Meet the Educators

Hadley Beacham

Hadley is an artist and educator living in New York City with her husband and two daughters. Her passion for arts education runs deep as she has taught at the High Line, The Intrepid Museum, Cathedral of St. John the Divine and of course The Center for Architecture. Hadley also runs her own business, Color Wink Studio, teaching art history-inspired courses. She can usually be found creating art, reading a book, visiting an art museum, or riding around town on her bike.

Jessica Castillo

Jessica has been a freelance Design Educator at the Center for Architecture since 2013. She previously worked as a Senior Explainer at the New York Hall of Science for 8 years, where she managed educational experiences for exhibition visitors. Jessica received her Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute, where she wrote her thesis on the relationship between historic house museums and their local communities. She earned her Bachelor of Technology in Architectural Technology from the New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

Agustín Cepeda

Agustín, a Spanish-American raised in Texas, currently divides his time between teaching and leading teams at the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP).With a background spanning a decade, Agustín has worked as a designer, facilitator, and teacher across diverse cities such as New York, Boston, Barcelona (Spain), and Ghent (Belgium). His introduction to design during his college freshman year reshaped his perspective, setting the stage for a career that led him to his current endeavors at CUP.In his new role as a Design Educator, Agustín eagerly looks forward to sharing his joy of making with young minds. He is passionate about the impact of designed objects in reflecting care and fostering shared understanding. Beyond his professional pursuits, Agustín enjoys risograph printing and indulging in graphic novels.

Lisa Christopher

Lisa Christopher recently joined CFA as a design educator teaching architecture programs in 2nd and 3rd grade. She studied architecture at Carnegie Mellonand has worked at Gensler for over 15 years on sustainability, workplace, media, base building and residential projects. Lisa enjoys teaching youth as well as traveling and spending time with her own 3 kiddos.

Meranda Flachs-Surmanek

Meranda Flachs-Surmanek (they/them) is a theater artist and urban planner working with people to understand complex systems, re-orient ourselves to places, build solidarity, and connect through story. Meranda’s current work explores the way forces of racial capitalism and patriarchy are expressed spatially. They organize living history projects because as Diana di Prima told us, “history is a living weapon in yr hand.” Recent projects include devised performances, multimedia memoir, and walking tours.

Tim Hayduk

Lead Design Educator Tim teaches in all of the Center for Architecture's K-12 programs, with special expertise in high school programs and those focusing on NYC’s history. He works with the Center’s tour program for adult audiences and conducts walking tours. Tim studied architecture at Pratt Institute and began teaching at the Center for Architecture in 2003. His devotion to modern architecture informs his interest in traveling, architectural publications, and photography. He dedicates spare time to organizations preserving modernism.

Alison Clarick Gottsegen

Alison Clarick Gottsegen is a seasoned museum educator with extensive experience in designing and facilitating innovative educational programs for students of all ages. She is dedicated to and passionate about empowering young people and creating worthy and accessible experiences. In addition to her work at the Center for Architecture, Alison leads school groups and partnerships and collaborates on educator trainings at the Jewish Museum (New York City). Alison has designed and taught programs at a variety of museums including the Louisiana Children’s Museum (New Orleans), the National Building Museum where she began her design-based education (Washington, D.C.) and the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta).

Breanna Katsman

Breanna is the Education Program Coordinator and a Design Educator for the Center for Architecture. She began working with the Center for Architecture in 2016 as a youth program volunteer and now teaches K-12 students about various aspects of architecture and design through a sustainability lens. She studied architecture and interior design at Pratt Institute and is currently studying Environmental Science and Food Studies at The New School. In addition to education, Breanna has worked in architecture, production design, and vegan culinary arts. She has a strong interest in the intersection between the environment, food, and design.

Katya Khan

Katya is a visual artist, designer and educator based in Brooklyn. She studied fine art and environmental design at St.Petersburg State Academy of Art & Design, Russia, and landscape architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, CA. Her practice involves space activation through collaborative building, interventions and public engagement. Her previous projects include a community-built play space with Side Street Projects in Pasadena, CA; street intervention as part of the Art in Odd Places Festival, New York, NY; and an outdoor installation at Windmill Community Garden in Long Island City. Katya taught visual art and design classes to people of different ages in the traditional setting of an art studio as well as site-specific outdoor workshops. She led drawing classes at Brooklyn Public Library, mapping workshops at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, and designed a sensory garden in collaboration with school students at Pilgrim School in Los Angeles.

