Board of Trustees

Superintendent, Wonderful College Prep Academy

Jorge Aguilar

Jorge A. Aguilar began his career in education as a Spanish teacher at South Gate High School. He is currently the superintendent of Wonderful College Prep Academy in Sacramento, California. Prior to this position, he served as the superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, with responsibility for over forty thousand students and seventy-five schools. Previously he served as Associate Superintendent in Fresno Unified School District and Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational and Community Partnerships and Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the University of California, Merced.

Under his leadership, Aguilar has supported educators to significantly increase high school completion rates, dramatically reduce dropout rates, raise student performance, and improve post-secondary entry and success. He recently forged a historic agreement with the region’s major higher education institutions to enable Sacramento students to seamlessly transition to higher education. Aguilar is a champion for equity and access in education and has guided Sacramento City Unified in the creation of an award-winning Facilities Master Plan, which serves as a model for other districts for reimagining how construction and improvement projects are prioritized with a focus on schools that are historically underserved.

Aguilar also serves as a Commissioner on the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission, a Carnegie Learning Leadership Network member, and he provided plenary remarks for the 10th Anniversary Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education. He is recipient of the Winston Doby Impact Award for exceptional professionals chosen by their colleagues for commitment to improving educational opportunities for California students. In 2015, Aguilar was invited by first lady Michelle Obama to present on education equity and access as part of a White House initiative. The same year, he was appointed by California State Superintendent to the state’s Advisory Task Force on Accountability and Continuous Improvement.

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese and earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He is the son of farm workers in the central valley of California and a product of the Migrant Education Program. He spent his early childhood migrating back and forth between Parlier, California and the state of Michoacán, Mexico.

Co-founder & CEO, XQ Institute

Russlynn Ali

Russlynn Ali has been a leading advocate for educational equity for more than two decades. As Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education during President Obama’s first term, Ali spearheaded the federal government’s renewed engagement with equity issues in schools across the nation. Previously, Ali was a founding Executive Director of The Education Trust-West; and Vice President of the Education Trust.

Ali is Managing Director of the Education Fund at Emerson Collective and CEO and co-founder of XQ Institute. XQ is committed to transforming public high schools to close achievement and opportunity gaps, and to making schools the center of community revitalization. For Ali, education is America’s central civil rights issue today.

In 2015, XQ launched with an open call to the nation to design the high school of the future. Within a few months, XQ had rallied tens of thousands of people from all 50 states around the idea of innovative, student-centered high schools that prepare all young people for tomorrow’s world. XQ helps communities rethink their high schools by supporting locally-driven redesign and by open-sourcing everything XQ does and everything the XQ schools are learning to inspire redesign across the country.

Because of her commitment to research-driven innovation, Ali points to the latest neuroscience on adolescent learning, which proves that high school is not too late for struggling students to fulfill their promise as learners. She also knows that the high schools of the future must be grounded in the best of what’s known about effective, equitable learning environments.

Ali began her career as a classroom teacher. She’s now an attorney and advocate who believes that what’s needed today is a powerful movement to bring American education into the 21st century.

Clinical Professor, Department of Educational Leadership & Policy and Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Initiatives University of Utah

Sydnee Dickson, Ed.D.

Dr. Sydnee Dickson has been serving the children of Utah as a proud educator for the past 43 years. Currently she serves as the Clinical Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy at the University of Utah and was also named the inaugural Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Initiatives. Prior to the University of Utah, she worked for the Utah State Office of Education beginning in 2007 and was named State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2016. Sydnee began her career in Utah public schools in many roles including teaching, school counseling, and school and district administration.

Superintendent Dickson began her own education in a two-room schoolhouse in rural Utah and was a first-generation college graduate. She went on to earn two master’s degrees in School Counseling and School Administration, as well as a doctorate in Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah.

Sydnee Dickson is nationally known for being student centered, data informed and success-for-all focused. She is passionate about developing personalized education ecosystems to ensure that all students have opportunities to succeed.

President, Champlain College

Alex Hernandez

Alejandro (“Alex”) Hernandez was born to a family of public educators in Stockton, CA. His parents journeyed from Mexico and the Philippines, and, at each step of the way, education brought opportunity-through skilled trades, nursing certificates, education credentials and degrees. These experiences shaped Alex’s belief that career-focused education can change lives and help communities thrive.

Hernandez came to Champlain College from the University of Virginia, where he served as the Dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) and Vice Provost of Online Learning. At UVA, Hernandez championed access, affordability, and opportunity through its bachelor’s completion, professional certificate, and graduate programs. Alex helped SCPS enroll its largest undergraduate class in school history, launch its first master’s degree, and pursue a strategy that combined in-demand digital skills with the human skills needed for long-term career success. He also taught undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship (SCPS) and education innovation (School of Education and Human Development).

