OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

Dan Levine, MBA
President and Founder

Dan Levine is the President and Founder of Engaging Minds, an after school learning center that teaches students how to learn by focusing on strengthening the increasingly important executive function skills (organization, prioritization, time management, task initiation, goal-setting, follow-through, study skills, and planning).

Throughout his 25 year career in education, Dan has always championed the student and created pathways for students to receive the academic and skill support they needed to become independent, motivated, and self-confident learners.

As the world and the role of education has evolved in the 21st century, teaching students the skills and strategies they need to be successful in school and in life became Dan’s passion. In 2010, Dan partnered with several outstanding educators to launch Engaging Minds.

Dan earned a MBA from Boston University and a BA from Connecticut College. He is married to a first-grade teacher, Julie, and they live in Needham, MA with their daughter, Molly, and son, Zachary.

You can reach Dan directly at dan@engagingmindsonline.com.

Silvia Luscher, B.S.
Director of Operations

Silvia joined the Engaging Minds team in 2013 as its Director of Operations. She brings with her an extensive background in finance and administration, and has worked for both international companies and small businesses in a variety of leadership positions. At Engaging Minds, Silvia is the point person for scheduling and handles various behind the scenes office functions including payroll and billing. Though not an educator by trade, Silvia is a strong proponent of skills-based education. Through the lens of her background in business, Silvia is keenly aware of the value of strong executive function skills as essential not only for students in school but also for success in life. Silvia has a business degree from Ithaca College and lives in Needham, MA with her family.

Rachel Marcus, M.Ed.
Curriculum and Training Manager

Rachel’s educational philosophy has evolved over the course of her career through her experiences in a variety of classroom settings. Rachel has come to believe that learning how to learn is ultimately the key to a child’s success in school—and in life. In today’s fast-paced world, content is easily accessible and students are asked to organize, analyze, and synthesize that content in deeper and richer ways than ever before. Rachel recognizes that while learning content is certainly important, empowering students by giving them the fundamental tools they need to be successful in any academic setting is even more important. This educational philosophy drew her to Engaging Minds, where Rachel supports the professional development, training, and mentoring of Engaging Minds’ skilled instructors.

Rachel holds a Master’s degree in Secondary Education from Cabrini College and a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught History, Reading, Writing, Leadership and English as a Second Language in both middle and high school settings. Prior to teaching, Rachel worked as a journalist for several years. Rachel and her husband Daniel live in Brookline, MA with their daughter, Elena, and son Jason.

Colleen Souza, SLP
Learning Specialist and Program Manager

Colleen has been with Engaging Minds since 2012 when she came on board as an instructor. She has a Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology from Emerson College and has worked as a Speech Language Pathologist for over 13 years across a variety of educational and health care settings with individuals from all age groups. Colleen’s career has centered heavily around building executive function skills in her clients and students through developing individualized and highly functional tools and strategies. She believes there is no “one size fits all” approach to building a student’s executive skills, which is why Colleen feels so strongly about working in collaboration with the student and their family to find, develop and continuously fine tune the best strategies for each individual. She loves to find things that work for each one of her unique students and feels very lucky to be able witness the far reaching positive impact that these tools can have on their school work and other parts of their lives as well. Over the years, Colleen has worked with students one on one and lead group and classroom based lessons. She also has years of experience working in a supervisory and administrative capacity, including training and mentoring professional staff. Colleen grew up in Newton, attended the Newton public schools and graduated from Newton South. She now lives in Natick with her husband and two children, Charlotte and Nathaniel.

Nancy Vargas, B.A.E.
Scheduling Coordinator

Nancy earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Florida Atlantic University, and taught in the Palm Beach County school system for four years before heading north to the Boston area. Due to the abundance of teachers at that time, she fell into the business world and has spent the past 18 years working in Finance at a major wholesaler. With her combination of teaching experience and extensive office management skills, she is well equipped to handle the ins and outs of scheduling our students and instructors. She resides in Natick just a half hour drive from her daughter and son-in-law.

Mimi Concannon, M.Ed.
Educational Advocate

Mimi has been teaching children with learning challenges for over 30 years. She has provided content support and modification, as well as study strategies, to encourage successful, confident, and self-reliant students. Mimi’s educational philosophy is a perfect fit for Engaging Minds—she has long recognized that executive function skills are critical to a student’s success in the 21st century.

Mimi is available for consultation and advocacy regarding the SPED process, review of assessments, and attendance at IEP, 504, IEE, and team meetings. Her goal is to assist parents and guardians in understanding their legal rights and in helping them to procure appropriate educational services and programs for their student. Mimi has an undergraduate degree from Regis College and a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Lesley University. She has been trained as an Educational Advocate through the Federation for Children with Special Needs.

