Lisa Mendler

Lisa Mendler is the eighth-grade dean and PALS (Providing Alternative Learning Strategies) coordinator and has been at The Leffell School since 2020. Prior to her time at Leffell, Ms. Mendler worked as the school social worker at Carmel Academy, where she created and implemented schoolwide social-emotional programming, coached teachers around classroom and behavior management, and supported the overall mental health needs of students. At the start of her career, Ms. Mendler spent six years in New York City public elementary schools in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and in the South Bronx, as both a social worker and special education teacher. Ms. Mendler also has experience working in a variety of therapeutic settings, including the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital and the Public Defender's Office in Pittsburgh, PA, where she worked with juveniles in a detention center. She holds a master’s degree in social work from Hunter College School of Social Work, as well as a master's degree in teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education. Ms. Mendler and her husband, Rabbi Zachary Sitkin, live in New Rochelle with their two sons..