Alternative Education Resource Organization

Jerry Mintz

Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement for over 30 years. In addition to his seventeen years as a public school teacher and a public and independent alternative school principal, he has also founded several alternative schools and organizations and has lectured and consulted around the world.

Jerry was the first executive director of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS), and was a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC).

In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization. He continues to serve as AERO's director and as the Managing Editor of AERO’s networking magazine, The Education Revolution.

In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).

Jerry was also Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of No Homework and Recess All Day: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2003) and is currently working with Dr. Carlo Ricci on an anthology tentetively titled, Contemporary alternative education visionaries: Their schooling, their break, their actions (AERO, 2009).

Isaac Graves

Isaac Graves grew up in The Free School (Albany, NY) and since graduation has worked extensively within the field of democratic and alternative education. He has spoken nationally and internationally on the subjects at conferences, seminars, schools, and universities. Isaac co-founded Harriet Tubman Free School (now Harriet Tubman Democratic High School) and taught there for nearly three years. He now serves on the board of directors of The Patchwork School in Louisville, Colorado. Isaac is the associate editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Stories and works for the Alternative Education Resource Organization directing their annual conference and serving as outreach coordinator. He also manages DemocraticEducation.com and is a blogger for the Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA). Isaac is a lover of baseball, music, the outdoors, traveling, Indian food, hummus, and life in general.

Christy Lochary

Christy Lochary serves as the community liason and teacher at The Patchwork School; a visionary preschool and elementary school in Louisville, CO. Having attended public school as a young person, Christy went on to graduate from University of Colorado with a B.A. in Fine Arts and a minor in Sociology. Her desire to work in the field of educational alternatives stems from a passion that all children deserve the opportunity to find an education environment that works for them; An environment that supports their development as self-actualized individuals living in community with others. Christy currently serves as administrative assist in AERO's Colorado office, member of the AERO Conference Organizing Committee, and keeps the organization going with her tireless efforts to keep everyone organized and on track.

Ron Miller

Ron Miller is recognized internationally as one of the major thinkers and activists in the emerging field of holistic education. He has written or edited eight books and authored numerous articles, chapters and book reviews, including What Are Schools For?, Holistic Education in American Culture (Holistic Education Press, 1990), Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s (State University of New York Press, 2002), Educational Freedom for a Democratic Society (Resource Center for Redesigning Education, 1995), Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000), and, with Riane Eisler, Educating for a Culture of Peace (Heinemann, 2004).

After receiving a Master’s Degree in humanistic psychology, training as a Montessori educator, and earning a Ph.D. in American Studies at Boston University, Miller established an independent journal, Holistic Education Review, which continues to be published under the title Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice.

In the 1990s, Miller launched several publishing and book distribution ventures, including Holistic Education Press, the Resource Center for Redesigning Education (which published the book review periodical Great Ideas in Education), and the Foundation for Educational Renewal, which published the magazine Paths of Learning.

In 1995, Ron organized the Bellwether School near Burlington, Vermont, which has become a model for holistic educators and researchers, and since the mid-1990’s he has been on the faculty of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, working with students of education as well as teen homeschoolers.

Throughout his career, Miller has sought to bring diverse alternative education movements into contact and collaboration. He has spoken at and helped organize conferences and meetings around the world, and has done extensive editing, manuscript reviewing and advising for colleagues, researchers and graduate students.

Ron is currently the editor of Education Revolution, The Magazine of Alternative Education, and the education writer for the online journal Global Intelligencer. His latest book is The Self-Organizing Revolution: Common Principles of the Educational Alternatives Movement (Holistic Education Press, 2008).

Aleksandra Majstorac Kobiljski

Aleksandra Majstorac Kobiljski was born in Serbia and Montenegro and educated at the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and Central European University (Hungary). She met Jerry Mintz at IDEC 2000 in Tokyo where she was a member of Tokyo Shure's IDEC Organizing Committee in her capacity as a translator. She joined the AERO team in September 2004 at the Roslyn Heights headquarters. Besides her involvement in the alternative education movement, she is currently working towards her doctorate in history at The Graduate Center- CUNY (New York).

Carol Morley

Carol Morley
I met Jerry in 1993 when I was seeking an alternative to public school for my son who was in 8th grade at the time. With Jerry's encouragement, we decided to homeschool, which we did through the end of high school when my son earned both a regular diploma and a GED. Early on, I volunteered to help Jerry with some of the editing, transcribing, and data entry for AERO. This soon became a regular routine, which continues to this day, albeit from a distance via mail, phone and email.

My work with AERO primarily consists of editing articles for the "Education in the News" section of the Education Revolution magazine. In addition to this, I run a fairly successful small retail business, do additional proofreading and editing projects, assist my son with his IT corporation, and work part-time at a "real" job.

I have an Associates Degree in Secretarial Science from SUNY Farmingdale, and a Bachelors Degree in Small Business Management from SUNY Empire State College. My husband, Tom, and I have been married 36 years, have a grown daughter and son, and two grandchildren.