Meet our Educator Advisory Board!
We are honored to announce the members of our new Educator Advisory Board! The board represents a diverse group of school leaders, content experts, practitioners, and others in the field of education who will help guide our work with K-12 schools.
Mirangela Buggs
Mirangela Buggs, Ed.D. has been a leader for diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice education in nationally- and internationally-known K-12 independent college prep schools for 14 years. Her DEI leadership in schools involves her in faculty-staff professional development, student leadership for diversity and justice, curriculum development and instructional support, policy, program and school culture, recruitment and hiring, and work with parents and Boards of Trustees. Mirangela also sometimes works as an adjunct professor and as a consultant providing introductory, intermediate, and advanced training with schools and organizations.
Pili Burkett
Pili Burkett is a Native Hawaiian educator and transplant to New Mexico, with degrees in early childhood and elementary education and a Masters in Instructional Leadership. In her current role as Special Education Director, she serves a small K-8 charter school community with 36% of students identified as having learning, behavioral, and social/emotional exceptionalities. She is returning to the classroom next school year as a high school project-based literacy interventionist and continues to serve as an Equity Facilitator for the New Mexico Public Education Department Yazzie-Martinez Equity Council initiative. Her educational philosophy can be summarized as youth-centered and interconnected.
Sondra Cloud
Sondra Cloud currently serves as Associate Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Curriculum Associates. In this role, Sondra supports new and ongoing partnerships with equity-minded organizations and educational leaders to ensure greater outcomes for traditionally underserved students in K-12 education. Sondra has worked in the education technology space for 14 years and brings to her work a wealth of knowledge, diverse experiences, and a passion for social justice.
Sondra lives in San Diego, California with her husband and their 17-year-old daughter. In her free time, she loves exploring the world with her family and enjoys spending time connecting with friends near and far.
Dr. Eve L. Ewing
Dr. Eve L. Ewing, a lifelong Chicagoan, is a writer and scholar who uses multi-genre storytelling, tools of sociological inquiry, archives, and community-grounded epistemologies to interrogate racialized histories and imagine emancipatory possibilities. Working through the lenses of Afrofuturism, Black feminism, and Du Boisian sociology, Dr. Ewing attempts to situate cultural organizing, the praxis of care, and relational accountability at the foundations of her scholarship. A former public school teacher, she is particularly interested in the role of schools as social institutions and in the ways that schools can construct, normalize, and reinforce forms of social inequality, the ways that educational inequities reflect social cruelties beyond the walls of the school building, as well as, conversely, the still-lingering possibility that educational spaces can be sites of joy and liberation. She is the award-winning author of several books and an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago.
Ilise Faye
Ilise Faye is the Head of School of the Hollywood Schoolhouse, an independent non-profit school serving preschool through sixth grade students in Los Angeles, CA. Ilise has served these past six years as head of school but is familiar with the Hollywood Schoolhouse and its community having begun her career in education as a preschool teacher at HSH 30 years ago. During her time at HSH, Ilise has spent time as a teacher in the classroom, head of admissions, Early Childhood Director, and the Assistant Head of School, providing Ilise with a keen insight into every facet of successfully running the day-to-day operations of Hollywood Schoolhouse. All of these rewarding experiences have served to nurture Ilise’s passion and commitment to continue her mission of building a model independent school infused with inspired learning and fearless curiosity that will benefit its students long after their HSH experience.
Originally from the upper midwest, Ilise moved to Los Angeles where she received her BA in English from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) with a minor degree in elementary education. She holds a Master certificate in Early Childhood education from UCLA along with Supervision and Administration. Ilise is an active member of CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools) as a presenter at various professional development workshops, as a former board member of professional development, and on accreditation teams for other CAIS schools. Ilise also serves on the board of directors for Project Angel Food and serves on the Steering Committee for LASH (Los Angeles School Heads).
April Finlayson
April Elizabeth was cross-culturally raised and educated between the United States, Canada, and The Bahamas. Her fervent commitment to educational equity, reimagining education, and designing uniquely curated educational experiences for youth and the young at heart, are rooted in her core values and personal traverse through K-12 education.
In 2009, shortly after completing her undergraduate degree in International Development Studies, Political Science and Management from McGill University–while working as a youth leader and community organizer–April recognized grave impediments in the Bahamian education system. Raised with a keen sense of social responsibility she immediately committed to be a part of the solution and founded The Leadership Academy.
This commitment has led to the development of nearly a dozen innovative schools, numerous educational programs, and a collaborative network of schools dedicated to the holistic humanizing development of learners, families, student agency, and empowerment.
April's students and graduates have gone on to international and national renown in social impact, athleticism, entertainment, and entrepreneurship. April is an education leader and entrepreneur with a passion for out-of-the-box solutions. She is a Doctorate of Education Leadership (Ed. L.D.) resident at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she also earned her Master's Degree in Mind, Brain, and Education.
April is a doctoral resident at Jobs For the Future Labs (JFFLabs) working on the Post-Secondary Market Solutions Team. She also holds the esteemed honor of working as a Curriculum & Strategy Designer for The Munroe Institute of Leadership which is a part of The Myles & Ruth Munroe Foundation initiatives.
Yanna Jackson
Yanna is passionate about creating educational spaces that foster a sense of belonging for each youth and encourage young people to develop as individuals and learners.
Yanna currently works as a school counselor at an independent charter high school located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She has worked in various educational and nonprofit settings such as the Miami-Dade County Public School system as well as CASES, an alternative to incarceration program based in New York City.
Yanna graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in Global Development Studies focusing on Global Public Health. She later earned a master's degree in Prevention Science and Practice and a certification in school counseling from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Claire Leavitt
Claire Leavitt is a Math Interventionist at a charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has worked in the field of education over the last 15 years in various roles. Her experience spans classroom teaching; designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs; and building partnerships with community members. In prior roles she developed training programs for teachers and served as a mentor and coach in schools. She is passionate about bilingual education; social emotional learning; and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Claire earned a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Tulane University.
Dr. Jeff Young
Dr. Young is a Professor of Practice in Education Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. He serves as Program Director for TC's Education Leadership Program and Co-director of the Urban Education Leaders Program (UELP), an Ed.D. program for aspiring district-level leaders. He is a core faculty member of the Cahn Fellows Program, a professional development offering for distinguished school principals from major urban districts around the country.
Before joining the faculty at TC, Dr. Young served as Superintendent of Schools in Cambridge, MA from 2009 through 2016, following terms as Superintendent in Newton, Lexington, and Lynnfield, MA. He began his career in education as an English teacher, Department Chair, and Curriculum Coordinator in Brookline, MA. Dr. Young was a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Boston University School of Education and has delivered talks at various institutions of higher learning as well as at the International Education Conference in Beijing, China. Among his distinctions, he has been recognized by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents with the President’s Award; Brandeis University with the Levitan Award for Leadership; and the Cambridge NAACP with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for his work “to provide an effective, innovative education to ALL of Cambridge’s children regardless of race or class.”
Dr. Young received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University, a Masters Degree in Education from Tufts University, and a Doctorate in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Young struggles with the complexity of rooting for the Boston Red Sox while residing in New York City.