Meet the Team.
Dean
Chani Tessler
Chani (Karen)Tessler Ph.D., is the Dean of Sarah Hartman Women's College, a member of the Touro College and University System, and is an associate professor of speech-language pathology. She previously held the position of manager of clinical education at Rush University College of Health Sciences and was the discipline coordinator for speech-language pathology at the University of Illinois LEND program, training future leaders in the field of neurodevelopmental disabilities for 10 years. Dr. Tessler holds an appointment in the Dept. of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Rush Medical College and is an associate of the Rush Craniofacial Team.
Dr. Tessler received her teacher’s certification from Beth Jacob Jerusalem Seminary and her BA from Northeastern Illinois University. She earned her MA and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has presented at state and national conferences on the topics of innovative education practices, craniofacial anomalies, clinical care, and student supervision.
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Bari Fleischer is the Chair of Graphic Art and Design at The Sarah Hartman Women's College, and the Director of the Ralla Klepak Performing Arts Leadership Initiative Sunday Immersion Program. Bari has taught the Music and Art curriculum at Arie Crown Hebrew Day School, and prior to that was the Art Coordinator for Keshet as well as a painting instructor at the Highland Park Senior Center. Bari is also the Creative Consultant for the Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts and in addition, she has performed in productions and created sets for the Chicago Women's Charity Performers, HSBY, JCC Apachi Rogers Park, Yachad, Orot, and more.
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Bari also writes customized curriculum surrounding the Arts and incorporation into mainstream classrooms to approach different learners with mental health issues, disabilities, neuro-divergent learners, and more.
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Bari received her BA in Fine Art from Northeastern Illinois University, and her MFA in Fine Art from The San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate for Teaching and Learning from National Louis University and is a showing artist in large scale installations, sculpture, and painting, a graphic designer, actor, and creator of set designs for local theater and photographers.
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Mrs. Devri Ehrlich, J.D., Sunday Program Lead, is a highly experienced educator with a diverse background in education and training. In addition to her degrees from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, she has produced and directed over 25 successful musical productions and plays. Mrs. Ehrlich has produced 19 musical productions at Bais Yaakov High School and prior to that directed and produced multiple plays during her college years, showcasing her artistic talents and leadership abilities.
Moreover, Mrs. Ehrlich has extensive experience in various modalities of secondary, post-secondary, and adult education. She has taught history, government, and English courses at Bais Yaakov High School since 2003. Mrs. Ehrlich also serves on the faculty at Sarah Hartman Women's College of Touro, bringing her expertise in education, training, and the arts to the classroom. In her early career, Mrs. Ehrlich led national training programs teams at “Big 6” accounting firms and managed the training and education department at Blackman Kallick (now Plante Moran) in Chicago. She also served as the Director of Instructional Design for an online training firm, where she oversaw the development of a library of over 200 training modules for health care providers, from needs assessment through evaluation, focusing on continuous improvement based on evaluation results.
Education Director
Shira Roth
Shira Roth, PhD, has been a classroom teacher, a reading specialist, a professional developer, and a university professor. Her classroom has been featured in instructional videos by the National Council of Teachers of English, Celebration Press, Scott Foresman, the State of Illinois, the CTELL Project, and the Annenberg Teaching Reading K-2 video series. Currently, Dr. Roth is the chairperson of the Department of Education at the Sarah Hartman Women's College.
Dr. Roth received her BA in Elementary Education and her MA in Reading from Northeastern Illinois University, and her PhD in Reading and Language from National Louis University. She is the author of three professional books: Rethinking Intervention: Supporting Struggling Readers in the Regular Classroom (2013, Choice Literacy) and of a collection of literacy coaching tools along with Roberta Buhle and Camille Blachowicz entitled Effective Literacy Coaching: Building Expertise and a Culture of Literacy (2009, ASCD), and Two Books are Better than One (2016, Capstone).