See It • Build It • Know It
See It • Build It • Know It
Leonisa Ardizzone, Executive Director - Dr. Ardizzone started her education career as a middle and high school science teacher working primarily with high-risk youth in Seattle, Ithaca (NY), and New York City. She holds an M.Ed in Science Education from Western Washington University, and an Ed.D. in International Educational Development from Columbia University's, Teachers College. Her doctoral concentration was in Peace Education – an area that examines the root causes of violence and seeks to address them via education. The underlying values of peace education – planetary stewardship, humane relationships, and global citizenship – pervade every aspect of her work in education and she brings this perspective to the Salvadori Center.
Directly prior to joining Salvadori, Dr. Ardizzone was a tenure-track professor at Adelphi University and Fordham University. At both institutions she taught courses in educational philosophy, psychology and sociology, curriculum development, and science education. Dr. Ardizzone has published her work in Current Issues in Comparative Education, Peace & Change, Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, and has upcoming articles in International Journal of Science Education and Young Children. In the past year, she has published chapters in four books and SUNY Press will release her book based on her work with NYC youth, Gettin’ My Word Out: Voices of Urban Youth Activists. She can be reached at ardizzone@salvadori.org
Kathryn Slocum, Development Director - Kathryn came to the Center as a consultant in 2001 and officially joined the staff in 2007. She has over 25 years experiences fundraising for educational and cultural institutions, including the Hudson River Museum, Cornell University’s Johnson Museum of Art, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), the Municipal Art Society, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Recently, she served as project director of a national collaboration between Habitat for Humanity and the Institute of Classical Architecture, matching up architects with Habitat affiliates throughout the country in an effort to raise the design quality of affordable housing. Kathryn serves on the boards of the Lower Hudson Conference of Historical Agencies & Museums and Jazz Forum Arts. She can be reached at kathryn@salvadori.org.
Edsel Cromwell, Fiscal Offider - Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Edsel has accumulated in excess of twenty-five years of experience in government, corporate and non-profit financial accounting and management. The last sixteen of those years were spent in the non-profit sector, commencing in ‘Headstart’, after which, he held various senior level accounting positions in other non-profit agencies around the Tri-State area. In the pursuit of continuing education, he has also participated in several 'Macro' workshops sponsored by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies and Lawyers' Alliance in Audit/Taxes (advanced), Fund-raising Law and Regulation, Banking II and Tax Compliance as it relates to non-profit organizations. He also enjoys listening to jazz music and collecting concert performances of the main artistes of this genre. edsel@salvadori.org
Rebecca Alvarez, Program Manager - Rebecca Alvarez graduated from the New School University in 2001 with a BA in Arts Education. Since 2001 she gained experience as an arts educator with PS 32K, the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders, The Brooklyn College Community Partnership, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Bronx Museum of Art and worked as the head educator at the PS1 MoMA Art Camp. While working as the Special Programs Coordinator with Studio in a School and the DOE and School Liaison Assocaite for The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, she designed curriculum with Blueprint learning strategies and worked alongside classroom and arts teachers to strengthen their practices. Since 2001, Rebecca has studied book-arts and letterpress with the Booklyn Artists' Alliance, Purgatory Pie Press, and the Center for Book Arts. In 2007, she began work as the Booklyn grant manager and a classroom educator while fostering a letterpress program for the Art Monestary in Calvi dell'Umbria, Italy. Rebecca continues to foster her own writing by making artist's books, writing for periodicals, situating writing-based performances and consulting on the Cup and Pen small press reading series at Think Coffee which she began in 2006. rebecca@salvadori.org
Wendy Wells, Program Manager - Wendy is a professional in the arts management and education field. She has over 25 years of extensive experience in all areas of curriculum and program management and design, implementation, and hands-on classroom teaching. Past projects include after school programs for children and teens; in-school art programs to support the core curriculum; working with special populations, often underserved, such as special needs children, homeless and abused children and youth; and conducting professional development and training workshops for other educators and teachers. She is a published author in a national school arts magazine and a guest lecturer for associations such as the NAEA. She is the founder and past executive director of an arts education organization in Virginia, the Bay School Cultural Arts Center. In addition to her work with the Salvadori Center she conducts research and professional development through her business, Creative Interface Consulting. Local affiliations include Central Park Conservancy, Museum of Arts & Design, Brooklyn Artists Gym, and the Museum of Modern Art. wendy@salvadori.org
