OUR STAFF

​Nínive Calegari Founder and CEO

Nínive is the Producer of American Teacher, and founder of The Teacher Salary Project, an organization dedicated to addressing the urgent need for a complete cultural shift in the way our society values and supports teachers. She is a veteran teacher with almost ten years’ experience in the classroom, including experience in both charter schools and large comprehensive high schools. She is the cofounder and former executive director of 826 Valencia, and served as the CEO of 826 National, a literacy nonprofit that galvanizes volunteers in eight cities to support teachers and help students improve their writing skills. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, and is a co-author of The New York Times bestselling book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. Nínive is represented by Premiere. Nínive is now CEO of Enterprise for Youth, an organization that provides local youth with the skills and experience necessary to enter the workplace.

Dave Eggers – "American Teacher" Producer, Emeritus Board Member

Dave Eggers is the author of nine books, including most recently The Circle and A Hologram for the King, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. His novel What Is the What was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and won France’s Prix Medici. That book, about Valentino Achak Deng, a survivor of the civil war in Sudan, gave birth to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which operates a secondary school in South Sudan run by Mr. Deng. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco that produces books, a quarterly journal of new writing (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern), and a monthly magazine, The Believer. McSweeney’s also publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Eggers is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of eight tutoring centers around the country and ScholarMatch, a nonprofit organization designed to connect students with resources, schools and donors to make college possible. He lives in Northern California with his family.

Justin Carder – Designer

Justin is the founder of E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, a gallery, event space, small press, and bookstore based in downtown Oakland. When he's not running the shop, Justin works as a designer and publishing consultant for educational organizations, including Santa Cruz Writes, Youth Speaks, Chapter 510, and Oakland School for the Arts. Before making the move back to the East Bay, Justin worked for five years as the director of the Pirate Supply Store and Publishing Director for the writing tutoring center, 826 Valencia. 

Emma Liss – Communications Director

Emma is an educator with a passion for equity in education. Originally from Boston, she lived in Madrid, Spain teaching English to elementary school students for two years, where she discovered her love of teaching. She came to the Bay Area because of its rich history in social movements for equal rights, particularly those in education. 

OUR EXECUTIVE BOARD

​Jean-Claude Calegari

Jean-Claude currently heads up the finance operations at a software firm called Womply in San Francisco. Womply’s mission is to use technology to help small business owners grow, protect and simplify their business. Prior to that, Jean-Claude worked at Amyris Biotechnologies, a renewable chemicals company where he was responsible for contract manufacturing and supply chain activities. Previously, he was the Director of Business Development for the SchoolHouse division of LeapFrog Toys, where he oversaw the integration of curricula into technology products for use in classrooms. Jean-Claude holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a B.A. from Harvard University. He is also a CPA.

​​Nínive Calegari – Founder

Nínive is the Producer of American Teacher, and founder of The Teacher Salary Project, an organization dedicated to addressing the urgent need for a complete cultural shift in the way our society values and supports teachers. She is a veteran teacher with almost ten years’ experience in the classroom, including experience in both charter schools and large comprehensive high schools. She is the cofounder and former executive director of 826 Valencia, and served as the CEO of 826 National, a literacy nonprofit that galvanizes volunteers in eight cities to support teachers and help students improve their writing skills. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, and is a co-author of The New York Times bestselling book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. Nínive is represented by the Premiere Speakers Bureau.

​Helena Corda

Helana Corda is a full time teacher at a public middle school in San Francisco. She is currently the ELD Coordinator and runs a homework and skill support lab a few times a week in partnership with the after-school program, Jamestown. In the past she has served as the Gate Coordinator as well as the Teacher Liaison for the PTSA. During the summer, she is a Site Director with a program called Aim High, a non-profit that serves low income youth by providing academic, social, emotional and leadership development.  She is currently in the process of National Board Certification.

​Emilie Coulson

Emilie first became involved in The Teacher Salary Project when she was the Director of Education at 826 Valencia, where she worked alongside teachers in San Francisco classrooms for five years as they inspired their students to embrace writing. She is now a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Lucky Peach, Finesse, and Open the Door, an anthology of lesson plans from The Poetry Foundation and McSweeney’s. 

