Rebecca is thrilled to serve the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation as the Director of Education. Rebecca attended Ithaca College in upstate New York, where she studied oboe performance and history. She began her career as a 7th grade English teacher in the South Bronx as a Teach For America corps member, then spent time teaching in Brooklyn, NY at Achievement First before obtaining a dual master’s in Library Science and Humanities at Long Island University and New York University. Her undergraduate thesis was on the McKinley assassination and the emergence of the conservation movement under Theodore Roosevelt, and her master’s thesis was on the dramatic literature of Bertolt Brecht and the everyday “performance” of German complicity in Nazi Germany. After realizing that her true love is inspiring middle schoolers to read, she left academia to return to the classroom in Newark, NJ. She spent five years teaching 8th grade English and serving as an Academic Dean before becoming a history curriculum director for Uncommon Schools, a major charter school network across New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. In her current role, she serves the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal community in fulfilling all of their educational endeavors. She also works with the Connecticut State Department of Education to write curriculum, serves on the board of Connecticut Council for the Social Studies, consults on Indigenous slavery with the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, works with CT Humanities and the CT Democracy Center on CT History Day, serves on the America 250 Education Sub-Committee for Connecticut, and is a participant in groups working to indigenize the CT State community college system and to bring more affordable high-quality childcare to Southeastern Connecticut. When she is not teaching, Rebecca enjoys reading, cooking vegetarian cuisine and singing karaoke. She loves then National Park Service and anything related to Broadway and showtunes. She lives with her daughter, husband and two cats in Stonington, CT.
Services
- Oversees all elements of MPTN Education Department
- Supports Tribal families in accessing top-notch educational opportunities at all levels
- Advocates for Tribal students and families at the school, district and state levels
- Creates Pequot curriculum for the CT State Department of Education
- Develops American teachers in their ability to teach Indigenous studies
- Works with local organizations and institutions to propose Pequot interests
- Oversees instruction and operations at CDC
- Supports families in finding high-quality early childhood education
