OUR TEAM
National
Jonas S. Chartock, Chief Executive Officer
Jonas is widely known as a leader in the nation's school reform movement. He comes to Leading Educators from the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York where he served as Executive Director of the nation's largest university based charter school authorizer. Previously, he served as the Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Charter School Policy Institute (CSPI) in Austin, Texas and as Executive Director of Teach For America in Houston, Texas. Jonas began his career as a teacher with Teach For America in the Compton Unified School District. He holds degrees from Cornell University, Chapman University, and Harvard University, and earned his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin.
Chong-Hao Fu, Chief Program Officer
At Leading Educators, Chong-Hao oversees the curriculum development and the delivery of the Fellowship program and is responsible for the national program evaluation and assessment strategy. Part of that work includes cultivating and enlisting the support of a Curriculum Advisory Committee. He also collaborates with regional Executive Directors to evaluate program efficiency at individual sites. Before joining Leading Educators, Chong-Hao founded and led KIPP Sharpstown College Prep, a fine arts middle school in Houston, Texas. Prior to serving as a school leader, he was a teacher with the original KIPP Academy in Houston and with Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta. Chong-Hao holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and a M.A. in Education Administration from National Louis University.
Julie Bourgeois, National Expansion Project Manager
Julie joined the founding team of Leading Educators in 2008 as the New Orleans Program Manager, responsible for the development, planning and execution of fellowship experiences. In her current role, Julie is responsible for guiding and supporting regional teams to ensure successful execution of the Leading Educators Fellowship. Her diverse background includes teaching young students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, program development and management experience, and consultancy work with schools throughout Louisiana on service implementation for special needs students. Julie graduated with honors from Georgia State University earning a B.S. in Psychology and holds an M.S.W. from Tulane University.
Margeaux Randolph, Data Manager
Margeaux is a native of New Orleans and graduate of New Orleans public schools. She has a strong commitment to ensuring that all students have equal access to a high quality education. She has worked in education reform for several years, beginning with I CAN Learn Education Systems, providing educational software to public schools in New Orleans and Los Angeles. She has led projects in data management and analysis with the California Charter Schools Association, The New Teacher Project, and FirstLine Schools. She is a former Education Pioneers Fellow and is excited to join Leading Educators as Data Manager. Margeaux earned a Bachelor of Science degree from M.I.T., a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Southern California, and is currently an M.B.A. candidate at Tulane.
Steph Bates, Executive Assistant and Special Projects Coordinator
Steph joined Leading Educators after a 1.5 year stint in Athens, Greece, developing writing tutoring and teaching programs for ESL students at Hellenic American University. She returned to the US determined to support broadscale education reform. Prior to her time in Greece, Steph served as the Editor and Executive Assistant at Humanities Texas, where she focused on board relations, fundraising, and communications. She received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on writing, tutoring pedagogy, and Shakespeare through performance.
Nicole Garrahan, Office Manager
Nicole joined Leading Educators in 2011, bringing with her 4 years of experience in administrative support roles. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and a Minor in Psychology, Nicole moved to Houston where she worked in property management and contract administration. Since improving children's lives has always been important to Nicole, she joined the Big Brother Big Sister National Youth Mentoring Program, volunteering for 2 years. As Office Manager, she is excited to manage the day-to-day office operations and to be involved with the development and implementation of new programs and systems.
Jarrod Sartain, Sr. Marketing and Systems Manager
Jarrod brings over ten years of marketing systems and creative production experience to Leading Educators. One of the original contributors supporting the operations of the founding Leading Educators team in 2008, Jarrod helped develop, implement, and maintain branding and internet related services for the program. Jarrod now provides creative and branding guidance and active management of systems to the organization. Education and creativity have always been central to Jarrod, from his beginnings teaching digital media to Masters students at the University of California at Davis, to his more recent work at Kaplan Learning Technologies and then New Leaders, Inc. delivering professional development services. Jarrod received his B.A. in Studio Art, Digital Media and Communication (summa cum laude) from UC Davis. His practical experience includes film/video work with Director Lynn Hershman Leeson, web special projects at Editoriale Domus S.p.A., and service support for Microsoft virtualization software. As the Sr. Marketing and Systems Manager he is excited to further develop and support this exciting work in education management innovation.
Greater New Orleans Team
Makiyah Moody, Executive Director
Since graduate school, Makiyah has found her niche in the education reform movement where she worked at Leadership for Quality Education and KIPP Foundation in Chicago. With KIPP Foundation, Makiyah built and executed all elements of a professional development program for KIPP teachers and personnel, including KIPP School Summit, content-specific conferences and school visits for three years. Makiyah served as Director of Development and subsequently Managing Director of Finance & Operations at KIPP LEAD College Prep Charter School in Gary, Indiana prior to becoming the Executive Director of Leading Educators, Greater New Orleans Region. She has experience in fundraising and grant management, event planning, professional development, program design and implementation. Makiyah received her B.A. in Hispanic Studies (magna cum laude) from Wheaton College and her M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago. Makiyah currently serves on the Advisory Board for Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans, an initiative to engage young leaders in New Orleans in philanthropy.
