The Partnership Staff
Denise Anderson, Strategic Partnerships Associate
Stanley Anjan, Parent College Program Manager
Phyllis Bradford, Sr. Director of Human Resources
Xochiltl Bravo, Manager of Community Engagement & Outreach
Claire Brown, Manager of Teacher and Leadership Development
Roberto Carlos, Family & Community Engagement Associate
L.J. Carusone, Development Manager
Luz Maria Castellanos, Communications Manager
Dr. Richard Chavez, Director of Operations
Carl Christopher, Director of School Services
Jessica de Barros, Director of Impact
Jimmy Duong, Development Associate
Harry "Doc" Ervin, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction
Margarita Fernandez, Manager of Impact
Sergio Flores, Sr. Director of School Transformation
Dr. Sofia Freire, Sr. Director of School Transformation
Tatiana Gonzalez, Instructional Associate
Abram Jimenez, Coordinator of School Transformation
Mark Kleger-Heine, Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Silvia Lopez, Coordinator of Family & Community Engagement
Anana Lozano, Instructional Coach
Karen Lucero, Coordinator of Family & Community Engagement
Zoe Melczer, Human Resources Associate
Katherine Nelson, Sr. Director of School Transformation
Marishka Nunez, Director of Teacher Development
Colleen Oliver, Chief Academic Officer (CAO)
Saskia Pallais, Director of Family & Community Engagement
Myeisha Phillips, Coordinator of School Improvement
Evangelina Ramos, Communications Associate
Stephanie Schmier, Coordinator of School Improvement
Morgan Sheppard, Operations Associate
Patrick Sinclair, Sr. Director of Communications and Marketing
Marshall Tuck, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Erica Valencia, Executive Associate to the CEO
Francisco Villegas, Coordinator of School Transformation, Secondary Math
Margery Weller, Recruiting Manager
Autumn Williams, Instructional Support Associate
Board Members
Board Officers (non-voting board members)
Marshall Tuck, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Board President
Mark Kleger-Heine, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Board Secretary and Treasurer
Mrs. Anderson joined the Partnership in early 2011 as the Strategic Partnerships Associate. She moved to Los Angeles in 2010 from Philadelphia, where she worked in community development and fundraising as an Americorps VISTA for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Denise graduated cum laude from Bucknell University in 2008, where she earned a B.A. with a double major in Sociology and Anthropology. In her spare time she enjoys exploring urban gardening, going on bike rides with her husband Dan, and practicing her Spanish
Mr. Anjan, a Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement, comes to the organization from the Partnership's very own Ritter Elementary School. He received his Undergraduate degree at California State University of Fullerton with a Bachelor of Science in Human Services with an emphasis in Education. He then received his teaching credential and Masters in Education through the University of California in Los Angeles. He was LAUSD teacher from 2006 to 2010 and served on multiple school committees including the Family Action Team. In 2010, he was elected and served at Ritter E.S. in the capacity of Categorical Program Adviser, where he supported all state and federal compliance matters, developed and oversaw the school budget and worked closely with Parent Advisory Councils as well as helped support parents with Instruction Based Workshops to help build home and school connections. In 2010, Stanley was awarded Partnership's Family and Community Engagement Teacher of the Year award.
Ms. Bradford recently joined the Partnership after 25 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Over the course of her career, Ms. Bradford has served as an elementary teacher, a Title One Coordinator, an assistant principal and an elementary school principal. In addition to her school site experience, she brings seven years of administrative experience in Human Resources. She possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University-Hayward, a teaching credential from the University of California-Los Angeles and a Master’s Degree in School Administration and Education from Pepperdine University. She now serves as the Partnership’s Senior Director of Human Resources.
Throughout her career, Ms. Bravo has worked for a number of organizations supporting youth and families. From serving on the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Corps with The Salvation Army to working with youth in local juvenile detention centers, Xochiltl’s passion has always been to serve families and youth in need. Although originally from Los Angeles, she most recently comes to the Partnership from the New York City Department of Education where she served as Project Manager for the Gang Intervention Unit. She later took on the role of Program Manager for the NYCDOE Office of Students in Temporary Housing. She brings her vast experience with at-risk populations and addressing community needs to her role as Manager of Community Engagement and Advocacy to best support our Partnership families. Ms. Bravo graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a B.A. in Sociology and an emphasis in Secondary Education and holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University.
