Brenda L. Kahn, educator, academic coach

Brenda L. Kahn, a retired Baltimore Curriculum Project academic coach, died June 19 of lung cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. The Reisterstown resident was 49.

The former Brenda Louise Griffin, the daughter of William H. Griffin, a telephone company lineman, and his wife, Bette Mullisky Jr., a hospital clerical worker, was born in Dover, N.J., and raised in Carbondale, Pa., where she graduated from high school. She was a1991graduate of Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, from which she obtained a teaching degree in 1991.

Mrs. Kahn later earned master’s degrees in education from the Johns Hopkins University and Notre Dame of Maryland University, and did further graduate studies at Towson University and Goucher College.

While teaching at Collington Square Elementary-Middle School, where she had been recognized as an exceptional teacher, Mrs. Kahn was recruited by the Baltimore Curriculum Project to become an academic coach.

“Throughout her 26-year career, she had an impact on the lives of many teachers and through those teachers, a larger number of students,” Susan Lattimore of Gwynn Oak wrote in a biographical profile of her Baltimore Curriculum Project colleague.

Ms. Lattimore said her friend was motivated by her professional hero, Dr. Anita Archer, who said, “How well you teach — how well they learn.”

Mrs. Kahn lectured widely at conferences across the country, including Hawaii and Guam, as a program trainer. In recognition of her work, she was presented the Siegfried Engelman Excellence in Education Award this year. Ms. Lattimore described Mrs. Kahn as being “wise, direct, honest and skilled in the work she did.”

“Brenda watched over her teachers [the] way she watched over her dog and her cat: with love, concern, amusement and an eye on future developments,” she wrote.

From 2011 to 2019, when she retired, Mrs. Kahn was assigned to City Springs Elementary School.

She and her husband of 16 years, Russell Kahn, a professional photographer, enjoyed travel and were pet lovers. Plans for a celebration of life gathering to be held at her home in September are incomplete.

In addition to her husband and mother, she is survived by her stepfather, James Mullisky, of Carbondale; a brother, Jameson Mullisky of Carbondale; a sister, Karen Roberts of Carbondale; and a niece.