Dave Eggers – Emeritus Board Member

Dave is the author of seven books: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry, Teachers Have It Easy, What Is the What, Zeitoun, and A Hologram for the King. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia. As a journalist, his work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. In 2004 he co-taught a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, out of which grew the Voice of Witness series of books, designed to illuminate contemporary human crises through oral history.

​Mike Farrah

Mike, a longtime supporter of teachers and The Teacher Salary Project, is the former executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services in San Francisco and before that the senior advisor to Mayor Gavin Newsom. In both positions, Mike advocated for public education and the programs that support it in San Francisco and nationwide.

​Jack Gilbertson

Jack has over 20 years’ experience in providing legal, compliance, financial, tax and consulting services to clients in the health sciences industries, including tax-exempt and for-profit hospitals and health systems, physician groups, integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, medical research institutions, health plans, pharmaceutical benefit management companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device companies. His background includes representation on a broad range of matters, including regulatory compliance, fraud and abuse, tax exemption, contracting, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)/anti-corruption, medical research, internal and government investigations, dispute resolution, arrangements with health care professionals, due diligence, risk assessment, governance, billing and collection, executive compensation, valuation, financing, tax exemption, quality measurement and reporting, government contracting, and Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

​Louise Grotenhuis - Board Secretary

After teaching history, theater and humanities in middle and high school classrooms, Louise served as a Diversity consultant for non-profit organizations and Independent and public schools for ten years in the San Francisco Bay Area. She now directs the Children's Village Foundation for Literate Youth (FLY) program at the Polo Grounds in Harlem and teaches assessment and support strategies at Bronx Community College. 

​Lauren Hall

Lauren Hall is the Grants and Evaluations Director at 826 Valencia, a youth-serving writing and literacy nonprofit in San Francisco, where she's celebrating 10 years on staff. She's held positions in  student programming and development, at both the flagship center on Valencia Street and at 826 National during its founding in 2008. She's enthusiastic about meaningful impact measurement and data-driven planning. She earned an interdisciplinary BA in American Studies from Hendrix College, where she received the Hendrix CARE Award for her dedication to social justice work. Her writing about women’s leadership in Arkansas was published in the Journal of Social Policy and the collection Lessons from the Field: Organizing in Rural Communities. Lauren is committed to increasing equity for marginalized communities and supports the important work of the Teacher Salary Project.

​Dr. Richard Ingersoll

After teaching in both public and private schools for a number of years, Dr. Ingersoll obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. From 1995 to 2000 he was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. Currently he is the Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

​Rhena Jasey 

Rhena works as an Education Administrator with the NYC Department of Education supporting schools with implementing New York’s Teacher Evaluation system. Prior to this role, she served as a founding teacher at The Equity Project Charter School (T.E.P.) serving Washington Heights in New York City, and taught for six years in the South Orange/Maplewood School District where she grew up. Rhena pursues her interest in public education policy issues by participating in programs and panels that address issues of urban education, has served as a guest lecturer for SUNY Stonybrook, and is the author of “Still Separate and Unequal” published in The American Interest Magazine, 2012. She earned her BA in Psychology from Harvard University and holds an MA in Elementary and Early Childhood Education and an MEd in Educational Leadership, with a concentration in Public School Leadership, both from Columbia University.

​Brad Jupp

Brad Jupp was most recently a Senior Program Advisor in the Office of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, where he supports the development and implementation of policy on teacher and leader effectiveness. He came to the United States Department of Education from Denver Public Schools, where over 24 years he served as a teacher, union leader and senior administrator. Jupp spent 19 years as a middle school language arts teacher, including four years in his dream job at the DPS Alternative Middle School. Brad expects to return to the classroom in 2016, hopefully to teach sixth grade language arts again.

​James Kirkham

James is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 18 years of experience in the field of mental health. He has worked with at risk children of all ages as a therapist, Program Director and Supervisor, with experience and expertise in the areas of chemical dependency, suicidal ideation, gang affiliation, aggression and trauma. He currently runs a partial hospitalization program for suicidal and self-injurious youth, and has a private practice in the Bay Area.

​Hannah Kraus

Hannah is a student at Princeton University (Class of 2017), majoring at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  In 2015, she interned with the Teacher Salary Project and researched trends in equity gaps, as well as helped to organize the TSP July Summit.  Along with education policy, her interests include health and environmental policy.

