Staff & Board of Directors

Previously a LitNet board member, Leigh has been at the helm as LitNet’s Executive Director since June 2020. An experienced school administrator, Leigh has served as the Associate Head of School at Berkshire Country Day School, as the Lower School
Director at the International School of Boston, and as the Lower School Head at Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence, MA. Prior to that Leigh served as a Curriculum Coordinator at two international schools, one in Belgium and the other in Namibia. She has also been a preschool, elementary and middle school teacher mainly in multilingual settings.

Leigh was named as an honoree by Berkshire Magazine in their 2021’s “Berkshire 25”. This recognition is bestowed on community members who have made “extraordinary contributions to our way of life” in the Berkshires. In 2023, Leigh was awarded the Executive Leadership Award by the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.

A Boston native, Leigh and her family moved to the Berkshires permanently when Leigh was in high school. As an adult, Leigh has spent many years living and working in Boston, in the Bay Area, as well as internationally (Namibia and Belgium) where she served as a teacher, curriculum coordinator, and teacher trainer on the international school circuit. Additionally, Leigh is a certified Executive Coach and has worked as a career, leadership, and team coach.

As LitNet’s Grants & Communications Coordinator, Amanda manages all aspects of LitNet’s grant writing, prospect research, and reporting. She keeps the community apprised of LitNet’s work by producing the organization’s monthly e-newsletter, writing press releases, and sharing LitNet stories and news in a variety of other ways. She is also a volunteer tutor.

Before joining LitNet in 2020, Amanda taught college writing as a professor in University at Albany’s Writing and Critical Inquiry Program. She has an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her writing has been published in various magazines and literary journals, such as Virginia Quarterly Review, North American Review, Orion Magazine, and Sierra online, among others, and has three times been selected as “notable” in the Best American series.

Miguel joined LitNet in 2021 as our newly appointed Learner Liaison. In 2023, Miguel was promoted to be our Director of Tutoring.

Miguel possesses a professional certification in TOEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language), training in TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Story Telling), and a certification in Medical Interpretation.

Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Miguel loves languages and appreciates being able to share the gift of language and communication with people. Fluent in Spanish and English, Miguel is also proficient in Portuguese. His previous experience includes teaching Spanish at Berkshire Country Day School, at St. Joseph’s in Pittsfield, and as a long-term substitute teacher at Lee High School. Miguel also served as an interpreter of Individual Educational Plans (IEP) at the Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School in Great Barrington, MA.

Miguel came with his family to the US from Colombia at age 10 and has been here since. He is a graduate of Monument Mountain High School. A talented soccer player who was inducted into the Berkshire County Soccer Hall of Fame in 2014, he has been an active soccer coach since 2015. Miguel continues to be the Head Coach for the Monument Mountain Girls’ Varsity Soccer Team and has done so since the 2021 season.

Amy has 30 years’ experience in database design and data analysis, creating database applications to store and manage essential information, setting up document filing systems on hard drives or in the Cloud, and offering personalized training on database systems. In addition, she has been a professional instructor at both corporate offices and college campuses in software from the Microsoft Office Suite to Social Media optimization for businesses.

Amy has an MBA from Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, a BA in Music, and a BA in English, and is a certified facilitator. Prior to owning her own business, she has been on the cutting edge of an internet startup, facilitated a major corporate identity restructuring at a multi-national corporation, and worked in development at several nonprofits in the Berkshire region.

Originally from the New York metro area, Amy and her family currently live in Pittsfield, MA for the past 32 years and enjoy all the beauty and culture the Berkshires have to offer. Amy is heavily involved in community service and serves on the boards of directors of several local nonprofit organizations.

Raised in Great Barrington, Deisy Escobar is LitNet’s First-Generation Coordinator coming on board in August 2023. Previously a LitNet tutor, LitNet’s first teen tutor, Deisy has experience with community advocacy through her work with Railroad Street Youth Project as their Health Coalition Co-chair and Intern. She is also a Spanish Community Advisory Network (SCAN) advisor with the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. While in high school and again in 2024, she was one of the Samya Rose Stumo Youth Leadership Category nominees from the Berkshire Nonprofit Awards. Also in high school, Deisy founded the New Day Club, a support group for immigrant and first-generation students with her school’s ESOL department. Deisy has also been co-hosting the award-winning bilingual radio show Mundo Latino on WTBR 89.7FM with her mom Martha Escobar for over four years. A first-generation college student herself, Deisy is currently working toward obtaining her B.A. in Psychology.