About

Our Team

Innovare is powered by a diverse team of experts that builds analytics and strategic planning tools to support education leaders make good decisions and drive positive impact in their communities.

Leadership and learning are
indispensable to one another

John F. Kennedy

CEO

A former educator, school improvement coach, data strategist in Chicago Public Schools, and consultant at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AJ DeLeón is Innovare’s first Founder and CEO. AJ was recognized as a 2016 National EPic alumnus of Education Pioneers, is an inaugural fellow of The Surge Institute, and a recent alumnus of Stanford’s Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative. AJ is a native of the Borderplex region, and is passionate about promoting diversity in tech and venture capital.

Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

Fernando DeLeón is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Innovare. He previously worked at Google and Accenture in product development roles. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, completed the Business Scaling Program at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, is a Google for Startups Accelerator Program alumnus, has been featured in Forbes for his product leadership, and was recognized on the Negocios Now list of Latinos 40 Under 40 in 2020.

Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer

Nicholas Freeman is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Innovare. He’s also a private sector transplant, former data strategist in Chicago Public Schools, Education Pioneers, Surge Institute, Google for Startups: Black Founders alumnus, and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Social Innovation Design.

Customer Success Manager

Alejandra Gomez is passionate about education and data to support student success. She has over a decade of experience in the education sector—serving as a champion for education and supporting K-12 districts, higher education institutions, and Non-Profits. She is excited to bring her experience to Innovare and support school leaders in making data-driven decisions. Alejandra is an alum of UCLA, Brown University’s Urban Education Policy Master’s Program, and Harvard University’s Strategic Data Project.

Customer Success Manager

Amanda Szramiak is a champion for equity in education and has served as a teacher and school leader during her professional career. As a seventh and eighth-grade reading teacher, Amanda helped her students grow over 2 years on the NWEA in ELA and outscored the state in ELA on the PARCC exam. Amanda brings her experience as a school-level strategist to Innovare to help foster trusting and productive relationships with our customers.

Copywriter

Jaye Hannah has 7+ years of growing and scaling the content marketing function in startups across Europe (and beyond), most of which has been spent in the EdTech sector—specifically tech bootcamps for designers and developers. Jaye is based in London and brings her copywriting and creative chops to a new challenge: Brining equitable, data-driven education to K-12 schools across the US.

Full Stack Engineer

Bob Killion joined the Innovare team after 10 years in education serving in various roles in secondary and higher education teaching and student services, as well as network curriculum planning and higher ed associations. While teaching, he took an interest in software development as a means to leverage technology to help students. As Full Stack Engineer at Innovare, Bob loves the challenge of software engineering and the immense impact it has for educational leaders through Innovare’s products and services.

Product/Engineer Intern

Erika Reyes is a dedicated Product and Engineering Intern. Hailing originally from El Paso, Erika actively supports Fernando in enhancing the engineering team through meticulous processes. Erika graduated in May 2023 with a Master's degree in Software Engineering from UTEP, and brings substantial experience from her roles at Facebook and Instagram as a Quality Analyst and Project Engineer. Erika excels in software proficiency, cross-team leadership, and driving product development from concept to launch.

Assistant to the CEO

Angel Betancourt is a native of Texcoco, State of Mexico, located right outside Mexico City. After graduating from school he forged a career in real estate—and began a new journey as Assistant to the CEO in 2023. In his current role, Angel leverages his proactive problem-solving, organizational, and interpersonal skills to support the CEO with a range of projects that lead to positive outcomes for the team.

Director of Finance

Luis Miguel has nearly a decade of experience in financial services. He began his career at State Street Corporation in Boston, where he rose to Assistant Vice President before transitioning to the Bay Area to attend business school. Post-MBA, Luis held roles with venture capital firms that specialize in early-stage investing. Passionate about social impact, he has led financial literacy and youth basketball programs for inner-city youth. A Lynn, MA native, Luis holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College.

Jr Full Stack Engineer

Mingxing made a transition to software engineering in 2022, following 6 years of dedicated work in scientific research. Throughout his career, he actively engaged in professional research activities and enthusiastically shared fundamental scientific knowledge with local communities and high school students. Moreover, he helped in mentoring summer interns, nurturing their growth and development. Now, Mingxing expands his software engineering expertise to contribute more significantly to the educational landscape.

Product Designer

Pauly Ramirez is Product Designer and seasoned entrepreneur with fundamental business management, pitching, operational planning, and revenue generation knowledge. She’s been featured in a NationSwell/Kauffman Foundation documentary, “An Entrepreneurial Learning Curve,” and recognized as a speaker at the TEDxChicago Women 2018.

Data Analyst

Alejandro Villarreal has 5+ years of experience in data analysis and dashboard creation. As a chemical engineer, he’s been around big databases and complex mathematical problems, allowing him to feel comfortable working with numbers. Based in Mexico, he holds an MBA and multiple certifications such as SAFe, Tableau Prep and Power Apps.

Data Scientist/Fellow

Tanzima Chowdhury is a Data Scientist at Innovare as a Fellow for the Applied Data Fellowship (ADF) from the University of Chicago where she’s a graduate student in Computational Social Science. Currently, under Fernando’s mentorship, her work includes developing efficient, effective and imaginative ways of incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the way we understand students and work within education.

Director of Operations

Southwest Texas native Jorge Aguilar is the Director of Operations at Innovare. His background includes product management, commercial real estate, proptech, and entrepreneurship. He majored in Economics and International Relations at St. Mary’s University. In his free time, you’ll find him reading, investing, and collecting Mexican modern art.

Jr Full Stack Engineer

Tiffany Yang has a degree in Business Economics from UCLA, with a minor in Accounting. She has over a year of experience in the finance world, and later taught herself to become a data scientist for a year without a traditional CS degree. She designed a recommendation engine and worked at G4, under Comcast, as a Data Scientist/Software Engineer where she rediscovered her love for transforming creative ideas into tangible products. In the end, she pivoted towards full-stack development and is excited to use her data science and full-stack skill sets to support and spearhead an initiative she is most passionate about—equitable education, and the integration of AI.

Data Analyst

Originally from Ozumba, State of Mexico, Enrique Galicia is passionate about the world of IT. He has a degree in business administration, 4 years of experience in the field of data analysis, and multiple certifications from Google, Microsoft and DatData—where he developed his skills in the exploration, cleaning, management and delivery of information, in addition to having knowledge in Oracle, SQL, ETL and dashboard creation. In his free time, he loves to learn about new trends in the IT world.

Executive Assistant to the CEO

Representing Manila, Philippines, Daniel de Asis has an engineering background and is passionate about education and tech. He joined Innovare as the Executive Assistant to the CEO in 2020 and has been guided by the principle “Kaizen,” ensuring continuous improvement in his day-to-day projects. He also provides support to the Marketing Team, fostering innovation and efficiency as the company continues to grow. In his downtime, he enjoys hiking mountains and immersing himself in the world of podcasts.

Jr. Graphic Designer

Caroline Escobar is originally from Mexico City and has over 7 years of experience in marketing and graphic design. She started her career path at a local magazine, and continues developing her skills through her time working as a freelance graphic designer for more than 15 companies across her country and El paso, TX. Caroline is also into the animation industry, and likes to spend her free time working on animation stories, comics and illustration.