TEACHERS INSTITUTE OF PHILADELPHIA - Key Persons

Al Filreis

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Kelly Professor of English Faculty Director Kelly Writers House

Alexander de Arana

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Alima McKnight

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Allison Aubry

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Ameer Blackmon

Job Titles:

School Engagement Manager

Mr. Blackmon has over a decade of experience in education. Born and raised here in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and educated in the School District of Philadelphia, he received a bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia and a Master's in Teaching from Cheyney University, where he served as a graduate assistant and member of the Call Me MISTER Program, designed to increase the number of Black males in the field of education. Mr. Blackmon would go on to work with The School District of Philadelphia in multiple facets, first as a 5th and 6th grade teacher and then as a program administrator, where he developed and oversaw the training component for the district's Turn to Teach Program. Additionally, Mr. Blackmon has served served with The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General as an Education and Outreach Specialist, covering the southeastern region of the state.

Amy Hillier

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Associate Professor of Social Policy and Practice

Anna Herman

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Chloe Glynn

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council
National Steering Committee Representative

Before joining the School District of Philadelphia in 2018, Chloe Glynn worked at Yellowstone National Park, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and was lead galley cook on a 90' anarchist theater boat. Glynn is currently a biology and environmental science teacher at Horace Furness High School. She is a published author, award winning photographer, and thinks teenagers are very funny.

Cory Bowman - Treasurer

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Treasurer
Associate Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

Cory Bowman has been working for Penn Program for Public Service since 1991 and for Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships since its inception in 1992. Mr. Bowman helps coordinate the core functions of the Center, including developing academic partnerships with schools, non-profits, and communities of faith. He also supports the Center's local and national replication and adaptation efforts of its university-assisted community school programs. Mr. Bowman serves on the board of the Bernett L. Johnson, Jr. Sayre Health Center and on the advisory committee of PHENND's K-16 Network.

Cynthia Sung

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Computer and Information Science

Danina Garcia

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Dennis DeTurck

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Professor of Mathematics

Deven M. Patel

Job Titles:

Advisory Co - Chair
Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Associate Professor of Religious Studies Undergraduate Chair, South Asia Studies
Associate Professor of South Asia Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania

Deven M. Patel is Associate Professor of South Asia Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in Literature and Literary Theory, Philosophy, and Mythology. He has served as both Chair and Undergraduate Chair of South Asia Studies at Penn and as member of the Executive Committee for the Program in Comparative Literature. Before arriving at Penn, he taught at Stanford University, Hofstra University, Rutgers University, and Seton Hall University. Deven has a long-standing relationship with TIP, as member of the advisory council and as seminar leader of such courses as Storytelling Traditions of South Asia and the Middle East and Contemplative Practices Across the World's Religions. He is also the National Advisory Council Representative of the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools. He works with faculty across Penn's various schools to foster a more expansive and inclusive global perspective to the study of Humanities. As author or co-author of three books and multiple journal articles, his published research focuses on Sanskrit literature, linguistics, philosophy and other aspects of Indian humanities and intellectual culture. He has been awarded several prestigious fellowships, including the Fulbright and the American Institute of Indian Studies fellowships, and is a board member of several prominent national and international academic bodies. He holds a BA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in South and Southeast Asian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Edward M. Epstein

Job Titles:

Lee Director

Since he began as Director in 2016, Dr. Epstein has overseen the expansion of TIP, recruiting a new and diverse body of teacher fellows, seminar leaders and faculty advisory members. In 2017 he spearheaded a redesign of TIP's visual identity and website, raising the profile of the organization and making teachers' curriculum unit writing more accessible to the public. Dr. Epstein also initiated a partnership with Temple University to offer seminars on their campus, and developed a closer working relationship with the School District of Philadelphia. His scholarly work has investigated the historical relationship between universities and their surrounding communities, noting the ways institutions of higher education both help and hinder social progress. Previously, Dr. Epstein was Associate Director of Education and Institutional Relations at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Upon moving to Philadelphia, Dr. Epstein founded the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program, which offers studio space to West Philadelphia in exchange for service to the community.

Emma Connolly

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Henry Towsner

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Herman Beavers

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Professor of English and Africana Studies

Ira Harkavy

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Associate University Vice - President & Founding Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

Jenifer Felix

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Jennifer Gallagher

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

John Puckett

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Professor Emeritus at Penn

Jorge Santiago-Aviles

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Associate Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering

Joseph Alberti

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Kathleen Brown

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
David Boies Professor of History

Marie Clarke

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Marilyn Howarth

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Adjunct Associate Professor at Penn Medicine

Nicole Flores

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Peter Decherney

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies

Rebecca Horner

Job Titles:

Member of the TIP Teacher Advisory Council

Reto Gieré

Job Titles:

Advisory Co - Chair
Member of the TIP University Advisory Council
Professor and Department Chair, Earth and Environmental Science

Reto Gieré investigates Earth materials, their response to geological forces, and their interaction with the environment and humans. He is engaged in research projects around the world and is dedicated to promoting the health of our fragile planet through teaching, mentoring and research. He obtained his Ph.D. at ETH Zürich (Switzerland), was a professor at Purdue University (USA), École Normale Supérieure (Paris), and the Universities of Basel (Switzerland), Freiburg (Germany) and Siena (Italy), and a visiting researcher at the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation and at Argonne National Laboratory (USA). He is Editor of Journal of Petrology, Chief Editor of European Journal of Mineralogy, a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and the Geological Society (London), an Honorary Member of the Mineralogical Society of Slovakia, and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Université de Haute-Alsace in France.