Partners In School Innovation
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Staff Profiles

EXECUTIVE

Becky Crowe Hill, Executive Director
Becky was named Executive Director in August 2003. During her tenure as Executive Director, PartnersSI has doubled in size and is now viewed as the key school improvement partner for two of the largest urban districts in the Bay Area. Prior to joining PartnersSI, Becky was the Director of Special Projects for the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, where she was responsible for leadership development of principals and school district leaders from 30 Bay Area school districts. Becky has additional experience teaching in a homeless shelter and working in education policy, research and evaluation in Washington, D.C. as well as at Stanford University, where she served for three years as the project director for a comprehensive school reform evaluation of the Hewlett-Annenberg education reform initiative. She has a BA and MA from Stanford University and was co-captain of the Stanford Women's Swimming NCAA Championship team.

PROGRAM

Shehz Ali, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Shehz Ali joined PartnersSI in July 2008 excited to continue his work in raising standards in schools and working with underserved students. Shehz began his career teaching in alternative, traditional, elementary and high schools in Canada for nine years where he also developed curriculum and related training for schools. He moved to the United States and began conducting quality reviews in schools and working with school leaders on school improvement. Shehz lives locally in San Jose and has volunteered at KIPP Heartwood Academy teaching Saturday electives for two years. Through his various experiences, Shehz brings knowledge of program evaluation, leadership development, and a passion for creating change to his role as School Innovation Partner. Shehz earned his B.A. in History from University of Ottawa, his B.Ed. from Brock University, and M.Ed. from the University of Ottawa.

Bela Bhasin, School Innovation Partner, OUSD
Bela joined PartnersSI in 2006. With 19 years of teaching experience, Bela brings depth of knowledge, leadership and passion to her role as School Innovation Partner. She has presented workshops on teaching English Learners at the California Association for Bilingual Educators and facilitated teacher discussions on issues in multicultural education. Bela received a BA from St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, India, and an MS in Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College.

Viviana Cabrales, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Viviana taught at Christopher Elementary (a former PartnersSI school) within Oak Grove School District. As a grade level leader, Viviana worked with PartnersSI to implement the ROCI Approach within her classroom. She brings knowledge of what effective teacher leadership and grade level teams look and sound like within a school- knowing the importance of building capacity amongst teachers and staff as a way of sustaining and continuing positive change. She believes in high quality, standards-based balanced literacy as a means of transforming schools into equitable educational places for children. Viviana received her B.A. in Sociology and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She also received her M.A. in Education and Multiple Subject Teaching Credential at the University of California, Berkeley.

Michelle Campbell, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Michelle taught in Campbell Union School District for seven years. Her experiences teaching Kindergarten, first and second grades helped to hone her focus on early childhood literacy. Michelle received her degree in Human Development and Psychology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, her multi-subject teaching credential from San Jose State and most recently her MA in Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership from Stanford. She brings to PartnersSI a commitment to high quality literacy instruction, especially in the early grades. She values a balanced literacy approach to teaching and the importance of recognizing how each student's unique cultural background and experiences interplay with his or her learning.

Nick Carson, School Innovation Partner, SFUSD
Nick joined PartnersSI in 2008. He started his career in education teaching fifth grade in Washington DC. After moving to San Francisco, he became a founding teacher at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy teaching English and mathematics. During the past three years he has served as the Assistant Principal and most recently the Acting Principal where he was instrumental in moving the school forward. KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy is now the highest performing middle school in SFUSD as well as a California Distinguished School. Nick completed the Fischer School Leadership Program through the Center for Executive Development at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He has a BA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Jennifer Cheatham, District Partnership Director, SFUSD
Jennifer joined PartnersSI in 2008. She was most recently Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction at San Diego Unified where she led the alignment of standards-based curriculum, assessment, intervention, and professional development. Prior to that she worked for Springboard Schools where she coached and consulted teacher leaders, principals, and district-office leaders in the Bay Area and Central Valley on the implementation of core curricula, the design of effective professional development, the establishment of monitoring systems, and the application of strategies for intervention. Jen has additional experience as a reform coordinator and middle school teacher. She received her Ed.D and Ed.M. from Harvard University and her MA in Education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Stephanie Ervin, School Innovation Partner, SFUSD
Stephanie joined PartnersSI in 2006. She has 5 years of teaching and grade level team leadership experience. A former first grade teacher at Fairmount Elementary School in San Francisco, Stephanie draws on her classroom experience, passion and focus on student achievement to impact an even greater number of students in her role as a School Innovation Partner. Stephanie has a BA and a Multiple Studies Credential from San Francisco State University.

