Embedded Files
Grant Facilitators and Director and Co-Director of the Long Island Writing Project
Darshna Katwala is a professor and teaches in the English Department at Nassau Community College. She serves as the site Director of Long Island Writing Project. Darshna is a faculty leader committed to encouraging lifelong reading and writing with a special interest in multi-cultural studies and social justice issues. She has co-facilitated Summer Invitationals, directed and coordinated the writing retreat for teens, presented at local and national conferences, and facilitated workshops in area school districts across Long Island.
Heidi Atlas has been the Co-Director of the Long Island Writing Project since its inception, when Toby Bird began the LIWP at Nassau Community College in 1993. Heidi originally was a New York City Writing Project member, and credits her work with the Writing Project as transforming her teaching, as well as her life. She has taught middle and high school English, and is currently teaching writing classes at Nassau Community College and SUNY New Paltz as an adjunct professor.
During her tenure as Co-Director, Heidi has facilitated numerous K – college workshops and courses, and has co-led several Invitational Summer Institutes. Heidi has presented at many local and national conferences. She received a grant to conduct a Race Inquiry Group in the Baldwin School District, and worked with fellow teachers and administrators over a 3-year period. She also participated in the “Literacy in the Common Core” Initiative, sponsored by the National Writing Project, which brought together Writing Project people from 3 different states to examine the standards and create modules.
Grant Participants
Joanne Bergbom is a retired English teacher from the Sewanhaka Central High School Districtwhere she taught all grades from grade 7 to grade 12AP Literature for 38 years. She alsoserved as Director of Student Activities for many years. She has been a member of the LongIsland Writing Project since 1994. She enjoys time spent with her four adult children and five grandchildren.
Kerry Chapman has proudly served as an English Teacher for the South Huntington School District since 2007, where she began teaching high school English at Walt Whitman High School. Currently, Ms. Chapman teaches 8th grade English ICT and honors. She is fortunate to have learned and developed from her talented colleagues in the English Department at Stimson Middle School and Walt Whitman High School. In 2019, Ms. Chapman was named a Teacher of Excellence by the New York State English Council (NYSEC) and was selected in 2020 as Stimson Middle School’s Teacher of the Year. In her personal life, she is a wife and mother, and is also known to ignore household chores in favor of reading a good book. She has always loved literature and writing.
Elizabeth Fonseca, a native New Yorker, has enjoyed living in such countries as Italy, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Publications include in the anthology A Taste of Poetry, the Travelers' Tales series, and her chapbook This World. A recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, she teaches at Nassau Community College in New York.
Dawn Giamalvo has worked as a Long Island educator for the past twenty five years.
Dawn currently teaches 6th grade English at West Hollow Middle School in the Half Hollow Hills Central School District. She is a mother of two teens, avid reader, freelance writer, and aspires to publish a memoir.
James Hughes
Personal life:
I am the youngest of five. My mother, brother, and I are totally blind and two other siblings are legally blind. I got married in 2004 to my beautiful wife Diana and we have had three children. My oldest Sara suffers with Glaucoma as well, but her vision remains decent. My son Joseph has autism and has taught us how to love unconditionally and to use a different barometer when judging success. We recently added a guide-dog, Dale, to our family.
Professional life:
I have been teaching for 31 years at Farmingdale High School. I was named National teacher of the year by the National Museum of Education, receiving the Freida J. Riley Award in 2006. Last year I was honored with the Nassau BOCES Educational Partner Award. In 2012, I was featured on Steve Hartman’s On the Road segment on CBS. In 2019 I presented a TEDX Talk in Farmingdale. As my teaching career winds down I am excited to do more motivational/inspirational talks.
Recreation:
I wrestled in high school and last year was awarded the Medal of Courage Award and made a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. I have been playing beeper ball for thirty years; the last twenty-five with the Long Island Bombers. I was captain for twenty years before I retired as a competitive player. I stopped playing because unfortunately, I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease which has caused me to lose a great deal of my hearing. During my playing days I was named to the all star team for defense at the World Series and I won the outstanding offensive player in the Long Island Classic.
