UASLE Advisory Board

The UASLE Advisory Board was formed in the summer of 2008 with the mission of promoting and supporting the Urban Assembly School for Leadership and Empowerment. Its members represent a diverse group of individuals from the New York City community interested in helping the young women of UASLE gain admissions to and graduate from competitive four-year colleges.

UASCJ Advisory Board Members, 2018-2019

• Randa Adra

Randa Adra is an attorney at Crowell & Moring LLP, where she practices International Dispute Resolution and Commercial Litigation. She represents domestic and international clients from a wide-array of industries. She also enjoys working on pro bono matters serving women’s issues in the Middle East. Before attending Cornell Law School, Randa grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, completing her undergraduate studies in Economics and Political Studies at the American University of Beirut.

• Preetha Chakrabarti, Chair

Preetha Chakrabarti is currently an attorney at Crowell & Moring LLP, where she practices in the Intellectual Property and Environmental and Energy Resources Practice Groups. Before attending Fordham Law School, Preetha was a teacher for many years, first at a private school in Westchester County, NY, and then for two years at UASCJ, where she was the 7th grade science teacher, team leader, and Dean of Student Life. She also holds a Masters Degree in Secondary Science Eduation from Teachers College, Columbia University, and did her undergraduate work at Brown University. Preetha was born and raised in Baltimore, MD.

• Alicia Escobar

• Maria Franqui

• Mariela Graham

• Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson is the Manager of Special Projects for The Danielson Group. As a lifetime advocate for education, Brian has served students, teachers, and school leaders across the country for over a decade as a teacher, instructional coach, and motivational speaker. He has extensive experience working with both public and charter schools, building culturally competent classrooms, infusing the joy of learning in students and teachers, and designing district-level protocols for school improvement.

• Portia Jones

• Amrana Malik

• Shanel Montreuil

• Linda Nguyen

Linda Nguyen is currently the Senior Partnerships Manager at COOP. She works with under/unemployed post-college graduates learning skills in digital marketing and data analytics with the goal of helping them launch meaningful careers. She is a big advocate for assisting people advance in their lives at any capacity and age, and is passionate about making the workforce a more diverse and inclusive world. When she is not working, Linda enjoys meeting new people. cooking, hiking, and laughing.

• Sage Norman

Sage Norman is an Assistant Principal at UASCJ. She has worked at UASCJ since 2008, first as a Special Education teacher, then as the Dean and Special Education Coordinator, and now as Assistant Principal. Ms. Norman grew up Portland, Oregon and attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Spanish Literature. She is a Teach for America alumna and earned her Masters of Science in Education at The City College of New York. She was a Wallace Fellow at Bank Street College of Education, where she received her Master of Education in School Leadership. She loves connecting with UASCJ supporters through her work with the Advisory Board!

• Natalie Overton

Natalie Overton has been involved in the New York City educational system for the past decade. She begun her career as a middle school teacher and then transitioned to a coaching position where she focused on leadership development through a lens of mindfulness and inclusion. She currently facilitates conversation through workshops, panels, and speaking engagements around the importance and practice of mindful inclusion. She also holds women empowerment workshops through her company OmmGirls and finds passion in leading all women to reconnect with their intuition to propel their life towards their goals. She is currently the New York Community Director at COOP a national organization that supports CUNY graduates from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities to enter a digital marketing and agency career.

• Sehar Sabir

• Manahil Sami

Manahil Sami was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She attended UASCJ in middle school and high school. She graduated as part of their first graduating class. Manahil graduated in 2018 from St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn campus) with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. She is currently taking a gap year and planning on continuing her education in the future by getting a master's degree in clinical psychology.

• Allyson Satnick

• Jenna Satnick

Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Jenna Satnick graduated from The University of Maryland in 2014. She is a publicist at Sunshine Sachs, a full communication agency sitting at the cross section of entertainment and social good. She serves a number of clients including TV networks and shows, films, music awards, media companies and more. Jenna is passionate about film and interested in all things pop culture.

• Laura Scheck

Laura Scheck is originally from New Hampshire but considers herself a New Yorker after having lived in the city since 2003, with a brief stint in Berkeley, CA. Laura entered the field of education immediately after graduating from Colby College by joining the Teach for America program, through which she taught 1st grade in New Orleans and middle school in Newark. A champion of enrichment, summer and after school experiences for NYC students, Laura first learned about UASCJ while serving as Director of Student Opportunities at The Urban Assembly.Laura is currently the Senior Director of Capacity Building at ExpandED Schools, a non-profit intermediary organization that supports partnerships between schools and community based organization to expand learning time. Laura enjoys spending as much of her free time as possible with her two sons. She also manages her local CSA and is an enthusiastic chef, who finds chopping vegetables and baking to be one of life’s greatest stress reliefs. Laura Scheck is the Founder and Chef of Teaching Table, offering cooking classes to adults and children of all ages

• Lauren Tsuboyama

Lauren Tsuboyama is currently the Director of Communications for New York City Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. Previously, she was an Account Supervisor at BerlinRosen, leading media relations strategies for advocacy and real estate clients in New York and a Senior Account Executive in the Travel and Lifestyle Department at Finn Partners. Lauren received her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies in Communications, Law, Economics, Government and Political Science. A native New Yorker, you can find Lauren perfecting her punch at boxing class, at a spin class, or at her home in East Harlem.

• Molly Zeins

Molly Zeins first fell in love with the UASCJ community when she coached early-career teachers at the school in 2011 and 2012 as a Manager, Teacher Leadership Development with Teach For America (TFA). Prior to that, she worked in Baltimore as a high school social studies teacher. She's since worked as a strategist for Baltimore City Public Schools, managed TFA's New York City Institute, and is currently a full-time MBA student at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from The University of Chicago and completed her Master's Degree in Teaching at Johns Hopkins University.

The UASLE AB thanks its former members: Bry Ajodha, Jeanine Conley, Marlene Dann, Jenna Felz, Jayma Meyer, Katie Morel, Will Morel, Eric Wu