Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A.
When asked “Where do you live?,” Cathryn Berger Kaye often answers “in Los Angeles and airports.” As president of CBK Associates, she has traveled throughout the United States and globally, providing conference keynotes, in-depth institutes, and school on-site consultations with tailored education and learning resources. Her expertise spans service learning, intercultural understanding, social and emotional learning, creative curriculum design, youth engagement and leadership, effective teacher strategies, and environmental sustainability, all towards infusing social justice into the mainstream of education. Her work is highly engaging while exemplifying best teaching practices. She consulted extensively with the International Baccalaureate Organization as a lead co-author of the Diplomma Programme CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) Guide with additional influence on the Middle Years Programme and the Career-Related Programme.
A former teacher, Cathryn engages participants and collaborators with practical ideas that work, poignant stories worth remembering, and strategies that enliven teaching and learning. With years of experience in diverse settings—including teaching in rural, suburban and urban schools—she knows the importance of a community’s landscape. By visiting schools in 63 countries, she has a deep appreciation for all the dedicated educators who care deeply about our children and our world. She is known for sustained relationships that build internal capacity for excellence.
She is the author of The Complete Guide to Service Learning and two books with environmental advocate Philippe Cousteau, Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Earth’s Ocean, Lakes, Rivers & Wetlands and Make a Splash! A Kid’s Guide to Saving Earth’s Ocean, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands. She has also written a series of Kid’s Guides tackling the subjects of climate change and global warming, hunger and homeless, reading, protecting and caring for animals. Her first published book, Word Works–Why the Alphabet is a Kid’s Best Friend , was written to keep the joy of writing alive for children.
Maureen Connolly, Ed.D.
Maureen Connolly has been an award-winning English teacher in Long Island, New York for fifteen years. She is currently a professor of secondary education at The College of New Jersey, and she has also taught at The College of New Jersey, Molloy College, Adelphi University, and Queens College. She has overseen service learning grants for the New York Metropolitan Area and collaborated on publications related to service learning. She has developed standards-based initiatives that link community outreach, character education, literacy, and 21st century skills, presenting at regional, national, and international conferences.
Maureen is an Honoree for the ASCD Outstanding Young Educator of the Year and won a LEAD Award from St. John’s University. She received an international fellowship from Teachers for the Global Classroom to teach in Morocco. Her international experience also includes volunteering in India, Ghana, Peru, and Spain.
Through CBK Associates, Maureen has led professional development in the United States and Eastern Europe, for K-12 educators, administrators, and university faculty, and she is key to planning, developing, and delivering content for the Youth Leadership Council program in NYC. Of special concern have been integrating service learning across the curriculum, understanding reflection, and Meeting Common Core Standards through a service learning lens.
Maureen is the co-author of three books: Language Arts, Grades 6-12: How to Meet the Common Core State Standards with Lessons from the Classroom, Getting to the Core of Literacy for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, Grades 6-12, and Achieving Next Generation Literacy: Using the Tests (You Think) You Hate to Help the Students You Love, all written with Vicky Giouroukakis.
Christopher Dadefumi
Christopher Dadefumi (Chris), ArkPhilosophy and CBK Associates, and a native of Detroit, Michigan, is an exhibiting visual artist, educator, organizer, and activist. With expertise in youth leadership development and anti-racist education, Chris addresses bias awareness, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in his workshops with youth and adults, in and outside schools.
Chris assists teams in strategic planning, rethinking core values, and community engagement with an approach that is both challenging and uplifting. He brings extensive experience guiding individuals and organizations in locating, naming, and dismantling policies and practices—ways of thinking and being—that produce and reproduce inequities while inviting examination of internalized biases and beliefs.
As senior consultant to CBK Associates’ Youth Leadership Council initiative with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Service, he has guided our work with the NY Police Department through in-person and virtual workshops, along with videos that promote understanding of bias and equity.
Chris is a recipient of the 2014 Partnership for Afterschool Education’s Pacesetter Award. He is the first ever Bisexual (Fluid or B-identified) Grand Marshal in the history of the NYC Pride March.
Shei Ascencio, M.A.