Michael Bettencourt, Administrative Director - Michael handles the day-to-day operations of the Center and provides support for the Executive Director. He has been a teacher and has an on-going career as a writer, with a focus on theatre and film. He can be reached at michael@salvadori.org
Janny Gédéon, Educator - Janny received a BS in Architecture from City College (1995) and a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College (2000). With the Center since 1997, she has implemented the Salvadori Middle School Program in six city middle schools. At Walt Whitman MS 246 in Brooklyn, Ms. Gédéon was involved in the organization and expansion of the Salvadori Prep Academy and its participation in the KidBridges math curriculum on the Salvadori website (which can be found in the Curriculum section). She has also had a long tenure in The Renaissance Charter School, where she has established an Architecture Club that brings participants on field trips to noted architecture firms and engages students in projects re-designing the school's space. Originally from Haiti, she is a co-founder of the Haitian Heritage Awareness Network (H2AN), promoting the preservation of Haiti's architectural treasures. She can be reached at janny@salvadori.org
Pat Shuford, Educator - Since graduating from Pratt Institute, Pat worked several years in the public and private sector, grooming her skills in the area of project management. In this capacity, Pat has been the University Architect at Queens College (CUNY) as well as the Assistant Vice Director of Architecture and Planning at the Brooklyn Museum. In addition, she has managed several multi-million dollar projects at Battery Park City and O'Brien-Kreitzberg & Associates. In her hometown of Baltimore, MD, Pat taught mathematics for grades 7, 8 and 9. She enjoys sharing real project-related experiences with students about the NYC projects she has managed. Her extensive knowledge of and interest in the history of Harlem have served as a great resource for the Center and its students. Pat is the recipient of the prestigious AIA (American Institute of Architects) Institute Scholars Award and a former editor of the Research & Design Quarterly Journal at the AIA Research Corporation. Pat has been with the center since 1998. She can be reached at pat@salvadori.org
Hiro Komatsubara, Educator - Hiro received his BA in Mathematics (1996) and MA in Pure Mathematics (2003) from Hunter College of CUNY. Before he started working at the Center in 2007, he taught mathematics in various colleges for 10 years, and also taught dual enrollment programs in public high schools. It has become clear to him that the deficiencies of college students are the result of their lack of a solid math education in elementary and secondary school, and he is confident that he can help alleviate these deficiencies through working with the Center’s project-based approach. He enjoys spending time with his beloved daughter Hanamizuki and running long-distance races. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Urban Education in the Graduate Center of CUNY. He can be reached at hiro@salvadori.org
Jacob Okolo, Educator - Jacob taught in the New York State Public schools for over ten years before joining us at Salvadori. He has two permanent teaching licenses, one in Technology Education and the other in Art Education. Jacob is presently an Adjunct Professor in the Art department of the City College of New York, CUNY. Jacob studied Art and Architecture at the City College of New York, obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture and a Master of Arts degree in education. Outside his professional work Jacob holds a Sixth Degree Black Belt in Tae kwon do (a Korean Martial Arts) in which he is an Instructor, Examiner, and International Umpire. He enjoys playing soccer, furniture designing, and exploring New York City with his son and daughter. He can be reached at jacob@salvadori.org
Our founder, Mario Salvadori, a world-renowned structural engineer, believed that the built environment held all the knowledge that a person needed to be an intelligent and active member of the community. What teachers need to make this knowledge available to their students are tools with which they can "unpack" the knowledge embedded in the built environment.
The Salvadori Center gives these tools to teachers and students through a pedagogy grounded in what it calls "project-based, hands-on/minds-on activities" that employ the principles of architecture, engineering, and the design process. Through this method, teachers and their students can unlock the math, science, art, and humanities embodied in the structures and systems that surround them.