​Verna Kuo

Verna is the Director of Real Estate and Natural Resources Investments at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She is responsible for fund selection and relationship management across the Foundation’s global real estate and natural resources portfolio. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2006, she spent six years at the Stanford Management Company where she invested and managed the University endowment’s real estate and natural resources portfolio. Prior to Stanford Management, Verna held a senior position on the California Clinton/Gore campaign and was a national program officer for the Corporation for National Service, helping to start the national AmeriCorps Program. She has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University.

​Dr. Doug Mitchell

Douglas E. Mitchell is Professor of the Graduate Division in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside.  He is past-president of both the Politics of Education Association and the Sociology of Education Association and recipient of the Stephen K. Bailey Award for research contributions to the Politics of Education. Education politics and policy have been the focus of his research and scholarly writing.  Published writings include more than 100 books, journal articles and monographs covering topics in teacher professionalism and incentive systems, social science theory and utilization, school program and policy analysis, state legislative decision making, labor relations, public support for public schools and school board elections.  As founding director of the California Educational Research Cooperative he spent 12 years coordinating the work of a major research center supported by substantial contributions from more than twenty local school districts, county offices of education and UC, Riverside.  Dr. Mitchell has extensive experience designing and conducting objective, third-party evaluations of educational programs and policies. He recently completed a three year appointment as Dean of the UCR Graduate School of Education.

​Dan Moulthrop

Dan Moulthrop is CEO of The City Club of Cleveland, one of the nation's great free speech forums. Founded in 1912, The City Club convenes over a hundred programs every year on just about every issue and topic of importance to Northeast Ohio. He was a co-founder of The Civic Commons, a Knight Foundation project creating a social media environment designed for civil civic dialogue. Prior to that, he was the host of Sound of Ideas on 90.3 WCPN ideastream. Dan is also co-author, with Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, of the best-selling book Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers (The New Press, 2005), which provided the basis for the 2011 documentary "American Teacher." He's an award winning local public radio host, a former high school teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his wife and three children.

​Kory O’Rourke

Kory O'Rourke has been a high school teacher in the Bay Area for over 10 years. Currently in her 6th year of teaching at Gateway High School, in San Francisco, she teaches Honors American Literature, Freshman Health, and is coordinates the development of a school Mindfulness program for students, as well.  In the fall, she will be joining the staff of USF in their Teaching Dual Degree program.  Kory earned her teaching credential from the University of Southern California, and her Master's Degree in English from San Francisco State University. She's a mom of two, a dedicated Giants fan, and is deeply passionate about the field of education. 

​Stephanie Pinkham

Coming Soon.

​Dr. David Powell

Dave Powell is Associate Professor and Chair of the Education Department at Gettysburg College. Prior to joining the faculty at Gettysburg he was a reasonably well-paid high school social studies teacher outside of Atlanta, but freely admits that he picked up a certificate from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards partly for the 10% pay raise. He earned his undergraduate degree in history at the College of William & Mary and a Ph.D. in education at the University of Georgia. He writes a regular column for Education Week as "The K-12 Contrarian."

​Ellen Behrstock Sherratt - Board President

Ellen is a senior policy analyst on the American Institute for Research’s educator quality team. She has authored or coauthored numerous articles, briefs, and reports on teacher and principal quality and is co-author of two books, Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Evaluation Reform and Improving Teacher Quality: A Guide for Education Leaders. She led the development of the Educator Talent Management Framework and has supported teacher effectiveness work at the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and various state departments of education.

​Guilan Sheykhzadeh

Guilan has been a San Francisco high school teacher for more than sixteen years, and has worked as a Department Head for over half that time. She holds degrees in English and Creative Writing, as well as a Master's Degree in Education, and is also a published poet. In 2004, she was given the Excellence in Teaching Award by the University of California, San Diego. Guilan has collaborated with 826 Valencia on various projects, including the publication of EXACTLY, and received 826 Valencia's Teacher of the Month Award. She has served as an Academic Decathlon coach, worked with the Bay Area Writing Project, and is currently a lead in helping schools incorporate the Restorative Practices Program into their system. 

