BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Lisa Arrastia (Board President) is an educator, writer, and founding director of The Ed Factory. Born and raised in West Harlem, she brings decades of experience as a school leader, teacher, and professor to her work in critical cultural pedagogy and liberatory education. Her projects use audioethnography, layered storytelling, and creative narrative inquiry to examine racism, power, and notions of difference. Her work is grounded in love pedagogy, a practice of connection, critical inquiry, and imagination that takes seriously young people’s capacity to understand and transform the conditions shaping their lives. A Kweli Writing Fellow with a PhD in American Studies, Lisa writes about Kite’s Nest in Overland, The Crisis of Connection (NYU Press), and her forthcoming book, Love Pedagogy: A Cause for Liberation. Her daughter, Betye, spent her middle and high school years at Kite’s Nest. With a BA in Critical Visual Studies from Pratt and an MEd in creative production in education, Betye now works at the Albany Institute of History & Art and supports Kite’s Nest whenever and however she can.
Gregg Osofsky (Treasurer) is the Operations Director of the Watershed Center in Millerton, NY. He holds a B.S. from Stanford University in Environmental Science and Technology and has an extensive background in small business operations, website design and development, and community organizing. In addition to his work with Watershed, Gregg the CFO of Hammertown, his family’s small business, and a member of the Town of Northeast’s Fire Department. Gregg is also a certified Somatics Coach and is passionate is bringing physical practice into people’s lives as a fundamental aspect of personal growth and development.
Sonja Okun has two decades of experience developing and leading successful positive youth development intervention programs for justice system-involved youth, including founding and serving as Executive Director of exalt in New York City from 2006-2014. Sonja is currently a Principal at Root Cause, a nonprofit consulting group, and consults independently to several criminal justice-related organizations nationally. Sonja holds both a BA in African American Studies and an MBA from Harvard University.
Kamauru Johnson (Secretary) is the Director of Counseling Support Services at Rye Country Day School in Westchester. His work focuses on strengthening social and emotional learning, expanding access to meaningful mental health support, and building learning communities where young people can be known with care, clarity, and responsibility. Kamauru earned his BA from Morehouse College and his PhD from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also teaches in the School Psychology program. Selected as NY1's New Yorker of the Week for leading the Horizons Brooklyn Summer Program, he now lives in Harlem with his wife and two children and serves on the Manhattan Community Board in District 10.
Tanu Kumar is an urban planning and policy consultant based in the Hudson Valley, providing planning, research, and program development support to local organizations. She has over 10 years of experience working with government agencies, non-profits, and community-based organizations on land use planning, industrial development and zoning, and equitable economic growth strategies. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Pratt Center for Community Development in Brooklyn, NY, and led Pratt Center’s economic development work in NYC for five years. She has a B.A. from Williams College and a Master's in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.
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