Maida Shelegu
Lower School Educator

Maida is a dedicated and enthusiastic early childhood educator with an abundance of experience in shaping the minds of early learners. For over 5 years Maida has had experience teaching in both public and private school settings with children in groups as young as preschool through first grade. Maida holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Hunter college where she delved into the importance of play based learning, child psychology and best teaching practices. As an early childhood educator, Maida holds a commitment to instilling a passion for learning and providing children with a supportive environment that allows them to flourish through their formative years.

Minhee Chang
Lower School Educator

Minhee is a creative and enthusiastic educator who has taught grades 1 and 2 in New York City. She brings her toy design and arts background to the classrooms. Seeing first-hand how play and creative elements can help to enrich learning opportunities and foster exploration, Minhee is passionate about integrating her past art and design experience into the learning environment. Minhee earned a Master’s degree in Childhood Education from Hunter College.

Christy Santorelli
Lower School Educator

A graduate of Bank Street College, Christy comes with both classroom and museum experience. Christy is passionate about bringing her training and background in Design Thinking, which she has cultivated over the last 5+ years teaching in various institutions, including Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The principles of design thinking are at the heart of Christy’s teaching philosophy, where she prioritizes empathy, hands-on learning, and using creativity to find solutions to everyday problems both inside and outside the classroom.

Rachel Shugg
Lower School Educator

Rachel is a passionate educator who loves learning. She is in her tenth year of teaching and has taught 1st-3rd grades at The Town School and LREI (Little Red School House). Rachel strives to build a strong classroom community by having students share and explore their diverse backgrounds and interests. She brings her deep love of children’s literature and appreciation of silly puns into the classroom every day. Rachel is a native New Yorker with a BA in Psychology from Cornell University and an MA in Elementary and Gifted education from Teachers College Columbia University. When she isn’t teaching, she’s often exploring new neighborhoods, gardening, crafting, biking, or chasing her two young children around.

Laura Young
Lower School Educator

Laura has been an educator for more than ten years in both Philadelphia and New York City. She began her teaching career helping English Language Learners find their voices and tell their stories. She has taught all grades K-5 but has a special love of lower school. She has a passion for any words between covers, but especially for Elephant and Piggie. She also learned to love math from Maren Genow. When not at school, Laura sews, knits, runs and listens to podcasts. She lives with her husband and two sons, who claim that she is their "second-favorite teacher." They also have at least two cats and live next to a giant park.

Originally from the Midwest, Laura studied everything not tied down at the University of Minnesota and worked in book publishing for several years. She returned to school at the University of Pennsylvania to bring that love of books to kids. She is currently pursuing another Masters in Literacy at Touro University. Laura is eternally inspired by the courageous creativity of her students and loves "learning by doing" alongside them.

Valerie Kokelaar
Lower School Educator

Valerie joins the HLS team with 32 years of experience in education in Los Angeles and New York schools. Having taught on the elementary, middle, and college level, Valerie has served in several roles, including teacher, instructional coach, and curriculum director. With a specialization in literacy, Valerie strives to develop stronger readers, writers, and thinkers. She is inspired by children’s curiosity, self-efficacy, and empathy towards others. She also greatly appreciates a good sense of humor. Valerie earned a MS in Literacy Education from Alfred University and a BA in Liberal Studies from California State University Northridge. Her interests include hiking, baking, and gardening.

Shanté Wilkerson
Lower School Educator

Shanté joins the HLS team with 15 years of teaching experience in New York City public schools. Within that time, she has taught general education and students with disabilities in grades three through eight, as well as served as a mentor and model teacher.

Shanté believes that representation matters and is passionate about creating a culturally responsive and inclusive classroom where students develop a strong sense of identity and belonging. She enjoys crafting learning experiences that encourage risk taking, bring joy and cultivate the GENIUS in all students!

With a deep love for the arts, Shanté incorporates dance and movement as a way to convey ideas, thoughts, and feelings in her daily class routine.. Outside of the classroom, Shante loves to spend time with her husband and daughter traveling, cooking, swimming, dancing and exploring new landmarks in NYC.

Shanté has a masters degree in Science and Urban Education as well as Educational Leadership from Mercy College. Her passion for continued growth in her craft has driven her to be an active member of multiple professional educational societies including the National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) and Educators for Excellence (E4E).

Alison Andrus
MS Educator

Alison brings a passion for teaching and learning to HLS’s middle school English classes. She has dedicated her life as an educator to grades 5 - 8 and is always looking for better and better ways to inspire a love of reading and writing while building curiosity, confidence, capability, and compassion. Before coming to HLS, Alison worked at The Hewitt School, serving as department chair, a student advisor, and a Humanities teacher. She especially enjoyed helping middle schoolers create newspapers and movies based on their research. Recently, Alison worked at The Masters School and continued to tutor middle and high school students as she has for many years. Alison received her BA in English from Wesleyan University and her Masters in Education from Bank Street College. Outside of school, Alison likes hiking with her husband, two sons, and their labrador mix and going to CrossFit. You’ll also find her curled up with a book, a magazine, or a newspaper, or listening to podcasts.

