Welcome · Mission · Vision · Board of Trustees

Brooklyn Prospect Board of Trustees:

(scroll down or click for full bios)

Luyen Chou (Co- Founder, Chairman)

Chief Product Officer, SchoolNet

Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein (Co-Founder, Ex-Officio)
Executive Director, Brooklyn Prospect Charter School

James Bernard

Founder, The Source Magazine
Member, Community Board 6

Anne Burns
Educator

Elizabeth Varley Camp
President, Phare Capital

Roger Fortune
Senior Vice President, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

Judith Hannaway
Financial Services, Consultant  

Pearl Rock Kane, Ed. D.
Director, Klingenstein Institute
Teachers College, Columbia University

Candice Olson
Founder, iVillage

Eliza W. Swann, Esq
Partner, Shearman & Sterling

Special Adviser:
Janice Savin-Williams
Co-founder and Sr. Principal,The Williams Capital Group L.P.

Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School. He is an educator who has taught in public and private schools for the past 17 years. Most recently, Dan was a faculty administrator at Collegiate School in Manhattan and, previously, taught at Sidwell Friends, DC, School Year Abroad Beijing, and SEED Public Charter School, DC. Dan is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher, an associate member of the Teacher's Advisory Board to the National Academy of Science, and a 2002 recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching. He holds degrees from Hamilton College and St. John's College and is currently completing a doctorate in Education Leadership at Columbia University Teachers College. His work at SEED Public Charter School was documented on ABC's Nightline and PBS' Life 360.

Dan lives with his wife and their children in Park Slope.

Luyen Chou is Chair of the Board of Trustees and co-founder of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School. He is Senior Vice President of SchoolNet, Inc. Recently, Luyen was Associate Head of The School at Columbia University where he was critical in the school's design and launch (Fall 2003) as well as the Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Learning and Teaching there. Previously, Luyen was Founder, President, and CEO of Learn Technologies Interactive, Inc. (LearnTech)—a NY-based company that develops innovative educational software tools and applications—and Director of Operations at the New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning's Dalton School in Manhattan. Luyen graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College. He writes and lectures extensively on curriculum design, educational technology, and interactive design—and consults with schools around the world.  Luyen is involved in numerous additional non-profit initiatives, including: Teachers’ Network, a non-profit involved in the development and delivery of innovative curriculum; MOUSE, a non-profit dedicated to integrating technology and learning in NYC's public schools; Black Rock Forest Consortium; Appleseed Foundation taskforce (www.nycenet.edu); and the NYC Department of Education HR Advisory Board. Luyen, his wife and two children are residents of Park Slope.

James Bernard is a community activist and nationally recognized leader on issues of popular culture, race and political action. Currently, James is an archivist for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as a business development consultant for National Heritage Academies.  Until last year, he ran national organizing campaigns and community outreach for the Service Employees International Union.
James founded the two leading hip-hop magazines, The Source and XXL, and has written about popular culture for the New York Times, the Village Voice and Entertainment Weekly and co-authored The Book of Rock and Rap Lists. In the 2004 election cycle, he founded and ran the Hip-Hop Civic Engagement Project, the country’s third largest nonpartisan voter registration drive, as well as the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, which brought 7000 activists to Newark.
James is the former executive coordinator of the Project Forum on Race and Democracy, a project of the Rockefeller Foundation, and has served on the Independent Judiciary Screening Panel, which selects nominees for the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of the Democratic Party. He was a commissioner for the National Criminal Justice Commission, whose report, The Real War on Crime, was a national bestseller.
In Brooklyn, James serves on Community Board 6, is a founding trustee and current vice-chair of the Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant and is a partner in the Bell House, a live music venue in Gowanus. James is an honors graduate of both Brown University and Harvard Law School. He lives with his wife and three children in Park Slope.  Their two school-age children attend Public School 107.

