Board of Directors

Maria is the Senior Vice President for Strategy at Arizona State University, where she innovates on ways of serving learner populations that have traditionally not been well served. As a Latina first-generation college graduate, Maria has dedicated her career to improving access to education for all learners. She served as Vice Chancellor of Planning and Budget at University of California (UC) Riverside, and worked at the UC Office of the President on financial and strategic system-wide initiatives to improve operational efficiency.

Maria was also the senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Chief Financial Officer of ed-tech start-up Minerva Project, and held finance roles at Barclays Capital and Deloitte. She currently serves on the Board of Regents for the University of California, the Board of the Campaign for College Opportunity, Foundry College, and the James Irvine Foundation. Maria holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Since joining KIPP as CEO in December 2005, Richard has led the significant growth of the KIPP network from 45 to 200 schools, from 8,000 to 80,000 students, and from 400 to over 12,000 alumni. Under Richard’s leadership, KIPP has dramatically expanded its leadership development programs, advocated for high-performing charter schools on Capitol Hill, and secured partnerships with more than 80 colleges and universities.

Richard came to KIPP from Edison Schools, where he served as President of District Partnerships and managed school partnerships serving more than 40,000 students. Prior to joining Edison, Richard was one of the founding staff members of Teach For America.

Richard earned a BA in American History from Harvard University, and is an Aspen Institute-New Schools Fellow. He also currently sits on the board of directors of Braven and General Assembly. Richard was named a 2014 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and Harvard University’s Chief Marshal for 2014. Richard lives in New York with his wife and children.

Emma Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Murmuration, is fixated on filling gaps to ensure that organizations seeking to reduce inequality and improve outcomes for all kids through politics, advocacy and organizing have what they need to effect real, sustainable change. Murmuration, which she launched in 2014, provides sophisticated data and analytics, proprietary technology, strategic guidance, and programmatic support to help partners build political power and marshal support so necessary changes are made to improve our public schools. She previously served as Chief of Staff at the Robin Hood Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty in the five boroughs of New York City.

Emma sits on the boards of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation, the KIPP Foundation, New Classrooms, and Leadership for Educational Equity. She is a graduate of Princeton University, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, and lives in New York City.

Katherine Brittain Bradley is the president of CityBridge Education, a nonprofit enterprise located in Washington, D.C. She co-founded CityBridge in 1994 with her husband, entrepreneur and magazine publisher David G. Bradley. The organization works to build a citywide system of high-performing public schools in Washington, D.C. CityBridge’s signature projects include the Early Years Education Initiative (2006-2011), the Education Innovation Fellowship, and Breakthrough Schools: D.C., a design competition for educators.

Katherine serves as a board member for Princeton University, the Teach For America D.C. Region, and the DC College Access Program. In the winter of 2010-2011, she co-chaired Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s education transition team. Katherine graduated in 1986 from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and she and her husband have three sons.

Don Fisher was the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Gap Inc. He served on the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was a director of the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco, and a governor of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Don was also on the California State Board of Education and was a director on the board of EdVoice and Teach For America.

Don was the director of the National Retail Federation and received the Retailer of the Year award in 1996. He was also actively involved in the California Business Roundtable and the Committee on Jobs Executive Committee. Other honors include the California Arts Council Governor’s Award for Individual Patrons of the Arts, and selection to the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Achievement.

In 2000, Don co-founded the KIPP Foundation and then served as Chairman of the Board until 2009.

Doris Fisher, co-founder and Honorary Lifetime Director of Gap Inc., is actively involved in philanthropy, continuing a lifelong passion for volunteering and community involvement. In 1977, Doris co-founded the Gap Foundation, and Doris has been on its board of trustees since then. In 2000, Doris co-founded the KIPP Foundation.

Doris is keenly focused on education, the arts, and Bay Area civic organizations. Over the years, in addition to KIPP, Doris has offered exemplary services to Stanford University (her alma mater), the National Gallery of Art, the Princeton Art Museum Advisory Board, the Stanford Art Museum Advisory Board, the Northern California Cancer Society (now Cancer Prevention Institute of America), the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Doris, who lives in San Francisco, has three sons and ten grandchildren.

John Fisher is the Executive Vice Chairman of Pisces Inc., and Co-Founder of Sansome Partners, which are the family office and investment group, respectively, for the Fisher Family, founders of The Gap. The Doris & Donald Fisher Fund focuses on education reform and charter schools, and was founded by Doris Fisher and the late Donald Fisher.

In addition to serving on a number of corporate boards, John helped found and continues to serve on the board of the Silicon Schools Fund, and is a Special Advisor to the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund. He holds an AB in Politics from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Scott Hamilton is the CEO of Circumventure Learning, a firm pursuing ways to use digital learning technology to put the acquisition of knowledge and skills back in the hands of students and parents.

Scott co-founded the KIPP Foundation, served as President and then CEO for its first five years, and was a founding board member from 2000 to 2009.

Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997. In 1991, Reed founded Pure Software, which made tools for software developers. After a 1995 IPO, and several acquisitions, Pure was acquired by Rational Software in 1997. Reed is an active educational philanthropist and served on the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004.

He is currently on the board of several educational organizations including CCSA, DreamBox Learning, Pahara, and the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley. Reed is also a board member of Facebook, and was on the board of Microsoft from 2007 to 2012. Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983, and an MSCS in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University in 1988. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland. Reed is married with two children.

Shawn Hurwitz was President and CEO of MAXXAM Property Company, a real estate development company focused on community development and related real estate investment. As President and CEO, Shawn was responsible for the supervision and implementation of all real estate activities, including development, acquisition, disposition, investment, sales and marketing, and operating activities.

Shawn served as a founding board member of KIPP Foundation from 2000 to 2009. He also served as Chairman of the Board of KIPP Houston’s schools from 1998-2006, thus playing an active leadership role in the creation of KIPP’s first region in Houston as well as the national replication.

Shavar Jeffries serves as President of Democrats for Education Reform with a personal commitment to ensuring that a child’s zip code does not define their destiny. From his efforts fighting for fair funding practices to get schools the resources they deserved to his service leading the New Jersey Attorney General’s Juvenile Justice and Civil Rights Departments, he has been a vocal advocate for social justice.

Shavar’s commitment to improving education stems directly from his personal experience. Jeffries was raised by his grandmother in the South Ward of Newark, New Jersey. His grandmother, a public school teacher, instilled in him a deep respect for the value of education.

Martha L. Karsh, an attorney, has practiced law, formed an architecture/design/development firm and done extensive non-profit work.

In 1998, Martha co-founded the Karsh Family Foundation, focusing primarily on supporting education.  To date, the Karsh family and their Foundation have made gifts and pledges of over $175 million to support scholarship and education at all levels. Their largest gifts have been for need-based financial aid at Duke, Penn, Brown, Spelman, and Virginia Law School, as well as for KIPP and Teach for America in K-12. Martha chairs KIPP LA’s 2020 growth campaign, and recently named and dedicated a two-school KIPP Campus in East LA and a community outreach center at Wilshire Boulevard Temple providing a food, dental, vision, legal, and mental health services. She also serves on the Board of LA 2024, Los Angeles’ Olympic committee, and is a Trustee Emerita of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation.

In September 2016, The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night: A Private Archive, a book created and edited by Martha, was published by Phaidon Press.

Martha graduated from Virginia Law School (1981) and the University of Virginia (1978); she and Bruce Karsh married in 1980, and together they have raised three children.

After graduating from Yale University in 1992, Dave Levin joined Teach For America where he taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas. In 1994, Dave won Teacher of the Year honors from his school in Houston, the Jefferson Award for outstanding community service in the city of Houston, and an outstanding teaching award from Teach For America.

Dave co-founded the Knowledge is Power Program in 1994, and the next year went on to found KIPP Academy in the South Bronx. Dave served as Superintendent of KIPP NYC until 2012. Dave currently works at the KIPP Foundation with KIPP leaders on instructional innovation, leadership development, and teacher training.

Dave has been awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, our nation’s second highest presidential award for a private citizen; Thomas Fordham Foundation Prize for Valor; the National Jefferson Award for Distinguished Public Service by a Private Citizen; the Charles Bronfman Prize; the Ashoka Fellowship; the McGraw Hill Prize; and the National Community Service Award from Spelman College.

Dave holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from both Yale University and Duke University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University. Dave is the co-founder of three other organizations: Relay Graduate School of Education, the Character Lab, and Zearn where he continues to play an active leadership role. Dave lives in New York City with his wife, two sons, and two labs.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Dr. Michael Lomax heads the nation’s largest and most successful minority higher-education assistance organization. Immediately before joining UNCF, he served seven years as president of Dillard University in New Orleans.

Michael came to Dillard after thirty years in Atlanta, where he pursued simultaneous full-time careers as a university professor and public servant. Michael is a member of the founding Council of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and is a member of the Boards of Directors of Teach For America and the Studio Museum in Harlem.  He is a former trustee of Emory University and the High Museum and was the founding chair of the National Black Arts Festival.

Mark Nunnelly is the former secretary of the Office of Technology Services and Security for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Previously he served as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and special advisor to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker for technology and innovation competitiveness. During his tenure, he has led a significant modernization effort across the Commonwealth’s diverse digital and technology services platform. In addition to his work for the Commonwealth, he serves on the board of directors for Dunkin’ Brands and Genpact.

From 1989–2014, he was a managing director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $70 billion of assets under management. Mark led the firm’s private equity business and served in a number of leadership roles. He also provided strategic leadership charting the firm’s expansion into multiple alternative asset classes and geographies. Prior to Bain Capital, Mark was a partner at Bain & Company. He has worked at Procter & Gamble in product management and he has been an entrepreneur.

Mark is an active supporter of a number of charitable organizations. He serves on the board of directors of New Profit (where he was the founding board chair), a national venture philanthropy fund providing social entrepreneurs with financial and strategic support. He also serves on the boards of Boston Medical Center, the Bridgespan Group, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Mark earned an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Centre College.

Kinnari oversees all aspects of KIPP Metro Atlanta School’s regional academics, finances, and operations. She joined KIPP Metro Atlanta in 2012 as the Chief Academic Officer, a role she held for two years. Kinnari got her start in education as a teacher in both Fort Worth and Atlanta. After teaching for six years, Kinnari became a dean at Explore Charter School in Brooklyn. The following year, she was selected to participate in New Leaders for New Schools, a national principal training program that allowed her to complete her principal residency at Explore Charter School. Kinnari went on to serve as principal of the school for five years, after which she transitioned to Managing Director of Program for the Explore Network. Kinnari has a MSEd in Educational Leadership from Pace University in New York, and a BA in Elementary Education from Salisbury University in Maryland.

Charles Phillips is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Infor, the world’s third largest provider of enterprise software applications. Since joining Infor, Charles has built the foundation for digital transformation: industry applications, domain experts, a science lab at M.I.T, machine learning, Internet of things, design thinking, and hyper-scale clouds to challenge business models and create new ones.

Prior to Infor, Charles was President of Oracle Corporation and a member of its Board of Directors. Charles was also a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines artillery unit.

Charles serves on the boards of Viacom Corporation, Santander Bank, Apollo Theater, BENS (Business Executives For National Security), Jazz at Lincoln Center, the NYPD Foundation, the United States Air Force Academy Endowment Fund, The New York City Public Library, and The Posse Foundation. Charles also served on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Charles holds a bachelor’s in computer science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a JD from New York Law School, an MBA from Hampton University, and honorary doctorates from several universities. He is also a member of the Georgia State Bar.

Jerelyn Rodriguez co-founded The Knowledge House (TKH) in 2014. She was honored as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Education in 2016 for her work starting TKH. Previously, she coordinated STEM after-school programming at Braven (formerly Beyond Z) and was a Field Director for Reshma Saujani’s 2013 campaign for New York City Public Advocate. In 2011, Jerelyn joined Students for Education Reform (SFER) as the National Program Director, organizing and coaching college students in 35 states to advocate for education reform. Prior to SFER, Jerelyn worked in the public school system, teaching and designing student and parent advocacy programs.

Jerelyn has spoken on panels at SXSW, Mozilla Fest and the United State of Women summit. She is on the leadership council for South Bronx Rising Together, a founding Datanaut at NASA, and a board member at Creo College Prep. She has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal, FusionTV, Black Enterprise and is a Women@Forbes contributor. Jerelyn has a degree in film studies from Columbia University and is a KIPP NYC alumna.

José Villarreal is a consultant to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he provides strategic counseling to firm clients on a range of legal and policy issues. Prior to becoming a consultant, José was a longtime partner with the firm.

José has served as U.S. Commissioner General to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, a post to which he was named by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and given ambassadorial rank by President Obama. In November of 2015, he received the Orden del Aguila Azteca – the most important decoration awarded by the Mexican government – for his endeavors that have benefited Mexico and Mexicans. José has also been recognized by numerous publications for his achievements, and in 2011 he received a distinguished alumni award from Purdue University. Mr. Villarreal currently serves on the board of directors of Union Pacific. He also serves or has served on the following boards: Center for American Progress, Cisneros Center for New Americans, the U.S. Mexico Foundation, Teach for America, Leadership for Educational Equity, and the Close Up Foundation.

Carrie Walton Penner is a K-12 education advocate and chairs the board of directors of the Walton Family Foundation. Her passion for educational equity was ignited during college when she witnessed first-hand the significant quality discrepancy in the U.S. public education system while tutoring high school students in Washington, D.C. She has been active in education research, evaluation, advocacy, and philanthropy for more than 20 years. She is focused on improving access to high-quality schools for every child, particularly those in low-income communities.

With expertise in developing effective governance models for high-impact philanthropy, Carrie has advised many nonprofit organizations on matters such as strategic planning, funder and grantee relationship building, and organizational transitions. In addition to the Walton Family Foundation, she currently serves on the boards of The Aspen Institute, Charter School Growth Fund, EdVoice, and Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Carrie holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in administration and policy analysis, and a master’s degree in program evaluation, both from Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Abigail S. Wexner, lawyer and community volunteer, is involved in philanthropic work nationally and locally, with a particular focus on children’s issues.

Abigail is the CEO of Whitebarn Associates, a private investment company. She serves on the boards of L Brands, Inc., the KIPP Foundation, The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Environmental Defense Fund, the National Veteran’s Memorial Museum, the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, the Columbus Partnership, Pelotonia, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, The Wexner Foundation, The Wexner Center Foundation, and the United States Equestrian Team Foundation. She is founding board member and vice chair of the board for KIPP Columbus, founder and chair of the board for The Center for Family Safety and Healing and a past chair of the Governing Committee of the Columbus Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Abigail also held a presidential appointment to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

From 2005 through July 2012, Abigail served as chair of the board of directors for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Under Abigail’s leadership, Nationwide Children’s completed the largest pediatric expansion in our nation’s history and has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals list every year since 2006.

Prior to moving to Columbus, she practiced law from 1987 to 1992 with the London and New York offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. She is a graduate of the Dwight School, New York City; Barnard College at Columbia University, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa; and New York University School of Law.

Abigail is married to Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and founder of L Brands, Inc. They are the parents of four children, ranging in age from twenty-one to twenty-five years of age.