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Lauren began her career teaching on the west side of Chicago and then in Gary, Indiana. Inspired by her time in the classroom, she became an administrator in order to more broadly impact educational change. Later, she was accepted into the UIC Urban Education Leadership Program, and recently successfully completed her doctorate degree.

Lauren believes that all students deserve a high-quality education and is committed to making that a reality for students in Chicago Public Schools.

Carmita’s career started in corporate America; however corporate could not contain her desire to lead high-­‐impact initiatives that benefit urban youth and transform urban communities -­‐ so she blazed a trail within the non­‐profit sector. Carmita’s commitment to empowering our country’s most under-­‐served young people by providing them with pathways to excellence through education and holistic supports led her to a decade of executive service, driving results for visionary leaders including Alma Powell, Gen. Colin Powell and Arne Duncan, the former US Secretary of Education.

Carmita holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Academy for Urban School Leadership, Marwen, and America’s Promise Alliance. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her thought-­‐leadership and professional service, including the Chicago Business Journal’s 2016 Woman of Influence award.

An educator, attorney, and social entrepreneur with a strong background in creating quality educational opportunities for students, Scott began his career teaching social studies and leadership at St. Jude High School in Montgomery, Alabama, through the University of Notre Dame’s ACE Program. Scott later served as the legal counsel for Aspire Public Schools, where he worked with the management team and school leaders to build a network of high-performing public charter schools throughout California. At Education Pioneers, Scott feels incredibly fortunate to collaborate with exceptional individuals and high-performing organizations that share his deep commitment to developing diverse, talented leaders to transform urban education.

Scott graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in government from the University of Notre Dame, received his Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Portland, and earned his law degree from Stanford Law School. Scott is a Draper Richards Kaplan Entrepreneur, a board member of Beyond 12, Inc., and a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow, Class of 2010. An avid San Francisco Giants fan, Scott lives in Alameda, CA, with his wife and two daughters. Follow Scott on Twitter at @scottmorgan1.

Amanda was a Director at The Bridgespan Group where she served as an organizational consultant to youth and education clients in support of their strategic planning efforts. In this capacity, she also developed HR tools that have been widely utilized by nonprofit organizations nationally. She spent seven years at Deloitte, an international professional services firm, where she focused on human capital consulting projects primarily in merger and acquisition environments and diversity programs for Deloitte staff nationally.

Over the course of her professional career, Amanda has been a frequent speaker at conferences and events. She is a blogger on Huffington Post LatinoVoices and has been featured in Poder Magazine’s list of movers and shakers. She is the recipient of the Ricardo Salinas Scholarship. She currently serves on the KIPP Massachusetts, Achieve Mission, Roxbury Community College boards and the RISE Colorado advisory board. El Planeta named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in Massachusetts. Amanda holds an M.S. from Fordham University and lives in the Boston area with her spouse and two children.

Kerrien has worked extensively in education and has experience taking innovative program models, in both the charter and public school context, to scale regionally and nationally. She supported the implementation of a $15M national charter management pilot for EdisonLearning and helped to secure national accreditation while taking the Communities In Schools drop-out prevention model to scale in DC. In addition to the United Nations and World Bank, she has consulted at The Advisory Board, Bain & Company and AT Kearney, Twentieth Century Fox and Viacom. She is a graduate of Harvard College and London School of Economics.

Rita began her career in education as a classroom teacher in a high needs neighborhood middle school in Northern California. Her hands-on approach to pedagogy and high expectations of her students led them to achieve some of the highest gains in the district, garnering her several awards and recognition. During her years as a teacher, she was also actively engaged in various leadership opportunities within her school. She subsequently moved to the district office to lead special initiatives around building the leadership capacity of teachers. She moved to Chicago to join the newly formed Office of Performance. Her primary role was to help principals systematically build the capacity of their teacher leaders in order to improve student outcomes. Rita also led several key district initiatives around adult learning during her time in the Office of Professional Learning.

Rita believes that education is the primary equalizer of various social justice issues that our communities face today. She is passionate about providing our next generation with quality education and life options so that they may break the cycle of poverty for their families and communities while learning to be contributing members of society. Although not a Chicago native, she has fallen in love with this city and considers it her home. She wants to see all the students of Chicago Public Schools be successful.