Hey you all – this is such an exciting opportunity for me for a few reasons. I am currently a middle school English teacher in an urban district in Lexington, Kentucky. I also work with our statewide Holocaust education initiative with the University of Kentucky. Our state passed a mandate in 2018 that all middle and high school students should encounter Holocaust education in middle and high school, so we are working hard to ensure that those encounters are rich, worthwhile, and shared with empathy and accuracy. I contribute to this effort primarily as our teacher leadership coordinator. But, as a Jewish person, though I’ve studied the Holocaust informally my whole life, I am eager to raise my level of scholarship and contribute academically, too.
New York is also a very special place to me. I went to Barnard College in the ‘80s and found out who I was taking long walks down Broadway and around the upper west side. And though I spent just a short four years there, few memories envelop me as completely as my first New York snowfall, the heat coming off the pavement in the summer, this one remarkable night at the Rainbow Room, or the many nights at Cannon’s Pub sitting on sticky bar stools. Both of these places are closed now, and the city is almost unrecognizable to me the few times I’ve visited NYC since graduating, but the sense of the place, the way it feels to cross a busy street against the light, the pizza on every corner. I just love it so much.
Though I grew up in Northern California, I’ve lived in Kentucky for the last 25 years. My husband and I have one daughter, Sophie, who is a sophomore at Carleton College in Minnesota – so we miss her very much. We’ve three cats, and I adore them. And, when I’m not working, I sing in a Peter, Paul, and Mary tribute band, which grew out of singing at services at my temple.
With two weeks of school remaining (but who’s counting), there is a lot to do before we see each other. When we do, I look forward to having a clear mind and time to think – rare commodities in a teacher’s life.
Erica Kaufman 
Gatsinzi Basaninyenzi 
lthompson 
SueFletcher 
Klaudia Neufeld 
Lori Menning