2019 Cohort
Learn more about the Emerging HC Leaders Program here.
Marie-Jouvelle Aubourg is currently the Director for Teacher Recognition at the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality within the Division of Human Capital at the New York City Department of Education, where she has worked in different capacities over the past 12 years. She has had success in managing large-scale, high profile programs and start-up initiatives. She currently oversees three citywide areas for NYC's teacher talent continuum including New Teacher Support, Teacher Leadership-Strategy & Operations, and Teacher Recognition Programs.
Chanell Bates serves as director of strategy and operations at School District of Philadelphia, a school system that serves 200,000 students and has a workforce of over 18,000 employees. As a member of SDP’s Talent Support Services, she is responsible for designing and enhancing systems to support the District’s personnel needs and implementing a high-quality teacher pathways program.
Jenny Baxi is currently the Senior Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Uncommon Schools, a large charter management organization that supports and manages 53 schools and serves over 19,000 scholars with the mission supporting all of our scholars to and through a 4-year college or university. In this role, Jenny is responsible for helping inform organization-wide DEI strategy and also oversees our innovative Summer Teaching Fellowship, a teacher pipeline program that recruits college juniors from underrepresented backgrounds and prepares them to teach with our network after graduation, thus diversifying our workforce. Prior to her current role, Jenny was the Associate Director of Diversity and previous to that, the Organizational Learning Coordinator at Uncommon. Jenny was a Teach for America Corps Member in Chicago and taught 6th and 4th grade. She has her B.S. in Biological Sciences and Developmental Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and currently resides in Hoboken, NJ with her husband.
As Relay's Managing Director of Talent (Talent Development and Operations), Antoinette Chukudebelu is responsible for overseeing Relay’s performance management, promotion process, professional development, staff culture and home operations strategy to support and grow our staff. Antoinette has a passion for learning and development and supports a culture of coaching as a key piece in helping staff grow and develop. She also works to foster a diverse and vibrant workplace at Relay. As co-leader and founding member of the Diversity Steering Committee, she helps lead Relay in a direction to ensure Relay’s culture and practices are aligned with the vision of becoming the most inclusive and diverse graduate school of education.
Expanding educational opportunities for students faced with poverty is Ashleigh's personal and professional priority. Ashleigh currently serves as the Executive Director of Recruitment and Talent Management for San Antonio ISD where she leads the district’s recruitment and strategic staffing efforts to hire talent to improve outcomes for kids. Before her role with San Antonio ISD, Ashleigh’s experience include working for TNTP’s (The New Teacher Project) Human Capital department and as a consultant with TNTP in Memphis to support the improvement of the district's systems, policies and practices in human capital management.
Jordan Eason is an Employee Relations Specialist within the Human Resources Department of the Little Rock School District (LRSD) located in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a Human Resources Administrator, Jordan oversees many pertinent areas in the 20,000+ student district including: employee discipline, grievances, complaints, mediations, investigation review and determination, employee hearings, medical leave, ADA accommodations, employee leaves and attendance, employee performance/evaluation and improvement plans, unemployment, district manager over the substitute system and substitutes, policy and procedural interpretations, as well as assisting the superintendent and all administrators with any pertinent correspondence concerning personnel.
Ben is the Executive Director of Teacher Recruitment and Equity Strategy for Chicago Public Schools. In his role, Ben leads the district's teacher recruitment, pipeline development and equity strategies. For the past three years, Ben has lead the Opportunity School initiative, designed to improve teacher recruitment and retention outcomes in low-income schools. He has spent his career working to improve student outcomes in in various roles with CPS, and the Tennessee Department of Education. He began his career in education as a third grade teacher on the South Side of Chicago.
Anne Marie Ferruzzi is Teammate Engagement Program Manager at Aspire Public Schools (a K-12 charter school management organization in California and Tennessee) – in this role she manages national programs related to teammate professional development, engagement, and feedback. Her key areas of focus for 2018-19 include the development of Racial Identity Affinity Groups in Aspire’s four regions, the creation of a competency and coaching framework for non-instructional teammates, and the design of an org-wide engagement process to update Aspire’s core values, which impact the way people make decisions and organize their everyday tasks.
Claire Frosch is a member of the Academic Team at Independence Mission Schools (IMS). As the Director of Academic Initiatives, she supports 15 schools by recruiting and developing talented educators committed to transforming Catholic education in Philadelphia. Only in its second year of existence, the Academic Team’s work is resulting in measurable improvements in teacher performance and student outcomes. Claire’s time as an EP Visiting Fellow in the summer of 2017 helped prepare her to make the jump from working in a school setting to serving in a network-level role.
