Our Pahara-Aspen Fellows

Michael Benjamin is the national director of grassroots advocacy and mobilization for the American Federation for Children. Michael leads a team that oversees the grassroots advocacy and mobilization efforts, which maintain and cultivate an extensive advocacy base on behalf of our nation’s children who are in most need of equitable educational opportunity and access.

Michael has worked in the educational choice field since 2000 and has established a national reputation for his efforts to engage, recruit, organize, train and mobilize supporters of educational choice. In 2001, he co-founded Step Up For Students, which oversees the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students, with John Kirtley and helped convince the legislature to create a program. The program now serves over 100,000 low-income students in over 1,800 schools throughout Florida. For several years he served on the national board of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), serving on their Executive Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Chair of the Audit Committee, and Symposium Planning Committee.

Michael earned a bachelor’s in economics and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in practical ministry from Christian Family Church International Bible Institute. He graduated valedictorian and served as class president. He is a guest lecturer for classes on Introduction to Management at the Bible College. Michael and his family continue to serve their community locally and throughout the Tampa Bay area.

Maya M. Bugg has deep roots in the education sector – from beginning as a National Board certified classroom educator in North Carolina to working with the United States Department of Education as a policy consultant. Now, as the chief executive officer of the Tennessee Charter School Center (TCSC), her almost two decades of experience launching, scaling, and leading high-impact initiatives throughout the education sector have positioned her to lead charter school growth and success in Tennessee. Under Maya’s leadership, TCSC has secured almost $100 million in resources for public charter schools and their students, helping to move Tennessee towards more equitable funding for all public school students. TCSC has improved access to high quality public schools, especially for our most marginalized communities. Additionally, Maya is the creator of TCSC’s Community Launch Fellowship as well as the Board Leaders of Color Collaborative.

In previous roles, Maya was charged with overseeing strategic growth, financial stability & development, and regional partner acquisition. She has worked in leadership roles at organizations such as Education Pioneers, NC State, Citizen Schools and the U.S. Department of Education. Under her executive leadership, she scaled the impact of each organization by steadily growing their programmatic footprint and markedly increasing partner investment throughout their geographies.

Additionally, Maya has extensive experience providing strategic planning support, research and facilitation for a myriad of nonprofits as well as national for-profit companies. She has also participated in various prestigious national and local fellowships, including the Pahara-NextGen Fellowship as part of the Fall 2015 cohort. Maya serves on a number of local, state and national committees and boards. Maya earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an EdM from Harvard University, and her EdD in leadership, policy & organizations from Vanderbilt University.

Starlee Coleman is chief executive officer of the Texas Public Charter Schools Association (TPCSA), the statewide organization that advances pro-charter school policy priorities and works to improve outcomes for children in charter schools.

Prior to coming to TPCSA, Starlee founded SchoolForward, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. that advances education reform policies in state legislatures, Congress, and the courts. SchoolForward is the firm which led PR outreach for multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases. Starlee led a four-year long national campaign to pass Right to Try laws that guarantee terminally ill patients the right to pursue treatments being safely used in clinical trials. Her campaign led to passage of the law in 43 states, the U.S. House and the Senate. The President signed it into federal law in 2018. Starlee’s work has earned a Templeton Freedom Award for Best Initiative in Public Relations in 2008 and the Spark Freedom Award for Best PR Campaign in 2016. Starlee earned her Bachelor of Arts in English at Arizona State University. She lives in Austin with her husband, daughter, and rescue pup.

Christine DeLeon, founder and chief executive officer of Moonshot edVentures, has a wide range of experiences in leadership development, entrepreneurship, and rethinking school. As chief executive officer of Moonshot edVentures, Christine is responsible for surfacing and supporting a diverse set of leaders, representative of the communities they aim to serve, to design and launch the schools and programs of tomorrow in Metro Denver. Each year, Moonshot’s Fellowship provides fifteen to twenty underrepresented leaders the opportunity to explore the idea of launching a school or program by supporting their leadership development, model design, and identifying the best pathway to launch.

Previously, she founded Education Pioneers’ first year-long fellowship. Her other previous experiences include roles with Summit Learning, Education Cities, Denver Public Schools, the Broad Foundation, and the Boston Consulting Group. She served as a Harvard Innovation Lab Fellow and is a trained facilitator of Intergroup Dialogues, structured to explore social group identity, conflict, community, and social justice. Christine is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Pahara-NextGen Fellowship of Spring 2014, a 2019 Education Leaders of Color Boulder Fund recipient, the recipient of the 2019 Sheila Bugdanowitz Award and the 2020 A+ Colorado Sharpening Education Award.

She holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an Ed.L.D. from Harvard University. Christine enjoys trail running, yoga, and time with family, and lives with her husband Ian in Edgewater, Colorado.

Anpao Duta Flying Earth is the executive director of the Native American Community Academy (NACA), a charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is also the acting-executive director of the NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN), a network that assists communities in implementing structures of Indigenous education. Duta assisted in the creation of the charter school in 2006 and the network in 2014. In his capacity as Executive Director at NACA & NISN, Duta has been instrumental in representing NACA as a premiere example of indigenous education nationwide that combines academic preparation for higher learning, grounding in culture & identity, and holistic wellness together for community transformation through young people.

He is a Pahara-NextGen Fellow in the Fall 2015 cohort, as well as a W.K. Kellogg Foundation community leadership network fellow. Duta grew up on Standing Rock Reservation in South and North Dakota. He is Lakota, Dakota, Ojibwe, and Akimel O’odham. Duta is the youngest of three siblings and a third-generation college graduate. He graduated from Cornell University with a BA in government and earned an MBA as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of New Mexico.

Paul Freedman is the chief executive officer and principal consultant for Entangled Group, which he founded in 2014. Characterized by The Chronicle of Higher Education as the “Kevin Bacon of the higher-education tech scene,” Paul Freedman has advised or invested in many of the most successful education businesses of the last two decades, including Guild Education (Redpoint, Bessemer, Cowboy Ventures), Remind (Kleiner Perkins, Social Capital), and RaiseMe (First Round, CZI).

As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Paul founded his first company, Academic Engine, which pioneered the application of natural language processing to college enrollment (acquired by LON: DMGT in 2004). He went on to lead Hobson’s fast-growing student recruiting business, before founding online college Altius Education (acquired by Datamark in 2013), and Practice (acquired by NYT: INST in 2017).

A sought-after commentator on the trends and technologies that are transforming the intersection of education and employment, Paul’s writing and commentary has appeared in Forbes, Tech Crunch, RealClear Education, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle, among others. He lives in Oakland with his wife and children.

Federico Gonzalez is the chief learning officer at the KIPP Foundation. He leads the Teaching & Learning, Network Talent, and KIPP School Leadership Programs teams with the overall goal of supporting over 100,000 KIPP students across the country develop the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose so they can lead fulfilling lives and create a more just world. The team he works with creates and improves curriculum and assessment for the KIPP Network; supports KIPP regions in improving student achievement; works alongside KIPP Network’s leaders to facilitate opportunities for professional growth and development; and shares some of KIPP’s resources with other district, charter, and education organizations.

Before joining the KIPP Foundation, Federico worked at KIPP Austin College Prep as a teacher, assistant principal, and finally as principal for seven years. Under his leadership, the school earned “Recognized” or “Exemplary” ratings every year and earned distinctions in all possible categories. Prior to KIPP, Frederico was the lead counselor with Settlement College Readiness Program in New York City.

In 2019, Federico joined the board of EdFuel, a national nonprofit that helps education organizations recruit and retain top talent. He lives in Austin, TX, earned his master’s degree from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

Scott Gordon is the founder and chief executive officer of Mastery Charter Schools, a nonprofit network of 24 public schools serving 14,000 students in Philadelphia and Camden. Scott was Mastery’s first school’s principal (2001) and led the network through its growth. Mastery is unusual in that nearly all of its schools are turnarounds of formerly struggling district neighborhood schools or charter schools. Mastery’s turnaround work has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and President Obama for dramatically increasing academic achievement and decreasing violence.

Prior to starting Mastery Charter, Scott was a brand manager at General Foods and was the founder of Home Care Associates of Philadelphia, a worker-owned home health care company that trained and employed people on public assistance. The company received the Governor’s Achievement Award for its welfare-to-work training program. Scott holds an MBA from Yale University. He is the father of two teenage sons.

Joshua Griggs is executive vice president of talent and operations, and chief finance officer of Teach For America (TFA). He is responsible for ensuring TFA is a strong 21st century organization that can sustain its work and accelerate its impact toward its vision. Joshua has spent the past eight years leading the teams responsible for the critical functions that comprise TFA’s infrastructure, resources, and strategy across regions and national functions including finance, real estate & facilities, human assets, information technology, legal affairs, and risk/compliance.
Previously, Joshua was a part of the TFA admissions team for five years and served as vice president of admissions for three years. During this time, he oversaw major changes and projects related to the corps member selection process and strategy. He joined the staff in 2005 as a recruitment director, where he created campaign strategies to identify and compel graduating seniors to join the TFA program. Prior to joining TFA’s staff, Joshua joined the program as a corps member and taught third and fourth grade in the Bronx, New York City.

Joshua earned a BA from Yale University in economics and international studies and an MS in teaching from Fordham University. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Kerri and their two daughters, Maya and Camille.

Mira Habiby Browne is co-founder and executive director of Prepared Parents, an organization dedicated to giving parents the tools and a community to nurture happy and fulfilled kids. Prepared Parents is an initiative of Summit Public Schools’ field-building division, Marshall Street.

Since joining Summit in 2011, Mira has served in multiple executive positions during Summit’s rapid growth, leading communications, creative development, marketing, fundraising and growth. Most notably, Mira helped to establish Summit as a nationally-recognized network of public schools across two states. She was part of the founding teams of the Summit Learning Program, which grew to serve 380+ schools in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and Marshall Street, which develops solutions to expand educational opportunities for students.

Prior to Summit, Mira served as the senior account executive with Larson Communications, providing strategic counsel to leading public education reform leaders and organizations nationwide. She worked in the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in New York City, and began her career with the Arab American Institute supporting the civic and political engagement of Arab Americans across the nation.

Mira has served as a GenR member of the International Rescue Committee, an advisory board member for the Silicon Valley New Leaders Council and a member of the Equity Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Mira holds a BA from George Washington University. She lives in Austin with her husband and two young, energetic sons.

Dominique Lee is the founder and chief executive officer of the BRICK Education Network (BEN), a non-profit organization that uses schools as an anchor of a comprehensive strategy to support children with the tools and resources to realize their fullest potential. It is the belief of BEN that children and families left on the margins of our society need a comprehensive, sustainable strategy centered on early childhood, education, affordable quality housing and gainful employment to break the cycle of generational poverty and this work can be accomplished through partnership and collaboration.

Prior to founding BEN, Dominique was a Teach For America teacher in Newark, NJ. In 2009, Dominique’s work was profiled on the front page of the New York Times, and in 2019 he was honored with the Charter School Leadership Awards from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Dominique serves on the board of Lead Charter School – the first charter school in the state of New Jersey designed specifically for opportunity youth.

Dominique is a Pahara-NextGen Fellow from the inaugural cohort of Spring 2014. He earned his master’s degree from New York University in education leadership and his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan.

Sunil Mansukhani brings two decades of experience in education and civil rights policy, law, and advocacy from both the nonprofit sector and government. He served in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) over the course of three administrations, serving presidents of both parties.

Prior to joining Raben, Sunil was the deputy assistant secretary for Policy in ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from 2009-2012. While at ED, OCR issued guidance that sought to protect the civil rights of tens of millions of students in areas such as the consideration of race in K-12 and college admissions; harassment and bullying; sexual violence; documentation requirements for enrollment in public schools; and equal access for students with disabilities. In addition, he oversaw the implementation of the widely-heralded Civil Rights Data Collection, a survey of all the public schools in the nation.

Sunil also served as a senior attorney in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division; executive director of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission; an associate with the law firm Crowell and Moring; a law clerk for Chief Judge Edward Cahn in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and a teaching fellow at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Public Representation. Sunil is on the Board of Directors of the Center for Law and Social Policy as well as the Equal Rights Center. He is also on the National Advisory Council of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC.

Sunil received his BA in political science and economics, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his JD from Yale Law School, and an LL.M. in Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center. He is most proud of helping to make his two young daughters diehard Chicago Cubs fans.

Talia Milgrom-Elcott is the founder and executive director of 100Kin10, a nonprofit working to get 100,000 excellent STEM teachers into classrooms by 2021 and end the STEM teacher shortage. In that work, she leads a network of more than 300 leading organizations that have committed to working together toward the 100Kin10 moonshot. Her innovative work has been featured in Forbes, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Harvard Business Review, and other publications.

From March 2007 to December 2013, Talia worked as a program officer at Carnegie Corporation of New York, focused on getting great teachers and principals into high-need schools and supporting them to thrive there. Prior to joining Carnegie Corporation, Talia was the Deputy Chief of Staff for the New York City Department of Education, working on both internal and external projects including cross-team initiatives, liaising with the mayor’s office, and communications. From 2003-4, Talia served as a clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals with Judge Robert Sack; the year before that, she was an economic justice and Workers’ Rights Legal fellow with New York Jobs with Justice. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. She loves living in Brooklyn, NY, with her partner and their three young daughters.

Scott Moore is chief executive officer of Kidango, a leading early childhood education organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Serving thousands of low income children and families, Kidango empowers human potential to create a more compassionate, loving, and equitable world. Prior to Kidango, Scott helped lead the expansion of preschool access to over 170,000 California children each year through the establishment of the new Transitional Kindergarten grade and the consolidation of existing preschool programs into the California State Preschool Program.

In 2014, Scott served as a Senior Fellow at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. In 2011, he was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be Executive Director of the California Early Learning Advisory Council. He is also a co-founder of a private Montessori school in Oakland. Scott earned his BA in political science at UCLA, and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He currently serves on the boards of the California Early Childhood Policy Council and Educare of California at Silicon Valley.

Dr. Lauren Morando Rhim is executive director and co-founder of the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (the Center), a nonprofit launched in 2013 which is devoted to ensuring that students with disabilities are able to access and thrive in charter schools. At the Center, Lauren leads organizational strategy and oversees research, advocacy, community projects, and coalition building. A researcher at heart, she has published extensively about school reform and consults frequently with federal, state, and local advocates, policy leaders, and practitioners regarding pressing issues influencing the education of students with disabilities.

Lauren previously worked in educational consulting and as an education policy researcher at the University of Maryland. She started her career in education at Peace Corps Headquarters where she helped grow the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program, a graduate fellowship program that offers financial assistance to returned volunteers to work in underserved communities. In 1994, she was part of a small team of Peace Corps staff detailed to the newly created Corporation for National and Community Service to launch the original Americorps Leaders program.

Lauren has served on either her elected school board or a charter school board for the past eight years. She holds a BA from the University of Vermont, an MA from The George Washington University, and a PhD in education policy from the University of Maryland. After 18 years in Washington, D.C., Lauren returned to Vermont in 2008 where she lives with her husband and, occasionally, her two adult children.

Beth Rabbitt is chief executive officer of The Learning Accelerator (TLA), a national nonprofit working to ensure every child receives the highly effective, engaging, and equitable education they need to reach their full and unique potential. Prior to becoming chief executive officer in 2016, Beth was a partner on the organization’s start-up team where she led the development of new educator training programs and research on emerging innovative teaching and learning models and practices.

Before joining TLA, Beth was a doctoral resident and the director of human capital at Touchstone Education. She was also a consultant to and with Education Resource Strategies, the founding doctoral fellow at the Harvard Innovation Lab, and an associate partner at NewSchools Venture Fund. She began her career in education as a research fellow in educational neuroscience and director of environmental education for an urban youth program in Massachusetts.

Beth serves on the board of several education nonprofits, including the Highlander Institute, Catalyst:Ed, and InnovateEDU. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychological and brain sciences from Dartmouth College and a Doctorate in Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) from Harvard University.

Beth is currently based in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband and two young daughters. As a parent and product of K-12 public schooling, she is inspired daily and urgently to help schools better meet the needs of every child, everywhere.

Sarah Rittling is executive director of the First Five Years Fund (FFYF), a Washington, D.C. based organization focused on sustaining and expanding the support for early learning that exists at the federal level, while identifying and advancing new and innovative ways to increase access to high-quality early childhood education for children from low-income families. FFYF seeks to align best practices with the best possible policies, and work with advocacy groups and policymakers on both sides of the aisle to identify federal solutions that work for children, families and taxpayers, as well as states and communities.

Prior to joining FFYF, Sarah served as senior policy advisor at EducationCounsel, an education consulting firm where she was part of a bipartisan, education-focused team led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley. Previously, she served as counsel to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on education policy before the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee and counsel to Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., on education and labor matters before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Sarah also served as a legislative assistant and deputy press secretary to Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University and earned her JD from Syracuse University’s College of Law. She lives on Capitol Hill with her husband, Patrick Lyden, and their two daughters.

Cynthia Rivera Weissblum is chief executive officer of the Edwin Gould Foundation (EGF) and is the architect of the EGF Accelerator, a residential incubator for nonprofits focused on educational inequity. Accelerator organizations are relieved of infrastructure costs for five years and provided a curated set of consulting services while joining a community of social innovators.

Cynthia was previously the president of Results Collaborative, advising on donor strategy. She served as chief executive officer of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and during her tenure earned the N.Y. Community Trust Nonprofit Excellence Award. She was the director of New York State’s Mentoring Program. She honed her skills and developed perspective in student development and educational equity at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University at Albany and Rutgers University. Cynthia recently was the commencement speaker at Mercy College and is a lecturer at New York University’s Steinhardt School. Cynthia earned a BA, MS, and post graduate certification in counseling psychology from the University at Albany. She serves on the board of Guttman Community College, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Rockefeller Institute of Government and uAspire. She has informed legislation and strategies to address obstacles preventing low-income students from thriving. Cynthia is an advocate and entrepreneur, building organizations which advance positive outcomes for underserved youth.

Roberto J. Rodríguez is president and chief executive officer of Teach Plus, where he builds the teacher leadership movement and supports the contribution of teacher leaders to educational equity and change. Prior to joining Teach Plus, Roberto served in senior roles in the White House and in the United States Senate.

As Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama, Roberto developed and advanced policies to improve educational opportunity for learners from birth through adulthood. His efforts accelerated investment and change in the K-12 system, added tens of thousands of children to preschool and early learning programs, personalized and re-designed the high school experience, expanded the Pell Grant, and increased support for America’s community colleges. Roberto’s collaboration with Congress ultimately led to the enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015.

In the United States Senate, Roberto served as principal education advisor to the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy and led successful bipartisan efforts to enact the No Child Left Behind Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, the Higher Education Opportunity Act, and the Head Start for School Readiness Act.

Roberto began his career leading research and policy analysis of federal and state education issues at the National Council of La Raza, a national civil rights organization dedicated to equality and opportunity for the Latino community. Roberto holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He resides with his wife and two children in Washington, D.C.

Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo is a partner at The City Fund, a national education nonprofit that partners with local leaders to create innovative public school systems. Kameelah oversees city-based investments to support local leaders to grow quality schools, expand teacher talent, and elevate the policy conditions for student success.

Before joining The City Fund, Kameelah served as senior vice president for Strategy and Community Engagement at The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit. At The Mind Trust, Kameelah built the organization’s strategic plan for community engagement and launched initiatives to ensure community awareness and investment in education transformation. Kameelah’s work was instrumental in developing the nationally unique partnership between Indianapolis Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office, and The Mind Trust to support district-charter collaboration and the growth of Innovation Network Schools. Kameelah also led the formation of civic coalitions like the Lewis Hubbard Group, a bipartisan group of civic leaders who serve as advocates on education policy issues. Kameelah’s passion for improving public education stems from a deep belief in educational equity.

Prior to The Mind Trust, Kameelah practiced law in Indianapolis and New York City. Kameelah holds a law degree from Indiana University’s Robert McKinney School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from DePauw University. Kameelah is a Pahara-NextGen Fellow, in the Spring 2015 cohort. Kameelah lives in Indianapolis with her husband and two daughters.

As president for the Campaign for College Opportunity, Michele is an advocate who works to expand college access and success for California students by raising public attention to the critical challenges facing students in our community colleges and universities, mobilizing a broad coalition of supporters, and influencing policymakers. In her 15 years at the Campaign for College Opportunity (11 as president), she has built a strong, independent, and influential organization by raising over $19 million dollars, assembling a team of experts and leaders in the field, championing major budget appropriations, securing historic higher education legislation, and establishing a broad and influential network of over 12,000 coalition supporters.

Michele serves on the boards of the Alliance for a Better Community, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Community Coalition, Pitzer College Board of Trustees, the Public Policy Institute of California Strategic Leadership Council, and the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. In 2019 she was appointed to the Student Centered Funding Formula Oversight Committee. Michele previously served on the California Student Aid Commission.

Michele was the first in her family to graduate from college thanks to many mentors, caring faculty, and critical federal, state, and college financial aid. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political studies with honors in Chicano/a studies from Pitzer College and a Master of Arts in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Michele is passionate about the power of college to change lives, and the ability of policy making to expand college opportunity for others.

Anthony Solina is the area superintendent for Aspire Public Schools in the California Central Valley. An educator at heart, Anthony has taught students from preschool to grad school. Before earning his teaching credential, he taught Montessori preschool where he learned to value constructivist learning. He has taught master’s level coursework on equity, data driven culture, educational theory and site action planning for the University of the Pacific, Aspire University, and the Teachers College of San Joaquin.

Most recently, Anthony was associate superintendent of Secondary and Aspire-wide projects before being named superintendent in 2018. He opened Aspire Langston Hughes Academy as the lead teacher in 2005, where he would return as principal in 2008 after opening Aspire Port City Academy as a new principal. Both schools were awarded the California Distinguished School honor and grew enrollment from 120 to over 1,250 students in a combined new facility in 2012. Anthony returned to his hometown of Stockton, California after college to join Aspire in 2002 as a first year teacher.

Anthony earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University Sacramento and an M.Ed. from the University of San Diego. Additionally, Anthony completed a three year Stanford principal fellowship, attended the Harvard Summer Institute for Urban School Leaders and the KIPP Leadership Design Fellowship. He is currently working on his EdD in education administration from the University of the Pacific. Anthony serves on the California Charter Schools Association member board for region six.

Joan Sullivan is chief executive officer of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, one of the largest in-district school transformation organizations in the nation. The Partnership manages 18 historically under-resourced Los Angeles Unified School District (LA Unified) schools serving 14,000 students in Watts, Boyle Heights and South LA. Over the past 10 years, the Partnership has implemented scalable solutions that continue to accelerate student achievement and promote more equitable policies within its network of schools as well as across the larger district and beyond.

Joan previously served as deputy mayor of education for the City of Los Angeles, where she worked closely with the LA Unified superintendent and school board to support the nation’s second largest school district. Joan arrived in Los Angeles after spending more than a decade in the South Bronx as the founding principal of a high-poverty, high-performing public secondary school and as a high school social studies teacher. Before entering the classroom, she worked on U.S. Senator Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign, documenting her experiences in a memoir entitled An American Voter, published in 2002. She began her career working for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a New York City agency charged with investigating police misconduct.

Joan holds an MS in school leadership and graduated with a BA in American studies from Yale College, where she earned All-American honors in lacrosse. Joan has three daughters and is a proud LA Unified parent.

Jessica Wodatch is an educational leader with a passion for creating engaging learning environments for children and adults. She is the co-founder and executive director of Two Rivers Public Charter Schools, a network of high performing, in-demand schools in Washington, D.C. Two Rivers is nationally recognized for its progressive learning model, positive adult community, success at closing the achievement gap, and innovative special education program. As executive director, Jessica has led the expansion of the school to quintuple in size while earning awards for student achievement and staff satisfaction.

Prior to her work at Two Rivers, Jessica served as a school leader at two special education schools and as an education researcher. She began her career as a teacher in the Bronx through Teach For America. She serves on the board of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) and was appointed to the Mayor’s Bullying Prevention Task Force. Jessica has led workshops around the world, has been a guest lecturer at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and served as a faculty member for Replicating Quality Schools. Jessica is a member of the Charter Network Accelerator’s second cohort and is currently studying at the Teleos Leadership Institute to become a certified executive coach.

Jessica is a lifelong learner who enjoys traveling, ceramics, and reading. A native Washingtonian, she lives with her wife and three children (all Two Rivers students or alums) in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Emary C. Aronson is the chief program officer for Robin Hood, which she joined in 1999 as the managing director for education. Robin Hood, created in 1988, is New York City’s largest poverty fighting organization and invests $120 million annually to serve low income New Yorkers. Supporting a range of schools and education-related programs across K-12, Robin Hood finds, funds, partners, and provides technical and management assistance to more than 200 programs and organizations. Such organizations emphasize early education, youth, health, housing, hunger, immigration, job training, income security, technology, and other vital services.
Emary also managed the Robin Hood Relief Fund, which was initially dedicated to addressing the needs of those affected by 9/11 and reactivated after Superstorm Sandy. Before joining Robin Hood, Emary was the director of education initiatives at the Partnership for New York City. She has taught history, economics, and management at the two-year college and at the graduate school level.
Emary chairs the board of directors of the New York City Charter Schools Center, is the secretary to the board of the Center for Employment Opportunities, and serves on the community schools advisory board as well as other city-wide task forces. Emary holds a BA in history from Smith College, an MSc in economic history from the London School of Economics, an MPPM from the Yale School of Management, and a PhD in history from the University of Chicago.

Rochelle Benning is a co-founder and the board chair of East Bay Innovation Academy, a grades six through 12 public charter school located in Oakland, California. Rochelle currently serves as the chief of staff and executive director leading the Office of the Chief Technology Risk Officer for Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed healthcare organization in the United States. She is a business leader with 20+ years of experience in Audit, Risk, Compliance, and Finance. Previously, she worked as a director of internal audit for Charles Schwab & Co and as the operations finance director for Levi Strauss Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
Rochelle currently serves on Seneca Family of Agencies Governing Board, Seneca’s Northern California Leadership Board, the California Charter Schools Association Political Council, and as a founding board member for Oakland Athletic Rowing Society. She also served as a founding executive council member for Enroll Oakland. Rochelle earned her MBA and BS degrees from San Francisco State University. She also holds Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) professional certifications.

Patricia Brantley is the chief program officer of Friendship Public Charter School. She is an education reformer, charter school advocate, and supporter of the right of all children to receive a high-quality education.

Patricia became the chief operating officer of Friendship Public Charter School in 2003. In that role, she engineered the acquisition and development of six public charter school campuses in Washington, D.C., four partner schools in Baltimore, MD, and a new charter school in Baton Rouge, LA. Patricia oversaw all operations at Friendship, secured more than $100 million in public and private funding, effected cohesion across Friendship’s 12 campus network, and established the Friendship Teaching Institute as a model of professional development. She spearheaded the takeovers of singleton charter schools and multi-campus charter management groups, ensuring that thousands of schoolchildren could remain in their schools of choice. In 2016, the Friendship Board of Trustees unanimously appointed her to the role of chief executive officer.

Previously, Patricia served in corporate and nonprofit positions, including founder of the Partnership for Academic Achievement; chief development officer and adviser at the National Council of Negro Women; and executive director of the Dance Institute of Washington. Two decades ago, she served with the founding planners of Friendship Public Charter School to create better opportunities for D.C.’s children. Patricia is chair of the Board of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools, a board member of the Friends of Choice in Urban Education, a Broad Academy alumnus, and a graduate of Princeton University.

Dr. Kerri Briggs is a principal at Cicero Group, a management consulting firm focused on implementing data-driven strategies for a broad mix of private, public, and social sector organizations. In this role, Kerri works with mission-driven leaders to maximize their impact in society and improve the K-12 education system for all students. Kerri currently serves on the boards of National Center for Teacher Residencies, Conservative Leaders for Education, and Exodus Ministries, a nonprofit organization which helps formerly incarcerated women and their children develop stable and productive lives.
Prior to joining Cicero, Kerri was ExxonMobil’s Education Program Officer. In this role, she managed the education grantmaking portfolio for the company and provided policy advice on issues related to teacher quality, STEM education, the Common Core State Standards, and federal policy. Formerly, Kerri was founding Director of Education Reform at the George W. Bush Institute. She also served as state superintendent of education for Washington, D.C. and as an Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.
Earlier in her career, Kerri worked in academic and research fields where she authored articles on reading, charter schools, and school-based management. Kerri earned her MPP and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. She currently resides in Dallas, TX.

Eric Chan is a partner at the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF), a non-profit which identifies the country’s best charter schools, funds their expansion, and helps to increase their impact. He oversees the investment team and works with charter networks in the Midwestern and Southern United States. Eric is also a Pahara Institute NextGen Spring 2015 Fellow.
While with CSGF, Eric helped launch the next generation learning practice, led the New Orleans city fund, supported CSGF’s investment in Dreambox Learning, and moonlighted at Rocketship Education. Previously, he was on the founding team for New Schools Chicago, where he managed investments in over 50 new charter schools across Illinois. Eric also has experience in investment banking and private equity investing. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Tina Chekan is superintendent and chief executive officer of Propel Schools, a network of public charter schools in Pittsburgh, PA. Tina’s teaching career with Propel began at its inception in 2003. When Tina became superintendent and chief executive officer in 2013, Propel operated nine schools. She has been the integral force behind Propel’s rapid expansion to its current total of 13 schools, which serve 4,000 students from underserved neighborhoods. Tina’s focus on closing the achievement gap drives her to find, nurture, and grow talented educators and school leaders. Her commitment to Propel allows families throughout the region to choose excellence in public education, regardless of zip code.

Tina’s unyielding belief in community service has led her to board service for organizations specializing in youth, as well as to volunteer service for organizations emphasizing literacy, sportsmanship, and community engagement. Tina’s leadership style, developed throughout her successful career, was honed via Leadership Pittsburgh where she graduated in 2017. Tina’s leadership skill set was lauded by the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2016 when she received the “Business Women First Award”. Tina holds a Master of Education from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also earned a doctorate in administration and policy.

Veronica Crespin-Palmer is the co-founder and chief executive officer of RISE Colorado, which is centered around family engagement and community organizing in Aurora, empowering families to lead the movement for educational equity. RISE works to educate, engage, and empower low-income families and families of color to RISE as change agents in our public school system. RISE has been awarded the Teach For America (TFA) Social Innovation Award; Colorado’s MLK, Jr. Humanitarian Award; Education Leaders of Color Boulder Fund; Colorado Nonprofit Association Inclusiveness; and the Racial Equity Award. Veronica was chosen as an inaugural Obama Foundation Fellow and Denver Business Journal’s “40 Under 40”. Veronica is a Pahara Institute NextGen Fall 2015 Fellow.
Veronica began her career in Los Angeles as a TFA corps member and has over fifteen years of experience as an organizer, teacher, teacher coach, and social entrepreneur. She graduated with honors from Loyola Marymount University with a master’s in education, and served as CU Boulder’s first Latina Student Body President. Born and educated in Denver, Veronica is a seventh generation Colorado native, and is a proud wife and mother of two.

Todd Dickson is founder and chief executive officer of Valor Collegiate Academies, a small charter management organization in Nashville, TN. Since its inception, Valor has been the top performing academic charter network in Tennessee. Valor has also developed a nationally recognized comprehensive human development approach, Compass, which is a key driver of the organization’s success. Valor is currently scaling Compass to over 300 schools around the country.
Before starting Valor, Todd spent 12 years at Summit Public Schools in the Bay Area of California, first as a physics teacher and then as a principal. Under his leadership, Summit Prep was named one of the “Top 10 Transformational Schools” in the country by Newsweek. Todd came to the field of education as a second career in 2000, after successfully building a residential real estate company in Colorado from 1995-2000.
Todd has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Denver University and Cornell University, respectively, and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University. He was also was an All-American lacrosse player and team captain. When not thinking about how to transform public education, Todd enjoys spending time with his wife and their three young children, one of whom is a rising Valor sixth grader. He also enjoys running, surfing, and watching all things Colorado sports.

David Flink is a social movement leader on the front lines of the learning rights movement. He imagines a world where one day all learners will be seen, heard and valued. Diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at a young age, David later committed his life to students with learning differences. In 1998 as a student at Brown University, David founded Eye to Eye alongside a group of dedicated volunteers. Eye to Eye has since become known as the only national organization run for and by people with learning and attention issues, like dyslexia and ADHD.
David has served on national nonprofit boards including Swanee Hunt Alternatives Foundation, Generation Citizen, CAST, and the New Profit Reimagine Learning Advisory Board. While David is proud to receive each honor and award, 2016 was a unique year in which he found himself celebrated in the pages of GQ as “Man of the Year” alongside fellow dyslexic, Mark Ruffalo. His first book, Thinking Differently: An Inspiring Guide for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities, was published by HarperCollins. In it, he sets out to expand our understanding of learning and offers new, powerful strategies for teaching, parenting, and supporting the one in five students with learning differences.
David holds a master’s degree in dis/ability studies in education from Columbia University and bachelor degrees with honors in both education and psychology from Brown University.

Phillip Garza serves as the chief college & diversity officer at IDEA Public Schools. As chief college officer, Phillip sets the vision and strategy for everything IDEA does to send students to and through college, and thus achieving its vision of becoming the number one producer of low-income college graduates. It also includes overseeing the vision and programmatic success of IDEA-U, an online, flexible, affordable college developed in partnership with College For America, a part of Southern New Hampshire University. As chief diversity officer he ensures IDEA Public Schools is the most diverse, equitable, inclusive high-performing organization, period.
Prior to joining IDEA, Phillip was a teacher, instructional coach and talent recruiter. Most recently he worked as the managing director of Alumni Affairs at Teach For America. There he was responsible for setting the vision and direction for alumni strategy, executing the systems necessary to realize that the 900 Teach For America alumni living in Houston were collectively driving significant advances toward educational equity.
Phillip is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin where he studied music and art history. The first in his family to graduate from college, Phillip knows the value proposition of an undergraduate degree. He deeply believes in the potential of all students and is committed to expanding educational opportunities for low-income, first-generation, minority students.
Phillip lives in McAllen, Texas, and enjoys the many benefits of living along the Texas and Mexico border.

Dr. Nancy B. Gutiérrez is president and chief executive officer of the NYC Leadership Academy, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization. The NYC Leadership Academy is dedicated to supporting and developing school and school system leaders who dismantle inequities, creating the conditions necessary for all students to thrive. Nancy joined the Leadership Academy in 2014 and was named president and chief executive officer in 2018. Prior to her tenure with the Leadership Academy, Nancy launched a program for executive leadership advancement for the New York City Department of Education, which led to superintendent certification.
Nancy began her career as a teacher and principal in her home community of East San Jose, CA, where she was the founding principal of Renaissance Academy, the highest performing middle school in the district and a California Distinguished School. Nancy also led the successful effort to turn around the district’s lowest performing middle school. She was named the UC Davis “Rising Star” and Association of California School Administrator’s Region 8 Middle School “Principal of the Year” in 2010.
Nancy is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) program and is a graduate of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Aspiring Superintendents Academy. She served on the national board of the Coalition of Essential Schools for over a decade and is a frequent instructor for the Harvard Principals’ Center institutes for School Turnaround Leaders, Urban School Leaders, and Race, Equity, Access, and Leadership. Nancy also serves on the Latinos for Education teaching team and is a member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC).

Dr. Bridget Hamre is co-founder and chief executive officer at Teachstone. Bridget is committed to ensuring that Teachstone delivers, communicates, and engages others in the collective work of transforming children’s lives through the power of great teaching. She also holds a position as an Associate Research Professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL).
Bridget’s areas of expertise include student-teacher relationships and classroom processes that promote positive academic and social development for young children. She is deeply committed to working with education leaders to help bridge the ‘research to practice’ divide. As she said in a blog when she joined Teachstone, “Although there is certainly a need for more research in this area – the evidence is clear that interactions matter. What is less clear – is how we achieve that mission at scale – how we ensure that every child, in every state, and every country around the world has access to life changing teachers – not just for one year – but year, after year, after year. That’s why I came to Teachstone, a company that is at the forefront of taking on that challenge – working to scale proven innovations in partnership with leaders across the country and around the globe.”
Bridget received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her masters and doctorate in clinical and school psychology from the University of Virginia.

Nancy Hanks is the chief of schools for elementary in the Madison Metropolitan School District. In this capacity, Nancy has led her schools to ten point increases in literacy and mathematics overall. In addition, 17 schools have made at least ten point gains in literacy and five schools have made over 20 point gains in literacy in the past five years. As a principal in Chicago, Nancy led the transformation of her school and successfully managed the addition of 90 minutes to the school day, a complex move that improved academic outcomes and created a more well-rounded school day for her students and staff.

Nancy was recognized on The Root 100 for her work to eliminate the school to prison pipeline, as one of Brava Magazine’s “Women to Watch”, and Madison 365’s “Power 100”, recognizing the most influential Black leaders in Wisconsin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in school leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She is a devoted daughter, sister, aunt, and friend.

Pamela Inbasekaran is the executive vice president of Relay Graduate School of Education, a nationally accredited institution of higher education which teaches teachers and school leaders to develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in college and life. She is responsible for running an equitable and financially sustainable institution that has a scalable business model, strong systems and infrastructure, effective communication and decision making, and a productive and inclusive team.
Previously, Pamela served as chief operating officer and chief talent officer at Relay and led community engagement and non-academic programming at North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, a member of Uncommon Schools. She also helped build and refine recruitment systems for the Uncommon Schools home office. She began her career as a middle school special education teacher and coordinator at M.S. 224 in the South Bronx, through Teach For America.
Pamela earned a master’s in teaching from Pace University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and American culture from the University of Michigan.

Cary Matsuoka is the superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Prior to assuming district leadership of Santa Barbara Unified in 2016, Cary was superintendent in Milpitas Unified from 2011-2016 and Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District from 2006-2011. He has been in a leadership role in public education since 1997, mostly in Silicon Valley school districts.
Cary taught high school chemistry, AP computer science, physics, and math for 17 years, mostly at Saratoga High School. He served on the AP Computer Science test development committee from 1995 to 1999 and co-authored the Teacher’s Manual for the Marine Biology case study used in AP Computer Science in 1998. Cary also serves on the board of The Learning Accelerator and has been leading innovation in public school districts for the last decade.
Cary lives in Santa Barbara with his wife Polly, returning home to the place where they got married in 1980. They have three adult sons who are making their own impact on the world through ministry, technology, and medicine.

Jamar McKneely is the chief executive officer of InspireNOLA Charter Schools, a charter management organization that educates 4,500 students in six New Orleans schools: Alice Harte, Edna Karr High School, Eleanor McMain Secondary School, Andrew Wilson, 42, and Dwight Eisenhower. In 2013, Jamar co-founded InspireNOLA Charter Schools to transform an educational movement in New Orleans. InspireNOLA is the highest performing open-admission charter network in New Orleans. One of the pillar attributes of InspireNOLA Charter Schools is the focus on community outreach programs to encourage students socially and emotionally to reach their full potential.

Jamar was principal of Alice Harte (K through eight) after serving for seven years as a teacher and assistant principal at Edna Karr (nine through 12). Prior to becoming an educator, he worked as a budget analyst for two nonprofit organizations. Jamar’s educational philosophy is derived from Marian Wright Edelman’s significant quote: “The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.” In 2013, Jamar founded the Alliance for Diversity & Excellence, a nonprofit with the mission of building a pipeline of leaders of color in education. Currently, he serves as executive director of the 140-member group. Jamar is also a Pahara Institute NextGen Fall 2015 Fellow.

Jamar earned both a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in educational administration from Southern University in Baton Rouge.

Erin McMahon is an ICF-accredited Certified Professional Coach. She works with clients who are in leadership transition, with a focus on women and leaders of color. Until early April 2020, Erin was the Chief Academic Officer of the KIPP Foundation. Erin joined KIPP as the Chief of Programs and impact, and was named the first Chief Academic Officer of the Foundation in spring 2019. In this role, she was responsible for ensuring that KIPP regions make significant progress toward 2025 academic goals. Erin came to KIPP from Denver Public Schools (DPS), where she led the academics and innovation teams. In this capacity, Erin co-led a district-wide early literacy strategy which resulted in the highest early literacy growth in DPS history. The success of this strategy fueled increased ratings for one-third of DPS schools between 2016 and 2017. Prior to joining DPS, Erin led the turnaround of The Henry Street School for International Studies, a six to 12th-grade secondary school, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Erin started her career in education at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. through Teach For America. She moved from the classroom to management consulting with Ernst and Young. After business school, Erin worked for City Year in Boston and was selected for the fifth cohort of New Leaders for New Schools in New York City. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale University, a Master of Science in Education Leadership from Pace University, and a MBA from Cornell. Erin is a graduate of Relay Graduate School of Education’s Leverage Leadership Institute.

Eileen Murphy Buckley is the founder of ThinkCERCA, a personalized literacy platform designed to help students learn close reading and argumentative writing skills across content areas. She became passionate about the role technology could play in 21st-century education as the director of curriculum and instruction for more than 100 high-performing schools throughout the Chicago Public Schools system.

Prior to joining the district office, Eileen was the founding English department chair at Walter Payton College Prep, the No. 1 ranked high school in Illinois, and taught English for 15 years. She is also the author of 360 Degrees of Text: Using Poetry to Teach Close Reading and Powerful Writing (National Council of Teachers English, 2011). In 2013, ThinkCERCA was the recipient of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge grant. In 2012, Eileen was accepted into the inaugural class of Impact Engine, Chicago’s first social impact investment fund and accelerator. She is an Unreasonable Fellow. She earned her master’s degree in writing from DePaul University and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Brian Neal is the chief executive officer for Accelerate Great Schools, a multimillion-dollar fund working to ensure that every student in Cincinnati has access to high-quality school options. To make this possible, Accelerate Great Schools invests in the expansion of proven school models, supports programs that help attract and retain quality school leaders and teachers, and partners with families and communities in supporting their efforts to advocate for quality educational opportunities. Prior to this role, Brian served as the education program officer for the Farmer Family Foundation, a private foundation that invests in causes which promote educational opportunities for underprivileged youth, stability for the economically disadvantaged, and healthcare research.

