Bernie Tessler
A teacher and psychologist turned entrepreneur and executive, Bernie
Tessler has over 25 years of leadership experience with companies that
provide services to children and families.
Immediately prior to joining Oasis, Bernie was a founding partner of Epic Partners, a consulting/banking firm that focuses exclusively on helping companies in the education and training industry. He served as the acting CEO of Saint Eustatius School of Medicine, a fully accredited medical school. He joined Epic after serving as the Chief Operating Officer for Liberty Travel, the largest travel agency in the country with more than 200 locations nationwide.
Bernie’s accomplishments include the creation of two successful educational product and service companies that became publicly traded, Enchanted Village and Children’s Creative Workshop. He also completed a $150 million leverage buyout of Kidsmart where he subsequently served as Chairman and Chief Executive of this retail chain with over 375 locations.
Bernie is also a former Director of K.I.D.S. (Kids in Distressed Situations),
a national foundation made up of leading executives from the education
and children’s services industry. He holds a BS in Education and
an MS in Psychology from Long Island University.
Founder
Adam Weiss
Adam Weiss founded Oasis Children's Services in 2000 and served as Chief Executive Officer until January of 2007 when he resigned to pursue other interests. Under his leadership, Oasis launched over 30 summer programs throughout the metropolitan area serving over 5,000 children. He continues to serve as a consultant to the company and as a member of the Board. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Company's not-for-profit adjunct, the Oasis Community Corporation.
Prior to starting Oasis, Adam spent three years as the Executive Director of the American Camp Association - New York Section. Among his accomplishments, Adam collaborated with the Office of the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools to design and implement Break-Aways, Partnerships for Year-Round Learning. Break-Aways was a program that, over a four year period, partnered over 100 different summer camps with more than 100 different public schools and enabled over 10,000 inner-city children to attend camp.
Before joining ACA-NY, Adam spent four years at the Partnership for New York City. As Director of Education Initiatives, he created Partners for Leadership, a citywide program that gave hundreds of school principals access to professional development opportunities at major corporations. He also spent a year on loan to the office of the Chancellor of the New York City Schools where he oversaw a range of programs aimed at improving school leadership. He spent his final year at the Partnership as Special Assistant to the President and CEO.
Adam's professional experience includes six summers directing large summer enrichment programs for high school students, four at Amherst College and two at Stanford University. Adam graduated from Wesleyan University in 1989 and from the Yale School of Management in 1993.