Kelly McClure, Regional Program Director
Prior to joining Leading Educators, Kelly was the Academic Director of KIPP New Orleans Schools. In Massachusetts, she was on the founding team of a 6-12 charter school in Salem, taught courses in two Schools of Education, coordinated and taught for an intergenerational literacy program in Chelsea, and was the co-founder and director of Boston University's America Reads Challenge. Internationally, Kelly served as a teacher trainer in the national Ecole Normale Superieure and as the training director for a USAID rural development project promoting educational access for girls in Morocco. Kelly holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University, New Orleans, an Ed.M. in International Education Development and Ed.D. in Administration, Training and Policy Studies, both from Boston University.
Luella Williams, Program Experience Manager
Luella Williams joins Leading Educators as Program Experience Manager with a vested interest in improving the educational landscape in New Orleans. Her desire to become an integral component of Leading Educators is enhanced by her Master's of Science degree in Social Development and Health. In her most recent position, Luella managed a group of AmeriCorps members that served within two local charter schools as tutors and mentors. Additionally, she has had experience working within the residential learning communities at Tulane University providing the necessary academic resources to students. As the new Program Experience Manager, Luella is responsible for supporting the planning of cohort trainings and events. She will also support recruitment efforts and alumni engagement.
Elizabeth Elizardi, Leadership Coach
Elizabeth has over twelve years combined experience as a teacher, school administrator, educational consultant and leadership coach throughout the United States. Her teaching career began in West Phoenix, Arizona public schools, where she raised student achievement scores in a predominantly Latino population. Elizabeth recently completed the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she researched how mindset, positive relationships, engaging environments, resilience and strengths-based leadership contribute to flourishing schools.
Tim Schwarz, Leadership Coach
Tim comes to Leading Educators with a strong belief in the importance of teacher leadership, teacher development, and teacher retention, born from his experiences working in public education. He began in New Orleans as a '99 Teach For America Corps Member, teaching for two years at John McDonogh Senior High School. More recently, he was founding staff member of New Orleans College Prep Charter School in Central City, where he served four years as a classroom teacher and instruction coach. Tim holds a master's degree in education from Wake Forest and remains passionate about bringing research-based best practice into the classroom.
Kansas City Team
Tom Krebs, Executive Director
As a founding academic dean and teacher at a charter high school in Newark, NJ, Tom led colleagues and students to average ACT score growths of 30 national percentile points and the highest charter school Language Arts scores in NJ. Previously, he taught in two other high schools in Newark, NJ, and the Bronx, NY, while serving as a grade level chair, founding track and cross-country coach, and founder of a college access program. He holds a B.A. in Public Policy Analysis and Economics from Pomona College, a M.S. in teaching from Pace University, and a M.A. in Education Administration from National Louis University.
Elizabeth Bologna, Program Experience Manager
With three years of experience in the Office of Staff Development at the Urbana, IL school district, Elizabeth comes to Leading Educators with a strong belief in the effectiveness of teacher training. As the History Coordinator with the American History Teachers' Collaborative, Elizabeth designed content-rich workshops for over 100 Social Studies teachers. A graduate of Grinnell College, she is inspired by the social justice oriented mission of Leading Educators. As Program Experience Manager in Kansas City, she is excited to develop engaging events and training for Leading Educators teacher-leaders.
Carol Hansen, Lead Coach
Dr. Carol Hansen comes to Leading Educators with a personal mission and passion for education. She has spent more than 25 years in public education as an elementary teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Michigan. Carol also served as the Director of The Leadership Institute at The Learning Exchange, an educational non-profit, in Kansas City, Missouri. As such, she implemented and trained school administrators in leadership, management, teacher observation focused on instruction, and school culture. Carol has degrees from Iowa State University, Webster University, and the University of Missouri - Kansas City. She received a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Tara Pardo, Leadership Coach
Tara began her career in urban education 10 years ago as a member of the first cohort of the Ewing Kaufman Kansas City Teaching Fellows, a program designed to educate teachers to work in hard to staff inner city schools in Kansas City Kansas and Missouri. In 2002, she received her Master's Degree in education from Pittsburg State University. She has committed herself to excellence in the classroom and improving student learning, which has resulted in improving test scores in urban schools. She was honored by the state of Kansas in 2010 for "Uncommon Accomplishment in Closing the Achievement Gap" for her 7th grade students' Math Scores. In addition in 2011 89% of her 6th grade students were proficient on the Kansas State Assessment. Tara has been a leader in the Kansas City School District by providing staff development around effective instruction with highly at risk and gang involved youth.
- Jonas Chartock, CEO