Brian has worked across all sectors to support students and families in Ohio. Most notable was Brian’s work as the Ohio Director for the SEED Foundation’s Ohio expansion effort, a $60M campaign to launch Ohio’s first public, college-preparatory boarding school for underserved children. Brian has also assisted parents/caregivers in advocating for their student’s success through leading the statewide Ohio Parent Information and Resource Center, and was a founding resource coordinator during the Cincinnati Public Schools’ district-wide Community Learning Centers’ launch. Brian’s efforts have led to statewide policy changes, Ohio-specific public-private partnerships, and strong local and statewide community collaborations.
Brian received his bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing from the University of Cincinnati. Brian is happily married with four children – three daughters and one nephew.

Dr. Emilio Pack is the chief executive officer of STEM Prep Schools, a public school network designed to increase proficiency, graduation, and college acceptance rates for students of color. In this role, Emilio leverages strategic community, district, and cross-network charter partnerships to focus on reversing the under-representation of minorities in STEM-related fields. Prior to founding STEM Prep Schools, Emilio helped to launch, staff, and lead charters for Alliance College-Ready Public Schools.
In 2019, Emilio was recognized by Education Week as a “Leaders to Learn From” for his leadership in access and opportunity for students of color. He was also awarded the prestigious Hart Vision Award as the California Charter School Leader of the Year in 2017. In 2015, the Los Angeles Business Journal awarded STEM Prep the Latino Nonprofit of the Year. That same year, Emilio was profiled by L.A. Weekly Magazine as one of its “People of the Year.”
Emilio received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University and California State University-Los Angeles, and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration from Pepperdine University. Emilio is the proud son of a single mother who came to the United States from Cuba to seek better opportunities for her son.

Chris Stewart is the Chief Executive Officer of Education Post, a media project of the Results in Education (RIE) Foundation. Chris’s past roles as chief executive officer for the Wayfinder Foundation, executive director of the African American Leadership Forum, and a public elected member of the Minneapolis Board of Education were the result of years of activism in education and social policy.
For a decade prior to entering philanthropy and public policy he worked directly with families in poverty through public and private organizations. The Bush Foundation named Chris a 2014 leadership fellow. In 2011, Chris organized community members for two campaigns in Minnesota: Action For Equity, a grassroots effort to inspire innovation in family and education policy at the state level, and the Contract for Student Achievement, a coalition of community organizations working to achieve greater flexibility for underperforming schools through changes to Minneapolis’ teachers’ contract.
Chris serves on the boards of Ed Navigators, GreatSchools, and Parents Radically Organized.
Chris blogs and tweets under the name Citizen Stewart and publishes at Citizenstewart.com. He
is based in outstate Minnesota.

Jane Swift is committed to New England’s education innovation sector. In her most recent role as the executive chair of Ultimate Medical Academy, Jane curated stakeholder connections to enable effective learning tools to reach the greatest number of students in order to advance student learning.
Jane serves on a number of boards, including Suburban Propane, a publicly traded propane distribution company, and Academic Programs International, a privately held study abroad company. She is also on the advisory board for the School of Leadership Afghanistan, the only all girls boarding school in Kabul.
Previously, Jane was the chief executive officer of Middlebury Interactive Languages. Jane served for fifteen years in state government, holding the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and State Senator. Jane was the first woman in United States history to give birth (to twins) while serving as Governor. During her tenure in office, Jane was instrumental in the passage and implementation of Massachusetts’ nationally recognized public education system. Jane taught leadership studies at Williams College, and is a sought after speaker on the issue of work family integration. Jane has dedicated her personal and professional life to the belief that access to a high quality education is critical to the ideals of democracy.
Jane received her bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Jane and her husband, Chuck, live on the family farm where he was raised in Williamstown, Massachusetts with their three daughters.

Glen Tripp is founder and chief executive officer of Galileo Learning. Galileo is a leading provider of summer and school year programs which develop students into innovators who envision and create a better world. Galileo uses project-based art, engineering, and science experiences to build kids’ abilities to come up with original ideas and follow them through to reality. Over 300,000 children have participated in Galileo programs since the organization’s inception in 2001. In 2019, 2,500 educators will support 70,000 participants throughout California and Illinois. Galileo has been named a “Best Place to Work” for ten straight years, and was named to the Forbes “Small Giants” list in 2018.

Previously, Glen was the vice president of operations at SCORE! Educational Centers, an operator of after school enrichment centers that grew to 165 locations throughout the United States. Glen graduated from Stanford University in 1992 with degrees in economics and international relations.

Doug Tuthill has been president of Step Up for Students (SUFS) since 2008. SUFS is the country’s largest education choice organization, which serves approximately 175,000 students in Florida, Alabama, and Illinois. Doug is a former high school teacher, college professor, and teacher union president. He graduated from the University of Florida and is married with two adult children.

Dr. Vince Bertram is president and chief executive officer of Project Lead The Way (PLTW). Since joining the organization in June 2011, PLTW has grown to serve approximately 12,500 schools across the U.S., trained thousands of teachers, and received numerous national recognitions and awards. In 2014, he was appointed by the U.S. Department of State to serve as the education expert for its United States Speaker and Specialist Program. He is an appointed member of the congress-authorized STEM Education Advisory Panel, and serves on the Olin College of Engineering President’s Council. He has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, is a frequent contributor to national publications, and is a New York Times bestselling author with his books Dream Differently: Candid Advice for America’s Students and One Nation Under-Taught: Solving America’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Crisis.

Prior to joining PLTW, Vince spent 20 years in education as a teacher, principal, and superintendent of Indiana’s third-largest urban school district.

Vince holds an Ed.D, MS, Ed.S, and BS degrees from Ball State University, a master’s degree in education policy and management from Harvard University, and MBA degrees from Georgetown University and ESADE Business School.

Deborah Bigham is the chief development officer for Uplift Education and has served in that capacity since 2009. As chief development officer, Deborah is responsible for all aspects of fundraising, marketing, communication, parent engagement, and advocacy strategies. In her tenure she has raised more than $80M in support of Uplift Education’s growth and innovation in the sector.

Prior to joining Uplift, Deborah worked for seven years as the vice president of external affairs for the YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas. She has 22 years’ experience in the areas of fundraising, external affairs, special events, and strategic plan development. Her career spans for-profit and not-for-profit entities including Society of Petroleum Engineers, Burson-Marsteller, and Ennis Business Forms. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University where she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for public relations.

As vice president with TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project), Kenya works to ensure that all children have access to high quality education. Because of her leadership and can-do attitude, she has been selected to serve on numerous community boards including the Girl Scouts of the Mid-South, Tennessee Pre-K State Advisory Council, and Common Ground, a local racial reconciliation effort. She is also the youngest member of the board of The National Civil Rights Museum. In 2006, Kenya became the youngest gubernatorial appointee when Governor Phil Bredesen named her to the Tennessee Center for Diabetes Prevention and Health Improvement Board.

Prior to becoming a partner at TNTP, Kenya served as the Tennessee executive director for Stand for Children. Prior to Stand for Children, Kenya worked for the Urban Child Institute, The University of Tennessee, and the First Years Institute, advocating on behalf of children and youth. In 2008, she worked with the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth on the creation of child impact statements as a tool for local governments to utilize to ensure that every action they take is in the best interest of children. Kenya received a B.S in marketing in 2002 and a Master in Business Administration in 2003 from The University of Tennessee.

Eduardo Briceño is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Mindset Works, a leading provider of growth mindset development services and resources. Since he co-founded it in 2007 with Carol Dweck and others, Mindset Works has influenced and supported thousands of organizations in their advancement of learning-oriented cultures and systems.

Eduardo is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator for professionals and executives. His two TEDx talks on growth mindset and improvement have each been viewed by millions. He has been featured and quoted in The Huffington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Education Week, MindShift, Entrepreneur, Inc., and others. He is Pahara-Aspen Fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and an inductee in the Happiness Hall of Fame. Prior to Mindset Works, Eduardo was a principal at the Sprout Group, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, where he was part of the technology investment team and served on several for-profit and nonprofit boards.

Eduardo grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA and M.A. in education from Stanford University. Most importantly, he continues to enjoy lifelong learning every day.

Ernesto Cantu is executive director for IDEA El Paso, where he launched four schools, serving almost 1000 students in 2018. IDEA El Paso is part of IDEA Public Schools, one of the fastest growing charter management organizations in the United States that plan on opening a total of 20 schools in El Paso by 2023.

During his time at IDEA Public Schools he has been a tutor, classroom teacher, director of new site development, director of operations/assistant principal of operations, principal, senior vice president of schools, and most recently, executive director. Prior to his time at IDEA Public Schools, Ernesto taught 7th grade English Language Arts at a South Texas middle school and GED and ESL classes for Windham ISD at Lopez and Segovia State Jails in Edinburg, TX.

Ernesto joined the U.S. Army in 1988 and served until 1991. He was stationed overseas in West Germany, and he also served in Operation Desert Shield/Storm. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in English and a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas Pan-American. Ernesto, his wife Cynthia and two of their children, Klarissa and Ernesto Emiliano, reside in El Paso; his oldest daughter, Alyssa lives in South Texas.

Alejandra Ceja runs corporate social responsibility for Panasonic North America and serves as executive director of the Panasonic Foundation. Ceja is the former executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She was appointed by the White House in 2013 to serve President Barack Obama and the U.S. Secretary of Education to increase the educational attainment and life outcomes of Hispanics across the nation. In this capacity, Ceja helped cultivate 150 Commitments to Action totaling $335 million to build on and accelerate federal, state, and local investments in high quality education for Hispanic students. Prior to this role, Ceja was the chief of staff to the Under Secretary of Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her previous professional experience includes serving as the senior budget and appropriations advisor for the House Congressional Committee on Education and Labor and as a program examiner for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Alejandra earned her master’s degree in public administration at Baruch College, City University of New York, and her bachelor’s degree in political science at Mount St. Mary’s University in California. She is a graduate of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and a recipient of their Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Anne Douglass, PhD, is founder and executive director of the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she is also associate professor and director of the bachelor’s degree and leadership certificate program in early childhood education. Anne’s work focuses on transforming programs, systems, and policies to support individual and collective leadership for quality improvement and innovation among early educators who work with children birth to five. Her institute trains early educators and child care business owners in entrepreneurial leadership, and sustains their leadership through its alumnae innovation network. This rapidly growing network elevates the leadership, voices, and expertise of early educators who are catalyzing change that is urgently needed in early care and education.

Anne is the author, most recently, of the book Leading for Change in Early Care and Education: Cultivating Leadership from Within. She has been published in a wide range of academic journals and books, and presents nationally and internationally to academic, policy, and professional audiences.

Anne’s prior experience includes 20 years teaching, administering, and consulting in early care and education programs serving low-income children and their families. She has a PhD in social policy from Brandeis University, a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wellesley College.

Michael Thomas Duffy is the president of the Great Oaks Foundation, a role in which he spearheaded the launch of a network of charter schools in urban neighborhoods in the northeast. Previously he served as director of the charter school office for the NYC Department of Education, working in the Bloomberg administration to expand the number of high quality charter schools. Michael’s efforts in education grew out of his work in the civil rights movement, having served as the chairman and commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ civil rights enforcement commission, a position he held for six years. He has also held leadership positions in the non-profit sector: he served on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign, for several years as its co-chair and just completed two terms on the vestry of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church.

Michael has a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard where he wrote his thesis on business support for child day care and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College in Connecticut with a degree in economics. For the past eight years he has been an adjunct professor at NYU.

Bree Dusseault is executive director of Green Dot Public Schools Washington, a nonprofit network of public charter schools committed to closing systemic opportunity gaps and supporting all students on the path to college. Operating some of the first schools in the Washington State public charter sector, she built partnerships with families, staff, and the community to reinstate a new charter law and launch schools in three cities. Green Dot Washington serves a student population that approaches double the state average for students with disabilities, students of color, and students in poverty with a staff that is four times more diverse than the state average. Schools on average outperformed national absolute performance projections on all state assessments, and students identifying as African American/Black, students with special needs, and English Learners grew nearly twice the rate of national peers.

Prior to Green Dot, Bree served as the director of the Leadership Center at WA Charters, helping school leaders design and build new schools for Washington students. She also served as the executive director of schools for Seattle Public Schools, overseeing its Southeast region of schools, and was a principal in post-Katrina New Orleans. Bree has researched educational practices nationally with the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education and started her career as a strategy consultant with the Monitor Group.

Bree serves as the board chair of Teach For America Washington and as a board member of City Year Seattle/King County. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College and her master’s in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she was also a Reynolds Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.

Nora Flood is the education lead for Wend Collective, a social impact fund focusing on education, indigenous peoples and arts/creative culture. Before joining Wend, Nora spent more than eight years with the Colorado League of Charter Schools where she served as president for the last three and a half years of her tenure. Previously in her career, she was the director of Sonoma Charter School in northern California, served as head of school at Madison Country Day School, taught middle and high school special education in both traditional public schools and private schools, and taught internationally in Brazil and the Netherlands. Nora also co-founded a private, non-profit K-12 school in Minneapolis.

Nora has a Masters of Science in education degree from the University of Wisconsin. She serves on several national and international boards and advisory boards, and sits on the executive committee and co-chairs the Policy Working Group of Grantmakers for Thriving Youth.

Paula Garcia is currently Senior Vice President – regional field executive at Teach For America and oversees a portfolio of 10 regions in the states of Texas, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Washington and D.C. Paula was the former executive director of Teach For America’s Rio Grande Valley region and prior to joining TFA served as director of curriculum and instruction for the Raymondville Independent School District.

Paula has over 20 years of educational leadership experience in the State of Texas and has served in the public and non for profit sectors. During her time at Educate Texas, she was responsible for establishing and developing early college structures in two of the largest school districts in the Rio Grande Valley: Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD and Brownsville ISD – increasing the number of students ready for college. Previously, Paula was also a founding principal of IDEA Academy Donna, of IDEA Public Schools. As a 1998 Teach For America Corps Member, Paula taught reading to bilingual students in third, fourth and fifth grade in the Mercedes Independent School District in Mercedes, Texas.

Paula holds a B.A. and double masters in Spanish Literature and education from the University of Texas-RGV, as well as an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. With her husband, Luis, they have two sons, Lucas and Josiah, and live in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

Hanseul Kang has led the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the District of Columbia’s state education agency, since 2015. Under Kang’s leadership, OSSE has taken important steps to sustain, accelerate, and deepen DC’s progress in student achievement outcomes. OSSE has made multimillion-dollar investments in and launched significant new supports for early childhood education that have led to improved quality and expanded access for children and families. Kang spearheaded work to develop the new DC School Report Card and STAR Framework that, for the first time, give families clear and comparable information on the performance of traditional public and public charter schools across DC.

Kang previously served as chief of staff for the Tennessee Department of Education as the state implemented major policies and programs under Race to the Top and made significant gains in student achievement. Before that, Kang worked as a managing director of program in Teach For America’s DC regional office. She started her career as a high school social studies teacher in rural New Mexico. Kang holds a bachelor’s degree in international politics from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and was a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar.

Jessica Lindl is vice president and global head of education at Unity Technologies, creator of the world’s most widely used real-time 3D development platform. Jessica has spent over 15 years overseeing companies and teams that design, develop, market and distribute high impact learning offerings to the global education market. In her work at Unity Technologies, Common Sense Media, GlassLab and LRNG (now part of Southern New Hampshire University, Scientific Learning, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), she has worked to improve learning outcomes and earning potential for all learners worldwide by blending effectiveness with ground-breaking engagement.

Jessica is also an advisory board member for GSV AcceleraTE, an early stage venture fund that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs and their companies in the $75 billion learning and talent technology sector. Additionally, she’s an advisory board member for California State University Entertainment Alliance Advisory Council, where she helps guide efforts to develop mutually beneficial industry partnerships and relevant course and career development standards for students at the largest four-year public university system in the U.S. with nearly 500,000 students.

Jessica is a graduate of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, where she received a Masters in Business Administration with a focus on entrepreneurship and education. She lives in San Francisco, CA with her husband and two young sons.

Tim Lord is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the DreamYard Project, Inc., a Bronx-based arts and social justice pedagogy organization. DreamYard works with over 10,000 young people annually in 55 public schools K-12th Grade, including the DreamYard Prep High School, and at the DreamYard Art Center. DreamYard is a founding partner, with Big Picture Learning and the Jamie and Judy Dimon Foundation, in Here to Here, a Bronx-based non-profit that links employers, educators and diverse community stakeholders in concerted action to enhance career pathways for young people in low-income neighborhoods.

Tim is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow in the Winter 2019 Cohort, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He has spoken on education reform panels at the Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management and others, has taught workshops with the Mississippi Whole Schools Initiative and the New Hampshire Statewide Educators’ Conference, served on the New York City Task Force on Quality Arts Education and has served on funding panels for the New York State Council on the Arts and the Center for Arts Education. Tim was a 1993 echoing green fellow.

Prior to founding DreamYard, he was an actor and director in New York City and was a company member at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, from where he received a master of fine arts degree. He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science, graduating summa cum laude, from Brown University.

Jack Pannell is the founder and president of the Five Smooth Stones Foundation, a non-profit enterprise dedicated to the advancement of a generation of boys deserving the finest education possible. He founded Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys with a mission to become a national model for the education of black and brown boys everywhere. The school has nearly tripled in size within three years, with state testing scores that consistently outpace the school district. With 482 boys in grades 4-8, Baltimore Collegiate is the first college prep public charter of its kind in Baltimore, with a unique focus on a college prep education during the critical developmental stages of the elementary and middle school years.

Jack is a non-traditional educator who established Baltimore Collegiate through an intensive self-funded study of nearly 50 schools, adopting and adapting the best practices for moving the needle on the urban male learner. Jack previously held several positions in politics and government, including serving as the communications director for Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights icon. He also led the largest charter school network in Maryland for one year before launching Baltimore Collegiate. Jack is a graduate of Amherst College and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. In his rare free time, he skis in the West, golfs anywhere and travels around the world during every school vacation. He is a North American trustee of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. Jack also wrote a semi-biographical coming-of-age novel, “Lunch Money Can’t Shoot,” with an old friend, Michael Levin.

Dr. Ebbie Parsons, III is the founder and managing partner of Yardstick Management. Yardstick provides specialized management consulting services to renowned mission-driven organizations. Ebbie, a seasoned business executive with a passion for education, has been applauded for his strategic thinking, engaging leadership and results orientation throughout his career.

Prior to launching Yardstick, Ebbie served as the chief operating officer of the third-largest Charter Management Organization in the U.S., Mosaica Education, Inc. At Mosaica, Ebbie managed over 80 schools across eight states, Washington, D.C., the Middle East and Asia. Ebbie joined Mosaica after serving on the founding team of the Relay Graduate School of Education where he led the Human Capital function of the organization. Ebbie’s introduction to the Education sector was via the Broad Residency program in Educational Leadership where he served as the acting chief operating officer of Hartford Public Schools in Hartford, CT. Ebbie’s previous experience also includes leadership roles with American Express, Medtronic and Intel.

Ebbie holds a BS in industrial engineering from Florida A&M University, an MBA from the University of Minnesota, and a Doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina and at the University of Southern California. Ebbie resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Ayana, and their adorable daughters, Ebbie Noelle aka “Noey”, and Noohra Celeste.

Dr. Charlene Reid is the founder and chief executive officer of Excellence Community Schools (ECS), a charter management organization with schools in the Bronx, NY and Stamford, CT. Prior to her role at ECS, Charlene was the principal and executive director of Bronx Charter School for Excellence (Bronx Excellence), where she spearheaded the turnaround of a school on the brink of closure. Bronx Excellence was subsequently recognized as the highest performing K-8 non-magnet public school in New York State, and in 2012 was distinguished as a U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

Prior to joining Bronx Excellence, Charlene served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal in the Bronx and Harlem. She began her career as a teacher leader in South Los Angeles. Charlene earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and her master’s degree in elementary education from UCLA. She also earned a master’s in educational leadership from Columbia University. Charlene was awarded a Cahn Fellowship for outstanding New York City principals at Columbia University, Teachers College in 2011, and later earned a Doctorate in Education, Ed.D. in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Jason Rohloff is vice president of global government relations at the College Board where he oversees advocacy efforts with government officials to increase college access and opportunities for students. Prior to joining the College Board in 2014, Jason was special assistant to the president at the University of Minnesota where he led the Office of Government and Community Relations and was responsible for developing strategies to secure policy and financial support from policymakers to advance the institution’s land-grant mission. He’s held numerous other leadership positions, including senior policy officer in the U.S. Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, director of federal affairs for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and legislative director to the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Jason earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Minnesota in 1994 and master’s degree in international management from the University of Saint Thomas in 1998. He’s currently a member of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association Board of Directors, former member of the MN Aids Project Board of Directors, and he’s served as a German Marshall Fellow. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his partner, Sean, and their dogs, Harvey and Miss Ellie.

Eric Schwarz is the co-founder and chief executive office of the College for Social Innovation (CfSI), which brings together colleges and social sector organizations to create fully-credited, semester-long experiential learning opportunities that are meaningful, accessible, and life-changing. CfSI’s mission is to educate and inspire the next generation of social problem solvers.

Eric is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Citizen Schools, a successful social enterprise that scaled to a $30 million annual budget and has impacted the after-school and extended learning time fields across the U.S. Eric served as one of the first two vice presidents at City Year and previously served as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune and The Patriot Ledger, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also worked as national student director for Senator Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential campaign.

Eric is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Vermont and has served on a number of boards, including Beyond12, First Night, the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation, which he chaired for 10 years, and Citizen Schools, where he was elected chair in July 2018. Eric lives in Brookline, MA with his wife and two children.

Stacey Shells Harvey is the co-founder and chief executive officer of ReGeneration Schools, a non-profit charter school management organization that’s dedicated to creating and revitalizing schools through a college prep and character mission. Stacey currently manages a network of three campuses in Chicago, IL. ReGeneration Schools will open their first Cincinnati, Ohio, campus in the Fall of 2019.

Before founding ReGeneration Schools, Stacey was the managing director for Victory Education Partners in Chicago, where she moved the schools from the bottom 17% of the state to outperforming 64% of the state. Prior to moving to Chicago, she was a principal with Uncommon Schools, where she opened two charter schools in Rochester, NY, where her founding cohort of students at Rochester Prep ranked sixth in the state of NY for English Language Arts in 2008. Stacey’s work in urban education has been featured in the book Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov, and Leverage Leadership, by Paul Bambrick. Stacey graduated from Hampton University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. After undergrad, Stacey joined Teach For America in 1999, where she taught in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins in teaching. She went on to earn a second master’s degree in administration from Pace University.

Former Virginia Secretary of Education, Dr. Javaid Siddiqi, is the president and chief executive officer of the Hunt Institute. Most recently, he served as the director of the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows, which partners with senior-level political leaders who have the knowledge, skill, and will to be effective, reform-minded education policymakers. Under his leadership, the national, nonpartisan Fellowship has garnered praise from former governors and generous financial support from major funders across the country.

Javaid’s career spans over 15 years in education and education reform and policy. He began his profession as a high school teacher, assistant principal, and as a principal in Chesterfield, Virginia, where he led the implementation of Expeditionary Learning – a nationally recognized school reform model. As secretary of education in Gov. McDonnell’s Cabinet, Javaid assisted in the development and implementation of the Commonwealth’s education policy; and provided guidance to 16 public universities, the Virginia Community College System, five higher education and research centers, the Department of Education, and the state-supported museums. Prior to his appointment, he served as deputy secretary of education where he focused his efforts on teacher quality and improving educational outcomes for all students.

In addition to an extensive history of leadership service, Javaid continues to actively serve his community and state. He is an Aspen Institute Fellow and a member of the Chesterfield County School Board. Javaid is a graduate of Richard Bland College, Virginia State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University where he received both his undergraduate degree and doctorate in educational leadership.

Kyle Wedberg is in his 12th year as president and chief executive officer of NOCCA-Louisiana’s Arts Conservatory Public High School. NOCCA is a high performing school (top 20 in the state in both absolute performance and student growth) which manifests extraordinary outcomes in eleven arts disciplines for its students (the 116 graduates in 2019 garnered $23 M in scholarships offered). Kyle is the recipient of the 2017 Jeffery Lawrence Award for Outstanding National Art School Leader, given by the Arts Schools Network.

Prior to NOCCA, Kyle served as chief administrative officer for Recovery School District of Louisiana. He also served as a regional director and director of new site development for City Year National where he supported the launch of City Year Johannesburg; and led the start-ups of City Year New Orleans, City Year Baton Rouge and City Year Los Angeles. Kyle served as senior budget analyst for the City of Chicago Office of Budget and Management responsible for all public safety departments (Police, Fire, and Office of Emergency Communications). He began his career as a City Year AmeriCorps volunteer.

In his spare time, Kyle enjoys being with his son, Waylon, and wife, Michelle, above all else. He loves the art of New Orleans and Louisiana, live music almost anywhere, and walks the planet knowing his Saints and Cubs have been world champions. Kyle majored in urban studies, American racial and multicultural studies, and history at St. Olaf College and earned a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Amy Wilkins is senior vice president for advocacy at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to joining the Alliance, Amy held leadership positions at: The College Board and The Education Trust. Over the course of nearly 30 years in advocacy, politics and public policy.

Amy has also worked for the Children’s Defense fund, the White House Office of Commutations and the Democratic National Committee. Amy attended Barnard College and lives in Washington, DC with her son, Tyler, and their dog, Bingley.

Ken Zeff is the executive director of Learn4Life, a nonprofit with the mission to harness the collective impact of metro area business, philanthropy and nonprofit partners to support public schools and common education goals across the Atlanta region. Previously Ken served several roles at Fulton County Schools including superintendent and chief strategy and innovation officer. Fulton County Schools serves 96,000 students and employs approximately 13,000 staff. District graduation rate improved from 70% to 86% during this four year time span, with similar gains across every subgroup.

Ken arrived in Atlanta from Los Angeles where he served as the chief operations officer for Green Dot Public Schools. Green Dot Public Schools is an award winning charter management organization serving over 10,000 students in Los Angeles and New York. He was also a White House Fellow and served as a senior policy consultant to the US Secretary of Education. As a manager at Deloitte Consulting, he led process redesign, strategic planning, and financial management projects for Fortune 500 companies. Ken received his BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Ambriz is the chief of operations for Uncommon Schools, a K-12 charter management organization committed to seeing students to and through college, where he develops strategic priorities and policies for network-wide implementation and oversees all home office, regional, and school operations for its 18,000 students across 52 schools in six cities. Michael has worked with Uncommon for ten years, serving as the founding regional chief operating officer for Uncommon’s North Star Academy in Newark, NJ, where he helped grow the region from four to 13 schools, serving over 5,000 students. Five years ago, he also launched Uncommon’s newest region in Camden, NJ, now serving 800 students across three schools.

Prior to joining Uncommon, Michael spent five years with Teach For America managing summer training institute operations in New York, Philadelphia, and then at the national level. He also served as managing director, where he collaborated with national team senior leaders to develop overall vision, strategy, and measures of success for national institute operations. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from UCLA, is Six Sigma Green Belt-trained, and received a certificate of business excellence through the Nonprofit Senior Leaders Program at Columbia Business School. Having grown up in Los Angeles, he has lived in NYC for the last 15 years where he hopes to one day invent a machine that will transport LA weather to the East Coast.

Alexandra (Alex) Bernadotte is the founder and chief executive officer of Beyond 12, a high-tech, high-touch nonprofit that integrates personalized coaching with mobile technology to increase the number of traditionally underserved students who graduate from college. She has more than 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in the nonprofit and private sectors. Immediately before launching Beyond 12, Alex was an entrepreneur in residence at NewSchools Venture Fund where she developed the business plan for Beyond 12.

Alex’s previous professional experience includes serving as executive director of The Princeton Review’s Silicon Valley office; executive director of Foundation for a College Education, a nonprofit college access program; co-founder and vice president of marketing at educational travel startup Explorica; director of operations at EF Education; and operations manager at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where she coordinated the efforts of an international youth substance abuse prevention foundation. Alex currently serves on the board of directors of Great Oakland Public Schools.

Alex received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and earned a master’s degree with a concentration in policy and organizational leadership from Stanford. She is an Ashoka Fellow, a recipient of the 2011 NewSchools Venture Fund Entrepreneur of the Year award, and a 2012 Jefferson Award for Public Service winner. In addition, Beyond 12 was named one of the world’s 10 most innovative education companies by Fast Company and the organization’s MyCoach mobile app won the 2016 Xammy Award for best social impact app from Xamarin, a Microsoft-owned mobile development platform.

Andrew (Andy) Calkins is the director of Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), a leading national catalyst and non-profit accelerator in the re-imagining of K-12 education in the United States. NGLC seeks to dramatically lift and transform student outcomes by helping to spur the development of next gen learning: student-centered, personalized, competency-based, blended, and experiential, organized around richer, deeper definitions of student success. Since its inception late in 2010, NGLC has invested more than $85 million in a range of innovations and whole-school models designed by educators and incorporating those principles.

Andy brings more than three decades of experience in education reform in leadership positions at Scholastic Inc., Recruiting New Teachers Inc., Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, and the Stupski Foundation. He was the lead author of the influential Mass Insight report, The Turnaround Challenge, which helped to launch the nation’s efforts to turn around its most consistently underperforming schools. A cellist, skier and inveterate traveler, he lives on Boston’s north shore, where he and his wife have raised three daughters and where he has served two terms as an elected school committee member and as board chair of the Waring School.

Pyper Davis began as executive director for Educare DC in September, 2014, and is responsible for overall leadership of Educare DC, including partnership, policy and funding strategies. Educare DC is a nationally accredited early childhood education program that serves 160 children and their families in Ward 7, one of the highest poverty neighborhoods in Washington, DC. Educare DC is part of the 23-school Educare Network, a national network of high-quality, research-based early childhood programs that prepare at-risk children for school.

Before Educare, Pyper spent over 10 years as the chief operating officer of The SEED Foundation. Pyper helped to lead the growth of SEED, where she was instrumental in opening the SEED School of Maryland, and in developing the talent, program model and infrastructure within SEED’s college-prep boarding school network. Prior to joining SEED, Pyper spent nine years in the television business, primarily as an executive with The News Corporation, working in both a strategic and operational capacity in London, New York, Los Angeles and in Asia. While at News Corp., Pyper helped create two successful joint ventures in Asia, launched and managed operations for Fox’s new cable sports business, Fox Sports Net, and served as president of cable network, FIT TV. After leaving News Corp., Pyper provided strategy consulting and private equity fundraising for early-stage technology companies as a principal with Katalyst LLC.

Pyper started her career as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. Pyper has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She served as a trustee of Princeton University from 2011-2015.

Andrew Goldin is the executive director at T.L.P. Education, an organization which partners with schools across the country implementing the Summit Learning Program. Andrew started his career teaching middle school science in New York City as a Teach for America corps member. He later joined YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, Texas as the principal of two campuses and later a manager of school leaders. After YES Prep, Andrew was the Chief Schools Officer at Summit Public Schools before leading the Summit Learning team.

Andrew joined T.L.P. Education as executive director in 2019. Andrew holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a MSEd from Bank Street College of Education and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds is vice president of policy for Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) where she guides a team of policy experts in the areas of quality, opportunity and innovation to effectively provide customized support for state policymakers, reformers, educators, parents and communities to cultivate policy conditions that advance student-centered education systems.

Prior to joining ExcelinEd, Lizzette served as chief deputy commissioner for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) where she oversaw the day-to day operations of the agency and engaged and collaborated with education stakeholders in the development, implementation and delivery of education programs and initiatives throughout the state of Texas.

Under President George W. Bush’s Administration, Lizzette served as special assistant in the Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs under Secretary Rod Paige and as the Region VI representative for Secretary Margaret Spellings. Her career reflects deep experience in education policy development and implementation as well as the “how-to” of legislative work needed to advance education reforms. Lizzette currently sits on the national boards of KnowledgeWorks, Generation Citizen and UTeach. She also serves on the Austin advisory board of IDEA Public Schools and the school board of the Goodwill Central Texas Excel Center and is a member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Southwestern University where she sits on its Board of Visitors. She is married to David Reynolds and has three children, Luke, Lillianna and Joaquin.

David Hardy, Jr. is the chief executive officer of Lorain City Schools. In this capacity, he assumes the responsibilities of the Superintendent and the school board in pursuit of turning around one of the lowest performing school districts in the state of Ohio. Previously, David was the deputy superintendent of academics for St. Louis Public Schools. He was charged with the mission-critical task of setting and meeting academic standards, which resulted in St. Louis Public Schools receiving full accreditation for the first time since 2000.

Prior to his role as deputy superintendent of academics, he spent a year as a School Systems Leadership Fellow in the School District of Philadelphia as the Chief Academic Support Officer. David also served as the executive director of regional achievement in Camden/Burlington, New Jersey after being the founding principal of Achievement First Middle School in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics as a scholar-athlete from Colgate University. He has also earned his master’s degree in Urban Education from Teachers’ College, Columbia University and will complete his doctorate from Columbia University in 2018.

Scott Jenkins serves as strategy director for Lumina Foundation. In that role, he leads development and advancement of the Foundation’s State Policy Agenda. Scott has a broad and extensive background in institutional, state, and federal policy development and execution. A few of his career highlights include serving as the education policy director to former Michigan Governor John Engler and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, the director of external relations for Western Governors University, and as a deputy assistant secretary in the US Department of Education in the Bush administration. Scott has a BS in political science from The University of Central Florida.

Scott lives in Indianapolis when not in some other state capital and has two adult children Carsen and Jacob.

Ebony Lee is an Executive in Residence at the Charter School Growth Fund where she leverages her experience in government and philanthropy to help portfolio members address challenges. She previously served as the U.S. Department of Education’s deputy chief of staff for policy. For nearly a decade, Ebony worked on charter school and teacher effectiveness policy as a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She also served served as chief of staff in the Department’s Office for Innovation and Improvement, and as an associate director in the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison at the U.S. Department of Justice. Ebony is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and studied public policy at Brown University.

Deborah Levitzky is an educational consultant specializing in the design and delivery of professional learning for K-12 teachers and school leaders. Deborah served for eight years as the chief program officer and founding director of the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education (NAATE), a national program of study that was dedicated to developing, retaining and leveraging top-tier educators in high-needs schools. Deborah lead NAATE’s content development, program design, and program delivery. Prior, Deborah lead the content development of the Effective Practice Incentive Community, a professional learning platform launched by New Leaders. In 2003, Deborah joined the NYC Department of Education under chancellor Joel Klein as an associate director in the Office of New Schools, supporting the launch of dozens of new district and charter schools. She served as a school designer with Expeditionary Learning, supporting curriculum development and professional development for teacher teams in New York City. In 1992 Deborah co-founded the NYC Public Service Corps, a high school service learning career tech program launched through a partnership between the NYC Department of Personnel and the NYC Board of Education.

Deborah holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management, an MSA in education administration from Trinity College in Washington, D.C, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Barnard College. Deborah was a New Leaders resident principal, and a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in NYC.

David Mansouri is president and chief executive officer of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE). SCORE’s mission is to catalyze transformative change in Tennessee education so that all students can achieve success in college, career, and life. The nonprofit organization was founded in 2009 by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and since SCORE’s founding Tennessee has become a national leader in education reform.

David sets the strategic vision for SCORE, guides SCORE’s leadership team, and builds and strengthens SCORE’s partnerships with leaders in education in Tennessee and across the nation. David joined SCORE in 2010 and has previously served as director of advocacy and communications and executive vice president.

Prior to SCORE, David worked in political consulting and public relations. In addition, he worked for the late U.S. Senator Fred Thompson and began his career at the Tennessee Republican Party. David serves on the Board of Directors of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network and the Association of Rice Alumni, and was a founding board member of Nashville Classical Charter School. David was a member of the Class IV cohort of Leadership Tennessee and was a delegate to the 2017 American Council on Germany’s Young Leaders Conference.

A Tennessee native, David earned a BA in political science and music from Rice University. He received an MBA with honors from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. David and his wife Sarah live in East Nashville.

Pedro Martinez is superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). He joined SAISD as superintendent in June 2015, bringing to the District a laser-like focus on improving academic achievement. Under his leadership, the District is seeing improved graduation and college-going rates, as well as expanded access to rigor. Innovative schools have been developed and launched providing new models of education. In addition, strong academic programs in existing schools have been expanded to provide high-quality choice for families.

Pedro is a member of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit, bipartisan network of diverse state and district education chiefs. He also serves on the boards of The Council of Greater City Schools, the Master Leadership Program of Greater San Antonio, the P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar County, the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, and is an ex-officio board member of The Dee Howard Foundation.

Before coming to SAISD, Pedro was superintendent-in-residence for the Nevada Department of Education. Prior to that, he served as superintendent for the 64,000-student Washoe County School District, covering the Reno, Nevada area. He also previously served as chief financial officer at Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, under the leadership of Arne Duncan, the former U.S. Secretary of Education.

Pedro has more than 20 years of experience in the private, nonprofit and public education sectors. He holds an M.B.A. from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also is a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy.

Celina Miranda is executive director of Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), a youth development organization located in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Before joining HSTF in August of 2016, she was senior program officer at the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, where she managed grants in education and economic mobility. Prior to the Smith Family Foundation, Celina was vice president and charitable giving manager for BNY Mellon Public Affairs office in New England. Among her accomplishments at BNY Mellon she is most proud of her leadership role in the development of a multi-year initiative focused on youth aging out of foster care. Celina began her career in philanthropy at The Hyams Foundation, where she managed grants and provided leadership on initiatives in the teen development area. Celina is a trustee of the Rutland Corner Foundation and an adjunct lecturer at Boston University School of Social Work in macro practice.

Celina holds a BA from Smith College in Latin American Literature and Latin American Studies, and a MSW and EdM from Boston University. Celina also holds a PhD in Social Work and Sociology from Boston University. Her dissertation research looked at the integration of positive youth development in community-based organizations.

Al Motley is the founder and managing partner at Techademics a technology company focused on innovation in education, social impact philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Al is working on current initiatives at The United Way where he is responsible for leading and directing the strategic use of information systems and technology to advance philanthropic giving and volunteerism in Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

A mission-driven leader with extensive experience in executive management, Al also serves as chief technology officer for Matchbook Learning, a national education management company, and has provided information technology leadership for Philadelphia’s Mastery Charter Schools, technology services for government clients, and venture investment analysis for various tech companies and young entrepreneurs. He also served as a key technical advisor for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation from 2013-2016.

Al got his start in technology while working as a student at Pennsylvania State University’s center for academic computing, while he was pursuing a bachelor of science in management science and information systems. He is also a Pahara Aspen Institute – NextGen Fellow and holds a certification in Agile CSM project management. In addition, Al serves on the board of trustees for the Learning Accelerator, is a mentor for the University of Pennsylvania’s Capstone Education Entrepreneurship Program, provides pro bono IT services for various non profits, and is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc.

Al is married to Maria Wing and has a 2 1/2 year old daughter named Blake.

Adam Pisoni started Abl to help all schools move beyond the 20th century model of education. Two and a half decades after dropping out of high school, he returned to the field of education to rethink the structure of school as we know it. His career has been focused on helping organizations become more agile and responsive, and now he brings this expertise to schools. Prior to Abl, Adam co-founded Yammer in 2008, ultimately creating one of the fastest growing SaaS companies of all time. He oversaw product, analytics, and engineering, scaling the company to 500 employees until Yammer sold to Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 Billion. To clear his head, Adam also enjoys long bike rides, backpacking, and rock climbing.

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is a lifelong activist, educator, and student of life. A native of the Bronx, New York, Dena grew up in a one-bedroom apartment with her two sisters and immigrant mother. There, Dena learned and lived the violence of injustice and inequity and decided to dedicate her life to educating and empowering others. As the assistant director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, she works with schools to use the power of emotions to create a more just and compassionate society.

Prior to her work at the Center, Dena served as an educator, teacher educator, diversity facilitator, and curriculum developer. She has been a leading voice on teacher education and has written and spoken across the country about social justice pedagogy, diversity, education reform, and bullying in K-12 school settings, including two TEDx talks and a TED talk on Broadway. Dena has been profiled in the AOL/PBS project, MAKERS: Women Who Make America, and a Beacon Press Book, Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists.

Dena is a recipient of a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a J. William Fulbright Fellowship, an Education Pioneers Fellowship, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, a Phillips Exeter Academy Dissertation Fellowship, a Pahara NextGen Fellowship, and an Arthur Vining Davis Aspen Fellowship among others. She has her doctorate degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. Dena’s research interests include teacher preparedness to address bullying in the K-12 school setting and social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions—all in an effort to ensure and foster justice and safe spaces for all. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People.

Elliot Smalley is the superintendent of the South Carolina Public Charter School District, where he leads efforts to dramatically improve student learning and close achievement gaps in South Carolina through the growth of excellent and equitable charter schools. Elliot believes relentlessly in the potential for every child to achieve greatness and in the ability and responsibility of educators to unlock this potential. Under Elliot’s leadership, with a focus on quality, equity, and accountability, over the last two years, 70% of charter schools in the district have higher student growth scores and graduation and college acceptance rates have grown by double digits to their highest in history.

Previously, Elliot was the chief of staff for the Achievement School District (ASD) in Tennessee, where he helped to create a new statewide turnaround district with the goal of moving schools from the bottom 5% to the top 25% in the state. During his three and a half years at the ASD, the ASD opened or converted 29 neighborhood schools serving nearly 10,000 students. During this time, student achievement in Tennessee’s bottom 5% “Priority’’ schools grew four times faster than in non-Priority schools and students in 2nd- and 3rd-year ASD schools earned the highest-possible growth rating in Tennessee.

Before joining the ASD, Elliot was the deputy of strategy and communications for the Charleston County School District, where he developed “Vision 2016,” Charleston’s district-wide strategic plan, and led the district’s communications and outreach efforts during a time in which a ten-year enrollment decline reversed to a five-year increase. Prior to his time in Charleston, he was a senior program specialist at the U.S. Department of Education, leading national partnerships and initiatives in support of education.