Kiran Gaind, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Kiran Gaind began her career as a school change agent when she was a teacher team leader and Governance Body member at Mission High School in San Francisco, during its Gates-funded school redesign process. Kiran had the good fortune of working side by side with the most dedicated Principal a school could hope for, with a superstar staff who worked tirelessly in collaborative teams to build relationships with their students, innovate ahead of the national school reform curve and remain passionate about outstanding, culturally-responsive instruction as the main lever of school change. She then served as a teacher leader at Unity High School, a charter in East Oakland, and as a Project Manager for English Language Learners and Professional Learning Communities in the Office of High School Redesign in Austin, Texas' AISD. Kiran received her BA in Political Theory and Women's Studies from Cornell University, her Teaching Credential from San Francisco State and intensive professional development from the Stanford Redesign Network, Parthenon Consulting Group and Aida Walqui's Quality Teaching for English Learners program housed at WestEd.

Leroy Gaines, School Innovation Partner, OUSD
Leroy Gaines joined PartnersSI in August 2006. As a Teach For America corps member he began his career as an educator teaching 5th grade at T.P. Ryan Elementary School in San Jose, firmly committing himself to the advancement of urban youth and educational equity. His experience in public schools extends beyond the classroom, assuming administrative responsibilities, developing after school programs, mentoring students, and coaching middle school basketball. Leroy holds an AB in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College and a MA in Educational Leadership from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Nefertiti Hardaway, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Nefertiti worked as a consultant managing a community technology project where she helped develop two computer learning centers for youth and adults. She began her career in education teaching pre-K, first and second grade, serving two consecutive years as a grade level chairperson, presenting trainings, and providing support and coaching. After four years of teaching, she pursued opportunities that offered the possibility to have a greater impact on education. Included among these were recruiting high quality teachers for the district in which she taught, and serving as a Board Member to develop a high performing charter school in Memphis. Nefertiti received her BA in Sociology and MA and teaching credential in Early Childhood Education from the University of Memphis.

Kirstin Hernandez, School Innovation Partner, OUSD
Kirstin joined PartnersSI in 2007 eager to continue her work toward educational equity for underserved youth. She began her career teaching high school math in Hayward Unified where she also served as a department chair and teacher leader on the school's reform committee. While pursuing her Master's degree in School Leadership, she worked in a small reform high school in South Boston. She then spent three years working in urban charter schools as a middle school teacher and school leader. Kirstin brings experience in data-driven decision making, student assessment and teacher professional development to her work at PartnersSI. She received her BA from UC Berkeley and her MA from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jesse Hinueber, School Innovation Partner, OUSD
Jesse joined PartnersSI in 2006. Jesse taught 6th grade for two years in San Jose as a Teach for America Corps member. Jesse has also worked as a marketing assistant at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts and was a climate and policy intern at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington D.C. He has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College and received his teaching credential from San Jose State University.

Marie Huxley, District Partnership Director, OUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Marie was Director of Secondary Instructional Support in the Vallejo City Unified School District where she established several district-wide reform initiatives. She began her career in education as a high school social studies, Spanish, and ESL teacher and later took on the roles of high school assistant principal and co-principal. Working in diverse districts (Los Angeles Unified School District, Tamalpais Union High School District, and Vallejo City Unified School District) and coaching for the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative gave her a comprehensive and balanced approach to systemic school and district improvement. Marie received a BA in Political Science with an emphasis on international relations from UCSB and holds a Masters Degree in Education from UCLA and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University.

Jaime Kidd, Director of Professional Development
After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in psychology, Jaime moved to the Bay Area to serve as a PartnersSI AmeriCorps partner. While supporting improvement initiatives at schools in both Redwood City and San Francisco, Jaime learned about school change processes and issues of inequity in schools. At the end of her term of service, she entered a doctoral program in educational psychology at UC Berkeley, where her graduate work focused on early reading instruction, especially as related to teacher development and learning.

Jeana Kim, Organizational Learning & Effectiveness
Jeana joined PartnersSI in 2006. She has taught in a Korean-English bilingual classroom, worked in a second grade classroom and served as an after-school program coordinator in a community in Southeast D.C., where she gained a deeper understanding of urban public education. Jeana draws on her diverse experience in business consulting, education, urban community development, research and social justice to foster equity and gap-closing, system-level change for children. She received her BA and teacher certification from Wellesley College.

