Staff

Melisha “Mel” Jackman has a long-standing history of prioritizing a vision of equity, academic excellence and inquiry for students and families. Prior to joining Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, she was on the executive leadership team and served as the Managing Director of Out-of-School Time & College Scholars Programs at East Harlem Tutorial Program. Mel led the strategic vision to ensure that students in grades K-12 and post secondary education through college had access to high quality programs and experiences that supported the academic, advocacy and social emotional skills necessary to gain acceptance, persist and graduate high school and college.

Mel has held multiple pedagogical and leadership positions within public schools in New York City. Her instructional career has been dedicated to creating opportunities for both students and adults to have authentic and meaningful experiences that support deep thinking, curiosity and advocacy. In 2007, she was featured in the New York Times for innovative teaching.

Mel served as the founding science teacher, Early Childhood Director, and Assistant Principal of Arts & Letters in Brooklyn, New York. During her six-year tenure at Arts & Letters, she helped to expand the public school to serve grades K-8 and created the science and social studies infused curriculum for its early childhood program.

In 2014, Mel began her tenure as both a middle school and high school principal serving students in Harlem and the South Bronx. She was recognized by the Manhattan Borough President in 2016 for her efforts to create yearlong enrichment, early college exploration and career exploration opportunities for her students. Throughout the years, Mel has served on leadership panels at Bank Street College of Education and Teachers College and continues to raise awareness about creating equity in education.

Mel holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and a Master of Arts degree in Chemistry Education from City College. She was a LEAP Fellow and earned an advanced certificate in Educational Leadership from Baruch College. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her two teenage daughters, Jaime and Melanie.

Crystal Owens is a native of Boston, MA who recently moved to Queens Village, NY from Camp Springs, MD a few miles outside of Washington, DC. She holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics from University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Masters of Healthcare Administration from Suffolk University. Although new to Early Childhood Administration, she considers herself a veteran in the fundamentals of Business Administration, Operations, and Management. To add to her skills, she is currently pursuing her SHRM designation.

Crystal’s work experience comes from some of the nations top healthcare organizations such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Medstar Health, and London’s National Health Service. She served as the Chair of the Cultural Competence in Healthcare Committee for four years. In her capacity as Chair she ensured that healthcare staff were competent in providing care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors, including tailoring of health care delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated in which she has served in several leadership roles, dedicated to providing assistance and support through established programs in communities throughout the world.

Outside of work she is an entrepreneur – a self taught baker & cake artist. She enjoys her time in the kitchen allowing her creative juices to flow by creating her own dishes, tweaking well known recipes, and stepping outside the box to create different cuisines. Give her ingredients and she will mash, blend, boil, roast, slice, and dice you a five star meal. She is also a wanderlust who loves to travel and enjoy time with her family and friends. Crystal currently lives in Queens Village with her fiance, a New York native who she met in Bali, Indonesia as a result of her travels. They welcomed their baby boy in July of 2022.

Crystal looks forward to serving and supporting our children, their families, as well as our BKS staff, for continued success and growth of The Brooklyn Kindergarten Society.

Elena Jaffe obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Educational Psychology in 1986 and a Master’s in Educational Psychology in 1995 in the Ukraine. There, she worked as an Educational Director for seven years and Child Psychologist for three years in daycare programs.

Ms. Jaffe migrated to the United States about twenty years ago. She has worked as an Educational Director for four years at St. Andrew’s Community Day Care Center, affiliated with Lutheran Medical Center. She was employed by Brooklyn Kindergarten Society in 2007 as the director of the Sumner Children’s Center. During that time (2007-2014) that site was NAEYC accredited in 2009 and re-accredited in 2014. She also worked as an Educational Director at Nat Azarow Children’s Center from 2016-2018.

Colleen O’ Neill is excited to join the team at BKS. She has been a pediatric occupational therapist for the past 8 years working in Brooklyn, NY. Colleen has worked in many settings including an outpatient sensory gym, schools, homes, and in the community. She specializes in the areas of self-regulation/sensory processing, emotional regulation and management, educating parents and teachers on how to best support children in all environments, behavioral management, fine motor/writing skills, self-advocacy, feeding therapy, gross motor coordination skills/postural stability, and visual processing.

Helen Kogan holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from Touro Graduate School of Business and a SHRM-CP certificate. She has a wealth of experience (over 10 years) working in the HR departments of non-profit organizations in the fields of social services and education. She is a subject matter expert on Recruiting, Total Rewards, Compliance and other HR related areas.

Helen lives with her young daughter, husband, and their cat. She is a huge animal lover and enjoys traveling and the ocean. As someone who has lived in Brooklyn for more than a decade, Helen wants to make a difference in the lives of Brooklyners.

Marcia Thompson has been an Early Childhood Educator for more than 27 years. She taught preschool for almost 10 years and for the past 17 years, Ms. Thompson has worked as a Center Director. Marcia received most of her Early Childhood Education training at City College and gained certification as a Teacher and School Administrator.

Through the years, she has worked on a number of projects with other Early Childhood agencies such as Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Professional Development Institute and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.