Hannah Solomon, Co-Director of the Middle School Ms. Solomon has had some of the highest value-added reading gains in the city of New York as a Reading teacher at Village Academy Charter School, where 70.7% of her students passed the New York City reading test, up from just 37.5% the previous year. Hannah is a graduate of Brown University, where she studied Judaic Studies and Afro-American Studies. She also attended Harvard University, where she received her Masters in Education before starting her charter school career as a lead Teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy Charter School in Boston. She loves to teach and is devoted to ensuring our citizen scholars have an equal opportunity to the pursuit of happiness.

Jaime White, Co-Director of the Middle School Jaime White comes to Democracy Prep with over fifteen years in urban education. She holds a bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts in Anthropology and African American Studies, a masters in education from the University of Pennsylvania and is current working on her doctoral degree in education at Columbia Teachers College. In addition, Ms. White is Nationally Board Certified in adolescent education. One of Ms. White's most crowning achievements was her work a founding staff member of Roxbury Prep Charter School, one of the highest performing schools in the country serving predominately low-income students of color. She has helped write numerous charters and worked with various start-up charter schools hoping to replicate the success of Roxbury Prep. She remains deeply committed to urban public education.

Katie Duffy, Director of Development Ms. Duffy comes from a long line of educators and joined the DREAM Team in May 2007. Ms. Duffy began her career at the New York Region Leadership Academy, a program of Prep for Prep, where she taught Ethics. Ms. Duffy was most recently the Director of Student Affairs at Harlem Day Charter School, where she managed the after-school and outplacement programs. Ms. Duffy is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and earned her Masters in Educational Leadership from George Washington University. Ms. Duffy's favorite part of her day is spending time with the scholars in her advisory.

Linda Jones Easton, Director of Operations Ms. Easton is a Manhattan resident whose career includes administrative positions with the Montclair, New Jersey Board of Education, Harlem Dowling Children's Services and Sheltering Arms Children's Service, where she served for over 20 years. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Immaculate Conception Elementary School in Montclair, Manhattan's Creative Arts Workshop for Children, Upward, Inc., the Brooklyn Charter School, BELL New York (Building Educated Leaders for Life) and the District Council 1707, Local 215 Health and Benefit Fund. She is also a founding Board member of Harlem Day Charter School.

Annerys Soto, Office Manager Ms. Soto was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. After my arrival to the US, Ms. Soto attended City College of New York, where she graduated with a Bachelor in Art Education. After graduation, Ms. Soto worked as an Admissions Counselor for the Undergraduate Division, where she constantly guided young men and ladies, to continue their education. Ms. Soto is currently enrolled in a General & Special Education program at Touro College. Ms. Soto is excited to be part of the DREAM team.

Amier Carmel, LMSW, School Social Worker Mr. Carmel grew up in Northern NJ and attended Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, MA where he earned his BA in Philosophy. After moving to "The Big Apple" he pursued a Master's in Social Work at New York University. During his clinical social work education he became interested in Modern Psychoanalysis and is a Psychoanalytic Candidate at The Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in Manhattan. He is also an advanced Doctoral student at the Vermont Graduate School for Psychoanalysis. Mr. Carmel enjoys taking long walks in Central Park and thinking about the secret to the universe.

William Cooke, Dean of Students and Families William Cooke was born and raised in Northern New Jersey. He attended and graduated college at the University of Massachusetts. After college, he moved to Boston, MA to pursue a teaching career. He had been teaching math at City on a Hill Charter School in Boston for the past 4 years. While at City on a Hill, he developed and ran an athletic program that consisted of boys/girls basketball, track/field, cheerleading, and a baseball/softball team. William also coached the girls' basketball team to the Massachusetts Charter League Championship in 2006. William is very excited to move back to the New York area and continue his work in charter schools.

Jonathan Howard, Recruitment Coordinator Jonathan Howard was born and raised in and around Phoenix, Arizona and graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Business Management. He became involved in the charter school movement as an intern in the foundation of Sacramento Charter High School in California. He has taught middle school special education in Harlem since August, 2006. Currently, in his second year as a Teach for America corps member, Jonathan is excited to join the ACT team at Democracy Prep Charter School. His goal is for all of his students to acquire the tools to make their wildest dreams come true.

Alexis Meza, Technology Coordinator Mr. Meza grew up and currently resides in the Bronx. He is a member of the 2nd graduating class of KIPP Academy New York, having graduated in 2000. He then attended Fordham Preparatory School, a Jesuit private school located in the Fordham University Rose Hill campus. After graduating from high school in 2004, he decided to explore the world outside the city and chose to attend Dartmouth College which is five hours away from New York in the small town of Hanover, NH. After two years there, he took a break and joined the DREAM team at Democracy Prep in the first year of its existence. Mr. Meza returned to Dartmouth for the spring just to realize he wanted to return to the city and continue his schooling there. At Democracy Prep, he provides the staff with tech support as well as with data management.

Ashley High, Special Projects Coordinator Ms. High grew up in Flint, Michigan, attended high school in Central New York, and graduated from Alma College in 2005.  Ashley was selected from more than 17,000 applicants nationwide to join Teacher For America, a national teacher corps of recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in under-resourced schools.  She spend the summer in Philadelphia at the Summer Training Institute and after moving to New York, she became the ESL Coordinator and pull-out ESL teacher at I.S. 192 in Throggs Neck, Bronx for her first year of teaching.  She then taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade ELA to English Language Learners at M.S. 323, the Bronx Writing Academy.  Ashley is ecstatic to be the Special Projects Coordinator at Democracy Prep.  

Deborah Raji, Executive Office Assistant, Deborah Raji grew up in Harlem, attended Elisabeth Irwin High School and graduated from Amherst College in 2006.  She spent two years teaching Spanish and English in Jackson, Mississippi.  In spring of 2008, she received a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Mississippi through the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a competitive alternate route teaching program focused on the Mississippi Delta and other critical-needs areas in the state.  She joins the DREAM Team in the role of Executive Office Assistant and is looking forward to the start of the new year with Democracy Prep.  
 

Nadine Patterson, Business Manager Nadine Patterson-McClain grew up in Kingston, Jamaica and attended the Borough of Manhattan Community and Lehman College.  She has worked in marketing and the non profit industry for the last 16 years and most recently spent three and a half years at the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence.  At the Center she had the opportunity to work with start-up and developing schools and gained knowledge and experience working in the Charter School world. She is also the founder of Blazing Fire Designs and a member of the Live for Life Society which serves the poor and under privileged on the island of Jamaica.

Darryl Frazier, Custodian After growing up in Philadelphia, Mr. Fraizer moved to New York City, and is a graduate of the New York City public school system.  Daryl earned his GED and went on to senior leadership positions in facilities management with the New York City Housing Authority. The proud father of 7, Mr. Frazier took time off to raise his family, but is now extremely happy to be part of the DREAM Team at Democracy Prep.  He is inspired by the families and faculty of DPCS and looks forward to a long tenure working with them to get our scholars to college in the safest and cleanest school building in New York.