Claire recently completed a Master of Public Policy degree at USC, where she focused on education policy issues. Over the past two years, she co-directed USC’s ReadersPlus tutoring program for the University Park neighborhood elementary schools and was part of the 2010 Education Pioneers fellowship program. Additionally, Claire served as a member of a USC practicum team that researched a variety of talent management strategies for LAUSD. She began her career as a third grade teacher with Teach For America in Phoenix after having completed her undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Roberto Carlos joined the Partnership in 2011 as the Family and Community Engagement Associate, leading all outreach efforts for the Family and Community Engagement team and taking part in coordinating the Parent College. Prior to joining the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, Mr. Carlos worked with a number of successful campaigns such as the President Obama's first campaign and the Jerry Brown gubernatorial campaign. His involvement with the community started with YMCA, where he facilitated an after school youth and parent recreational workshop. His passion in serving his community has continued at the Partnership as he continues to work with parents and his community. Roberto Carlos holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Cal State Los Angeles.
Mr. Carusone is the Development Manager with the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Before joining the Partnership, he was living in central Mexico where he raised funds to establish an Internet company that serves rural communities. Mr. Carusone also worked independently as a consultant for many years fundraising for political campaigns and social justice organizations. He is committed to civil rights and has worked extensively on coalition building and grassroots organizing throughout California to push for gender parity and LGBT equality. A native of upstate New York, Mr. Carusone holds a BA in English from the University of Vermont.
Luz Maria Castellanos is the Communications Manager. She has over ten years of experience working in public relations and marketing. She kicked off her career in 1999 as a publicist at Shore Fire Media in New York City managing campaigns for international stars such as Enrique Iglesias, Maná, Café Tacuba, and the Chris Perez Band.
Later she established herself as the senior editor for MiGente.com, the leading community site for Latinos. Luz Maria helped set the groundwork for the editorial voice of the site and helped make MiGente the fastest growing destination for English-speaking Latinos online. She made her foray into television heading up publicity for the launch of Si TV. Under her supervision, Si TV received wide media attention, including coverage in the New York Times, cover stories in Diversity Inc., and Hispanic Trends, and a cover story in Multichannel News in which the network was named one of Multichannels’ Top 10 Next Networks.
Luz Maria is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton.
Dr. Chavez is the Partnership’s current Director of Operations. Prior to joining the Partnership’s administrative team, he was Principal at Santee Educational Complex. Dr. Chavez began his educational career as a teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, and has since served in the educational field for twenty-one years, seventeen of them in an administrative position. Dr. Chavez holds an Ed.D in Educational Leadership from UCLA, and one of his personal goals is to build capacity in others in order to develop future leaders.
Mr. Christopher joined the Partnership in August 2011 as Director of School Operations. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the strategic delivery of high quality operational support and services to the Partnership schools. Prior to joining the Partnership, Mr. Christopher was an Executive Director at Kaplan Inc., where he was responsible for managing school operations as part of Kaplan's Higher Education division. Earlier in his career, Mr. Christopher was also an Associate Director at the Stanford University School of Education, where he supported education reform efforts in school redesign, small school start-ups and performance assessment. Mr. Christopher holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BA in Economics from UC San Diego. He enjoys golf, bowling, exercise and travel in his spare time, and loves spending time with his wife Cristina and son Casey.
Ms. de Barros is the Director of Impact for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Jessica has created education policy at the district, state and national levels. Prior to joining the Partnership, she worked for Seattle Public Schools as Director of the Teacher Incentive Fund and Manager of Academic Planning, where she put systems in place to set organizational goals, measure progress and provide data to school and district staff to help achieve results for students. Jessica also led a process to select and implement a district-wide student assessment system in reading and math in order to more frequently monitor student progress and provide teachers with data to inform instruction. Previously, she served as senior policy analyst in the Seattle mayor’s office for education, where she developed and managed policy for the Families and Education Levy, a $17 million investment in preschool, after-school, middle school, dropout prevention and school-based health programs. She worked with stakeholders to develop a new system to measure outcomes and make program changes to improve results for low-income children and children of color. Jessica holds a bachelor's degree in political science from American University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Washington.
Mr. Ervin has dedicated his career in education to setting a high standard of excellence that is conducive to increasing student achievement in every classroom, every day, every year. Prior to joining the Partnership staff, Doc served as principal at a high performing high school, Heritage College Ready Academy High School, which outperformed all local high schools by 120 API points. Prior to his appointment as principal of Heritage, Doc was Principal at Colton High School and Yucca Valley High School. During his career, he has also served as an Assistant Principal as well as a teacher at Mesa Verde Middle School in Poway Unified School District. Doc holds a Masters in Education Administration and a Bachelors in Liberal Studies.
Ms. Fernandez joined the Partnership is November 2011 as the Manager of Impact. Over the last ten years she has worked to support student achievement across California. Most recently, as Senior Project Manager for Red Schoolhouse Software, creator of OARS, an assessment and reporting software for K-12 school districts. There, she designed and implemented AYP and API estimate reports for schools and supported several databases for publisher and district assessments. Margarita also provided professional development for district staff, principals, and teachers on the use of standards-based item analysis to inform instruction. Previously, she worked for Paramount Unified School District as Senior Researcher where she developed target profiles of students predicted to fail algebra using multiple measures. Margarita holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from Occidental College and a master's degree in Applied Statistics from California State University, Long Beach.
Mr. Flores comes to us with a variety of leadership experiences over the past nineteen years. Since 2010, he has served as assistant superintendent in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District where he led the human resources division and also worked directly with principals on their instructional programs. Prior to his time in Santa Maria, Sergio served as principal at Fontana High School (Fontana Unified), William Workman High School and Sparks Middle School (Hacienda-La Puente Unified), and started his career as a bilingual teacher in the Pomona Unified District. While serving as principal, Sergio built a track record of transforming schools by creating a strong student centered culture and increasing student achievement, particularly through growing students’ access to college-ready curriculum, increasing teacher leadership and collaboration, implementing strong talent management systems, and consistently using data to drive instructional decisions. He holds a BA in Spanish Linguistics and an MS in Education Administration from California State University, Fullerton and an Ed.D. in Leadership in Urban Schools from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Freire was the former Complex Principal at Roosevelt High School, and current Sr. Director of Transformation with the Partnership. Her position allows her to continue to work with Roosevelt while supporting and mentoring additional Partnership principals. She also leads the development of systems and structures to ensure Roosevelt’s small schools remain on the path to excellence.
Ms. Gonzalez joined the Partnership team after being an intern and became part of the Instructional division a year ago. She previously held a three-year teaching assistant position at Grant Elementary School in Hollywood. She possesses an Associate’s degree from Pasadena City College and a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Learning from Cal State University-Los Angeles.
Abram Jimenez joined the Partnership in 2011 as Coordinator of School Transformation. Abram comes to the Partnership with administrative experience in transforming schools. He comes to the Partnership with an expertise in analyzing academic achievement data to drastically improve student achievement. He works directly with principals and site leadership to strategically target students not meeting grade level content standards and design calculated interventions. Abram guides site core content department leadership in the effective utilization of Professional Learning Communities grounded in student assessment data, instructional practice, curriculum development, and reteach- retest strategy. Abram specializes in secondary master schedule development to construct a student-centered master schedule based on student need. He supports school leaders with master schedule tools in budget development, scheduling, disaggregating data, section allocation, and building of draft matrix. Abram holds a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Education from UCLA. He received his Masters in Educational Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego.
Mark Kleger-Heine joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office in 2007 to help launch the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and is now the organization’s Chief Operating Officer. Mark joined the Partnership after four years at McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm. At McKinsey, Mark counseled senior executives in nonprofit, government and advocacy organizations on major strategic issues they were facing. He also advised senior management at large biotech and medical device companies.
Prior to McKinsey, Mark was the Deputy Director for Project GRAD Los Angeles in the northeast San Fernando Valley. He also has worked in several community-based nonprofit organizations working in partnership with public schools, and he began his career teaching math to 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th graders in Brooklyn, New York. Mark graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a degree in Psychology. He is a graduate of the Broad Residency, received an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University with a concentration in Domestic Policy.
A former teacher, Silvia Lopez is now the Partnership's Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement. Prior to her joining the Partnership, she worked at Sunrise Elementary School, coordinating the school's family engagement work for two years. Under her guidance, Sunrise was awarded the most creative and most improved school, she was awarded FACE Teacher of the Year during the 2011 FACE Awards as well. Silvia has 15+ years of teaching experience in Mexico and the United States, with 9 of those years at Sunrise as a Special Education Teacher. Silvia possesses Bachelor's Degree in General and Special Education, and a Master's Degree in Play-Family Therapy. She is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in Administration at Concordia University, Irvine.