An expert on employing creative strategies to strengthen urban education, LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National program and program director for Education. At the Corporation she oversees grantmaking and amplifying activities aimed at engaging parents and communities, improving teaching and leadership for learning, advancing innovative learning environment designs, providing K–12 pathways to college and career success, and fostering integrated approaches to innovation and learning.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, LaVerne joined Carnegie Corporation in 2014, arriving with extensive experience in senior-level leadership roles in the areas of urban district change, nonprofit education reform, and educational technology. Her diverse track record of effective education leadership includes serving as a deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (2003–2006), where, among other accomplishments, she designed and implemented Project Home Run, a strategically redesigned and streamlined system for recruiting, hiring, and placing teachers and school principals that greatly increased the teacher talent available to high-needs schools and which has been replicated nationwide. She next served as president of New Leaders for New Schools, overseeing the organization’s growth and expansion into six new urban school systems. She has also served as president of the education technology company Time to Know, and later co founded FieroNow, a technology company created to equip education organizations with meaningful and actionable feedback from their stakeholders, and with the data needed to respond.

Owen Stearns is the chief executive officer of Excel Academy Charter School where he served as founding board chair from 2003 until 2008. Prior to joining Excel as chief executive officer, Owen was a strategy consultant for twelve years, working with nonprofit leaders to achieve large-scale social change through innovative strategies, strong organizational design and nimble leadership teams. He came to Excel directly from the Monitor Institute, where he was an associate partner focused largely on educational issues.

Prior to Monitor, he was a senior consultant with the Foundation Strategy Group (now FSG). He was also an early board member and eventually co-director of The City School, which develops young leaders from public, private and parochial schools through a service-learning curriculum. Owen received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and is also a City Year alum.

Frances Teso is the founder and chief executive officer of Voices College-Bound Language Academies, a charter school network of high performing dual-immersion schools serving historically underserved students in the city and neighborhood where she grew up. Under her leadership, Voices is expanding to six schools which will serve approximately 3000 students. Frances currently serves on the Teach for America Bay Area and Alpha Public Schools governing boards. In 2005, she was accepted into the prestigious New Leaders for New Schools principal training program. In 2002, Frances became a National Board Certified Teacher and has worked as a university instructor, principal coach, school administrator, instructional facilitator and dual immersion language teacher.

Frances earned her Bachelors of Science in Child Development and Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from San Jose State University. Her graduate work focused on studying the effects of language, culture and society on schooling. In particular her research examined a new transformational model for staff development. Frances resides in San Jose, CA with her husband of 25 years and 3 children.

As President of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (The CAFE), Liz is deeply engaged in the non-profit community and passionate about youth development and education. The CAFE is focused on college access and success and career readiness and attainment. Also, through the foundation, Liz mentors and supports students and young professionals as they transition through life.

Liz began working with non-profits in 1993 as founding Executive Director of City Year Chicago, a national service organization that was the template for the AmeriCorps Program. Then in 1995, Liz served as Executive Director of a Montessori school in Denver, where she led a multi-million-dollar expansion of the Early Head Start program. In 1998, she became active with non-profit boards in the San Diego area, which further fueled her interest in philanthropy and education. Prior to following her passion for youth development and education, Liz had a ten-year career with Ameritech Corporation after receiving an Electrical Engineering degree from Purdue University.

Liz is a director for Lamar Corporation, Chicago Public Media/WBEZ, Chicago Beyond and a National Director for Braven. She serves as Vice Chair of the Partnership for College Completion, co-chair of Purdue University Minority Engineering Program Advisory Panel and Special Advisor to OneGoal. Liz is an alumnus of the Non-Profit Leadership Program of Denver and of Leadership Greater Chicago. She is a past Trustee of the University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and Leadership Greater Chicago.

Liz received the Outstanding Community Leader Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Dream Builders Award from the Chicago Child Care Society, the John J. Dugan Award from OneGoal and was featured in Make It Better Magazine as one of Chicago’s Top Black Women of Impact.

In addition to her commitment to serving Chicago’s students, professionals and communities, Liz is the co-founder with her husband, Don Thompson, of Cleveland Avenue, LLC – a food and beverage focused venture fund. Cleveland Avenue provides financial resources, expertise and individual support to entrepreneurs as they grow and scale their businesses.

Liz has been married to Don, retired CEO and President of McDonald’s Corporation, for 30 years. They have two adult children and live in the southwest area of metropolitan Chicago.

Aaron Walker is founder and chief executive officer of Camelback Ventures. Camelback leads a fund that levels the playing field for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Since 2015, Camelback has made 46 investments and has helped those companies raise nearly $23M. Aaron is on a journey to live in the spirit of his baseball hero, Jackie Robinson, who said “a life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” With this ethos, Aaron taught ninth grade English in West Philadelphia through Teach For America, put together deals for companies large and small as a lawyer at Allen & Overy, and supported new ideas to improve education as a portfolio director for the NYC Fund for Public Schools.

Aaron is humbled to say that he graduated from the University of Virginia and Penn Law School. He also knows that this doesn’t entitle him to anything and is ready to earn his keep. Aaron was lucky (and smart) enough to marry an amazing woman and is blessed with two children, Langston and Amara.

Dr. Russ Wigginton is the chief postsecondary impact officer for the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE). In the first role of its kind at SCORE, Russ will be leading and building the future of postsecondary policy and advocacy at SCORE, and by extension at the statewide level in Tennessee. Before joining SCORE, Russ served as vice president for student life and dean of students at Rhodes College. In that role, Russ oversaw academic support programs, athletics, accessibility services, campus safety, the Bonner Center for faith and service, counseling center, health center, multicultural affairs, new student programs, residence life, student activities, Rhodes express, career services, learning corridor community program, and community standards.

Previously Russ served as vice president for external programs and vice president for college relations, where he helped establish and implement institutional strategy for the college’s engagement in Memphis and beyond. He oversaw the college grants, foundations and government relations, alumni relations, communications, career services, and continuing education departments.

Russ taught for eight years in the History department at Rhodes, specializing in African-American and community history. He has published a book entitled, The Strange Career of the Black Athlete: African-Americans and Sports as well as articles and essays on African-American social and labor history. Russ has served on numerous civic boards, including the National Civil Rights Museum, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Facing History and Ourselves, Ballet Memphis, and KIPP Schools.

Russ graduated from Rhodes College with a BA in History and earned a PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Elizabeth A. Wolfson created the vision for the Girls Athletic Leadership Schools Inc. 2008. She raised over half a million dollars in angel funding, developed the strategic plan and moved to Colorado to open the flagship schools in Denver. Due to Liz’s leadership, GALS is the first Colorado home-grown educational network to expand beyond the state’s border, as GALS Los Angeles opened in 2016, and GALS Idaho is set to open in 2020. Liz has spent the bulk of her career working for CEO’s and Philanthropists in manifesting their visions and starting up corporate and philanthropic projects locally, nationally and internationally. Former non-profit clients include the Institute for International Sport, The American Montessori Society, The Rose Institute (for homeless youth) and a former Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Former corporate work includes creating the first global communications division for Comverse, a world leader in voice activated systems, and raising seed-funding for TaskMail, the first Jordanian/Israeli high tech start-up company.

Liz received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and earned her master’s degree at the Hebrew Union College. Liz believes her passion for comprehensive health in schools stems from her upbringing in the world of competitive athletics where she competed in Division I Field Hockey. Liz considers herself a force in organizational behavior and embodied leadership.

Julie Young is a visionary chief executive officer, educator, and entrepreneur. As the deputy vice president of education outreach and student services for Arizona State University (ASU) and the chief executive officer of ASU Prep Digital, Julie is determined to prepare students for college, careers and life. She has spent her career creating new school models that meet the evolving needs of students. Under her leadership, the team at ASU is building an innovative digital high school where students are on an accelerated path toward university admission and careers of the future. They are combining the high school and college experiences, empowering students to take university courses and start earning credit in their major.

ASU Prep Digital is creating a continuous learning path for students in this revolutionary model where the real innovation is in the university integration. ASU Prep Digital is part of Arizona State University, giving students unparalleled access to a wealth of resources, including mentorship and instruction from a world-class faculty that includes Nobel Laureates, MacArthur Fellows and Pulitzer Prize winners.

Julie was formerly the founding president and chief executive officer of Florida Virtual School (FLVS ®), the world’s first virtual statewide school district, the nation’s largest and most influential K-12 online education provider. Under her leadership, the organization grew from 77 students in Florida to more than 2 million students worldwide. Julie serves on several boards for organizations investing in and building online learning opportunities for students worldwide. In addition, she is an active and vibrant leader in her local community.

Julie graduated with a M.Ed from the University of South Florida following her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky. She and her husband Bruce have been married for 37 years and have two sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law, one amazing grandson and two golden puppies. Her passion and desire to see all students succeed is the motivating factor behind all she does.

Jennifer Andaluz is co-founder and executive director of Downtown College Prep (DCP), Silicon Valley’s first charter school dedicated to preparing low-income, first-generation students for college success. Under her leadership, DCP has expanded to four schools serving 2,300 students and alumni. DCP is a leader in college completion for first-generation students with nearly 50% of graduates earning a bachelor’s degree in six years.

Jennifer began her career as a history and English teacher in large urban public schools, and worked closely with administrators and teachers alike in school-wide initiatives designed to improve the academic performance of underachieving students. In 2007 she served on the founding board of Rocketship Education. She is a member of American Leadership Forum.

Jennifer has been recognized for her leadership by numerous agencies including Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, YWCA, and Women’s Fund of Santa Clara County. In 1997 she was Teacher of the Year in San Jose Unified School District. Jennifer is a first-generation college graduate. She earned her bachelor’s degree in American Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Since July 2016, Peter Anderson has been the head of school at Washington Latin, a leading non-selective charter school serving students in Grades 5-12 in the nation’s capital. For almost 20 years preceding his transition to this role, he worked as a senior school administrator in Harlem, the Bronx, Newark and elsewhere.

Before becoming a school principal, Peter worked as a middle school teacher of history and mathematics, coached track and field and ran debate and drama programs. He has presented at local, regional and national conferences on topics related to charter school governance, diversity and inclusion, the school to prison pipeline, school design, professional development and instructional observations. He serves on the Corporation for Haverford College and volunteers in various capacities for that institution. He also is on the board of the DC Charter School Special Education Cooperative. He has previously served on the boards of several local, regional and national organizations, including the American Friends Service Committee. Peter supports social and economic development efforts in his native Jamaica and enjoys the visual and performing arts.

Peter resides in Washington, D.C. He earned a B.A. from Haverford College, and master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and New York University.

Allison has dedicated her career to social justice and education issues, leveraging her strengths in strategy, policy and advocacy campaigns, relationship cultivation, fundraising, and talent development. She is now using those strengths as an independent consultant helping other non-profits maximize their social impact. Prior to consulting, Allison ran for LAUSD School Board, and prior to that, she was the Chief Operations and Strategy Officer at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, which serves 3,600 students across eight schools in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Bajracharya began her career as a Teach For America teacher in New Orleans, teaching high school English and science at Marion Abramson Senior High School. She then pursued her Master’s in Public Policy and leveraged her policy experience working for LAUSD School Board Member Marlene Canter. Subsequently, she spent almost a decade working to expand educational opportunities for students across California through her work first at Teach For America Los Angeles, where she was the Managing Director of District Strategy, then to the California Charter Schools Association, where she started as the Managing Director of Policy and Advocacy in Los Angeles and was promoted to the Senior Vice President of Statewide Advocacy and Organizing.

She earned a B.A. from Middlebury College and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Southern California. She is the Chair of the Board at the Silverlake Jewish Community Center, a board member of United Parents and Students, and a Pahara Aspen Education Fellow. Allison lives with her husband and two children in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A.

Dr. Kevin Baxter is the chief innovation officer for the National Catholic Educational Association. Previously, he was appointed senior director and superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Archbishop Jose Gomez on July 1, 2015. In this role, Kevin was responsible for coordinating and implementing the vision for growth for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with a student population of approximately 78,000, from preschool through 12th grade. His focus was on aligning the elementary and high school departments to more effectively and efficiently meet their own goals for growth and communicating to all stakeholders progress toward those goals.

Prior to this role, Kevin served as superintendent for elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from July 2009 through June 2015 and was principal at American Martyrs School from 2004-2009 and principal at St. Columbkille School in South Los Angeles from 2001-2004.

Kevin has been a part-time faculty member in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University since 2002. His classes have included private school law and ethics, organizational leadership, financial and human resource management and context and current topics in private education. His research interests include leadership in Catholic education, specifically focused on financial and human resource management; dual language immersion; special needs inclusion in Catholic education; and the law and Catholic/private education.

Kevin graduated from Villanova University with a BA in English and minor in communications. He holds a master’s degree in secondary teacher education and a California Clear Credential in biology/general science from Loyola Marymount University. He also has his Tier I and Tier II professional administrative services credentials. He holds a Doctorate of Education degree from the University of Southern California in educational leadership. Kevin lives in Hermosa Beach with his wife Kim and their six children.

Kaleem Caire is the founder and chief executive officer of One City Schools, the operator of two preschools serving ages one through kindergarten that are focused on getting young children ready for school success. Prior to One City, Kaleem was the president & chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Madison in Madison, WI, and chair of the National Urban League’s Education Committee.

Prior to the Urban League, Kalem held other executive leadership positions with Target Corporation, Fight For Children of Washington, DC, Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), American Education Reform Council, Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth (WCATY) and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In 2008, Kaleem was among the first recipients of the University of Wisconsin’s Forward Under Forty Award and in the same year, was named a Distinguished Alumni by the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association for his work in education and community development. He was also the youngest recipient of the City of Madison (WI) Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award in 2001 and the Urban League of Greater Madison’s Whitney Young Jr. Award (2001).

Kaleem’s life commitments are to create opportunities in places where people need them the most, to move people from poverty to prosperity and to raise strong and caring children in his own home. His work in education has been chronicled in news articles, research papers and books. Kaleem is married with five children ages 12 to 26, and holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alex Cortez is a managing partner at New Profit, a national venture philanthropy. His focus has been investing in and advising organizations scaling both the ‘supply’ of education innovations and also those creating systems-level ‘demand’ by informing and organizing families so that they can exercise their power to drive change in their communities. He has also focused on building a network of practitioners in the family empowerment space to take on common problems of practice.

Prior to New Profit, Alex held multiple roles with the KIPP network of public charter schools, including chief of staff, strategy and execution for KIPP Houston, and regional director of network growth for The KIPP Foundation. Previously, Alex was a manager at The Bridgespan Group. He started his career in for-profit management consulting, working for clients in financial services, telecommunications, private equity, and state government.

Alex has published works on mergers and collaborations in the nonprofit space, nonprofit best practices in being data-driven and mission-focused, and multiple articles on how philanthropy can support enduring family empowerment in education.

Alex serves on the nonprofit boards of Innovate Public Schools and Match Education, and on the Board of Higher Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Alex earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Originally from New Orleans, Alex currently resides in Brookline, MA, with his partner, Jenny, her daughter, Alexis, and their four very extroverted guinea pigs.

Victor De La Paz is the chief financial officer for the Achievement First Public Charter School network (AF), which manages 34 schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. In this role, he is responsible for steering all financial operations for AF such as revenue, payroll, accounts payable, internal audits and controls, and budgeting and forecasting. Prior to AF, Victor served as chief financial officer for New Haven Public Schools and Baltimore City Public schools, as well as various leadership roles at Hartford Public Schools.

A non-traditional education leader, he transitioned from corporate finance roles in the insurance and banking sector in 2008 through completion of the Broad Residency in Urban Education. Victor is a board member for Education Leaders of Color (EdLOC). He holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business and bachelor’s in history and political science from Rutgers College.

Daren Dickson is the chief culture officer at Valor Collegiate Academies, a small charter management organization in Nashville, TN. At Valor, Daren has helped create Valor’s Compass – a comprehensive human development model that is at the core of Valor’s school model. He believes that adopting a human development and relationship-based approach to education is crucial for our world if we are to regain our collective balance and tackle the increasingly complex problems that face us.

Before starting Valor in 2013, Daren spent 16 years developing his skills as a therapist, clinical and program director, and social justice advocate in California. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist and has spent much of his career working with vulnerable youth and communities through Seneca Center, a non-profit agency in the Bay Area, California. Much of Daren’s work at Valor is a translation of this work for a public school setting and focuses on intentional personal growth, community-building, trauma-informed practices, and restorative discipline.

Daren has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering (Denver University and Stanford University) and a master’s degree in integral counseling (California Institute of Integral Studies).

In his free time, he likes to revel in his twin six-year-olds who remind him to be present, wild, and embodied. He also loves spending time with his wife, Lauren, who is his rock and partner in social work, and with his dog, Jetsan, who reminds him daily what it means to give goodwill freely to the world.

Hannah Dietsch has served as the Louisiana Department of Education’s assistant superintendent for talent since 2012. In this role, Hannah leads the development and implementation of policies and programs related to educator preparation, licensure, and workforce management. During her tenure in this role, Louisiana adopted landmark teacher preparation and licensure policies arising from the nationally recognized Believe and Prepare teacher preparation pilot program. These regulations ensure that every teacher preparation program in Louisiana will include a full year of classroom practice alongside an expert mentor.

Hannah began her career in education as a middle school English teacher in Baltimore City, and went on to leadership roles at the Maryland State Department of Education, the New York City Department of Education, and at Teach For America and TNTP. At TNTP, Hannah worked closely with Louisiana’s Recovery School District and with the Louisiana Department of Education to design and launch educator evaluation and support systems. At the New York City Department of Education, Hannah was responsible for reorganizing support for the City’s schools, shifting from a regional structure to the network structure established as part of Chancellor Joel Klein’s Children First agenda.

Hannah holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Tulane University, a master’s degree in teaching from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. Hannah lives in New Orleans with her husband and two young daughters.

Kendra Ferguson is the chief executive officer of KIPP Memphis, a seven-school charter management organization that is part of the KIPP national network of schools. In late 2016, Kendra transitioned from KIPP Bay Area Schools, where she served as chief people officer and prior to that chief of schools. During her five-year tenure with KIPP Bay Area Schools, Kendra led efforts to increase diversity in school leaders and teachers, build a data-driven infrastructure and culture and establish a baseline for excellence in teaching.

Prior to her work with KIPP Bay Area Schools, Kendra worked with the KIPP Foundation, served as consultant to charter and traditional schools across the country and was a charter school founder for Aspire Public Schools. In 2017, Kendra was profiled by a national education news outlet to share her perspective on the charter landscape. Kendra serves as a mentor and coach for educational leaders around the U.S.

A proud mother of three and a native of Oakland, California, Kendra is a continual learner. Kendra earned her doctorate in educational leadership from National-Louis University. She also holds a MA in education, policy analysis and administration from Stanford and a BA from the University of Washington.

Dr. Narciso Garcia is superintendent of Vanguard Academy Public Charter Schools, a school district focusing on Pre-K3 through 12th grade education. Vanguard Academy currently has six schools in the Rio Grande Valley with locations in the cities of Alamo, Edinburg, Pharr and the potential to open up campuses in the cities of Mission and Weslaco. Narciso joined Vanguard Academy in 2017after serving as deputy superintendent of the Pharr-San Juan Alamo (PSJA) Schools for three years starting in 2014 and culminating in 2017. As deputy superintendent of PSJA Schools, Narciso oversaw the areas of career and technical education, college readiness, curriculum and instruction, finance and special programs for example, bilingual, dual language and special education departments. Narciso also mentored principals in the school district by providing them with instructional and leadership support.

Prior to joining PSJA Independent School district as deputy superintendent of schools, Narciso served as superintendent of schools for the La Villa Independent School District a rural community where he established a college going culture by implementing the first early college high school in the Delta Area of the Rio Grande Valley. While at La Villa ISD, Narciso committed to provide all students with free college tuition by providing them with the opportunity to earn up to an associate’s degree, 60 college hours or becoming core complete. Prior to serving as superintendent at La Villa Schools he served as an elementary, middle school and high school administrator in the roles of assistant principal and principal for seven years.

Eli Kennedy has served as the chief executive officer of the Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI) since joining the organization in 2016. LPFI empowers students of color to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math through programs such as its Summer Math and Science Academy (SMASH). Eli has focused on growing the LPFI’s impact and has more than doubled the number of SMASH programs since joining LPFI. He has also piloted new innovations that will increase the organization’s impact. Prior to LPFI, Eli served as the senior vice president of Redbird Advanced Learning, a research-­based EdTech company. Eli has also served as the president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Charter School Development, where he developed over 50 public charter school facilities, raised more than $30M in new philanthropic funding, and scaled the organization as it expanded into three new states. Eli also served as a director at the Broad Foundation and led a region for Platform Learning, a tutoring company focused on low ­income students. Prior to focusing on education, Eli has worked in a strategic management capacity for a technology startup and as a strategy consultant for Andersen Consulting and USWEB/CKS.

Eli serves on the board of directors for Capital Impact Partners and Pacific Charter School Development as well as the diversity council for Code.org.

Eli earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA from Howard University.

Chi Kim is chief executive officer at Pure Edge, Inc., a foundation dedicated to improving the health and well-being of educators and the students they serve by supporting the development of social, emotional and academic competencies with an open heart and open mind. Prior to joining the foundation, she served as superintendent of the Ross School District in Marin County. Chi is an experienced leadership coach, principal, and teacher in both suburban and urban public school districts.

Chi also served as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the US Programs, college ready team. Chi is co-founder of the teaching garden program adopted by the American Heart Association, and the recipient of several awards including eSchool News 2014 Tech Savvy Superintendent Award, three California Distinguished School Awards, People for Parks Honoree, Global Citizen Award, PTA Golden Oak Service Award.

Chi serves as a trustee and board chair on the Great Minds Board of Trustees, CASEL, FECOP and advisor to Family Code Night / MV GATE. Chi has been trained and certified by the National Institute for School Leadership in Washington DC. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from UCLA and holds a Tier I administrative services credential from California State University Dominguez Hills and Tier II administrative services credential from Loyola Marymount University.

Dr. Matthew Ladner is a senior research fellow at the Charles Koch Institute. Previously, Matthew served as senior advisor for policy at Excel in Ed and vice president of research at the Goldwater Institute. Prior to joining Goldwater, Matthew was director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice. He has provided invited testimony to Congress, several state legislatures, and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Matthew helped to create the nation’s first K-12 Education Savings Account program in 2011. In 2016, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry recognized Matthew’s work by granting him the organization’s Milton Friedman Award.

Matthew is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received both a master’s and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Houston. He lives in Phoenix with his wife, Anne, and their three children Benjamin, Jacob, and Abigail.

John Legg is the chief financial officer, co-founder, and educator at Dayspring Academy. Dayspring Academy is a multi-campus, high performing charter school serving low-income learners a high-quality education with an emphasis on innovation, arts, and a rigorous curriculum. Dayspring Academy is located in North Tampa, Florida.

John is a board member of the nation’s largest voucher program, Step Up For Students Tax Credit Scholarship program and is a board member of the Southern Regional Education Board. John served as the chairman of Education PreK – 20 in the Florida Senate from 2012-2016, and chairman of Education and Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Florida House from 2004-2012. During John’s tenure in the legislature, he authored and passed landmark legislation addressing accountability, standards, innovation, school choice, and teacher tenure reform.

John is currently completing his doctoral dissertation on structural reforms for high school, with emphasis on early college options. John has been a classroom teacher in middle school, high school and college courses for 18 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Sara Mead is a partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit focused on dramatically changing education and life outcomes for underserved children. She leads Bellwether’s early childhood work and also researches and provides strategic advising to clients on a range education issues, including charter schools, teacher quality, and state and federal policy. From 2009-2017, she also served as a mayor-appointed member of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, which authorizes charter schools in Washington, D.C.

Sara joined Bellwether in 2010, after directing New America’s Early Education Initiative from 2007-2010. Prior to joining New America, Sara analyzed education policies at Education Sector and the Progressive Policy Institute and served in the office of U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Education Next, Behavioral Science & Policy, and numerous other outlets. She currently serves on the board of the National Association for Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). She holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Vanderbilt University.

Veronica Melvin serves as the president and chief executive officer of the LA Promise Fund, a Los Angeles based not-for-profit ensuring students graduate prepared for college, career and life. The LA Promise Fund is a reform–minded education organization with a mission to raise private funds to improve public education opportunities across LA County while simultaneously leading a network of 5 schools in South Los Angeles.

Last year, LA Promise Fund programs benefited more than 15,000 individuals. They served 5,000 students at their three Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) partner schools and two charter schools, ensuring a strong college and career program with wrap-around services and enrichment. In addition, they worked with 10,000 students countywide in programs like girl empowerment, arts education and internships.

Previously, Veronica served as the executive director for the Alliance for a Better Community (ABC), an organization improving the quality of life for Latinos in Los Angeles through community based policy advocacy.
Veronica earned a Master’s of Public Policy from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in political economies of industrial societies from UC Berkeley.

Zack Neumeyer is chairman of Sage Hospitality, a 35-year-old hotel investment, management and concepts company based in Denver. Sage owns and manages hotels across America, employs over 6000 people, and has a portfolio of 12 restaurant and hotel brands. Zack co-founded Sage in 1984 and was chief executive officer and president from 1984 to 2003.

Zack has focused his civic activities on the education system, working to ensure that every child in America has access to an excellent education. He is co-founder and chairman of America Succeeds, a national organization that mobilizes business to improve the public education system; a board member and past chairman of Teach For America Colorado; and founder and past board chair of Colorado Succeeds. He is also a member of Constellation Philanthropy, focused on early childhood development in Colorado.

Zack was a member of the founding group of the Denver PreSchool Program, which provides universal preschool for every child in Denver. He is a past board member of Mile High Montessori, Qualistar Colorado, and the Colorado Children’s Campaign, and was recognized by the latter as one of the 20 most influential Coloradans for children’s welfare.

Zack has worked with Colorado state government as a community leader in numerous capacities for Governors Hickenlooper, Ritter and Owens. He is a past trustee of the University of Denver and has taught or lectured at Cornell, Harvard, University of Colorado, and The University of Denver. Zack is a graduate of Cornell University.

Elissa Salas is the chief executive officer of College Track, a national college completion program that empowers students from underserved communities to succeed to and through college. College Track makes a 10-year commitment to every student, helping remove the academic, financial, and social-emotional barriers that prevent low-income and first-generation students from earning a college degree and achieving upward social mobility. Since becoming CEO in 2014, Elissa has led the expansion of the program in Denver, Sacramento, Watts, and the D.C. Metro Area. Today, College Track serves more than 3,000 students across ten centers.

As a first-generation college graduate herself, Elissa has dedicated her career to improving educational outcomes for students of color from low-income communities. Before joining College Track, Elissa served as the chief academic officer of the Girls Athletic Leadership School. There, she led a team of educators to rank among the top 25 percent for academic growth in Denver Public Schools. Prior to this role, she was a senior policy analyst for D.C. Public Schools, where she managed a portfolio of innovative school models. Elissa began her career in education as a Teach for America corps member at Locke High School in Los Angeles.

Elissa is a member of the Latino Community Foundation Latina Giving Circle and chairs the Leadership Council for Great Oakland Public Schools. She holds a BA in political science from the University of La Verne and an M.Ed from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

John Valverde is the chief executive officer of YouthBuild USA, Inc. He joined YouthBuild in 2017 after decades of work as an advocate for creating access to opportunity and removing barriers for formerly incarcerated and low-income people.

John began working with imprisoned individuals in 1992 to ensure access to HIV/AIDS counseling, high school equivalency instruction, alternatives to violence programs, and college education. In 1998, he co-founded Hudson Link for Higher Education, the first privately funded accredited college program in New York’s prisons.

As a steady and persistent advocate for creating access, John has worked with city, state, and federal agencies to develop and operate proven job readiness and placement programs.

John is a graduate of Aspen Institute’s Sector Skills Academy. He holds a Master of Professional Studies in urban ministry from the New York Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Mercy College.

Victoria Van Cleef is an executive vice president at The New Teacher Project (TNTP) who oversees learning, impact and design for TNTPs diverse portfolio of clients.

Previously, Victoria was a vice president overseeing TNTP’s efforts to train outstanding school leaders and develop strong school cultures. This includes supporting schools and districts to develop leadership pathways, coaching school leaders on developing and retaining their irreplaceable teachers, strengthening instructional culture, and making critical hiring, tenure, retention and promotion decisions.

Victoria also served as TNTP’s vice president of staffing initiatives, focusing on staffing chronically low-performing schools with top teacher talent, and as vice president of business development & communications, establishing partnerships with school districts and state departments of education and managing TNTP’s marketing strategy.

Prior to joining TNTP, Victoria served as a consultant to the Stupski Foundation, identifying best practices to support whole-district reform efforts, and as senior research associate and special assistant to the Dean of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, where she coordinated projects devoted to strengthening the teacher force in historically hard-to-staff schools and districts. She served as special assistant to the Chancellor for the New York City Public Schools under the Crew and Levy administrations, working on both instructional and operational initiatives. Victoria also worked in curriculum and product development for The Efficacy Institute.

Victoria holds a BA in classical civilizations from UCLA and an MA in public policy analysis from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.

DeRonda Williams is the founder and president of DGW Consulting Group (DGWCG). DGWCG serves education and nonprofit organizations across the country, providing executive search services to identify and attract diverse talent and project management services to support organizations deliver on strategic initiatives. The firm is a certified minority business enterprise (MBE).

DeRonda has over 20 years of business experience across multiple industries. For five years, she served as finance director for the KIPP Foundation. Prior to joining KIPP, DeRonda spent over ten years at Pearson Education as vice president, finance for the K-12 and college divisions. She also has prior experience in manufacturing, where she worked as an industrial engineer for Olin Corporation.

In 2013, DeRonda was appointed to the Illinois State Charter School Commission, where she is one of nine commissioners and serves as the commission chair. DeRonda is actively involved as a volunteer and board member with several community organizations. She has a BS in industrial engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. A native of Chicago, DeRonda currently resides in the Chicago area with her husband and three children.

Miles H. Wilson serves as president and chief executive officer of EducationWorks, a nonprofit organization that serves students and opportunity youth, kindergarten to 26 years old, in high-quality education and career readiness programming. Immediately preceding his post at EducationWorks, Miles served as the director of talent & collaboration and convener of the Great Schools Compact for the Philadelphia School Partnership, a nonprofit organization working to create and expand great schools in Philadelphia. Prior to PSP, Miles served as regional director for the Mid-Atlantic for the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a leading community development financial institution. Previously, Miles served as executive vice president of People’s Emergency Center and regional vice president at Community Education Partners, an education organization that operated grade 6-12 schools that provided academic and behavioral support programing for students to improve academic outcomes and reduce dropout rates.

Currently, Miles serves as chair for The Fellowship (Black Males in Education Convening) and trustee for the Children’s Scholarship Fund and Inner Explorer, a national mindfulness organization. Miles also serves on the advisory committees of Bryn Mawr College’s Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute and Jounce Partners. Also, he has been selected to participate in the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia’s Roadmap for Growth Action Team. Miles is a proud graduate of Lincoln University and holds a master’s in education leadership from Arcadia University.

Brian Bauer is the founding executive director of Granada Hills Charter, an independent public school serving approximately 6,000 grades TK-12 students located in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Mr. Bauer began his career at Granada in 2000 as the school’s principal, and led the School’s successful conversion to an independent charter school in 2003. Granada Hills Charter is one of the largest charter schools in the nation with a diverse student population that includes 60 nationalities and 40 languages represented in its families and with an annual wait list of more than 3,000 students.

Mr. Bauer began his teaching career in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1991, teaching ESL, English, and Spanish at Bell and Manual Arts High Schools, and then as an assistant principal at Locke and Franklin High Schools. Mr. Bauer served on the California State Board of Education’s Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS) from 2008 to 2018, and as its chair since 2009. Prior to joining this CCSA Board of Directors, he was chair of CCSA’s Member Council, and since its founding in 2012 he has been chair of the CEO Council of the LAUSD Charter Operated Programs for Special Education.

He received his BA from Yale College, a MS from CSU Dominguez Hills and UCLA, and is completing his PhD in Education Policy at UCLA. Between his teaching and school administration assignments, Mr. Bauer spent nearly three years in Colombia, South America as a Fulbright Scholar, and during the 2007 summer, led an educational leadership project in Brazil as Fulbright Fellow. In 2008, Mr. Bauer was named California’s Charter Leader of the Year.

Mr. Bauer serves as a trustee on several education, community service, and family philanthropic boards, including Great Public Schools Now (GPSN) and Excellence in Education (ExEd). He and his partner Stephen presently reside in Los Angeles. In his “free” time, he enjoys playing paddle tennis and stand up paddle boarding, preparing and eating vegan food, and traveling the world.

Michael Collins is a vice president at Jobs for the Future (JFF). He leads the postsecondary state policy team, developing and advocating for state policies on behalf of national initiatives, such as Achieving the Dream, Completion by Design, and the Student Success Center Network. A policy researcher, analyst, writer, and strategy consultant, Michael helps states to develop and implement public policies designed to increase the number of low-income and minority students who successfully transition from high school into college, persist, and earn credentials and degrees. Michael leads JFF’s Postsecondary State Policy Network, which provides access to the state lawmakers, faculty, and college leaders in almost 50 percent of the community colleges in the nation, educating over 50 percent of the nation’s students in public two-year colleges. Michael regularly convenes education thought leaders and collaborates with public policy decision makers, state and national intermediary organizations, philanthropic organizations, academic researchers, and nationally recognized policy experts to design and execute on-the-ground policy/action agendas for dramatically improving the rates at which students reach their individual education goals, and at which states reach their statewide education attainment and workforce goals.

Before joining JFF, Michael served as assistant commissioner for participation and success at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In that capacity, he worked with K-12, higher education, the business community, the Texas Legislature, and community-based organizations to increase college access and success. He earned a Master’s of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dale Erquiaga is the president and chief executive officer of Communities In Schools, the nation’s largest and most effective dropout prevention organization. He previously served as Nevada’s 27th state superintendent of public instruction and as a key advisor to Governor Brian Sandoval.

Dale has a long career in public service and marketing communications. He worked for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas as executive director of government affairs, public policy & strategic planning. He also served as director of the Nevada State Department of Museums and was Nevada’s chief deputy secretary of state. His private sector experience includes managing a successful consulting practice and working as a vice president and managing director with an advertising firm in both Nevada and Arizona.

The grandson of Spanish Basque immigrants to America, Dale holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Reno and a master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University. He is a board member with PBLWorks, the National Human Services Assembly, and the University of Nevada Reno’s Center for Basque Studies. He has served as a Nonprofit Fellow with Results for America. He is the proud father of two and grandfather of four.

As a results-driven, entrepreneurial executive with a twenty-year history of leading institutions across the educational spectrum, Paul has devoted his professional career to the advancement of student success in California.

In May 2019, Paul was appointed Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, serving nearly 80,000 students in 277 schools across three counties, making it the largest system of Catholic schools in the United States.

Throughout his career, Paul has served in a variety of leadership capacities in California, such as Chief of Staff to School Board Member Mike Lansing of the Los Angeles Unified School District; Office of the Governor of California – Chief of Staff to Secretary for Education Richard Riordan; Director of Joint Use Development at the Los Angeles Unified School District; Director of Operations for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools; and, Senior Advisor with the California Charter Schools Association.

Paul also served as President/Chief Executive Officer of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, his alma mater, leading it to become one of the most prominent Catholic schools in California. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Grimmway Schools, a charter school management organization (CMO), in Bakersfield, California serving over 1,300 K-8 students. Under his leadership, Grimmway doubled enrollment, hired over 100 employees, attracted $4M in philanthropic investment, and sold $25M in tax exempt bonds to support the construction and opening of a new campus. Grimmway scholars, particularly those who are socio-economically disadvantaged, outperform their local and state peers on annual academic assessments.

Paul is a graduate of Cornell University, a Fellow of the 20th class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, served as a consultant with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, and has been a dedicated volunteer serving on several civic, non-profit, foundation and educational advocacy boards. He resides in Long Beach with his wife of twelve years, Noel and their two sons, William (7 yrs.) and Matthew (4 yrs.), and their dog Ginger.

Shayne Evans is a founder and managing partner of The Academy Group. Previously Evans served as the chief executive officer of the University of Chicago Charter School and managing director of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI). At UEI, Evans also co-founded The Success Project, a curriculum focused on preparing students for college access and graduation beginning in 6th grade, a program included in President Obama’s College Opportunity Day of Action.

Previously, Shayne served as the director of the University of Chicago Charter Woodlawn campus and co-founded the UChicago Charter Carter G. Woodson campus. Before joining the UChicago Charter School, Shayne worked as an 8th grade mathematics teacher at the Chicago International Charter School, an AP US History teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy and an 8th grade teacher at Chicago Public School’s Julia Lathrop Elementary.

Shayne earned a BA in political science and African American History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a masters from Concordia University. First in his family to graduate from college, Shayne has spoken across the nation about what is possible for young people from underserved communities and the importance of student agency as a guide for success. Shayne has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including the 2017 NAACP Educator of the Year Award. He is a native of Chicago’s South Side and resides in Bronzeville with his wife and daughter.

Dr. Mike Flores became Palo Alto College’s sixth president on Sept. 19, 2012. Mike came to Palo Alto College – one of the Alamo Colleges – in 1999 and has held all three vice president positions (academic success, college services, and student success) during his tenure.

During his time as president, Mike has led many new initiatives for the south San Antonio college. Providing access for the community to education has been key since the beginning for Palo Alto College, and Mike is committed to continuing partnerships with area businesses, community organizations, and schools to achieve that goal. He continues to empower students for success through a variety of resources on campus through high impact teaching and learning practices including usage of academic advising, learning communities, new student orientation, and open educational resources.

Mike works with community colleges nationwide to increase student success as an achieving the dream coach and has served as a fellow with the American Council on Education, the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities, and conducted postgraduate study at the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management. Mike has also worked with numerous community-based organizations in San Antonio, Houston, and Chicago, and presented nationally at numerous higher education conferences regarding student engagement, evaluation, and performance excellence. He also serves as a board member for the Communities in Schools San Antonio, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, Hot Wells Park Conservancy, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Tricentennial Commission, and San Antonio Youth Yes (SAY Sı́) Leadership Council.

Born in Del Rio, Mike is a 1987 graduate of Holmes High School in Northside ISD in San Antonio. He holds a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Science in political science from Illinois State University and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He lives in central San Antonio with his wife Martha, a talented creative director and entrepreneur, and their daughters, Mara Zoe and Mia Ximena.

Heather Harding’s professional career has spanned classroom teaching, professional development, non-profit management, and empirical research. Prior to joining the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, she served as a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Heather was the first executive director of EdCORE (The Education Consortium for Research and Evaluation) at George Washington University, where she was responsible for launching the new education research consortium focused on improving outcomes for DC’s public school students.

Having begun her career as a Teach For America corps member in rural North Carolina, she served as executive director of the eastern North Carolina TFA region in the mid-nineties. She returned to the organization in 2008 to lead the National Research Partnerships team at TFA where she increased the volume of independent research on the program’s impact, built new alliances with the teacher education community, and developed systems for communicating impact and equipping staff with accurate research evidence. From there, Heather became the senior vice president of Community Partnerships at Teach For America where she oversaw the organization’s partnership work in the areas of policy, research, community engagement, and special initiatives in early childhood education and STEM.

Throughout her career, Heather has held numerous practitioner roles in organizations including the Boston Plan for Excellence, Citizen Schools, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and KIPP. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her dissertation documented the work of four successful White urban middle school teachers. A trained journalist, Heather attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and retains her love of investigative research and artful writing. She lives and works in Washington, DC with her two school-age children.

Jonathan Klein is chief executive officer and co-founder of GO Public Schools, a nonprofit organization, whose members – families, educators, and community allies – work together to expand opportunity and access to quality education in California’s most historically underserved communities. Under Jonathan’s leadership, GO’s network has won multiple victories to change policy and bring new resources to support equity and innovation in Oakland, West Contra Costa, and Fresno public schools. Jonathan was GO’s founding board chair in 2008 and joined the team as the organization’s first Oakland executive director in 2012. In 2015, he assumed the role of chief executive officer, leading GO into a new era of impact across California.

Jonathan was one of three 2013 finalists for the Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership, presented annually to one Teach For America alumna/us for work that has led to far-reaching systemic change. New Schools Venture Fund also named him Change Agent of the Year in 2013. Jonathan is a co-founder of both the Oakland Public Education Fund and Revolution Foods. He was also chief program officer at the Rogers Family Foundation, special assistant to the state administrators in Oakland Unified, Bay Area executive director of Teach for America, and an elementary school teacher in Compton, California.

Jonathan received an MBA from UC Berkeley in 2008, and also lectured there on nonprofit leadership and management. Jonathan is a fully credentialed teacher and received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University. Jonathan lives with his wife and two children in Oakland’s Dimond neighborhood.

My job is to support our team – the best advocacy and school support team in the country – in doing whatever it takes to transform public education so that we are providing excellent options to all learners, families and communities statewide. We accomplish this pursuit by advocating for, protecting and serving our membership of 250+ charter schools strong; developing new schools with diverse leaders and instructional models; holding a high, unwavering standard of excellence and confronting failure among a few charter schools; overcoming threats to systemic education reform; and promoting operating autonomy, equitable facilities and funding for charter schools. We champion the principles of choice, innovation, quality, liberty, equity and accountability for results.

Charter public schools represent an essential way to transform public education so that it can be more dynamic, agile, responsive, innovative and self-improving. To remain vital in the 21st Century, public education must prove capable of serving the rapidly changing needs of American culture, society and industry. The League staunchly supports public educators, families and ideals but not top-down government-run school systems. We seek to put greater ownership in the hands of parents and families, professional educators and local community leaders – who are passionate and motivated to serve every child no matter what their socioeconomic background, level of affluence, upbringing, native language or country of origin.

I have spent the past 24 years seeking to advance systemic education reform for all learners and families. Over that time, I have worked with many teams to start and run non-profit public charter schools in some of the highest need communities in the nation, from the South Side of Chicago and North Minneapolis to Southwest Little Rock and East Portland, Oregon. In the venture philanthropy roles that I have held, I have been charged with supporting the development of leading non-profit charter school operators across over 26 states. When not at the League, I enjoy spending time with my wife and son reading, doing art, cooking, laughing, going to playgrounds and skate parks, biking, hiking and camping. I also love to ski, jog, enjoy the mountains, watch college football and tennis, and spend quality time with friends and family. I hold a bachelor’s degree in English with Honors from St. Johns University and the College of St. Benedict in Central Minnesota and an MBA with a specialization in finance and entrepreneurship from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado – Boulder.