Emily Long

Emily Long is a visual artist and art educator based in New York City. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with an Associate in Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Art History and Museum Professions. Following graduation, Emily followed her passion for art education. She was originally a part-time staff member at the Center for Architecture and transitioned to the education team in the summer of 2019. Working as an art educator is her way of helping ensure a creative future for the next generation.

Lisa Mazzola

Lisa Mazzola has been working in art education for over 25 years. She joins the Center for Architecture most recently from the Museum of Modern Art, where she was the Director of Young Learners. In that role, she developed programing to support K-12 schools, teens, and teachers, including onsite programs and online courses on Coursera that helped connect K-12 and lifelong learners to the art and ideas of our time. Prior to her work at MoMA, Mazzola coordinated gallery education and special projects at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and coordinated school partnership programs at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. She is also the author of the chapter “Adapting the Tour Planning Template for Social-Emotional Learning” in the book Interactive Museum Tours: A Guide to In-Person and Virtual Experiences.

Justin Morris-Marano

Justin Morris-Marano is the founder of Flourish LAB, a design studio working on the creative application of environmental and life sciences research. The studio has no immediate discipline. Throughout his career, Justin has developed and facilitated immersive programs that seek to empower youth with actionable tools for community change making. He is particularly interested in developing tools and processes that allow youth to be seriously considered as critical decision makers in shaping urban ecology and its collision with the built environment. Justin holds a degree in Industrial Design with a concentration in innovation design and digitally mediated making.

Mary Lib Schmidt

Mary Lib oversees the Center for Architecture’s Youth Programs including Family Days, After School, Vacation Programs, and Summer Programs. She received her BA from the University of Virginia and her MA in Art History from Columbia University. She joined the CFA K-12 Education Team in 2017 and previously worked in the Education Departments of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Jewish Museum.

Rachel Serkin

School Programs Manager Rachel Serkin is the Center for Architecture’s School Programs Manager and oversees the Learning By Design: NY residency program. She received her MA in Education from Hunter College and has been K-12 programming in museum settings for over fifteen years. She has previously worked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the New York Transit Museum, the Center for Brooklyn History, and the Museum at Eldridge Street.

Howard Stern

Howard Stern has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the New York Institute of Technology. He is a registered architect with over 20 years of experience and has worked on many different types of building projects such as schools, churches, libraries, and restorations of historic buildings. Since 2001, he has been doing architectural residencies in schools and camps for different not for profit organizations such as Learning By Design, Abrons Arts Center, Queens Museum of Art, Lincoln Center Institute, Pratt Institute – DICE initiative, Salvadori Center, Young Audiences,Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and BOCES Talented and Gifted Program. He has led teacher workshops for Abrons Arts Center, City College Gotham Center, Cooper Hewitt, Lincoln Center Institute, and the New York City Department of Education.

Kaitlyn Stubbs

Kaitlyn is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator, holding a BFA from the University of Georgia and an MFA from New York Academy of Art. For 13+ years, she has taught diverse audiences of all ages and abilities at institutions including MoMA, MFA Boston, SUNY, Center for Architecture, and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian DesignMuseum.

Kimberly Tate

Kimberly is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer and educator based in Brooklyn, who joined the Center for Architecture in 2017. In addition to teaching with the Center for Architecture, she is also a Part-time Assistant Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. In practice, she has been a project manager and designer at CDR Studio Architects, Formactiv Architecture Design and Technology, and Arch Productions & Design, working on retail, residential, public interest and custom design fabrication projects at various scales and phases from schematic design to construction/installation. As part of the Empowerhouse Collaborative, she developed, built and exhibited a solar-powered home built to Passive House standards for the 2011 Solar Decathlon, which placed first in Affordability. Kimberly earned her Master's in Architecture from Parsons School of Design and BA Cum Laude from the University of Missouri – Columbia.