, is the director and co-founder of the East Side Institute.
As a leading proponent of a cultural approach to human learning and
development, she has made the writings of Lev Vygotsky relevant to the
fields of psychotherapy, education and organizational development. She is
well known for her pioneering work in exploring the human capacity to
perform and its fundamentality in learning how to learn. Lois is the
organizer of international cross-disciplinary conferences, including,
Performing the World. In addition, she has initiated collaborative cultural /
psychological / community-building projects among psychologists, social
workers and educators from the United States, the former Yugoslavia,
Kenya, Argentina, Mexico, and other countries. She has significant
experience building and working with heterogenous groups in university
and alternative settings, including the Institute’s International Class, a
postmodern playground for learning and discovery open to practitioners
and scholars from around the world.
Lois has written or edited nine books and over sixty articles on human
development and learning, psychology, education and social therapy;
among them: Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind;
Schools for Growth: Radical Alternatives to Current Educational Models;
Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist (with Fred Newman); Psychological
Investigations: A Clinician’s Guide to Social Therapy (with Rafael Mendez);
and the forthcoming, Vygotsky at Work and Play. Lois earned her Ph.D.
in developmental psychology from Columbia University and was a
postgraduate research fellow at the Laboratory of Comparative
Human Cognition at Rockefeller University.
is a leading expert in the use of improv theatre as a
tool for creating developmental learning groups for children and adults. She is
the co-founder and director of the Developing Teachers Fellowship Program at
the East Side Institute and Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate
School of Education at Rutgers University. As a teacher trainer, Carrie helps
educators to create more collaborative, creative, playful and participatory
learning environments for themselves and their students. Carrie received
her doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia
University. She is the co-author with Matthew Lundquist of Unscripted
Learning: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom.
is an improvisational performer, trainer, therapist and
coach, and has helped thousands of executives to build their teams and
organizations continuously and creatively. She began her career in Marketing
at Citibank, where she led several global product-development initiatives.
As a Vice President, Maureen began a career shift into the field of
organizational development and helped to create one of Citibank’s first
internal organizational effectiveness consulting groups. Now she is a Principal
at Performance of a Lifetime, a consulting firm that uses the tools of theater
and improvisation in organizations. She earned her M.A. in organizational
psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, completed her
postgraduate studies and clinical work at the East Side Institute and
holds a B.S. in finance from the University of Delaware.
is an onstage performer as well as an educational pioneer and
social entrepreneur. As President of the theater-based executive education
firm Performance of a Lifetime, she has grown the company’s global portfolio—
to include clients such as Lehman Brothers, The Johns Hopkins Hospital,
Booz Allen Hamilton, Merck and the United States Olympic Committee—and
led the design of performance-based programs that deal effectively with a
range of organizational development issues including leadership, teaming,
diversity and change management. Cathy relates to all teams, organizations,
and groups as theatrical ensembles that have the capacity to create new, varied
and collaborative performances both with one another and with their clients.
is director of the Brooklyn Social Therapy Group and the
Therapist Training Program at the East Side Institute. A seasoned social therapist,
she has pioneered social therapeutic multi-family groups and has gained
national recognition for her unique therapeutic playgroups for young children
and adolescents with special needs. Christine holds an M.Ed. in community
psychology and special education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
is founder and director of The Learning
Stage, a social-therapeutically influenced counseling service for children with
special needs and their families. Matthew is also the director of the Manhattan
Social Therapy Group where he practices social therapy with children and
families, and supervises therapists. He received his M.S.W. from the Columbia
University School of Social Work with a concentration in clinical practice with
families, youth and children and an M.S.Ed. from Bank Street College of Education,
and has been a teacher and social worker in NYC public schools. He is the co-author
with Carrie Lobman of Unscripted Learning: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom.
, is a seasoned group builder in both the classroom
and therapy room. He is a Professor of Psychology at Bronx Community
College and a staff therapist at the Brooklyn Social Therapy Group. He
received his doctorate in clinical community psychology from Boston
University and was a postgraduate fellow at Harvard Medical School and
Boston Children’s Hospital. Rafael is co-editor with Lois Holzman of
Psychological Investigations: A Clinician’s Guide to Social Therapy.
, a nationally recognized leader in the fields
of youth development and school-based mental health, has been creating
developmental therapeutic and learning groups with adults and young people
for over thirty years. Her “Let’s Talk About It” program, originally based at
Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, is a sought-after destigmatizing
adolescent group therapy model. Barbara is on the staff of the Brooklyn
Social Therapy Group and the co-facilitator of the Youth Involvement and
Leadership Practice Group for the IDEA Partnership and the Center for
School Mental Health. Barbara received her M.S.W. from Adelphi University.
, has experience in the fields of social work and
group psychotherapy. Over the last decade he has developed a specialization
in work with developmentally disabled/special needs children and adolescents.
Lew is a social worker at the Summit School in Queens where he leads therapeutic
and life skills groups with children and adolescents. He is also on the staff of
the Social Therapy Group in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Lew received his M.S.W.
from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.
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