Our Board and Advisors
We have a working board of directors and advisors made up of parents, education, financial and design professionals most of whom are also parents.
Inquiring Minds’ Board of Directors
Alan Feldman, Treasurer
Alan Feldman has been working in the financial industry since graduating from Columbia Business School in 1996. Alan began his career at Trust Company of the West working on a team managing a $6 billion bond portfolio. During the “dot com” boom, Mr. Feldman was a debt and equity tech and telecom securities analyst covering wireless service providers, data centers, fiber optic companies, and wireless tower companies working for such companies as Paine Webber and Scotia Capital. For the past 13 years, Alan has been working as an advisor and generalist investment banker to small- and mid-cap companies and has been involved in capital raising transactions ranging from $1 million to $100 million.
Alan currently is on the Board of three non-profits and provides fractional CFO/COO services to small and mid-sized companies.
Rashid Duroseau, Member
Rashid is the civics program director of Democracy Prep Charter Schools. Fiercely devoted to providing young people meaningful civic learning opportunities Rashid is an experienced educator (13 years) with a demonstrated history of creating impactful and engaging secondary education materials. Skilled in content development, and promoting collaboration, he is always looking for ways to build systems that help young people find their power and affect positive change.
Rashid graduated from Williams College.
Carol Weber, Member
Carol has been a marketing, branding and communications director, having spent 35 years at small and mid-size corporations and agencies, uniting and integrating creative, digital, market and business strategies and activities. Her background includes recruiting, training, appraising, supervising, supporting, developing and guiding teams.
Early in her career Carol was a pre-school teacher/director, engaging minds, generating understanding, and influencing behavior through communication that is at once creative, interactive, honest and audience-focused.
Carol received Masters and Bachelors degrees in Elementary Education, Art and Behavioral Sciences, from SUNY, New Paltz. She received an Associate Degree in Marketing and Communications from Fashion Institute of Technology
Elizabeth Waters, Secretary
To see Elizabeth’s biography go here.
DK Holland, Executive Director
To see DK’s biography go here.
Inquiring Minds’ Advisors
Peter Levine, PhD
Peter Levine is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch College of Civic Life. He also appointments in the Tufts Philosophy Department, Political Science Department, and the Tufts Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
He was the founding Deputy Director (2001-2006) and then the second Director (2006-2015) of Tisch College’s CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In addition, Levine co-leads the Civic Studies major, teaches the Summer Institute of Civic Studies, and organizes the annual Frontiers of Democracy conference. Peter Levine was educated at Yale University where he studied philosophy and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
Peter Levine is the author of We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America (Oxford University Press, 2013
Left: Peter Levine with DK Holland and Patricia Crain de Galarce at CIRCLE
Laura Tavares, M.A.
Director of Program Partnerships
Laura’s 20-year career in education has been inspired by a belief in the civic mission of schools. After teaching middle and high school in New York City and Boston, Laura held a variety of leadership positions at the global non-profit Facing History and Ourselves, where she developed innovative classroom resources, designed transformative learning experiences for educators, and led strategic partnerships. She writes about history, current events and education for publications including the New York Times, Educational Leadership, Greater Good Magazine, and Social Education.
A first-generation college student, Laura graduated from Wellesley College and later received graduate degrees in literature and history from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
Donna Cordner
Donna is a Co-founder and Managing Partner in OKM Capital, a venture firm focused on early and mid-stage integrated digital healthcare solutions. She is also Managing Partner of Robinhood Ventures, one of the premier angel-investing groups in the Philadelphia region and sits on a number of committees and advisory boards within the start-up community in Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Donna Cordner’s career spans start-ups and digital transformation, finance, technology and operations. In addition to senior management positions at Citigroup, Société Générale, ABN AMRO, Tele2, Nortel Networks, she was CEO of HOFOKAM, the largest rural microfinance entity in Uganda where she introduced a range of products and innovations, which allowed HOFOKAM to become a profitable operation, which is still flourishing today.
Her extensive board work includes Chair of the Audit Committee for Carlsberg Group, one of the world’s largest brewers with operations in over 100 countries, independent Director for NASDAQ-100 Millicom, a leading provider of communications and media in Africa and Latin America, Director for Tele2, one of Sweden’s largest public companies and as a member of the board for Lia Diagnostics, a start-up which recently was granted FDA approval for the first flushable pregnancy test.