​Dr. Allison Stanger

Allison Stanger is the Russell Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College. Her most recent book, One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy, was published by Yale University Press in fall 2009 (paperback edition came out in January 2011).  Stanger has published op-eds on this topic in the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, and Washington Post, and in 2010 testified before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the Senate Budget Committee, and the Congressional Oversight Panel. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  She was also a contributor to the Booz Allen Hamilton project on the World's Most Enduring Institutions, the Woodrow Wilson School Task Force on the Changing Nature of Government Service, and the Princeton Project on National Security.  She has served as an advisor to the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, US Department of State and was on the writing team that produced the State Department’s December 2010 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
Stanger received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. She also holds an AM in Regional Studies-Soviet Union (Harvard), a graduate diploma in Economics (London School of Economics), and a BS in Actuarial Science/Mathematics (Ball State University). She has studied foreign languages and literature at Charles University (Prague), the Sorbonne (Paris), and the Pushkin Institute (Moscow).

​Devin Triplett

Devin is a classroom teacher and administrator in Sacramento, CA. He started his career in education teaching English in Querétaro, México. Upon his return, he was fortunate to have had the opportunity to intern with 826 Valencia and 826 National. Since then, he has taught high school English in both public and private education, while also currently serving as Director of Curriculum.  He has been working with The Teacher Salary Project since 2008. 

​Jim Wagstaffe

Jim Wagstaffe is an attorney and teacher from San Francisco. His law practice focuses on litigation of high stakes governmental, consumer, constitutional and business cases. He also has argued numerous high profile appeals including the recent and successful California Supreme Court case allowing an undocumented immigrant to obtain his law license. In 2014, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Jim as the Chair of the Federal Judicial Center Foundation in Washington, D.C. As a teacher for almost forty years, Jim is an Adjunct Professor at Hastings College of the Law, as well teaching Public Speaking at Stanford and Media Law at San Francisco State University. In the last five years, he was twice chosen as Teacher of the Year at Hastings and also won the coveted Judge John R. Brown Award as the best teacher in the nation for federal judges. Jim’s publications include the best-selling, 3-volume Federal Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial (Thomson Reuters 2015) and Romancing the Room (Random House 2002).

​Yvonne Wang

Yvonne has experience in research, evaluation, and data analysis for innovative education initiatives. She currently works in the New York City Department of Education as the Director of Strategic Projects for school quality. Yvonne taught middle school in Guyana, South America, and is a board member for Scholarship for Advanced Guyanese Education (SAGE), a nonprofit she co-found to provide access to college for Guyanese students. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and received her Master of Public Administration from NYU Wagner

​Bob Willoughby

Taught mathematics for twelve years at the middle school level and at Camden County Community College. During that time he was the union president and chief negotiator for his local. He switched to a full time position as a union representative for the New Jersey Education Association in the area of negotiations assistance in the research division. During his 31 year career with the NJEA, his specialty was in raising the status of the teaching profession especially how compensation impacted that professionalism. When he retired, the average starting salary for a New Jersey teacher was over $50,000 for 600 school districts. Three of the districts had a BA starting salary of over $60,000. Since retiring three years ago, Bob has pursued many interests and volunteer opportunities. He has a regular, weekly gig at the South Jersey Food Bank and the Philadelphia Constitution Center. He assists other staff unions throughout the country with negotiations. Besides spending time with and enjoying his five grandchildren, Bob has sharpened his bridge skills and his golf game. Bob looks forward to starting a revolution nationally to raise the status of the education profession. That begins with advocating for professional salaries for those who do the important work of educating the children of America.

ADVISORY BOARD

Erik Benner

Erik has been teaching Texas history for fifteen years in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Benner, now forty years old, grew up in the small Texas town of Haslet, just a few miles north of Fort Worth. He graduated from the University of North Texas in 1996. He is the proud father of two beautiful daughters, Victoria, age eighteen and Addison, age five. Benner and his family currently live in Keller, Texas. 

​Sam Chaltain

Sam is a DC-based writer and education advocate who began his career as a high school teacher in New York City. The author or co-author of six books, Sam is a regular contributor to Huffington Post and CNN. Visit his website at www.samchaltain.com.

