Our Team
Julia Machlin
Julia has been involved with Lamplight since 2021, and is thrilled to be part of the community. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Literature, and has spent the past year teaching Social Studies in New York City when she’s not in Northern Alabama.
Kevin Burns
Kevin was a 7th grade social studies teacher at a public middle school in the Bronx for six years. He is a co-founder and director of Sand Mountain Education Center and Lamplight Summer Camp. He works full time with SMCEC on employee ownership education and outreach.
Caroline Kanner
Caroline is from California. She’s been with Lamplight since its founding. Caroline has a Master’s in Education from UCLA, and has worked as a public school teacher, a teaching artist, a curriculum designer, and a museum educator. She’s passionate about place-based environmental education and anti-oppressive pedagogy, and loves making art with young people!
Daniel Waid Marshall
Daniel is a teacher by training. His day job is running Internal Communications at Ginkgo Bioworks, where he works to build a strong culture of worker-ownership. He moonlights as co-Director of the Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center, where he helps workers in Alabama become owners. He remains a member of Lamplight staff and uses his PTO to teach there in the summer. Daniel lives between Birmingham and Guntersville, AL, where he plays in the Sand Mountain Park basketball league on the “Cold Hearts” squad.
Trinity Nabors
Trinity has been with Lamplight for 5 years now. Starting out as a camper she worked her way up from a Program Assistant position to becoming a fully fledged staff member.
Ari Dubow
Ari teaches high school social studies in Philadelphia, PA. He attended Deep Springs College, a self-governed two-year program. There, he became committed to developing pedagogies in which students take control of their educations—the same principle that guides learning at Lamplight. He received a B.A. from Cornell University, and is now getting an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Annie Livingston
Annie Livingston is an educator from the Great Lakes region who has taught middle and high school in North Carolina before working with Lamplight for the past three summers. She is currently studying poetry in the desert, with high hopes to return to Appalachia before too long.
Elijah Frydman
Elijah is a New Hampshire native who has worked as a farmer and educator in Vermont, California, North Carolina and now Alabama. He is so excited to be a part of Lamplight. In his free time he enjoys reading, writing, and running.
Bassem Elbendary
