Lydia Acchione Spinelli was Director of the Brick Church School from 1983-2019. With an Ed.D. from Columbia University Teachers College, Lydia worked both to professionalize early childhood education and to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in independent schools in New York City throughout her career. Brick’s financial aid budget was over $500,000 when she retired, and there were many workshops and meetings for both teachers and parents to increase the school‘s focus on DEI throughout her tenure.
In 2012, Lydia founded Summer Steps, a program that seeks to prepare low-income students for New York City independent school kindergartens. Always serving as a volunteer, she continues to direct the program. Twenty-eight independent schools in NYC serve as partners in this endeavor because it helps low-income students to enter independent schools with greater knowledge and confidence.
Lydia has served on the Board of Early Steps for over 20 years, an organization that promotes racial diversity in New York City independent schools by helping children of color to be placed in independent school kindergartens and first grades. She was board president from 2016-2020.
She was a founding board member and helped to open African Dream Academy in Liberia, West Africa in 2012 and became President of the Board of the Foundation that supports the school in 2018. She has visited the school seven times.
Lydia’s work with African Dream Academy not only helps the children in one of the poorest countries in the world but also helps NYC children to connect with them. Nine schools in NYC now participate in an effort to send bags of school supplies and other needs to the children at ADA. Read more in this article.
Her hope is that we have planted the seeds for the children both in New York and ADA to grow into true global citizens.
Lydia Acchione Spinelli, J72