​Karina Colon

Karina is a veteran and award-winning elementary educator of 15 years, with a speciality in teaching English Language Learners. Currently, she serves as instructional program coordinator for two elementary schools in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

​Jonathan Dearman

Jonathan is the Executive Vice President responsible for sales and marketing of HSM, Inc. Prior to becoming the Lead Real Estate Consultant at HSM, he worked as a high school teacher and department coach for Leadership High School in San Francisco. While there, he developed the leadership curriculum for the four-year program in the school, managed and supervised other teachers in the department, and worked with the administration on hiring and coordinating with outside agencies. He earned his Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from the University of San Francisco.

​Robin Edwards

Robin is a retired partner of Dentons US LLP (formerly Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal) where she served as lead attorney for the Firm's west coast transactional practice and assisted The Teacher Salary Project in navigating through various organizational issues.  She serves on the Board of Trustees of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Advisory Committee of KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now) San Francisco, an organization that provides one-on-one recreational opportunities free of charge to children with disabilities, and on Steering Committee of the Women's Leadership Council of the United Way of the Bay Area.  She holds a BA from  Mount Holyoke College and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.  She lives in Oakland with her husband, Rich, and is a frequent traveler, including to the east coast to spend time with her two children and their spouses and her five grandchildren.

​Bill Ferriter

Bill teaches sixth grade science and social studies in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was named a North Carolina Regional Teacher of the Year in 2005–06. Bill writes a regular column for Teachers Teaching Teachers, which is published by the National Staff Development Council. He has also been published by leading educational journals ranging from Educational Leadership to the Journal for Staff Development, and keeps a blog about the teaching life, “The Tempered Radical,” at the Teacher Leaders Network web site. He is a Senior Fellow in the Teacher Leaders Network and has served as a Teacher in Residence at the Center for Teaching Quality in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, working to raise the voice of practitioners into conversations about teacher working conditions and alternative compensation models for educators.

​Bridget Finn

Senior Editor at Twitter.

​Mark Follman

Mark has been a writer and editor in San Francisco since 1994. His writing on politics, culture, and media have appeared in publications including Salon, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and Mother Jones, where he is currently a senior editor. He is also cofounder of MediaBugs, an online news accuracy project. A longtime volunteer at 826 Valencia, Mark helped launch the student newspaper, The Bay-farer, in 2005. He holds a MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco, and periodically teaches creative writing and journalism workshops at 826 Valencia and San Francisco State University.

​Amanda Lueck Grell

Amanda has taught middle school English and coached other teachers for five years in Denver Public Schools, the emotions of which she is now an old hand at documenting via camcorder. She attended Kenyon College and then Peabody College at Vanderbilt University for her MEd. Since working 70 hours a week wasn't enough, in her free time she helped found and now works with Metro Denver Promotion of Letters (MDPL), a non-profit writing center for kids that offers free writing workshops, free summer writing camps, and student publishing. She lives in Lakewood, Colorado, with her husband Chad, and is currently on maternity leave to care for their daughter, Elinor.

​Yosh Han

Yosh is the creator and perfumer of YOSH Olfactory Sense, a boutique fragrance company specializing in niche perfumes and aromatic art. Commissions include projects for SF Opera, SFJAZZ, the Bureau of Urban Secrets, and the 826LA Time Travel Mart. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Vogue, and CBS MarketWatch. Prior to starting her own business, she was the original purveyor of Pirate Supplies and the Events Producer at 826 Valencia. Production events included the wildly successful First Annual Thumbwrestling Tournament, First Annual Icelandic Film Festival, Beard Trimmings, and Beef Jerky Tastings.

​Wendy Hanamura

Wendy has been telling stories on video for 25 years. Now as a television executive, she helps bring global documentaries, feature films, world music and international news stories to viewers in America through Link TV, a non-profit television network that reaches 33 million American homes, and www.linktv.org. Wendy is also in charge of Link TV's ViewChange.org, a multimedia website funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that shares powerful videos about real people and progress in global development. She began her career at Time Magazine, has been a Tokyo-based correspondent on the Discovery Channel and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), a reporter for CBS's San Francisco station, KPIX-TV, and produced series for PBS. Her documentaries have been awarded three Emmy Awards, Gold Medal-Chicago Film Festival, Cine Golden Eagle and the Chris Award for the best Social Issues Documentary.

