Leadership Team

DANIELLE McKOY

Founding Member

Danielle McKoy (daniellemc_koy) is a proud Bronx native and a passionate activist in the racial school integration and the prison reform movements. After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Princeton University, Danielle moved to Miami and served as a Mathematics teacher, Mathematics Department Head, and Mathematics Coach at Charles R. Drew Middle School. In 2012, she moved back to New York City and founded Breaking the Bronx, an organization that provides free SAT preparation and college counseling to Title I students in the Bronx. At the same time she was appointed to the Junior Board of Youth Represent, a legal defense and advocacy non-profit dedicated to improving the lives and futures of young people affected by the criminal justice system, and became the Co-Lead of the NY Princeton Women’s Alumni Network Service Committee. In 2017, she joined the staff at Teach For All, an international non-profit dedicated to engendering educational equity on a global scale, and became a founding member of the Steering Committee of New York City’s inaugural Alliance for School Integration & Desegregation (nycASID). Danielle’s lifelong dedication to the desegregation and integration of schools in NYC, the nation, and abroad is grounded in her radical mission to help create a drastically different world unfettered by structural separation and inequity.

FARAJI HANNAH-JONES

Founding Member

Faraji Hannah-Jones (@farijijones) has a 20-year career in technology, but since becoming a District 13 public school parent he has realized he has another calling - to advocate for racial school integration as a NYC public school parent activist. In 2016, he became PTA co-president at P.S. 307, where he organized and engaged families to participate in a controversial rezoning process to prevent the increased racial school segregation of his school zone. He now serves as a member of the District 13 Community Education Council and Secretary for Title 1 PAC, and he has been a founding member of the NYC Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation (nycASID) Steering Committee.

TONI SMITH-THOMPSON

Founding Member

Toni Smith-Thompson is a New York City native and parent of three public school children. She has been active in education equity movements since 2011 and currently works as an organizer for the New York Civil Liberties Union where she advocates for social and policy change on education equity issues. She is currently working on efforts to reduce school suspensions and arrest and undo school segregation. In addition, since sparking national debate in 2003 over her protest during the national anthem at college basketball games, Toni has been passionate about the intersection of speech and equity and currently works to support students in exercising their First Amendment right to engage in speech and protest.

SOPHIA JAMES

Member

With 10+ years experience at the state and local level, Sophia has helped guide significant initiatives and policies that affect the quality and efficiency of education services for children and families. She presently oversees the Office of Academic Policy's assessment management system and coordinates collaboration and delivery of products from the Division of Instructional and Information Technology at the NYC Department of Education. She also assisted the Archdiocese of New York in strengthening school partnerships and implementation of UPK curriculum, assessments and professional development in over 60 schools. With interests ranging from education development to innovative tools in technology, Sophia developed Education: Unplugged, a web platform for innovative programs and dialogue in education, as well as an open resource on education initiatives for young children and educators.

ALEX STEVENS

Member

Alex Stevens is a lifelong New Yorker, sex educator, mama, and someone who believes that creating a racially just public school system has the power to build a true multiracial democracy that could work to end white supremacy. Growing up in the city, she attended both public and private schools. Alex was a sex ed teacher in public schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn. Following her work in the classroom, she oversaw sexuality education and training programs at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. In addition to nycASID, Alex is a member of the Mayor’s Office Sexual Health Education Task Force, Integrated Schools, and SURJ NYC. She lives in District 13 with her partner and daughter.

ANNA MINSKY

Member

Anna Minsky is a fourth generation New Yorker, a former member of the Community Education Council of District 5, a parent of two children at The Ralph Bunche School, and a researcher with Metis Associates. She has worked on a wide range of projects professionally from managing data for neighborhood based anti-poverty programs, to technical assistance in reporting for initiatives to reduce juvenile detention. She has degree in Urban Planning from Hunter, is learning about community-based system dynamics, and sometimes plays the guitar and piano.