Zeke Vanderhoek, Founder & Principal

The Equity Project Charter School concept was created by Zeke Vanderhoek, who is also TEP's first Principal. Zeke was the founder  of Manhattan GMAT (www.manhattangmat.com), a national GMAT test-preparation company, which he built with no outside investment. Zeke began his educational career as a 6th and 8th grade teacher at I.S. 90, a public middle school in Washington Heights (NYC). He has a B.A. from Yale University and a Masters in Philosophy & Education from Teachers College at Columbia University.


TEP Board of Trustees

David Coleman is the founder of the Grow Network, a part of McGraw-Hill Education. A Rhodes Scholar, Coleman became involved in education as an undergraduate at Yale, founding the Branch program. In England, he was a lecturer at the University of London before going to work in the pro bono education area of McKinsey & Company. The Grow Network, acquired by McGraw-Hill in 2005,  has become the nation’s leader in assessment reporting and customized instructional materials. David has recently founded Student Achievement Partners. The organization assembles leading thinkers and researchers to design actions that will substantially improve student achievement.  The group integrates rigorous policy analysis, research, and design to focus entirely on the most significant outcomes for students.  Student Achievement Partners serves foundations and school districts.

Marielys Divanne graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing becoming the first Dominican woman to receive an MFA degree in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University. She was born in the Dominican Republic where she lived before moving to New York at the age of 10. Divanne attended public schools in Washington Heights, St. Pius V High School in the South Bronx, and completed a degree in Secondary Education and English Literature at Boston College, where she led the Latino Student Organization and received the Oscar Romero Scholarship for outstanding leadership and community Service. She worked for School Choice Scholarships as the Associate Director and has been an organizer with the Metro New York Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) since January 2000, as Lead Organizer of South Bronx Churches and currently with Manhattan Together, the Manhattan IAF Affiliate. She also volunteers her time as the Chair of the Professional/ Graduate Chapter of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/ Lambda Pi Chi Sorority Incorporated, the first Latina Sorority started at an Ivy League institution (Cornell University 1988).

Nitzan Pelman is the Executive Director of Citizen Schools New York. Citizen Schools was founded in 1995 to bring new solutions to young adult education. The program complements classroom learning by engaging students in hands-on learning projects with adult volunteers after school. Prior to joining Citizen Schools, she served as Assistant Director of the Office of New Teacher Induction at the New York City Department of Education, and helped create a mentoring program for 6,500 new teachers. She also served as the Associate Director of the Office of Accountability where she helped develop, design, and implement the citywide "learning environment survey" administered to 1.8 million people. As Development Director for Teach For America New York, she organized the first young professionals' leadership group. Nitzan has participated in CORO's Leadership New York program and served in special project capacities at KIPP and at New Leaders for New Schools. She is a graduate of New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Stern College for Women.

Dr. Toral Surti is a neuroscientist and resident in psychiatry at Yale University. As a physician and scientist, Dr. Surti has educational and operational expertise in the area of health services as well as experience and research in neuroscience and the biology of learning. Dr. Surti brings an important health services perspective to the Board, as TEP fulfills its responsibility to educate students with varying abilities, disabilities, and special needs.

Laura Tavormina has served as Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) since 1990. She brings deep financial, operational, and facilities expertise to TEP’s Board. WSFSSH, a leading supportive housing provider located in New York City, was organized in 1977 and since then has built close to 1,400 units of housing in Manhattan and the Bronx. As Deputy Director of WSFSSH, Ms. Tavormina is responsible for agency-wide financial matters including financial reporting and audits, budgeting, cash management, tax reporting and government contracts. She has primary operations oversight for the areas of property management, asset management and information technology. She is also a key member of the development team that is responsible for creating new real estate projects for the agency.

Susanna Tenny is an expert in school finance and educational accountability and is currently engaged in assisting schools with operations, curriculum, assessment, and professional development in her role as an Achievement Coach for a network of 21 NYC DOE schools. Previously, Susanna worked for the NYC DOE’s Deputy Chancellor for Accountability. She was responsible for crafting an innovative accountability tool through which schools are measured based on the contribution they make to their students’ learning. Susanna trained principals and superintendents on the accountability tools, and worked closely with school support personnel to support principals in using data to improve student achievement. Prior to this role, Susanna worked for the NYC DOE budget office where she developed and maintained formulas used to allocate approximately 6 billion dollars annually. Susanna also spent six years teaching high school mathematics in Oakland and New York City.

Zeke Vanderhoek – see above.