Mama Sharifa is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at Seneca Village Montessori. She graduated from Brooklyn College with her Bachelors of Science in Business Management & Finance. After starting a family, she decided to move on from her career as a Marketing Manager and pursue her dreams of becoming an Educator. Despite working full time, being a wife and a new mother, she tackled graduate school head on. Graduating from Touro College with her Dual Masters degree in Childhood Education and Special Education.

Sharifa has over 15 years of experience working with children. From her days as a teenager assisting in her mother’s day care to her time as a NYC public school teacher working with special needs students….not to mention raising her own two sons Allen and Oliver.

Working in the public school system, made it overly apparent to her that an alternative learning environment was needed for our children. A learning environment that was academically rigorous but also focused on fostering confidence, encouraging creativity, and teaching positive knowledge of self. Sharifa became more active in her community, volunteering her time to work with groups that were trying to make a difference. Through her work in the community she was introduced to and later became friends with Mama Isis. That was how Seneca Village Montessori School was born…two friends wanting to make a real difference for our youth.