Phillip Panaritis

Philip Dimitri Charles Panaritis has an extensive educational background. His career in the field of education began in 1985 at Murray Bergtraum High School in New York City. He taught all the HS History courses and worked as the Department Assistant. He served as an elected Delegate in the UFT union assembly. In 1991, he was selected to work in the Bronx HS Superintendent’s Office as the Social Studies Professional Development Specialist for 21 Bronx High Schools. His responsibilities included providing professional development, planning, and presenting to teachers, administrators, and parents at district (and city-wide) conferences. He also collaborated with Lehman College history professors. In 2014, Panaritis joined the NYC Department of Education headquarters as the city-wide Director of Social Studies. His responsibilities included hiring, training and supervising over 50 teacher curriculum writers who worked to produce the well-received K-12 Social Studies Passport Curriculum Guides. Panaritis wrote dozens of successful state and Federal grant proposals that netted the district and schools over $21 million. Educational accolades include being selected twice as Educator of the Year by the Bronx Parent Association Leadership Council. In 2019, he retired from the Department of Education. 

In addition to working in the education field, Panaritis authored several magazine articles and won a first-place award in 1983, for his short story “Gus the Greek from Frozenfoot Creek” in the Alaska Literacy Council’s Sourdough Yarn Contest. Panaritis also co-founded the Hunts Point Slave Burying Ground Project, the project details the discovered location of a long lost burial ground, containing the graves of countless enslaved Africans in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. The website: https://hpsbg.weebly.com/ documents every phase of the work and contains hundreds of pertinent primary sources and curriculum adaptations for K-12 educators. 

Phillip Panaritis currently works as a part-time curriculum writer for NYC DOE and City College; an Adjunct Professor/Field Supervisor for Hunter College School of Education; and he works on various passion projects like the Six on History blog https://groups.google.com/d/forum/six-on-history, Yet to Evolve Production’s film “Betrayal of a Nation,” and leading student and teacher field trips to Hunts Point.

Panaritis graduated from Binghamton University (SUNY) with a BA in History in 1975. In 1989, he received a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University Teachers College. He also received a New York State Certificate in the area of Supervision.

In the video segments titled “Oppressed by Design, and Black Wall Street,” in the film Betrayal of a Nation, Panaritis shares his perspective on the topics.  Because of his involvement in the film, and his expertise, in the area of US history, he was asked to join the 3E team as a curriculum revision specialist and editor.