​​Bryan C. Hassel

Bryan is Co-Director of Public Impact, a research and consulting firm. He consults nationally with leading public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and foundations working for dramatic improvements in K–12 education. With Emily Ayscue Hassel, he co-leads Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture Initiative to help the U.S. close achievement gaps and meet rising global standards by extending the reach of excellent teachers to more students, directly and by leading peers, and increasing pay for all teachers, within available 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 the author of The Charter School Challenge, published by the Brookings Institution Press. 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.

​Emily Ayscue Hassel

Emily is Co-Director of Public Impact, a research and consulting firm. She provides thought leadership and oversight to Public Impact’s work on teacher and leader policy, organizational change, and emerging opportunities for dramatic improvement in pre–K to grade 12 education. Ms. Hassel co-leads Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture Initiative to help the U.S. close achievement gaps and meet rising global standards by extending the reach of excellent teachers to more students, directly and by leading peers, and increasing pay for all teachers, within available budgets. As part of this effort, Ms. Hassel co-authored 3X for All: Extending the Reach of Education’s Best; and An Opportunity Culture For All: Making Teaching a Highly Paid, High-Impact Profession. These and other related publications can be found on OpportunityCulture.org. Ms. Hassel received her law and master in business administration degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was named to the inaugural class of the Aspen Teacher Leader Fellows program, designed to cultivate and support teacher leaders who are working to improve the teaching profession and student outcomes.

​Cathy Hunter

Cathy has worked for over thirty-five years in independent schools as teacher, dean and administrator. She is the founding head of San Francisco Friends School, a K-8 Quaker school with over 400 students. Cathy has also served as Head of the Upper School at The Head-Royce School in Oakland, Dean of Students at St. Timothy's School in Baltimore Maryland, fine arts teacher and department chair at Maumee Valley Country Day School in Ohio and as a teaching assistant at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Cathy was born in London, the daughter of a British physician and a Danish musician. Raised in upstate New York, she attended public schools and received her BFA in Sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, followed by an M.Ed. at Loyola College of Baltimore. She is particularly interested in building faculty cultures of healthy collaboration and growth, in which teachers learn and tackle professional challenges at each age and stage of their careers.

​Sabrina Laine

Sabrina is chief program officer for educator quality at Learning Point Associates. She manages the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is a principal investigator for the Center for Educator Compensation Reform. Sabrina has a diverse background in educational policy research and has spearheaded efforts to contribute to policy research and resource development related to every aspect of managing and supporting educator talent including recruitment, compensation, evaluation, distribution and professional development. She has worked for the last several years to ensure that policies and programs are in place that enable all children to have access to highly qualified teachers and leaders. Sabrina earned her doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Indiana University.

​Meleana Leaverton

Meleana is Corporate Counsel at American Assets Trust, Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Prior to working at American Assets, she practiced corporate law for 9 years in the San Francisco office of the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP. She has represented a number of local non-profit corporations, including 826 Valencia, the Oakland charter school Oasis High School, the Chez Panisse Foundation, Wildlife Rescue, Inc. (which merged into the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA), and the Latino Community Foundation. She is the recipient of Sonnenschein’s 2007 Rothschild Pro Bono Award. She has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh, and earned her law degree from Boalt Hall. 

​Sally Lovett

As a community leader and fundraiser, Sally has held jobs in a broad spectrum of arenas. Her San Francisco board affiliations include the Institute for Health and Healing Advisory Council, California Pacific Medical Center, International Museum of Women, San Francisco General Hospital Foundation Advisory Board and Trauma Recovery Center (where she co-conducted therapy for 12 years), President at the Fort Mason Foundation, President of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, and Vice President of University High School. Before moving to San Francisco, Sally had a similar career in the arts, Montessori education, and mental health communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. An early women's advocate, she founded "Women Into Tomorrow," created and produced the "Pioneers for Century III" conference in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati Department of Women's Studies, and co-chaired Ohio's International Women's Year. Sally is the founder of Lovett Women's Centers (1993) serving three Russian cities on the Kamchatka Peninsula and in the Russian Far East. Sally has three sons and was educated at the Spence School, Vassar College and Columbia University.