Belinda Liu, Organizational Learning & Effectiveness
Belinda joined PartnersSI in 2005. After years of valuable leadership in national and international schools and programs and teaching in an urban school in Washington DC, she has cultivated skills in working with individuals from diverse academic, social and ethnic backgrounds. Prior to joining PartnersSI, she served as the Ecuador Program Assistant for WorldTeach in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Belinda received her BA from the University of North Carolina in International Studies and her MA in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Julien Phillips, ED Emeritus
Julien was an early Peace Corps Volunteer and has extensive experience in institutional innovation, first as a management consultant and partner at McKinsey & Co. where he led its worldwide organizational change practice. More recently, he was one of the leaders in establishing the Commission on National and Community Service. He is a co-founder and board member of Ashoka, a global not-for-profit that invests in leading social entrepreneurs in developing countries and Eastern Europe. He is also a board member of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative and of the Pacific School of Religion. Julien holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University. He co-founded Partners In School Innovation in 1993.

Laura Post, Organizational Learning & Effectiveness
Laura joined PartnersSI in 2006. Laura taught graduate and undergraduate courses and served as Director of the Master's program in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education at the Stanford University School of Education. She received her PhD from Stanford University, where she focused her research on teacher communities working on equity-focused school reform. Prior to Stanford, Laura taught elementary school for five years and facilitated professional development in literacy and science in a low-income, urban school district in California.

Jennifer Hammett Sanchez, English Language Development Program Director
Jennifer joined PartnersSI in 2006. For the past thirteen years, Jennifer was with the San Francisco Unified School District as both a District K-8 Spanish bilingual, ELD and SDAIE resource teacher, as well as a Spanish bilingual classroom teacher. Jennifer also taught in the San Jose Unified School District and in South America. In addition, Jennifer has taught CLAD certification courses through SFUSD as well as Bilingual Education and ELD and SDAIE Methodology courses through San Francisco State and Dominican University. In 2003 Jennifer earned her National Board certification in English as a New Language. In addition to holding a BCLAD Spanish Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential, she holds an MA in International and Multicultural Education.

Emily Schriber, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Emily joined Partners SI in 2008. She became passionate about working for educational equity during her time as a Teach For America corps member. She taught first-, third-, and then fourth-grade students at Ben Painter Elementary in San Jose for three years. In this time, her students made significant academic gains in Language Arts and math. At Painter, Emily worked as grade level chair, leading her grade level to strategically use data and create standards-based assessments to guide their teaching. She received her BA from University of New Mexico, where she led campus organizations working for social justice.

Rachel Scott, Director of Organizational Learning & Effectiveness
Rachel Scott joined Partners in 2008. Just prior to coming aboard, she worked as an educational consultant with Fremont Unified School District, where she helped staff codify and articulate their Spanish-English dual immersion program. Before that, she spent six years with Springboard Schools (formerly the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative), most recently as the Director of Coaching and Client Services. At Springboard, she led the development of a district-wide coaching model, created a coaching rubric, and designed trainings for a cadre of over 70 coaches, mainly former superintendents and assistant superintendents from around the state of California. Rachel holds a bachelor's degree in music from UCLA and a University of Cambridge/Royal Society of Arts Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. She has taught English in Mexico, the United States and the Czech Republic. Her travels, her teaching and her work with schools have convinced her that both personal and organizational transformation are possible, and have strengthened her commitment to the creation of a just, equitable, and culturally proficient system of public education.

Poonam Singh, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Poonam Singh joined PartnersSI in 2003. She holds an MA in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she focused her research on systemic reforms in high-performing low-income districts, and the relationship between organizational and leadership practices and instructional improvement. Prior to that, she founded Aspire for Education, Inspire for Change, a teacher recruitment and education program at UC Berkeley. She also founded and ran an after school program in East Oakland, where she implemented a technology-based reading program with low-income middle school youth.

Ingrid Siss, School Innovation Partner, SFUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Ingrid served as a corps member with Teach For America in San Jose. For three years she worked as a kindergarten teacher at Cureton Elementary School in the Alum Rock Union School District. Her students made significant academic gains during her time in the classroom. Ingrid also defined expectations for Teach For America kindergarten teachers. She led professional development and created a comprehensive tool kit for all Bay Area kindergarten corps members. During the summer of 2006, Ingrid worked as a teacher coach in Los Angeles preparing and training incoming teachers for the 2006-2007 school year. Ingrid received her BA in French from UC Berkeley and her multiple subjects teaching credential from San Jose State University.