Anana Lozano joined the Partnership in October 2012 as an Instructional Coach. Anana spends the majority of her time in the field working directly with teachers in all our elementary schools to support the implementation of our key strategic initiatives. Anana has experience in varying grade levels in both district and charter schools and comes to the Partnership with a strong background in literacy and math. Anana attended USC, where she received her Master of Arts in Teaching.
Karen Lucero is a Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement. Karen taught for past six years and came to us from Gabriella Charter School where she was a fourth grade teacher. Prior to that, Karen taught at our very own Ritter Elementary School where she had experience teaching at the third, fourth and fifth grade levels and was a a co-leader of the Ritter Family Action Team. She was also awarded the 2010 Family and Community Engagement Teacher of the Year at last year’s FACE Awards. She attended UC Irvine as an undergraduate and received her Master’s in Education at UCLA and multiple subject teacher credential.
Ms. Melczer joined The Partnership in May 2011. Prior to the Partnership, she worked in the development department of the Zimmer Children’s Museum. She is interested in enhancing educational and social opportunities for youth, having volunteered at Free Arts for Abused Children and The Chase Foundation. She received her Bachelor’s degree from New York University in Metropolitan Studies, and her Master of Public Administration from University of Southern California, with a focus in nonprofit management.
Mr. Nagar is the Office Manager for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Prior to joining the Partnership, Mr. Nagar served as Office Manager at The Solis Group, overseeing the administration and accounting departments of three businesses and one private foundation. He served as a key advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, guiding the companies to their most profitable years in business during his tenure. In the early aughts, Mr. Nagar worked as Campaign Manager for Pangaea Marketing, Inc. where he and his team lead the company in revenue generated from the moment he entered the company to the moment he left. Arturo holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees, one in Communications and one in Philosophy, from Fordham University in New York.
Katherine Nelson joined our team as Senior Director of School Transformation. Katherine will work directly with several of our elementary schools and lead our network efforts around effective teaching, including the teacher development/evaluation pilot.
Katherine comes to us with twenty years of professional experience, where for the past five years she served as the director of the Watts Learning Center Charter School. Under Katherine’s leadership, Watts Learning Center maintained an API of over 800 for the past five years, was named the California Charter School of the Year in 2007 and received a Title 1 Academic Achievement Award in 2007-09.
Katherine started her career in LAUSD as a teacher at 96th Street School and also worked as an instructional coordinator at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary (both schools were part of the “10 Schools Program”) and as an assistant principal at both LaSalle Avenue and Wilmington Park Elementary Schools. Katherine brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the areas of data analysis, alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessments, teacher development and collaboration, and parent engagement – all critical areas for successful school transformation.
Marishka Nunez joined the Partnership in July 2012 as our new Director of Teacher Development. Marishka has a strong and varied background that has focused on teacher development from both the policy and practice perspective. Most recently she served as an instructional assistant principal at a Partnership to Uplift Communities (PUC) middle school where she focused primarily on teacher development and implementation of a multi measure evaluation process. Prior to her time at PUC, Marishka served as a School Director for Teach for America and as a teacher, intervention and literacy specialist for two high performing schools within the Aspire Public Schools network. Marishka began her teaching career at 49th Street Elementary where she served as a first and second grade teacher for four years. Additionally, Marishka served as an accreditation research intern with the Boston Plan for Excellence where she did extensive work with the Boston Teacher Residency, one of the premier urban teacher residency programs in the country. Marishka also served as an Education Pioneer with the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence and spent one year as the program coordinator for the Accelerated School and Wallis Annenberg High School in Los Angeles. Marishka attended Scripps College for her undergraduate program, UCLA Graduate School of Education for her teaching and administrative programs, and Harvard University Graduate School of Education for her degree in education policy and management.
Colleen Oliver is the Partnership's Chief Academic Officer (CAO) overseeing the organization's Instructional team. Prior to joining the Partnership, Ms. Oliver served as the Senior Program officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the Education Division (US Program). As a member of the effective teaching team, Colleen worked with the newly formed Intensive Partnership Sites (IPS) – a deep partnership that the foundation formed in 2009 with four sites (Memphis, Pittsburgh, Hillsborough County, a group of Charter Management Organizations in Los Angeles) to support effective teaching reforms. Colleen lead the IPS work in Memphis and also managed the foundation’s education grants in Chicago.
