The Gateway School Speaker Series: On Children with Learning Disabilities

*This talk originally aired on April 25, 2021.

The Gateway School Speaker Series, Conversations x Connections: On Children with Learning Disabilities

Join founding President of the Child Mind Institute, Harold Koplewicz and former Head of The Gateway School, Carolyn Salzman, as they discuss confidence and self-advocacy for children with learning differences.

Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, is the founding president and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute, the only independent national nonprofit dedicated to child and adolescent mental health. One of the nation’s leading child and adolescent psychiatrists, Dr. Koplewicz was previously founding director of the NYU Child Study Center and served as director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology and author of several books, including The Scaffold Effect: Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety.

During her tenure, Carolyn Salzman (Gateway parent of Ben '04) led the school through a remarkable period of redefinition, which began with focusing on and streamlining Gateway’s mission. Carolyn’s relationship with Gateway began in 1998 when her son Benjamin ’04 first walked through its doors. Since that moment, she has remained devoted to ensuring that the school continued to grow and thrive. In 1999, Carolyn was elected to the Board of Trustees and served as Chair from 2001–2005. In this role, she oversaw the expansion of enrollment, relocation to a permanent facility, and the stabilization of school finances, including the appeal of the funded tuition rate and the establishment of a Development Office. To restructure the school, she initiated a reorganization that included reordering the overall administrative structure and redefining roles, formal program evaluation, redesign of budgeting and accounting systems, implementation of reporting and control procedures, and revision of teacher compensation and benefits. Her Board committees have included Co-Chair, The Campaign for Gateway 1999–2002, Head of Program Committee responsible for quality and cost of a new Middle School program, and Head of Audit Committee. In 2013, she was appointed Head of School. In the ensuing seven years, the school grew to nearly 200 boys and girls ages 5 to 14. In June 2014, the Board of Trustees adopted a strategic plan that she successfully led to secure Gateway’s position as one of the premier independent schools serving students with special needs. In March of 2020, when the global COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City, Carolyn seamlessly transitioned the school to a distance learning program. The online learning platform impressed parents, faculty, and students with an exemplary system that remained consistent with the school’s pedagogy and mission. She retired as Head of School at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

To learn more about the Child Mind Institute, visit https://childmind.org/ or check them out on Instagram at   / childmindinstitute  .