better.
Members of the National Association for Prevention of Teacher Abuse (NAPTA)
KANDISE N. LUCAS: Kandise N. Lucas is an extraordinary, passionate and powerful advocate for children that has single-handedly taken on the most oppressive systems that have served as obstacles to the progress of ALL children, regardless of disability, economic status, race, religion or origin. Dr. Lucas has served as an international speaker and conference facilitator for organizations such as the Black Administrator of Child Welfare, in addition to presenting for various school districts and state agencies. CONTACT INFORMATION: KANDISE N. LUCAS FOUNDER/ CEO, LUCAS EDUCATIONAL ADVOCACY, LUCASEDUCATIONAL@YAHOO.COM, “EMPOWERING, EDUCATING AND ENCOURAGING EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION,” PH#:804-248-8656.
BENNETT PACKMAN: Bennett Packman graduated from Brooklyn College with Honors in 1981. He played collegiate basketball at Brooklyn College and City College of New York. He taught physical education and coached basketball in New York City until he relocated in 1997 to Miami to teach at Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In 2003, while at American High School, he was told that he would be teaching driver education. He was given a directive by administrators to take driver education courses with MOTET, a school that was issuing bogus academic credits to its students. Disturbed by this compromise of student safety, Packman refused that directive and was then told by his principal, "I hope you are a very good teacher Mr. Packman because we are going to single you out." Packman blew the whistle on the sham school and as a result found himself out of work for an entire year. Packman's testimony led to a grand jury investigation that resulted in indictments and convictions with MOTET's chief administrator sentenced to jail time. Dozens of teachers were either fired or resigned for having taken the course. Due to this reprehensible experience, Packman speaks nationally to teach the public about the plight of teachers - forced to perform unethical and illegal acts or suffer teacher abuse. He can be reached in Florida at: 305-931-5090.
ARMAND A. FUSCO, Ed.D.: Armand A. Fusco, Ed.D. began his career in education as a teacher in 1958. He quickly moved into administrative positions, and in 1971 became superintendent of schools in Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1980, he resigned his position to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship with the Boston Labor Mgmt. Center, specializing in Total Quality Management principles and practices for school districts.
Following his fellowship, he served as superintendent of schools in Branford, Connecticut from 1985 until his retirement in 1992. Dr. Fusco later became a professor of education and director of teacher intern programs at the University of Bridgeport. He has authored many professional works and published numerous articles dealing with all aspects of school operations and activities. In 2005, he published School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust. He resides in Guilford, Connecticut, with his wife of 55 years, Dr. Constance M. Fusco, who is a retired assistant superintendent of schools. They have four children, fourteen grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He can be reached at fusco.a@comcast.net or at 203-453-1301.
TO BE HEARD DOCUMENTARY: (http://www.tobeheard.org/index.html): 11 minute Trailer
AMY SULTAN: Amy Sultan is the Director and Co-Founder of the Power Writers Program @ Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. For 10 years Amy served as Co-Executive Director of the Early Stages Program, a leading arts and education organization serving over 15,000 New York City public school children each year. She is currently acting as producer for a documentary, “TO BE HEARD”, a film exploring the artistic and emotional journey of a group of young Bronx poets. Amy is a former business agent for theatrical unions in New York City, where she represented designers and performers in film and theater. From 1990-94, she was Director for Film in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting where she co-founded and chaired the Mayor’s Coalition for Positive Action, a group formed to address under representation of minorities in the film industry. Ms. Sultan was the producer of the Nantucket Film Festival in 1996 and 1997.
ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA: Roland Legiardi-Laura is a documentary filmmaker and poet. His first documentary, AZUL, won 9 International Film Awards. He is currently directing and producing for PBS, TO BE HEARD, a feature documentary about The Power Writers Program, a program he co-founded with Joe Ubiles and Amy Sultan. Over the last 20 years, Roland has been on the Board of THE NUYORICAN POETS CAFÉ. He created the Fifth Night Screenplay reading series, which boosted more that 40 feature films into production. He has been a committed educator for much of his adult life, teaching in prisons, senior citizen centers and schools. Together with his friend and mentor, John Taylor Gatto, (also his eighth grade English Teacher), they started the Odysseus Group, a not-for-profit dedicated to the transformation of the American School System. They are currently developing a documentary trilogy called THE SECRET LIFE OF AMERICAN SCHOOLING, and they are planning to launch their anti-testing initiative THE BARTLEBY PROJECT, later this Fall. CONTACT INFORMATION: WWW.JOHNTAYLORGATTO.COM, INFO@JOHNTAYLORGATTO.COM or 212-529-9397.
JOE UBILES: Joe Ubiles is a poet, playwright, critic, teacher and activist. He has spoken and performed at Emory University, Brown University, New York University, Columbia Teachers College and many other non-academic settings. In 2005/ 6 he was awarded a Soros Open Society Institute Social Justice Fellow as a Co-founder of the Power Writers Program.
Student Speakers and Presenters:
KARINA SANCHEZ
PEARL QUICK
RAMON DEJESUS: Ramon DeJesus is a native of the Bronx NY, Ramon was awarded the Posse Foundation full tuition scholarship to attend Brandeis University where he majored in Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS). An interdisciplinary major, LALS afforded him the opportunity to better understand the history of the people of Latin America; a people who he identifies with and, up until that point, had felt were left out of the history books. Now, as a Brandeis alum, Ramon serves as a college counselor for a non-profit in Jamaica Plain, MA that helps Boston Public High School students get into college, graduate and go far in life.
JOHN TAYLOR GATTO: John Taylor Gatto was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a river town thirty-five miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Mr. Gatto attended public schools in Swissvale, Monongahela and Uniontown. After college, Mr. Gatto worked as a scriptwriter in the film business, was an advertising writer, a taxi driver, a jewelry designer and a songwriter before becoming a schoolteacher. He climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He left teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that "..he was no longer willing to hurt children." Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called, "An Evening with John Taylor Gatto", which launched a career in public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all 50 states and seven foreign countries. His books include: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), The Exhausted School (1993), A Different Kind of Teacher (2000) and The Underground History of American Education (2001).
EPIC has invited:
- National and State Legislators
- Presidential Candidates
- Governors
- Celebrities and Performers
List updated: 9/18/08
