Staff and Interns

New Haven Reads has four year round employees: Christine Alexander, Executive Director; Tanya Smith, Assistant Director for Tutoring; Rachel Zeile, Assistant Director for Books; Sunny Jonas, Assessment Consultant and Kindergarten Director. In addition to the year-round staff, summer interns from Yale and Harvard and area high schools coordinate summer programs.

Christine Alexander, Executive Director	Christine Alexander is a graduate of Duke University and worked for a number of years in Maryland as a pediatric nurse. She has had extensive experience in educational programs as a volunteer.	Tanya Smith, Assistant Director in charge of the Tutoring Program	Tanya Smith, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, has had extensive classroom teaching experience as well as having developed curriculum for grades K through 9. Her career in education has included teacher training and student assessment. She has also worked at juvenile probation in Pennsylvania, and, most recently, managed a busy design office in Connecticut.

Rachel Zeile, Assistant Director in charge of the Book Program	Rachel Zeile is a cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College. She has extensive experience as an archivist, a tutor, and a manager. She is conversational in German and Spanish. She has a number of original primary source-based works to her credit.	Sunny Jonas, Assessment and Kindergarten Program Director	A graduate of the University of Chicago and holding two master’s degrees, one from Columbia University’s Teachers College in Education Leadership and one from Lewis and Clark College in the arts of Teaching, Sunny Jonas organizes our Kindergarten Success by Six program and assesses the participants.

Shelley Stein, Assistant Director in charge of the Book Program	Shelley Stein graduated from the University of Tennessee and Lincoln University , where she earned her Master's in elementary education. Shelley has worked in the field of public relations and is an experienced elementary school teacher in urban areas. She is passionate about books and reading, and has a reading specialist certification, along with K-6 CT certification.	Jonathan Lassonde, Intern	A native of New Haven, Jonathan Lassonde is currently a junior at Yale University, majoring in psychology. As part of the Yale Reading Corps, Jon has enjoyed tutoring at the Book Bank since January, 2008. Jon's summer internship is sponsored by the Presidential Public Service Fellow program at Yale.

Synne Chapman, Intern	A native of Connecticut, Synne Chapman is a rising sophomore at Harvard College in Cambridge. Her summer internship at New Haven Reads is sponsored by the Harvard Club of Southern Connecticut. In addition to acting as the summer leader of our Writing Club, Synne is responsible for tutoring, and organizing the delivery of our books.