Education Trust Staff

A founding partner of Ed Trust in 1993, Stephanie worked with school boards, administrators, principals, teachers, and communities to implement policies and practices aimed at improving teaching and learning. She helped create the Standards-in-Practice professional development initiative that encouraged standards-based education in districts across the nation as well as Ed Trust’s National Center for Transforming School Counseling. Stephanie was a teacher and administrator in the Montclair, N.J., schools, education director for the National Urban League, and deputy superintendent of the Kansas City, Mo., schools. A graduate of Douglass College, she received a master’s in social work from Rutgers University and a doctorate in human growth and development/school administration from the Union Institute.

Richard is former director of the Institute for Urban School Improvement at the University of Connecticut and was on faculty in the Department of Education Leadership, where he directed and taught within the doctoral program. He worked with the Connecticut Center for School Change and the Fairfield County Community Foundation, in collaboration with urban districts, to design and teach within the Urban School Leaders Fellowship, an initiative to enhance leadership capacity within urban districts. He previously was associate director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former high school teacher, Richard has led summer programs for at-risk youth and served as a change coach for urban high schools. He received a bachelor's in political science from North Carolina State University and master's and doctorates in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University.

Marni comes to Ed Trust with a background in teaching and public policy. After joining Teach for America in 2006, she taught second grade for three years in Atlanta. She then earned a master’s degree in public policy at American University, with a focus in social policy. While at American, she served as a teaching assistant for the School of Public Affairs Leadership Program, which allows students to design and execute community action projects. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Cornell University.
 

Karin Chenoweth is writer-in-residence at The Education Trust. She recently co-authored, with Ed Trust’s director of research Christina Theokas, Getting it Done: Leading Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2011), a careful study of the beliefs and practices of effective leaders of high-poverty and high-minority schools. Getting It Done builds on two previous books by Chenoweth, “It’s Being Done:” Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2007) and How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2009).

She has spoken widely about her work, including at the Iowa Governor’s Education Summit, the Illinois Coalition of High Schools, the Learning Forward national conference, the American Federation of Teachers’ QuEST conference, and, with Christina Theokas, at Western Kentucky University, Rutgers University-Camden, and the Hume Region principals conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Before joining Ed Trust, Chenoweth wrote a weekly column on schools and education for The Washington Post. Before that she was senior writer and executive editor for Black Issues In Higher Education (now Diverse). As a freelance writer, she wrote for such publications as Education Week, American Teacher, American Educator, School Library Journal, and the Washington Post Magazine. In addition, she was an active parent volunteer throughout her children’s public schooling in Montgomery County, Md.

Daria joined The Education Trust in 2003 as a policy analyst. Since then, she has authored reports and participated in national policy conversations about accountability, high school graduation, and standards.  She also leads the organization’s work to identify high-poverty, high-minority, high-performing schools.  Previously, Daria worked as an analyst for the Texas Legislative Council. She is a graduate of Rice University and holds a master’s from the University of Wisconsin.

As director of the Ed Trust’s National Center for Transforming School Counseling, Peggy consults with state departments of education, universities, and school districts. She is the former director of the school counselor program at Indiana State University and past president of the Indiana School Counselor Association. She was a member of the writing team for the American School Counselors Association’s National Model for School Counseling Programs and one of the developers of the MetLife Foundation’s National School Counselor Training Initiative. Peggy also was cofounder of the American Student Achievement Institute. 

Melissa’s work at the Ed Trust focuses on evaluating and influencing policy to ensure that all students receive the effective teachers they need and deserve. Her recent professional experiences include advocating for federal policies that increase educational opportunity at The Institute for College Access & Success, and promoting effective health policies at the New York offices of the Epilepsy Foundation. She spent the first six years of her career working in market research analysis and consulting at Nielsen BASES. Melissa completed her master’s in public policy at the University of Chicago, during which time she interned with the Office of Academic Enhancement in the Chicago Public Schools and the White House Domestic Policy Council. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Drew University.

José leads the higher education policy and practice work at The Education Trust.  He oversees the national Access to Success Initiative (20 public university systems) and has recently been involved in separate efforts to regulate the for-profit college industry and to save the Federal Pell Grant Program.  José is former vice president for student affairs of the University of Puerto Rico System (UPR), where he oversaw admissions, financial aid, and student-life programs. He also served as UPR’s executive director for strategic planning and cofounded Puerto Rico’s K-16 Council. He previously served as professor and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and as dean of academic affairs of the UPR Mayagüez campus, where he led several research projects with significant K-12 STEM student outreach and teacher training components. He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and he has published extensively in international scientific journals and for technical conferences. A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, he received the National Science Foundation Career Award.  Active in industry, José is a patented inventor.

At Ed Trust, Mamie analyzes racial and economic gaps in college access and success and evaluates policies aimed at closing these gaps.  Previously, she researched the factors affecting high school students’ decisions to study STEM fields in college and worked as a research assistant studying school desegregation patterns in Alexandria, Va.  Mamie holds a bachelor’s and master’s in civil engineering from Villanova University and University of Delaware. She earned a master’s in public policy, with a concentration in education, social, and family policy, from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

Mary primarily manages the College Results Online portfolio, an interactive web-based tool that provides facts on college graduation rates to students, parents, school counselors, policymakers, and researchers. She analyzes patterns in access and success rates, and highlights campus and system-based efforts that have made progress towards improving graduation rates. Previously, Mary was a research assistant at Education Sector, where she studied issues related to college and career readiness, college access and completion, and competency-based higher education, and authored “Degreeless in Debt: What Happens to Borrowers Who Drop Out.” Despite holding degrees in biology and linguistics, Mary became passionate about higher education issues at the University of Virginia after working with the admissions and financial aid offices to increase students’ awareness of AccessUVA, U.Va.’s financial aid program for low-income students. Mary also co-founded and presided over an advocacy organization at U.Va. that supports socioeconomic diversity in higher education. She holds a master’s in public policy, with a higher education concentration from Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies.