Anne Burns is currently Lower School Director of the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY. Formerly the Executive Director & Head of School at the Harlem Day Charter School in Manhattan, Anne brings to us a wealth of school governance and practical school administration experience. From 2004-2006 Anne served as Principal and Head of The School at Columbia University where she was critical in growing their new school program. Prior to her stint at Columbia, Anne served for 17 years in a variety of roles at The Brearley School, including that of teacher, Lower School Head, and Assistant Head of School. After completing degrees from Colgate University and Lesley College, Anne began her career in education at Friend's Central School in Philadelphia. She is a much sought after speaker and facilitator at educational and leadership conferences. Anne has served on a number of educational boards in addition to that of Brooklyn Prospect. Concurrent to her work at Hackley,  Anne serves as an advisory member and design team planning member for a new, global school due to open its flagship school in Manhattan in 2012.

Elizabeth Varley Camp is President of Phare Capital Inc., a merchant banking firm located in Manhattan. Ms. Camp has had 24 years of experience in the private equity industry.  Formerly a Managing Director of Healthpoint Capital Partners, a private equity firm exclusively focused on the orthopedic and dental device businesses, Elizabeth was also at Ewing Management Group, where she headed the Business Engagement Team. Prior to those firms, she was at Goldman Sachs for seven years, where she was a Managing Director in the Private Equity Group. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 1997, Ms. Camp was a General Partner at Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen, one of the industries’s pioneering firms, where she worked for 11 years. Ms. Camp was previously at Morgan Stanley, in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Capital Markets departments. Ms. Camp has served on the boards of Fountain View Inc., Rival Manufacturing, Bath Iron Works, Wells Aluminum Corporation and Ladish Company, Inc., as well as on the advisory board of 22 private equity funds. She is a member of the Board of Youth, I.N.C.
Ms. Camp received a B.A. from Williams College, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management.

Roger Fortune is Vice President at The Stahl Organization, a privately-held real estate investment and development firm.  He has ten years experience developing residential, retail and mixed-use projects.
 
Previously Roger was Senior Vice President for Real Estate at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP), a non-profit local development corporation created by the City of New York.  There Roger effected entitlements for approximately $2 billon of private development projects through coordination with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and other city agencies. Prior to joining DBP Roger served as Assistant Vice President in Real Estate Development at the NYCEDC, where he catalyzed economic development through executing approximately $800 million of private real estate investments on city-owned land. Roger’s private-sector real estate development experience includes Forest City Ratner Companies and Vornado Realty Trust.

Roger earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor of architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. The son of an educator, Roger lives with his wife and their two children live in Brooklyn.

Judith Hannaway is currently a director of Northstar Realty Finance (NRF) and a consultant to various financial institutions. A retired investment banker, Ms. Hannaway was most recently, a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank. She was previously a partner with Scudder Investments for 10 years where she specialized in closed end, off-shore and REIT funds. Prior to that Ms. Hannaway served as a partner at Kidder Peabody. A graduate of Newton College of the Sacred Heart, Ms. Hannaway holds an M.B.A. from Simmons College Graduate Program in Management.

Raising two children in NYC, Ms. Hannaway joins BPCS with a passion for public education and is especially interested in the area of teacher motivation. Her husband, Emad Zikry is Egyptian. Their travels have given Ms. Hannaway a clear view of international education, its successes and failures. Ms. Hannaway describes herself as coming from a “large family of academics in which education has always been important and an ever present topic of conversation.”