Before joining UVA, Hernandez worked for the Charter School Growth Fund, a national education foundation, where he built the nonprofit’s Innovative Schools practice, one of the largest efforts in the country focused on personalized learning and career readiness. Hernandez began his education career teaching high school mathematics in South Los Angeles. He later became an administrator for Portland Public Schools in Oregon and then an area superintendent for Aspire Public Schools in California. Prior to entering the field of education, he worked at Steamboat Ventures, Disney’s venture capital arm, and at J.P. Morgan. Hernandez has an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University and a BA from Claremont McKenna College. He is a moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a Pahara Institute fellow.

Alex is married to Michelle Moore Hernandez and is the proud father of twin boys, Akari and Mekhi.

Director, K-12 Education, U.S. Program, Gates Foundation

Robert Hughes

Robert L. Hughes, director of K-12 Education in the United States Program, oversees the Gates Foundation’s work to ensure all students are prepared for success in college and career.

Before joining the Gates Foundation, Hughes was president of New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City school network of 70 district schools serving approximately 45,000 students. During his tenure, New Visions created 99 districts and 7 charter public schools, provided mentoring services to hundreds of new principals, developed school-based certification programs for teachers and principals, secondary curricula now accessed by thousands of teachers and data management tools to streamline school operations and track student progress toward graduation and college. Prior to New Visions, he has also been involved in individual and class action litigation in special education and state school finance. He started his career providing legal representation to homeless parents and students in the New York City public school system and working extensively with community organizers around education issues.

He serves on the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Board of Directors. Prior board affiliations include Advocates for Children of New York, the Education Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Fund For Teachers and Projects in Education, the nonprofit publisher of Education Week.

President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Timothy Knowles

Timothy Knowles is the 10th president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Prior to joining Carnegie, he served as founder and managing partner of the Academy Group, an enterprise designed to prepare extraordinary young people from under-resourced communities to own and operate successful companies nationwide; reduce economic disparities and; serve as a human capital engine, built on a sustainable business model, to unlock human potential at scale.

Previously, Knowles founded and served as director and chairman of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute. Knowles also founded and served as director of the University of Chicago Urban Labs, which works globally to design, test, and scale policies and programs that are effective, humane, and cost-efficient. Knowles also served as the John Dewey Clinical Professor of Education.

Prior to his work in Chicago, Knowles served as the deputy superintendent of the Boston Public Schools and co-directed the Boston Annenberg Challenge, a nationally regarded initiative to improve literacy. Knowles also served as director of a full-service K–8 school in New York City, founding director of Teach for America in New York, and a teacher of African history in Botswana.

Knowles has started multiple social sector organizations, holds appointments at the University of Chicago, and has written and spoken widely on education and entrepreneurship.

Cellist and Founder, Silkroad

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an award-winning concert cellist who partners with communities and institutions across the globe to develop programs that champion culture’s power to transform lives and forge a more connected world. Much of this work has emerged from Silkroad, the nonprofit international collective of artists Ma founded in 1998, which collaboratively creates music that engages its artists’ many traditions. In the years since, Silkroad has increased its engagement with public education, including through developing classroom curriculum and educator professional development programs designed to spur interest in the arts and foster interdisciplinary connections.

Ma has recorded more than 100 albums, is the winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Whether he is performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Ma exemplifies how culture can help us to imagine and build a stronger society and a better future.

Born in Paris, Ma began to study the cello with his father at age four. Three years later, the family moved to New York City, where Ma continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School. After his conservatory training, he attended Harvard University and received a liberal arts degree in 1976. Among his many roles, Ma has served as a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006 and is on the boards of the World Economic Forum and Nia Tero, the latter of which is a global collaborative seeking to advance indigenous peoples’ stewardship of vital ecosystems around the world. Ma’s latest album, Songs of Comfort and Hope, was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He plays three instruments—a 2003 instrument made by Moes & Moes, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice, and a 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.

Co-founder, MasterClass; founder, Outlier.org

Aaron Rasmussen

Aaron Rasmussen is an entrepreneur, inventor, and game designer. He’s best known as a founder of educational platforms MasterClass and Outlier.org, the latter known for creating impactful for-credit online college courses to promote affordable, equitable education. At MasterClass, Rasmussen was both Creative Director and CTO, creating courses taught by notable experts and directing many himself.

He previously founded and sold an industrial robotics company and a beverage company. The video game he co-wrote, BlindSide, has won multiple awards and is being adapted into a film. He speaks and writes on education, innovation, art, and the intersection of all with artificial intelligence.

Students at Outlier receive transcripted transferable credits from the University of Pittsburgh. Outlier recently launched associate degrees with Golden Gate University that cost less than the average Pell Grant award enabling students to receive an education at zero cost to them. At MasterClass, Rasmussen was both Creative Director and CTO, creating courses taught by notable experts. The video game he co-wrote, BlindSide, has won multiple awards and is being adapted into a film.

