Team Categories: Early Childhood Center

Rachel is thrilled to be embarking on her 5th year as Director of the Early Childhood Center at JCP. Before her role as the Early Childhood Center’s Director, Rachel Mintz began at JCP as the ECC’s Child Development Specialist & Parent Educator. She was already a familiar face to parents, children, and staff, having served as a Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) for several years in our ECC classrooms. Her mission as director is to cultivate a best practices, play-based learning environment that focuses on the individual needs of every child while creating a warm, nurturing community. 

Raised in New York, Rachel received a master’s degree in social work at New York University and a master’s in early childhood general and special education from Hunter College. She began her career as an early childhood educator at Skidmore College’s ECC, a play-based laboratory school in Saratoga Springs, NY.  At Brooklyn Heights Synagogue Preschool where she taught for 5 years, Rachel experienced the magic of Jewish early childhood education up-close. Rachel currently serves as an adjunct professor at Hunter College, teaching graduate level courses in curriculum development and early childhood education, and supervises student teachers in the field. She has also worked extensively advocating for young children through the New York City Department of Education. Outside of work, Rachel loves spending time with her husband, 2nd grader, toddler and yorkie!

Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Denise Kohn received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University, and then went on to live and work in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer. She received a Master’s in Public Health degree from Columbia University and worked in the non-profit administrative world for many years. Denise made a career change and taught at Plymouth Church School while receiving her Master’s in Early Childhood Education degree from the Bank Street Graduate School of Education. She is also actively involved in the Jewish world, having most recently served on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of Kane Street Synagogue, and has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Education Project as well as the Chair of the Beginning Jewish Families Task Force and as a Cabinet member of the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal of the UJA-Federation of New York. Denise lives in Brooklyn with her husband Adam and her three children.

Marisa has worked as a teacher and administrator in both public and private schools in New York for the past seventeen years. After graduating with her M.S. Ed from Bank Street College, she worked at the Children’s Aid Society in Greenwich Village as the Director of Admissions and Education. On her free time, Marisa plays softball in a “momball” league out in Long Island, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Sarah Johnson is a Texas native who moved to New York in 2012. She holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She also attended St. John’s College in New Mexico for its Great Books program. Sarah first joined the workforce as a manager and projectionist for several independent movie theaters. She then worked as an administrator for MSG at both the Beacon Theatre and Radio City Music Hall before joining the JCP family. She loves going to concerts, watching movies, and walking around her Brooklyn neighborhood.

Allison Kreisler received her Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education and Communicative Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After college, Allison came back to New York, where she was born and raised, to earn a Masters of Arts degree, in Speech Language Pathology, at NYU. Allison has worked with preschool and school age children for over twenty years. She has extensive experience collaborating with a wide range of teachers, doctors, and therapists of various disciplines, making her an expert in child development. Allison strongly believes that children are the most successful learners when there is a strong home-school connection. She understands the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach in which parent education, about all areas of development, plays an integral role in a child’s success in school. Allison has a private practice where she provides speech-language therapy in New York City and Long Island. Allison lives in Port Washington, NY with her husband and two children.

Roxana Reid is JCP’s ongoing schools specialist, enhancing our ongoing school counseling services and adding to the care and attention of our families during the placement process. Roxana has more than twenty years of experience in counseling and helping to place families in ongoing schools.