Pearl Rock Kane, an associate professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, holds the Klingenstein Family Chair for the Advancement of Independent School Education. A member of the first class of twelve Klingenstein Fellows in 1978, Professor Kane serves as the director of the Klingenstein Center, a position she has held since 1985, and advisor for the Master's degree programs. She holds a Master of Arts degree from Smith College and a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Kane taught and served as an administrator in public and private schools in Michigan, Massachusetts and New York. She has been active on several national boards including Editorial Projects, which publishes Education Week and Teacher Magazine. She serves as a trustee of Rice High School, a Catholic school in Harlem and on the foundation board of North Star Academy, a charter school in Newark, New Jersey. Professor Kane is editor of The First Year of Teaching: Real World Stories by America's Teachers, Independent Schools, Independent Thinkers and The Colors of Excellence: Hiring and Keeping Teachers of Color in Independent Schools. She has published numerous articles on issues of leadership, diversity, governance, and the attraction and retention of teachers. Her current areas of research focus on privatization, charter schools, and private school organization and governance. She is in the midst of finalizing a four-year study of charter schools in New York State.

Candice Olson brings a wealth of corporate and educational experience to Charter School Brooklyn. In addition to holding positions at Time Warner and American Express, she is the founder of a successful media company, iVillage, which was a pioneer in online peer group communities, applied to parenting, health, and other areas of concern to busy women. She led the company from 1994- 2001. NBC purchased the company in 2006 for $600 million. In recognition of Candice’s business contributions, she was awarded an Emmy for prime-time documentary television programming, the Matrix Award, the MIT Institute Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and the Innovations in Women’s Health Award. Candice has taught at MIT’s program for entrepreneurial leadership. Candice is an experienced outdoor educator serving Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School from 1973-1981. Since 2001, Candice has reengaged with education. She is currently a Trustee of the Convent of the Sacred Heart School and has served on the Board of Prep for Prep. She recently started The New York Attachment Center, which is being created to support schools--both mainstream and specialized-- working with children with attachment disorder in the New York area. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Educational Leadership at the Klingenstein Center and a Masters of Theology at Union Seminary, both at Columbia University. She received a B.A. from Stanford, and an MBA from Harvard. Her first book, Chapters: Create a Life of Exhilaration and Accomplishment in the Face of Change, was published in September 2001. She has spoken on many topics at the Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics, the World Economic Forum at Davos, MIT, Stanford, and many other venues. Candice is married and lives in New York City with her husband, Peter, who is the CEO of Random House. They have seven children, three adopted from other countries.

Eliza Swann is a partner with the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP. A member of the Mergers & Acquisitions practice group, she has concentrated in United States and international corporate transactions and has represented a broad range of clients in acquisitions and dispositions of publicly and privately held corporations and their assets. Eliza joined S&S in 1998. Her pro bono experience includes general advice to not-for-profit corporations and charitable foundations. Prior to joining S&S, Eliza was a law clerk for the U.S. Department of Justice and The Supreme Court of the State of Delaware. She received her JD degree, cum laude, from Cornell Law School and her BA degree, cum laude, from Williams College. A resident of Park Slope, Eliza is the daughter of a middle school English and history teacher whose 27 years of experience have seasoned Eliza’s interest in education.

Special Adviser:

Janice Savin-Williams will be serving on the advisory board. She is a Co-founder and Senior Principal of The Williams Capital Group L.P. Established in 1994 by Mrs. Savin-Williams and husband Christopher, Williams Capital is a full service investment banking firm that serves institutional investors and corporations worldwide in the fixed income and equity capital markets. Over the past five years, Williams Capital has ranked among the top 20 most active underwriters of U.S. investment grade corporate debt and; has served as lead or co-manager on over 600 public debt and equity offerings with a total face amount of over $800 billion. Extremely active in the New York City civic and not-for-profit landscape, Mrs. Savin-Williams received The African American Heritage Award by The City of New York, the Partnership with Children’s 2004 Ann Vanderbilt Award and the 2004 Business Leadership Award of the New York State Supreme Court. She has served on the board of both community and professional associations, including Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and North General Hospital. She currently sits on the board of directors of several not-for-profit organizations including The Fresh Air Fund, Women In Need and NAACP-ACTSO. Additionally, she is on the advisory board of Partnership with Children and a Corporate Club member of the Roundabout Theatre Company. She also serves on the board of directors of ISI, Inc.