Shei Ascencio describes herself as an international educator, learner, consultant, workshop leader, online facilitator, and at heart mum, partner, friend, traveler and foodie. Shei comes from Mexico with almost two decades of experience living and working in Africa, Asia and North America. Shei recently relocated to Canada after several years of living in Luanda, Angola and teaching at the Luanda International School (LIS).
As part of CBK Associates, Shei facilitates and guides the development of service learning in international schools in Eritrea, Uzbekistan, China, and Angola among others. She is a fully trained educator in the Primary Years (PYP), Middle Years (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP) and an active member in the International Baccalaureate Educator Network (IBEN) Her current focus is strengthening practice of service learning through the creativity, activity and service element of the DP.
As an online facilitator and team member of MastermindEd, Shei facilitates personalized learning for educators through digital spaces with a focus on service learning. As a result of student-initiated action at the Luanda International School where she recently taught, Shei is an advocate for women’s and girls’ access to menstrual education and care products. Her students’ work with girls and women in a refugee setting in north Angola was featured by Ruby Cup (“a savvy period company fighting for equality”) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Angola.
Jonathan Davis, Ph.D.
Jonathan Davis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Secondary Education at The College of New Jersey. His research emphasizes best practices for preparing new teachers. His teaching philosophy is drawn from years working as a public secondary school social studies teacher in northern Kentucky and New York City, and his work teaching in South Africa.
Jonathan has dedicated his education career to fostering strong youth-adult partnerships, enhancing college-career readiness, promoting social justice, and developing the leadership skills of students and educators. He has presented at local, state, regional, and national conferences and workshops. He supports students becoming college and career ready through service and project-based learning.
Through CBK Associates, Jonathan designs and leads professional development around youth-adult partnerships, addressing community needs in New York City through the Youth Leadership Council program. He is the author of Classroom Management in Teacher Education Programs.
Erin Threlfall
Erin Threlfall is an artist and educator, passionate about invigorating teaching and learning through the arts. Originally from the U.S., Erin is now Assistant Principal at the International School of Lausanne. She has taught at schools in Ghana, South Korea, Togo, and Bali and previously served as the Director of Service Learning at the United Nation International School in New York.
An expert in social and emotional, child-centered, and inquiry-based learning, Erin brings to CBK Associates a focus on nurturing global citizenship, happiness, and social activism within children. She created “Happiness 101: Teaching Our Children the Habits for Happiness.” She has also contributed to CBK Associates’ Social Emotional Dynamics advisory program, used in more than a dozen independent and international schools.
A TEDx speaker, Erin has delivered keynotes and workshops for parents and educators. As a writer, she has contributed to World Mom’s Network, The Huffington Post, The Gates’ Foundation, and Union Station Magazine.
Erin continually brings a fresh vision and insight to her work, engaging youth and educators in charting personal pathways for growth.
LeeAnne Lavender
LeeAnne Lavender is an experienced international educator, committed to service learning and global citizenship ever since attending an introductory workshop by Cathryn Berger Kaye in 2010 at an Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) conference.
She served as the Service Learning coordinator for the AISA region from 2013 – 2015, recently resuming that position as a consultant. In 2018, she teamed with a colleague in Shanghai to found the Shanghai Service and Sustainability Network, continuing to serve as a coordinator of that network for three years.
LeeAnne is now based back in her home country of Canada as she continues to work with educators worldwide.
Laurence Myers
Laurence Myers works in the confluence of service learning, global citizenship and sustainability with an occasional smattering of outdoor and/or environmental education. His hybrid educational role with schools focuses on thought leadership, instructional coaching, systems thinking facilitation, and shifting educational culture to catalyze sustainable institutional culture and curricular change.
Currently, as K-12 Service Learning Coordinator at the American School of Dubai, Laurence leads, coordinates and supports the embedding of a dynamic school-wide program – Changemaker Education – that shifts the teaching and learning environment ever-so-gently to the paradigm shift we hope for. In addition to being a consultant with CBK Associates, Laurence is a workshop trainer for Compass Education, a not-for-profit organization focusing on sustainability education through systems thinking processes and tools.
Laurence’s expertise is the ideation, facilitation, partnership, and support of authentic learning experiences practical for teachers and students, ideally together. Whether in a whole-school strategic plan or in an in-class learning experience, Laurence’s wealth of contextual experience can support the needs of any educational community.