About Us

Dr. Latasha Casterlow-Lalla is a proud product of the Passaic Public Schools. Latasha attended Montclair State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education in 2002 immediately followed by earning a Master of Arts in Counseling, Human Development and Guidance in 2003. 

In 2004, Dr. Lalla began teaching in her hometown as an Elementary Music Educator for the next 3 years. Latasha’s journey led her to attain a Master of Arts in Administration & Supervision from Montclair State University in 2007. Latasha served as an Elementary General Teacher for 5 amazing years.

In 2013, Latasha was appointed as the Supervisor of Gifted & Talented for Passaic Public Schools where she implemented the district’s first Saturday Enrichment Academy for 350 students and led the district’s Jump Into Summer Program servicing over 5,000 students. Latasha was selected as the founding Assistant Principal at the Passaic Gifted & Talented Academy, the city’s first magnet school in 2015. 

Over the past 8 years, Dr. Lalla has served as the Supervisor of Visual & Performing Arts. Latasha has worked to revive the Theatre Arts program in three high schools, introduce the Arts Integration, implement Modern Band in 9 schools and launch 5 state-approved Career & Technical Education Arts programs in Graphic Design, Music Technology, Digital Arts, Dance and Theatre Arts.  

Dr. Casterlow -Lalla is a national presenter highlighting the importance of Arts Education at numerous conferences elevating the importance of diverse representation in Arts education.  She is one of the co-developers of the Culturally Responsive Arts Education Workout Program.  Dr. Casterlow-Lalla is the President of the New Jersey Music Administrators Association and the Eastern Division Representative for the Council of Music Program Leaders for the National Association for Music Education. She also serves as a Board Member for the Institute of Music for Children in Elizabeth, New Jersey as well as the Music Will National Foundation Board.

Dr. Casterlow-Lalla is the founder of the Chattel House Publishing Company, co-founder of the  non-profit organization StudentsPreneur and TeachersPreneur. 

Marcos Navas is a seasoned educator, entrepreneur, and advocate for STEAM education. With over two decades of experience in the Ed Tech space, he has been on a mission to reform education and expose kids to the latest in technology.

As an advocate for raising the voices of students, Marcos is one of the original Flipgrid ambassadors and a Ted Ed Innovative Educator helping spread student Ted Talks via Ted Clubs. Within the coding and STEM space, he is one of the original Raspberry Pi Certified Educators in the U.S. helping enable people of all ages to explore computing, and one of the original founders of Hands on Coding.

Marcos most recently completed a fellowship with the IDEO Teachers Guild making him one of ten educational experts trained in Design Thinking. He is also an ambassador and champion for an array of companies and organizations such as Dremel, Ultimaker, Pi-Top, and Osmo.

In addition to his work in education, Marcos is also an entrepreneur and founder of Latinos in Coding, a nonprofit whose mission is to increase awareness and participation of the Hispanic community in computer sciences to remedy the equity gap of Latinos in STEM. Latinos in Coding provides educational programs in the latest technologies to motivate the Latino(a)(X) community to go into this growing industry. The organization also organizes Hackathons and provides 21st century workshops for the community such as Designing an NFT Sneaker!

Marcos recently joined the URBANDER team as a Senior Consultant in Metaverse Marketing. He helps businesses and organizations connect and communicate with their key stakeholders on a whole new level. His pioneering expertise in building branded and customized 3D, immersive, and graphically rich virtual spaces (Metaverses) delivers safe, engaging, and interactive experiences with a wide array of business applications that range from online instruction and virtual offices to dedicated promotional campaigns and LIVE events.

Through his work, Marcos has shown his commitment to transforming educational environments to give access and teach underserved children about technology as early as possible.