Sarah Skinner, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Sarah Skinner served as a 2005 Teach For America (TFA) corps member. For three years, she taught first grade at D.J. Meyer Elementary in San Jose. In her final year of teaching, each of Sarah's twenty students, mostly English Language Learners, grew 2-3 years in reading and the class averaged 98% mastery of the 1st grade math standards. In 2006, Sarah trained new teachers at TFA Los Angeles Summer Institute and throughout the year presented a series of workshops focused on effective backwards planning, powerful literacy instruction for emergent readers, and teaching English Language Learners. Sarah's high expectations, as well as her passion for teaching Second Language Learners and early childhood literacy, drive her work towards creating equitable educational opportunities for all students. Sarah attended Princeton University where she received a BA in History, Spanish, and Latin American Studies.

Gretchen Spear, School Innovation Partner, SFUSD
Gretchen joined PartnersSI in 2007. Gretchen began her work for educational equity in 2002, when she joined Teach For America as a corps member at Ryan Elementary School in San Jose. In the years following, Gretchen continued working to close the achievement gap, teaching second, third and fourth grade at elementary schools in San Francisco and Oakland. Gretchen received her B.A. in International Relations from Connecticut College and her teaching credential from San Jose State University.

Meaghen Spencer, School Innovation Partner, SJUSD
Meaghen joined PartnersSI in 2007. Meaghen began her teaching career as a Teach for America corps member in Alum Rock School District in San Jose where she taught for three years. During that time she served on her school's leadership team as well as the district technology team. Meaghen helped develop and implement a Peer Coaching Program at her school which encouraged teachers to observe and provide feedback to one another. Most recently, she taught fourth grade in the Houston Independent School District where her students made significant gains in writing. Meaghen received her BS from Northwestern University and her MA in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from Stanford University.

Wesley Watkins, School Innovation Partner, SFUSD
Prior to joining PartnersSI in 2008, Dr. Watkins worked for educational equity via arts education/integration at the school, district, and county levels. He was a facilitator with the Arts Learning Anchor School initiative in the Oakland Unified School District where he worked with eight school leadership teams to build teacher capacity in the arts, thereby helping them create more equitable classrooms. He supported district leaders in both Emeryville and San Lorenzo as part of the Alameda County Office of Education's Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership. Dr. Watkins is also a trained facilitator with the California Alliance for Arts Education Coaches in Every Corner program, and is able to develop 3-5 year, budgeted strategic plans with school districts, schools, and organizations. Prior to beginning his career as an independent consultant, Dr. Watkins earned his doctorate in Education from the University of Reading, UK.

DEVELOPMENT, RECRUITMENT & ADMINISTRATION

Sumi Paik, Associate Director, Support Operations
Prior to joining PartnersSI, Sumi worked for Sylvan Ventures, a venture capital fund investing exclusively in education companies, where she evaluated potential investments and assisted portfolio companies with strategic planning. Her other work experience includes investment banking and corporate treasury; she also spent one year abroad teaching English in China. She received her MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Natassia Pura, Development Manager
Tasha joined PartnersSI in 2006. She graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Psychology and Peace and Justice Studies. She has worked for both national and community-based organizations including the ACLU and American Friends Service Committee. After Tufts, Tasha fundraised for and coordinated post-Tsunami sustainable rural development activities at the Population and Community Development Association in Thailand. Tasha firmly believes that working towards educational equity and youth empowerment is the single most powerful way to confront systemic inequalities.

Donna Senn, Office Manager
Donna joined PartnersSI in 2007. Originally a project manager in the telecom industry with years of team management experience and networking knowledge, she changed career direction to become a pre-kindergarten teacher. Shortly afterwards, she opened and directed a new after school program with Marin Day Schools. After 3 years, Donna returned to the preschool setting as a campus administrator with responsibilities in both program and office management. Donna received her BS in Organizational Behavior/Telecommunications from the University of San Francisco.

Shelly Vernick, Staff Recruitment and Development Manager
Before joining PartnersSI in 2007, Shelly served as a grade level team leader, math coach and equity team member at Roosevelt Elementary in San Leandro. While teaching, she conducted inquiry-based research in her classroom focusing on equity issues. Shelly received her BA in Psychology and Italian from Stanford University and her MA in Education and teaching credential from UC Berkeley.

 

 

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