Heather Lester

Heather Lester for the last ten years has taught English at International High School at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York – her favorite job ever. Her students are all recent immigrants and multilingual learners from around the world who especially love Shakespeare. Before becoming a full-time NYC classroom teacher, Heather spent twenty years as a theater teaching artist, an arts program manager, and a writer for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Creative Arts Team, and the Center for Arts Education and collaborated with teachers and students in classrooms from kindergarten to college. In 1994, she co-founded the New York City Student Shakespeare Festival. She has been involved with the Folger Shakespeare Library since 1988 and most recently was a mentor teacher as part of the 2018 and 2021 Teaching Shakespeare Institutes.