Carolyn Davies Lynch is Chief Operating Officer at Rocketship Public Schools, a fast-growing national network of public charter elementary schools. She manages operations across the network’s 19 schools, including topics such as nutrition programs, information technology, facilities maintenance, compliance, and transportation. Carolyn has served at Rocketship for over eight years in a variety of roles.

Prior to taking on her current role, she founded Rocketship’s Strategy & Scalability team, working to define organizational strategy, build scalable systems supporting growth, and lead development efforts. Over her time at Rocketship, the network has grown from serving one thousand students in one city to providing high-quality schools to over eight thousand students across five regions.

Carolyn came to Rocketship from The Boston Consulting Group, where she led strategic work for organizations ranging from school districts to public health foundations to multinational corporations. She earned an undergraduate degree in Applied Math & Economics from Harvard University, and a Masters of Education and an MBA from Stanford University.

Carolyn’s family drives her passion for education reform; her mother comes from a long line of educators, and her father was first in his family to attend college. Carolyn lives in San Carlos, California, with her husband Jack and their four rambunctious children: Skye, Sojourner, and twins Hawking and Maverick.

Maura Marino is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Education Forward DC. Prior to launching Education Forward DC in July 2016, Maura served as the Managing Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund and Lead Teacher at East Palo Alto High School.

She sits on the board of directors for DC Prep, Ingenuity Prep Public Charter Schools, The Equity Lab, Charter Board Partners and the Bainum Family Foundation.

Maura is driven by Education Forward DC’s mission to accelerate the work of visionary leaders to foster a city of high-quality, equitable public schools for every D.C. student and family.

Maura earned a BA with honors in American Studies from Stanford University, an MA in teaching Secondary Social Studies from Columbia University, and an MBA from Harvard University. Originally from Bernardsville, New Jersey, Maura has called DC home for the past ten years. In her free time, Maura enjoys traveling and spending quality time with friends and family.

Drew Martin is the Executive Director for the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academies (KCNA), a network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in Camden, NJ that is part of the nationally recognized “Knowledge is Power Program” (KIPP). Under Drew’s leadership, KCNA has grown from one kindergarten class of 105 students in 2014 to three schools currently serving more than 1,100 students.

Prior to his current role, Drew completed KIPP’s Fisher Fellowship program and served as the founding principal of KIPP Rise Academy in Newark, NJ. He began his teaching career at MS390 in the South Bronx where he taught fifth grade math as a Teach For America corps member. Drew earned his bachelor’s degree in commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

Jennifer Moses is Chair and co-founder of Caliber Schools, a charter school organization in Richmond and Vallejo, California. She also is Chair and co-founder of King Solomon Academy, an all-through state school with over 1400 students in London. Jen sits on the Corporation of Brown University, where she chairs the Budget & Finance Committee.

Prior to moving to California in late 2009, she was a senior policy adviser to then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. She was previously chief executive of the policy think tank Centreforum, following her 15-year banking career with Goldman Sachs. Jennifer is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School. She is married with three children.

Karen Nussle serves as president of Conservative Leaders for Education (CL4E), a network of state and local education policy makers, chaired by former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, dedicated to implementing conservative and innovative education policy at the local level and devoted to helping parents and teachers provide the best possible education for every child. Karen most recently served as the executive director of the Collaborative for Student Success, an organization dedicated to advocacy for the implementation of high academic standards and aligned assessments.

A veteran communications strategist with experience in the private, public, political and non-profit sectors, Karen’s work has included running high profile national advocacy campaigns, advising CEOs and national boards, and founding and running her own successful marketing firm. In 2005, Karen started Ripple Communications, a boutique marketing and communications firm, and since has advised numerous clients on strategies for organizational success.

She has held senior positions at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and its subsidiary government relations firm Prime Policy Group. Karen began her career with a successful stint in politics. She worked for Newt Gingrich when he was House Minority Whip and made the historic move to The Speaker’s Office in 1994. She served in a variety of roles in The Speaker’s Office, but most notably was the staff assigned to generating greater exposure for the Republican women serving in the House.

Karen received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications from the University of Maryland. She lives with her husband Jim in Alexandria, Virginia.

Xiomara Padamsee is the founder and chief executive officer of Promise54, a national non-profit focused on helping adults to thrive so that they can do their best work for students. Before founding Promise54, Xiomara led the talent advising practice as a partner and member of the management team at Bellwether Education Partners. Xiomara has worked with clients such as Cleveland Metropolitan School District, San Francisco Unified School District, non-profits like Blue Engine, College Track, 826, and UnboundEd, and charter networks such as Strive, KIPP, and Explore.

Before joining Bellwether, Xiomara was a leader in Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital consulting group where she specialized in large-scale transformational change, organizational culture, training, communications, and working cross-culturally.

Earlier in her career, Xiomara worked as a member of the management team and vice president of staffing and organizational development with Teach For America, where she founded the organization’s first talent team, fueling a four-fold national expansion in five years with increased staff diversity, satisfaction, effectiveness, and retention. Prior to this, Xiomara served as a corps member, teaching bilingual elementary in the South Bronx, and as a program director supporting teachers in Newark, Paterson, and Jersey City.

Xiomara holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BS from Cornell University. She is a proud Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Indian cisgender gay woman; a family-first mother and wife, daughter and sister; an enthusiastic piñata maker, former pianist, and a dedicated educator and activist. Xiomara lives with her wife and daughter in Pittsburgh, PA.

Jeffrey Pestrak is the executive schools officer for Mastery Charter Schools, the largest turnaround-focused charter network in the country. Mastery operates 24 schools, serving 13,500 students across Philadelphia and Camden. As ESO, in conjunction with a team of regional superintendents and the Chief Academic Officer, he oversees principal management and support as well as program development and execution. Jeffrey joined Mastery in 2005 as the principal of their first turn-around school and later supported all of Mastery’s turnaround and expansion efforts.

Jeffrey began his career in education as a teacher with Peace Corps- Zimbabwe. Upon returning, he completed a fellowship in education at Temple University and taught secondary science in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Following several years of teaching, Jeffrey went back overseas to conduct an assessment of government, UN and NGO HIV/AIDS education programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon returning to the US, he worked in various education non-profits, served as a teacher coach and curriculum writer for the SDP and worked part time as an adjunct instructor at Temple University and Community College of Philadelphia.

Jeffrey was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bloomsburg University and a master’s degree from Temple University. He lives with his wife Debbie and kids Jonah and Zaylie in Narberth, PA.

Laura Saldivar Luna is the Chief People Officer of Teach For America. In this role, Laura is responsible for shaping the people strategy and staff experience for over 1,800 employees to enable Teach For America to be the highest-impact nonprofit in the world and the greatest place to work in the United States.
Prior to her role as CPO, Laura was the founding as executive director of Teach For America in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. In the nine years under her leadership, Teach For America-San Antonio reached over 50,000 students, raised more than 25 million dollars, and helped catalyze and scale major citywide education reforms.
Laura got her start in education teaching high school English and ESL in the South Texas border town of Rio Grande City—an experience that cemented her desire to bring Teach For America to her own hometown. Prior to her role as executive director, Laura served on Teach For America’s recruitment and admissions team, creating and implementing new models for modernizing the national admissions process.
Laura earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University where she graduated magna cum laude with dual degrees in English and Spanish. In addition to her work with Teach For America, Laura also serves on the board of directors for The Rivard Report, a digital news source committed to making San Antonio a more informed and connected community. She is a 2018 Pahara Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She and her husband, David, are proud alumni of public schools in San Antonio’s urban core, and they live in the same neighborhood where they were raised. They have two young children, Paloma and Lucas, and a Welsh corgi named Charlie.

Jamie Jo Scott is president of the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, a private family foundation started in 1966 by her great grandparents, Joe and Kathryn Albertson. The Foundation is committed to making impactful investments in Idaho across three pillars including learning, community, and awareness; and awards approximately $30-$35M per year in support of select programs and initiatives.

Jamie has been a leader in local and statewide philanthropy in Idaho. She served as the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation’s community grants coordinator and as a member and treasurer on the Foundation’s board of directors for more than 10 years before acting as executive director from 2008-2014. She has been active in the non-profit community as a board member and board committee chair of the Bogus Basin Recreational Association, and past board member of the Bishop Kelly Foundation, the Boise Art Museum, and the Special Olympics World Winter Games. In 2017, Jamie opened Mill 95, Idaho’s first and premier source for hops processing. Mill 95 is one of eight business entities that comprise the Alscott family office, whose investments span agriculture, aviation, hospitality, manufacturing, and real estate. All entities are owned by the Scott Family and each operates independently within the state of Idaho.

Jamie is a Boise native and mother of two sons. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the College of Idaho. She brings her personal, professional, and educational experience, her entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for a better Idaho to her leadership roles.

Paula Shannon’s 20-year career in public education spans three states and includes experience as a classroom teacher, literacy coach, curriculum director, and chief academic officer. She currently serves as deputy superintendent at Tulsa Public Schools. Paula serves as key support to the superintendent in directing and leading the district’s overall strategic plan to reach its ambitious objectives and goals to become a proof point for what is possible in urban education. Prior to moving to Tulsa, Paula held senior leadership roles at the Syracuse City School District, Achievement First, and the Providence Public School District.

Paula believes that a high-quality education is integral to the foundation of a strong democracy, critical to combating poverty, and a fundamental civil right for all people. She works to bring that vision to fruition by fostering highly effective and empowered teams who share her belief that even the impossible becomes possible through investing in people, designing collaboratively for change, and maintaining a relentless focus on creative solutions. Paula commits daily to transforming public education systems into places that position educators as learning engineers and unleash the potential of little and big people alike.

Paula holds a bachelor of arts in government and international relations from the University of Notre Dame, a master of education with a focus on curriculum and instruction from Lesley University, and a master of arts in education from the University of Rhode Island. Paula currently serves on the board of directors of City Year Tulsa.

Burck Smith is the chief executive officer and co-founder of StraighterLine. Founded in 2009 and based in Baltimore, StraighterLine has enrolled over 100,000 students and offers affordable, online early college courses that help students lower the cost and risk of earning a degree and colleges attract and retain students.

Ten years before founding StraighterLine, he co-founded SMARTHINKING (now a Pearson company), the largest online tutoring provider for schools and colleges. Between 2009 and 2012, Burck wrote chapters for three books on post-secondary and K-12 education policy for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Prior to starting SMARTHINKING, Burck was independent consultant and journalist whose clients included the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Computer Curriculum Corporation, the CEO Forum on Education and Technology, the Milken Exchange on Education and Technology, Teaching Matters Inc., Converge Magazine, Wired Magazine, Wired News, University Business, the National School Boards Association and more.

Burck serves on the Boards of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (BCSB), a charter school for middle school boys, and Baltimore Friends School, a Pre K-12 private school. He served on the Board for Heliocampus, an early stage company providing institutional analytics solutions for colleges.

Burck holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College.

Don Soifer is president of Nevada Action for School Options, a nonprofit organization he founded to support the growth of diverse choices of rich, high-quality and personalized educational opportunities for all students.

Don has served as vice chair and three-term board member of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, where he has prioritized quality for the 120 schools overseen by the board via a national model accountability framework, equity, transparency and responsible authorizing. He co-founded the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank in Arlington, Virginia, working as its executive vice president from 1998-2017. At Lexington, Don directed all domestic public-policy programs, including education, energy and logistics, and supervised the nonprofit’s finances. He created the Lexington Education Leadership Awards fellowship, the first national fellowship for school district leaders focused on transitioning their districts to personalized learning instructional models. Don has also worked as a strategic and communications consultant for government, nonprofit and private (including Fortune 100) clients.

The author of hundreds of widely-cited articles and studies, Don has presented policy testimony to official legislative and agency proceedings at all levels of government, including participating as an original member of the Congressionally-created State Department Advisory Committee on International Postal and Delivery Services. Don has served on the boards of several public charter schools around the country. He is a graduate of Colgate University.

Jennie Soler-McIntosh currently serves as vice president for community and family engagement at New Visions for Public Schools where she leads the organization’s career readiness, community engagement, student recruitment, partnership development and family engagement efforts.

Beginning In 2011, Jennie focused her work in support of New Vision’s development of its Charter Management Organization which resulted in the opening of eight charter high schools. Jennie joined New Visions for Public Schools in 2001 when it launched the New Century High Schools Initiative, a citywide new schools creation effort that resulted in the creation of 99 small district public high schools throughout the City of New York. From 1998-2001, she served as the assistant commissioner for the Beacon Programs at the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development where she shepherded the expansion of the program from 40 to 81 sites.

Prior to working in the education and youth services field, Jennie worked on health and social services issues ranging from HIV prevention, primary health care services, substance abuse treatment programs and long term care issues at the community and government levels from 1990-1998.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from New York University and is a graduate of the National Urban Fellows Program at Baruch College through which she earned her MPA degree. She is also a recent graduate of the American Express Leadership Academy. Jennie credits her passion and dedication to education and youth services to her experiences growing up in NYC in an immigrant household.

Lorelei Atalie Vargas serves as executive director of Trinity Commons, a part of Trinity Church Wall Street which has been a part of New York City history for over 300 years. Trinity has evolved into a global institution leading advocacy around social and racial justice; partnering with nonprofits; offering grants to support mission aligned programs; and, having developed high quality music, educational and social programming. Set to open its doors in March 2020, Trinity Commons will serve as a hub for high quality social programming and welcome individuals from all walks of life to a safe, inclusive space offering respite, intellectual development and advocacy for a better New York, nation and world. Prior to her current appointment, Lorelei served as deputy commissioner for child and family well-being with the City of New York’s Administration for Children’s Services where she was responsible for administering the agency’s first division dedicated to using a two generation approach to strengthen programs, leverage existing resources and build on the assets that are inherent in the children and families of New York City. Lorelei also ran the country’s largest publicly-funded subsidized early care and education system, serving the needs of close to 110,000 children with a budget of over $1 billion annually, where she successfully led reforms, including expanding access, implementing a trauma informed care model across the system, and developing two-generation programs. Lorelei has over two decades of executive-level experience in the non-profit sector with a strong focus on creating community-level opportunities and helping to strengthen the lives of children and families. Fully bilingual in English and Spanish Lorelei earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bryn Mawr College and holds two Master’s degrees, one in Public Policy and one in Education Administration and Policy, both from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Roblin Webb, founder and chief executive officer of Freedom Prep Charter Schools, has dedicated her life’s work to striving for equality for all people. She realizes that the modern day civil/equal rights struggle lies in providing a quality public education for all children. As a practicing education lawyer for a city school district, she began her work in pursuit of educational equality and opportunity. Through her legal work she became determined to find a way to make a deeper impact and see real progress towards her vision for the children of Memphis. Her passion for making more immediate change took her to a deputy director post with New Leaders for New Schools. At New Leaders, she recruited educators to become school leaders and created community partnerships. She believes that education is our modern day civil rights struggle and to that end Roblin’s goal is to measurably and dramatically close the achievement gap in Memphis between black and white and rich and poor.

Currently, in the city of Memphis, we have an economic gap that is ultimately tied to the achievement gap in communities. There continues to exist a clear and compelling need for schools like Freedom Prep in Memphis. Ms. Webb founded Freedom Prep in the Fall of 2009 with a class of approximately 100 6th graders. Freedom Prep has now grown to four schools, elementary, middle, and high, serving over 1,600 students in Southwest Memphis. From 2011-2015, Freedom Prep Charter Schools produced some of the highest academic growth scores in the State of Tennessee. Ms. Webb recently completed the national Charter Network Accelerator program (an intensive cohort-based training program for leaders of emerging CMOs). Ms. Webb graduated from Rhodes College with a bachelor’s in urban studies and holds a Law degree and masters in politics and public affairs from Rutgers University.

Emily Bloomfield is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Monument Academy Public Charter School, the country’s only boarding middle school focused on the unique needs of children who have been involved in the foster care system. The school is in its third year of operation and plans to expand to high school. Prior to this Emily served on the board of the DC Public Charter School Board, and was a senior policy advisor for Stand for Children. She transitioned to a career in education when she was first elected to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Board of Education in 2002, where she twice served as the board president.

Before that, Emily worked for internet startups, including at Carparts.com as chief people officer, and at CitySearch.com as a product manager. Earlier experience includes having worked in the business unit of the Los Angeles Times, and as an economist for LMC International in the UK. Emily serves as a member of the Georgetown Mental Health Advisory Board. She is married to Byron Auguste, with whom she has three children. Emily has a BA from the University of Chicago, an MPA from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and an MPhil in economics for Oxford University.

David lives in, works in, and is dedicated to his East Oakland Community. He’s a parent and former teacher who is deeply passionate about bringing high quality public education to all students. David is the current Principal at Leadership Public Schools in Oakland, CA. Leadership Public Schools is a public charter high school network that transforms educational outcomes for students that have been historically under-represented in college, empowering them for a range of college, career and community leadership options.

David is the former Executive Director at Oakland Charters, an advocacy organization for the city’s dynamic public charter school sector. Prior to that role, David was Head of School at Urban Montessori Charter School (UMCS), a nationally-recognized breakthrough model, based in Oakland. Before UMCS, David was with the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) as the Oakland Regional Director for two years. There, David spearheaded citywide advocacy for Oakland’s growing and controversial charter sector. From 2002-2012 David served as founding teacher then Principal at Oakland Unity High School, a high-performing charter school transforming lives for first-generation college students. His work in the public education landscape also includes several years as a team leader with the Charter Schools Development Center’s annual charter leader intensive boot camp program.

David’s served on multiple charter school and community boards, including Unity Schools, Community School for Creative Education, Oakland Families for Quality Schools, Enroll Oakland Charters, and GO Public Schools. David also co-chaired the Oakland Public Schools Equity Pledge enrollment working group.

Prior to his career in public education, David worked in the private tech sector. A first generation college student, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at San Diego, then a single subject teaching credential in social science from San Francisco State University. He obtained a master’s in educational leadership from California State University East Bay in 2009.

Dr. Jonas Chartock is an experienced, creative executive leader with a demonstrated history of impact working in the nonprofit and government sectors. His career focus is on moving leaders and organizations to greater awareness, action, and impact in the advancement of social justice. A leadership and strategy consultant, Jonas was the national founder and first chief executive officer of Leading Educators. During his tenure as its first chief executive officer, Leading Educators became a key resource to school districts, charter networks, and policy makers in their efforts to maximize the leadership development and ultimate impact of highly effective teachers. Jonas oversaw the organization’s operations, strategy, outreach, and growth. He came to Leading Educators from the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York where he served as executive director of the nation’s largest university-based charter school authorizer. Previously, he served as the founding president and chief executive officer of the Charter School Policy Institute (CSPI) in Austin, Texas, and as executive director of Teach For America in Houston, Texas. Jonas began his career as a teacher with Teach For America in the Compton Unified School District. He holds a BA from Cornell University, MA from Chapman University, EdM from Harvard University, and earned his EdD in educational leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. Jonas is also an actor and amateur musician, and he resides in New Orleans, LA, with his son.

Christian Dallavis is assistant superintendent of the Partnership Schools, a Catholic school network that transforms urban Catholic schools into economically sustainable, operationally efficient, and academically excellent parochial schools. Christian supports school leaders’ capacity to build intentional Catholic school culture, foster spiritual growth, and ensure high-quality teaching and learning in the Partnership’s schools in Harlem and the Bronx and leads the network’s expansion efforts.

Christian spent 16 years on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he served as senior director of leadership programs and associate teaching professor of educational leadership in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

As the director of the Remick Leadership Program, Christian redesigned Notre Dame’s master of arts in educational leadership and doubled the size of the nation’s largest preparer of Catholic school leaders. He was founding director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies, a new model for university-school partnership that eventually comprised 15 schools in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana. His team also led the design and launch of a new Center for Transformational Educational Leadership, a professional formation institute for sitting principals.

Christian earned a joint PhD in English and education at the University of Michigan, where he studied the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and urban Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. After completing a BA at Notre Dame in English and Japanese, Christian taught middle school English in Biloxi, Mississippi while earning an MA in teaching from the University of Portland, and later worked as a teacher educator in Bangladesh.

Colleen Dippel founded Families Empowered in 2009 and is the current executive director. Families Empowered is a school choice organization that serves over 40,000 families across three cities in Texas. She is a Teach For America alumna (Houston 1996) who spent three years teaching third through fifth grade in HISD and at KIPP Academy. In 1999 she left teaching to become the director of district partnerships for Project ACHIEVE, a private sector education technology start-up. In 2001 she became the director of the KIPP School Leadership Program. There she supported the implementation of a yearlong training program for school principals in various aspects of school leadership, as well as oversaw the Fisher Fellowship formal evaluation process. In 2004 she and her husband returned to Houston. In 2006, she served as the director of alumni support for Teach For America’s Houston office before joining Aquinas as the director of education initiatives. She launched Families Empowered while serving in this role.

Colleen served on the advisory board of the Rice Educational Entrepreneurship Program (REEP). She holds a BA from SUNY Albany and a MA in educational leadership from National Louis University. Colleen is the proud mother of a two active children.

Nathaniel Easley, Ph.D., is an independent consultant who uses his more than 30 years of experience in public education leadership to provide strategic advice to nonprofit executives and school board members. Previously, Dr. Easley served as Chief Executive Officer for RootED, a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on increasing the availability of high quality public schools in Denver through quarterback investments in educator/leader talent, high performing schools, and a supportive policy environment. Prior to joining RootED, Dr. Easley served as CEO of the Denver Scholarship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity whose mission is to inspire and empower Denver Public School (DPS) students to achieve their postsecondary education goals by providing the tools, knowledge and financial resources essential for success.

Dr. Easley served as President and Secretary of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education from 2009 to 2013. He also worked as Vice President for National and International Programs for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) in Washington, DC. COE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the expansion of educational opportunities in postsecondary education for low-income and disabled youth and adults. He is a current member of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s Education Compact, Vice President of the National College Access Network Board, and a member of the Colorado Education Initiative Board. He previously served as a member of the Community College of Denver Advisory Council, the Colorado School of Public Health Advisory Council, the Denver School of Science and Technology Public Charter School Board, the Denver Public Schools’ Roots Public Charter School Board, and Colorado Latinos for Education Reform. He is also a past member of Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s Education Leadership Council and the National Advisory Council for Texas Guaranteed Inc.

Dr. Easley has extensive experience helping disadvantaged students realize their dream of a college education and securing grant funding to sustain student programs. His master’s and doctorate focused on how higher education can better support the academic success and college completion of Black and Latino/a students. Dr. Easley more than 30 years of experiencing working at the state, national and international levels to create opportunities for first-generation, low-income and ethnic minority students. He is a proud graduate of Denver Public School’s Montbello High School.

In November 2018, Constance Jones became the chief executive officer of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, Illinois’ largest and most successful charter school network, and is the first African American and first female to hold that position. Connected through community groups and board positions across Chicago, she quickly became a widely influential and trusted voice within the nation’s third largest school district. As Noble’s CEO, she oversees the strategy and operations of an organization of 12,000 students and 1,300 staff across 18 campuses, with a total budget in excess of $165MM. Nationally renowned for preparing its students – 98% students of color and 89% from under resourced communities – to be accepted to and graduate from college, Noble represents 10% of all CPS high schoolers. Under Constance’s leadership, Noble continues to set the high-water mark for college preparation across the city’s public schools, ultimately contributing to a significant portion of the success that CPS has publicly claimed in recent years. Constance previously served as Noble’s president and chief external affairs officer, where she spearheaded a campaign that resulted in Noble winning the Broad Foundation’s national prize for best charter school in 2015. She continues to stand out as a coalition leader and advocate for high quality public schools of all types, with her leadership resulting in Noble’s continued expansion to serve more CPS students, the passage of crucial education funding reform in Springfield in 2017, and Noble’s Class of 2018 graduating 2,300 seniors, 98% of whom were accepted into college while earning an astonishing $474 million in scholarships. Prior to Noble, Constance was the national development director at KIPP Foundation and held sales and operations roles at Johnson & Johnson and Hyatt Corporation. Constance has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the founder of an endowment at North Carolina Central University for first generation math and science majors in honor of her late father.

Donald Kamentz is currently an independent education consultant utilizing his diverse experiences in both non-profit management and K-12 education to help organizations best serve all student populations. Prior to this role, he served as executive director of Character Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science and practice of character development. Comprised of a team of researchers, educators, and designers, Character Lab believes character skills are malleable and measurable, character development can enhance academic performance, and finally, character strengths are as important to long-term life outcomes as are IQ and socioeconomic status. Before Character Lab, Donald spent 16 years, lastly as managing director of college and career initiatives, at YES Prep Public Schools, a public charter school system in Houston, Texas. Under his leadership, he created a college access program recognized nationally as a model for supporting first-generation, low-income students to and through college. Prior to joining YES Prep, Donald spent five years with Teach For America in a variety of roles, most recently as the executive director for institute operations.

Donald earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science, with a minor in international affairs-Latin American Studies, from The George Washington University.

Kristi Kimball is executive director of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of K-12 education in California and nationwide, with emphasis on charter schools, teacher and principal preparation, and parent information and engagement. The foundation also supports human services organizations that provide direct services throughout the Bay Area to help people climb out of poverty.

Previously, at the Hewlett Foundation, Kristi developed a portfolio of grants to exemplary “deeper learning” schools across the country and another portfolio focused on policy advocacy, research, and communications that contributed to the landmark school finance reform in California known as the Local Control Funding Formula. Earlier, Kristi worked as a consultant to a number of foundations and non-profits, in the US Department of Education, in the Education Policy Research Center at the Urban Institute, and in the Education Office of the US Senate H.E.L.P. Committee. She has served on a number of non-profit boards including: Grantmakers for Education, Envision Education, and California Charter Schools Association, and she was a participant and member of the California Collaborative on District Reform for a number of years.

Kristi holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree in public administration from Princeton University.

Andy Kopplin is president and chief executive officer of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. He previously served as first deputy mayor and chief administrative officer for the City of New Orleans under Mayor Mitch Landrieu. By aggressively managing the city’s operating and capital budgets, Andy helped move the city from near bankruptcy in 2010 to fiscal stability and its highest bond ratings in history by 2016. He also helped New Orleans go from being the most blighted city in America to becoming the city eliminating blight faster than anywhere in America.

Prior to city government, Andy worked at Teach For America, where he served as senior advisor to the founder and chief executive officer, Wendy Kopp. From October 2006-January 2008, Andy served as founding executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA), the agency charged with leading Louisiana’s recovery efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, where he developed the strategy and built the bipartisan coalitions that more than doubled congressional appropriations for Louisiana’s rebuilding, from $13 billion to $28 billion. Before heading the LRA, Andy was chief of staff to two consecutive Louisiana governors, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Republican M.J. “Mike” Foster, Jr. He joined Foster’s staff in 1996 as policy director, and in that role led the pioneering effort to create the state’s community college system.

Andy holds a bachelor’s degree from Rice University, a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School, and is a 1986 Harry S. Truman Scholarship winner.

Anita Landecker is president and chief executive officer of ExED, a nonprofit organization that develops and manages public charter schools in inner-city neighborhoods in Southern California. Today, ExED serves as the “CFO” to over 100 charter schools. Through the New Markets Tax Credit program, ExED also provides affordable financing to charter schools to construct new facilities. Prior to joining ExED in 1999, was regional vice president for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), where she raised over $1 billion for investment in affordable housing.

Anita has taught graduate school courses at UCLA and USC. She served as chair of the Los Angeles Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She recently was a senior fellow at USC’s Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab, and awarded a Stanton Fellowship from the Durfee Foundation.

Anita received her master’s degree in city planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Allison Leslie joined the Instruction Partners team in July of 2018 as a Managing Director of Partnership. In 2012, she relocated to Memphis to open Aspire’s first region outside of California through the Achievement School District designed to turn around schools in the bottom 5% of the state. After the six years, the Aspire Memphis region served 1,600 students in four different schools throughout the city.

Allison started her career with Teach For America in Houston, Texas, in 1999 after graduating from University of California at San Diego. She worked at a middle school with a high percentage English Language Learners and started a multi-age newcomer program to support language development during adolescence. In 2001, she moved back to California where she went to work for Aspire Public Schools as a teacher and then later became the principal of Aspire East Palo Alto Charter School after earning her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from University of California at Berkeley. Before moving to Memphis, she started the Aspire Teacher Residency Program, now called Alder Graduate School of Education, to develop high-performing teachers during a year-long training experience.

For fun, Alli enjoys spending time traveling with her family, playing adult soccer, and running.

Frances Messano is a senior managing partner at NewSchools Venture Fund where she leads the Innovative Schools Invent (new schools) and Diverse Leaders investment teams. She also designs the content for the annual NewSchools Summit conference. Prior to joining NewSchools, Frances served as vice president of strategy on Teach for America’s Strategy, Innovation and Organization Development team. In this role, she led the development of TFA’s long- term, national strategy. Before that, Frances was an associate partner at Monitor Institute, the social impact practice within Monitor Deloitte’s strategy consulting arm, where she helped education organizations scale their impact through strategy development, organizational design, leadership development, and program design. She also expanded the Institute’s education practice and developed the strategy for Deloitte’s social impact service line. Additional experiences include working at Morgan Stanley in equity sales and structuring.

Frances earned her bachelor’s degree in economics, graduating cum laude, from Harvard College and her master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School. She serves on the board of Stand for Children, Latinos for Education, GO Public Schools, Catalyst:Ed, and the Pahara Institute. Frances is a first-generation college graduate and an alum of Prep for Prep, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, non-profit organizations that she credits with helping her gain access to educational and professional opportunity.

Mike Miles is the chief executive officer of Third Future Schools and the co-founder of the Academy of Advanced Learning charter school in Aurora, Colorado. A leader in education reform, Mike devotes his time to creating schools that will prepare students for a Year 2030 workplace. Prior to his latest work, Mike served three years as the superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District. Under his leadership, Dallas implemented ground-breaking initiatives, established a high- performance culture, and experienced significant growth in student achievement.

Prior to Dallas, Mike successfully transformed the Harrison School District in Colorado Springs, narrowing achievement gaps and taking the district off the State’s academic watch list. As an instructional leader and professional developer, Mike has also helped teachers and administrators in school districts nationally to improve instruction and raise achievement.

Mike has also served the public interest as a soldier and statesman. A former officer in the Army Ranger Battalion, Mike’s military experience includes leading counter terrorism training operations. Mike later served in the U.S. State Department as a Soviet analyst and member of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He then served as a diplomat to Poland and Russia at the end of the Cold War, finishing his State Department work as the Special Assistant to the Ambassador to Russia.

Mike holds degrees from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University. He is married to Karen Miles and has three children: Nicholas (26), Madeleine (24), and Anthony (16).

Trevor Packer is the head of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, responsible for the ongoing development and management of 38 AP courses taken each year by 2.5 million students in subjects ranging from biology and calculus to studio art and world history. He also leads the instruction division at the College Board, which includes programs such as SpringBoard and CLEP. Trevor has led the AP program since 2003, emphasizing in particular a redesign to focus the AP courses and exams on the knowledge and skills most essential for college success. During this period, the number of students participating in advanced placement courses has more than tripled, with highest growth rates among low-income, African-American and Hispanic/Latino students traditionally under-represented in AP classrooms.

Trevor has published regularly on topics related to advanced academic programs and college admission, and interviews frequently with major news outlets. He has been a featured speaker at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, the Change the Equation STEM Salon, and the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice. Prior to joining the College Board, Trevor worked in academia, researching and writing about Victorian literature and publishing on Willa Cather and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, as well as authoring a manual on pedagogy and composition. He has taught composition and literature at the City University of New York and Brigham Young University.

Karega Rausch is the vice president of research and evaluation for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), an independent voice for effective charter school policy and thoughtful charter authorizing practices that lead to more great public schools. Karega leads NACSA’s work in developing and expanding a robust research base of quality authorizing practices and policies, enabling more evidence-informed decision-making among authorizers, policymakers, and other key stakeholders.

Karega has a wealth of charter school authorizing, educational research and policy, community engagement, and strategic advocacy experience. Karega previously led education reform initiatives for two Indianapolis Mayor’s—of different political parties—as the Indianapolis Director of Educational Innovation and Charter Schools Director. He is also the former founding city director of the Indianapolis affiliate of Stand for Children Indiana, was on the leadership team of Indiana University’s Equity Project where he helped lead research projects designed to understand and address the over-representation of students of color in special education and school discipline, and is a former high school social studies teacher.

Karega has authored or co-authored numerous professional publications, including being a co-editor of Inequality in School Discipline: Research and Practice to Reduce Disparities (Palgrave MacMillan Press, 2017), and is a nationally recognized content expert and sought after presenter on charter school authorizing, racial/ethnic disproportionality in school discipline, and special education reform. Karega earned his PhD and master’s degree (educational psychology) from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Paymon Rouhanifard is the co-founder and CEO of Propel America, an organization that empowers students with the skills, experiences, credentials, and social networks necessary to transition from high school to an upwardly-mobile first job within one-year of high school graduation.

Previously, he served as the superintendent of Camden, New Jersey from 2013 to 2018 where he helped lead improvements in student outcomes, reductions in out-of-school suspensions, stronger family engagement, and critical capital investments in school facilities.

Rouhanifard started his career in New York City as a 6th grade teacher in West Harlem and went on to work in the central office of the New York City Department of Education. Prior to that, Rouhanifard worked in the financial sector as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs and a private equity associate.

He holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As superintendent of Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), the nation’s sixth largest school district, Robert W. Runcie is committed to educating today’s students to succeed in tomorrow’s world.

Upon joining BCPS in 2011, Robert developed a strategic plan focusing on high-quality instruction, continuous improvement and effective communication. As part of these goals, he has spearheaded initiatives to maximize student learning. This includes creating a digital classrooms program to provide blended, personalized learning environments for students. BCPS also became the first district to partner with the non-profit organization Code.org to increase computer science in schools. Computer science courses, curriculum and activities are now offered at 100 percent of District schools. In addition, under his leadership, BCPS became a national model for ending zero tolerance policies for non-violent offenses in schools.

Robert is president of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents and serves on the board of numerous organizations. His honors include: 2016 National Alliance of Black School Educators Superintendent of the Year, 2016 Florida Superintendent of the Year, 2015 ALAS Hispanic Serving Superintendent of the Year, 2014 Florida Virtual School Superintendent of the Year, 2014 Consortium of Florida Education Foundations Superintendent of the Year, Champion District Superintendent of the Year for Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, the Florida Department of Education’s District Data Leader of the Year Finalist, and a 2014 Leader to Learn From by Education Week.

Robert previously held leadership positions with Chicago Public Schools and founded a management and technology consulting company. Robert earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and his master’s in business administration from Northwestern University. In addition to serving on the boards of local business and community service organizations, he serves on the boards of Code.org, National Speech and Debate Association, and is the president of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

Shalinee Sharma is chief executive officer and co-founder of Zearn, a nonprofit curriculum publisher. Zearn created Zearn Math, a K-5 print and software-basedl math curriculum that supports daily differentiation and engagement so all children can love learning math. Zearn Math received a top, ‘green’ rating from EdReports and is used by millions of students and teachers. Shalinee currently serves on the Gates Foundation Mathematics Advisory Board and is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow.

Prior to Zearn, Shalinee spent more than a decade at Bain & Co. leading work for clients in tech, financial services, and education. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Brown University. Shalinee spends her free time outdoors with her husband and twin sons. The child of refugees, Shalinee has always been passionate about universal access to an excellent education.

Since 1997, Michѐle Solá has been director of Manhattan Country School (MCS), a pre-K through 8th grade school founded in 1966 as a private school with a public mission. She was previously director of public school outreach and special programs and an upper school Spanish teacher. Public school partnerships led to curriculum development, literacy projects, and the founding of alternative and charter schools on the MCS model. During her tenure, MCS has become a resource for people seeking models of racial and economic diversity and equity in schools, culturally relevant curriculum, social justice and activism, multi-cultural community-building, sliding-scale tuition, and farm-based education. In 2008, Michѐle was selected for the heads-of- school program at the Klingenstein Center (Teachers College). Based on her project, the MCS board adopted strategic goals for MCS 2020 that resulted in relocating and doubling enrollment from 200 students. Michѐle served on the Barnard School Foundation board, and has been on the board of Progressive Education Network since 2012. PEN hosted a 2015 conference, “Access, Equity, and Activism: Teaching the Possible.”

Michѐle earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, her master’s degree in teaching from Indiana University, and her doctorate in education from Boston University. She worked with migrant farmworkers in Indiana, bilingual preschools in Boston, and communities in transition in Nicaragua and Peru. She has presented at conferences and been a consultant to schools transitioning from founding or long-serving directors to new leadership, and creating equitable learning environments in multicultural communities.

Greg Sommers is Executive In Residence at the Center for Educational Leadership, a nonprofit service arm of the University of Washington College of Education. Previously, Greg was managing director of strategy and programs for the Bezos Family Foundation, leading its approach to transforming adolescent student learning experiences through grant partnerships and foundation-run programs, Students Rebuild and the Bezos Scholars Program.

Before joining the Bezos Family Foundation, Greg spent more than 11 years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with initiatives to improve U.S. K-12 student outcomes. In that capacity, he stewarded grants and partnerships with leading school systems, school models, and school reform organizations to create better high schools, develop great teaching, and empower talented educators. Prior to his work at the Gates Foundation, Greg served as a Director at New American Schools. Greg began his career in education teaching high school and middle school students in the Fairfax County Public Schools.

Greg received a bachelor’s degree in history and Master of Teaching degree at the University of Virginia, and he earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife and three active sons.

Vallay Varro is the president of 50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now. In her role, she oversees organizational operations; including state advocacy operations, new site development, national support services and leadership programs. Prior to her work on the 50CAN executive team, she was the founding executive director of MinnCAN, the network’s second branch that launched in January 2011. Before joining the 50CAN family, Vallay served as a classroom teacher at the University of St. Catherine Pre-K Education Center, the director of the AmeriCorps Minnesota Reading Corps and the program manager at the Minnesota Literacy Council. In 2006, she transitioned into a role within the Twin Cities, serving as education policy director in St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s administration. She went on to be elected as school board director for St. Paul Public Schools in 2009 in a citywide special election.

Vallay has served on several nonprofit boards and committees including the McKnight Foundation’s Early Learning National Advisory Committee, the Education Policy Advisor’s Network, Think Small, where she served as vice-chair and the St. Paul Children’s Collaborative, where she served as treasurer. Vallay holds a bachelor’s degree in family education and a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota. Born a political refugee as her family immigrated to the United States, Vallay now lives in Maryland with her husband and three children.

Janna Wagner is co-founder and chief learning officer of All Our Kin, Inc., a nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains family child care providers to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed in school and in life. All Our Kin’s network of caregivers has been proven to provide high-quality infant and toddler care to working parents in low and middle-income communities. Janna holds a B.A. in psychology from Yale University and an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught in the South Bronx through Teach For America and then founded All Our Kin with Jessica Sager in 1999. In addition to her work at All Our Kin, Janna co-teaches a seminar on “Child Care, Society, and Public Policy” at Yale University.

Active in the New Haven community, Janna is an associate fellow of Jonathan Edwards College and serves as chair of the board of the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, a sixty-six year old academic summer program, which brings together Yale and New Haven students on Yale’s campus. She is the chair of the advisory board for the Community Fund for Women and Girls, a component fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. In 2014, Janna was selected as a Class of 2014-16 Zero to Three Fellow, awarded the Yale Jefferson Award, and the 2016 Grand Prize recipient of the Roslyn S. Jaffe Award. Most recently, she was selected as a Public Voices Fellow at Yale through the Op-Ed Project. She is a Fellow of the 19th class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Melissa Zaikos is founder, chief executive officer, and former principal of Intrinsic Schools, a 7th-12th grade charter school in Chicago with plans for growth. In addition to her role at Intrinsic, Melissa leads multiple principal cohorts designed to foster collaboration between district and charter schools in Chicago. Prior to founding Intrinsic, Melissa spent nine years at Chicago Public Schools where she last led the Pershing Network, a network of 30 elementary schools in the Southwest communities of Chicago. From 2005-2011, Melissa was the Chief Area Officer for a network of 100 high performing schools throughout the city. In 2006, she led a team to secure a $21.3 million grant for the district high school transformation strategy, the largest grant to date at that time from the Gates Foundation to a public school district.

Melissa was a member of the Broad Fellowship for Education Leaders in 2011 and the Broad Residency in Urban Education from 2003-2005. She earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. Melissa lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.

Adekemi “Kemi” Akinsanya-Rose serves as the chief operating officer of EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning), a leading K-12 education non-profit that provides school transformation strategy, instructional materials and coaching services to more than 4,000 teachers and 53,000 students across the U.S. In this role, Kemi oversees EL Education’s strategic business and financial operations, specifically helping EL scale its customer offerings and expand its nationwide impact on student achievement and teacher capacity. She also oversees human resources, technology, real estate, new business development and finance. Most recently, Kemi led efforts to launch EL’s curriculum publications business, which has contributed to building EL’s mission-driven reputation as a high quality instructional resource for teachers and students.

Prior to joining EL Education, Kemi was the chief information officer at the nation’s largest school district, New York City Department of Education, where she was responsible for setting strategic direction for all district-wide technology and data initiatives. Under her leadership, her team of 600+ technology professionals provided services, support and products to 1,700+ schools, 150,000 employees, and 1.1 million students. Prior to serving as CIO, Kemi also served as deputy chief operating officer where she led implementation of central office performance management initiatives and operational business re-engineering, and managed the $269 million Race to the Top federal grant. Prior to embarking on a career in education and non-profit, Kemi held a variety of marketing, client management and product management roles at American Express and J.P. Morgan/Chase. Kemi earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and her Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business.

Kemi resides in the New York City area with her husband, Anthony, and her three children, Oludare, Che and Jordana. Her passions outside of work include competitive ballroom dancing, mentoring students and traveling to any place that has a beach and sunshine.