Prior to joining the foundation, Colleen served as a regional director for instructional leadership and support with the KIPP Foundation. The majority of Colleen's career has been spent in public education. She served as the Middle School/K-8 Education Director with Seattle Public Schools and was a middle school principal, high school assistant principal, and teacher within the Shoreline School District which is located just north of Seattle.
Ms. Pallais is the Director of Strategic Partnerships with the Partnership. Before joining, Saskia was the Director of Development with Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools, where she helped the school expand from a single high school serving 250 students in temporary facilities to three permanent campuses serving 1,500 students in grades 6 through 12. Prior to her work at Chavez Schools, Ms. Pallais worked with a private foundation on a program called Women Waging Peace, where she developed a grant program designed to cultivate women’s leadership in public policy roles and managed a network of over 300+ members. Saskia holds a master in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and a BA in theology and women’s studies from the University of Florida.
Ms. Phillips joined The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in late 2009. Prior to coming to the Partnership, Myeisha worked for UCLA Center X as a Math Coach, Teacher Leader, Professional Development Provider, and Institute Director. Myeisha continues to keep a very close relationship with UCLA Center X, primarily working with the UCLA Math Project and some work with UCLA Writing Project. Her most recent work with the UCLA Math Project includes serving as Co-Director of the Supporting Teachers to Increase Retention(STIR) Grant. Myeisha’s classroom experience includes seven years as a teacher at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. During this time she taught both 6th and 8th grade math/science, served as Math Intervention Coordinator and teacher, Computer Lab Teacher, and served on various other Leadership committees. She completed both her Undergraduate and Graduate work at UCLA and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a Minor in Education, and a Masters in Education with a focus on Urban Schools.
Evangelina joined the Mayor's office in April 2007, where she previously provided administrative support to our CEO. She now works with our Communications team, playing a key role in making sure that the message of the organization is communicated effectively and efficiently. Evangelina has been a long time member of City family, having extensive experience working for City of Los Angeles. Beginning in 1999, Evangelina has held roles in the City's Housing Department and the LA Zoo & Botanical Gardens. Prior to joining the Mayor's Partnership team, she was a Marketing Coordinator for the Laugh Factory Comedy Club in West Hollywood. She is a native of Los Angeles and possesses a BSBA from California State University, Los Angeles and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.
Stephanie Schmier has been working with under-performing schools as an instructional coach for the past 10 years. She began her career as a classroom teacher and technology coordinator in LAUSD. Most recently, Stephanie completed her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University, during which time she worked as a literacy advisor in small high schools in the Bronx and taught university level teacher education courses. Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Schmier coordinated and implemented technology professional development for K-12 teachers at the UCLA IMMEX project. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Rossier School of Education at USC. Dr. Schmier’s recent publications include Multimodal Pedagogies: Playing, Teaching, and Learning with Adolescents’ Digital Literacies and Multiliteracies in Action: Integrating Technology into the Balanced-Literacy Classroom.
Morgan Sheppard joined the Partnership in January 2013 as the Operations Associate. Before joining the Partnership, Ms. Sheppard managed a research project on the south coast of Kenya evaluating ways to improve reading skills in primary school through peer-to-peer learning methods. Prior to that position, her roles in education outside of the classroom included research, writing, and monitoring and evaluation for international non-profit organizations working in Africa and Latin America. Ms. Sheppard is a certified primary school teacher and has taught in a variety of public school classrooms including Durham, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Quito, Ecuador; and Muhuru Bay, Kenya. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and her Master’s degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Mr. Sinclair joined the Partnership team in late 2009. For more than two decades, he has handled major public affairs, public relations and financial communications assignments for clients ranging from the governments of the Netherlands and Hong Kong, to corporations such as Aetna, Marsh, Inc., Jardine Matheson, Pacific Dunlop and Racal Electronics.
Patrick worked for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as Executive Director of Progress LA, a city-wide campaign to reform the land use process. He has also served as head of investor and financial communications for Ketchum, and as a vice president at Gavin Anderson & Company. In addition to a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School, Patrick holds a BA degree from New York University. A native of Missouri, Patrick has three children and currently lives in Playa Del Rey, CA.
Marshall Tuck joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s staff in 2007 to help lead the effort to improve public education for all children in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, Marshall became the Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools; an organization launched by Mayor Villaraigosa, in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, to turnaround the most under-served public schools in Los Angeles. The Partnership manages 22 elementary, middle and high schools serving nearly 16,000 students in Watts, Boyle Heights and South Central Los Angeles. In the 2011-2012 school year, the Partnership Schools had the highest improvement on standardized tests of any school system in California with more than 3,500 students.
