DANIEL SILBER-BAKER
Transformative Education
I believe in the transformative power of a well designed learning experience. Education doesn’t just occur inside of classrooms– education is the limitless way we learn together.
About Me
For the first half of my professional life, I directed an arts-based public health program for young people in Brooklyn. I was also a storyteller and performance poet, including being a National Poetry Slam Champion, and an Artist in Residence at UC Santa Barbara.
Stemming from my work with youth and my poetry, I became fascinated with the ability that technology presented to communicate big ideas and be harnessed for transformative learning– so I taught myself how to code! I went on to receive my Master’s in Interactive Telecommunications at NYU, synthesizing my work at the intersections of Art, Education, and Technology.
What They Say
Timothy Mullen Team Lead, Codecademy
“Daniel’s work is imbued with compassion. His favor for clear communication stands out as an unparalleled technical skill. He cherishes the gift of learning a new idea, something quite apparent in the teaching materials he developed at Codecademy. It is also obvious by having a conversation with him, something I cannot recommend enough.
Daniel developed inter-team communication systems that continue to be vital and built some of the most valuable products in the Codecademy catalog. He is intelligent, capable, and empathetic. He would be a valuable asset to any team.”
Melissa Halfon Co-Founder, Vidcode
“Daniel was the JavaScript lead at Vidcode in 2016 and was pivotal in the development of our coding course catalog.
Through his aptitude for the subject matter, combined with his endless creativity, Daniel crafted a student-facing curriculum that was rigorous in content yet approachable and fun for 6th-12th graders. His empathy for the user highly impacted the end product.
Daniel’s passion for education and social change shine bright and would be a valuable asset to any team looking to change the world for the better.”
Educational Design Experience
Curriculum Developer || Codecademy
At Codecademy, as a Curriculum Developer, I was one of the primary authors of comprehensive, 8-12 week courses on domains including Data Visualization with Python , CSS Grid Layout , and Test Driven Development with JavaScript. These courses were made available to Codecademy’s 45 million learners.
Lead JavaScript Curriculum Designer || Vidcode
Working with Vidcode I collaboratively designed and independently developed standards aligned creative coding curriculum for grades 5-12.
The pedagogical framework of the curriculum focuses on empowering students to learn to use code to express themselves and develop a deeper understanding of who they are in the world.
I also contributed to the Vidcode Hour of Code tutorial which had over 200,000 visits during National Computer Science Week.
Pictured here are some of the activities I designed on the Vidcode platform.
Adjunct Professor & Artist in Residence || UC Santa Barbara
Working in the English department at UC Santa Barbara, I taught a class called ‘The Poetics of Struggle’. The class was offered to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as members of the local community.
The class focused on the ways that language is used as an intervention in reality and included students writing and performing their own poetry in addition to the study of poetry and language in a historical context.
Director of Adolescent Health Education || NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn
Working with Project Reach Youth, and eventually as a part of Lutheran Family Health Centers, I managed a staff of 15 people and was responsible for directing all educational health programming and services for youth.
I started coordinating the Project SAFE program, which does peer education programming for teens, centered around HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness in Brooklyn. Expanding the work of Project SAFE, I went on to be the director of health education programs that reached over 3,000 young people every year.
Highlights of my work with PRY-LFHC include:
Complementary Strengths community-based participatory research (CBPR) project
The Complementary Strengths Research Project was initiated in 2005 as a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project involving Cornell University, government agencies, and community-based organizations, including the one that I worked at, receiving government support for providing after-school programs for adolescents in New York City. In my role with the Complementary Strengths project, I was a co-author of a publication presented at the 2011 American Public Health Association Conference, “Keeping youth engaged: A qualitative study of factors that promote/deter active participation in urban after-school programs”
Starting The Project Reach Youth-Project SAFE Teen Health Center
The teen health clinic, which we started in 2011, is still running in Park Slope, Brooklyn. You can read more about the clinic and get information about services and appointments at its website here. 
Butterfly Award for Outstanding Achievement in HIV/AIDS Prevention NYC
In 2010 I was honored to be selected by the Living Beyond Belief Foundation as a recepient of that year’s Butterfily Award for Outstanding Achievement in HIV/AIDS Prevention in New York City.
Four youth participants in our program were also honored that night
