Chair

Tim is mayor for the Village of New Paltz, NY, where he lives with his family. He has been an active supporter of Writopia Lab since its inception in 2007, advising on everything from short-term problem solving to general business development. After business school at NYU, Tim served as Vice President at Eagle Advisors for a decade where he made investment management decisions for the multi-billion dollar family office of the founder of a large software company. Tim holds a Bachelor of Arts from Siena College and an MBA in Finance from NYU Stern.

Events Committee Chair

Kimberly Hartman is founder of KH Designs, an interior design firm in New York City. Prior to design, Ms. Hartman was Vice President of Human Resources and Facilities for Trust Company of the West. She also serves on the Board for the Bronx Charter School for Excellence, Temple Emanu El 's Mitzvah Board and UJA Manhattan Women's Philanthropy Board. Ms. Hartman earned a BA at Tufts University and an MBA in Finance from the Leonard Stern School of Business at NYU.

Scholarship Committee Chair

Candice Braun is originally from Virginia, where she graduated from James Madison University ('92) with a B.S. in Finance. After moving to New York in 1997, she decided to find a career where she could combine her finance background and her life-long passion for raising money for non-profits. Until September 2001, she worked at UJA-Federation, focusing on event-planning and major gifts development. Before moving to New York City, Candice lived and worked in London at Lloyd's of London. Candice has served on the board of directors of JCP: The Jewish Community Project Downtown and as the President of the Rodeph Sholom School Parents Association. Candice is married to Ben Braun and is the mom of Jack, Annie, and Mateo. Her hobbies include reading, walking, traveling, vegan baking/cooking and advocating and fundraising for causes and organizations dear to her heart, including food allergy awareness, suicide prevention, rare cancers, homelessness, Writopia Lab, and For His Children orphanage in Ecuador.

Chair of the Finance Committee

David founded Cohanzick Management in 1996 and has served as Managing Principal since then. Prior to this, Mr. Sherman worked at Leucadia National Corporation for 10 years. In 1992, Mr. Sherman became a Vice President actively involved in corporate investments and acquisitions. In addition, Mr. Sherman was Treasurer of Leucadia’s insurance operations with $3 billion of assets. During Mr. Sherman’s tenure, he played an active role in the insurance companies’ investment portfolio and asset/liability management. Further, his parent company investment duties ranged from general investment analysis to opportunistic distress positions including serving on steering and creditor committees to active roles of private and public securities transactions. Mr. Sherman began his 25+ year investment career in high yield and distressed securities at Leucadia in 1987, following internships at Drexel Burnham Lambert’s High Yield and Convertible Bond department based in Los Angeles. In 1987, Mr. Sherman graduated from Washington University with a B.S. in business administration. Mr. Sherman is a member of the advisory board of Washington University’s Olin Business School Center for Finance and Accounting Research. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Open Door Medical Centers. Mr. Sherman has lectured at Washington University, Pepperdine University, and investment industry conferences.

Executive Director
Founder

Rebecca founded Writopia Lab in April 2007, currently directs the national organization, teaches writing workshops and college essay writing and runs in-school staff and teacher trainings in New York City through the DYCD, the DOE, and at community-based organizations that serve at risk youth. She has grown the organization in NYC, and established and oversees Writopia in the DC Metro region, NY Metro North, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. She trains Writopia instructors across the nation, as well as classroom teachers and volunteers in the Writopia method.

Rebecca has won multiple teaching awards including the Scholastic Awards' 2012 Ovation Inspired Teacher Award for submitting the most outstanding senior portfolios on the national level and for "developing a method of working with students that inspires them to create original work that embodies their unique, personal voice.... Because of [her] tutelage... these students are now empowered to bring that voice into the broader world..." She has also won the 2008, 2009, and 2011 National Gold Apple Teacher Award for "submitting the most outstanding group of submissions on the national level" to the Scholastic Art & Writing event. She lectures at schools, events, and parents' organizations on a variety of topics including "How to Inspire the Writer Within Your Child," "Writing for High School and College Admittance," and on "Identifying and Participating in Positive Competitions." Previously, Rebecca established the creative writing program at the Abraham Joshua Heschel Middle School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as a consultant. While she was there, the program outperformed every other school in the city (including every elite public and private institution) in Scholastic's prestigious Art & Writing Awards competition. She has been awarded recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as an "outstanding educator" every year since 2006. (Writopia won Scholastic's official endorsement in 2007.) Rebecca was also nominated by students and selected to be entered into the 11th Edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers.

Chief Operations Officer

Jeremy Wallace-Segall is the Chief Operations Officer for Writopia Lab. Jeremy oversees technology and back-office functions, contributes to the organizational literature, recruits new students and new schools, and does light housekeeping.

Jeremy has built and implemented databases and websites for 15 years. He ran a consulting business, ABCDataworks, for six years, that brought database, website, and communications strategy to non-profits and socially minded corporate ventures. Jeremy spent a few years in the corporate world, but most of his work experience has been focused on making the world a better place by helping non-profit organizations manage their data collection and dissemination. Jeremy has written corporate policy documents, software documentation, branding copy for websites, tutorials, and recently published a featured article of the month on Idealware.org.

Tal Marnin provides counsel to employers on a full range of employment law matters, including those relating to: the hiring of new employees; complying with federal, state and local employment laws (e.g., the ADA, ADEA, FLSA, FMLA, IRCA, Title VII and WARN); preventing discrimination and harassment in the workplace; conducting workplace investigations; wage and hour issues; restrictive covenants; and individual terminations and reductions-in-force. Tal has extensive knowledge in advising clients on restructurings and downsizings (including mass layoffs and plant closings under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and similar state laws) and employment issues arising from mergers & acquisitions.

Tal defends employers against claims relating to breach of contract, discrimination and harassment, wage and hour and wrongful termination in forums such as the state and federal courts, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, FINRA and JAMS.

Tal also provides company-wide training seminars on preventing harassment and discrimination in the workplace, as well as seminars for managers and for members of the Human Resources and Legal Departments on topics such as handling complaints of discrimination and harassment, conducting workplace investigations and complying with employment laws.