A dedicated and capable administrative team currently supports our high school operations. Their responsibilities include everything from managing attendance and other data records to coordinating our referral systems.

Anna Hall

Anna Hall joined the Letters team in 2003, before the school had lockers, computers, books, or students. During her first three years at BAL, she taught writing, served as grade leader, UFT chair, and hiring coordinator, and advised the inimitable DGX. In 2007, when Letters was ready to grow again, Anna led the planning team for the middle school expansion and became the school’s first assistant principal. In 2010, when our founding principal Joan Sullivan became LA’s Deputy Mayor of Education, Anna became the principal. If pressed, she will confess that in a long-ago, pre-Letters life, she had a series of interesting but unrelated jobs - speechwriter, product manager, research analyst – but that none were as satisfying as teaching. About a thousand years ago, she studied literature at the University of South Carolina Honors College and the University of Kent at Canterbury, where she was awarded the 1996 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. Some time later, she earned a masters degree in teaching from Fordham University as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program and administrative certification from the New York City Leadership Academy.

Kadion Phillips

Hailing from Portland, Jamaica, Kadion Phillips comes from a long line of teachers and yet was sure he would never become one. After receiving his B.A. in physics from Middlebury College, he moved to NYC with his wife (also a teacher) and joined the technology support staff at Bluefly, Inc. After his brief stint in the private sector, his passion for both physics and technology compelled him to join the NYC Teaching Fellows program through which he has received his masters in science education. He joined Letters in the fall of 2007 as a technology coordinator, and has since completely redesigned how we organize data, measure progress, communicate with each other and families, and generally organize ourselves. When he's not troubleshooting or searching Craigslist, you can find him wrestling with his two young sons or on the golf course.

Matthew Pilarski

Matthew earned his B.A. in English at the University of Michigan in 2001. After a brief time working at the Institute for Social Research, Matthew joined the New York City Teaching Fellows, accepting a seventh grade Language Arts position in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. After earning an M.A. in Secondary English Education at New York University in 2004, Matthew joined the staff at the Bronx Academy of Letters as a ninth grade Literature teacher and academic advisor. At the end of his first year at Bronx Letters, Matthew was appointed English Department Chair, overseeing the rewriting of the English curriculum. Beyond his work in the public school classroom, Matthew has served as an adjunct professor at Pace University and as a Selector and Lead Selector for the New York City Teaching Fellows, helping ensure the hiring of highly qualified teachers. After finishing his M. Ed. at Columbia University Teachers College in the summer of 2010 Matthew took on the role of AP of Instruction at Bronx Letters, with a specific focus on making teachers better at the craft of teaching.

Mitra Lucas

Born and raised in California, Mitra began her teaching career in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, after earning teaching degrees from California State and UC Berkeley. A summer sublet in NYC and a visit to BAL quickly led to a permanent move east when she became the ninth grade writing teacher. Her work at BAL led to an administrative degree from Columbia University, and then, in 2009, she fulfilled a life-long dream and spent a year traveling the world. Returning to BAL in 2010 as an assistant principal, Mitra now works to ensure that BAL graduates receive the academic, social, and emotional education, which will prepare them to realize their own dreams.

Raquel Cheney

Raquel was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where it is frightfully cold. After earning a bachelors degree in social work from New York University, a masters in social work from Fordham University, and a second masters in school administration from the College of New Rochelle, she embarked on a long career in social work and school administration. For the past thirteen years, she has been a school social worker in high schools in Westchester County, Albany, and NYC. During that time, she also served as the grants director for the Greenburgh-Graham School, overseeing the administration of a million-dollar grant. Since she joined the Letters team in 2007, Raquel has supervised all counseling and intervention services, the attendance team, and middle school articulation. In June 2010, she successfully planned and executed our first ever eighth grade graduation.