Kennon Landis
MS Educator

Kennon is an educator, tinkerer, and constant learner. Before coming to HLS he worked as the coordinator of the STEAM program at the Rockland Country Day School while also teaching some of his other favorite subjects, Algebra and Physics. Kennon loves working with his students to build projects that explore new ideas and he is inspired by watching students gain confidence from finding a solution to a challenging problem. Originally from a tiny little town in the Colorado Rockies, Kennon gradually worked his way eastwards, obtaining a BA in Computer Science from Grinnell College and then finding his way to New York for a masters in Mathematics Education from Fordham University.

Ellie Bibas
MS Educator

Ellie comes to HLS with a decade of middle school teaching experience, as well as passions for music, filmmaking, and the great outdoors. Prior to joining HLS, Ellie taught at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco and Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. Ellie believes that the humanities classroom should be a place for students to actively inquire, investigate, and contribute to the world around them. He earned his B.S. in Film & Television at Boston University and M.A. in Social Studies Education at Teachers College.

Gary Bologh
MS Math Educator

Gary has taught math in many settings: SAT math to 11th graders for Princeton Review, Math Olympiads to 5th and 6th graders, statistics to college students, and most recently 5th through 12th grade math to his numerous tutoring students throughout lower Westchester. He loves to share his enthusiasm for learning the rules of the game of math, for this makes possible the endless joy one can experience from creative problem solving, logical reasoning, asking interesting questions, and gaining self-confidence and mastery. Gary has a PhD in sociology, worked for many years as the Managing Editor of a scholarly journal, and enjoys tutoring in social studies, English, science, test prep, paper writing, and scholarly research. He holds a bachelor's degree from Duke University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan.

Kimberly Mishkin
Head of School

Kim has over 30 years of experience as an educator and school leader. For seven years, she was the Assistant Head of Lower School at The Spence School in Manhattan. Kim has also worked in public and independent schools in both urban and rural settings serving grades K-12. Also an entrepreneur, Kim founded SAS for Women, a consultancy helping divorced women. Kim holds a BA in Education from Miami University, a MS in Science Education from Wright State University and is licensed in Educational Leadership through The Ohio State University.

Cynthia Whitten
Assistant Head of School

Cynthia has over 20 years of experience working in independent schools. She began her career teaching kindergarten at the Rockland Country Day School and has held several administrative positions including Early Childhood Department Head, Reading and Learning Specialist, Children’s School Coordinator and Dean of the Children’s School at the Rockland Country Day School. Cynthia has maintained a private practice as a Literacy Specialist and has extensive experience working with children in gifted and talented programs. Outside of work, Cynthia loves nothing more than to spend time with her family swimming, gardening, and designing creative outdoor play spaces with her children. Cynthia earned a Masters of Science in Childhood Education and Literacy from Long Island University.

Mo Abdul-Matin
Playworker

Mo supports kids at play at Hudson Lab School. Kids love Mo because he is kind, fun and empathetic. He’s always up for a game of tag, a front handspring, or a long Pokemon discussion. Mo is a student at Mercy College and enjoys spending his free time working on films, including a documentary with the Mount Vernon Doles Center.

Brooke Bridges
Extended Learning Director

Brooke comes to HLS having held many different teaching and mentoring roles. After earning a BA in Mandarin Chinese and Buddhism from Barnard College, Brooke worked for the Founder of Princeton Review, teaching and training hundreds of students and teachers across NJ, before moving to Taiwan to open a Princeton Review franchise there. Her interest in Tibetan Buddhism led her to the Indian Himalaya where she studied at the Dalai Lama’s monastery while teaching English to the Tibetan refugee community. She returned to the US, earning her MBA at Wharton, while also teaching Marketing as a fellowship recipient. After a decade in the corporate world, marriage and twins, Brooke returned to her love of teaching, guided by a desire to live more equitably, by earning a certificate in Urban Farming and Food Justice. Since then, Brooke has worked educating and empowering others to grow their own food at the New York Botanical Garden, and at elementary schools across the Bronx and Westchester.

Sheryl Seltzer
Art Educator

Sheryl is a talented artist and educator hailing from Brooklyn. She has taught for over 30 years including Music and Movement to toddlers and parents, printmaking to college students at Orange Coast College and Concordia University in California, and drawing, relief printmaking and sculpting at elementary schools including Hudson Lab School. For her own art, Sheryl paints in oil and creates etchings and large format woodcuts, primarily working with a vocabulary of abstracted landscape imagery, emphasizing pattern, rhythm, and energy. Her images are infused with themes of memory, inspiration, hope and desire. Sheryl graduated from Duke University where she studied painting and printmaking. She studied at Evanston Art Institute, the Silvermine Institute, and Orange Coast College and Saddleback College.

Cate Han
Founder

Cate is the founder of Hudson Lab School. She has helped startups raise over $100M in early stage capital and worked with entrepreneurs to build company value through mentoring, strategic planning, creative problem solving, and fundraising. Cate began her career as a Quantitative Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. She co-founded Launch Collective and Learning Pods and set up the finances for Managed by Q. Cate is a Chartered Financial Analyst. She earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Barnard College. Cate was inspired by Bayswater Maria Montessori School, High Tech High, Little Leaf and Portfolio School. She enjoys surfing, yoga and TED talks.