Literature Based MiniGrant

Amanda Schoepflin Kovac has twelve years of experience working as a classroom teacher. Formerly an Elementary Literacy Coach, she now serves as a Reading Specialist in the Onteora district. Her coaching and teaching philosophy is three dimensional; dream and set goals, dedicate time and enthusiasm towards those goals, and deliver to all. A leader in curriculum reform, research based instructional practices, and increasing student achievement levels, she is committed to creating equitable and joyful literacy experiences. She passionately provides educators, families, and students memorable opportunities towards lifelong reading and writing. Amanda lives in Saugerties, NY with her three young children. All three are learning words at a rapid rate! JOYcabulary was sparked by an experience her four-year-old daughter had with the multiple meanings of the word duck.

Linda Szakmary has five decades of experience working as a classroom teacher, a district curriculum writer, a district facilitator of K-5 writing, and as a county K-8 literacy coach. She now works for Sullivan and Orange-Ulster BOCES as a content specialist. A poetry advocate and a lover of words and children’s literature, she has been a presenter at several state-wide conferences on vocabulary and writing. Currently, she is working with the staff developers at Mossflower to study intermediate vocabulary instruction within a reading workshop. Linda lives in Stone Ridge, NY where she enjoys gardening, yoga, reading, and rooting for the Yankees. You can often find her on a beach searching for sea glass. 

Council Service Awards

Adirondack

Kerry Babson an AIS Reading teacher at Hartford Central School. She has been a teacher for 17 years having taught Special Education, 1st grade, 4th grade, and now AIS Reading. She is passionate about helping children find the joy in reading, which is why she joined the Adirondack Reading Council 8 years ago. She is also on the board for The Greater Capital Region Teacher Center and volunteers at Nipper Knolls, a non-profit organization who provides people of different abilities the opportunity to experience the joys of horsemanship. When Kerry is not working or volunteering, she enjoys spending time with her family and 3 dogs.   

Mid-Hudson

Literacy is Karen Maher’s passion. She received her Ph.D. from SUNY Albany. Karen teaches at the elementary and graduate levels, and she is a District Literacy Leader. Karen is the current President of NYSRA as well as President of the Mid-Hudson Reading Council. In all her roles, Karen honors and celebrates the ways in which classroom educators utilize children’s literature to open classroom discussions of (in)equities and (in)justices, thus re-envisioning the life-stories of students through multiple perspectives and expanded definitions of self/others.

Richard L. Allington Research Award

Marcia A. Ranieri, EdD is currently the Assistant Director of Student Attendance & Engagement for Schenectady City Schools and is tasked with lowering the chronic absenteeism rate for students in an effort to get them back into school each day. Prior to coming into this role Dr. Ranieri was the Director of World Languages and English as a New Language for Guilderland Central Schools for 12 years. She was also a Vice Principal and Spanish Teacher for West Genesee Central Schools to start her career in education. Dr. Ranieri is on the executive board for NYSASCD, GLSEN, and a proud member of NYSAWA. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, tending to her plant collection, and attending her son’s sporting events. Marcia resides in Schenectady, NY with her son Chandler and is currently reading all sorts of non-academic books since she just defended her dissertation in July 2024. Dr. Ranieri can be reached at raniem@sage.edu.

Literacy Advocate Award

Rebecca Cohen has focused her entire career on increasing access to opportunity for kids and teens. After graduating with a B.A. from Brandeis University, she joined Teach For America and taught middle school in Baltimore, Maryland while simultaneously earning her MA from Johns Hopkins University. She then taught in Weslaco, Texas, as well as in Brooklyn, New York, where she currently lives. Teacher of the Year in her school district, Rebecca’s students achieved significant gains while engaging in experiential, inquiry-based learning. Rebecca followed her passion for teaching and learning by engaging in a variety of leadership roles, curriculum development, and educator coaching, ultimately increasing efficacy, instruction, and student impact.

As an educator and mother, she has seen the difference that access to the knowledge found in books and the joy in choosing what to read can do for a child. She co-founded the Brooklyn Book Bodega to foster literacy and agency among children and adolescents through book ownership, choice, discovery, and access. The mission of Brooklyn Book Bodega is to increase the number of 100+ book homes in NYC for kids 0-18 because kids who read have more opportunity in life. It does this through the development of intentional community and partnership. Since its inception in December 2018, Brooklyn Book Bodega has given away more than half a million books to more than 160,000 New Yorkers.

Seema Aghera currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and Cofounder of the Brooklyn Book Bodega.  Seema grew up in Rolla, Missouri as a child of immigrant parents from India. Since travel was limited to trips in the family station wagon, books opened windows to the world beyond her daily experiences and childhood home. She believes all families, regardless of their financial circumstances, should have choice and access to high quality, diverse reading materials for their home libraries to build lifelong readers. With a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and a career in management consulting, she combined her skills in process management, deep experience in community service, and passion for building strong thriving communities to co-found the Brooklyn Book Bodega in 2018. 

The Brooklyn Book Bodega brings together families and children across the five boroughs and provides them with an opportunity to learn, imagine, and dream about the world. In addition to organizing hundreds of book giveaways, Seema has guided the Brooklyn Book Bodega from a bold idea to a streamlined, successful, effective nonprofit organization that has benefited, at last count, 160,000 New Yorkers. Since its founding, the Brooklyn Book Bodega has distributed more than half a million free books. The organization has highlighted that book access need not be limited to only schools and libraries but should also be woven into the daily lives of families and children. Directly inspired by the Brooklyn Book Bodega, coaches, health care clinics, and neighbors helping neighbors, to name a few, now distribute books to support childhood literacy and home libraries. Seema currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three teenage daughters.

Membership Excellence Award

Due to the the dedicated efforts of Tricia Clark, President, Elizabeth Klein, Secretary, Keith Newvine, Treasurer, and Clara Kaplan, Past-President, the Westchester Reading Council has been brought back to life with a 220% increase in membership!