​Taylor Mali

Taylor is the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job than that of "poet." Articulate, accessible, passionate, and downright funny, Taylor studied drama in Oxford with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and puts those skills of presentation to work in all his performances. He was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was the "Armani-clad villain" of Paul Devlin's 1997 documentary film SlamNation. Taylor is vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, having spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math and S.A.T. test preparation. He has performed and lectured for teachers all over the world and has a goal of creating one thousand new teachers through "poetry, persuasion, and perseverance."

​Bob McKinnon

Bob is President of GALEWiLL Design. 100% of their work addresses social issues ranging from childhood development to climate change. He has led teams that have redesigned the food stamp program for the state of California, transformed the way we talk about social factors and health for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and created new ways for youth to stay above the influence for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has partnered with leading organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PBS, Sesame Workshop and The William J.  Clinton Foundation among many others to help millions overcome obstacles on their way to a healthier and happier life. Bob edited the book Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for A Better World, produced two documentary films, and is acontributor to Fast Company and the Huffington Post. He is also an instructor for the School of Visual Art’s Impact!: Design for Social Change program.

​Dorothy Moulthrop

Dorothy has over ten years of experience as a classroom teacher and curricular leader. She began her career in public education in the English Language Arts department at San Lorenzo High School, focusing on English-language learners and secondary-level literacy development. She did her teacher training at the UC Berkeley, and is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Education at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Comparative Literature and Italian from Northwestern University. She currently teaches in the English department at Shaker Heights High School, near Cleveland, Ohio.

​Debra Netkin

Debra has worked for the San Francisco Unified School District since 1998, and has taught at Lawton Alternative School since 2001. She received the San Francisco Mayor’s Teacher of the Month Award twice, in 2010 and 2012, and she won the 826 Valencia's Teacher of the Month Award in 2005. Debra has worked on a teacher advisory board to the California Academy of Sciences and at the 826 Valencia Writers' Workshop, helping the staff to teach writing to children. Debra has a special focus on integrating the arts into all content areas, especially science and teaching children about the environment. She is currently developing an educational environmental show for TV. Outside of school, she has written and performed solo theater pieces under the direction of David Ford and W. Kamau Bell, and she enjoys painting, playing guitar, hiking, and yoga.

​Mellen O'Keefe

Mellen produces programs for The Commonwealth Club of California and was formerly a television producer for ABC News and insideschools.org. O'Keefe is a Boston College graduate and the mother of two children who successfully navigated the NYC public school system. Her volunteer work included a variety of PTA positions and being an advocate for children with special needs and member of Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE).

​Mark Phillips

Mark is presently an educational columnist for Edutopia and the Marin Independent Journal, whilealso working with the California Film Institute’s Education program. Completing his BA at the University of Rochester and his MA at Columbia University, he taught for nine years at Manhasset High School and still maintains close contact through Facebook with a number of his former high school students.  After earning a doctorate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he taught at U.C. Santa Barbara and then served first as the Secondary Education Department Chair at San Francisco State University and then as the Director of Educational Outreach for the university. His major interests in education have been in adolescent social and emotional development, creating alternative schools, increasing student voices in school decision making, finding new ways of engaging teens in learning, and teaching media literacy.

​Greg Peters

Greg is school reform leader with a longstanding history working within both local and national efforts. As Principal of San Francisco's Leadership High School, Gregory and his teachers effectively created a National Demonstration and Mentor School that made progress in closing the racial achievement gap. Building from his successful experiences and results, Gregory now leads The San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools, which is committed "to interrupt and transform current and systemic educational inequities to ensure all students have access to personalized, equitable and high performing schools that believe and demonstrate each student can, should and will succeed." Gregory's instructional expertise and leadership in curriculum and school design; data based inquiry; and equity-centered professional development have resulted in a number recognitions including CESN's "Commitment to Equity Award" and CANEC's "Innovations in Excellence Award." Gregory is candidate at California State University East Bay for his doctorate in Educational Leadership & Social Justice.