Monica Snellings
Monica is the Communications Vice President at Education Reimagined in Washington DC.
Monica has received awards including National Institutes of Health Award of Merit for outstanding service towards the mission of the National Institute on Aging; National Institutes of Health multiple plain language and clear communication awards NIH; numerous book and publication design awards.
Monica graduated from the Design for Social Innovation, School of Visual Arts, New York, MFA, 2014
La’Vina Dixon
La’Vina grew up in New York and is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University. She intended to go into the sciences but was introduced to the world of public education. She walked into a classroom and ‘Voila.’ and realized that was where she belonged.
She first taught in a private school but switched to PS20 where she has taught since the early 90s. She teaches 5th grade and has been a valued advocate for the work of Inquiring Minds since we started working in the school in 2010. “Civics helps children understand the world around them. It’s of paramount importance.”
Ms. Dixon, as she is known in the school, is a world traveler and brings her global perspective back to her students.
Kathleen Kmet Becker
Kathleen graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1968 with a major in Education and minor in Sociology. She has had a varied career path. She taught 7th and 8th grade in a Detroit area public school. She moved to Miami, where she ran the office for the head teaching cardiologist at the University of Miami Medical School. Another move took her to New Jersey where she worked for a contracting firm and was put in charge of running the warehouse. She moved to Brooklyn in the mid 70s and worked for Goldman Sachs in the Municipal Bond Department until the late 90s where she was part of a design team that redesigned a trading floor and consulted on the design of an online system for underwriting syndicate operations.
She is currently a community activist in her home in Orient, New York sitting on the Board of Oysterponds Community Activities which is the steward of Poquatuck Hall which has served the Oysterponds community since the late 1800’s. She serves as a trustee of the William Steeple Trust which is an artist in residence program in Orient, is active in the Orient Association and other local groups. She is an avid scuba diver and published wildlife photographer.
Kathy is a supporter of many causes and concerns including voting rights, civic engagement, drinking water and wastewater issues and the impacts of humans on the environment. She is an Inquiring Minds Institute donor.
Jacqueline Simmons
Jacqueline Simmons designs curricula, produces films, and leads professional development workshops with local and international non-profit organizations, schools and universities, museums, and foundations. Her work addresses sociopolitical issues, such as resilience and innovation among vulnerable populations across the globe; and challenging historical topics, such as the history of American slavery. Jacqueline has conducted research and led capacity building workshops in Afghanistan, Kenya, Palestine, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, the UK and in cities across the US.
Jacqueline is a full-time faculty member in the Curriculum & Teaching Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. There she is a Senior Lecturer, Director of the Master of Education Program, and is currently serving as Vice Chair of the department. Her teaching and research examines the design, theory, and critical analysis of curricula with particular attention to youth, media, and conceptions of innovation. She is also co-creator of a curriculum lab called Black Paint, a collaborative space to reimagine possibilities for curriculum making as a public endeavor.
John Hunter
A native Virginian and graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, John Hunter is an award-winning gifted teacher and educational consultant who has dedicated his life to helping children realize their full potential. Employing his background as a musician composer and filmmaker during a four-decade career as a teacher, Hunter has combined his gifted teaching and artistic talents to develop unique teaching programs using multimedia software programs in creative writing and film courses.
During his university years, he traveled and studied comparative religions and philosophy throughout Japan, India and China. It was while in India, the cradle of Gandhian thought, Hunter, intrigued by the principles of non-violence, began to think of how his profession might contribute to peace in the world.
Knowing that ignoring violence would not make it go away, how could he teach peace in an often-violent world? Accepting the reality of violence, he would seek to incorporate ways to explore harmony in various situations. This exploration would take form in the framework of a game – something that students would enjoy. Within the game data space, they would be challenged, while enhancing collaborative and communication skills.
In 1978, at the Richmond Community High School, Hunter led the first sessions of his World Peace Game. Over time, in a synchronous unfolding with the growing global focus on increasingly complex social and political conditions, the game has gained new impetus. As Hunter succinctly explains, “The World Peace Game is about learning to live and work comfortably in the unknown.”