Board of Ed. Members

Dr. Carlos Antonio Torre earned three degrees at Harvard University: an Ed.M. in Human Development; a Certificate of Advance Studies in Administration, Planning and Social Policy; and a Doctorate of Education. He is, currently, Professor of Education at Southern Connecticut State University; former President of the New Haven, Connecticut Board of Education (member: 1993-2003 also 2006 to the present); and a Fellow at Yale University, where he served for seven years as Assistant Dean of the College and a member of the Psychology faculty. Dr. Torre is an elected member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico and was awarded the Academy's Medal of the Academician. Other awards include: the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences' first award for "humanitarian, ground-breaking contributions to the understanding of the mind through the application of dynamical science perspectives to educational psychology"; the Connecticut Association of Latin Americans in Higher Education (CALAHE) award "for contributions made toward the improvement of educational opportunities for Hispanics in higher education"; and others. Through the use of Recurrence Quantification Analysis, Dr. Torre's research seeks to identify characteristic patterns in the autonomic nervous system associated with particular emotions, (i.e., the emotions children experience as they learn). His publications include: articles on non-linear dynamics applied to education; a book-length research monograph on the triadic nature of the mind and university students' quality of thinking; chapters on educators "Eugenio Maria de Hostos and "Michael Apple"; an edited volume on Puerto Rican Migration; and a book in-progress on the "Ecology of Education.

President
Curriculum Committee
Term expires: 9/2013

 
John DeStefano Jr. was sworn in as the 49th Mayor of New Haven on January 1, 1994.  He is serving his 10th term in office.  Mayor DeStefano has worked hard and successfully to strengthen the academic achievement of public school students, to build a vibrant mixed use city center, a competitive economic base, strong neighborhoods and a community culture of traditional values and social tolerance.
During Mayor DeStefano’s tenure virtually every public school has been rebuilt under the $1.5 billion Citywide School Construction Program.
Key features of the school construction program have supported universal pre-k services, the largest inter-district enrollment and magnet school program in the State, college level lab and technology facilities and great architecture.
In 2009, the Mayor and school board, of which he is a member and the appointing authority, announced the School Change Initiative.  Supported by a ground breaking agreement with the New Haven Federation of Teachers, the City has launched a reform initiative whose key strategies are a portfolio approach to school management, a focus on teacher talent through a progressive teacher evaluation construct and a commitment to see that every child has the aspiration for and is prepared and able to complete college.
Since taking office in 1994 the City center has undergone a dramatic transformation into a mixed use community of some 12,000 residents.  Anchored by the Mayor’s support of University, Hospital and medical center expansion, New Haven has emerged as a national center of life and bio science businesses.  Downtown commercial, residential and retail occupancies stand at record lows.  In 2010 the US Department of Transportation announced funding of the Downtown Crossing project which will remove a 1960’s era limited express highway that has divided the central business district from the City’s principal rail station and rapidly growing medical research, clinical and office district.  The project will double the size of the downtown.
Neighborhoods have been strengthened as the city has managed housing stock to mixe income and use models, promoted commercial corridors, street smart infrastructure and public improvements.  The City has decentralized police management districts, promoted the use of neighborhood based collaborations and a robust civic culture.
That civic culture has resulted in a welcoming and inclusive community through initiatives such as the Elm City Resident Card that provides identification cards and access to public services for all residents of the City.  Under the Mayor’s leadership, the City has sponsored the organization and capitalization of a community development bank whose mission supports the unbanked and promotes financial literacy.  New Haven boasts an incredibly vibrant culture of economic and social entrepreneurship.
Mayor DeStefano has served as the President of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the National League of Cities, the oldest and largest organization representing America’s cities and towns.  During his tenure New Haven has been named an ‘All America City’ three times.
Mayor DeStefano is the son of a New Haven police officer and a lifelong City resident.  John and his wife Kathy DeStefano met at the University of Connecticut as undergraduates, where he also earned a Masters in Public Administration.  Kathy is a first grade teacher and they are the parents of two sons.
 
 

Click here to visit the Mayor's Web Site.

 
Myra Jones-Taylor is the Early Childhood Planning Director for Connecticut.  Governor Dannel Malloy appointed her in May of 2012 to create a state-wide plan for a coordinated birth-to-eight early care and education system.  Prior to this new role, she was an assistant professor-faculty fellow at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University.  She is a cultural anthropologist with expertise in early care and education policy.  Her research focused on the effects of early care and education reform on child care providers in low-income urban communities and the children and families who are intended to benefit from those reforms. Her forthcoming book, Blank Slates: Urban Child Care Policy in the Age of Reform, looks at the ways in which child care providers in New Haven, Connecticut responded to changes in child care policy at the turn of the twenty-first century. 
 
Dr. Jones-Taylor received her doctorate in American studies and anthropology from Yale University.  She also earned two master’s degrees from Yale University, one in African American studies and the other in American studies.  She is an Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy Fellow and a recipient of the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship.  She is also a former New Haven Early Childhood Council Member and former Honorary Faculty Research Fellow at the Humanities Initiative at New York University.  She is a board member and former Board Secretary of All Our Kin, a New Haven-based organization committed to educating and empowering parents and teachers, and improving access to high-quality early care and education. 
 
Term Expires: 9/2014