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National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Staff

Ursula Wright
Interim President and CEO
ursula@publiccharters.org

Ursula Wright is the interim president and CEO for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.  Before assuming her current position, Ursula served as the COO, and prior to that, the CFO for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools for three years. Her diverse professional experience includes corporate finance, operations and business development positions at some of the nation’s leading firms, including The Chase Manhattan Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cassidy & Associates and, most recently, GXS (formerly a General Electric subsidiary). She has been active in the World Bank’s Development Marketplace Business Plan Competition and helped to found a charter school in Washington, D.C. Ursula earned an Economics degree from Spelman College and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
 
 
Taishya Adams
Director, State Services
taishya@publiccharters.org

Taishya Adams is the director of state services for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Taishya’s journey in education began as a servant leader with the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School program in 1995.  Since then, she has worked with a variety of local and national non-profits, the U.S. Department of State and urban public school districts to strengthen the educational landscape for the next generation of global citizens.  Prior to joining the Alliance, Taishya served as a performance officer with the D.C. Public Charter School Board.  In this capacity, she gained a wealth of experience in monitoring and providing technical assistance in the academic and operational performance of public charter schools.  She earned her Masters of Arts in International Education from George Washington University where she specialized in program management and educational systems and her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College in Political Science and Film Production.
  
 
Angela Christophe
Director, Programs
angela@publiccharters.org

Angela Christophe is the director of programs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She has served on the staff of the D.C. Public Charter School Board and most recently as the business affairs director for a mental health agency. Angela is an active resident of Washington, D.C., serving as a member of the Georgia Avenue Economic Development steering committee, and was elected as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. A New Orleans native, Angela is a graduate of Howard University's School of Business.
  
 
Rhonda Fischer
Director, Development
rhonda@publiccharters.org

Rhonda Fischer is the director of development for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.  Before joining the Alliance, Rhonda served as the senior manager for marketing and development for the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.  Prior to this, she worked as the grants coordinator for the Henry W. Grady Health System Foundation in Atlanta, Ga.  Rhonda spent a number of years working in the private sector as a business development consultant with a technology consulting firm.  She earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance and Marketing from the University of Virginia.
  
 
Lisa Grover
Senior Director, State Advocacy
lgrover@publiccharters.org

Lisa Grover is the senior director of state advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Most recently, Lisa was the CEO of the New Mexico Coalition of Charter Schools, where she advanced the policy environment by  helping to create a second authorizer, solidify a lease assistance program and gain charter access to state tax exempt bonds. Before that, in 2001, Lisa was a founder of one of the first charter high schools in New Mexico, ranked over the last four years by Newsweek magazine as one of the top performing 1,200 high schools in the country.  She began her career as a high school Spanish teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and also taught English as a Second Language in China, Ecuador and Mexico. She holds a doctorate in Romance Languages and a Master's Degree in Linguistics and Multi-cultural Education.  In 2010, her charter school peers recognized her as New Mexico’s Innovator of the Year. 
 
 
Nora Kern
Senior Manager, Research and Analysis
nora@publiccharters.org

Nora Kern is the Senior Manager for Research and Analysis for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to this position, she worked with the Data Quality Campaign as a federal policy associate, on Capitol Hill for a Georgia Congressman, and as a 4th grade teacher in a charter school in Gainesville, Florida. She started her career in DC in an education policy fellowship coordinated by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Nora holds a B.A. in History and minors in Education and Italian Studies from the University of Florida.
  
 
Chad Miller
Senior Director, Federal Policy
chad@publiccharters.org

Chad Miller brings a rich history of education reform advocacy and policy development to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to joining the NAPCS, Chad served as professional staff on the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Education and Labor. While there he managed a wide portfolio of issues that ranged from: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (including parental options such as private and public school choice, charter schools, magnet schools, education tax credits), to environmental education, literacy, arts in education and impact aid. Chad holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the University of Tennessee.
 
 
Anna Nicotera
Director, Research and Evaluation
anna@publiccharters.org

Anna Nicotera is the director of research and evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.  Prior to joining the Alliance, Anna was a pre-doctoral research fellow with the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and a graduate research assistant at the National Center on School Choice.  Her research experiences include program evaluations of whole school reform models and professional development initiatives in urban school districts, as well as a multi-state, longitudinal examination of the impact of the No Child Left Behind school choice provision on student achievement.  Anna received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Chicago and she is a doctoral candidate in Education Leadership and Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University.
  
