Our Team
Phil Weinberg, Senior Advisor and Managing Director
Phil was formerly the Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning for the New York City Department of Education, the nation’s largest school system. A New York City educator for 35 years, he spent 27 years at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn as an English teacher, assistant principal, and the school's principal for 13 years. He holds degrees and certificates from Swarthmore College, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Hunter College. He is the recipient of the Sloan Public Service Award, awarded to New York City civil servants whose work goes above and beyond the call of duty.
Jessica Azani, Senior Director
Before joining the Writing Pathways team, Jessica was a Senior Faculty Member at The Writing Revolution. Prior to that, she was the Associate Director of Middle School Literacy at Success Academy Charter Schools, where she oversaw the development and publication of Success Academy’s middle school literature curriculum and coached leaders and teachers across the network. Jessica has spent more than a decade as a literacy educator and holds an M.S. in Special Education from Hunter College and an M.Ed. in Public School Building Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Steve Graham, Research Advisor
Steve Graham is the Regent and Warner Professor in the Division of Leadership and Innovation in Teachers College. For more than 30 years, he has studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. In recent years, he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. His research involves typically developing writers and students with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, with much of occurring in classrooms in urban schools.
