Dr Elaine Kanas, Board Chair

Dr Elaine Kanas, a founding member of Collaboration Education Inc., has extensive experience in teaching and learning and educational leadership. Elaine served as Superintendent of Schools in the East Williston School District for ten years and as Superintendent of Valley Stream 30 for four. She also served as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Personnel in the Carmel Central School District, as an elementary principal in the Pelham Public Schools and as a teacher and administrator at the Spence School in Manhattan. She has taught Curriculum Design at Columbia University Teachers College and developed curriculum for children at several arts organizations including Young Audiences and The Guggenheim Museum Learning to Read Through the Arts program.

In addition to Collaboration Education Inc.,  volunteer activities have included serving on the Boards of Girls on the Run Long Island and The Pelham Arts Center, volunteering with the Mothers and Children’s program at Bedford Correctional Institution and serving as a sponsor in the Special Immigrant Visa Program. Elaine served as co-chair of the Curriculum Committee of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents and served for many years on the New York State Education Department ELA Content Advisory Panel. Elaine holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University Teachers College. She currently works as an Educational Consultant. 

 

Dr. Deirdre Hayes, Secretary

Dr. Deirdre Hayes, a founding member of Collaboration Education Inc., is the retired Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Personnel of Herricks School District, and an educator with over 40 years of experience working with students and teachers from Pre-K to college levels. She holds an Ed.D. from St. John’s University and an MA and BA in English from Queens College, CUNY.

Deirdre lives in Sea Cliff with her husband, Pete, and in addition to her work with Collaboration Education Inc., she currently serves on the board of Cornell Cooperative Extension Nassau County, as a Sea Cliff Village Library Trustee and a fill-in driver for NOSH, where her husband is on the board. She is a past President of the Long Island Association of School Personnel Administrators, served on the Executive Board of NADCO, and provided consulting services for, among others, the SURR School Instructional Intervention Grant and the Middle Schools Initiative Program. Deirdre also spent many years as an adjunct instructor in the Education Department of St. John’s University.

Years of experience working in urban, suburban, and private school settings in a variety of administrative, teaching and consulting positions has provided Deirdre with an awareness of the extensive needs of some of our most challenged students, and working with Collaboration Education Inc. to assist school districts in the task of supporting these students is a natural next step in a long education career.

 

Tasneem Meghji, Treasurer

Tasneem Meghji is a founding member of Collaboration Education Inc.  Tasneem is a former corporate attorney. She obtained her law degree from Southampton University in England and is admitted to the bar in Ontario and New York. Tasneem has been a School Board trustee of the East Williston School District since 2020. She has volunteered for the PTO in various roles in the East Williston School District for many years, while her children attended school there. Tasneem was previously a Trustee of Comfort Aid International, an international aid organization that sought to empower the lives of children and adults by providing them an education and other basic life necessities.

 

Joanne Lufrano

Now a retired teacher, Joanne Lufrano has more than 25 years of experience teaching elementary school students and providing math staff development for teachers and administrators. She has served as the Board President of the Valley Stream Teacher Center and as its Assistant Director. She has been an active member of the Executive Boards of both the Nassau County Mathematics Teachers Association and the Association of Math Teachers of New York State. She is a Past President of the Nassau County Math Teachers Association and has been inducted into the Long Island Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame. Joanne currently serves as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University as well as continuing her many years of work as an educational math consultant since her retirement from the Valley Stream 30 School District on Long Island.