An experienced political and community organizer with a special skill in media communications, Amy’s sharp advocacy skills were honed over years of successful work for the Children’s Defense Fund, the Democratic National Committee, the Peace Corps, and the White House Office of Media Affairs.

Prior to joining the Education Trust, Iris Maria served as Deputy Director for Education Policy & Outreach at the League of United Latin American Citizens, where she oversaw LULAC’s state and federal education policy work. In this capacity she worked to deepen LULAC’s understanding of state and federal school reform, and expanded the relationships between LULAC’s grassroots education advocates and state and federal policymakers. Prior to LULAC, Iris Maria worked as a Legislative Associate for the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), where she was a junior lobbyist assisting FRAC’s state and local network on food assistance programs and governmental processes at the federal level.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, History & African Diaspora Studies from Tulane University and a Master of Arts degree in Social Policy from the University of Chicago. 

Jim Davy, legislative affairs assistant. Jim joined The Education Trust from Educational Testing Service (ETS), where he analyzed assessment performance data for validity, reliability, and fairness. Prior to ETS, he served on the policy staff of former NJ Gov. Jon Corzine’s re-election campaign, where he concentrated particularly on economic issues and education policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.

Stephanie brings more than a decade of advocacy communications experience to The Education Trust. Her work in K-12 education—handling public affairs, media relations, and communications strategy for the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment Governing Board and for the Milken Family Foundation and its teacher-quality programs—has garnered national recognition: the Crystal Award of Excellence from the National Communicator Awards, the Public Relations Society of America’s PRism Award of Excellence, and the PRo Award from the Public Communicators of Los Angeles. Stephanie is a graduate of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.

Sela Lewis, graphic designer at The Education Trust, has worked in such varied settings as commercial real estate, law firms, and political campaigns. Her involvement in education activism in high school and summers during college working with children at her neighborhood Boys & Girls Club have shaped Sela’s knowledge about the issues The Education Trust supports. A graduate of Howard University, she holds a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design. For Sela, graphic design is about effectively communicating ideas visually so that good ideas become great — a bit like fine cooking, which calls for quality ingredients, coupled with intuition about flavors, colors, and textures.

Clarise is an undergraduate student at Howard University studying political science with a concentration in community development. Before coming to The Education Trust, Clarise was a public policy intern at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, where she assisted work on federal legislation and policy. As the field assistant, she is helping to develop a field operations program and plays a key role in strategic outreach and advocacy work.

Prior to joining The Education Trust, Kate was an attorney with the education practice of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP’s Government and Regulatory Affairs Practice Group, where she specialized in regulatory and legislative issues related to higher education. Kate previously served as legislative counsel to both Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes and Rep. Artur Davis. She also served as legislative and policy adviser to former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Kate is a graduate of Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Ericka was vice president and director of the national executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, where she led the firm’s K-12 education practice. She previously was president and chief operating officer of The McKenzie Group, an education consulting firm that provided evaluation and technical assistance services to school districts, federal agencies, foundations, and other organizations. Ericka also served as a legislative assistant for education to former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey and taught at Mills College, in Oakland, Calif. Ericka holds a bachelor’s from Georgetown University and a doctorate from Stanford University. She is a member of Leadership Washington’s Class of 2004.

Melva comes to the Ed Trust from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, where she was the meetings and events manager; and she was the first full-time strategic events manager for College Summit, Inc. In these positions, Melva’s work included writing event operations publications, supervising concurrent events across 13 affiliate offices, training junior events professionals, and managing a multifarious centennial celebration. She was responsible for a budget in excess of $4 million. In the nonprofit, entertainment, corporate, and association sectors, Melva has directly managed conventions, festivals, galas, and special events, some with up to 60,000 attendees. She holds degrees with distinction from Howard and Columbia Universities, respectively, and is currently expanding her knowledge base in the culinary arts.

In leading development for the Ed Trust, Maleka guides our efforts to forge productive relationships that ensure sustainability and help advance the organization’s mission. Previously, Maleka served as director of development at Harlem RBI, a youth development organization in New York City. Under her leadership, Harlem RBI nearly doubled its revenue, launched a $20 million capital campaign, and implemented a rebranding plan. Earlier, Maleka was a development associate at The Family Center in New York City and served as a clinical social worker, assisting families affected by life-threatening illnesses. Maleka received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from American University and her master of social work degree from New York University. She also completed Columbia University’s Institute for Non-Profit Management certificate program in nonprofit leadership.

A graduate of Howard University, Chantel has more than 14 years of accounting experience. Before joining The Education Trust, she was the United Way of America’s manager of grants and contracts and lead associate for accounts receivable. Chantel previously worked at the Center for Policy Alternatives as manager of accounts payable and payroll.

Traci brings several years of experience working in all facets of office administration. Previously she worked as office manager for Profiles, a staffing company in Washington, DC, focused on hiring talent in creative industries.  She was also a part of a dynamic target marketing team for a website platform organization in New York City. Traci holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University in communications with an emphasis in marketing.

Before joining Ed Trust, Loretta was the administrative assistant to Floretta Dukes McKenzie, a former superintendent of schools in the District of Columbia. She performed similar duties for the American Institutes for Research. Loretta previously worked as a payroll supervisor, data-entry specialist, and in various other administrative positions for the George Washington University.