Our Team
This project is made possible through Bard College’s Trustee Leader Scholar program which is supported by both Bard College and Bard High School Early College leadership. We come from different backgrounds and educational departments but are united by a vision to support Ukraine. Drawing on expertise in education, civic engagement, literature, political studies, science, and international cooperation, we hope to be able to empower Ukrainian students and communities through Language and Thinking Kyiv program.
Yana Lahoda
Program Director & Instructor
Yana Lahoda graduated from Enerhodar General Education School No. 2 in 2021 and then attended ‘Iolani School in Hawaiʻi, graduating in 2023. Since 2018, she has been teaching English to Ukrainian students. Since 2024, she has been co-leading the English Program, Juniors Program at Ukraine Global Scholars, a nonprofit organization supporting economically disadvantaged students in securing scholarships, one she benefited from herself in 2020 and 2023. Most recently, she focused on international project coordination with the International Cooperation Team for Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defence. Currently, she is a third-year student, pursuing a B.A. in Economics and Master’s in Teaching Literature and assisting Dr. Jonathan Becker with coordination of two political science courses at Bard College.
Valeri J Thomson
Advisor
Dr. Valeri J Thomson is a founder and director of the Immediate Science Research Opportunity Program at Bard College (1998–2007), Associate at Bard College Language & Thinking Institute (2000–present), Founding Principal at Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) Queens (2008–2023), and Senior Advisor at BHSEC Manhattan (2024–present). Her education includes a B.A. from Bard College (Department of Mathematics and Sciences), M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (Department of Microbiology), Postdoctoral Studies from Wadsworth Institute (Department of Infectious Disease), and M.Ed. from Columbia University (Summer Principals Academy). Dr. Thomson’s research interest is in understanding the genetic mechanisms behind how organisms form structures, using C. elegans as a model organism.
Jonathan Becker
Advisor
Dr. Jonathan Becker is a Professor of Political Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bard College, where he is also founding director of the Center for Civic Engagement. Dr. Becker has taught courses on the history of voting and elections, local politics, civic engagement, Eastern European politics, and media, and has extensive experience developing liberal arts and sciences education programs across the region. He has taught at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Central European University, Wesleyan University, and Yale University. Dr. Becker received his B.A. from McGill University and D.Phil. from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. He has published several books and articles on media, liberal arts education, and civic engagement. Most recent works include co-editing Youth Voting Rights (forthcoming in 2026) and “Deeds, Not Words,” Liberal Education (May 2024).
Stephen Tremaine
Advisor
Stephen Tremaine (Bard class of 2007) serves as Bard College's Vice President for Network Education and as a founding leader of Bard Early College, growing network of undergraduate campuses for younger students in public school settings. Across ten campuses, from Cleveland to New York City, Bard Early College enrolls over 3,000 students in a tuition-free, degree-granting course of study in the liberal arts and sciences, in place of the last two years of a traditional high school education. As Vice President for Network Education, Tremaine works across Bard's global network to advance research, teaching, and access to education in the liberal arts and sciences, working with policy-makers, researchers, education partners, and young people worldwide. Tremaine earned his PhD in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. With colleagues and school partners, Tremaine has established innovative high school and postsecondary programs and schools around the world, including in his hometown of New Orleans.
Dumaine Williams
Advisor
Dr. Dumaine Williams serves as Bard College's Vice President and Dean of the Early Colleges. He has served as the Dean of Students at BHSEC Newark and as the founding principal at BHSEC Cleveland. Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from Stony Brook University; an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Montclair State University; and a B.A. in Biology from Bard College.
Erica Kaufman
Advisor
Dr. Erica Kaufman directs Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking and Bard College’s Language and Thinking Program, and teaches in the Written Arts Program. She is the author of three books of poetry, POST CLASSIC (2019), INSTANT CLASSIC (2013), and censory impulse (2009), and co-editor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life and Work of kari edwards (2009) and Adrienne Rich: Teaching at CUNY, 1968–1974 (2014). Dr. Kaufman’s prose on poetry and pedagogy appears in multiple anthologies, including The Color of Vowels (2013), The Supposium (2018), Approaches to Teaching the Works of Gertrude Stein (2018), Reading Experimental Writing (2020), and The Difference is Spreading (2022). She has also taught at Baruch College, Parsons School of Design, and Naropa University. Her pedagogy was featured in The Classroom and the Crowd (2025). She has taught in the Language and Thinking Program since 2007. Dr. Kaufman received her MFA from The New School and Ph.D. from CUNY Graduate Center.
Liliana Tymchenko
Instructor
Liliana Tymchenko brings 30 years of experience in teaching international law. She is the author of numerous scholarly publications addressing the challenges of combating terrorism, the recognition of states, the protection of human rights, and the existential questions of state development and decolonization. Liliana served as an expert for the Legal Reform Commission under the President of Ukraine (2019–2021) as well as the Scientific Advisory Council of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine (2014–2017). She is a graduate of programs offered by the American Bar Association, IREX, the Coimbra Group Hospitality Scheme, and the Civic Education Project. Currently, she is an associate professor in the Academic Department of Social Sciences at the European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania) and a fellow of the CLASP Fellows Program at Bard College.
Anthony Richter
Advisor
Anthony Richter is a Senior Fellow at Bard College's Center for Civic Engagement, exploring intersections of politics and culture. He previously held senior leadership roles at the Open Society Foundations, including regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and the former Soviet Union, and was founding chairman of the Revenue Watch Institute. He has written for The New York Times, World Policy Journal, and other publications, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His research project, A Ukrainian Family Chronicle Through War and Resistance, focuses on memory studies, Holocaust studies, war memorials, and Ukraine from the 1920s to the 1950s. During his residency at the Center for Urban History, he will conduct interviews, organize research activities, study historiography and methodology, and advance his knowledge of the Ukrainian language.
Paul Marienthal
Advisor
Dr. Marienthal is a Dean for Social Action and Director of the Trustee Leader Scholar program. In his 29th year at Bard College, he continues to work with students who design and run civic engagement projects based on their own interests. He is a trained therapist, and his expertise lies in interpersonal communication. Paul spent a semester teaching at Bard program at a Palestinian university in the West Bank, and he supported hundreds of Bard students who helped put New Orleans back together after the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Paul is interested in the hands-on work of making the world.