Jeremy Beard is head of schools at YES Prep Public Schools and has been with YES since 2014. Recently, he worked as the national director of programs for Blueprint Schools Network and currently is a member of their National Board of Directors. Prior to his work with Blueprint, he helped lead the Apollo 20 Project in Houston Independent School District as the Apollo 20 school improvement officer. Jeremy served for five years as principal of IDEA College Preparatory, in Donna, Texas, a 6-12 campus.

In 2009, Jeremy received the Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership for his work at IDEA. IDEA College Prep is one of the few IB schools in the world that expects 100% of its predominantly low-income, minority population to go through the rigorous Middle Years and Diploma Years Program. His campus was ranked #13 by U.S. News & World Report in 2009 out of 21,000 High Schools in the United States. In 2006, Jeremy received the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice from Columbia University. Jeremy joined IDEA in 2002, as an English teacher then later as a director of college counseling, and assistant principal, after serving for three years as the program director for Teach For America – Baltimore.

Jeremy entered the field of education via Teach For America as a 1995 Los Angeles corps member and taught fifth grade ESL, in a special education inclusion class for four years. He holds a BA in English and a BA in African-American studies from the University of Maryland, and completed his MEd at Columbia Teachers College.

Dr. Luzelma G. Canales serves as the Senior Associate Vice President for Student Success for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). She is responsible for the overall leadership and administration of programming and services leading to student success in academic, college life, and the transition of students to the workforce or graduate school. In addition, Luzelma is has a key leadership role in ensuring excellent and ongoing academic and student support services for all students, designed to increase retention and graduation rates while maintaining the highest standards of academic excellence. Luzelma served as the founding executive director for RGV FOCUS, a collaboration with Educate Texas. Luzelma provided leadership for a large-scale collective impact initiative launched to transform college readiness, access, and success across a four-county region in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The collaborative is comprised of over forty partners including four postsecondary institutions, eleven school districts, two workforce boards, private funders, and numerous community based organizations and nonprofits.

Luzelma served as a community college and university administrator for over twenty-five years. She led numerous institutional community college national reform initiatives including Achieving the Dream, Breaking Through, and several with Excelencia in Education. Luzelma serves on local, state and national boards related to closing equity gaps in voter turnout and educational attainment. She was born and raised along the Texas-Mexico border in deep South Texas. She and her family migrated to Washington and Oregon to work in the fields during the 1960s and 1970s. Her lived experience includes participating in the integration of schools and witnessing the efforts of the United Farm Workers to bring to light concerns over working conditions of migrant farm workers. These and other experiences formed her commitment to work with organizations to identify and eliminate barriers that are faced by Latino students as they navigate the high school and college experience.

Luzelma earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Pan American University, master’s in business administration from the University of Texas – Pan American, and doctorate of philosophy in human resource development from Texas A&M University.

Susie Miller Carello is the executive director of the State University of New York’s Charter Schools Institute (SUNY). Under her leadership, SUNY authorized charter schools have grown to serve 74,000 students across New York with 90% of schools outperforming their districts of location. Eight of the top ten performing schools in New York are SUNY authorized and SUNY is the largest higher education authorizer in the country.

Susie’s commitment to high quality education options for children grew from her time teaching at a science and technology focused magnet school in Indianapolis, to a career that spans service as the vice president for research and evaluation at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, as associate commissioner of education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and vice president at the Hudson Institute’s education group. A graduate of Indiana University and Harvard, where she earned a masters in administration, planning and social policy, Susie has been a guest lecturer at Columbia, Butler, and Harvard Universities. Awarded the Education Trust’s Edward J. Meade fellowship in 1999, Susie received Indiana’s Excellence in Education award in 1990.

Adam Carter is chief academic officer at Summit Public Schools, a charter management and school partnership organization supporting over 70,000 students in 40 states. Adam leads research and development at Summit, and has led all academic programs, curricula, data and information, product development, coaching, and professional development across the network. For a decade, Adam was a teacher in Argentina, Indonesia, and California, and he founded a NGO program advancing teacher development in Jakarta. He was a founding teacher at Summit Preparatory Charter School, where he received California’s New Outstanding Teacher Award. Adam holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from Presbyterian College.

Courtney Collins-Shapiro is the founder of Design.Build.Do. Prior to this, she joined the Drexel Fund as a partner in 2018. Drexel is a non-profit venture philanthropy fund investing in the creation and growth of accessible private schools serving low income students nationwide. Prior to Drexel, she served as the chief innovation officer for the Mastery Public Charter Schools Network, the largest turnaround-focused charter network in the country. In this role, she led charter expansion, external relations, development & grants, board governance, new initiatives (R&D), postsecondary programming, and family-community organizing for the 24-school charter network. Major accomplishments included leading network growth from 2,000 to 15,000 students over eight years and raising more than $75 million in private and competitive public funds to support expansion and innovative programs.

Prior to joining Mastery in 2010, Courtney founded the School District of Philadelphia’s multiple pathways to graduation division, where she managed the portfolio of school options for overage, under-credited youth in the fifth largest school district in the United States. Key initiatives included creation of the nation’s first reengagement center for disconnected youth, management and expansion of 14 accelerated high schools serving 5,000 former drop outs, and serving as the district lead on Project U-Turn to create a systemic, citywide approach to solving the dropout crisis. Prior to joining the School District in 2003, Courtney spent five years working and teaching in higher education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She and her family live and work in Philadelphia.

Veronica Conforme is the chancellor for the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, a statewide school system designed to dramatically redesign public education in Michigan’s lowest performing schools.

For over a decade, Veronica has worked to ensure children have access to a high quality education. Her past roles include serving as vice president for the Access to Opportunity campaign at The College Board where she launched and led a campaign to ensure that low-income students have access to attend colleges and graduate equipped to succeed.

Prior to The College Board, Veronica served at the New York City Department of Education for many years, culminating in her appointment as chief operating officer. She oversaw a $23 billion budget and 130,000 employees, directing organizational strategy, finance, technology, family and community engagement, fundraising, operations and communications. She was also chief financial officer and the deputy chief schools officer, overseeing the day-to-day activities of the city’s 1,700 public schools.

Before her experience in K-12 education, Veronica worked in higher education, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in public administration and public policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Marco A. Davis is the president and chief executive officer of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. He has more than 20 years of experience in leadership development, academic achievement, community advocacy, and civic engagement. Marco comes to this position after being a partner at New Profit, a national nonprofit venture philanthropy, where he led Capitalizing Diverse Leaders and Organizations – an effort to create a more equitable social sector, and served as organizational lead on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Marco served in the administration of President Barack Obama as Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and as the Director of Public Engagement for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Previously, he was Director of Global Fellowship and Regional Manager for Latin America at Ashoka’s Youth Venture and led leadership development for UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), creating the Líderes Initiative.

He has served on the boards of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC), Education Design Lab, Educators for Excellence, and the Management Assistance Group. He has been a Hispanics in Philanthropy NGen Lideres Fellow. An alumnus of Yale University, NY native, he lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and daughter.

Robert C. Enlow is the president and chief executive officer of EdChoice, Inc., a national nonpartisan organization advancing full and unencumbered parental choice in education. Robert has worked at EdChoice, formerly the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, for over 20 years and has served as fundraiser, projects coordinator, vice president and executive director prior to being named president and chief executive officer in 2009.

Prior to joining EdChoice, Robert lived and worked in England where he served as a voluntary sector social worker for St. Botolph’s Project, an organization providing care and services to homeless men. While in England, Robert also served on the school board of two inner-city schools in London—Hillmead Infants and Juniors School—where he chaired the finance committee and served on the building and curriculum committees.

Robert is the co-editor of Liberty and Learning: Milton Friedman’s Voucher Idea at Fifty and author of Grading Vouchers: Ranking America’s School Choice Programs. His opinion pieces have appeared in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Arizona Republic, National Review, and USA Today.

Robert’s passion for education change includes being a board member of School Choice Ohio, Hoosiers for Quality Education, and the Economic Club of Indiana. He was formerly on the Indiana State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Robert received his bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University and he also attended the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, then affiliated with Oxford University, where he worked on a post-graduate degree in theology. Robert lives in Indianapolis and has two children, Jefferson and Charles.

Eric S. Gordon was appointed chief executive officer of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) in June 2011 after having served as the district’s chief academic officer for four years. Prior to joining CMSD, Eric was the executive director for secondary learning for the Olentangy Local Schools in suburban Columbus, Ohio. He is an experienced educator, in both suburban and urban school districts. Eric has served as a principal, assistant principal and teacher.

In 2012, Eric with Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson and other business, philanthropic, and educational leaders, successfully lobbied to pass The Cleveland Plan, a revolutionary package of education reform. He is active nationally in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards curriculum and Social and Emotional Learning Standards for children. Eric serves as a member of the executive committee for the board of directors for the “Council of the Great City Schools”, a member organization representing 67 large urban districts across the United States. Eric also serves as the co- chair for the “Council’s Student Achievement Taskforce”.

Eric was honored with the “Richard R. Greene Council of the Great City Schools’ Award” in 2016, naming him the Urban Educator of the Year, which is the highest honor available to an urban superintendent in the United States. Eric is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, where he earned his masters in education administration and supervision (1997) and a bachelor’s of science degree in secondary mathematics education and driver education (1991).

Wanda M. Holland Greene is head of The Hamlin School in San Francisco, a mission-driven institution dedicated to best practices and innovation in the education of girls. Prior to leading Hamlin, Wanda served for eleven years as a senior administrator at Park School in Brookline, MA. She began her career in education at Columbia Greenhouse Nursery School and continued thereafter at The Chapin School, where she was a teacher and the school’s first director of student life. Currently, she is a trustee at Columbia University and Head-Royce School and an advisor to Common Sense Media. She is a former trustee of the National Association of Independent Schools, Concord Academy, The Chapin School, Hamilton Families, and Lick-Wilmerding High School.

An experienced leader in education with a powerful voice and presence, Wanda focuses careful attention on academic and ethical excellence, gender equity, performance evaluation, diversity and inclusion, health and wellness, and global citizenship. As a former faculty member of the National Association of Independent School’s Aspiring Heads Fellowship and an executive coach for new heads of school, Wanda is an advocate and sponsor for people who seek leadership positions in education.

A proud Brooklyn native, Wanda graduated from The Chapin School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, majoring in English literature with a concentration in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum design and instruction from Teachers College, a permanent teaching license in New York State, and has completed extensive coursework in private school leadership at The Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Center at Columbia.

Shavar Jeffries is president of Democrats for Education Reform. Shavar has dedicated his life to expanding opportunity for young people. This commitment stems from his personal experience. Shavar was raised in Newark, New Jersey by his grandmother, a public school teacher, who instilled in him a deep respect for the value of education. After receiving scholarships to Duke and Columbia Law School, Shavar worked as a civil rights lawyer, starting with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he worked on voting rights matters.

After clerking with a federal appeals judge, Shavar joined Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, where he represented the University of Michigan in litigation defending its policies to expand access for students of color. Shavar subsequently worked at the Gibbons P.C. law firm as a civil rights fellow, and the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, where he represented families in cases involving school finance, special education, parental choice, and civil rights. Shavar took leave from the Center for Social Justice to serve as counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General, where he supervised several state departments, including the Juvenile Justice Commission, the civil rights division, and the state’s multi-state litigation portfolio.

From 2010-2013, Shavar served on the Newark school board, including a term as board president from 2010-2011. Shavar ran for Newark mayor in 2014, receiving 46% of the vote, a high water mark for first-time municipal candidates. Shavar is also a partner with the Lowenstein Sandler law firm.

Anne Mahle is the senior vice president of public partnerships at Teach For America, where she leads its government affairs, national community alliances, federal and state funding, and public policy work. From 2004 until 2013, Anne worked for Teach For America’s recruitment team, leading their on-campus efforts across the country beginning in 2007.

From 2001 to 2004, Anne served as an associate at Faegre & Benson, LLP. In this role, she litigated cases in federal and state courts and managed major litigation under the Endangered Species Act regarding the downlisting of the grey wolf across the contiguous United States.

Prior to law school and her time as a practicing attorney, Anne led Teach For America’s math and science initiative and served as the founding executive director in Seattle. From 1992 to 1994, Anne taught a bilingual fourth grade class in the Rio Grande Valley as part of the Teach For America corps.

Anne received her JD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, where she was awarded the Brian M. Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy for her work in the International Human Rights Law Clinic and served as the co-editor in chief of the Berkeley Journal of International Law and articles editor for La Raza Law Journal. She served on the board of directors for the Center for Victims of Torture from 2004 – 2010. Anne has a BA in government from Beloit College. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.

Dr. Frank Mirabal was appointed by Mayor Richard J. Berry in 2014 to serve on his executive leadership team as the director of collective impact. In this role, Frank brings together cross-sector partners to creatively address the complex challenges the city faces. Frank’s leadership in collective impact efforts has led to the successful design and implementation of Launch to Learn, a nationally recognized summer learning initiative, the Molino Project, an emerging initiative focused on growing immigrant entrepreneurship, and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, which focuses on leveraging opportunities for immigrants and refugees to thrive. Prior to his work in the Mayor’s Office, Frank served as the president of Contigo Research, Policy & Strategy, a national consulting firm providing research, public policy and strategy services to government entities, nonprofits, philanthropy and social enterprises. During his tenure at Contigo, Frank helped raise awareness and visibility of community schools, health care career pathways and integrated education/workforce collaboratives in New Mexico and across the country.

Frank earned a PhD at New Mexico State University in educational leadership and has both a master’s degree in public administration and a BA in communications and journalism from the University of New Mexico. In 2016, Frank completed a one-year fellowship in cross-sector leadership at the Presidio Institute.

Kinnari Patel-Smyth is the executive director of KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools, a non-profit network of nine college-preparatory, public charter schools in educationally underserved communities that educate more than 3,500 K-12 students. Under her leadership, the KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools high school has achieved a 92 percent college acceptance rate. Kinnari will be leading KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools’ growth in the coming years as it doubles in size to educate more than 7,000 K-12 students and prepare them for college and a choice-filled life. Kinnari joined the KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools team in 2012 as the chief academic officer and served in that role for two years before being named executive director. Prior to joining KIPP, Kinnari served in a number of roles at the Explore Schools Network in Brooklyn. While at Explore Schools, she was selected to participate in the national New Leaders for New Schools principal preparation program, served as the principal of Explore Charter School for five years, and was the managing director of schools responsible for managing three schools and overseeing the principal residency program. Kinnari began her career as an elementary school teacher in Atlanta and Fort Worth, driven by the belief that education has the power to be the true equalizer in our country—a belief that continues to fuel her work. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Salisbury University in Maryland and her master’s degree in school administration from Pace University in New York.

Tory Patterson is the co-founder and managing director of Owl Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in the world’s leading education technology companies. Tory has led several investments in the education sector and currently serves on the board of directors of Accelerate Learning, DreamBox Learning, EdSurge, LearnZillion, MasteryConnect, Newsela, and PresenceLearning. Tory serves as an advisor to several education technology incubators and is an advisory board member of the iHub initiative within the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

Prior to founding Owl Ventures, Tory was a partner at Catamount Ventures, a San Francisco based venture capital fund focused on mission-driven companies. While at Catamount, Tory advised several start-ups from the idea stage through launch, financing and commercialization. Tory was a key member of the team that incubated, supported and built Plum Organics, from early vision to becoming the world’s largest organic baby and kids’ food company, to eventual successful exit to Campbell’s. Tory founded and ran Catamount’s education investment practice. Prior to joining Catamount Ventures, Tory was an investment banker with Robertson Stephens and GCA.

Tory earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Williams College and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He lives in Woodside, CA with his wife and four young children.

Lesley Poole is the chief executive officer at The SEED Foundation, where she is responsible for the overall health and vitality of the SEED network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools and their mission: critical college success programming. Lesley joined The SEED School of Washington, D.C. 18 years ago as a founding faculty member and has held positions ranging from director of admissions to director of parent & community relations to head of school for student life. Since transitioning to The SEED Foundation, Lesley has served in several management positions, including the director of outreach and government relations, before becoming chief operating officer.

Lesley began her career in education as a mathematics instructor. Later, she served as the service area director for the School Division of the San Francisco Educational Services (SFED), where she oversaw five programs for inner-city children with special needs in San Francisco. She has two bachelor’s degrees: one from San Diego State University/San Francisco State University in chemistry and engineering, and one from Patten College in organizational management.

Lesley remains heavily involved in both the SEED community and the greater Washington community; she serves on the board of Educare, an early childhood education school and community center in Ward 7, as well as Excellence Christian School, located in Upper Marlboro.

Margaret “Macke” Raymond has served as founder and director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University since its inception in 1999. The CREDO team conducts rigorous and independent analysis and evaluation of promising programs that aim to improve outcomes for students in US K-12 public schools. Their mantra is, “we let the data speak.” The team conducts large-scale analyses under a collaboration with 30 state education agencies. Macke has steered the group to be a well-regarded source of impartial insight into the performance and workings of charter schools, city reform strategies and national reform programs.

CREDO’s studies and reports are relied upon by the US Department of Education, governors, state chief school officers, state legislators, the courts, other policy makers and the media. Supporters and opponents alike point to CREDO findings, moving the debate past evidence disputes to more substantive arguments. She is a regular source for local and national media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Denver Post. Macke’s deep belief in building capacity for improved analysis of programs and policy has found its place through service on advisory boards, technical resource groups and peer review panels. In addition, Macke created a visiting “CREDO-ship” to invite promising policy analysts to visit with the team and collaborate on projects of mutual interest. Macke and her husband, Eric Hanushek live in Stanford, CA with their yellow Labrador Retriever, Sugar.

A proud product of New York City public schools, Ian Rowe is a social entrepreneur who has worked in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, to effect positive change in the lives of young people worldwide. As chief executive officer of Public Preparatory Network, he provides strategic direction for the nation’s only network of exclusively single-sex elementary and middle public schools: Girls Prep and Boys Prep.

Prior to Public Prep, Ian was the deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he worked to increase college completion rates among low income young adults. Before Gates, Ian was senior vice president at MTV where he led global and domestic campaigns, which used the power of media and popular culture to motivate young people to vote, and succeed in college. Prior to MTV, Ian was the director of strategy and performance measurement at The White House USA Freedom Corps office which formed after September 11 to encourage every American to make a lifetime commitment to service.

Ian joined Teach For America in its early days. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical HS, received a BS in computer science engineering from Cornell University and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an Echoing Green Fellow, a Harvard Initiative for Social Enterprise Fellow, and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Thomas Fordham Institute. Ian is a member of the board of directors of Spence-Chapin; a founding board member of the NYC Special Education Collaborative; a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Visiting Committee; and a founding board member of Malaria No More.

Jeremy Smith currently serves as the co-president and executive director of the Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF). Jeremy joined RCF in April of 2009 and assumed the role of executive director in 2011. He directs the foundation’s giving in the areas of K-12 education, medical research and education-related gifts in India and East Africa.

Prior to joining the Rainwater team, Jeremy worked in management consulting for four years, first with McKinsey & Company, serving clients in consumer packaged goods, technology and health care; and later as an associate director with DenuoSource LLC, primarily in marketing and organizational design.

Prior to McKinsey, he worked in operations research at Merck & Co., where he managed global operations improvement projects in both Latin America and Asia.

Fluent in Spanish and proficient in Chinese, Jeremy is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Divinity School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas with a BS in Engineering. During college he spent one year teaching in an elementary classroom and received a District Outstanding Teacher of the Year award. Jeremy currently serves as a board member at Reading Partners, Strive Together, Dallas Zero to Five Funders Collaborative, TFA DFW Board of Advisors, and First Three Years.

Chris Sturgis is principal of LearningEdge, a consulting firm based in Santa Fe, specializing in modernizing schools including competency-based education. Chris brings together knowledge about education, youth issues, equity strategies, workforce development and community engagement. Chris’s approach begins with drawing on local knowledge (metis) early in the design process. Chris is recognized for her leadership in competency-based education as a co-founder of CompetencyWorks and recipient of the iNACOL Innovator Award. She is a prolific writer on competency-based education based on visits to schools and interviews with leaders in the field.

Chris’ previous experience was in philanthropy including the Omidyar Network and the Mott Foundation. Chris was a co-founder of the Youth Transition Funders Group, a philanthropic network. She has also worked in state government, human service organizations, and political campaigns. Chris earned a masters in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. When not working, Chris will be found reading, traveling the world or planning the next trip.

Dr. Soner Tarim is a founder and former CEO of Harmony Public Schools, high performing K-12 public charter schools located in Texas with a strong focus on STEM education providing opportunities for under-served communities. Soner is the driving force in creating STEM academies with an emphasis on college-readiness. His leadership philosophy recognizes the need to develop meaningful partnerships, maintain open collaborative lines of communication, and leverage relationships with high-level corporate, business, civic, and legislative leadership to advance the mission of Harmony and opportunities for its beneficiaries.

Under Soner’s leadership, Harmony has grown from one to 54 schools and 34,000 students throughout the state of Texas, many of which have been recognized nationally as academically competitive schools. Harmony has received numerous outstanding awards and recognition including the National Title I Distinguished School Award for closing the achievement gap and a Broad Prize nomination.

Over his 27-year professional career, Soner has developed innovative educational programs geared to K-12 schools. Soner has distinguished himself as a results-oriented educator with unrivaled expertise and knowledge in developing and managing innovative charter schools. Currently, Soner has been developing a new national public charter school program, Royal Public Schools, that incorporates STEM with Fine Arts, Reading/Writing, and Social Emotional Learning (STREAMS).

Soner holds a PhD from Texas A&M University and is a trained biologist and ecologist. He has taught many courses in the field of biology, ecology, and general science at the high school, college and graduate school levels. Soner has spearheaded scientific symposiums and international science competitions for high school students for sharing their ideas, experiences, and knowledge to promote global sustainability.

Robbyn Wahby is the founding executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Commission, a state-wide sponsor of charter public schools. Prior to her appointment to the Commission in 2015, Robbyn served as deputy chief of staff to St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, where she provided direction and advice on education and children’s policy. She joined the Mayor in 2001 and was responsible for the city’s K-12 school reform effort, first focusing on district transformation and then quality charter public school expansion. She created the Mayor’s Commission on Children, Youth & Families, a community-wide early collective impact strategy to improve childhood well-being in St. Louis.

Prior to joining the Mayor, Robbyn was the director of alumni and constituent relations for the University of Missouri – St. Louis, a community development specialist with the Family Investment Trust, and served as director of neighborhood leaders and Women in Leadership for the Coro – Midwestern Center. For nearly a decade, Robbyn worked for the Community Schools in St. Louis Public Schools. Robbyn was elected to the St. Louis Board of Education and served six years. Robbyn currently serves on the board of National Association of Charter School Authorizers, the University of Missouri-St. Louis Pierre Laclede Honors College Leadership Council, Nonprofit Missouri board of directors, and the Missouri Children’s Leadership Council. She earned her master’s in public policy administration and her bachelor’s in business administration, both from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. She and her husband have two teenage children and live in St. Louis.

Gary Borden is the executive director of California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA Advocates), which serves as the political advocacy organization for California’s population of over 1,200 California charter schools and the 603,000 public school students they serve. Gary is also senior vice president for civic affairs at the California Charter Schools Association, the sister organization to CCSA Advocates.

Prior to his current work, Gary served as deputy executive director for the California State Board of Education where he was responsible for the successful implementation of the board’s policy agenda. Gary began his work in public education in 2004, working for the Charter Schools Development Center where he provided legal and policy supports to California’s charter schools sector. A lawyer by profession, Gary previously worked as an attorney for Cooley Godward LLP where his practice focused on venture capital transactions and mergers and acquisitions. Gary holds a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University, majoring in economics and international business, and JD from Georgetown University. Gary lives in Oakland, California with his partner Audrey. He is a rock climber and general outdoor enthusiast.

Sharlonda Buckman is the chief executive officer of Detroit Parent Network, an independent nonprofit organization that she has built from a high potential startup nonprofit to the most influential parent advocacy organization in Detroit, with significant national recognition and presence for her organization’s work. As a leader, she has used her voice to engage thousands of parents across multiple education systems to be more conscious, intentional, and engaged on issues that impact their children. Sharlonda has served in leadership roles within the human services field for more than 25 years in local and national agencies.

Sharlonda serves on the board of Michigan Future Schools, New Detroit, Excellent Schools Detroit, and Michigan College Access Network. She has been the recipient of several awards including the Judge Wade McCree Jr. Friend of Children Award, Spirit of Detroit, Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40, the Detroit News Michiganian of the Year, Michigan Chronicle Legacy Award, Women of Excellence and others for her personal and professional accomplishments.

Sharlonda takes a leadership role in helping to create an improved education landscape for Detroit’s children. She is sought to speak locally and nationally, most recently leading the launch of the International Education Colloquium in Bermuda. She was appointed by Michigan’s Governor to the Education Achievement Authority Board, which supports the redesign of public education in Michigan’s lowest performing schools.

Sharlonda earned her master’s degree in community economic development. She is a mother, a wife and a committed member of the Detroit community.

Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Ph.D., is the chief executive officer of IBA-Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, an organization dedicated to empowering individuals through education, workforce development and arts programs, and to creating vibrant affordable housing communities. During her tenure, IBA has completed a dramatic turnaround and is now the largest Latino-led nonprofit in Greater Boston.

Vanessa has served as advisor to various task forces, boards, commissions and high-profile searches, including Boston’s Police Department and Public Health Commission. In 2009, she was selected for the prestigious Barr Foundation Fellowship granted to the most gifted non-profit leaders in Greater Boston. In 2010, Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick appointed her to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the first Latina in the Commonwealth’s history. She is a founding board member of the Margarita Muñiz Academy, the first dual-language innovation high school in Massachusetts. In November 2013, Mayor-elect Martin Walsh appointed Vanessa to co-lead his housing transition team. In April 2014, Mayor Walsh appointed her as a member of his newly formed Housing Task Force. In December 2014, Governor-elect Charlie Baker appointed Vanessa to the Safe, Stronger Communities Transition Committee.

Vanessa is a Puerto Rican-born civic leader who received her doctorate from UMASS Boston.

Steve Canavero is a senior advisor at WestEd. Prior to working at WestEd, Steve was the superintendent of public instruction for the State of Nevada. Steve was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval in February of 2016 to oversee the state’s education system serving nearly 470,000 students. Steve is committed to equity and ensuring all Nevada children have the economic opportunity they deserve. He previously served as the deputy superintendent for student achievement at the Nevada Department of Education. While there, he played a major role in the development and passage of a compressive suite of educational investments and reforms successfully passed in the 2015 Legislature.

He previously served as the first director of Nevada’s newly created State Public Charter School Authority. His initial work there resulted in Nevada’s state charter school policy becoming one of the highest rated in the nation. Steve is serving his second term as a board member and treasurer at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He earned a bachelor’s in ecology and systematic biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Nevada, Reno.

As chief research, design and innovation officer at the KIPP Foundation, Jonathan Cowan partners with and oversees: KIPP’s national Research & Evaluation and Insight & Analytics teams (focused on creating ongoing visibility into KIPP’s network-wide performance, generating actionable insights, and ensuring high quality data and research to support network leaders in making data-driven decisions); the national KIPP Through College team (focused on ensuring that KIPP alumni nationwide successfully matriculate to and graduate from college); KIPP’s Knowledge Sharing team (focused on disseminating promising ideas and practices as well as executing KIPP School Summit, an annual gathering of KIPP’s leaders, teachers, and staff for connecting, learning, and sharing); and KIPP’s Technology team (focused on application development and technology infrastructure).

Prior to joining KIPP, Jonathan spent over ten years at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where he assisted senior executives of large, complex organizations in addressing strategic, operational, and organizational issues and in managing large scale change. As a principal and then as a partner and managing director at BCG, Jonathan spent several years helping to build and lead BCG’s public education practice. Jonathan has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BS in applied mathematics from Yale University. Jonathan lives in the greater Chicago area with his wife Kris and their three sons.

Will Crossley is the fifth president of The Piney Woods School. In July 2014, he returned to Piney Woods as the first alumnus to serve in this capacity in the school’s 107-year history.

Trained in both education and civil rights, in 2013 he was selected as a senior executive service appointee by the President of the United States. In that capacity, Will served as senior advisor in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where he provided counsel with respect to the Department’s enforcement responsibilities for federal laws prohibiting discrimination by educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance. Prior to his presidential appointment, Will was chief counsel for the Democratic National Committee, where his work included managing voting rights litigation on behalf of the national party. Formerly, he was also a senior litigation attorney at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, during which time he held a diverse portfolio of government investigations, white collar defense, business litigation and civil rights matters.

Earlier in his career, Will served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Honorable Julian Abele Cook, Jr., U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Michigan. Immediately following law school, he was awarded the Barton Postgraduate Legal Fellowship at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law.

Will holds a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in public policy studies from the University of Chicago, a Master of Education in School Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University, and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Before his legal career began, Will was a policy analyst in the Georgia Governor’s Office, an educational researcher, and an elementary school teacher.

Will is married to the former Monica Akuamoah, and they have two daughters, Kayla and Christin.

Felicia Cumings Smith is a senior program officer of K-12 Education at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before transitioning to the foundation, Felicia directed the Kentucky field work for the National Institute for School Leadership and the National Center for Education. Prior to that, she was as an associate commissioner of education and chief academic officer from 2009 to 2014. She led the work of three branches of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) focused on improving teaching and learning opportunities for all students (preschool through college entry) and increasing teacher effectiveness.

Felicia also served as the executive director of the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development at the University of Kentucky. While there, she led a multi-million-dollar center focused on research and professional development in P-12 literacy education (early childhood through adulthood). Additionally, she was a part of the faculty in the teacher preparation program focused on literacy education. Felicia started her career as an elementary and reading resource teacher in Jefferson County (Kentucky) Public Schools where she helped design and lead curriculum work in literacy and formative assessment benchmarks. Felicia holds an EdD in instruction and administration from the University of Kentucky, and a Master of Education, K-12 Reading Specialist, and a Bachelor of Science, Elementary Education, from the University of Louisville.

Hilary Darilek currently serves as the chief executive officer of E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, an award-winning Pre-K-12th grade school in Washington, DC serving 1,150 students from across the city. The school is named for Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes, the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics and a DC Public School (DCPS) teacher for nearly 50 years.

Before E.L. Haynes, she served as a deputy chief and led the Principal Effectiveness division at DCPS. In this role, she oversaw the systems design and operationalization of the recruitment, selection, development, evaluation, and retention of school leaders for all 113 DC Public Schools. Her pioneering work in this role garnered national recognition. Prior to DCPS, Hilary served as managing director of the DC Program of New Leaders, a leading, national urban principal training program working with both the district and charter schools of the city. She began her career as a high-performing middle school math and science teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. She was also an education researcher at the RAND Corporation.

Hilary holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from the College of William and Mary, a master’s degree in teaching from the Johns Hopkins University, a second master’s degree from the London School of Economics in applied mathematics, and an executive master’s degree in leadership from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. She is a Washington, D.C. native and committed to her work in service of the city’s students.

Christie Huck is executive director of City Garden Montessori Charter School in St. Louis, Missouri. With a background in community organizing and social activism, Christie entered the education reform movement as a parent and community member concerned about racial equity and integration in schools.

She worked with City Garden’s founder and parents to develop an anti-biased, anti-racist neighborhood Montessori school that serves children from preschool through eighth grade. City Garden opened as a charter school in 2008 and provides children with a rigorous, individualized education with a focus on social justice. Christie and her three children live in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis.

Holly Kuzmich is executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, where she leads the public policy organization’s strategy and management. The work of the Institute is achieved through its impact centers on domestic excellence, which includes education reform, economic growth, veterans, and the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, and global leadership, which includes human freedom and democracy, global health, and the women’s initiative. Holly also serves as a member of the management team of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, leading strategic planning and board relations, and as a board member of Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an independent global health affiliate of the Bush Institute.

Previously, Holly was vice president and chief operating officer of Margaret Spellings & Company, a public policy consulting firm with a specialty in education and workforce issues at the national, state, and local levels. Holly also served as the assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs and deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education. In those roles, she oversaw policy development on K-12 and higher education issues and served as the main liaison with Congress and the White House on education policy.

Holly came to the Department from the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she developed and advanced administration policies on education issues. Prior to that, she spent five years working in the U.S. Senate on domestic policy.

Holly earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and urban studies from Northwestern University.

Ted Maple is program director in the education division at Lilly Endowment Inc. Lilly Endowment is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic organization supporting the causes of religion, education and community development. Prior to joining Lilly Endowment, Ted served as president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, a leading provider of quality early learning programs and coordinator of a number of statewide efforts to improve early childhood practices and policies in Indiana. Before assuming his role at Early Learning Indiana, Ted served as director of United Way of Central Indiana’s early childhood education initiatives and school-based programs.

Earlier in Ted’s career, he managed the early childhood program at St. Mary’s Child Center, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit for at-risk children. He also taught kindergarten and first grade in the M.S.D. of Pike Township, a public school district on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Ted has been active in the Indianapolis community, where he has served on various boards, committees and workgroups related to education. He earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from University of Indianapolis, master’s degree from Butler University, and a Ph.D. from Ball State University. Ted lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Johanna, and three sons: Sam, Jonah and Adam.

David Montague is the founder and executive director of the Memphis Teacher Residency (MTR), an urban teacher residency that began in 2008. Prior to MTR, David served for two years (2005-2007) with Campus Crusade for Christ in East Asia. From 2000-2005, David was the executive director of Service Over Self, an urban community development and home repair ministry.

From 1987-2000, David was an investment broker with Morgan Keegan & Co. He also served as managing director there from 1993-2005. David, a lifetime Memphian, graduated in 1986 from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. He has been married to his wife, Kelli, since 1992 and they have five daughters. Outside of family and work, David is an avid cyclist.

Carlos Moreno is the co-executive director of Big Picture Learning (BPL), an organization committed to creating and supporting student-centered schools across the U.S. and Internationally. In this role, Carlos is the visionary for all U.S. school and district wide programs. He leads a national team of directors and school design coaches to support services for district leaders in both BPL network schools and non-network schools.

Carlos joined the BPL national leadership team in 2010 as a regional director in New Jersey where he supported innovation efforts throughout the state. This preceded his role as BPL’s National Director of Schools. Prior to that, Carlos was a decorated teacher, principal, and interim superintendent at The Met Center, BPL’s flagship school in Providence, RI. All of this after a brief, but successful career in the corporate sector. Carlos is an author and speaker, but is happiest as a roll-up-your-sleeves expert practitioner in designing highly engaging schools and environments for youth, particularly those who have not been served well by traditional schools. Carlos holds undergraduate degrees in marketing and business from Johnson & Wales University as well as a master’s degree in Educational Leadership.

Mildred Otero is the vice president for policy & advocacy at Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE). In this role, she works to support LEE members in their leadership development as they work within public policy and advocacy to end educational inequities. Prior to joining LEE, she served as the chief education counsel for Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where she managed the Senate Majority’s education agenda, and its policy development and strategy for children from cradle to career. Such efforts included, legislation addressing early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education and adult education. Previously, Mildred served as a senior policy officer with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; as senior advisor under then Secretary Clinton at the United States Department of State/United States Agency for International Development; and as senior policy advisor to Clinton in the U.S. Senate. Additionally, Mildred served as legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Deputy Director for Early Childhood at the Children’s Defense Fund.

Before her work in Washington, D.C., Mildred served as a counselor for child victims of sexual and physical abuse at the King’s County District Attorney’s Office. She began her career as a legislative aide to then NYS Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver in Albany, NY.

Mildred earned a bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York-Albany and a master of social work degree from New York University, Silver School of Social Work.

Brittany Packnett is the vice president of national community alliances at Teach For America (TFA). She is an activist, educator and public thinker from St. Louis, raised in a tradition of social justice. Brittany leads nationally on issues of educational equity, youth leadership development, service and equity in marginalized communities. She is a former Washington, D.C. elementary school teacher, a policy advocate and expert, and capitol hill staffer. She is responsible for managing alliances with constituents of color and crafting the first civil rights agenda for TFA. 

Brittany has committed her life and career to justice. In Ferguson and beyond, she is an active protester, activist, and organizer. Since the death of Michael Brown in 2014, Brittany has helped organize for change and worked on the planning teams of the Ferguson Protester Newsletter, We The Protestors, and co-founded Campaign Zero, a comprehensive policy platform to end police violence in America. Brittany served as a stalwart community voice and appointee to the Ferguson Commission and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She continues to advocate for urgent systemic change at critical decision making tables and through national and international media. 

A sought after speaker, she has addressed crowds from Detroit to New Zealand, and she was recently featured at the historic Oxford Union, the world’s oldest debating society. She has been named one of 12 New Faces of Black Leadership in TIME and one of LinkedIn’s 2016 Next Wave. She has been featured in The Root and The Ebony 100, and shares the 2015 Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership and the number 3 spot on Politico’s 2016 50 most influential list with fellow activist, Deray Mckesson.

Dr. Manuel Ponce, Jr. currently serves as a clinical associate professor and director of the Institute of School Leadership and Administration (ISLA) at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). He Joined LMU in August of 2015 after spending the beginning of his career as an elementary and middle school teacher, a principal of a high achieving charter middle school, PUC Lakeview Charter Academy, and most recently the regional superintendent for PUC Schools (Valley). He has also served as a university supervisor and adjunct professor in the LMU ISLA program.

Manuel earned his BA in liberal studies from California State University, Northridge and his MA in educational leadership as a Fellow in the Charter School Leadership Academy at Loyola Marymount University. In 2010, he was named Student of the Year for the LMU School of Education and in 2013, earned a Doctorate in educational leadership for social justice from LMU. Manuel currently sits as board chair of the PUC Schools Board of Trustees, and a board member of PUC National and WISH Charter Schools. His research areas include educational leadership preparation, communities of practice, charter and traditional public school collaboration, and urban school reform.

Rolando Posada is executive director of IDEA San Antonio, the fastest-growing region of IDEA Public Schools. IDEA is an open-enrollment, tuition-free, public charter school system with the mission of College for All Children. Rolando moved his family to San Antonio in 2012 and has grown the region from one to 20 schools in five years. By August 2022, IDEA San Antonio will have a total of 30 schools. Prior to this role, Rolando was a Vice President of Schools for IDEA in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where he led his high schools to national recognition and 100% college acceptance for several years, while serving a predominantly Latino population in which more than 85% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch.

Recently, IDEA was named America’s Best Charter School Network, winning the coveted Broad Prize for Charter Schools award, and boasts national rankings on The Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report’s top high schools lists. In 2007, Rolando was promoted to the principal role where he led the turnaround of IDEA Frontier College Prep from academically unacceptable to an exemplary Texas Education Agency rating, in two years. The school is consistently ranked among the best in the nation, per the Washington Post & US News & World Report. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and his MBA from the University of Sioux Falls. He holds teacher, principal, and superintendent certificates.

Deborah is the founder and managing partner of GSV Acceleration Fund, a venture capital fund investing in great entrepreneurs and their companies in the $55B learning and talent technology sector. GSV Acceleration’s portfolio includes Andela, Clever, ClassDojo, Course Hero, CreativeLive, Degreed, Lightneer, Pluralsight, Raise, and Turnitin, among others.

Previously Deborah co-founded GSV Advisors, a boutique advisory firm focused on learning and human capital technology companies. She also co-founded the annual ASU GSV Summit. This event, now in its 8th year, with over 3,500 in attendance, celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape. She previously co-founded ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique technology-focused investment bank, which was acquired in 2007 by a UK firm. Prior to that, she was a managing director in Investment Banking and head of the Global Growth Group at Merrill Lynch & Co. She began her career at J.P Morgan.

Deborah currently serves on the board of Degreed, Lightneer, and Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) and is a board observer at ClassDojo, CreativeLive, and Raise. She is a member of the boards of The Chicago Public Education Fund, The Common Ground Foundation, KIPP: Chicago, National Louis University, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, The Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, and the Honorary Board of Marwen. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including the Chicago Board of Education, America’s Promise Alliance, and Teach for America Chicago. Deborah has received the 2014 Arnold M. Berlin ’46 Distinguished Service to Princeton Award from the Princeton University Club of Chicago, the 2014 Visionary of the Year Award from CFY PowerMyLearning, the 2016 LEAP Innovator in Education “Champion” Award from LEAP innovations, the 2016 Inaugural Impact Award from Golden Apple Foundation, and the 2017 Visionary Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) PreK-12 Learning Group.

Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University 1987.

Tim Saintsing is the executive director of Teaching and Learning Labs at the Relay Graduate School of Education, a national institution of higher education whose mission is to teach teachers and school leaders to develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in college and life. Tim transitioned to this position after serving as Relay’s chief operating officer for nearly five years, where he helped lead the school’s expansion from one state to ten, and oversaw its day-to-day technology, finance, talent, human resources, enrollment, registration, facility-related, and student-support operations.

Prior to Relay, Tim helped launch and lead the country’s first all-boys charter school, Uncommon’s Excellence Boys Charter School, as its founding co-director of operations. Prior to Uncommon, Tim served as a special assistant for No Child Left Behind for the New York City Department of Education. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Davidson College and his master’s degree in public policy from Duke University.

Joshua Smith is Associate Dean of Instructional Leadership Programs with Relay Graduate School of Education, overseeing Principal coaching and leadership development initiatives in Colorado. Prior to this role, Josh served as chief academic officer for STRIVE Prep, overseeing the academic programming across a network of 11 schools spanning grades K through 12. Previously, Josh served as chief schools officer with STRIVE Prep, managing and coaching Principals across the network and overseeing the leadership development of STRIVE Prep Administrators and Principal Fellows. He was the founding Principal of STRIVE Prep’s Harvey Park Campus (now Westwood) for three years, leading the school in achieving the highest academic growth of any middle school in Colorado and earning the status of #1 (of approximately 160 schools) on Denver Public Schools’ School Performance Framework.

Josh was a Teach For America corps member in the Rio Grande Valley from 2001 to 2004, where he was recognized as Campus Teacher of the Year (2003-2004) and Wal-Mart Community Teacher of the Year (2003-2004). Prior to re-locating to Colorado, Josh spent several years conducting research and policy advocacy in Washington, DC, with think-tanks such as the Stimson Center and the Woodrow Wilson Center. He was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2006. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He is intensely proud of the extraordinarily dedicated and hard-working students, teachers, and families of the STRIVE Prep community.

