Jan-Kristòf Louis-Mansano was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and raised in Haiti until the age of 13, when he moved back to Brooklyn. During the school year, he serves as a certified school counselor at the Academy of Arts and Letters, a progressive K-8 school in Fort Greene. He is also an advisor for the National Society of Black Engineers at Brooklyn Technical High School. He is passionate about social justice and equity for all children and their families. He is also an assistant director for the Brooklyn Cultural Adventures Program (BCAP), an award-winning summer camp through the Brooklyn Public Library. He has been involved in working with children through some capacity for 13 years now ranging from non-profits to community-based organizations to the New York City Department of Education. For two years, Jan-Kristof was a classroom teacher in a public school in East New York, serving ELL students from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bangladesh and Yemen. At the time, he was the only black male classroom teacher in the school   As a teacher, he was able to show his students a side of being gay that his students were not used to. His husband, Kellan became an active part of his classroom to the point that the students made birthday cards for him on his birthday and wanted to help with the wedding planning.  Jan-Kristof’s  down time usually involves playing the violin, biking, volunteer work and looking for the next best literature.