For over fourteen years, Elisha has worked at both public and private schools. At P.S. 158 in New York City, she served as co-teacher in an inclusive classroom where she differentiated curriculum for neurodiverse learners and where her classroom was a lab site for teachers throughout NYC. For the past eight years, at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, she has mentored new teachers, served on the Literacy Skills Leadership team, and led her grade team to collaborate on new Social Studies and Literacy units with a focus on social justice issues. 

 Her Master’s Thesis was titled: What Makes Effective Professional Development?: What Research Says, What Teachers Say. Under the mentorship of Kathleen Tolan, Elisha modeled best practices in the video, The Intersection of Danielson’s Framework and Workshop Teaching. Jennifer Serravallo was Elisha’s staff developer as well, and Elisha has piloted Jen’s work and has contributed anchor charts and student work to Jen’s publications. 

Elisha holds a B.A. in Education and Psychology from Swarthmore College and an M.A. as a Literacy Specialist from Teachers College. In 2013, Elisha was presented a Blackboard Award by New York Family magazine to “honor teachers of excellence”.

She resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and son and runs @AAKidLit in her spare time, a resource to help families and educators find children’s books from diverse voices.