Instructors

The Learning Collaborative attracts a vibrant group of instructors, ensuring an ongoing stream of long-term and new educators. Many bring an intense passion for their subject, which while not necessarily connected to their earlier careers, is deeply learned and embraced. Our student body often expresses its enthusiasm for these instructors.

We listen to them!

Linda Hoju Strauss

Linda Hoju Strauss is a longtime Zen practitioner and an authorized assistant Zen teacher since 2007. She is a Dharma Holder and novice Zen priest and a student of Roshi Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts at the Heart Circle Sangha in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Linda also teaches at a prison in New Jersey.

Macy Sullivan

Paralleling her teaching endeavors, Macy Sullivan also works as a dancer, rehearsal director, and dance editor for Caleb Teicher & Company. She has worked extensively with Dance Heginbotham, and has also enjoyed projects with Merce Cunningham Trust, The Bang Group, The Chase Brock Experience, and Pat Catterson. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s Dance Department.

Robert Tompkins

Robert Tompkins has degrees from NYU and Cornell in majors unrelated to the course description. As a teenager, he learned that his Dutch Reform Protestant ancestor in 1739 was a slaveholder and thought him to be evil. Decades later, Robert discovered enslaving was not a Christian sin. He had to understand why and this lead to his writing a manuscript on the subject. Last year, he gave a lecture at TLC on “How Christianity enabled slavery and why that matters today.” Robert was a candidate for Orangetown Town Clerk in 2018.

Alice Twombly

Alice Twombly has a B.A. in English from Brandeis and an M.A.T. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught Shakespeare and AP English at Teaneck H.S. for over 35 years. An educational consultant, photographer, and poet, Alice frequently lectures on literary topics at regional libraries, is the Curator of Thursdays Are For Poetry, a monthly poetry reading in Teaneck, and a member of Brevitas, an online poetry collective of over 70 poets in the NY Metro Area.

Korliss Uecker

Korliss Uecker, an operatic soloist, earned her BA and MA degrees from The Juilliard School. She has appeared in over 150 Metropolitan Opera performances, including appearances with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. The breadth of her repertoire and credits is vast and includes appearances with major symphony orchestras, at opera houses, and under the batons of such notables as James Levine, Donald Runnicles, Sir Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Jurowski, Edo de Waart, Julius Rudel, and Gerard Schwarz. She has premiered and performed works of today’s great contemporary composers. Of particular interest is her membership in “Feminine Musique,” a duo…

Marc Wantuch

Joan Whitacre

Joan Whitacre, M.A., R.S.M.T., Dir. of Embody the Journey and Whole Women Healing, is a registered somatic-movement therapist, a meditation teacher in Tibetan Buddhism, and a writer. Since 1971, she has offered private practice/teaching in embodied presence for healing, stress reduction, and creative living, with an emphasis on women’s needs.

Bette Willins

Bette Willins, M.S., LDT-C**, 200HR RYT*** is a certified yoga instructor holding advanced degrees in education from Fordham and educational diagnostics from Monclair State. Her teaching experience has targeted the specific educational needs for learners of all ages and abilities. Bette’s personal experience, with the challenges associated with Parkinson’s Disease, has broadened her passion to acknowledge the needs of the whole person, specifically through the practice of yoga, breathing, and meditative exercise. Bette’s expertise in this field, coupled with her compassion, empowers her students to develop the necessary skill set to address a wide range of physical, cognitive and emotional…