Mimi and her husband Bill live in Newton. They are the parents of three daughters and have six grandchildren.

Carl Cafaro, M.Ed.

Carl joins the Engaging Minds Advisory Board as a business advisor. Carl’s interest in education is deeply rooted: he holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston College and considered becoming a full-time educator. However, Carl also has a keen interest in finance and helping small businesses grow. As a Senior Vice President and Senior Financial Advisor, Carl leads the Cafaro Group at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Carl is a four-time recipient of the Award of Excellence, the highest honor awarded to Bank of America associates. He has also been recognized for his commitment to his profession and clients with an appointment to Merrill Lynch’s Advisory Council to Management, where he represents the interests of Financial Advisors and clients in a forum that is national in scope. In 2009 Carl earned a spot in On Wall Street’s “Top 40 Under 40” list and in 2010 was named to Merrill Lynch’s “Director’s Circle.” Carl was recently named to Merrill Lynch’s “Circle of Champion’s,” the highest honor awarded to Merrill Lynch advisors, and was recognized on Wall Street’s “Top 40 Under 40” list in 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Carl holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Assumption College in addition to his Master’s in Education from Boston College.

Lisa Freedman, M.Ed.

Lisa has been interested in the process of learning since she first heard about neurons and dendrites in middle school. Since then, she has pursued this passion as a student in school, as a teacher in the classroom and as a tutor with individual students. Lisa believes that understanding one’s personal learning style and strengths are the keys to success in school and in life. Lisa brings a wealth of experience and expertise in special education to the Engaging Minds Advisory Board. Currently, Lisa is the Special Education Administrator for the Westwood Public Schools. Previously, Lisa was the Professional Development Coordinator and Lead Facilitator of the Teacher Evaluation Development Team in Westwood, and has spent years working in special education at Westwood High School, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, and the Willow Hill School. She also worked for seven years as private tutor to students at Beaver Country Day School where she focused on helping students strengthen their executive function skills while also providing content support. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her Master’s of Special Education from Lesley College.

Louisa Connaughton, M.Ed.

Louisa knew from a very early age that she was meant to be a teacher. As a high school student at Milton Academy, Louisa began pursuing a career in education and never looked back. The hallmark of Louisa’s teaching is her firm belief that students succeed when they are given the tools and information they need to create their own understanding. Based on this premise, and drawing from over ten years of classroom experience, Louisa developed the first iteration of Engaging Minds’ methodology. As with Louisa’s teaching, the Engaging Minds approach is student-centered, thought-based, and representative of current best practices in education. As both a teacher and as Engaging Minds’ founding instructor and first Director of Education (a position she held until February 2014), Louisa guides students to independently achieve their full potential. Louisa has a master’s degree in Elementary Education from Simmons College in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College. She currently teaches fourth grade at an independent school in Cambridge, MA.

Nancy Harrison, Ed.D.

Nancy believes that helping children recognize their strengths and weaknesses, build capacities and resilience, and feel empowered and successful are the greatest gifts we can convey to students. Nancy began her career as a school guidance counselor and quickly realized that social/emotional/developmental/learning issues were complex and intertwined. She found that attempts to understand one layer invariably led to another, much like the layers of an onion that mesh together but have distinct and unique properties. Her search led to certification as an adjustment counselor, and later as a school psychologist. Within a few years, Nancy returned to the classroom to complete a doctorate in psychology and become a licensed psychologist. Upon completion of her doctorate, she worked with a private practice specializing in children and families. With the explosion of neuroscience and brain research, Nancy went back to school one last time for a certification in neuropsychology and earned a fellowship at McLean’s Hospital Developmental Unit. Realizing that her first love had always been her work in schools, Nancy soon returned to the setting that most encompasses a child’s growth, learning, social functioning and development. She has worked in school settings for the past 20 years, and after many years in the Wellesley public schools and at the Rashi School in Dedham, Nancy is currently the school psychologist working on establishing a psychological presence and social thinking at the Arthur J Epstein Hillel School on the North Shore. Nancy also continues her private practice in Natick, MA.

Sarabeth Broder-Fingert, MD MPH

Sarabeth is a pediatric hospitalist and health services research who develops and tests novel interventions to improve the lives of vulnerable children, while concurrently trying to understand how and why these diagnostic or treatment innovations get disseminated and implemented within healthcare systems. She received her M.D. from New York University School of Medicine and completed her residency training at MassGeneral Hospital. In 2012, she was awarded a HRSA-funded T32 research fellowship through Boston Children’s Hospital and MassGeneral Hospital for Children, and received a master’s in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She became an Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Medicine in 2014. She is currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and various foundations to study innovations to alleviate disparities in care for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other behavioral health conditions. Dr. Broder-Fingert has over 30 publications in the fields of health services, health disparities, ASD, and implementation science.