Dr. Diarese George serves as the Director of Recruitment for the Nashville Teacher Residency, and the founder of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA), a nonprofit aimed at supporting educators of color across the state. Previously, he taught for five years as a high school Career Technical Education teacher, with a focus on business. Additionally, he has completed education leadership fellowships for Education Pioneers, the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), Hope Street Group, and the Mosaic Fellowship, which connects and empowers education leaders of color across the state of Tennessee.
Charles A. Hall, Jr. currently serves as the Director of Employee Engagement with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) where he leads the charge in the Human Capital Office to provide one-stop-shop service, on demand in real time, to engage all employees with accuracy, care, efficiency, humility, and responsiveness for over 11,000 employees. His team covers the areas of onboarding and orientation, compensation, benefits, certification, leaves, employee records, retirement, and customer service operations. Prior to assuming his current role, he served for four years as the Manager – School Based Staffing where he worked with the team of school based HC Specialists to staff schools and support principals as human capital managers in the 177 schools within the district. Charles started his HC career with City Schools as an HC Specialist on the School Support Networks in 2013.
Robin Hebert is an educator, innovator, and lifelong learner restless for excellence and meaningful achievement. Currently, Robin is on a steep learning curve as Director of Educator Preparation, Assessment & Internship in KDE’s newly reorganized Office of Educator Licensure & Effectiveness. The DEPAI oversees educator preparation program approval and accreditation; the state’s pipeline, recruitment, and retention efforts for a diverse, well-qualified, and fully-credentialed educator workforce; and Kentucky’s plan for Equitable Access to Effective Educators.
Sheena Hess is a Human Capital Manager at Green Dot Public Schools California, a non-profit network of public charter schools. In her role, she supports the sourcing, selection and retention of educators for Green Dot’s twenty-two middle and high schools across Los Angeles. Prior to joining Green Dot, Sheena served as a Director of Operations at KIPP and she started her career as an elementary and middle school teacher. Sheena earned an undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and a graduate degree from Loyola Marymount University.
Dr. Bryan Johnson is the Director, Certificated Workforce Management for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where he oversees the District’s recruitment operations for K-12 teachers and support services professionals, as well as the Career Ladder Program, which supports and advises District paraprofessionals in the process of earning their teaching credentials. Dr. Johnson began his work in education as a teacher in LAUSD, teaching World History, American History, and Advanced Placement Psychology for 9 years at the middle school and high school levels, as well as serving as both a school site testing coordinator and Categorical Programs Coordinator.
Becky Kappus, PhD is the Educator Preparation Program Manager at the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). In this role Becky leads a team that oversees the approval of New Mexico’s teacher and administrator licensure programs. Becky’s scope of work includes developing, implementing and supporting New Mexico Administrative Code that affects educator preparation programs. She also manages the Title II state report of NM educator preparation programs, oversees the New Mexico Troops to Teachers’ grant, and supports educator preparation programs by providing technical support.
Colleen Keating-Crawford lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, Sean, their two-year-old son, and Labradoodle. She is the Managing Director of Executive Director Recruitment for Teach For America’s regional teams across the Western territory and Midwestern & Southern territory. She manages executive director hiring processes through the continuum from succession planning, to diverse recruiting, and best-in-class hiring.
Katherine believes in the limitless potential of all students and their right to a quality education. She believes resource management, specifically human capital, is an underutilized lever for building the schools our students deserve. Katherine currently serves as an HR partner in Highline Public Schools, a district pursuing a central office transformation. She is lucky to be a part of the team responsible for envisioning the district’s strategic staffing initiatives.
Shannon Langone is the Director of Recruitment at UP Education Network, a nonprofit that partners with districts, communities, and families to transform schools into exceptional learning environments where students cultivate their sharps minds, share their kind hearts, and explore their path and potential. Shannon joined UP in 2015 as the Manager of Recruitment and helped recruit and hire the founding team at UP’s first school in Western Massachusetts, UP Academy Kennedy. In addition, she previously led the AmeriCorps program at Springfield College, serving as program director for the Massachusetts Reading Corps and the School Turnaround Initiative. Springfield College students who participated in the AmeriCorps program completed more than 70,000 hours of service per year in public schools, preK programs, and nonprofits throughout the city. Shannon holds a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and a bachelor’s in English, both from Springfield College.
Christine Lee is a Human Capital Manager at Boston Public Schools, providing strategic staffing support for all 32 BPS High School principals, which includes consulting around hiring and retention, onboarding for new employees, and assisting with personnel matters. She joined BPS in 2014 as School Partner to support principals with staffing and performance management for 16 schools before her current position. Prior to BPS, Christine was a middle school science teacher in Philadelphia working to deepen her students’ curiosity and understanding of the world around them.
