Board of Directors

The all-volunteer Board of Directors is responsible for New Haven Reads’ overall health and well-being, ensuring that it is following its mission and is financially sound. 100% of the Board contribute financially to the organization and many of them volunteer their time in an administrative capacity or as tutors.

Lisa Gray is principal at Gray Organschi Architecture, a firm recognized for its technical innovation, sustainability and overall design excellence by state, regional and national awards programs for ecological building, residential and institutional design, material experimentation and landscape infrastructure. Ms. Gray, who received her B.A. and M. Arch from Yale, launched the firm in 1994 with her partner and husband, Alan Organschi. Ms. Gray learned about New Haven Reads from her son Augie, who tutored at NH Reads for three years.

 Shana Schneider,

Jodi Benjamin Schneider, Secretary

Jodi Benjamin-Schneider graduated from The George Washington University.  She worked in marketing for MCI in New York City.  After spending time raising her two children, and helping to launch a pre-school, The Children’s New School in Madison, Ct. and then subsequently coordinating special programs there, she became a literacy tutor at the Mauro-Sheridan School in New Haven, where she has worked for the past 10 years.

After graduating from Harvard in 2002, Grayson Murphy worked for the State Department before returning to his hometown of New Haven, where he began volunteering at New Haven Reads and started a private investment company with his family.

John Edwards After practicing corporate law for 31 years in Atlanta, John relocated to New Haven where he attended Yale Divinity School. He has been active in volunteer and non-profit activities in the city.

Peter Goldsmith Peter Goldsmith is a 1955 Yale graduate who then spent two years in the army. Peter followed his service obligation working twenty years in manufacturing and another twenty years in sales. Upon retirement ten years ago, he became involved with Yale Project 55 and Dwight Hall (Yale University’s Community Service organization) and New Haven Reads, as well as a number of other New Haven charities.

Cindy Leffell Cindy Leffell lives in New Haven and first became involved with New Haven Reads when her teenage daughter began volunteering here. She is a former president of the board of the Eli Whitney Museum and continues to serve on its executive committee. She also serves on the board of Foote School. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Cindy has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kirsten Levinsohn After graduating from Williams College, Kirsten received her Masters in Elementary Education from Rutgers University. Following 6 years of teaching in New Jersey, she moved to Michigan where she was the Executive Director of the Leslie Science and Nature Center for 20 years. Currently, she is the Executive Director at New Haven Reads.

Larry Favre (photo and bio pending)

 

Russell Outler Russell Outler is a Connecticut native who works with Webster Bank in the greater New Haven area that was looking to work with non-profits looking to have an impact on the community. Russell has been with the board since the Spring of 2012.

 
 

 

 

Laura Pappano  Laura Pappano is a Yale grad and journalist who has written for The New York Times, the Harvard Education Letter, The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other print and online publications. She is author of three books, editor of the FairGameNews blog and a founder of the New Haven Student Journalism Project, which runs a summer institute for New Haven youth and, during the academic year, a school newspaper, The Celentano Sentinel, for students in grades 2-8. Her daughter Molly is a passionate volunteer tutor at New Haven Reads!

 

Alexa Schlieker (photo pending) Alexa is a native German and lives with her husband in the United States since 2006. She earned a Master of Arts Degree in Economics (in Germany) and is working at Yale Shared Services as a Business Analyst. Soon after coming to New Haven in 2009 Alexa learned about New Haven Reads and started to tutor and support the staff with regards to financial and administrative functions.