 
Eric Paisner
Vice President, Knowledge and Partnerships
eric@publiccharters.org 

Eric Paisner is the vice president of knowledge and partnerships for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to joining the Alliance, Eric worked as an attorney for Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC, advising clients on a variety of education and corporate issues. He also served as a senior consultant with Arthur Andersen, specializing in strategic management solutions for large corporations and government agencies. Eric has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
 
 
Dallas Pearson
Financial Manager
dpearson@publichcarters.org

Dallas Pearson is the financial analyst for National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Dallas graduated in 2007 from Roanoke College with a Bachelor of Business Administration.  Throughout college, he worked with inner-city children at the West End Center in Roanoke, Va.
  
  
Maria C. Sazon
Senior Director, Facilities Initiatives
msazon@publiccharters.org

Maria C. Sazon is the senior director of facilities initiatives for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.  Maria’s role is to implement the recommendations of the Facilities Task Force.  The Alliance’s approach to address the lack of facilities and capital to finance charter school facilities is four-pronged: state advocacy, federal advocacy, private investment, and the access to and use of public buildings.  Prior to joining the Alliance, Maria was the vice president of senior municipal research analyst at Alliance Bernstein from 1997 to 2010 where she analyzed risks and made recommendations to invest in education and related bonds as well as tax-backed credits.  Maria's previous experience include credit analyst positions at a bond insurance company and commercial banks.  Maria holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Saint Peter's College and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Fordham University.
 
 
Renita Thukral
Senior Director, Legal Affairs
renita@publiccharters.org

Renita Thukral is the senior director of legal affairs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she develops and coordinates the Alliance of Public Charter School Attorneys and addresses civil rights, fiscal equity and labor/employment issues confronting charter schools.  Prior to her work with the Alliance, she was the policy director at the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and, prior to that, the director of policy and advocacy at New Schools for New Orleans. While in New Orleans, she taught as an adjunct professor at Loyola University School of Law and published an article titled, “The Unique System of Charter Schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina:  Distinctive Structure, Familiar Challenges.”

Before entering the charter school world, Renita was a public defender in New York City, practicing at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal courts.  She clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, in federal district court in the Southern District of New York; she earned her Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School and her Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University. She taught junior high school math in Los Altos, Calif., before attending law school.


Marlene Voelker
Executive Assistant
marlene@publiccharters.org

Marlene Voelker is the executive assistant for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She is responsible for supporting the president and CEO, and the COO with many of their duties.  Prior to joining the Alliance, Marlene served as the office manager and executive assistant in a prominent real estate firm in northern Virginia. She has also worked in the merchandising and marketing fields in both creative and entrepreneurial roles. Marlene spends some of her spare time working with ChildHelp, a nonprofit organization for abused children. Marlene holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Maryland.
 
 
Jenny Wanger
Conference Coordinator
jenny@publiccharters.org

Jenny Wanger is the conference coordinator for the National Alliance for Charter Schools. She works closely with the director of programs and communications staff to execute the annual National Public Charter Schools conference. Jenny brings to the Alliance several years’ experience in the hospitality industry and a background in events management for arts nonprofits. She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies, specializing in Chinese literature.


Kristin Yochum
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs
kristin@publiccharters.org

Kristin Yochum is the director of intergovernmental affairs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to joining the Alliance, Kristin served the District of Columbia government for over seven years.  She spent time at the Department of Employment Services, Serve DC, and as the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).  Her commitment to an excellent public education for all developed during her time at OSSE, where she focused on regulation and policy development, student health, and post-secondary preparedness.  She also found an audience to test the new recipes that she enjoys creating and cooking!  Kristin earned her undergraduate degree at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT and an MPA from American University in Washington, D.C. 


Todd Ziebarth
Vice President, State Advocacy and Support
todd@publiccharters.org

Todd Ziebarth is the vice president for state advocacy and support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Previously, he worked as a policy analyst both at the Education Commission of the States from 1997 to 2003 and at Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates from 2003 to 2005. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver.