Lisa Karlin, a clinical social worker, has been our early childhood consultant since 2016. Lisa has worked with highly respected schools and programs around New York City. A licensed social worker (LCSW), she earned her master’s in social work from New York University. She has also done coursework at Bank Street College of Education and she studied family dynamics at The Ackerman Institute. A lifelong New Yorker, Lisa’s post-graduate education has focused on child development and special education and she maintains a private practice in Brooklyn Heights. She loves nothing more than spending time with children and teachers in the classroom and meeting with parents.
Brandy Antonio is an artist and educator from New York who specializes in drawing, painting and collage incorporating influences from her time spent living in Tokyo and Berlin. Brandy earned her BFA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology and her master’s in art education from New York University. She is the co-founder of Legacy Foundation Japan, an organization established in 2020 to encourage and inform cross-cultural relationships between the Japanese and African American community.
Brandy has over 15 years of teaching experience including teaching at Reggio-inspired schools, at a high school, adult learners and abroad. She designed her own curriculum and founded The Paper Mosaic Portrait Project (2023), a community-based project exploring identity and portraiture through paper mosaics. Brandy has exhibited in the United States as well as internationally continuously expanding on ideas upon play and process-based art.
Rosemary has been teaching in a Jewish preschool setting since 1999 and here at Stephen Wise since 2003. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theater, and a child development associate credential. She has furthered her formal knowledge of children with courses and workshops from Bank Street College of Education, the Jewish Early Childhood Association, and the Board of Jewish Education. In 2007, the ECC sent her to Reggio Emilia, Italy where she was privileged to participate in the week-long study tour of its preschools. A later-in-life-career-changer, she discovered her mother was right when she assessed her as a late bloomer: Having spent a decade as a dance stage manager, a decade promoting issues and ideas for nonprofits, and a decade writing marketing and advertising materials for a legal journalism company, Rosemary eventually arrived where she, and her heart, really belong — in a Jewish preschool classroom. Rosemary’s writings on spiritual practice have been published in the national magazine Spirituality & Health and in the 2004 book “Fifty Ways to Feed Your Soul,” of which she was the editor. Her photographs have been exhibited in group shows in New Jersey and New York City.
Sheila has been at the ECC for the past 17 years. She has a bachelor’s in education from City College. In 2006 Sheila attended the North American Study Group in Reggio Emilia Italy. She has been on the Leadership Committee and on the ECC Strategic Planning Committee. Sheila has a passion for hearing children’s ideas and exploring the Possibilities Place, where children explore the found objects, discuss their ideas, and make their ideas come alive.