Prior to joining the Mayor’s office, Marshall was President and COO of Green Dot Public Schools. Marshall joined Green Dot in 2002 when it was a new charter school operator that had opened one school. Marshall helped lead Green Dot to scale to 10 charter high schools by 2007 and to become one of the leading operators of charter schools in the country. During Marshall’s time at Green Dot, students at all Green Dot schools substantially outperformed their peers at comparable schools, in terms of both academic achievement and graduation rates.
Prior to Green Dot, Marshall was the General Manager of the Strategic Accounts group at Model N, a successful enterprise software company, where he led a division focused on opening new markets for the company. Marshall has also worked as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers and as a volunteer Math and English teacher in Zimbabwe and Thailand. Marshall graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Erica recently completed her Master of Public Policy degree from USC’s Sol Price school of Public Policy, where she focused on social and urban development. During her time at USC, she conducted research on Public School Choice with the Rossier School of Education. Prior to joining the Partnership, she was the Workplace and Immigrant Rights Program Coordinator for a local non-profit in Orange County and worked to provide pathways to citizenship for immigrant families. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego with a major in International Studies and a minor in International Migration Studies. In her spare time, Erica enjoys spending time with her family and her dog, Charlie.
Francisco has been with the Colton School District, Bloomington High School, for the past twelve years where he has served as a master math teacher (teaching everything from pre-algebra to AP calculus BC), department chair, and Saturday school coordinator. While at Bloomington, Francisco has consistently increased students’ math achievement, has provided ongoing PD, mentoring and support to all math teachers, and has led a district wide effort to align and enhance mathematics course offerings in order to position students for success. Additionally, over the past four years, Francisco has more than quadrupled the enrollment in his school’s AP Calculus program and has seen a 100% pass rate four years in a row. This achievement, in a high school with 90% students of color and 74% students eligible for free and reduced price meals, has earned him and his district honors from the College Board.
Margery Weller comes to the Partnership after having served in several capacities within the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Teacher’s Assistant, Teacher, Coordinator, to her most recent role of Assistant Principal, Elementary Instructional Specialist (APEIS). In preparation for her administrative position of APEIS, Margery was selected to work in LAUSD’s LEAD Academy program. During this time, she shadowed a high performing principal at Grape Street Elementary. During her twenty plus years of school site experience she’s worked in the Van Nuys, West Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and Watts communities. Margery has a Bachelor’s degree in History from California State University Dominguez Hills and a Master’s of Science in Educational Administration from National University.
Autumn Williams is a member of the Instructional Team at the Partnership. Ms. Williams studied Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University and participated in astrobiology-focused research during her undergraduate career. She has traveled overseas to teach STEM-focused courses in Konganapuram, a small village in South India. Her passion for educational equity and accessibility for all (especially in mathematics and the sciences) led to her founding Scientists and Engineers Shifting Gears, a non-profit afterschool program based in Watts that focuses on encouraging middle school students’ interest, participation, and intellectual curiosity in STEM. A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Williams is thrilled to contribute to the transformation of her city’s educational landscape.
Board Members
Joan Sullivan, Board Chair
Joan Sullivan currently serves as Deputy Mayor of Education for Los Angeles. In this role, she oversees the mayor’s education policy agenda, working closely with the superintendent and board president to transform the nation’s second largest school district. She also oversees the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a non-profit turnaround organization that is accelerating student achievement at scale within the district’s lowest performing schools. Sullivan previously spent 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 Sullivan worked on 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. Sullivan is a graduate of the Broad Fellowship for Education Leadership, holds a M.S. in School Leadership and graduated with a B.A. in American Studies from Yale College, where she earned All-American honors in lacrosse.
Melanie Lundquist
Melanie Lundquist is one of the leading philanthropists in Southern California, where she gives her support to various education and health care initiatives. Most notable among her philanthropic activities is her generous support of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. The Lundquists’ $50 Million gift to the Partnership is the largest private donation ever made to Los Angeles schools. Mrs. Lundquist is a founding member of the Board of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, past chair of the Advisory Board for Teach for America, and is co-chair of a $165 million capital campaign for the California Science Center. In addition, she is a significant donor to the Alliance for College-Ready Schools, a Los Angeles charter organization. She also lends her support to the Fulfillment Fund's endowment fund for college scholarships, and has taken active roles in Inner City Arts, United Friends of the Children, and Alliance for Children's Rights, among others. She established the Cardiovascular Institute at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center where she emphasizes women’s heart health.
