THE READING LEAGUE ANNOUNCES BOARD OF DIRECTOR APPOINTEES
April 19, 2021
SYRACUSE, NY – The Reading League announces three new appointees to its board of directors for fiscal year 2021.
Mitchell Brookins is a Director of Content with Leading Educators. At heart, he is a teacher first, and has spent years studying, exploring, and refining his practices to yield student learning. From National Board Certification to a doctoral student of Educational Administration, he understands the interconnectedness between teaching and learning.
Mitchell has taught on the southside of Chicago, been a district leader of RtI and literacy in Chicago Public Schools, and served as a school administrator in Chicago Public Schools and New Orleans. He has also been a consultant with the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, an instructional coach with EdConnective, and a professional development facilitator of ELA, Math, and Leadership Institutes with UnboundEd.
Mitchell’s instructional leadership as a school administrator has yielded the following results: 19-point growth in the School Performance Score, which moved ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy from a “D” to a “C” in 2014, an average of 24% growth in Math and 16% growth in Reading from 2016-2018 at ARISE Academy, and finally, Dwight Eisenhower was recognized for having the greatest growth gains of all open-enrollment charters in New Orleans and the School Performance Score increased by 12 points which resulted in the school’s letter grade moving from a “D” to a “C” in 2018-2019.
Mitchell has a B.A. in Elementary Education and Religious Studies from Illinois Wesleyan University, a M.A. in Teacher Leadership from Roosevelt University, and is currently working on his dissertation to attain a Ph.D. in Educational Administration at the University of New Orleans.
Dr. Phelton “Cortez” Moss, Ph.D. is currently a Policy Fellow for Education Leaders of Color and provides strategic and policy advice across a range of education issues for members, including early childhood, K12, postsecondary, career, and technical education, teacher diversity, and workforce development. In addition to his policy fellow role, he also serves as a tenure track professor of teacher education at Tougaloo College. He has more than eight years of experience working in education and education policy from classroom teacher to principal. He has also worked as a Bureau Director of Educator Effectiveness and Talent Acquisition at this Mississippi Department of Education working on K-12 education policy issues including teacher diversity, teacher/leader evaluations, teacher recruitment and retention, educator licensure, and issues of inequity in the distribution of effective teachers. Prior to becoming an educator, he served as a staff assistant to U.S. Congressman Travis W. Childers supporting constituency services. Phelton began his career in education as a high school English teacher in Greenwood, Mississippi, and corps member of Teach for America. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Mississippi and a BA in Public Policy Leadership and English from the University of Mississippi.
Justin M. Morcelle is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for KeyBank. In this role, he is responsible for driving KeyBank’s overall brand, partnering with various lines of business to develop differentiated value propositions, and delivering incremental shareholder value.
Prior to assuming oversight of the Marketing team, Justin held the position of Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing supporting marketing strategy and execution for KeyBank’s various lines of business. Justin joined KeyBank from First Niagara Bank as part of that acquisition where he held the role of Sr. Director Customer Strategy for First Niagara Bank. In this role, he oversaw enterprise marketing, analytics, and network planning. Further, he held the position Head of Deposit Product Management leading the design, pricing, and management of all deposit products.
Justin held several leadership positions in finance including the position of Retail CFO at First Niagara where he provided strategic and financial guidance to Retail Leadership. Justin joined First Niagara in September 2011 as Head of Profitability within the Finance Group. Prior to joining First Niagara, Justin led a Finance Transformation initiative at HSBC Bank USA focused on improving management information and decision support. Justin began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Certified Public Accountant serving in the Audit and Advisory practice.
Justin earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Case Western Reserve University.