Juan is currently the EVP, Operations at Getaround, Inc. which is the leading peer-to-peer carsharing platform enabling renters to instantly reserve, locate, and unlock cars shared by individuals. Juan
leads all operations including sales, customer happiness, claims and insurance, safety and vehicle management and logistics.

Prior to that Juan was the COO at Voxy, the leading product-centric English Language Learning (ELL) solution whose mission is to teach the world english. He led Voxy from a consumer product into the market leading ELL SaaS business serving thousands of learners in universities and multinational companies in Latin America, Asia and Europe. Before his time at Voxy, Juan was an operating partner at Ascend Venture Group (Alquimia Capital), a New York based venture firm, evaluating investment opportunities in the digital content and learning space.

Prior to that, Juan oversaw revenue, marketing and strategic partnerships at UniversityNow, a social venture whose mission is to offer an affordable, high quality post-secondary education to people everywhere. Juan and his team executed on a growth strategy that simultaneously drove high enrollment growth and lowered marketing acquisition costs, all while receiving no federal student loan funding. He was the co-founder and president of Platform Learning, which provided tutoring services to low-income students. Platform tutored over 50,000 low-income students in over 500 schools in 10 states throughout the U.S. In two year, he grew Platform to 300+ full-time employees, 3,000+ part-time employees and $58+ million in revenue. He also co-founded LearnNow, a school management company that sold to Edison Schools.

Before his career as an entrepreneur, Juan held positions in finance and private equity, including co-heading the software group at Thomas Weisel Partners. He led the largest revenue group at the firm raising $4+ billion in capital and advising on $2.5+ billion in M&A transactions. He also opened the West Coast office of Dain Rauscher Wessels, an investment bank with an early focus on Internet software.

Juan has a BBA from Baruch College, CUNY, JD from Michigan Law School, and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley where he was a University Scholar (full-tuition scholarship). He currently lives in the Bay Area and was raised in the South Bronx.

Kelly Young is the executive director of Education Reimagined, an initiative of Convergence committed to accelerating the growth and impact of the learner-centered education movement. Education Reimagined was launched out of an 18-month Convergence dialogue that she led among 28 ideologically diverse education practitioners and leaders to reimagine education. Kelly is also senior vice president of Convergence and one of the founding vice presidents.

Previously, she served as the interim chief of the Office of Family and Public Engagement for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), where she helped implement home visits and other high-impact family engagement strategies. During her tenure, she led DCPS’s strategic planning process that engaged thousands of students, teachers, parents, and community members in a Hopes and Dreams campaign that ended in a 5-year district-wide plan.

From 1998-2007, Kelly served as the executive director of a national political organization. Under her leadership, the organization thrived and grew to be one of the largest political action committees in the country—helping elect over a hundred of candidates nationwide.

She lives with her husband and two children in Washington, DC. She received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA in anthropology from the University of Virginia.

Lynzi Ziegenhagen is founder and chief executive officer of Schoolzilla, a public benefit corporation whose mission is to enable people to use data to run great schools for students, especially students from underserved communities. Schoolzilla grew out of the team and technology Lynzi developed over five years at Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization based in Oakland, CA.

Prior to serving as vice president of technology at Aspire, Lynzi ran her own technology consulting business for nonprofit organizations, led product management at a 40 person mobile software startup and served as technology program manager for the Children’s Partnership. Lynzi earned her bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems from Stanford University and her master’s degree in computer science from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Derrell Bradford is the executive vice president of 50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now, and the executive director of its New York branch, NYCAN. In his role, Derrell trains and recruits local leaders across the country to serve as executive directors of state CANs, advocacy fellows, and citizen advocates. He is also a member of the organization’s executive and leadership teams.

Derrell previously served as the executive director of Better Education for Kids (B4K), which worked to secure the passage of tenure reform legislation in New Jersey. Prior to B4K, Derrell spent nine years at Excellent Education for Everyone (E3) under the mentorship of education reform leader Dan Gaby. At E3, he also served as a member of the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force. Before his work in education, Derrell worked as an editor at City Guide and 411 Magazines in New York. His passion for writing continues at present, and he often authors essays on education, race, equity, and culture.

Derrell serves on several boards and leadership councils that focus on educational equity: Success Academy Charter Schools; The Partnership for Educational Justice; EdBuild; and The National Alliance of Charter School Authorizers Advisory Board, among others.

Derrell is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in English. A native of Baltimore, he currently lives outside New York City and can be found riding his bike along the Hudson, rooting for Tottenham Hotspur (and Liverpool), photographing the city, and refusing to try new foods.

Chris Cerf currently serves as superintendent of the Newark Public Schools. He previously served as New Jersey’s commissioner of education, in which capacity he oversaw 2,500 public schools, 1.4 million students, and 110,000 teachers across over 600 school districts.

Between 2004 and 2009, Chris was deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education where he led organizational strategy, innovation, labor relations and all matters pertaining to recruiting, supporting, developing, and evaluating the nearly 80,000 teachers and 1,450 principals who work in the nation’s largest school district. Before assuming that role, he served as New York City Chancellor Joel Klein’s chief advisor on transformation, where he led efforts to redesign the financial and organizational structure of the New York City Department of Education.

In the private sector, Chris was president and chief operating officer of Edison Schools, Inc, and chief executive officer of Amplify Insight, which develops education software that supports more than 200,000 educators and three million K-12 students in all 50 states. He earlier served as associate counsel to President Clinton and as a partner in two Washington, D.C., law firms. A graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review, Chris also was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Prior to attending law school, he spent four years as a high school history teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Linda Chaput is the founder and chief executive officer of Agile Mind, Inc., an education company that has pioneered the application of emerging technologies to transform the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in middle and high schools. The company works closely with leading researchers and educators—among them, The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), The Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and the Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative—to develop instructional and assessment programs, tools, reports, and professional services, and partners with school districts to implement them. The results: dramatically improved outcomes in student engagement and achievement, as well as teacher effectiveness and satisfaction.

Almost 4 million adolescent learners and 35,000 educators have participated in Agile Mind programs since its founding. The company hosts one of the largest repositories of data on student learning of mathematics and social-emotional and non-cognitive concepts in the country. These data are used by researchers for continuous improvement and to deepen the research base for those working to foster high achievement—especially in school systems serving highly diverse, low-income populations.

Before founding Agile Mind, Linda founded and led Cogito, which developed supplemental digital resources for critical competency subjects in higher education.

Earlier, for almost a decade, Linda led the education and reference publishing companies of Scientific American, a leading publisher of books, magazines, software, and other educational, reference, and recreational materials for college students, professionals, and other interested readers of science, mathematics, and medicine.

Naomi Rubin DeVeaux is the deputy director of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DC PCSB), the sole charter school authorizer in Washington, D.C. She oversees the development and implementation of an innovative suite of monitoring strategies—now used by charter authorizers elsewhere—which measure public charter schools’ academic performance, financial health, and their commitment to equity using non-academic indicators such as attendance, discipline, and re-enrollment. She has testified, written, and presented extensively on the role of public charter schools in providing quality educational choices to K-12 students and their families.

Before joining DC PCSB in 2012, Naomi was the deputy director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), D.C.’s charter advocacy and school support organization. She also serves on the board of Charter Board Partners, designed to improve charter school governance, and Lumina Studio Theatre, a youth Shakespeare acting company. Naomi’s leadership in education reform is informed by over a decade of teaching and academic coaching in traditional and charter schools and in Germany, as a Fulbright scholar. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Reed College and master’s in curriculum and instruction from California State University, Long Beach.

Steven Dow has served as executive director of Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa) since 1992. CAP Tulsa embraces a two-generation, anti-poverty strategy which focuses on providing high-quality early childhood education coupled with comprehensive family support services. CAP Tulsa currently serves more than 3,000 young children in center and home-based early education. CAP Tulsa operates CareerAdvance—a sector-based workforce training effort which is preparing the parents of the young children it serves for careers in the healthcare sector.

CAP Tulsa has received national recognition for its innovative and effective approaches, having been honored in the initial class of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family Counts National Honors program, a member of the Fannie Mae Foundation Alliance, and named as a National Head Start Center of Excellence. For the last two years, CAP Tulsa has been recognized by the NonProfit Times on its list of Best Places to Work.

Steven is a 2012 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow and serves on numerous boards. He and his wife, Stacy, have been married for 30 years and have three daughters.

John Eriksen is co-founder and managing partner of The Drexel Fund, a venture philanthropy fund that invests in the growth of high-quality, financially sustainable networks of faith-based and other private schools to create transformational outcomes for students and families. Prior to The Drexel Fund, John worked at the Leadership Roundtable with a focus on Catholic schools.

At age 34, John became one of the youngest Catholic school superintendents in the country in Paterson, New Jersey, where his work was featured in the Time Magazine article “Looking for Solutions to the Catholic School Crisis.” John began his career in education as a high school teacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as part of the 4th cohort of teachers in the Alliance for Catholic Education. John earned a BA in economics, history and government from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a MAT from the University of Portland and a MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Elected in 2015, Lisa Flores is a member of the Board of Education for Denver Public Schools. For the past 25 years, Lisa has worked in the nonprofit, local government and philanthropic sectors. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz in American Studies and a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Regis University.

A former Peace Corps volunteer (Ecuador 1994-96), Lisa has continued her commitment to volunteer community service by participating on numerous community boards, including: the Latina Initiative, NARAL Colorado, Children’s Museum of Denver, Denver Housing Authority, and the Denver Public Library. Currently, she serves as an appointed commissioner for Denver Urban Renewal Authority and is a Rocky Mountain PBS board member. Lisa is married to Rick Tallman, a Gulf War-era veteran, who works in renewable energy.

Adam Freed is the chief executive officer of Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT), a community of more than 4 million educators who connect to share, buy, and, sell original educational resources. The teachers on TpT have created more than 2.6 million original resources which touch nearly every aspect of Pre-K – 12 education, teaching practice, and classroom design. The New York-based company has a vision to make the wisdom and expertise of all the world’s educators available to anyone, anywhere, any time.

Prior to joining TpT, Adam was the chief operating officer of Etsy.com and led international product management and international online sales operations teams at Google.

Adam speaks ten languages, including Japanese and Spanish. He holds a master’s degree from Yale Law School, where he was a John S. Knight Fellow and a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Harvard. In his spare time, he co-chairs the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. He is a happy husband and has twin five-year old sons.

Drew Furedi is President and Chief Executive Officer of Para Los Niños, a nonprofit organization working to create academic success and social well-being for children in poverty. In this role, Drew leads a team of more than 400 professionals, annually serving more than 5,000 of the city’s most impoverished children and their families through charter schools, early education centers, a range of mental health and social services, and extensive community outreach, youth development and parent engagement programs.

Drew came to Para Los Niños after serving in multiple leadership roles with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In his time there, Drew oversaw human capital strategies and programs for the more than 30,000 district instructional staff, including the launch of a new division focused on talent management, new educator evaluations, and professional development initiatives.

Before this, Drew was a partner with The New Teacher Project, managing nationwide efforts to attract teachers to difficult-to-staff urban and rural school districts. He also worked on national service program development and review with AmeriCorps programs. Drew began his career as a teacher in Baltimore Public Schools as Teach for America corps member.

Drew holds a bachelors degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a masters degree in public administration from USC and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership for social justice from Loyola Marymount University. He serves on the board of a charter school and teaches at the doctoral level. He and his wife live in Los Angeles with their son.

Laura Lee McGovern is chief of staff for Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that starts and manages urban public charter schools that close the achievement gap and prepare low-income students to graduate from college. Uncommon Schools educates 19,000 students in grades K-12 across 53 schools in Boston, Camden, Newark, New York City, Rochester and Troy. Uncommon Schools was the 2013 Winner and 2018 Finalist of the Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools.

Laura serves as a member of the executive team at Uncommon, where she also oversees data analytics, marketing and media, and focuses on strategy and organizational effectiveness. Prior to becoming chief of staff, Laura served as founding chief operating officer of Uncommon’s middle and high schools in New York City and founding co-director of operations at Kings Collegiate Charter School.

Before joining Uncommon, Laura was the founding director of analytics in student enrollment at the New York City Department of Education, and was an engagement manager at Katzenbach Partners LLC, a management consulting firm.

Laura received her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She earned her BA in social studies at Harvard College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Jorge Lopez is the chief executive officer of Amethod Public Schools (AMPS), a charter management organization based in Oakland, CA overseeing six charter school sites in multiple counties.

Prior to his work at AMPS, Jorge served as the project director for the Mexican American Alcoholism Project (MAAP) Sacramento Youth Project overseeing supplemental education programs serving over 2,500 youth in schools, subsidized housing projects, and youth justice programs throughout Sacramento County. In 2001, he became a regional director for the Federal Migrant Education Program in Stockton, CA. In 2004, Oakland Charter Academy, the AMPS flagship school, welcomed him as a new principal. By instituting a campaign of complete transformation, he molded Oakland Charter Academy into one of California’s most esteemed middle schools that culminated with the selection as a United States Federal Department of Education, National Blue Ribbon School in 2008. The program replicated and expanded to other areas including Richmond, and developed into a nationally recognized charter management model. In 2009, Oakland Charter Academy was named School of the Year by the California Charter Schools Association and in that same year, he was appointed to the California State Board of Education by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Commitment to serving under privileged youth is a fundamental duty in Jorge’s values. In 2007, Jorge co-founded the Oakland Warthog Rugby Club, a youth rugby club that works with at-risk youth from East Oakland and where he also served as a coach and mentor. In 2015, he founded the Richmond Youth Vanguard that promotes and teaches civic leadership to Richmond area youth.

In his role as co-chief executive officer and superintendent, Doug McCurry oversees student achievement across the Achievement First network through the training and coaching of principals, the development and implementation of principal best practices, and the evaluation of principals and schools.

Prior to co-founding Achievement First in 2003, Doug was one of the founders of Amistad Academy, serving as the school’s instructional leader for three years. In his teaching roles at Amistad Academy, Doug achieved outstanding results. His math students achieved 100 percent proficiency on the Connecticut Mastery Test, and his reading and writing students consistently showed over two years of growth in a single school year. Doug led the development of Achievement First’s standards-based curriculum, including Athena, Achievement First’s online interim assessment and data analysis system. He also leads professional development efforts at Achievement First, and is a sought-after presenter and coach of teachers. Before coming to Amistad Academy and Achievement First, Doug was a management and technology consultant in Atlanta, GA, and taught history and writing and coached basketball and tennis at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC.

A Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Doug earned a BA in history and journalism, and was recently awarded the university’s distinguished young alumnus award. Through the Klingenstein Private School Leadership program, he earned an MA in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Michelle Molitor is the founder and chief executive officer of Fellowship for Race & Equity in Education (FREE), an organization with the mission of creating equitable educational spaces for all students through honest and open dialogue across difference, and collective anti-racist action. This equity work was built in response to the urgency for culturally responsive systemic change for our most vulnerable students—not just in DC, but nationwide. Collaborating directly with a number of national equity organizations to develop Race & Equity in Education Seminars, Michelle was awarded an investment from NewSchools Venture Fund in her first year as an Entrepreneur in Residence to continue developing the FREE curriculum. FREE has partnered with and led work alongside several national, regional and local education agencies across the education ecosystem including the Department of Education, district offices, individual schools, philanthropic groups, and education facing entities.

Michelle began her career in education as a teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools at the elementary and middle school levels before joining E.L. Haynes Public Charter School as a founding administrator in 2004. She was awarded the Washington Post’s Agnes Meyer Distinguished Educational Leadership Award for her extraordinary efforts as the elementary principal at Haynes in 2012.

She holds a BS in education from Central Michigan University and a master of science in administration from Trinity University through New Leaders for New Schools urban principal training fellowship program.

Dianne Morales is the former executive director and chief executive officer of Phipps Neighborhoods, a multi-service agency helping children, youth and families overcome poverty through education and career programming.

An expert in education and workforce programs and policy, Dianne has a wealth of experience in leadership and innovation. Prior to joining Phipps Neighborhoods, Dianne served as executive director of The Door, a premier NYC youth organization, where she grew the organization by over fifty percent in less than five years. She has spent over 20 years in program start-up, including the initial implementation of the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Youth Development and School-Community Services under the Bloomberg Administration, the launching of The Teaching Commission, and the development of Jumpstart, a national early childhood nonprofit organization.

Dianne is a member of the executive committee of the board of directors for the Human Services Council and serves on Mayor de Blasio’s NYC Community Schools Advisory Board. She has been recognized by The Network for Social Management for exemplary performance for the public good, and by the NYC Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as an exceptional Hispanic woman contributing to the Hispanic Community and protecting the public interest. She has also been recognized as a Hispanic Lifestyle Latina of Influence for her positive impact in communities.

Dianne is a native of Brooklyn, NY. She has earned graduate degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Columbia University, as well as a bachelor’s in psychology from the State University of New York in StonyBrook.

Gerald Richards is the founder and principal consultant at Black Unicorn Consultants, a new firm specializing in coaching and consulting for nonprofit organizations and leaders, especially nonprofit leaders of color. He is also the new executive director for the Superpower Agency, a youth literacy and academic enrichment organization located in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Gerald is the former chief executive officer of 826 National, where he led the strategic direction, administration and building of resources for the network of affiliate organizations located in seven cities nationwide, as well the establishment of affiliates in additional US cities. With more than twenty years of management and development experience at local and national nonprofit organizations, Gerald is a respected trainer and sought after speaker on topics of youth development, writing, creativity, and education access. He has been interviewed regularly on these topics and appeared on CBS The Morning, NBC Nightly News, CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s 360, and The Michael Eric Dyson Show, and has had articles published in the Huffington Post and GOOD Online. He has also served as an education expert for national marketing campaigns promoting creativity in and outside the classroom.

Gerald has conducted trainings and presented at conferences including SXSWedu, TEDX: Constitution Drive, TEDX: Cheltenham, Opportunity Collaboration, Higher Order Thinking Schools, American Education Research Association and Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenile in Mexico City. He has represented 826 National at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America, the PSFK Conference, the Big Ideas Fest, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

His nonprofit career includes executive positions at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and UNCF; as well as managerial positions at the University of California, San Francisco; the J. David Gladstone Institutes; Chicago Panel on Social Policy; and The Cradle Foundation. He has managed flourishing relationships and partnerships with corporate, foundation, education and governmental entities including Cole Haan, AT&T, Cartoon Network, Time Warner Cable, Citi, Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, the Lyles Center for Entrepreneurship at Fresno State, and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office.

Gerald was awarded the 2016 News Corp Community Hero Award and is a current fellow in the Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellowship. He has leadership certificates from the Executive Education programs of Harvard Business School, Babson College and the University of the Pacific as well as Rockwood Leadership Institute. He currently serves on the boards of the Academy of American Poets, Newbury College, Thousand Currents, and My Path SF.

Originally from Harlem, NYC, Gerald has a BA in film studies from Wesleyan University and an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

LaShawn Routé Chatmon is the founding executive director of the National Equity Project, leading the organization’s successful transition from the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES). Under her leadership, the National Equity Project has become one of the leading voices in a movement to change the conversation and approach used to achieve racial equity in education.

Prior to joining the National Equity Project, LaShawn served as a teacher and leader at Redwood Day School, Alameda, CA; The Wheeler School, Providence, RI; and Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA. While at Berkeley High, she served as co-director for The Diversity Project with Dr. Pedro Noguera at the University of California at Berkeley. The Diversity Project was a school-university action research project designed to address the disparity in achievement between white students and students of color and to investigate the causes of racial separation.

LaShawn is a contributing author in the book Class Dismissed: A Year in the Heart of An American High School a Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation and has presented at numerous education conferences and convenings across the country. She was a MetLife Teaching Fellow, and a 2015 LeaderSpring Fellow. LaShawn earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from University of California, Berkeley; a Masters of Arts in teaching from Brown University; and completed California State University, Sacramento’s Urban Leadership Program. LaShawn is a California native and resides in Oakland, CA with her husband and their three sons.<

Simeon Schnapper is chief executive officer of Youtopia, an engagement and gamifciation platform and winner of the 4th Annual Digital Media Learning Competition supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to founding Youtopia, Simeon spent his time leading a myriad of startups at the forefront of trending new industries. Simeon produced, directed, wrote, and starred in DOT, a feature length critically acclaimed comedy for Showtime and multi-festival award winning darling.

Simeon was trustee and president of the Hinman Foundation, a nonprofit focused on making grants to community based organizations and Buddhist communities to preserve the culture and heritage of Vajrayana Buddhism. He formulated the vision and led all efforts on the ground in Tibet, Nepal, Myanmar, India, and Bhutan. As the founder of a multinational trading and manufacturing company he led innovation from Shanghai for 7 years. Simeon also founded the world’s first Visionary Art Gallery and Medical Marijuana Dispensary praised as a paradigm shift at the very beginning of the end of prohibition as featured in the Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone. Simeon was a faculty member of the Second City Conservatory where he taught thousands of students over many years. Born into a Peace Corps family, his early life was spent on assignment overseas where the ethos of exploration and helping others became deeply ingrained in his belief system.

Oliver Sicat is chief executive officer and co-founder of Ednovate, Inc., a charter management organization, partnering with the University of Southern California, specializing in personalized, college preparatory high schools for traditionally underserved students.

Oliver left the Chicago Public Schools in 2013 as the chief portfolio officer where, as an executive cabinet member, he was in charge of creating and executing the district’s strategy to improve performance through the authorization of new schools and closing chronically low-performing schools. Prior to joining CPS, Oliver worked with the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago. As a founding principal in a new CMO, Oliver helped Noble grow with consistent quality while helping to create Chicago’s highest performing non-selective high school, UIC College Prep.

At the start of his career, Oliver taught math in the Boston Public Schools at Madison Park TVHS and was named the 2006 Teacher of the Year. Equitable access to college, through high-quality education, has been a lifelong passion for Oliver. While teaching he founded the nonprofit Emagine in 2001 to help first generation students successfully gain acceptance to 4-year universities. He earned his bachelor’s degree from USC and a master’s degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Riccardo Stoeckicht is the Campus Operations Officer at Odyssey Charter School in Wilmington, responsible for all school and campus operations in support of the academic endeavors of over 1,800 students.

Between 2014 and 2018 he was president & chief operating officer of Innovative Schools, an education support organization that has brought problem-based learning, early college, and personalized learning models to Delaware. It also provided academic, finance, and operating support services to state charter schools.

Before joining Innovative Schools in 2014, Riccardo was the first president of the Community Education Building (CEB) established to create a world-class, co-located educational environment for high performing charter schools, with landlord-provided tenant services. At capacity, the renovated 475,000 sq. ft. building will touch some 20% of school-aged children in the city of Wilmington.

From 2007 to 2012, as chief operating officer of the Rodel Foundation, Riccardo transformed the organization’s human resource practices and streamlined its business operations. He was a member of the foundation’s team that worked with the state to develop its winning RTTT application.

His journey in education began in 2004 as deputy director of the Latin American Community Center (LACC), the largest Latino-serving agency in Delaware, where he oversaw its business operations and life-long-learning programs serving ages one to 101. Prior to the LACC, Riccardo was a finance and business executive with the DuPont Company in Brazil and the United States. In 1998 he and his family chose to make the U.S. their home.

Riccardo was a founding board member of Kind 2 Kids, a foundation serving foster youth, and sits on the board of the Delaware Charter School Network. He is the lead beta-tester for Stave Puzzles, the premier wooden jigsaw puzzle producer in America, enjoys collecting art, and watching foreign movies. He received a BA (mathematical-economics and French) from Brown University, and an MBA (quantitative analysis) from Northeastern University. He lives with his wife, Cecilia, in Wilmington.

Dr. Annis Stubbs is CEO and founder of The Papyrus Group, a professional coaching and consulting firm. She helps leaders maximize their impact and fully lean in to all that they have learned in their years of work and service. She brings all of her experiences to the table to help organizations thrive. Annis is a warm and open communicator and she’s known for her purposeful follow through.

Annis was recently chief people officer at Teach For America, and led the Human Assets team. Previously, a senior vice president of leadership and diversity, she and her team worked to execute key components of diversity models, events across the teacher and alumni network, and led values-based leadership development work. Prior to this role, she was a senior vice President of strategy, innovation and regional operations. She and her team partnered with colleagues to design and execute key components of TFA’s shift to a decentralized operating model: the Regional Advisory Council, Regional Reviews, Freedoms and Mutual Responsibilities, and the approach to accountability.

Annis began her work as the founding executive director of the TFA Detroit region. Before joining TFA’s staff, she worked at Sylvan Learning Center as a coach and coordinated teacher training and support for teaching fellows with The New Teacher Project in NYC. She began her career as a middle school teacher in the South Bronx.

Annis earned a PhD in curriculum, teaching and educational policy from Michigan State University, an MA in curriculum and instruction from Fordham University, and a BA in English and secondary education from Michigan State University. She serves on a number of non-profit boards in her community and was honored as a Crain’s Detroit Business 20 in their 20’s, Michigan Chronicle’s 40 Under 40, and with the Michigan Women in Leadership in the Workplace Shooting Star Award. She enjoys traveling with her husband Kendall, practicing yoga, and summers along Michigan’s Great Lake shores.

Tammi Sutton is the founder and executive director of KIPP Eastern North Carolina (ENC) Public Schools, which includes six KIPP Schools in Gaston, Halifax and Durham Counties. In 2001, Tammi co-founded Gaston College Preparatory (GCP) middle school where she served as the co-principal and taught English, History and Pre-Algebra. During her time at GCP she was a recipient of the Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2005, she founded GCP’s high school where 100% of the first nine senior classes have earned acceptance to a four year college or university and over 80% of these students will be first-generation college graduates.

Before co-founding GCP she taught middle school language arts and social studies in Northampton County for five years, and was named the Sallie Mae New Teacher of the Year as well as twice named Teacher of the Year. The success of her students has been featured in Wendy Kopp’s book, One Day, All Children, as well as on ABC News, Fox National News and twice in The New York Times. Tammi was recently reappointed by the Governor to serve on the NC Charter School Advisory Board. She previously served on the North Carolina Blue Ribbon Commission on Charter Schools.

Tammi, a first-generation college graduate, earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with degrees in English and political science. She earned her Master’s of Education in curriculum and instruction from National-Louis University.

David Sylvester is a partner with 3rd Gen Law Group LLP, where he represents emerging technology companies. Prior to joining 3rd Gen Law in 2012, David was a partner at Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic investment organization, and a partner for over 18 years at the law firm of WilmerHale. He began his legal career representing Silicon Valley technology companies in the early 1980’s at Fenwick & West. David has been active in the community throughout his career. A New Orleans native and former resident of the Calliope Housing Projects, David spent at least a week a month in New Orleans during 2005-2007 contributing to both informal and formal rebuilding efforts.

David served as board president of AHC, Inc., a private nonprofit provider of affordable housing in the Mid-Atlantic region. He has also sat on the governing boards of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Capital Association; Heads Up, a provider of after-school and summer programs in D.C.; and The Idea Village, a nonprofit business accelerator helping to build an ecosystem for entrepreneurs in New Orleans. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of The Idea Village and on the governing boards of Venture Philanthropy Partners, Isidore Newman School, and New Schools for New Orleans.

David earned his BA from Stanford University and his JD from the University of Virginia. He is married to Palma Joy Strand and they have three children, now in their 20’s, who attended magnet programs in the Arlington Public Schools as well as private schools in D.C.

Suzanne Tacheny Kubach, PhD, is the founding executive director of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, which connects 70 state-based education reform organizations from 34 states and D.C. along with many national partner organizations. Suzanne brings extensive experience from both sides of the education policy-making dais, as state board member and as an advocate. She also serves on the boards of the Guthrie Theater and the Everwood Farmstead Foundation.

Formerly a gubernatorial appointee to the California State Board of Education, Suzanne led policy work guiding California’s accountability system (2001-2005), the adoption of statewide testing contracts, and NCLB implementation. She also championed innovations in test score reporting and the creation of the Early College Placement Program. Suzanne also led a statewide organization of leading businesses advocating to improve standards and accountability in California schools (2000-2004). She has experience in the administration of California’s largest school district and parent and community organizing. She previously served as a member on the boards of WestEd and the California Theater for Children, and later chaired the board for KIPP Minnesota.

A nationally recognized education leader, she has been published in the Huffington Post, Education Week, the LA Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Educational Leadership, and various business journals. She earned a Doctorate in Education Policy from the University of Southern California and was distinguished as a USC Presidential Fellow. She holds a BA in communications from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Doug and “The Mulligan,” a rambunctious cat.

Daniel Anello is the chief executive officer of New Schools for Chicago (NSC). NSC’s mission is to ensure that every Chicago family and child has access to a high-quality school in their neighborhood. NSC works closely with the district on ways to ensure high quality outcomes for children while establishing broader messaging around school choice and school quality that is fact-based, accessible to parents, and focuses on all good schools rather than type of school.

Formerly the chief of strategy and external relations for Chicago International Charter School, Daniel came to CICS as a broad resident, where he was challenged with designing and implementing an internal and external communications plan and creating a holistic marketing and advertising strategy for the CICS network. In addition, he was responsible for evaluating long-term strategic planning, identifying new school management partners (SMOs) and for identifying organizational growth opportunities. In 2014, Daniel played an important role in securing equitable funding for charter school students citywide, working side-by-side with the CPS budget office on the implementation of student-based funding that adjusted according to need and remained agnostic to school-type.

In 2015, Daniel was part of the inaugural class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars, an initiative that draws upon the resources of the U.S. presidential centers of Lyndon B. Johnson, George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton and George W. Bush. These presidential centers have partnered to bring together a select group of leaders who have the desire and capacity to take their leadership strengths to a higher level in order to help their communities and our country.

Daniel received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Williams College, and a Masters in Business Administration from Chicago Booth.

Jose brings over twenty years of experience in community organizing, grassroots leadership development, and nonprofit management to his role building the Silicon Valley Parent Action Network. Jose’s work has focused on finding grassroots leaders and training them to build community organizations that can successfully address the public policy issues impacting their lives, which has led to new policies, new public schools, and improvements in the quality of life for thousands of Californians.

From 2000-2005, Jose worked for People Acting In Community Together (PACT), where, among other campaigns, he organized public school parents and teachers in East San Jose to launch the first high-quality school options in the Alum Rock School District, including new charter schools and new district schools. Most recently, Jose was the executive director of the San Diego Organizing Project in San Diego, CA. In that role, Jose expanded the organization into North San Diego County, as well as established community organizing efforts that led to two new joint ventures in the public health and youth development sectors, which address racial and economic disparities in the city’s most impacted neighborhoods. Jose has a Bachelor of Arts in leadership and organizational studies from St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga.

Layla Avila is chief executive officer and executive director of Education Leaders of Color–a membership organization of prominent education leaders of color dedicated to elevating the leadership, voices and influence of people of color in education. Initially spearheaded by Kaya Henderson, Layla Avila and Aimée Eubanks Davis, EdLoC began with 18 high‐profile Black and Latino leaders who envisioned the unique role leaders of color could play in charting a “third way” in the face of an increasingly polarized education reform landscape.

Previously Layla served as Executive VP at TNTP where she led efforts to broaden the organization’s impact, overseeing business development as well as teacher pipeline work. Under her leadership, TNTP’s Teaching Fellows Programs pioneered new ways of preparing teachers to be effective in the classroom.

Layla started her career with Teach For America in 1997, working as a bilingual and ESL teacher at August A. Mayo Elementary School in Compton, CA, and serving on the school’s Leadership Team. She also served as an analyst for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, an interagency working group to increase educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

Layla holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Columbia University and a Masters in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Layla was elected to the South Whittier School District Board of Trustees in 2005. In 2008, she was one of 10 women honored by Maybelline and People en Español magazine with the “Beauty of Education” award, for outstanding individuals having a significant, positive impact on education in America.

Scott Bess is the head of school for Purdue University’s Polytechnic High Schools in Indianapolis, which launched in the fall of 2017. Targeting underserved students who might not otherwise be qualified to go on to obtain postsecondary credentials, Purdue Polytechnic’s challenge is to “reinvent” high school to meet the current and future needs of those students.

Prior to joining Purdue, Scott was the senior vice president of mission advancement and the president and chief operating officer of Goodwill Education Initiatives, Inc. (GEI) at Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana. GEI operates The Excel Center, which targets older youth or adults who have dropped out of school. The Excel Center now serves over 5,000 students in fifteen locations and has more than 1,700 graduates.

In 2013, Scott launched the Indiana Network of Independent Schools, which provides a range of back office and curricular services to traditional, charter and private schools. GEI also runs the Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, which provides students with dual-credit college courses, industry certifications, internships, and the opportunity to be placed in a high-wage job immediately after graduation.

Scott, a graduate of Purdue University (BS, mathematics) and Marian University (MA, education) was a teacher, an executive in the IT field and business owner prior to joining Goodwill. Scott has four grown children and lives in Danville, Indiana with his wife, Robin. He served on the school board of trustees in Danville for sixteen years, and currently serves on the board of EmployIndy, the board of Ivy Tech Community College Central Indiana Region, the Region 5 Works Council and the Washington, DC Goodwill Excel Center Education.

As Chief of Policy & Public Affairs, Richard leads the KIPP Foundation’s public policy, advocacy, marketing, communications, and alumni engagement efforts, and works to grow the KIPP network and advocate for policies that make it easier for students to afford college and overcome other barriers to success. He is also a fellow at the GovLab and distinguished visiting professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Most recently he served as Deputy Mayor to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, where he led Pre-K for All, which for the first time offers free, full-day Pre-K for every 4-year old in NYC, increasing enrollment from 19,000 to 70,000 children in 18 months, initiated the program’s expansion to 3 year olds, launched Schools Out NYC, which for the first time offers free after school to every middle schooler in NYC, and managed ThriveNYC, a comprehensive effort to improve New Yorkers’ mental health. He chaired the NYC Children’s Cabinet, oversaw the Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative and supervised numerous City agencies, including the Departments of Probation, Youth and Community Development, Aging, Veterans Services, and the Offices of Immigrant Affairs, Minority and Women Business Enterprises, and People with Disabilities. He also served as City’s liasion to the City University of New York.

After matriculating at Harvard at 16, Richard founded the Mission Hill Summer Program in a Roxbury, Massachusetts housing development. He went on to teach fifth grade at an orphanage in Bindura, Zimbabwe and was the chief political officer and campaign manager to Kenneth Reeves, the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating from Yale Law School, Buery clerked for Judge John Walker on the 2nd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals and was a staff attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice. Richard then co-founded iMentor, a national college access program which empowers low-income first-generation high school students to graduate college, and Groundwork, supporting the educational aspirations of Brooklyn public housing residents. While the CEO of the Children’s Aid Society, one of New York City’s oldest and largest social service organizations, where he was the youngest president and chief executive officer since the organization was founded in 1863, he founded the Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School in the South Bronx.

He has taught at the Baruch College School of Public Affairs and New York Law School, and has lectured widely at schools including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU, and the University of Michigan.

A 2016 Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellow, and a 2012 Fellow of the British American Project, he was named one of Ebony Magazine’s “30 Leaders of the Future under 30,” and Crain’s “40 Leaders of the Future under 40,” and received the Extraordinary Black Man Award from the United Negro College Fund. He also has been honored by the National Council of Negro Women, the Congressional Black Caucus, and others. He has served on many nonprofit boards, including the United Way of New York City, the Community Service Society, the Beginning with Children Foundation, Leadership Prep Charter School, Achievement First East New York Charter School, and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. Richard lives in Brooklyn with his wife Deborah, a law professor, and his two sons.

Steve brings 25 years of experience working in education, philanthropy and issues related to urban poverty in his role as senior vice president of college and career access, a newly created division of The College Board. In this role, he will be marshaling the substantial reach of The College Board’s products and networks to build coherent pathways to college, for a rapidly expanding group of first generation and low income students. Prior to this role, Steve served as the president of the ECMC Foundation, a national funder focusing on education issues in low-income American communities. Before that, he was the first executive director of the Specialty Family Foundation, a Los Angeles-based funder focusing on education, health and food security issues in low-income communities in Southern California. Steve began his career running a successful education program in Southeast Washington, DC, which is featured in the award-winning documentary Southeast 67. Steve has published scores of articles and has been a regular speaker on issues related to poverty and race.

Steve holds a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. He is raising two sons in Washington, D.C.

Shirley M. Collado is the ninth president of Ithaca College, and also serves as a professor in Ithaca College’s Department of Psychology. She is known nationally for designing and implementing innovative approaches to higher education that expand student access and success, and has extensive experience overseeing complex not-for-profit organizations in both the private and public sectors of higher education. She is a national thought leader on developing successful cross-sector collaborations, building the capacity of diversity and inclusion in organizations, and strengthening the pathway to the professoriate and leadership roles in higher education.

President Collado brings this inclusive, visionary approach to her leadership at Ithaca College. In her first year at IC, she launched two inventive efforts to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration and develop the talent of faculty, staff, and students: the President’s Seed Grant Initiative, which awarded more than $100,000 to interdisciplinary teams for projects that enriched the campus community, and the President’s Fellows Program, which saw six faculty, staff members, and students move into positions outside of their typical professional or academic environment for one academic year.

Additionally, under President Collado’s direction, the Ithaca College community launched a strategic planning process in the 2018-19 academic year, focused on creating a foundational blueprint for the future of the college that ensures the excellence of the student experience within a diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning community.

In partnership with a dynamic and bold senior leadership team, President Collado is dedicated to igniting creativity and full participation within the campus community, a continuation of her professional journey in higher education and the non-profit sector.

Prior to joining the Ithaca College community, President Collado served as executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer at Rutgers University–Newark. In this critical role, she led the implementation of key elements of the university’s strategic plan and oversaw academic affairs, student affairs, and core institutional operations including academic services, enrollment services, student life, human resources, facilities, information technology, and budget and finance. She worked to align many of the functions of those offices to increase inclusiveness and student success. She also continued her research and teaching pursuits at Rutgers-Newark as a faculty member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology with an affiliation in the Department of Psychology.

Prior to her appointment at Rutgers-Newark, President Collado served at Middlebury College as vice president for student affairs and dean of the college, and associate professor of psychology. She oversaw and supported a dynamic student body and academic community while managing numerous departments and offices. She successfully led transformative initiatives that strengthened the residential life experience for students; earned national recognition for an overhaul to the new-student orientation program; and developed forward-looking sexual misconduct and judicial policies.

Before joining Middlebury College, President Collado served as the executive vice president of The Posse Foundation, where she significantly grew the organization and managed operations on a national level. A not-for-profit organization and one of the most comprehensive college-access programs in the country, The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits, and trains outstanding youth leaders from urban public schools and sends them in diverse teams, called “posses,” to top colleges and universities around the country.

President Collado received her undergraduate degree in human and organizational development and psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1994, and earned MA and PhD degrees in clinical psychology from Duke University. She is a clinical psychologist with a specialty in trauma among multicultural populations at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender.

She has taught at a number of colleges and universities including New York University, Georgetown University, George Mason University, the New School, Middlebury College, and Lafayette College. A national thought leader on diversity, collaboration, and innovation, she has delivered numerous keynote addresses and presentations, facilitated workshops and trainings, consulted on initiatives with many organizations, and received several awards.

Along with Angela Batista, Champlain College’s vice president of student life, and David Perez II, associate professor of student affairs in higher education at Miami University of Ohio, President Collado co-edited a book, Latinx/a/os in Higher Education: Exploring Identity, Pathways, and Success, released in early 2018. The collection of essays open a critical dialogue around the ways in which higher education can cultivate the right set of conditions to diversify pathways to success in anticipation of the shifting demographics of the United States.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Corcoran is co-founder and chief executive officer of EdSurge, an award-winning resource that helps schools find, select and use the right technology to support all learners. We do this through writing, conferences and tools that support commerce.

Prior to starting EdSurge, Betsy earned national recognition for her work as a journalist. She spent ten years with Forbes, where she served as Executive Editor for technology coverage. She’s written cover stories on subjects from robotics to engineers jump-starting their careers. Prior to Forbes, Betsy was a staff writer for The Washington Post covering technology. She has also been a Fellow in the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a member of the Board of Editors of Scientific American. Betsy has been a featured commentator on programs including Forbes on Fox, CNBC, NBC’s “Press Here,” and other programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University.

She has served as an advisor to several charter schools and a Trustee of her local library. She and her husband, journalist George Anders, live in California where their sons attended public school.

Kristin Ehrgood is Flamboyan Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair. Since launching Flamboyan in 2008, Kristin has led the Foundation’s work to ensure a day where every child, particularly those most impacted by inequity, will have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life. Kristin oversees the Foundation’s efforts to ensure students are prepared to succeed in school and beyond, tailoring programs to meet the unique contexts in which the Foundation operates. In Puerto Rico, Flamboyan is ensuring students are reading in Spanish on grade level by third grade while building a thriving philanthropic and nonprofit sector.

Flamboyan also created the Flamboyan Arts Fund in partnership with Lin-Manuel Miranda, his family, and the Hamilton musical to preserve, amplify, and sustain the arts in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane María. Flamboyan also works on a range of collaborative initiatives that allow the Foundation to flexibly meet the changing needs of communities as they arise.

Prior to starting Flamboyan, Kristin was the cofounder of Sapientis, a leadership network focused on making education a top priority in Puerto Rico.

Harris is currently the Chief Executive Officer at American Prison Data Systems, PBC, a public-benefit company and certified B-corp which provides software and technology for education, job training, rehabilitation, and re-entry support services used in jails and prisons across the US.

Harris Ferrell has spent most of his professional career scaling early-stage to mid-sized education companies (for-profit and not-for-profit). Prior to ADPS, Harris was the Chief Operating Officer at Achievement First – a high-performing network of public charter schools in New York City, Connecticut, and Rhode Island – where he was on the executive team for 10+ years and played a leadership role in growing Achievement First’s network of schools from 2500 students to well over 14,000 students. Prior to Achievement First, Harris was a co-founder and Senior Vice President of AdvancePath Academics, a company that designed and operated drop-out recovery academies on behalf of school districts. Harris went to Yale as an undergraduate and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked in education in many different facets: he was a classroom teacher through Teach For America in Houston, designed education software as Director of Product Management at SchoolNet, and has been an investor in educational ventures as an Associate Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund.

