Photo of children using mixing bowls and measuring cups to make a mixture of something.

Faculty & Staff

The role of the staff is to create safe, stimulating environments that promote active exploration and provide children with challenging experiences. Staff is also a resource for parents. Parent/staff partnerships are based upon mutual respect and trust. The staff recognizes that the Center supplements the primary role of parents in caring for their children and attempt to develop ongoing communication with families.

Lyudmyla Yakubov

Director, The Ben Samuels Children's Center

Email
yakubovl@montclair.edu
Location
Ben Samuels Children's Center

Tanya Miller

Acting Associate Director, Ben Samuels Children's Center

Phone
973-655-7369
Email
millerta@montclair.edu
Location
Ben Samuels Children's Center

Theresa Andrade

Professional Services Specialist III/Administrative Service (CWA)

Phone
973-655-4386
Email
andradet@montclair.edu
Location
Ben Samuels Children's Center

Our Staff

Our employees, like our families and children, have differing abilities, needs, cultures, ethnicities, means and family structures. We embrace and value this diversity. Also like our children and families, our employees are strong individuals who continually develop their abilities to construct their learning, engage in social interactions and negotiate with everything the environment brings them.

The role of the adult at The Ben Samuels Children’s Center is that of an educator, a guide, a mentor, reflective partner, interventionist and resource. The adults aim to create safe, stimulating environments that promote active exploration and provide children with challenging experiences. They share thoughts and experiences around problems that need solving and questions that need answers. They interject assistance in the form of observations, reflections, questions and demonstrations in those spaces between what a child can accomplish independently and what a child can accomplish with a little help. The adult assumes multiple roles as needed – facilitator, mediator, expeditor, investigator – in effect, becoming a trusted part of “process” in each child’s journey.