Education Program

Meg Anderson brings more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, curriculum leader and principal in traditional and alternative education settings. In addition, she has had 11 years of experience as the director of the Principal Residency Network, a principal training and credentialing program (a partnership between the Center for Collaborative Education and Northeastern University), and as a school redesign coach, advising principals and district leaders and providing professional development for teacher leadership, advisory programs, curriculum development, teacher evaluation and team development. She is currently an educational consultant and facilitator.

Barbara Collins has been coaching teacher leaders since the Teacher Leadership Program began in 2015 and teaches ED 259, an online course on the uses of data for teacher leaders. Collins is passionate about supporting institutional change through shared leadership, instructional practices that meet the needs of all students, and systems to implement best practices in the field of literacy. She was a literacy specialist for the Newton, Massachusetts, Public Schools for more than 25 years and went on to become an elementary school principal and then K-8 District Literacy Director and Title 1 Director for the Needham, Massachusetts, Public Schools. In addition to teaching at Brandeis, she consults and coaches individuals and school districts.

Tricia Clifford started coaching for the Teacher Leadership Program in 2023. She currently serves as Assistant Superintendent of Bedford Public Schools. Dr. Clifford graduated with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from the University of Maine at Farmington, an M.Ed. from Boston College in School Administration, and an Ed.D from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in Language and Literacy. During her time as an administrator, which includes assistant/principal and assistant superintendent positions, her work has focused on harnessing instructional leadership to improve teaching and learning for all students. Dr. Clifford works with central office personnel, school principals and curriculum leaders to focus on improving the educational program for students with a lens toward using data to inform instruction, and implement culturally and linguistically sustaining practices.

Sharon Feiman-Nemser is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor of Jewish Education emerita. Since coming to Brandeis in 2000, she founded the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and the DeLeT Fellowship which evolved into the MAT program with concentrations for public school and Jewish day school teachers. She also co-directs the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program. A former high school English teacher, Feiman-Nemser is a scholar of teacher education and learning to teach. A collection of her writings, "Teachers as Learners," was published by Harvard Education Press.

Peter Garbus is a coach in the Teacher Leadership Program. He has been a school leader and high school teacher for over 30 years in 7 different schools, from small urban public to large suburban to small rural independent to urban charter. He strives to keep students at the center, helping all develop strong academic foundations and learn to use their minds well. As a school leader, Peter listens to all voices and works to build strong practices in support of inclusive school culture and excellent instruction. He received a B.A. in History from Brown University and an M. Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Marion Gribetz is a faculty member of the Shoolman Graduate of Jewish Education and is the director of educational initiatives at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. She teaches in, oversees and directs all aspects of many professional learning programs at the college, including the Pardes Educator Program and community initiatives in teacher learning.

Before coaching teacher leaders, Marion taught in the Jewish Day School track of the MAT Program on topics of Jewish content and education.

Minna H. Heilpern is a veteran Jewish educator with a passion for nurturing and supporting teachers and administrators and significant experience as a Jewish educational leader in teacher education and mentoring. She is a trained mentor through the Jewish New Teacher Project and was a fellow in Cohort IV of the Mandel Teacher Educator’s Institute.

In addition to being a coach in the Teacher Leadership Program/Jewish Day School Fellowship, Heilpern is also director of professional development at the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Before her work as a coach, Heilpern was an assistant principal at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, New Jersey. She also served as the director of the Teachers’ Center and director of Teacher Education at Jewish Educational Services (JES) of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. Heilpern holds a BA in Judaic studies from the University of Massachusetts and an MA in Jewish communal service with a concentration in Jewish Education from Brandeis University.

Shira Horowitz is currently a coach and a course assistant in the AGS EdM program. She co-taught ED 264a Foundations of Education, a course taken during the first summer of the public elementary and Jewish day school concentrations of the MAT. Horowitz spent many years teaching kindergarten and first grade in a Jewish day school in the Boston area. She also worked as a mentor teacher and field instructor in the Jewish day school concentration of the MAT Program from 2002 to 2021.

Marya R. Levenson is Professor of the Practice in Education and Director Emerita of the Education Program. She was a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, principal of Newton North High School, and superintendent of the North Colonie Schools. She is the founder of the Brandeis Education Studies Program and co-director of the Teacher Leadership Program. Levenson is the author of Pathways to Teacher Leadership: Emerging Models, Changing Roles.

Jed Lippard currently serves as the Chief Learning Officer at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge. In this role, he oversees teaching and learning, curriculum and instruction, adult growth and development, and educational innovation PreK-12. Prior to joining BB&N, Jed served as the Dean of Children's Programs and the Head of the School for Children at the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Previously, he spent more than two decades teaching and leading in two innovative public charter schools in Massachusetts. Jed holds doctoral and Master’s degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University. His research focuses on differentiated instructional leadership for adult growth and development in schools.

Aviva Scheur teaches ED 253 Improving Teaching and Learning in the Classroom and serves as a coach in the Brandeis Teacher Leadership Program. Previously, she worked as the Shin Shin supervisor for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, as education director at several synagogues, and as the head of the Tanakh department and leader of professional development at Gann Academy. Aviva has taught Pedagogy of Tanakh in the Brandeis MAT Program, presented at many conferences on teaching and learning and is a contributing author to The Power of Teacher Rounds: A Guide for Facilitators, Principals, and Department Chairs, by Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles.

Cynthia Shulak-Rome has been working as a coach for the Teacher Leadership program since it began in 2015. She serves as the alumni specialist for the Delet Alumni Network, planning and facilitating professional development programming for Brandeis' Delet/MAT alumni and day school teachers in our partner day schools. Prior to Delet, Shulak-Rome worked as a Jewish educator with her primary focus being supplementary school education.

A founding member of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, Mass., she also served as education director of the congregation’s religious school for five years. Shulak-Rome served on the Board of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) from 1998-2004, and on the JRF Executive Committee as Education Vice President from 2006-2008. Shulak-Rome received a master’s degree in education and speech-language pathology from University of California Santa Barbara and did her undergraduate work at University of Michigan. She also participated in the two-year Mandel Teacher Educator Institute, a rigorous professional development program for teachers of teachers in Jewish education.