Trustees & Advisors

JOINED 2020 - Tanya is an educator, writer and facilitator. As a teacher, Tanya earned National Board Certification and was recognized by 826 Valencia for her outstanding instruction. Currently, Tanya uses experiential learning, coaching and inquiry to support and inspire teachers, parents and leaders to examine their work through the lenses of structural inequities, intersectionality, and lived experience. She teaches aspiring and practicing teachers at the School of Education at Hunter College and studies how people develop the will, capacity, skill and emotional intelligence to enact anti-racist practices. She writes for a range of audiences about ways that privilege shapes our inner and outer landscapes. An alumna of Wesleyan University and Teach for America, Tanya spent two decades in California before returning home to New York, where she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and daughter, a proud BKI alum.

FOUNDING TRUSTEE - Jevon is an independent filmmaker, born and raised in New York City. As a producer, director and editor, he works predominantly in non-fiction television, producing content for major networks and news outlets including NBC, Discovery, PBS and CNN. He also produces promotional and educational material for leading nonprofits in NYC, including National Resources Defense Council and Studio in a School. Jevon earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Brown University. He now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons (BKI Classes of 2031 and 2034).

FOUNDING TRUSTEE - Lifan is a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch where he advises high-net-worth families, businesses, and non-profit institutions on financial planning and investment strategies across public equities, fixed income and alternative investments. Prior to Merrill, he worked at Goldman Sachs where he managed the personal investments for the firm’s most senior Partner Managing Directors. Lifan earned an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a CFA charterholder. Immigrating to the United States and arriving in New York City at the age of one, Lifan is largely a product of the city’s public school system and has always been passionately involved in educational causes, particularly for low-income immigrants. He supports the Chinese-American Planning Council where he was previously a volunteer teaching English and workforce development courses to recent immigrants. Lifan is also an active mentor for American Corporate Partners, a nonprofit that seeks to ease the transition for our veterans to return to the civilian workforce.