Meet Our Team

Ryan Cruz

Center Director and Director of Education

Director

Ryan Cruz is our Center Director and Director of Education at the Sylvan Learning Center in Palmyra.  He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Zambia ’16) and has a Master’s Degree in the Anthropology of International Development from Emory University in Atlanta.  When not at Sylvan, you can find him on the hiking trail or reading a good book.

Elementary Education/Early Childhood Education from Kutztown University

26 Years Teaching 2nd Grade

8 Years Teaching at Sylvan in Reading, PA

2 Years Teaching at Sylvan in Palmyra, PA

Hobbies: Camping, Disney Vacations, and Pizza Tours

Teaching Areas: K-8 Academic Reading, Study Skills, Writing, K-6 Math

Anastasia K. Gates is a writer, literary editor, educator and artist from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, and awarded the shortlist for the inaugural Oxford Poetry Prize, her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Gulf Coast, Oxford Poetry, The Penn Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Only Poems and elsewhere. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Columbia University in the City of New York and she is currently at work on her debut and second collections of poems.

Interests & Hobbies: yoga, meditation, reading, writing, long runs, walks, hikes, and bike rides on nature trails, world travel, history, and cuisine, swimming, sailing, birding, independent films, music, opera, comedy, singing and ballet, among many others.

Teaching Areas: K-12 Academic Reading, Study Skills, Writing, K-6 Math