Kate Ford, area superintendent of Aspire Public Schools, currently leads the “College for Certain” instructional programs and management of eleven schools in the Los Angeles areas of Huntington Park, South Los Angeles, and South Gate. Aspire operates 38 schools throughout the state of California and Tennessee in low income communities of underserved populations. Previously, Kate was a senior program officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, managing education grants to charter management organizations and to the state departments of education of California, Tennessee, and New Mexico.

Kate is from Southern California and prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Kate was the executive director/principal of Peabody Charter School in her hometown of Santa Barbara. She spent 20 years as a director/principal in public, charter, and private elementary and secondary schools in Lodi, San Jose, and Phoenix; and she was a middle and high school English and drama teacher for fifteen years before that. In the late 90’s, Kate was regional vice president for Advantage Charter Schools, where she oversaw the management and educational programs of several schools located in Texas and Arizona.

Kate has received two Educator of the Year awards, and she holds a Masters in Educational Leadership from Chapman College, her Clear Administrative Credential from Santa Clara University, and a BA in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Theatre, travel, sailing, and movies are Kate’s lifelong hobbies.

As the chief learning officer of competency-based education work at KnowledgeWorks, Virgel partners with national policymakers and local learning communities throughout the country to redesign learning structures to become more learner-centered and based on proficiency, rather than seat time. He also works with KnowledgeWorks staff to build out competency education tools and services to help districts implement this personalized learning model.

Virgel previously served as the superintendent of RSU 2 School district in Maine. There, he collaborated with five communities to develop and implement a curriculum designed to ensure mastery of standards by all students. Before serving as superintendent, Virgel was a high school principal at Lindsay Unified School District in California. With 4,100 K-12 students in the district, 100 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch. There, Virgel helped implement a personalized learning model where “learners” don’t earn letter grades, but rather are awarded mastery for subjects in which they’ve proven to be proficient.

Currently, Virgel also serves on multiple boards and leadership councils: Innovation Lab Network Leadership Advisory Council; Jobs for Maine Graduates Executive Board; Literacy for Maine Board; Maine School Superintendents Executive Committee; Maine Academic Decathlon Executive Committee; Maine Healthy Communities Board; and International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) board.

Virgel earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and his Master of Education from Fresno Pacific University.

Jeff Jablow is the Chief Education Strategy Officer at City Year, Inc. City Year partners with over 300 urban public schools in 28 cities to deploy diverse teams of AmeriCorps members to help students succeed in and outside of the classroom. A member of City Year’s senior leadership team, Jeff oversees the organization’s strategy development, school district center of expertise, external research and evaluation and new school design work.

Jeff joined City Year in 2005 to lead the organization’s strategic planning efforts, which ultimately led to refocusing the organization on partnering with schools and districts to provide a continuum of student support in the highest need elementary to high school feeder patterns. Jeff led the creation of City Year’s long term impact and scale strategy, school and district partnership center of excellence and secondary school improvement design and network. Prior to joining City Year, Jeff worked as a strategy consultant with Cambridge Strategic Management Group, Ernst & Young Consulting, and The Bridgespan Group. Jeff also worked at Afrika Tikkun, a community development nonprofit in South Africa.

Jeff has an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and was selected as the 2015 Alumni Leader of Consequence. He has a Bachelors in Business Administration and Masters in Accounting from the University of Michigan. Jeff is the Vice-Chair of the board of trustees for City on a Hill Charter Public Schools in Massachusetts.

Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and affiliate faculty, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, at the University of Washington Bothell. She is internationally recognized for her research and analysis of U.S. public school system reforms, including charter schools and charter management organizations; innovation and scale; portfolio school districts; school turnaround efforts; and performance-based accountability systems.

Robin has authored numerous studies and provided expert testimony and technical assistance on charter schools and urban reform. She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs (CRPE, 2010) and editor of the annual report, Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She co-authored, with Paul Hill, Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education (Brookings, 2002). She has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures. She presents regularly at conferences and summits around the United States, and has advised on charter school implementation in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Robin serves as a board member or advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the National Charter School Resource Center.

Robin holds a BA in international studies and an MPA in education and urban policy from the University of Washington.

Irma Muñoz is the chief operating officer at IDEA Public Schools, a fast-growing PK-12 network of public charter schools, home to more than 24,000 students in 44 schools throughout the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and Austin (soon to be in Baton Rouge and El Paso). IDEA ranks in the top 1% of best high schools in the nation according to the Washington Post and the US News & World Report. For the past ten years in a row, 100% of their graduates have been accepted to colleges and universities throughout the US. IDEA is poised to have 100,000 students on the road to college in schools throughout the nation by 2022.

Irma has served in this role for the last six years and oversees IDEA’s non-instructional work, specifically: Information Technology, Software Development, Construction, Facilities Maintenance, IDEA’s Child Nutrition and School to Farm programs, Health Services, Transportation, Campus Operations, including Student Recruitment and Front-office Management, Marketing and Communications.

Prior to joining IDEA, Irma worked for GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors. In this capacity she oversaw housing development in emerging markets and spearheaded investment strategy in Latino hubs around the country. Before joining GMAC, Irma worked with Fannie Mae and the World Bank to implement a variety of housing policy initiatives throughout Latin America, including the development of Mexico’s first securitization platform. Her work led to the issuance of this country’s first mortgage back security and ultimately the establishment of a secondary mortgage market.

Irma is a graduate of the University of California, Davis. She was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Fellowship and obtained her MA from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico (home of the famous tortas ahogadas). Irma is married to Oscar Chapa and is the proud mom to Olivia Natalia (3yrs going on 17 – help!), and Cruz Mateo (9yrs). The Chapa- Muñoz family lives in Mission, TX and primarily speaks Spanish at home (with a lil’ Chinese).

Nichole Pinkard is director of the School of Design and an associate professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago. She is the founder of Digital Youth Network, co-founder of Inquirium LLC and Remix Learning, home of iRemix, a social learning platform that connects youth’s learning opportunities in school, home, and beyond.

In collaboration with the Chicago Public Library, Nichole helped establish YOUmedia, a public learning space that immerses high school students in a context of traditional media – books – to make and produce new media artifacts like music, games, videos, and virtual worlds.

Nichole is the recipient of a 2014 Northwestern Alumni Award, a 2010 Common Sense Media Award for Outstanding Commitment to Creativity and Youth, the 2004 Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, an NSF Early CAREER Fellowship, and a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for research on how digital media affects literacy. She holds a BS in computer science from Stanford University, an MS in computer science, and a PhD in learning sciences from Northwestern University.

Her current scholarly interests include the design of equitable learning ecosystems, use of pedagogical-based social learning networks, computational-making and new media literacy learning environments, digital badging, and computational-making learning environments for underrepresented groups.

Shruti is a managing partner at New Profit, where she co-leads both the Reimagine Learning Fund and Early Learning Fund. In these roles she facilitates collaboratives of social entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, policy influencers, and opinion leaders aligning actions to fundamentally reimagine the future of teaching and learning in America. Prior to that, Shruti led New Profit’s portfolio management practice, ensuring organizations were receiving the support and resources they needed both from New Profit and from the Monitor Institute (now part of Deloitte Consulting) through pro-bono strategic engagements. She also led efforts to measure, evaluate, and report aggregate and organization-specific performance. In addition to fund management responsibilities, Shruti currently serves on the boards of ANet, New Teacher Center, and Peace First, supporting their efforts to create and execute against aggressive plans to accelerate their impact.

Shruti joined New Profit in 2006 while finishing a joint MBA/MPA. Prior to graduate school, she managed a campaign for State Assembly in California while starting up a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping critically ill workers. Before that, she spent seven years working in the private sector, initially as an engineer at Honeywell, an aerospace engine manufacturer, and later in a series of quality management positions at Howmet Castings, an aerospace casting manufacturer, and Jabil Circuit, an electronics manufacturing services company. Shruti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from M.I.T, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

When not rigorously pursuing social change, Shruti meditates, loves cooking–especially trying out new dishes–and works hard to spoil her nieces.

Dr. Thomas Stewart is president of Patten University, which has a mission to make a quality and affordable post-secondary education available to people everywhere. He has been actively involved in education reform and innovation for nearly twenty years. He has co-founded and led over twenty organizations within and across nonprofit, public, and for-profit sectors, including the Black Alliance for Educational Options, SEED Public Charter School of Washington, DC, National Black Graduate Student Association, and Community College Prep Public Charter School in Washington, DC.

Thomas is involved in a variety of civic activities, including a recent appointment to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College Commission. He has authored numerous publications focused on various aspects of education reform, particularly the challenges and opportunities facing low-income, first-generation and non-traditional students and families. Most recently, he coauthored (with Dr. Patrick J. Wolf) The School Choice Journey: School Vouchers and the Empowerment of Urban Families (Palgrave and McMillian 2014).

Thomas received a bachelor’s degree, with honors, from the University of the District of Columbia, and PhD in Government from the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His friends call him Tom, and he enjoys running, hiking, Bikram yoga, and live sporting and other entertainment.

A New Orleans native, Michael is committed to ensuring that New Orleans becomes the first city in the country to provide an excellent education to every child, regardless of race, class, or learning need. In his current role New Schools for New Orleans, Michael oversees the organization’s strategy, finance, and fundraising functions. He he co-led the organization for three years, and variously led the organization’s communications work, implementation of federal grants, and talent investments. Michael joined NSNO following his time with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York. While at McKinsey, Michael worked on a number of education-related projects, including serving on the team that developed Pennsylvania’s Race to the Top application strategy.

Prior to McKinsey, Michael taught 7th, 8th, and 9th grade math in public schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan through the New York City Teaching Fellows program. He has worked for the Achievement First charter school management organization and for Bronx Charter School for the Arts. Before that, Michael spent nearly eight years acting in, directing, and producing theater in New York and Los Angeles. Michael is a graduate of Harvard College, received a teaching degree from Pace University and his MBA from Columbia Business School. He is a member of the Broad Residency class of 2010-2012.

Beth Sutkus Thompson has been the founding chief executive officer of KIPP Bay Area Schools for over a decade, where she is responsible for the organization’s performance, growth and sustainability. KIPP Bay Area Schools currently serves over 5,000 students in 12 schools across 6 cities on a path to doubling in size in the coming years; and serves nearly 3,000 alumni on their journey to choice-filled lives.

Previously, Beth was the West Coast Trailblazer at the KIPP Foundation, where she created and implemented a strategic growth plan for KIPP schools, including securing charters, start-up funding, facilities, and community support. Prior to her work at the KIPP Foundation, Beth was on the founding team of NewSchools Venture Fund, a national nonprofit venture philanthropy working to reimagine public education.

Beth holds a BA in political science, an MA in Education, and an MBA with a certificate in nonprofit management, all from Stanford University. She is a graduate of The Broad Academy and a Pahara-Aspen Fellow. Beth serves on the Board of Cambiar Education and Kids Love Writing. She resides in Oakland with her husband, daughter and son.

Gia Truong currently serves as Chief Executive Officer at Envision Education, a mission-driven organization committed to transforming the lives of low-income, first-generation college-bound students. Envision’s unique approach consists of two strategies: operating charter schools and providing training and consulting services to others through its Envision Learning Partners division. Under Gia’s leadership, Envision’s Portfolio Defense model is helping Envision students and students around the country, develop what they need most to thrive: academic knowledge, leadership skills, the ability to reflect, and a mindset for growth. Gia leads Envision with a strong commitment to and focus on educational equity for all students, as well as a focus on providing exceptional Deeper Learning opportunities to students.

Gia is a Leading for Equity Fellow with the National Equity Project, where she collaborates with other leaders to foster positive change on behalf of historically under-served students and families. She is also a member of Education Leaders of Color, an organization dedicated to elevating the leadership, voices and influence of people of color in education.

Prior to joining Envision, Gia was the Executive Officer of Oakland Unified’s Curriculum and Instruction Department, where she led strategic planning and reorganization, as well as OUSD’s Effective Principals and Leadership Task Force. Prior to that she was OUSD’s Network Executive Officer and led a network of middle schools. She also served as principal of Urban Promise Academy and as a teacher for 8 years in both district and charter schools. Gia has a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Asian-American Studies from San Francisco State University, an M.A. in Teaching from Brown University, and earned her Administrative Credential through the New Leaders Principal Residency Program.

Steven F. Wilson is founder and chief executive officer of Ascend Learning, a college preparatory charter school management organization that enrolls 3,500 students in nine schools in central Brooklyn. In 2012, its flagship school was named one of New York City’s top ten charter schools for academic performance.

A senior fellow at Education Sector in Washington, DC, Steven was formerly the executive vice president for product development at Edison Schools and a senior fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His book, Learning on the Job: When Business Takes on Public Schools, examined the first decade of private management of public schools and was awarded the Virginia and Warren Stone Prize.

Steven founded and served as chief executive officer of Advantage Schools, an urban charter school management company which enrolled 10,000 students and was funded by leading venture capitalists, including Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.

Prior to founding Advantage, Steven was special assistant and director of strategic planning for Massachusetts Governor William Weld. He advised the governor on education policy during the passage and implementation of the state’s 1993 comprehensive education reform act and the development of the MCAS, and he developed the governor’s blueprint for reorganizing Massachusetts state government.

Steven is the former executive director of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. His first book, Reinventing the Schools: A Radical Plan for Boston, led to the establishment of the Massachusetts charter school law, which he drafted, and the charter sector in Boston, considered today to be among the strongest in the country. Wilson is the board president of Building Excellent Schools and a graduate of Harvard University.

Beth Anderson is the executive director of The Hill Center in Durham, North Carolina. The Hill Center is a private-public, K-12 model that serves students who are struggling academically – especially those with learning differences and attention challenges – and their teachers. Hill’s programs and proprietary methodology are built upon research, individualized instruction and successful teaching techniques to help students reach their full potential. Hill currently partners with 17 school districts across North Carolina and has directly served 8,000 students and trained 12,000 teachers from North Carolina and beyond.

From 2007-2014, Beth was a senior leader at Teach For America (TFA), playing an instrumental role in establishing and building TFA’s national development strategy, team, revenues, and relationships through a period of rapid growth. Beth was also a lecturer at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where she was the co-founder and managing director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), a research and education center dedicated to preparing leaders with the entrepreneurial and business skills needed to achieve lasting change. Previously, she was a research associate at Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation. Her professional experience also includes working within the grassroots U.S. Olympic Movement and with an outdoor education center for people with disabilities.

Beth is currently on the board of 4.0 Schools in New Orleans and Root Cause in Boston, and on the advisory boards for CASE and KIPP Durham College Preparatory. Beth holds a BA in classics from Williams College and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Ken Berrick is the founder and chief executive officer of Seneca Family of Agencies (“Seneca”), a nonprofit agency founded in 1985 with a mission to do whatever it takes to help children and families succeed through the most difficult times of their lives. Seneca provides comprehensive mental health, education, placement and permanency services provided to children with serious emotional needs and their families throughout California and Washington State.

Ken is a Governor’s Appointee on the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, and the California Child Welfare Council. Ken is a two-time former president of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, and serves on the CEO Council for the national Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. He is an elected member and past-president of the Alameda County Board of Education, and past-president of the California County Boards of Education. He is co-author of two books, Unconditional Care: Relationship-Based, Behavioral Intervention with Vulnerable Children and Families (2010), and Unconditional Education: Supporting Schools to Serve All Students (2019). Ken serves on numerous policy planning groups in California at both county and state levels.

Malka Borrego is the founder and chief executive officer of the Equitas Academy Charter Schools. The network was founded in 2009 and provides quality education with the mission of college graduation for all students in the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. Malka entered the teaching profession shortly after college graduation. She has worked in educational research at the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation (CRESST) and in the nonprofit sector at the Long Beach YMCA as the Operations Director for an after-school literacy program. She was able to continue her interest in literacy with her work at Families in Schools as the Director of Family Literacy and provided leadership as the Executive Director for The Salvation Army-Alegria, an emergency, transitional, and permanent housing program for families with HIV/AIDS. Malka entered the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship, a rigorous, year-long training program in charter school management to successfully integrate her non-profit management and teaching experience. She earned a BS in Sociology from Pomona College and an MA in Social Science from Stanford University’s School of Education.

Ronald Chaluisán Batlle joined Newark Trust for Education in October 2016 as Executive Director. Ronald is committed to developing, coordinating and focusing ideas, resources and expertise that expand opportunity and improve academic and socio-emotional outcomes for all children in Newark.

Prior to joining the Trust, Ronald was Vice President at New Visions for Public Schools (NVPS). In that capacity he led the Charter High Schools Initiative, successfully opening seven charter high schools serving high need students across New York City. As of August 2016, the charter high schools were functioning at a 90% four-year graduation rate as compared to 70.5% for New York City and 78% for New York State.

At NVPS, Ronald served as Vice President for Programs overseeing the development and assessment of school creation programs, teaching and learning support, and teacher and leadership certification partnerships. Ronald led the New Century High Schools Initiative, a city-wide school-creation process that resulted in the creation of ninety-nine small high schools across the city whose students consistently exceeded city-wide performance metrics.

Prior to joining NVPS, Ronald founded the NYC Museum School, a partnership between NYC Community School District 2 and four New York City museums. Over the years, the school has claimed its place as one of the best high schools in New York City.

Ronald earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in Literature from Claremont Graduate University, and a Master of Education in Leadership from Bank Street College of Education.

Maisie Chin is executive director and co-founder of CADRE – Community Asset Development Re-defining Education, an independent grassroots 300-member parent organization and leadership development center in South Los Angeles, led by African American and Latino parents/caregivers of public school children. CADRE’s mission is to solidify and advance parent leadership to ensure that all children are rightfully educated regardless of where they live. A native Californian and child of Chinese immigrants, Maisie has been fighting for racial justice for more than two decades. For the past 15 years, CADRE parent leaders have organized and changed school discipline policy in the nation’s second largest school district, in California, and federally as a founding member of the national Dignity in Schools Campaign, building movement in over 20 states.

Prior to launching CADRE full-time, Maisie was a program manager at Public Allies-Los Angeles, where she trained and coached young adult community leaders in asset based community development. Maisie spent over six years prior to that as the eventual associate director of Los Angeles Partners Advocating Student Success (LA PASS), which was the local site of a ten-year national Ford Foundation initiative to foster systemic K-16 collaboration and increase college graduation in underserved communities. Maisie is a board member of Justice Matters Press, a social and racial justice press by and for people of color, and of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Maisie holds both a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mark Conrad is an independent consultant. Previously, he served as chief schools officer for EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning). In this role, he oversaw EL’s national network of 155 schools and managed professional development partnerships with a diverse set of districts. Additionally, Mark supported EL’s team of Regional Directors, School Designers and Professional Development Specialists in raising student achievement through deep and consistent implementation of EL’s Core Practices. Mark has served in various roles after joining EL’s staff in 2007 including Northeast regional director, director of educational leadership and school designer.

Prior to joining Expeditionary Learning, Mark founded The Crossroads School, a public charter school in Baltimore, Maryland, where he served as principal from 2002 to 2007. During this time, The Crossroads School was the highest performing middle school in Baltimore City and became a national model for student-engaged assessment, positive student culture and data-based leadership.

Mark has worked as a school administrator and middle school teacher in Maryland, Colorado and New Mexico and holds degrees in education from Miami University (OH) and the University of Colorado.

Tina Fernandez has spent her career in the legal and education sectors and has been involved in several social-entrepreneurial ventures. Currently, she is the founding executive director of Achieve Atlanta, an organization whose mission is to dramatically increase the number of Atlanta Public School students who complete postsecondary education. Prior to this, Tina was a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit providing strategic, talent, and policy consulting to education organizations across the United States. At Bellwether, Tina helped launch the Talent Readiness Pilot and co-led the development of Bellwether’s Talent services.

Tina also served as a clinical professor in the experiential learning division at the University of Texas School of Law and was the founding Director of the school’s Pro Bono Program. In that role, Tina developed a legal services model to serve undocumented students applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program and provided free legal services to over 700 undocumented youth in 2011. In both 2012 and 2014, Tina was named clinical professor of the Year. Before working at UT Law, Tina was the managing director of Alumni Engagement & Infrastructure for Teach For America. Tina’s career experiences also include serving as associate director of Career Services at UT Law and as a litigation associate for Fulbright & Jaworski. Tina was also a member of IDEA Public Schools national board of directors and chaired the IDEA Austin advisory board, where she advised the executive director on the launch of two new charter schools. Tina currently serves on the Latin American Association of Georgia board of directors, TFA’s Atlanta regional board, and also sits on the State of Georgia’s Education Reform Commission.

Tina earned her JD from Columbia University School of Law and her BA from Harvard College and is from the Rio Grande Valley. Before attending law school, Tina was a Teach For America ’94 corps member and spent two years as a bilingual elementary teacher in the South Bronx. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband Frank and their two children, Franky and Lucia, who attend Atlanta Public Schools.

Renee Foster is president and publisher of Curriculum Associates, a privately-held education technology company on a mission to make classrooms better places for students and teachers. Since Renee joined Curriculum Associates in 2008, the company has quadrupled in size and is leading the adoption of print and digital learning for nearly three million K-12 students nationwide.

Prior to Curriculum Associates, Renee was senior director of business development at The American Museum of Natural History, where she built new business operations that increased funding for one of the top natural history museums in the world. Renee also served as engagement manager at McKinsey & Company and as plant manager for Shell Oil.

Renee serves on the board of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School and Uncommon Schools and has worked in consulting and volunteer roles across several education related nonprofits. She credits her lifelong interest in education to her great teachers, who made her feel like she could become anything she wanted if she worked hard. Renee has been recognized among the Top 100 Influential Ed Tech leaders and is passionate about creating tools to drive performance gains for all learners, particularly those with learning challenges and in under-resourced communities.

Renee graduated from Rice University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and earned an MBA from Stanford University. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband and son.

Brian Greenberg is the chief executive officer of the Silicon Schools Fund, a non-profit investment fund launching the next generation of personalized learning schools in the Bay Area of California. Silicon Schools Fund is on pace to support the launch of over 65 schools serving over 50,000 students and helping to create some of the most innovative school models emerging in the country. Brian is a former charter school leader having launched one of the top-ranked charter high schools in the state of California and then served as the Chief Academic Officer of a network of charters. A speaker nationally on personalized learning, education, and venture philanthropy, Brian is also the co-creator of the Coursera and Khan Academy MOOC on blended learning, and a Stanford University Principal Fellow. Brian received his BA from Dartmouth College and an M.Ed. from Harvard University.

Rich Harrison is the Superintendent for Wonderful College Prep Academy. Rich joined WCPA in 2019 after having served as Chief Academic Officer for Uplift Education, a high performing charter school management organization serving 20,000 across 40 schools, for 8 years. Rich brings a wealth of experience around school start up, leadership transformation, organizational culture, and systems around instruction, assessment and curriculum, and looks to continue his learning and leadership. Prior to that role, Rich served as the Middle School Director for the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), the highest performing school in terms of student achievement and growth in Denver Public Schools. While at DSST, Rich was nationally recognized by the New Leaders for New Schools program for accomplishing breakthrough student achievement gains – his school had the second highest student value add growth nationally of all charter middle schools, as measured by a longitudinal study through Mathematica Policy Research. Prior to this, after graduating from the University of Chicago in 1998 with a degree in English Literature, Rich taught middle and high school English in New York City for 5 years and in Denver for 4 years.

Dr. Patricia Hoben is president and executive director of City Forward Collective. Previously, she was co-founder, chief executive officer and head of schools of Carmen Schools of Science and Technology, a small but growing network of college and career preparatory charter schools including two high schools and a middle school. She has been involved in science and technology policy and education reform initiatives at the national, state, and local levels.

Dr. Hoben served as a policy analyst on studies of the U.S. biotechnology industry and the international human genome mapping project for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. She then went on to work for the office of the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health as an advisor on public health and science policy issues. Later Dr. Hoben headed the pre-college and public science education grants program at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She also served in a special appointment at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, and as the Associate Director of a Minneapolis-based science museum, the Bakken Museum of Electricity in Life. Dr. Hoben established and led a $6 million community collaborative to strengthen K-12 science education in the Minneapolis Public Schools in the late 1990s.

Dr. Hoben also serves on the boards of the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Harbor District, and Schools that Can Milwaukee. She received the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Woman of Influence award for Innovation in 2009 and is the recipient of awards from the United Community Center, Casa Romero Renewal Center and others for her work in founding and leading Carmen Schools. Dr. Hoben earned a doctoral degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Brian W. Jones was appointed Strayer University’s 15th president in 2015. He joined the university as its general counsel in 2012 and later spent a year working as part of the founding team of Strayer@Work, a business unit focused on providing customized skills development and employer funded degree programs to corporate clients. Immediately prior to joining Strayer University, Brian co-founded and served as president of Latimer Education, Inc., an early stage venture-backed education company partnering with an historically black college to provide online postsecondary education solutions to African American working adults. He previously served for four years as the U.S. Department of Education’s general counsel, a Senate-confirmed presidential appointment in the administration of President George W. Bush.

He has experience across sectors, having served in senior leadership roles in the business, education, and nonprofit sectors, and in state and federal government. Brian currently chairs the board of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and serves on the board of directors of College Loan Corporation. He previously served as chair of the D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB), the sole authorizer of public charter schools in the nation’s capital. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University.

Bruno V. Manno is senior advisor for K-12 Education with the Walton Family Foundation, where he’s worked since 2009. Before that, beginning in 1998, he was Senior Program Associate for Education with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Preceding his work at the Casey Foundation, Bruno was Senior Fellow in the Education Policy Studies Program at the Hudson Institute from 1994 to 1998.

From 1996 to 1993, Bruno worked in the US Department of Education in a variety of senior positions, including Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning. In that capacity, he was a principal advisor to both Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and Deputy Secretary of Education David Kearns on policy matters as well as planning and evaluation services.

A graduate of the University of Dayton (BA 1970; MA, 1972), Manno received his PhD from Boston College in 1975. He undertook postdoctoral studies for one year, which included appointments as Visiting Senior Lecturer at Catholic Teachers College in Sydney, Australia (now The Catholic University of Australia) and Visiting Research Associate at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Manno is a former member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships and chair of the Presidential Scholars Commission. He is also a former board member of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation & Institute; the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (past chair); The Mind Trust; Grantmakers for Education; and Education Sector (past chair).

Erika McConduit leads statewide policy initiatives as the Louisiana Director for the Education Trust. She also is in development and support of innovative post-secondary pathways as the new chief executive officer of Belltower New Orleans.

Previously, Erika served as the president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, whose mission is to Empower Communities and Change Lives. Erika is heavily engaged in the city and state’s education reform, as a representative of the community engagement arm of the movement. In this capacity, she has served on numerous committees including Mayor Landrieu’s Education Task Force, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education John White’s Student Task Force as co-chair, and the Recovery School District’s Charter Application Task Force. Additionally, she serves as co-chair of the National Urban League’s Education Task Force.

Erika has served as an adjunct faculty member of Dillard University where she taught courses in Public Health Law and Media Law. She has also taught at Monroe College in New York, instructing courses such as Criminal Law, Introduction to the American Legal System and Current Issues in Criminal Justice.

Prior to joining the Urban League, Erika was the chief operating officer of the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester, New York. Due to her unyielding commitment to racial equity, she was selected as the delegate for the northeast region of YWCAs at the World Council meeting in Kenya, Africa and has served as a National Urban League delegate on a friendship mission to China.

Her current and past service extends to serving on the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute’s Board of Directors, the KID smART Board of Directors, the New Orleans Kids Partnership as the former Vice Chair, African American Women of Purpose and Power as Vice Chair of Programs, Orleans Public Education Network’s Board of Directors, the New Orleans Crime Coalition, the Opportunity Youth Coalition, and United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council. Erika is also a member of the Crescent City Chapter of Links, Inc., the New Orleans Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, and serves on the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Institute Board.

Erika is the graduate of the National Urban League’s Emerging Leader Institute, New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute, Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum, and the Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute. She is a New Orleans native and a Louisiana licensed attorney and holds a valuable private sector background through her work with Frilot, Partridge, Kohnke & Clements, L.C. law firm, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon and VH1. Erika graduated summa cum laude from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, and cum laude from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Kathleen is the superintendent of the Partnership Schools, a pioneering network of urban Catholic schools in Harlem and the South Bronx that is working to build economically sustainable, operationally efficient, and academically excellent parochial schools. She is also a Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank in Washington, D.C.

Before joining the Partnership, Kathleen’s work straddled both policy and practice. She served as the senior advisor for policy and instruction at the College Board and as the senior director for standards and accountability at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. She was also the founding director of curriculum and professional development at Achievement First, and the director of teacher and principal professional development and recruitment for the 115 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Kathleen began her career as a classroom teacher, and she earned her BA from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in Education Policy and Leadership from the George Washington University. Most importantly, Kathleen is a proud mom to three beautiful self-proclaimed superheroes.

Dr. Grant Rivera is a career educator committed to serving every child and supporting every family. He believes great schools and communities are built on the combined talents of talented educators and an engaged community. He serves as the Superintendent of Marietta City Schools, prior to becoming Superintendent, he served as the Chief of Staff and Chief Leadership Officer for the Cobb County School District, which has 112 schools and over 111,000 students. He was a principal for nine years at three high schools: South Cobb High School in Austell (2005-2009), Campbell High School in Smyrna (2009-2011), and Westlake High School in south Fulton County (2011-2014). Prior to being appointed principal, Grant held positions as a high school assistant principal, special education teacher, and coach in the Cobb County School District.

Grant received his bachelor’s degree in education and social policy from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in special education from the University of Alabama. He holds a Doctorate of Education from the University of Alabama, with an emphasis in school law. Grant has been associated with numerous professional development activities in the area of school law, school law enforcement officer research, and special education law.

He also served as adjunct professor of educational law at the University of West Georgia. Grant has worked with school districts around the country as a consultant and practitioner for school improvement and family engagement. Grant and his wife, Jenn, have two daughters – Lauren and Reese.

Jessica Sager is the co-founder and chief executive officer of All Our Kin, Inc., a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization that trains, supports and sustains family child care providers to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed in school and in life. All Our Kin’s network of caregivers has been proven to provide high-quality infant and toddler care to working parents in low and middle-income communities. Through All Our Kin’s programs, caregivers succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children receive early learning experiences that lay the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond. All Our Kin’s work has been highlighted by the US Offices of Child Care and Head Start, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Yale University, and Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

A graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School, Jessica co-teaches a Yale University seminar on “Child Care, Society, and Public Policy,” and is a trustee of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund. She is a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow, and has provided commentary on child care issues for Time, The Hill, and Education Week. Jessica’s honors include the US Small Business Administration’s “Women in Business Champion” award (2012), the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (2013), New Profit’s “Extraordinary Social Female Entrepreneur” designation (2014), the Roslyn S. Jaffe Award Grand Prize (2015), and the Ashoka Changemakers/Robert Wood Johnson Champion of Children’s Wellbeing award (2016). She is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and an Ashoka Fellow.

Scott Shirey was the founder and executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools. He taught for three years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he was a Teach For America corps member. Prior to founding KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in 2002, he completed the KIPP School Leadership Program as a Fisher Fellow which included intensive study at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The school produced strong results consistently outperforming the state and local district. In 2005, Mr. Shirey received the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award and in 2008 the school was named a National Blue Ribbon School. After serving six years as the School Director, Scott transitioned to the role of Executive Director of KIPP Delta Public Schools and helped the region add a high school and elementary school in Helena. In 2010, KIPP Delta opened a fourth school In Blytheville, AR, KIPP Blytheville College Preparatory School.

Forbes Magazine listed Scott as one of the world’s seven most powerful educators in November 2011. In 2012, KIPP Delta Collegiate High School was ranked #2 in the state according to U.S. News and World Report and the Arkansas Department of Education named the high school.as one of five Exemplary Schools in the state of Arkansas. In 2015, KIPP Delta opened its sixth school in its third community in Forrest City, AR. Scott graduated Cum Laude from Colby College with a BA in History.

Trabian Shorters is co-author of New York Times Bestseller “REACH: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading and Succeeding” and founding chief executive officer of BMe Community, a national network of all races and genders committed to a 21st century narrative about America, its values, and black men’s roles in them. Both REACH and BMe Community are based on data showing a fundamental shift in demographics and a concurrent battle of perceptions taking place below the radar in America. Traditional framings of black men date back 50 years to the civil rights era and reinforce messages that they represent problems and threats and may want unearned opportunities and privileges. Shorters demonstrates that updating that narrative to recognize black men’s impressive contributions and leadership is the key to modernizing positive community engagement in matters of race, cities and America’s future. He uses a specific approach called “Asset-Framing” which is fact-based, optimistic and refreshes the dialog in ways that enlighten and create new opportunities for a prosperous future together.

Trabian developed Asset-Framing and BMe Community while serving for six years as vice president of the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation where he directed a $300-million portfolio of grants and endowments in 26 regions including Detroit, Philadelphia, Miami and Silicon Valley. When he spun the entity off from the Knight Foundation in July 2013, he received backing from Knight, Open Society Foundations, and The Heinz Endowments. BMe Community has operations in Akron, Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and is expanding nationally. The network already includes 35,000+ ‘Community Builders’ of all races and genders and 140+ black male BMe Leaders who provide youth development, human rights, and economic opportunities to over 400,000 of their neighbors each year.

Tim Taylor is the co-founder and executive director of America Succeeds, bringing a unique background of executive, non-profit and public policy experience to the organization. Prior to launching America Succeeds, he served as the founding President of Colorado Succeeds, a nonprofit coalition of business leaders committed to improving the state’s education system through policy and advocacy.

Tim began his career on Capitol Hill as an assistant to Congressman Richard Burr (NC) and advanced to serve as the Senior Legislative Assistant to U.S. Representative Saxby Chambliss (GA). After relocating to Colorado in 1998, he served as an independent political consultant, Director of Public Relations and Government Affairs for the Colorado Health Care Association and founder of Open Fairways, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk and underprivileged children through the game of golf and its core values of honor, etiquette and respect.

Tim is the chairman of board of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network and serves on the board of Breaking Silence and the advisory board of Highline Academy Charter School. He is the founder of the Coca-Cola Politics & Pros charity golf tournament in Washington, D.C., featuring Members of Congress and PGA Tour professionals, which benefits The First Tee.

Tim is a graduate of Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife Clare, son Macon, daughter Ellie and a Boykin Spaniel.

Omari Todd currently supports the Alabama, Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Connecticut, Eastern North Carolina, Jacksonville, Massachusetts, Miami, North Carolina Piedmont Triad, Orlando, Rhode Island, and South Carolina regions as senior vice president, regional field executive for Teach for America. Omari served as executive director of the Baltimore region from 2006-2010, where he led the region on an ambitious three-year growth plan that increased the regional budget from $1 million to over $6 million and increased the corps by 80 percent. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Omari has called Baltimore home for the last 15 years after being placed there as a corps member in 2000. He taught 4th grade for four years at Yorkwood Elementary School and served as a school director for two summers at the Teach For America New York Summer Institute. Following his time in the classroom, Omari went on to work as a community organizer with BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) focusing on community access to fresh groceries, affordable housing and expanding after-school opportunities for youth.

Omaris is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana and Johns Hopkins University. He fights passionately for kids, never settling for less than what kids in our communities deserve. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Shaylin, his two children, Olivia, and Owen.

Dr. Devin Vodicka was hired as Chief Impact Officer for AltSchool in May 2017. AltSchool is a public benefit corporation with a vision to make whole-child, personalized learning accessible for all students.
As AltSchool’s Chief Impact Officer, Devin will guide the design and strategy of the company’s personalized learning platform, as it prepares the platform for expansion into a growing community of private, charter and public schools.

Over the past 20 years, Devin’s vision for how to drive high-quality student outcomes enabled him to quickly ascend the roles of educator, school principal, district administrator, and now superintendent. During his tenure serving Vista Unified’s more than 25,000 students, Devin has earned some of the education industry’s most prestigious awards. In 2016, he was named AASA’s “California Superintendent of the Year.” In 2015, he was named ACSA’s “California Superintendent of the Year,” as well as Pepperdine University’s “California Superintendent of the Year.” In 2014, he received Classroom of the Future Foundation’s “Innovative Superintendent of the Year” award. Since joining Vista in 2012, he has been invited to the White House nine times; both in recognition for district-wide achievements and to partner on national efforts with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology, and the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools.

Dr. Vodicka’s education includes a doctorate in organizational leadership and a master’s degree in educational leadership—both from Pepperdine University—and an undergraduate degree in history from UC Santa Cruz. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at Pepperdine in their doctoral program where he has taught courses on quantitative and qualitative data analysis.

Dan Weisberg is chief executive office at The New Teacher Project (TNTP). He oversees TNTP’s executive team and all aspects of the organization’s operations, strategy and growth. Prior to becoming CEO in June 2015 as part of TNTP’s long-term growth strategy, Dan was the executive vice president for Performance Management and General Counsel. In this role, he built and led a 130-person team to support the efforts of school systems and states nationwide to recruit, develop and retain effective teachers and principals.

Previously, as Vice President of Policy, Dan helped build TNTP into “a leading voice on teacher quality” and co-authored TNTP’s acclaimed study on the failures of the nation’s teacher evaluation systems, The Widget Effect, which has helped to catalyze evaluation reforms in more than 30 states since 2009. More recently, he participated in the writing of The Irreplaceables (2012), which explored the teacher retention crisis through the experience of the country’s best teachers, and The Mirage (2015), which questions the prevailing assumption that we know how to help teachers improve.

Before TNTP, Dan served as chief executive of labor policy and implementation for the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), the country’s largest public school system. In this role, he led negotiations between the Department and the United Federation of Teachers that resulted in a series of groundbreaking reforms, including the city’s highly regarded “mutual consent” system, which gives teachers and schools the primary voice in school staffing. Before joining the NYCDOE, Dan was a partner in the New York office of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he led the firm’s east coast labor and employment practice. He holds a JD from New York University Law School and a BA in Political Science from Columbia College.

Anne Williams-Isom is chief executive officer of The Harlem Children’s Zone® (HCZ), a pioneering leader in education, place-based community development, and the fight against poverty. Renowned worldwide for its commitment to addressing the needs of the individual child on an unprecedented scale, HCZ currently serves over 25,000 children and adults in Central Harlem each year through its comprehensive cradle-through-college pipeline of best-practice programs, including parenting workshops, early childhood education, two K-12 Promise Academy® charter schools, afterschool programs, college prep and advising, family support, health and social services, and community building.

Before becoming Chief Executive Officer of HCZ in July 2014, Anne served for five years as chief operating
officer, leading HCZ’s 2,000+ staff, overseeing all 30+ HCZ programs, and further strengthening the
organization’s strategic use of data. Prior to joining HCZ, she worked for 13 years at New York City’s
Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), which investigates 55,000 reports of child abuse and neglect
each year, concluding her tenure as Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Community and Government
Affairs.

A lawyer by training, Anne practiced law for five years at two prestigious New York firms. She holds a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA in political science and psychology from Fordham University. She also serves on the Advisory Council of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, is an Annie E. Casey Foundation Fellow, and has been featured in The New York Times, Barron’s, Crain’s New York, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Dr. Caprice Young is responsible for leading the twenty Learn4Life charter schools, including more than 80 learning centers in California, Ohio, and Michigan. Raised in a host foster family, she identifies with and has committed her life to supporting students whose needs exceed the scope of traditional public schools. Dr. Young left IBM in 1999 to serve as a member and president of the elected Los Angeles school board. Beginning in 2003, she served as the founding CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. Since 2008, she has provided executive leadership to a range of education, philanthropy, and business organizations undergoing major transformations. She is a recipient of the Coro Crystal Eagle for Excellence in Public Service, the California State University Los Angeles Educator of the Year in 2016, and a member of the national Charter School Hall of Fame. Dr. Young serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Fordham Foundation and the Texas First Education Foundation.

Caprice earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Masters of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and Doctorate of Education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Diego Arambula is a Partner with Transcend, working with schools across the country to explore how to best reimagine learning environments to prepare all children to thrive. Prior to joining Transcend in the fall of 2018, Diego Arambula spent nearly 15 years working to build, lead, and unlock demand for innovative schools.

Diego began his work in public education in 2005 at Summit Public Schools, a leading network of public charter schools headquartered in California. At Summit, Diego was a classroom teacher, a founding principal and the Chief Growth & Innovation Officer. Through his ten years as a team member – and his years since serving on the Summit Public Schools board – Diego has supported Summit’s move toward personalization and a refined and scalable school model.

Diego has also served as the founder and Executive Director of GO Public Schools Fresno, an education advocacy non-profit focused on unlocking demand for radically re-envisioned school models in his hometown of Fresno, CA. Under his leadership, GO Fresno advocated for transformational change in Fresno Unified through their Choosing Our Future report.

He began his career in politics, serving as the Communications Director for U.S. Representative Cal Dooley after serving as his Deputy Campaign Manager. Diego received his A.B. in government from Harvard University and a Master’s in Education from Stanford University. He currently serves on the board of Summit Public Schools, GO Public Schools and the Central Valley Community Foundation. He lives in Fresno with his wife, Chandelle, and their two school-aged daughters.

Naila Bolus is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Jumpstart, a national early education organization working towards the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. Jumpstart provides language, literacy and social-emotional programming for preschool children from underserved communities and promotes quality early learning for all children. Since Naila became CEO in 2011, Jumpstart has grown to serve over 13,000 children in 14 states plus the District of Columbia, and is training more than 4,000 adults annually to support a high-quality early education workforce.

Previous to Jumpstart, Naila was Executive Director of Ploughshares Fund, the largest grant-making foundation in the United States dedicated exclusively to security and peace funding. At Ploughshares Fund, she transformed the organization from a small funder to a national, influential policy player, and helped lead an effort to win Senate ratification of the New START treaty in December 2010. She pioneered a model of “impact philanthropy” that leveraged the foundation’s convening power, grant-making and operational capacity. Prior to Ploughshares Fund, she served as Co-Director of 20/20 Vision, a national grassroots lobby. She helped found and served as Political Director of the Women Legislators’ Lobby, a national network of women state legislators.

