PANELISTS

David C. Banks
Chancellor
New York City Department of Education
@NYCSchools | @DOEChancellor | LinkedIn

David C. Banks is Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest school system in the nation. Appointed on January 1, 2022, he is the former President and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, and the founding principal of The Eagle Academy for Young Men, the first school in a network of innovative all-boys public schools in New York City and Newark, N.J.

David is a lifelong New Yorker, born in Brooklyn, and proud graduate of New York City public schools, attending P.S. 161 in Brooklyn and Hillcrest High School in Queens. After a year working as a school safety officer, he began his first teaching job at P.S. 167 in his childhood neighborhood on Eastern Parkway. From there, he went on to become a founding principal at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, and later at the Eagle Academy for Young Men.
David’s vision of education emphasizes a partnership between schools and communities based on the guiding principles of academic excellence, leadership, and character development. With the Eagle Academy Foundation, he set out to prove that a high-quality college preparatory education for young men of color can be provided in a public-school setting.

In 2004, David led the establishment of the first Eagle Academy for Young Men as part of New York City’s high school reform initiative in partnership with 100 Black Men, Inc. The Eagle model has since been adopted in schools throughout all five New York City boroughs and Newark, N.J., expanding nationally through the Eagle Institute.

In 2019, in partnership with Scholastic, David helped curate the Rising Voices Library, a collection of nonfiction, biographical, and fiction books celebrating Black and Latino boys designed to provide students in grades K–5 with high-interest, culturally-relevant texts that give context to what they’re experiencing in the world around them. He also authored the nonfiction title SOAR: How Boys Learn, Succeed, and Develop Character, published in 2015.

David is a co-founder of Black EdFluencers United, an organization dedicated to influencing and developing the capacity of Black educators and raising awareness about systemic challenges within education. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the International Boys’ Schools Coalition, co-chair of New York City Young Men’s Initiative, and founding board member of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color.

David is a graduate of Rutgers University and received his Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law. In 2003 David participated in the Cahn Fellows Program for Distinguished Principals at the Teachers College Columbia University. In May 2014, David was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in education from Wheelock College. David lives in New York City. He has four adult children and three granddaughters.

Yolie Flores
CEO & President
Families in Schools
@FamsInSchool | @familiesinschools | LinkedIn

Yolie Flores is CEO and President of Families In Schools, a nonprofit statewide organization based in Los Angeles, California, whose mission is to involve families and communities in their children’s education to achieve lifelong success. Most recently, Yolie served as the National Campaign Director for Building a Parent Nation, a campaign initiative of the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health at The University of Chicago. Previously, at the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, Yolie supported Campaign communities in their quest to ensure early school success for more children by elevating parent success. As a leader in Los Angeles, she served as Vice President of the Los Angeles Board of Education and, for almost a decade, served as CEO of the L.A. County Children’s Planning Council, a countywide collaborative focused on improving outcomes for children. In 2017, Yolie ran for Congress distinguishing herself as the candidate for children and families. Yolie’s leadership and commitment to the well-being of children and families has earned her the distinction of, twice, being named Social Worker of the Year.

The Hunter Family
Isaiah, Teresa & Ivy Hunter

The Hunter family, including father Isaiah, mother Teresa, and now 5-year old Ivy are featured in the acclaimed documentary, The Right to Read. Residents of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Teresa and Isaiah focused on language development skills in their interactions with their daughter, Ivy, beginning in infancy, with the goal of building her vocabulary in preparation for reading success.

Teresa took advantage of a class called LENA Start, offered by Virginia Beach Grow Smart, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping parents become their children’s first and most successful advocates. She went on to become a parent coordinator for LENA Start and now helps other parents embrace the tools to promote literacy with their own children.

Isaiah, a musician, encourages Ivy to learn and grow in her passions of dance and music. Ivy’s most recent endeavor of learning to play the piano will also contribute to her developing the brain pathways to excel in reading, as well as math. Teresa and Isaiah’s approach to promote everyday learning has set up Ivy for success as she prepares to enter first grade in the fall of 2023 – and also a lifetime love of reading.

Virginia Beach Reads is a part of the GLR Network of 350+ community coalitions working to promote early school success.

J. Nicholas Philmon, Ph.D.
K-5 ELA Coordinator
Marietta City Schools, Georgia
LinkedIn

As the K-5 ELA Coordinator for Marietta City Schools, a small charter district outside of Atlanta, I oversee instruction, professional learning, and resources for all things literacy in our elementary schools. For the past three years, that has included leading systematic and systemic changes to align with the science of reading through a partnership with the Rollins Center. My dissertation research on the function of coaching conversations in integrating new skills into pedagogy has been instrumental in helping teachers transition from balanced literacy to structured literacy based on the science of reading. My career has spanned PreK-5th grade with experience as a homeroom teacher, literary arts teacher, and gifted specialist followed by leadership positions focused on professional learning and program coordination in early literacy, gifted services, and tiered intervention.

Vincent Stehle
Executive Director
Media Impact Funders

Before joining Media Impact Funders in 2011 as executive director, Vince was program director for Nonprofit Sector Support at the Surdna Foundation, a family foundation based in New York City. Prior to joining Surdna, Stehle worked for 10 years as a reporter for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where he covered a broad range of issues about the nonprofit sector. Stehle has served as chairperson of Philanthropy New York and on the governing boards of VolunteerMatch, the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

MODERATOR

Ryan Lee-James, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Chief Academic Officer
Director of Rollins Center for Language & Literacy
Atlanta Speech School
@CoxCampus

Ryan Lee-James is an ASHA certified speech-language pathologist and published author with expertise in language development, language disorders, and literacy in the context of linguistic differences and socioeconomic disadvantage. In her current role as Chief Academic Officer and Director of the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School, she develops and curates academic programming for our schools and clinics that serve children who have hearing loss, speech-language delays, and dyslexia. She leads the development and advancement for free, equity-based, online professional learning community, Cox Campus. Dr. Lee-James is also responsible for overseeing and designing the implementation and evaluation of large-scale, community-based projects aimed at improving language and literacy outcome for children from birth through 3rd grade. She continues to publish, present, mentor and consult on research projects geared towards advancing equity and dismantling inequitable systems. Her professional pursuits reflect her belief that all children will be liberated through language and literacy. Before joining the team at the Atlanta Speech School, Dr. Lee-James had the privilege of training and mentoring graduate level speech-language pathologists as a member of the Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty at Adelphi University in New York.

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