​Ellen Gordon Reeves

For the past fifteen years, Ellen has served as Education Editor for the not-for-profit New Press. She has taught in public and private schools in France and America at the elementary through graduate levels, teaches in the Columbia University Publishing Course, and does college counseling at the American School of Paris and the Lycée Internationale. She holds an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an MA in Writing and Teaching Writing from Northeastern University. She wrote Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?, and is finishing a cookbook with chef Yves Camdeborde in Paris, and a play about WWII survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein.

​Helen Hood Scheer

Helen is a documentary filmmaker, freelance producer, and educator. Her films have screened at over 150 festivals including Hot Docs, True/False, Full Frame, DOC NYC, and Los Angeles Film Festivals. Honors include a Student Academy Award for Documentary, Special Jury & Special Audience Recognition from AspenShorts Fest, and the "Someone to Watch" award from the Cleveland International Film Festival. Two of her films have recently been selected for the American Film Series, a film diplomacy program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Currently, Helen teaches fiction and non-fiction production at Diablo Valley College and Chapman University.

​Tiffany Shlain

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany is a filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. A sought-after speaker known for her visual presentations, Tiffany lectures worldwide on filmmaking and the Internet’s influence on society. She founded the Webby Awards in 1996 and was creative director and CEO for nearly a decade, transforming it into a global organization honoring the best of the Internet, which occurs annually in NYC.

​Joan Soble

Joan is a career educator who consults in and beyond the United States with schools and organizations seeking to foster engaged student and teacher learning as well as student achievement. After more than thirty-four years as a school-based educator, Joan retired in 2014 from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) in Cambridge, MA, where she taught English language arts and supported the faculty's professional learning. Joan's twenty-year association with Project Zero (PZ) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education began when she was a research-teacher with the Teaching for Understanding Project, extended through her association with the Making Learning Visible Project, and is currently focused on its Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Project. In 2012, Joan was the Massachusetts recipient of the National Education Association Foundation/California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence and a Pearson Foundation Global Learning Fellow. In her blog, "Joan Soble: So Already . . . : A Blog about Moving Forward and Staying Connected," Joan often writes about issues in education.

​Sean Uyehara

Sean is a programmer at the San Francisco Film Society. He inaugurated KinoTek, a programming thread dedicated to exhibiting cross-platform technologies and emergent media. Sean is also the establishing programmer of the San Francisco International Animation Festival and lead programmer of film and music, live events and multimedia performance at the San Francisco International Film Festival and SF360 Film + Club.

​Nicole Wolfgram

As Senior Director of Sales for MTV Network Digital Entertainment Group, Nicole oversees all west coast sales activities for Comedy Central Digital and Spike Digital Entertainment. Prior to joining MTV Networks, Nicole enjoyed a sales career at Sony Pictures Classics where she worked on and released such award-winning films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Talk To Her, Pollock, Winged Migration and The Fog of War. 

​Lauren Woodman

Lauren served as the General Manager of Education Programs for Microsoft for ten years. In this role she was responsible for Microsoft’s most significant education programs: Partners in Learning, a 15-year, $750 million investment to help educators use technology effectively in teaching and learning; and Shape the Future, a global initiative to close the opportunity divide by enabling technology access for every student. Before joining Microsoft in 2002, Woodman served as the executive vice president for the Software & Information Industry Association, the principal trade association for code and content companies. She currently serves on the National Education Association Foundation Board of Directors and the World Affairs Council of Seattle Board of Directors. Woodman holds a M.A. from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from Smith College.

​Stephanie Zeppa

Stephanie Zeppa is a partner in the Corporate & Securities Group in the law firm, Sheppard Mullin's Palo Alto and San Francisco offices. Her corporate expertise covers businesses in a variety of industries including social media and video games, software and information technology, FinTech, digital currencies and digital health.  Ms. Zeppa is also Co-Team Leader of the firm's Social Media and Games Industry Team and a member of the Wine Industry Team.

​Sherie L'Heureux

Sherie works as a Financial Analyst for an environmental engineering company headquartered in San Francisco with 18 years of experience. She has held various positions there including Manager of Support Services, Project Controller, Financial Coordinator for multi-million dollar environmental construction jobs and Training Coordinator for the accounting & marketing systems. She was a preschool teacher shortly after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. Sherie also founded her own business as a Professional Organizer for homes and businesses. She lives in Santa Cruz with her husband and two children. 

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