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.

Board Member

Kevin R. Free is a writer/performer/director and OBIE Award winning producer whose work has been showcased and developed in many places, including the Moth Radio Hour, The Fire This Time Festival, The New Black Fest, The Blackboard Reading Series, the Estrogenius Festival, and the New York International Fringe Festival. The former Education Director of Queens Theatre in the Park, Kevin has also directed several productions performed or written by young people, including several plays in Writopia Lab’s World Wide Plays Festival, The Wiz, The Robber Bridegroom, Godspell, Barnum, and Starlight Express. More at www.kevinrfree.com.

Secretary

Lisa Isaacs holds degrees in English and American Literature from Bard College and Washington University. After stints in entertainment and technical writing, she graduated from Brooklyn Law School and became a practicing lawyer. She concentrates her legal practice in special education and disability rights. Prior to establishing her own firm in 2011, she directed the Education Program in the Disability Rights Center at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and Family Law and General Practice at Legal Services, New York City. She practices and maintains offices in Yardley, Pennsylvania and New York City.

Board Member

Michelle Herbowy is a lifelong learner and educator with over two decades of experience working alongside families, teachers, and school leaders as a former special educator, school principal, and central office leader in upstate New York and New York City. Michelle has expertise in serving our most vulnerable students and collaborating with stakeholders to create classrooms where teachers take risks to be their best and students strive to reach their highest potential. As a former professional developer for EL Schools and NYC Outward Bound, Michelle has a passion for literacy in the context of adventurous, meaningful curriculum, and has witnessed its power to cultivate engaged student citizens. A champion for inclusion and equity, Michelle currently directs a competency-based leadership program for aspiring principals for the New York City Department of Education. Michelle earned a BA in Early Childhood Education and Human Services at the State University of New York at Buffalo, an MS in Elementary and Special Education at Syracuse University, and a CAS in Educational Leadership at the State University of New York at Oswego.

Board Member

Rebecca founded Writopia Lab in April 2007, and currently directs the national organization. She designed the organization’s mission and no-barriers sliding scale model, as well as its instructional approach, which has been embraced by thousands of children, teens, schools, and nonprofit partners across the country. In 2015, she established Writopia’s Training Institute that serves the youth development sector and the Department of Education and established The Positive Literacy Collaborative in partnership with Goddard Riverside in 2019 both with the support of the Pinkerton Foundation. Rebecca has lead the organization’s growth and impact in NYC, while establishing and overseeing it’s labs in the DC Metro region, NY Metro North, Chicago, Los Angeles, and The Bay Area.

She lectures at schools, events, and parents' organizations on a variety of topics including "How to Inspire the Writer Within Your Child," “Partnering for Impact,” and "How to Love Writing for High School and College Admittance." She oversees communications and development at Writopia Lab.

In the founding five years of Writopia Lab, Rebecca 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.

Rebecca oversees impact assessment at Writopia. She studied at Harvard Business School's Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations for organizational leaders in 2015 and continues to oversee Writopia’s impact assessment team's practices as a Youth Inc partner. She recently won a 2021 scholarship to attend Columbia University’s certificate program in business excellence for nonprofit leaders.

Rebecca also serves on Writopia Lab’s Board of Directors and is thrilled to have a team of accomplished board members from various social and business sectors, to help shape the future of writing education, and Writopia’s literary arts, youth development culture.

Rebecca began writing for publications in 1997. She has contributed opeds about education and writing to the The Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal, and thought pieces to The Huffington Post and The Nation, along with five cover stories (and other pieces) to the Village Voice.

Board Member

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, and tutorials.