Recently, I have begun writing down my “story”. I have a completed draft of my memoir; the working title is The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Blind Bastard.
Dina Ledwith is an assistant professor of English at Nassau Community College where she has been teaching for ten years. In the first half of her teaching career, she taught high school English to a wide variety of students, ranging from those enrolled in alternative high school to AP English. Her research interests include narrative inquiry as a means of studying student resilience.
Chris Piazza is a recent graduate from Stony Brook University for his masters in teaching ELA grades 5-12. He is a new member of the Long Island Writing Project and is currently on the hunt for a tenure track position to teach. In his spare time, he enjoys woodworking and will travel the country playing music.
Samantha Raimo is an identical twin and a native Long Islander who enjoys spending time with family, especially her two sons and her husband. And her mom too. She received her masters degree in English education from Hofstra University and is currently teaching at Farmingdale High School.
Kerin Slattery is currently the Director of English Language Arts, Secondary Reading, and Library Media Services in the Levittown Public Schools. She is a Doctoral Candidate at Molloy University in the area of Educational Leadership for the Diverse Learning Community. She received her Advanced Certification in School District Leadership from Dowling College and holds a Masters of Science degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from Hofstra University. Ms. Slattery has experience in the areas of professional development, curriculum and instructional leadership, and gifted and talented education. Ms. Slattery formerly served as a Teacher Center Director for over 10 years in the Plainedge School District. Her passion for English Language Arts education comes from her 27 years of experience as a literacy educator for grades Pre-K-12.
Lisa Sorto is a Science Teacher at Central Islip High School, where she began teaching in 2020. Currently, Ms. Sorto teaches Bilingual Living Environment and Bilingual Life Science. In addition to teaching, Ms. Sorto is part of Greentree Foundation Teachers’ Ecology Workshop where she partakes in bringing the Long Island environment via hands-on field experiences back to the classroom. She is fortunate enough to be a part of Latina Mentoring Initiative (LMI) and Be a Mentor (BAM) programs in Central Islip. In her personal life, she enjoys spending time with herfamily and friends, reading, and traveling.
Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski is an elementary teacher in Farmingdale. She has taught kindergarten, sixth grade, special education, and is currently a third grade teacher. In addition to teaching, Kathleen is one of the co-directors of the Long Island Writing Project and has been a co-author and a contributing writer for the Two Writing Teachers blog. She was the 2016 recipient of the NYSEC Elementary Educator of Excellence. Kathleen has been a keynote speaker at Long Beach Literacy Day and for Molloy College’s Kappa Delta Pi Induction. Kathleen is married with two children, Alex and Megan, and an adorable cavapoo named Teddy.
Victoria Wanser is a seventh grade English teacher and instructional specialist at GreatHollow Middle School in Nesconset, New York. Although she has experience teachinggrades seven through twelve, her heart is in middle school. Victoria, a National Board Certified Teacher with a concentration in Early Adolescent English Language Arts, holds two Master’s degrees, one from Stony Brook University and one from Teachers College Columbia University. She has been featured as a guest blogger on the Long IslandWriting Project website, on the site Building Book Love, has had a book review published in the March 2016 issue of the English Journal, and has contributed to the professional development book, Continuing the Journey: Becoming a Better Teacher of Literature and Informational Texts. Victoria and her teenage Jack Russell Terrier, Riley, love to paddleboard and to go on long bike rides.
Uriah Williams is a Spoken Word Artist and 7/8th Grade History Teacher in the Brooklyn Charter School system. Earning his Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Black Studies and recently received a Master’s in English SPZD. In Critical Analysis & Theory. So far, his career has been dedicated to preparing adolescents and adults to analyze, interpret, and present on various subjects involving literature, history, & business. Williams seeks to obtain a Ph.D. in the coming years and to begin creating his own education-based programs to offer to individuals and institutions abroad. In addition, he is preparing himself for future speaking engagements to share his poetry, motivational words, and opinions on historical/theoretical concepts.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse