Danielle Chisolm has worked as a paraprofessional at the East River Academy on Rikers Island for seven years. The academy is jointly operated by the Department of Education and the Department of Corrections and enables young people to pursue a high school diploma or GED while they are incarcerated.

Peri Lyman, a member of the non-public schools chapter, has worked as a reading teacher for the Department of Education in non-public schools for 22 years. She currently serves two Catholic schools in Queens.

Barbara Mercaldo has worked in city schools as a school psychologist for 22 years, most recently in three Manhattan schools: PS 125, PS 36 and Columbia Secondary School.

Danielle O’Connell has been a Hearing Education Services teacher for eight years, the last seven in a self-contained classroom of 12 children in grades 3-5 at P4 at PS 109 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Mary Murphy has been a certified teacher in the Living for the Young Family through Education program for 17 years. Since last year, she’s been at Port Richmond HS in Staten Island. LYFE provides child care for teen parents enrolled in high school or the GED program and helps them learn parenting skills as well.