Holocaust Education in Nevada

Members

Stephanie Hartman, PhD:In the Fall of 1989, I was fortunate enough to do my student teaching in Munich, Germany.  The next spring, I made a surprise visit to my old classroom on the same day that they were taking a field trip to Dachau – that was my first true experience with the Holocaust.  As we walked through the grounds, the students were silent – it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.  From that time forward, I wanted to make sure that students in my classroom learned about the Holocaust. My first visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum piqued my interest even further in effectively teaching the Holocaust.  Now, in my position as the Nevada State Social Studies Consultant, I am interested in helping teachers in Nevada to further their experiences with teaching the Holocaust.

Margaret M. Ferrara, PhD: The teaching of the Holocaust began when I was a child learning about social studies in a small, largely Jewish village in the Catskill mountains where everyone took a year-long course on Holocaust studies.  Presently, I teach about the Holocaust and genocide as part of the teacher preparation content for social studies teachers at the secondary level at the University of Nevada Reno,  I have attended several workshops provided by the  States Holocaust Museum and encourage my teachers in preservice and inservice education to design at least one lesson plan that  mirrors the “heart and head” elements that are necessary in teaching about the Holocaust and genocide. 

Karlye Mull, M.Ed:  I am the Project Facilitator for K-12 Social Studies in the Clark County School District.  I work to inform secondary social studies teachers about the resources and materials that are available to them regarding Holocaust Education.  I am interested in sharing with teachers the importance of tolerance and using history to understand similiar issues in today's society. 

Whitney Foehl, MA: Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, I've lived and worked in the Lake Tahoe region for the last 18 years.  I've been a social studies teacher in Washoe County for the last ten years and have taught the holocaust as part of my U.S. History curriculum for eight of those years.  Currently, I am teaching education classes at the University of Nevada, Reno where I use my influence to encourage progressive teaching methods that are student centered, interactive, and engaging.

Roz Sbarra: As a retired educator and community volunteer, I first became acquainted with Holocaust education in 1988.  At that time, I was asked to serve as a Docent Chairperson for the Anne Frank in the World exhibit at UNLV.  This was a "light bulb" event for me.  As a whole world of educational opportunities and the chance to do some good merged into work as a volunteer in the field of Holocaust Education.  Today I work for the students, teachers, and citizens of Nevada as the secretary to the Nevada Governor's Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust in teaching the lessons learned from that momentus time in history.

Sharon Carter, M.A.:  From a very young age, I shared a love of history with my father.  Some of my fondest memories, during my thirty year teaching career, were the eight years that I taught U.S. History.  I enjoyed igniting that interest in history with my students!  In 1999, I had the good fortune to tour the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam, and I was compelled to learn more about the Holocaust.  My current job, as the Project Facilitator for the Clark County School District Teaching American History Grant Program, has afforded me the opportunity to assist in planning and implementing Holocaust related teacher workshops and student/teacher conferences.

Sue Davis, M.A.T. History:  Since 2003, I have been the director of the Teaching American History Grant. I also serve as the part-time WCSD Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator and as the executive director of the Northern Nevada Council for the Social Studies. I have served on many national, state, and local committees, which promote the teaching  of social studies. Prior to the Grant Director position, I was a high school classroom teacher of twenty-five years and supervising teacher to many student teacher interns and launched the first Advanced Placement United States History program at Wooster High School.  I am currently Nevada’s state coordinator for the Gilder Lehrman and Preserve American History Teacher of the Year Award.

 

Mary Stewart: PhD: I am a sociologist, and director of the Gender, Race and Identity Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, which incorporates the Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies Program.  The name of the Program reveals our view that the Holocaust needs to be understood not only in its own right, but as the ultimate  standard of depravity and human indecency.  The only value to be gained from the Holocaust  is to be found in lessons we learn that can help us prevent further genocides and build peace and understanding. Peace must be the goal that justifies our willingness to delve into the inhumanity and terror visited on millions by the Holocaust and the genocides we live with today. Understanding, can and should lead us to a deep appreciation of the extent of human suffering visited on people because of prejudice and race hatred, but must also lead us to privileging hope over despair, and peace over war.  In my work with students at the University of Nevada, I focus on helping them understand the societal level factors that fuel the terror and destruction exemplified by the Holocaust and genocides, moving them away from looking at individuals as the source of the evil, hoping that their academic backgrounds will be the foundation on which they build a personal commitment to peace and justice and the elimination of barriers based on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and other forms of identity. 

Kim Nastaszewski:  Originally from New York, I moved to Nevada in 2004 and became the librarian for the Sperling Mack Kronberg Holocaust Library and Resource Center in the spring of 2006.  I have always loved traveling and learning about other cultures and religions firsthand.  Working to help teach the lessons of the Holocaust; tolerance, diversity, racism, anti-Semitism and acceptance to name a few is a challenging yet very rewarding pursuit.

 

Carla Trounson:  If memory serves, my first consciousness of the Holocaust was when I was in my early teens and read Night for the first time.  Very early in the reading I became aware, with increasing distress, that this story was real, and that the events …happened.  I have never forgotten how I felt when I read my first Holocaust book, and for a long time I could not read enough biographies. As a child of a military serviceman I lived all over the world, including Germany , which allowed my indulgence for my passion in history.  Later, I wanted to commit to the formal study of the Holocaust, to learn the how and why of not only the Holocaust, but of past and present genocide and intolerance. I am still learning.  I enrolled in a Master’s Degree in History program at the University of Nevada Reno, where I am in my last semester having studied three fields: the Holocaust, African American history, and 20^th Century United States history. I have worked for Washoe County Library for five years, and although I am not a classroom teacher, I do teach the Holocaust to a wide spectrum of patrons through my programs and collection development of the Shia Szrut Memorial Holocaust collection at the Northwest Reno Library. I am interested in utilizing my skills as a historian and my practical library experience from years of library service in hope that by teaching educators, patrons, and students about the Holocaust there will be many who are moved to action as they come to share what I did when I first read Night, that injustice everywhere must be fought. I do fervently hope there will come a day when our focus will only be on Holocaust and genocide remembrance because we live in a world where intolerance and genocide has truly become something of the past. 

 

Martha Gould: Ms. Gould began her professional career as a children's librarian at the New York Public Library. From 1984 to 1995 she directed the Washoe County Library in Reno, NV. She was named Nevada Librarian of the “Years” in 1993. Martha was a chairperson of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. She was appointed to the commission by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and reappointed in 1998. She was designated as the commission chairperson on March 3, 2000 and served until the expiration of her second term on July 19, 2003. She is now a consultant.

 

Who We Are

 The Nevada Holocaust Education Task Force is committed to providing quality teacher training, materials, and resources in order to advance the knowledge and teaching skills of secondary teachers across the state.