Lorraine Madala is Senior Director, Talent Development and Inclusion at Leadership for Educational Equity, where she leads employee learning and development. Previously, she coordinated diversity outreach, investigations, equal opportunity programs, diversity and inclusion initiatives as Chief of Staff for the Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Lockheed Martin.
Jessica R. Milton currently serves as the Senior Partner of alternative certification programs for Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). Serving over 130,000 students and nearly 20,000 employees, PGCPS is the 25th largest school district in the country and the second largest school system in Maryland. With the ultimate goal of improving the educational experiences and outcomes of students and addressing district staffing needs due to national and State teacher shortages, Jessica leads recruitment efforts to attract internal employees, career-changers, and recent college graduates to enter the teaching profession through alternative certification pathways.
Alex Moseman serves as the Senior Coordinator of Talent Acquisition at Indianapolis Public Schools. In this role, Alex leads the recruitment, selection, and retention of district staff. During his time at IPS, he has managed the development of a new school leadership recruitment process, and of its territory recruitment strategy.
Robin Phillips is currently the Human Resources Director at KIPP St. Louis Public Schools and has over 20 years of non-profit experience. Robin brings a wealth of knowledge working with both large and small size organizations in the areas of education, behavioral healthcare, social services and retail.
Lindsay Priam Kizekaiis in her first year as Director of Human Capital at Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP). Lindsay was promoted to this role having been BVP's Associate Director of Human Capital and Recruitment Associate for the last 2 years. Prior to joining BVP's Network Support Team, Lindsay was a teacher at BVP's Elementary School 1. She taught Kindergarten during the 2012-2013 school year and 3rd grade from 2013-2016. Lindsay came to BVP as a 2012 Teach for America Rhode Island corps member. Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and a Master of Arts degree in Urban Education Policy from Brown University.
Jessica Sher is the Director of Talent for TenSquare, a national charter school support organization based in Washington, DC that works alongside schools, districts, state and federal agencies, and charter authorizers to make lasting and measurable change in public education. In her role, Jessica manages executive search and talent services for TenSquare’s public charter school partners.
Maria Elena Sulemana has spent her professional career in the education field. The past 14 years she’s been part of one of the most recognized public charter school systems in the country, IDEA Public Schools, an organization with a mission to provide college success to students in underserved communities. Maria Elena began her career with IDEA in 2006 as a College Counselor, where she helped graduate the organization’s first senior class. She traveled the country visiting IDEA alumni to learn about their successes and struggles in college. Maria Elena continued her work to improve the preparation of IDEA students and ensure post-secondary success. Given what she learned in the field, Maria Elena launched IDEA’s first college counselor training program.
Since October 2018, Lisa Thomas has served as the Manager of Recruitment at Leading Educators. Prior to joining Leading Educators, Lisa served as the Director of Talent on the South Carolina Regional Team of Teach For America. During her three years at Teach For America, Lisa held a variety of roles in the talent and operations world- Assistant, Executive Support and Operations and Manager, Talent and Operations, prior to being promoted to the Director role. Before moving down South, Lisa worked as an Associate Director of Recruitment at Uncommon Schools for 2 years after being promoted from the Recruitment Coordinator Role. After graduating from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member at North Star Academy, part of the Uncommon Schools network in Newark, NJ.
Courtney Tungate is the Director of Talent Recruitment at Teaching Trust, a non-profit focused on eliminating the opportunity gap by developing leadership capacity at all levels of school leadership. As an ever-evolving leader at a rapidly growing organization, Courtney leads the staffing team to execute all aspects of talent recruitment, working to attract and hire amazing people. In this role, she has helped Teaching Trust grow from 9 to 60 full-time staff-members over the past 5 years, as the organization transitioned from start-up stage. A fierce advocate for creating a more human workplace, Courtney has led and supported a number of talent management initiatives at Teaching Trust, to help ensure staff are able to bring their best selves to work.
Amber Tyus is the Director of Talent Acquisition with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools focused on identifying quality talent to meet student needs in all areas. Amber believes that student success is predicated not only on the recruitment and retention of high quality teachers but by the assurance of educational equity in the classroom.
Akeia Williams currently serves as the Director of Talent Support at YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, TX, where she has worked for the last 4 years. Akeia leads the traditional human resources functions for the organization including compensation, benefits, employee relations, performance management, and orientation and onboarding. In her role, Akeia has been pivotal in overhauling non-instructional compensation structures, increasing competitiveness of teacher salaries, transitioning benefits brokers, leading through annual enrollment, standardizing YES Prep's employee discipline framework, implementing a certification policy and implementing a new non-instructional performance evaluation process. Akeia relocated to YES Prep from Maryland in 2015. Prior to YES Prep, Akeia served as a Compensation Specialist for Teach For America's Human Assets team.