Naila graduated from Tufts University with a degree in International Relations. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her husband and three daughters.

Drema Brown currently serves as the vice president of the School-Age Division at the Children’s Aid Society, ensuring the success of the agency’s efforts to provide high-quality educational services to children between the ages of 5-13 living in under-resourced neighborhoods. Drema oversees Children’s Aid’s partnerships in 22 community schools, its four community centers, and Wagon Road Camp, as well as its after-school, summer, and parent education programs. Since she joined Children’s Aid in August 2011, Drema has overseen the successful launch of the Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School. She currently serves on its board and will continue to support its full development as a K-5 school.

Before joining the Children’s Aid Society she worked at New Leaders for New Schools, an organization working to improve the quality of education in urban schools, where she led the design, development and delivery of a leadership curriculum for its New York City and national principal training programs. Previously, she served as principal of P.S. 230X Dr. Roland N. Patterson in the Bronx, where she launched a comprehensive plan to improve student achievement, increase math and reading proficiency, and fund library and technology upgrades. Drema holds a B.A. from Yale University and a M.Ed. from Harvard. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Kimberly Bryant is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Girls CODE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “changing the face of technology” by introducing underrepresented girls to the field of technology and computer science. Before founding Black Girls CODE, Kimberly enjoyed a successful 25+ year professional
career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as an Engineering Manager in a series of technical leadership roles at several Fortune 100 companies such as Genentech, Merck, and Pfizer.

Since 2011 Black Girls CODE
has grown from a local grassroots organization serving only the Bay Area, to an international nonprofit with chapters across the
U.S. and in Johannesburg, South Africa. Black Girls CODE has reached over 3,000 students and continues to grow and thrive. Kimberly serves on the boards of many national organizations such as the National Champions Board for the National Girls Collaborative Project, and the National Board of the NCWIT K-12 Alliance.

Kimberly has received numerous awards and recognition for her work as a social innovator focused on increasing opportunities for women and girls in the technology industry. She was given the prestigious Jefferson Award for Community Service and honored by Business Insider on its list of “The 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology” and named to The Root 100 and the Ebony Power 100 lists. In 2013 Kimberly was recognized as a White House Champion of Change for her work in tech inclusion and for her focus on bridging the digital divide for girls of color. In 2014 Kimberly received a Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress and was given the inaugural Women Who Rule Award in Technology via Politico.

She has been identified as a thought leader in the area of tech inclusion, women and leadership, and education, and continues to speak on these topics at events such as the Personal Democracy Forum, TedX Kansas City, Platform Summit, Big Ideas Festival, SXSW, and many others.

Jon Clark is the co-director of the Brooke Charter School Network, a network of three Boston charter schools serving 1,500 students in grades K-8. Brooke Schools rank consistently among the top schools in Massachusetts. Jon was the winner of the Boston Foundation’s 2015 Pozen Prize for Charter Schools and New School Venture Fund’s 2014 City Fund Impact Award.

Jon was the founding principal of the original Brooke Charter School, which opened in 2002. He is the Vice Chair for Advocacy of the Boston Charter Alliance and serves on the steering committee of the Boston Compact. Prior to Brooke, he was a founding teacher and math department chair at Boston Collegiate Charter School, and a 1992 corps member with Teach for America in New Orleans. He holds a B.A. from Oberlin College. Jon is married to Kimberly Steadman, the other Brooke Co-Director, and they live with their three kids in Boston.

Erik Clemons is the founding CEO and President of the Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (CONNCAT), a nonprofit organization based on the model of Bill Strickland’s, National Center for Arts and Technology, which is dedicated to creating empowering arts-based educational environments for at-risk public school students, and training programs for under and unemployed adults.

Erik has an extensive background in nonprofit management and organizational leadership. Prior to joining CONNCAT, Erik served as the Executive Director of Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), providing academic and social enrichment programs to children and youth between the ages of five and 23e. Erik is a course facilitator at Yale School of Management (Interpersonal Dynamics), Board Chair of Housing Authority of New Haven, a board member at Connecticut Voices for Children, and founding board member of the Elm City Montessori School in New Haven, CT. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Southern Connecticut State University, and a M.A. in Theology and Ethics from Hartford Seminary. Erik and his wife, Sharon have four daughters, Kiara, Nyle, Nia, Kai.

Amanda has 25 years of experience in the areas of recruiting, diversity, organization development, change management, and Latino community relations. She has recently founded Latinos for Education, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop, place, and connect essential Latino leadership in the education sector.

Prior to Latinos for Education, Amanda was the Vice President of Latino Community Partnerships at Teach for America, where she developed relationships with national Latino serving organizations to advance recruitment of Latino teachers and support Latino alumni. She also led efforts internally focused on Latino leadership development.

Amanda was a Director at The Bridgespan Group, where she served as an organizational consultant to youth and education clients in support of their strategic planning efforts. She also developed HR tools that have been widely utilized by nonprofit organizations nationally. Amanda was also a Director of Organization Development for Hudson, a global staffing and human capital firm, where she launched a diversity consulting services division. She spent seven years at Deloitte, an international professional services firm, where she focused on human capital consulting projects primarily in merger and acquisition environments.

Over the course of her professional career, Amanda has been a frequent speaker at conferences and events. She is a blogger on Huffington Post Latino Voices, and has been featured in Poder Magazine’s list of movers and shakers. She currently serves on the board of KIPP Massachusetts, Achieve Mission, and Roxbury Community College as well as the RISE Colorado advisory board. El Planeta named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in Massachusetts. Amanda holds an M.S. from Fordham University and lives in the Boston area with her spouse and two children.

Adria Goodson is the Chief Program Officer for The Pahara Institute, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify, strengthen, and sustain diverse high potential leaders who are re-imagining public education, so that every child in America has access to an excellent public school.

Adria also serves on the faculty of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education teaching personal mastery courses. She has spent over 15 years coaching and supporting the learning and development of national non-profit and education leaders. From 2005 to 2015, she was the founding director of Hunt Alternatives’ Prime Movers fellowship program, a program that supports social movement leaders in the United States.

Adria earned her PhD from Boston College in sociology, specializing in social movement theory, public policy, and philanthropy. She has authored several pieces on movement leadership and has been a featured speaker at TedXBeaconStreet.

Ryan Hill is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KIPP New Jersey, and was the founding principal of TEAM Academy, a KIPP middle school in Newark, New Jersey’s South Ward. Under his leadership, KIPP New Jersey has grown from one to six schools, currently serving around 2,500 students and alumni in grades K-12. Each year, approximately 80% of students who attend a KIPP NJ school in 8th grade matriculate to four-year colleges, a track record that has led to a waitlist of over 9,000 students. KIPP NJ will grow to ten schools in Newark, serving 11% of the school-aged population. In August of 2014, KIPP NJ opened its first of five planned schools in Camden, NJ, where it will grow to serve 22% of the city’s students.

Prior to founding TEAM Academy, Hill was a Teach For America corps member in New York City, where he taught sixth grade. He is a winner of the Bank of America Local Heroes Award and the New Schools Venture Fund Impact Award. Ryan is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and he holds an M.Ed. in Education Leadership from National Louis University. He is also a graduate of the Broad Academy for Urban School Leadership.

Carrie Chimerine Irvin’s deep commitment to equity and quality in public education is backed by extensive experience in education policy and reform, especially for traditionally underserved students. Her experience includes analyzing federal education policy, shaping innovative school design programs, and teaching 8th-grade social studies. In 2010, she co-founded Charter Board Partners (CBP), a nonprofit working to strengthen charter school boards in order to improve quality, equity, and accountability in public education.

In 2013, Carrie delivered a TEDx talk about Charter Board Partners’ innovative work. Earlier in her career, Carrie was a consultant for Education Resource Strategies, the director of strategy and evaluation at New American Schools, a policy analyst at Policy Studies Associates, and an eighth grade social studies teacher at the American School in Japan. Carrie chaired the Board of Trustees of the National Child Research Center, a model preschool in Washington, DC. She currently chairs the Georgetown University Child and Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Council, working with Georgetown faculty to increase access to high-quality mental health care for children in underserved communities, and is a founding board member of School Board Partners, a new nonprofit that aims to connect, inspire, and support reform-minded elected school board members.

Carrie holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in education policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. An avid runner and amateur baker, she lives in the Washington, DC area, with two almost-grown daughters and one high-strung dog.

Todd Kern is Founder and Partner of 2Revolutions— a national education design lab that designs, launches, and supports Future of Learning models, and helps catalyze the conditions within which they can thrive. Todd is a systems-oriented generalist with nearly 25 years of leadership experience in strategic, analytical, operational and advocacy roles across various segments and levels of the U.S. education industry. He started 2Revolutions in 2008 to leverage this diverse set of perspectives to attempt new ways of addressing the complex social challenges that continually hold us back.

Todd previously held senior leadership roles with New Leaders for New Schools – first as Executive Director of the New York City program, then as Chief Knowledge Officer. Before that, he was a Vice President at KnowledgeQuest Ventures, a mission-driven boutique investment bank and strategy-consulting firm dedicated to serving the emerging education industry. Todd’s past experience also includes representing the legislative priorities of state education commissioners before Congress, and lobbying for increased federal investments in education. Todd has taught Education Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University and co-directed the Education Policy Fellowship Program. Todd is currently serving a 5-year term as an elected member of the school board in New Rochelle, NY.

Todd completed his graduate work in Public Policy at the University of Chicago, earned undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Psychology from Miami University, and graduated from a public high school in Ohio. Todd lives in New Rochelle, New York, with his best friend, Caroline, and their two great kids, Isabel and Grayson.

Paul Keys is the executive director for the Bay Area region at Teach For America (TFA). He previously served as executive vice president at Teach For America. Paul and his team led the strategy and integration of the work happening across TFA’s 52 regions, and were responsible for leading changes in their operating model that accelerated the pace of learning and impact for their Executive Directors.

Prior to this role, Paul served as the senior vice president, regional operations, where he managed a team of seven Executive Directors across the country, and led innovations around learning and development, and student and family engagement. Prior to his work at Teach For America, Paul was a Regional Manager at Score! Educational Centers and was one of the founding team members of InsideTrack, an organization that coaches students towards success in their first year of college.

Paul grew up in Derry, a city in the northwest corner of Ireland. Derry was the birthplace of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, and the change Paul witnessed over the past three decades in his hometown fuels his conviction that education is one of the most powerful tools to fight social and economic injustice. Paul holds a Master’s degree in the economics of education from the University of London, and a Bachelor’s in business from the University of Ulster.

Dr. Duncan F. Klussmann is the director of education for the Kinder Foundation. He previously served as the Superintendent in Spring Branch Independent School District (SBISD). Prior to this appointment, Duncan served as an Interim Superintendent and Area Superintendent for SBISD. During his 11-year tenure in SBISD, the school district passed the largest bond program in the history of the school district. The $597 million program replaced 13 aging elementary schools, renovated all remaining campuses, provided for new school buses, enhanced athletics facilities, and greatly expanded technology use in the school district.

In 2012, Duncan helped create the SKY Partnership, which joins together SBISD with KIPP Houston (KIPP) and YES Prep Public Schools (YES Prep) at two district middle schools where new campus program charters now operate. In addition, Duncan worked closely with the Board of Trustees, community, staff and students on the creation of the Spring Branch Plan 2012-2017 Goal and Belief Statement. Under this goal, SBISD will double the number of students completing a technical certificate, and two-year or four-year degree.

Duncan has twice served as President of the Texas School Alliance. He was recently named one of three 2014 Houstonians of the Year by the Houston Chronicle. A recipient of the Lifetime Member Award from the Texas Parent and Teacher Association, Duncan received the Hewlett-Packard Fellow in Executive Leadership Award in 2004 and the TABE Honoree Award for Public Education in 2012. He serves as a board member with United Way and remains active with numerous groups, including Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas Inc. and the Spring Branch Education Foundation.

A native of Brenham, Texas, Duncan received a BBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a M.Ed from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. In 2004, New Jersey based Seton Hall University awarded him a doctorate in education. He lives in Houston with his wife, Marissa, and their children.

Max Koltuv is a regional superintendent at Achievement First where he oversees a network of 15 elementary schools in Brooklyn, NY, Bridgeport, CT, New Haven, CT, Hartford, CT, and Providence, RI. Before joining Achievement First, Max oversaw all of Uncommon Schools’ Brooklyn elementary instructional leaders as the Director of Brooklyn Elementary Instruction for the Prep and Excellence networks of Uncommon Schools.

Max originally joined Uncommon Schools as the Founding Head of School at Leadership Prep Bedford Stuyvesant, a college-prep elementary school. A graduate of Yale College, Max started his career at The Monitor Co., an international strategy-consulting firm, before transitioning to a teaching role at a high-performing, urban charter school in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship and of the KIPP School Leadership Program. He has an avid interest in the outdoors stemming from his days leading hiking, canoeing, and dogsledding trips for Outward Bound. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughters.

Yetta Lewis is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gestalt Community Schools, where she ensures that over 2,000 Memphis students are college-ready, career-ready, and community-ready. Yetta manages the academic program, student services, teacher professional development, leadership development, and student recruitment for the network.

Yetta was the founding Principal of Power Center Academy Middle School. As a founding Principal, she lead a team of extraordinary educators, dedicated parents, and supportive community partners who in just three years moved the school to the top-performing middle school in Tennessee. In 2011, Power Center Academy Middle School was awarded the TN SCORE award for outstanding academic performance. During that year, the school narrowed the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged students by 9.82 points in reading and 18.66 points in math.

Prior to joining Gestalt Community Schools, Yetta was the Vice President of Curriculum and Professional Development for The JASON Project, a subsidiary of National Geographic. She worked as a Managing Director of Professional Development for the WorldCom MarcoPolo Internet Content for Classroom Program. Yetta started her educational journey as a teacher in Baltimore City, where she taught middle school language arts for eight years and served on the Board of Head Start. Yetta holds a B.A. from Salisbury University, an M.Ed. from Loyola University, and a Certificate of Technology in Education from Johns Hopkins University.

Tyra A. Mariani is the President & Chief Operating Officer at New America where she partners with the board and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter to lead the transformation of New America into a new kind of think and action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum.

Prior to New America, Mariani was appointed Chief of Staff to the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education and Deputy Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Obama Administration. In these roles, Mariani helped shape policies and programs impacting education from early learning through college and career. She also led complex interagency and cross-departmental teams that took several Administration priorities from vision to strategy and implementation including the President’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative and RESPECT, an effort to elevate and transform the teaching profession. Mariani was recognized as a key problem-solving partner to the Department’s senior leadership, helping them to overcome bureaucracy and accelerate their work and the agency’s priorities.

Prior to joining the Department of Education, Mariani launched entrepreneurial efforts to build human capital in the education sector as the founder of the Greater New Orleans Region of New Leaders. In this role, she developed and successfully executed a strategy to drive high academic gains in schools led by New Leaders principals in post-Katrina New Orleans. Prior to New Leaders, Mariani served as Budget Director for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) overseeing the $5 billion budget of the third largest school district in the country. She entered CPS through the Broad Residency in Urban Education. As a Broad Resident, she led efforts that addressed overcrowding and increased the quality of principal candidates within the district. Mariani began her career in the private sector. Her focus on human capital began in Training and Development with Kraft Foods Corporate, where she led efforts to make the company’s training programs more effective and aligned with employees’ developmental needs as well as broader cross-cutting efforts on team development and improving individual efficiency and productivity. Through her years at McKinsey & Company and work across a number of sectors, Mariani has developed a distinctive perspective on individual and organizational performance management and improvement across a broad set of industries and functions ranging from increasing return on invested capital to service productivity in a variety of industries.

Mariani was co-valedictorian and received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Business Administration from Howard University and a master’s in business from Stanford University.

Shane P. Martin is the Provost of Seattle University. As Chief Academic Officer, he oversees the Academic Division, including the 8 schools and colleges, the libraries, enrollment management, student academic and faculty services, and numerous academic centers and initiatives. Shane is a 2015 fellow of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship, a branch of the Aspen Institute.

Prior to coming to Seattle U, he served for almost 25 years at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) as a faculty member and administrator, completing 14 years as Dean of the LMU School of Education and 6 as Dean of Graduate Studies. He received an honorary doctorate from LMU in 2018.

Provost Martin served as a state commissioner to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing for 10 years for which he was recognized by a resolution from the California Legislature. He served as a board member and chair of the Green Dot Public Schools Board, chair of the Teach For America Los Angeles Board, and the Loyola High School of Los Angeles Board of Directors. He was a founding member of Deans for Impact and is a past president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) Education Deans Conference, a past chair of the Association of Graduate Schools in Catholic Colleges and Universities (AGSCCU), and a past chair of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Catholic Education. He recently was appointed to the Jesuit Schools Network (JSN) Board.

An educational anthropologist by training, his areas of expertise include intercultural education, inclusive excellence, educational policy, leadership, and Jesuit education. He has been recognized with numerous awards, including: the INSIGHT Into Diversity Giving Back Diversity Leadership Award, the National Catholic Educational Association’s (NCEA) Michael J. Guerra Leadership Award and the Catherine T. McNamee, CSJ, Award, and the Loyola High School Alumni Association’s Cahalan Award.

Provost Martin earned his Ph.D. in International and Intercultural Education at the University of Southern California, a Master of Theology degree at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST) with a specialization in Hispanic Ministry, a Master of Divinity degree also from JST, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Loyola Marymount University.

Aaron North is the vice president of Education at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he serves as a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team and leads a team of program officers who are funding or researching programs designed to ensure more Kansas City students of all ages have access to education options preparing them for education, work, and life after high school.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, North served as the founding executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association (MCPSA). Before leading the startup effort at MCPSA, North worked for the education team at Volunteers of America of Minnesota, as a school resource center director at the University of Minnesota, and in the Minnesota Department of Education’s Office of Choice and Innovation. He taught high school English in rural North Carolina as a Teach For America corps member and worked for Andersen Consulting and Sprint PCS prior to his teaching experience. North has helped create or catalyze several education programs in Kansas City, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, Kansas City Scholars, and SchoolSmartKC. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and serves as board chair of both Kauffman Scholars, Inc. and the Ewing Marion Kauffman School.

North earned a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Lisa R. Ramírez is the Director of the Office of Migrant Education and the Acting Director for the Office of School Support and Rural Programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) at the U.S. Department of Education. She brings a unique combination of personal and professional experiences to help improve the academic success of students across the country.

Lisa joined the U.S. Department of Education in 2006, when she was appointed group leader for the discretionary grants team, which plans and coordinates the High School Equivalency Program (HEP), College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), and the then active Migrant Education Even Start (MEES) program. She was promoted to Director of the Office of Migrant Education, where she has remained. Under Lisa’s leadership, the Office of Migrant Education has gained significant recognition among the offices within OESE as well as the entire Education Department.

A daughter of migrant workers and a former migrant worker herself, Lisa left the fields to serve in the United States Army Reserves. She financed portions of her college education through the GI Bill and began her career as an educator in 1992, first as a middle and high school teacher in English and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in Texas, then serving as Assistant Principal and Principal. In 2004, Lisa took on the challenge of opening the Lubbock Independent School District’s first charter campus, the Ramírez Charter School.

Born in Chicago, but a Texan at heart, Lisa received her B.A., M.Ed., and Ed.D. Degrees from Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Texas. She is an alumna of the Executive Leadership program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the National Hispana Leadership Institute. Lisa enjoys running, writing and the study of film/world cinema. She is CEO at Olive 13 Paloma Consulting, and author of Dulcified: Sweetened by the Education of Life, an autobiography. Lisa currently lives with her husband, two children and two family dogs in Alexandria, VA.

Beatriz Rendón is vice president of Educational Outreach at Arizona State University (ASU) and chief executive officer of ASU Preparatory Academy charter schools (ASU Prep), where she is responsible for building and diversifying the pipeline of college going students into ASU. ASU Prep is ASU’s innovative, PreK-12 public charter school, currently serving over 2000 students across a diverse socioeconomic spectrum.

The schools are located in three geographic locations, one urban and one suburban. The urban location serves a non-white majority student population of which 70% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. It was a “turnaround” school when it was inherited as a failing school in 2009 but is currently a high performing school. ASU Prep’s mission and achievements to date illustrate that all students from all socio-economic backgrounds can achieve a four-year university degree, compete globally and contribute to their communities. Most recently, ASU Prep realized a 100% high school graduation rate and 100% post-secondary attainment rate across it’s network, demonstrating that students from all socio-economic backgrounds can achieve a four-year university degree, compete globally and contribute to their communities. ASU Prep will start a new high school in rural Casa Grande, Arizona, on August 1. Beatriz is currently leading expansion plans to significantly increase ASU Prep’s footprint.

As the former executive director of Strategic Alliances for the Critical Path Institute, Beatriz provided leadership and philanthropic development support to scientific researchers working on pre-competitive biomarkers for important diseases. Beatriz also served as the chief business officer for the Tucson Unified School District, the second largest district in Arizona, where she managed an operating budget of $360 million and helped resolve multi-million dollar deficits. From 1995-2007 Beatriz worked in several executive capacities at the Chicago Public Schools, the third largest school district in the country, including leading “Renaissance 2010,” an initiative that launched in 2005 with the goal of opening 100 new, independently operated schools by 2010.

Beatriz was recently appointed as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. A first-generation college student, Beatriz holds a BA from the University of Arizona in political science, a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and a JD from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Beatriz is fluent in Spanish, and is also an accomplished saxophonist. Beatriz and her husband are parents of five children ages 9 to 17.

Deborah A. Santiago is the Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Policy at Excelencia in Education. For more than 20 years, she has led research and policy efforts from the community to national and federal levels to improve educational opportunities and success for all students. She co-founded Excelencia in Education to inform policy and practice, compel action, and collaborate with those committed and ready to act to increase student success.

Among her experiences, Deborah has worked in federal government as a policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service and in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education informing program and budget efforts. She also served as the Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Among Deborah’s community work, she has provided program design and implementation for the ASPIRA Association and translated data for community engagement as the Vice President for Research and Data at the Los Angeles Alliance for Student Achievement.

Deborah’s current research focuses on state and federal policy, financial aid, institutions serving Hispanics, evaluation of effective institutional practices, and student success in higher education. She serves on the advisory boards of thedream.us and the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Stephanie Saroki de García is co-founder and managing director of Seton Education Partners. She helped launch Seton in 2009 to give every child, regardless of background, an opportunity to have an academically excellent, character-building, and vibrantly Catholic education — and ultimately, a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. Seton currently serves nearly 4,000 predominantly low-income and minority children in sixteen schools and eight cities nationwide. Scholars in Seton’s schools are achieving academic growth results in mathematics and reading that match or beat the nation’s most acclaimed urban charter schools. Most recently, Stephanie launched and for over five years directed the Philanthropy Roundtable’s K-12 education programs, where she spearheaded a series of conferences, strategy sessions, and publications on breakthroughs in education philanthropy. She co-wrote Saving America’s Urban Catholic Schools: A Guide for Donors and also served on the strategic planning committee for the Archdiocese of New York’s school system, chairing the committee on school leadership. Previously, Stephanie was a Teach For America corps member in Oakland, California, where she taught high school English. She attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government as a dean’s fellow. While completing her master’s degree in public policy at the Kennedy School, Stephanie worked at the Office of Management and Budget. She received a bachelor of arts degree in rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Stephanie lives in San Diego, where she is a proud mom to two great children.

Ricardo Soto is Senior Vice President for Legal Advocacy and General Counsel for the California Charter School Association (CCSA). He has been with CCSA since September 2011. In his role, Ricardo oversees the Legal Team, provides general legal counsel to CCSA and advises it in relation to legal strategies targeted to support its statewide and regional advocacy efforts, the membership, the charter school community, and the CCSA’s initiatives and strategic objectives. Ricardo also supervises the Facilities Advocacy and Special Education Advocacy teams, which provide support and advocacy to the membership needs in both areas for California charter schools.

Prior to CCSA, Ricardo served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) beginning in 2009. In this position, Ricardo provided senior leadership concerning enforcement, policy and operational activities at OCR. From 2005 to 2007, Ricardo served as assistant secretary and legal counsel in the Office of the Secretary of Education for California where he advised the Secretary of Education and Governor’s Office on legal and policy issues related to elementary, secondary and higher education. He served as in-house counsel for the San Diego Unified School District. Ricardo started out his legal career at California Rural Legal Assistance in Oceanside as a Skadden Fellow, and represented migrant farm workers in education issues. Ricardo received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and his undergraduate degree from Marquette University.

David Umansky co-founded Civic Builders in 2002 to ensure real estate will never be a barrier to an excellent education. Annually, over 11,000 students learn in 22 inspiring Civic Builders school buildings in some of the most underserved communities in the country. As Chief Executive Officer, David is responsible for the overall strategy and direction of Civic Builders. Under David’s leadership, Civic Builders has been recognized with the Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Manhattan Institute, the Social Capitalist award from Fast Company/Monitor Group, and is the recipient of many design awards.

Prior to Civic Builders, David co-founded Expert Ease Software, Inc., a developer of software products for the legal industry, where he also served on the company’s board of directors. David also worked at Republic National Bank as Vice President of Marketing in the asset management division.

David serves as a board member of the National Charter School Resource Center, as a member of the Low-Income Investment Fund’s Eastern Region Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Goldman Sachs New Market Tax Credit Community Development Entity. David holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University, and a B.A. with Honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Dr. Louise Bay Waters has led Leadership Public Schools, a network of four urban charter high schools in the Bay Area, for eight years establishing it as an R&D laboratory with a particular focus on leveraging technology for under-prepared students. LPS has become known for school turnaround, district collaboration, and partnerships with organizations such as Gooru, resulting in national dissemination of LPS innovations.

Louise came to LPS from the Stupski Foundation where she headed research on districts that have accelerated the performance of students of color and poverty. Her work at Stupski built off of her experience in the Oakland Unified School District. As Associate Superintendent of Student Achievement in Oakland, Louise led the instructional reforms from 2001 – 2004 that resulted in district achievement gains that outpaced the State. She was also responsible for Oakland’s exit from two long-standing Office of Civil Rights oversight decrees. As a principal in the New Haven district (Union City), she designed award-winning assessment and extended day programs.

Prior to her career in K-12 administration, Louise led the State’s first new teacher program, a partnership between Oakland and the California State University, East Bay. As a professor of Teacher Education at the university, she was head of a number of urban teacher preparation programs. She began her career as a teacher at Berkeley High School and has authored numerous textbooks and articles. Louise holds a B.A. and Masters from Stanford University and a Doctorate from the Pennsylvania State University.

Sherman Whites, Jr., is a director in Education for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he is responsible for managing philanthropic investments related to K-12 education, including emerging portfolios related to innovation and community ownership. He also works with the Kauffman Foundation’s Communications and Public Affairs team to develop outreach strategies related to education.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Whites was a program officer for the K-12 Education and Special Interest teams at the Walton Family Foundation. He was responsible for managing investments to improve education outcomes through empowering parents to choose among high-performing schools.

Whites began his career in philanthropy in 2011 after working with public charter schools in New Orleans as part of the Broad Foundation’s Residency in Urban Education. Prior to his career in education, Whites acquired experience in operations and brand management from several market-leading organizations: Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo, Campbell Soup Company and Target Corporation. He also served as an adjunct instructor at North Carolina Central University.

Whites earned his Master of Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Florida A&M University.

Tonya Allen, a serial “idea-preneur,” serves as the Foundation’s president & chief executive officer. Her two-decade long career has centered on pursuing, executing and investing in ideas that improve her hometown of Detroit and reduce the plight of underserved people, especially children. Allen has been instrumental in many successful philanthropic, government and community initiatives and has a comprehensive understanding of philanthropic governance and strategy.

In her current role, Tonya aligns the complexities of education reform, urban revitalization and public policy, so that these sometimes divergent areas of work come together to improve the well-being of Detroit’s children. She serves as the architect of the 10-year, $100 million Good Neighborhoods program. She orchestrated the development of a $200-million, citywide education reform organization called Excellent Schools Detroit, and a high-school improvement strategy has resulted in 15 new college-preparatory high schools.

Tonya was named to Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40 list, received the national Brick Award given to activists under age 30 by Rolling Stone Magazine, was one of the first Detroiters to receive the prestigious Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and was named one of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “5 nonprofit innovators to watch” in 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and masters’ degrees in social work and public health, all from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She serves on numerous boards and committees, both local and national, including The Funders Network for Smart Growth, Grantmakers of Children, Youth and Families, Council of Michigan Foundations and Association of Black Foundation Executives.

Before joining the Skillman Foundation in 2004, Tonya worked as a program officer for both the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Thompson-McCully Foundation. She founded and was the executive director of Detroit Parent Network, a parent membership organization dedicated to improving educational options for children, and led the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Rebuilding Communities Initiative in Detroit.

Tonya describes herself as “a quasi-introvert masquerading as an extrovert.” Her ambition is to marry those vastly different parts of her personality to live a balanced, joyful and authentic life. Her sense of humor and faith keep her inspired and grounded as she works to make Detroit, the city she loves, a better, stronger, more thriving place for children. She’s married to husband, Louis, and has three daughters, Phylicia, Brianna and Alanna. Together, the couple owns and operates a Christian entertainment company, Highly Favored Productions.

Kara Bobroff (Navajo/Lakota), Ed.S., is a life long educator and leader with more than twenty years of experience serving her community as a teacher and school leader. She is the founding principal of the Native American Community Academy (NACA), an award-winning public charter school dedicated to Native American student success in Albuquerque, NM. Under her leadership, NACA has been recognized as a model for effective Indigenous education by the New Mexico Indian Education Sub-Committee; the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) as a Breakthrough School; and Teach for America as a “School to Learn From.”

Kara is currently the executive director of the NACA-Inspired Schools Network (NISN), the first school network that began in 2014 in the nation that is focused on improving Native American education through a community-led engagement and transformation process.

Kara was appointed in 2015 to the President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She is also a 2005 Echoing Green Fellow, and has received the Zia Award for University of New Mexico alumni for distinguished service in the field of education.

Chaka Booker is managing director of The Broad Residency in Urban Education. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of the Residency program including recruitment, selection, placement and professional development. Previously, Chaka served as senior director of recruitment and selection for The Broad Residency.

Prior to joining The Broad Center, Chaka worked in the public sector, first as the founder and director of A+ Services, a tutorial company operating within the Los Angeles Unified School District, and then as director of education for Star Inc., a provider of after-school enrichment, curriculum development and supplemental education services.

He holds a bachelor’s degrees in economics and psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Stanford University.

April Chou most recently served as the Interim Head of Education and a Senior Advisor for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Previously, she was the Chief Growth and Operating Officer of KIPP Bay Area Schools, where she partnered with families and local communities to create high quality schools. April was also a Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, responsible for supporting the community of education entrepreneurs working to address opportunity gaps for students. Prior to making a career switch, she advised clients with McKinsey & Company in Washington, DC, Beijing, and San Francisco. April was the founding board chair of Students for Education Reform and has chaired Princeton University’s Committee to Nominate Alumni Trustees. She is an alumna of Leadership San Francisco and a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow. April received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and has both a MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University. April lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two sons.

Becky is President and CEO of Clayton Early Learning. Prior to Clayton Early Learning, she served as a Fellow on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Education team, responsible for grant making, strategy, and research focused on child development. Prior to that, Crowe was a partner with Bellwether Education Partners where she launched the talent advising practice.

She has spent more than 20 years leading education reform efforts as a social entrepreneur and education and philanthropy advisor. Her past clients include urban school districts, charter school management organizations, Startup: Education, Microsoft, Google, the 100Kin10 STEM network, and numerous nonprofit organizations in the education sector. Becky served as executive director of Partners in School Innovation in San Francisco from 2003-2009. During her tenure, Partners doubled in size and became the key school improvement partner to the largest urban districts in the Bay Area. At Partners, she also successfully launched the Encore Fellows program in partnership with Civic Ventures to bring top talent from the private sector into the social sector.

Prior to joining Partners, Becky was responsible for leadership development of school and district leaders from 30 districts at the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative. Becky has additional experience leading program evaluations as a researcher at Stanford University. Becky has degrees in english and education from Stanford University, and was a 2010 Sloan Fellow, earning a management degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a former NCAA swimming All-American and the proud mother of a California public school student.

Jon Deane is the chief executive officer at GreatSchools. He is the former deputy director for The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he led the team’s work on Personalized Learning. Prior to this, Jon was a senior program officer for innovation and strategy on the College Ready Team with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Jon joined BMGF from Summit Public Schools (SPS), where he was the chief information officer. As a member of the SPS Executive Team, Jon focused both on internal data systems and management and external partnerships to make Summit’s platforms publicly available to others schools around the country.

Prior to this work, Jon was the founding executive director of Everest Public High School, the second school in the Summit Public Schools network, and he also served as an administrator and high school math teacher at Summit Prep, Summit’s flagship school. He began his teaching career at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to his career in education, Jon worked in the private sector, working as a CPA at Deloitte and Touche and Montgomery Securities, and as controller of Callan Associates.

Jon received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and a master’s degree in education from the Stanford Teacher Education Program. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, California.

Mónica García serves on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education. First elected in 2006, she continues to galvanize the LAUSD school community with bold initiatives that have contributed to an increase in graduation rates from 45 to 68 percent. She is an effective policy maker with a focus on high-impact progressive policies. García is an education warrior for the children of Los Angeles with a clear goal of 100% graduation.

García champions school reform models that increase student achievement, provide students personalized instruction, and grant educators greater instructional and budgetary independence. She has supported fully funding student needs with a $7 billion school bond and a $50 million increase in the district’s investment in school-based health and wellness centers. She also supports educational justice and accountability in the form of School Report Cards and increased academic support for English Language Learners and youth that have had previous interaction with the criminal justice system.

Prior to joining the Board of Education, García served as Chief of Staff to LAUSD Board President José Huizar. Through her earlier work as a guidance counselor in South Los Angeles, she solidified her belief that with opportunities and support, every child can learn. García was born and raised in East Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Chicano Studies and Political Science, and earned her M.S.W. from the University of Southern California.

Chris Gibbons is the founder and chief executive officer of STRIVE Preparatory Schools, a network of public charter schools transforming Denver by closing historic achievement gaps and preparing low-income students for college success. A STRIVE Prep school has ranked first among all DPS middle schools for academic growth for seven consecutive years. In an effort to expand this success and student access, and backed by the Charter School Growth Fund and major Denver-area funders, STRIVE Prep has embarked on an aggressive expansion plan to grow from eight to 15 schools serving 7,000 K-12 students by 2020.

Recently named the Top Thinker in Education by The Denver Post and a Game Changer by 5280 Magazine, Gibbons is a graduate of The Broad Academy and the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship. He served as the co-chair of the Denver Public Schools Collaborative Council, formerly directed Denver Summerbridge (now part of the Breakthrough Collaborative), was a charter school teacher, and is fluent in Spanish. He holds a BS in Biology from Yale University and a M.Ed. from Regis University.

Gibbons is happily married to Audra Philippon, also a charter school founder, and they are proudly raising two daughters.

Bryan C. Hassel is Co-Director of Public Impact, a national education policy and management consulting organization. With Emily Ayscue Hassel, he co-leads Public Impact’s team in developing and advancing path-breaking ideas for dramatically improving K-12 education and leading public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and foundations in designing and implementing new approaches with transformative potential.

Dr. Hassel is a recognized expert on teacher and leader policy, charter schools, school turnarounds, and school system governance. A current focus is the national Opportunity Culture initiative, an effort to help states, districts, and schools adopt new models that extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for higher pay, within existing budgets. His work has appeared in Education Next, Education Week, and numerous other publications; he blogs for Education Next and is a frequent guest blogger on other forums, such as Education Week. He is also the author of the Brookings book The Charter School Challenge: Avoiding the Pitfalls, Fulfilling the Promise. Prior to his leadership of Public Impact, Dr. Hassel was involved in community economic development via the Center for Community Self-Help, a nonprofit development bank.

Dr. Hassel received his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University and his master’s degree in politics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his B.A. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he attended as a Morehead Scholar. He is a senior research affiliate with the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

Elana Karopkin-Gold is the regional superintendent at Achievement First, where she manages several high school superintendents and is responsible for overseeing high school programming and the college access team across the Achievement First network. While 100% of Achievement First scholars are accepted to college, at its core, her role is to ensure that those scholars graduate from college and defy national statistics.

Prior to joining Achievement First, Elana was the founding principal of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice (SLJ), a public school within the New York City Department of Education, which served students who were overwhelmingly the first in their families to attend college and where over 90% qualified for free and reduced lunch. At the end of her four-year tenure, 93% of the founding class graduated on time and 100% of them applied to and were accepted to colleges such as Bates, Amherst, Colby, Hamilton, Skidmore, and the CUNY Macaulay Honors Program. Her experience as a leader in urban education also includes roles as a regional literacy specialist, assistant principal, English department head, and English teacher.

Elana graduated from Bryn Mawr College and holds an MA in english education from New York University, where she received the Jonathan Levin fellowship.

Tammy Mank Wincup is the chief operating officer at EverFi, a leading education technology company focused on teaching, assessing, and certifying students in critical skills that life and work demand. Tammy oversees EverFi’s 175 team members across all 50 states, the development of EverFi’s SaaS based learning platforms, the implementation of the technology in over 10,000 K-12 schools and 700 college campuses, and supporting the over 500 foundations and companies that fund the technology in schools. Founded in 2008, EverFi is a venture-backed company with investments from Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, Twitter Founder Evan Williams, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, New Enterprise Associates, and Rethink Education.

Tammy’s career has always been at the intersection of workforce development, education, and technology. After graduate school, she worked in South Africa and Egypt leading education and workforce development projects for Price Waterhouse’s International Strategy Group. She returned to the United States to run client services for a technology start-up in San Francisco and at Diamond Technology Partners. After September 11th, 2001, Tammy was appointed to the U.S. Department of State, where she helped manage a $300 million fund of education and workforce development foreign assistance to the Middle East. In 2006, she refocused on education technology issues in the U.S., working with leading education organizations including New Schools Venture Fund and for-profit education companies. She is a Trustee at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. and a frequent speaker at business and technology events including at the Atlantic Magazine, Fortune Magazine, and Harvard University.

She earned her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Maryland and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. She resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

Alton B. Nelson, Jr. is the chief executive officer of Making Waves Academy (MWA), a charter school in Richmond, CA. Before MWA, Alton founded and led S.A.C. Prep (a charter school in Sacramento) for eight years. Between 1999 and 2003, Alton worked in the Chicago area at Northwestern University’s office of development and as an associate at the Chicago Public Education Fund where he managed a portfolio of alternative teacher credentialing programs. Before graduate school, Alton was a teacher, coach, and administrator at The Branson School (in Ross, CA) for 6 years. While at Branson, Alton was a two-time recipient of the Mt. Tamalpais Cup teacher award and the Klingenstein Summer Fellowship through Teachers College Columbia University. Before Branson, Alton worked as a Project YES intern at the East Bay Conservation Corps in Oakland, CA. Alton holds a BA degree in history from UCLA and an Ed.M. from Harvard University.

Andrew Neumann the executive chair and chief executive officer at Open Sky Education. He is an educational entrepreneur driven to ensure all children in America have access to excellent learning opportunities which maximize their potential to fulfill their greater purpose and live flourishing lives. His passion is to contribute to building an educational ecosystem in America which will close global and national achievement gaps, build deeply held, internally driven character, and provide the option for faith formation to be an integral part of education for all who desire it regardless of a family’s income or zip code.

Committed to this mission, he began his career as a teacher serving students at the high school and college levels while finishing his Ph.D. in educational mathematics. In 2006, he joined Open Sky Education to support the team in advancing its mission nationally by growing its school networks (HOPE Christian Schools and EAGLE Public Charter Schools), Christian wraparound programs (Compass Educational Programs), and the Character Formation Project.

In addition to his work at OSE, Andrew works to advance this mission for children by participating in a variety of speaking engagements as well as serving on the boards of mission-aligned organizations including School Choice Wisconsin, the Alliance for Choices in Education and the Institute for Missional Visioning.

Rosemary Perlmeter co-founded Teaching Trust in 2010 to develop educational leaders committed to transforming urban public schools. In 2012, she joined Southern Methodist University, where she teaches in and directs a practice based masters program in urban school leadership.

In 1996, Rosemary founded Uplift Education, one of the first successful CMOs in Texas. She entered education after 15-years as an executive with a Fortune 500 company.

Rosemary’s current affiliations include serving as a board member of Educate Texas, a public-private partnership improving public education across Texas, and a member of the Advisory Boards for Middle School Matters and Alliance to Reform Education Leadership through the Bush Institute. She previously served on the Coalition for Effective Charters, the Texas Charter School Association, and the Board of Las Colinas Medical Center. She has been recognized for her Nonprofit Leadership by the Center for Nonprofit Management.

Rosemary received her B.A. and J.D. degrees from Southern Methodist University.

Earl Martin Phalen is the founder of Phalen Leadership Academies and Summer Advantage USA. Phalen Leadership Academies is a network of K-8 blended learning schools that was awarded 10 charters by the state of Indiana, which will enable them to ultimately serve 10,000 students each year.

The idea for Phalen Leadership Academies can be traced back to Mr. Phalen’s creation of Summer Advantage USA, a 25-day summer reading program, which is one of only two scientifically-proven summer learning models in the country. Phalen Leadership Academies was created as an expansion of this summer learning model.

Phalen’s work in education began when he founded BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) while at Harvard Law School. BELL operates after-school and summer education programs in several major U.S. cities and has grown to impact the lives of 15,000 students annually. He is a Mind Trust Fellow, recipient of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) National Hero Award, and was awarded the President’s Service Award by President Clinton in 1997.

Gerard Robinson is Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, a Washington, DC-based education and research initiative created by a partnership between the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the Charles Koch Foundation, and Koch Industries. The mission of CAO is to work with scholars and students at HBCUs and other postsecondary institutions to address barries and solutions in education, criminal justice, and entrepreneurship.

Robinson earned an Ed.M. degree from Harvard University, a B.A. degree from Howard University, and an A.A. degree from El Camino Community College. He is married and has three daughters.