Robert J. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities and Professor at the University of California at Berkeley in the Berkeley School of Education

Janelle Scott

Janelle Scott is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the School of Education and African American Studies Department. She holds the Robert J. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities, and is the Chair of the Race, Diversity, and Educational Policy Cluster of the Othering and Belonging Institute. Scott earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to earning her doctorate, she taught elementary school in Oakland, Calif.

Scott’s research investigates how market-based educational reforms affect democratic accountability and equity within our nation’s schools. She has provided conceptual frameworks and empirical analysis to help understand the impacts these policies have had on students, schools, and their surrounding communities. She has explored this research program across three policy strands: 1) the racial politics of public education, 2) the politics of school choice, marketization, and privatization, and, 3) the role of elite and community-based advocacy in shaping public education. Scott’s work has appeared in several edited books and journals, including the Peabody Journal of Education, Educational Policy, Qualitative Inquiry, the American Educational Research Journal, and the Harvard Educational Review. She the editor of School Choice and Diversity: What the Evidence Says (2005 Teachers College Press).

Scott’s scholarship has received several awards and foundation support. She was awarded a Spencer Dissertation Year Fellowship, and a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2014, she was awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association’s Committee on Scholars of Color. In 2017, the Graduate Assembly at UC Berkeley awarded Professor Scott with a Distinguished Faculty Mentorship Award.

Scott is currently serving as the Vice President of the American Educational Research Association’s Division L (Educational Policy and Politics). She has been active in the American Educational Research Association, and the Politics of Education Association. In addition, she has been active in service to national organizations, including the Ford Foundation’s Building Knowledge for Social Justice Initiative, The National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the World Education Research Association, International Research Network on Marketization and Privatization, and the Forum for Public Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has served on the editorial board of the American Educational Research Journal, and is currently on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Education Policy Analysis Archives.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OneMain Financial

Doug Shulman

Doug Shulman is Chairman and CEO of OneMain Financial, where he leads the nation’s largest nonprime lender focused on improving the financial well-being of hardworking Americans by providing responsible lending products. He came to OneMain in 2018 from BNY Mellon, where he served as Senior Executive Vice President, Global Head of Client Service Delivery, and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to BNY Mellon, Doug was a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company. From 2008 to 2012, he served as the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where he directed a transformation of the agency’s technology, drove customer service metrics to historic levels and led important breakthroughs in addressing international tax evasion. Earlier in his career, Doug was an entrepreneur, a vice president at a private investment firm and part of the founding team that launched Teach for America. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a juris doctorate, magna cum laude. He also holds a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College.

Board Chair; co-founder and CEO, Futre.me

Diane Tavenner

Diane Tavenner is co-founder and CEO of Futre.me. Prior to this role, she was CEO of Summit Public Schools, a leading network of public schools that operates 11 schools in California and Washington, as well as a free program that enables schools across the U.S. to implement Summit Learning, its nationally recognized personalized approach to teaching and learning.

Diane founded Summit’s flagship school, Summit Preparatory Charter High School in 2003, with the mission to prepare a diverse student population for success in college, career and life, and to be thoughtful, contributing members of society. Summit quickly earned the reputation for being one of the nation’s best public high schools, and overwhelming community demand lead to the opening of 10 additional Summit schools, as well as the creation of the Summit Learning Program. Summit is also recognized for its commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration, establishing pioneering partnerships across industries, including renowned learning scientists and researchers, universities, technology companies, teacher preparation programs, foundations, and community organizations.

Prior to founding Summit, Diane spent ten years as a public school teacher, administrator, and leader in traditional urban and suburban public schools throughout California. Diane holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Southern California, and has a master’s degree in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University.

President and CEO, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Nicole Taylor

Nicole Taylor is president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. She brings together a rich background in Bay Area philanthropy, nonprofit administration, and fundraising with extensive experience in both the private and public sectors.

Since taking the helm at SVCF, Taylor has led the organization to renew its focus on the many challenges facing residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. She has championed efforts to increase local giving from SVCF donors and offer donors new avenues for working with the community foundation so they can be effective philanthropists.

In April 2020, she accepted an invitation from San José Mayor Sam Liccardo to be among the five co-chairs of the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable. This group of business and community leaders will be addressing the challenging topic of how Silicon Valley will adapt and thrive in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early months of pandemic response, SVCF raised over $50 million for funds to meet the needs of individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and education systems across 10 counties in the Bay Area.

When Taylor joined SVCF in December 2018, she returned to the Bay Area from Arizona, where she had served as vice president of the ASU Foundation. She also previously served as deputy vice president and dean of students at Arizona State University. Prior to her time at ASU, she was the associate vice provost of student affairs and dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University, after serving as president and CEO of Thrive Foundation for Youth in Silicon Valley.

Taylor also spent more than 15 years with the East Bay Community Foundation, eventually serving as its president and CEO for six years. She received both her M.A. in Education and A.B. in Human Biology from Stanford University, and she began her career as an educator in Oakland public schools. She served on the board of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco for six years and is currently a board member for Common Sense Media.