Administration and Operations

Paula Stamler Resnick Founder and Executive Director
Paula’s inspiration to develop The Meeting House came from her experience as the mother of children in New York City.  Paula holds a BA from Northwestern and a Master’s in Public Administration and Management from New York University.  She has been involved in local philanthropy for many years as both a funder and fundraiser and has served on boards and committees of various charities in education, global development, healthcare, arts- in-education and aging.  For almost two decades she was an executive in the national healthcare field managing all aspects of operations and marketing for healthcare facilities throughout the east coast.  After working for the Ira M. Resnick Foundation as Executive Director for over ten years, Paula is currently the President of the Board of Trustees and Executive Director of The Meeting House.

We are so happy to have found The Meeting House! Every Thursday morning, my daughter wakes up and exclaims, “It’s a Meeting House day!” She absolutely loves it! All of the teachers and therapists are amazing in how they work with these children. I am impressed with the level of attention the children receive and how wonderful the entire community is there.
— Mother of 7 year old girl from NYC public school

Dan SullivanDirector, Operations and Communications 
As part of the original team, Dan helped to establish the Meeting House organization from its inception and launch in 1999.  He contributes to strategy and ongoing business operations, as well as guiding marketing and communications.  Dan provides thirty years of executive, creative and consumer marketing experience, having launched and directed media businesses in both print and online.  Prior to the development of The Meeting House, he worked in the media industry as SVP/General Manager & Group Publisher at Nickelodeon, SVP/General Manger at US Magazine and SVP of Manufacturing & Information Systems at Rolling Stone.

Olga Daniel — Administrator
Olga joins us after three years working at NYC Outward Bound Schools. As Administrator she serves as our parent coordinator and handles administrative and operational questions that arise for new and returning families. Olga brings a diverse and rich background as a graphic designer and we are excited to see her impact on our communications. She has worked in creative operations and over the past decade. Olga can be reached at odaniel@themeetinghouseafterschool.org.

Program Leadership

Steven Rubin, MSW
— SEL Director of The Meeting House Youth and Young Adult Programs
For the past five years, he has been the clinical social worker and the Director of Teen Programming at The Meeting House. He is a graduate of New York University with a Masters in Social Work, and also trained at The Educational Alliance, the 14th St Y and the Jewish Board for Children and Family Service. Channeling his own experiences and challenges throughout college he brings a unique lens to his work with this population. Steven has continued to help us expand our scope and outreach. He continues to transform our platform to include more peer role models as well educate and train students from high school, college and graduate school in a direct service capacity. He runs weekly groups with our afterschool, teen and college populations in concert with a creative and diverse professional team of artists, educators and therapists at our new Meeting House East space. He also supervises our Lunch and Learn Program in partnership with Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School where we serve K-5 in a school wide, multiple day a week culturally responsive SEL marriage of minds.

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Kim McGarveySocial Worker
As a clinical social worker who specializes in infant and early childhood development, Kim received her Masters in Social Work from New York University and studied infant and parent development at Bank Street College of Education.  Kim has worked with infants, children and parents in hospital, school and mental health settings for 22 years.  She has experience working with typically developing children, as well as children with chronic illness, special needs and infants born prematurely.  For the past 15 years, Kim has been the Associate Program Coordinator of the Pacella Parent Child Center.  Her responsibilities included facilitating the infant/toddler socialization groups and supervising graduate students who were learning about early childhood development and clinical work with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

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Ife Lenard TMALS Parent Group Facilitator & Senior Educator/Clinician
Ife holds a B.S. in Human Ecology and two Masters from Columbia University, in both Clinical Social Work and Educational Leadership.  She is also an independent Strategic Coach to school leaders, Professor to graduate students, and Staff Developer to educators and clinicians.  Before that, Ife was a School Leader (Dean and then Principal) for over 10 years of high-achieving, high performing schools, Pre-K - 8th grade.  She started her career as a school-linked Social Worker before teaching biology and physics.  Her service-leadership has created schools and programs that build relationships in a different, more human way.  They embrace holistic development for staff and children alike.  Ife Lenard's commitment to intentional spaces and practices is evident in her work.

Will Fletcher Will has a Masters in Education from Bank Street College and is dual certified in both special and general education.  He is currently a co-teacher in our school-aged, teen and college programs offered at Meeting East.  When not at The Meeting House, Will works at the Churchill School as a head teacher in the 5th grade. He loves working with students in a recreational way as well and has been a basketball and baseball coach as well as an academic coach, tutor and facilitator. 

Ben Freeman — Facilitator
Ben is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Divinity School. His transformative work includes intergenerational arts programs, nondenominational spiritual care in hospital & long-term care contexts, teaching and leadership development. 

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Patricia Saidenberg — Co-Chair, TMH Board, Juniors Co -Teacher
Patricia graduated from Washington University George Washington - Wilcott Fellow, MBA, , UCLA M.ED, and Pratt MLIS.  She was one of the architects of Chris Wittle’s Edison Project, a contributor to Chicago’s, Everyday Math, a Master Teacher, created, developed and implemented curriculum for various schools across the country, contributed to state’s Frameworks, LHS Peaches and GEMS units and FOSS.   Patricia has started over a dozen schools across the nation, including the JCC Preschool, here in NYC.  As a Librarian she created collections in seven schools in the NY area.  Furthermore, she has been a member of ALSC book award committees including Notable and Siebert.  She continues to contribute to the world of children's literature by creating blogs through the Kerlan collection and Library of Congress.  Patricia has been a classroom teacher and school librarian for many years.  Her love of children is boundless.

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Virginia Buchan — Senior Teacher, Visual Arts Specialist
Originally from England, Virginia has a masters degree in early childhood/special education from Touro College and a degree in art from Oxford University, which makes her the perfect visual arts and lead teacher.  Previously she worked for several schools in the area, including The Reece School, The Gillen Brewer School and The Gateway School.  Prior to following her path of teaching, Virginia was a co-founder and partner for Lost Link design studio in NYC. We are so happy she is with us and bringing her vast array of experience to our meeting house children.

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McCailey ContrerasPerforming Arts Teacher
With a background in acting, dancing and singing, McCailey comes to us from Santa Barbara, California where she worked for 4 years at the Adderley School for the Performing Arts.  There, she taught children aged 3-16, voice, dance, improve and theater games.  She is also a dedicated volunteer, working with several children’s and family service organizations, including Angels Foster Care, Habitat for Humanity, Storyteller Children’s Center and the AHA! After School Program. 

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Eleanor Smith — Teaching Assistant and Program Support
Eleanor brings over 30 years of child care experience to The Meeting House. In addition she has a decade of experience in program administration after working as an Administrator in Trinidad for both Texaco, Trinidad Iron and Steel Co. She has worked for the past ten years as a volunteer for The Meeting House as an assistant teacher in a variety of roles ranging from escorting children from school to the program. as well as supervising our homework room and helping our teaching artists in the art room. Currently she works with students attending TMALS in the Lunch & Learn Program

Melanie Azueta: Melanie is a senior at Baruch College studying business and law. She has experience with tutoring children and is excited to join the TMALS - TMH partnership.