Lisa Alva
Lisa Alva has served as an English teacher at Roosevelt High School since 2000. She is an outstanding educator and her students have consistently demonstrated significant growth in her classes. She has held many leadership positions at Roosevelt, including being lead teacher for her design team/small learning community, school site council member, WASC coordinator and single plan for student achievement coordinator. Ms. Alva also holds a Masters in Business Administration, highlighting her strong organizational skills. She will bring these strong skills in teaching, governance and management to the Board.
Nancy Escobar
Nancy Escobar is the first parent to serve on the Partnership Board of Trustees. She is passionate about education and committed to helping improve public schools in LAUSD. Mrs. Escobar lives within the attendance boundaries that the Partnership serves and two of her children attend Carver Middle School, a Partnership school. This provides her with a unique perspective to the challenges students face in historically low-performing schools. Mrs. Escobar works for Bank of America and is active in the company’s Los Angeles Volunteer Network that performs community service throughout the year.
Cyrus Hadidi
Cyrus Hadidi is the co-portfolio manager and partner of JMB Capital, an investment firm based in Los Angeles. Along with his partner, he has grown this firm since its founding in 2002 from $32mm in assets to $1.5bn. Cyrus is a native of Wisconsin and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with dual degrees in History and Rhetoric. After working as an investment banker with Salomon Brothers, he attended Harvard Business School and graduated with an MBA in 2002 being awarded the distinctions of both Baker Scholar and John Loeb Fellow in Finance. In addition to his professional responsibilities at JMB Capital, Cyrus is active in the philanthropic community in Los Angeles. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors for A Place Called Home, which is a community center for at-risk youth in South Central Los Angeles. In addition, he is focused on improving public education, and serves on the Board of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.
Trebor Jacquez
Trebor Jacquez has taught computer technology and design courses at Santee Education Complex since 2005. He has an enormous passion for improving student achievement. He inspires his students to achieve at exceptional levels and continually strives to improve his performance. Mr. Jacquez has held numerous leadership positions at Santee, including school site council member and leader of the APEX credit recovery program, which helped lead to a 12% increase in Santee’s 4-year graduation rate last year. Recognizing these and other accomplishments, he was nominated for teacher of the year by UTLA in 2006.
Matt Miller
Matt Miller is an author, columnist, radio host and consultant whose work focuses on solving some of our country’s toughest challenges. He has a wealth of public and private sector experience that he brings to his work and believes firmly that all students can learn at exceptional levels. Mr. Miller has held numerous senior-level public sector posts, including his service in the Clinton administration at the Office of Management and Budget. He was a White House Fellow and he consults regularly to corporations, foundations and government organizations. He is the author of “The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America’s Problems In Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love,” other books and numerous columns in national periodicals. He also hosts the public radio show “Left Right & Center.”
As the senior vice president and general manager of FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET, Steve Simpson oversees all production, programming, advertising sales, marketing, communications, online and business operations of the 24-hour regional sports networks. Serving sports fans and the communities of Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET together produce more than 800 live sporting events and 2,500 hours of original programming every year. In addition to the Partnership, Simpson serves on the Board for the LA Sports Council and the Advisory Board for the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission.
Lisa Stevens is an Executive Vice President and has national responsibilities across the country for Wells Fargo. Stevens is president for West Coast Regional Banking, which includes California and Oregon. She also oversees Customer Experience and Regional Marketing nationally for Regional Banking. In addition, she leads Small Business Banking for the company, which provides a full range of financial services to more than 2.7 million business customers with annual revenues up to $2 million. Stevens also serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the San Francisco Opera, National Boys & Girls Club of America, California Chamber of Commerce, Executive Committee of the California Business Roundtable, California Business for Education Excellence, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Advisory Committee for The Shriver Report and The USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
Carolyn Webb de Macías recently completed 16 months as Chief of Staff in the office of Elementary and Secondary Education in the US Department of Education. She served in this capacity as a presidential appointee of President Barack Obama. As such, Webb de Macías was the primary advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Education and oversaw office management. Webb de Macías has a long history in education and politics. Webb de Macías’s background includes being appointed to the University of Southern California as Vice President for External Relations, serving as Senior Advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa providing counsel in a variety of areas, including education policy, gubernatorial appointee to the California African American Museum and Chief of Staff for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.
