As the Director of Waitlist Zero, I am leading campaigns to pass the End Kidney Deaths Act, the Honor Our Living Donors Act and the Colorado CARE Act. As a non-directed, anonymous kidney donor, I launched a kidney chain where four people received kidneys in Georgia, Oklahoma and Washington State. I founded the New York City One Kidney Club, Kidneys 4 Strangers, and Vegan Kidney Donors. I lead the Global One Kidney Club and NKDO Ask Me Anything meetings. I am an NKDO kidney donation mentor and a mentor for Plant Powered Metro New York's 21 Day JumpStarts. I painted 11 school murals.
I taught for 33 years in schools ranging from the American International School of Budapest to New York City public schools. In addition to being a professor for graduate students at Teachers College, Columbia University for 6 years from 2016-2022, I was a teacher of pre-K and grades 2nd-11th.
As the Director of the Columbia University Peace Corps Fellows Program, I taught, supported, supervised & mentored 70 Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows in their first two years of teaching in NYC public schools. I founded a college-wide monthly salon, an interdepartmental exchange of ideas, to foster dialogue & collaboration.
As a school administrator, I was both a Dean and a Director of Admissions at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School & a parent advisor for the Parents League. I taught middle school enrichment classes at the Harlem Educational Activities Fund. I was a public school nutrition specialist for 2nd-5th graders in the South Bronx, Crown Heights and Harlem for the Coalition for Healthy School Food.
I earned my Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University, studying primarily English and economics, and my Master of Arts in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, I have a degree in school administration from Shippensburg State University and am certified to teach nursery, kindergarten, grades 1-6, and English 7-12. I completed the TC course, "Food and Nutrition For All," in addition to attaining a "Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate" from Cornell University.
My curricula entitled "Exploring the Harlem Renaissance and the Italian Renaissance Periods Through Radio Plays" was published by Columbia University. I presented my ideas about education at the conferences Teaching in Trying Times, Reimagining Education, the Winter Roundtable as well as the Peace Corps Coverdell Directors Conference in Washington DC.