Staff Bios

 

Priscilla Prutzman

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Priscilla holds an M.A. in Communications and Media Studies from The New School for Social Research. She is co-author of The Friendly Classroom for a Small Planet and co-editor of Children's Songs for a Friendly Planet, CRC’s Friendly Classroom Mediation Manual and CRC’s Friendly Classroom and Communities for Young Children. She is the author of numerous conflict resolution articles.

Priscilla is the recipient of the Margaret Herrman Founders Award from The National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution (NCPCR) for service to the field. In June 2001, she received The National Peace Foundation's Peacemaker/Peacebuilder award. In October 2003, the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) honored Priscilla with their "Peacemaker of the Year" award. Priscilla has served on several conflict resolution boards, including the Consortium of Peace Research, Education and Development (COPRED), the Conflict Resolution Education Network (CREnet), and Ulster-Sullivan Mediation, and is currently on the board of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR).

She is on the Standards Committee of  the Education section of the Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR). She has taught courses in assertiveness training, conflict resolution, mediation and bias awareness for colleges including City College of New York, St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, NY, State University of New York at New Paltz, and Woodbury College in Montpelier, VT. She worked with women’s groups and homeless children in the Philippines and taught workshops and courses in the former Yugoslavia , Peru , and Costa Rica .

Anissa New-Walker

Outreach and Communications Coordinator

Anissa received a B.S. in advertising from The Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.

She worked for advertising agencies such as BBDO New York, Bates USA , the Chisholm-Mingo Group (specializing in the African-American market) and Prime Access (specializing in the LGBT market). She advised on communication objectives and marketing plans and developed advertising campaigns; television commercials, print ads and new media approaches for private sector corporations and for nonprofit organizations. She heightened awareness in a PSA for the Alzheimer’s Association about the health risks of caregivers who solely care for a family member with Alzheimer’s. She advised on a public service campaign for the “tween” (children 9 to 12 years old) market about the effects of smoking with the Philip Morris Youth Smoking Prevention Project. In 2003 The Kaiser Family Foundation wanted to grab the attention of African – American and Latino young people at high risk of HIV/AIDS. With this communication outreach she created an attention – grabbing, in your face outdoor ad campaign that ran on buses, billboard and subways in New York city, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington D.C.

As Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Anissa is responsible for maintaining and creating new community relations for CRC. Her work also includes marketing CRC programs, workshops, and the publications CRC produces. Anissa is responsible for all outgoing communications to the public as well as the design and maintenance of the CRC website.

Kala Dwarakanath

Development Associate

Kala received her M.S. in Community Health Education, a division of public health, from Hunter College, NY; she also earned an M.A. in sociology from Madras University, Madras, India. Kala is originally from Madras, India, and came to the United States in 1980.

Kala had worked as a journalist writing about topics ranging from public health programs to fusion cuisine. Her articles have appeared in a varied mix of publications and journals. Her corporate experience comes from her stint at KPMG as part of its marketing communications team based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

Moving on from her career in journalism, Kala completed NYU’s professional certificate program in philanthropy and fundraising, seeking to make a transition into the non-profit world, where she could use her writing skills to highlight important causes.

She found such a cause in CRC and came to the organization in 2007. As Development Associate, Kala assists in CRC’s fundraising efforts including writing grant proposals and other donor communication materials.

Karen Heuer

Bookkeeper

Karen Heuer handles all of CRC bookkeeping and invoicing. She has a B.S. in Business Administration from Pace University.