Our Team

Dr. Kristina Kyles-Smith, Chair

Dr. Kristina Kyles-Smith is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School, an all-girls school focused on leadership and scholarship for girls of color in Baltimore, Maryland. This public charter school has the mighty mission of offering a supportive 21st Century learning environment for scholars to reach their maximum potential through rigorous academic coursework, character development, and leadership opportunities. In collaboration with her team, Dr. Kristina strives to achieve a world where all young women, regardless of their background, have the skills, tools, and qualities to develop as leaders in their communities and the world.

Throughout her career, Dr. Kyles-Smith has served in several roles in public education, amassing a wealth of diverse educational leadership experience. These roles include teacher, district director of equity, and district curriculum director in Massachusetts. She has also served as a school Principal, charter network executive director, and Assistant State Superintendent of Education in Maryland. Nationally, Dr. Kyles-Smith supported school transformation and equity as the Regional Director for EL Education. Dr. Kyles-Smith was raised in Holland, Michigan, by activist parents who owned and operated a community outreach center, a black culture center, and a church. Through her parents, Dr. Kyles-Smith fostered a love of learning and a commitment to her community. She received her bachelor’s from Hope College and a master’s from Simmons College. She received her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts completing her dissertation on historically black schools’ ability to educate black students and sustain powerfully black communities. She is also pursuing a second terminal degree in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Dr. Kyles-Smith successfully supervised the administration of Federal and state programs to improve student’s educational opportunities, empowered teachers and students to do more than they thought possible, and focused on growing access to quality educational options. Dr. Kyles-Smith has dedicated her career to serving and empowering students and teachers. Dr. Kyles Smith is the co-author of the article, Is Your Approach to Continuous Improvement Colorblind, published in the March 2021 Issue of Educational Leadership. She is also the author of The Essence of Dunbar, A Qualitative Exploration of the Essence of a Historical Black School in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the recipient of several awards, including Hope College’s Kujichagulia Alumni Excellence Award (2021) and Distinguished Alumni Award (2004), and The Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award for Community & Business (2012).

Dr. Kyles-Smith lives in Baltimore County, Maryland, with her husband. She has three children, who bring her joy and keep her grounded. She is active in several professional associations, such as the National Alliance of Black School Educators and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She remains committed to community service and serves as a member of the Harbor City Links, Incorporated, and an active member of her local NAACP.

Rhonda Broussard

Rhonda Broussard founded Beloved Community to create sustainable paths to regional economic equity. Beloved Community works at the nexus of Equity in Schools, Equity at Work, and Equity at Home. Her vision for Beloved Community is informed by her education leadership and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s goal “ to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”

Rhonda has been a leader in diversity and international education initiatives throughout her career. In 2007, she founded St. Louis Language Immersion Schools (SLLIS), a charter management organization serving an intentionally diverse school community with language immersion and International Baccalaureate pedagogy for all students. Under Rhonda’s leadership, the first three schools in the network became IB World Authorized Schools, and SLLIS achieved an AYP of 92%, equivalent to Accreditation with Distinction from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Rhonda is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow and an Eisenhower Fellow. She completed her undergraduate studies in French and Secondary Education at Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Arts degree in French Studies from New York University’s Institute of French Studies. She has studied education in Cameroon, Martinique, metropolitan France, Finland, and New Zealand. Rhonda currently serves as chair of the Board of Directors of EdNavigator and treasurer of Dat School Agile Learning Center. Previously, Rhonda has served on the board of Missouri Charter Public School Association, PROMO – Missouri’s LGBT Advocacy Leader, and Campus YMCA-YWCA. Rhonda lives with her partner Kim and two children Olivia and Oscar in her native Louisiana. She studies, performs, and occasionally teaches dances from the African diaspora.

Rhonda’s first book, One Good Question: How Countries, Communities, and Schools Prepare Youth for Global Citizenship, will be published by TBR Books/CALEC later this year.

Mike Chalupa

Mike Chalupa serves as the Director of City Neighbors Foundation, which operates three arts integrated, project-based, Reggio Emilia-inspired public charter schools in Baltimore (City Neighbors High School, 9-12, City Neighbors Hamilton K-8, and City Neighbors Charter School, K-8) and works to promote progressive, child-centered, democratic educational practices across the region. Mike had previously served as Academic Director of the City Neighbors Foundation, co-founded City Neighbors Hamilton and City Neighbors High School and led City Neighbors Charter School as Principal. Starting his career as a program leader for various non-profits supporting immigrant and homeless youth, Mike then served as a 4th through 8th grade classroom teacher, and an independent school leader – before coming to City Neighbors. In addition to his role on the DCSC Board, Mike also served as Co-President of the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools. Mike earned his Masters in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and his Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Georgetown University.

Khalil Graham

Dr. Khalil Graham’s experience in charter education and nonprofits spans over 18 years and includes a strong record of strategic direction, leadership development, stakeholder engagement, and team productivity. Prior to joining Kairos, Khalil served as the Executive Director of Liberty STEAM Charter Schools in Sumter, South Carolina. He has previously served as the Managing Director of the Aspiring Leaders Program in Dallas, Texas; as the Principal of Friendship Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.; as Principal of IDEA Public School in San Antonio, Texas; and in numerous other educational roles.

Khalil earned his B.A. from the University of Richmond, his M.A. in Elementary Education and Teaching from Sacred Heart University, and his Doctor of Education in Leadership and Administration from the University of Kentucky.

Karen Dresden

Karen Dresden is an education leader with a 25+ year track record of achieving results while centering equity and mission-centered leadership practices.   Karen is the co-founder of Capital City Public Charter School, a diverse PK-12 school in Washington, DC, and served as Head of School through June 2023.  Karen was involved in all aspects of the initial start-up, facilitated growth and expansion, led the design of the high school program, and managed the renovation of a state-of-the art facility.  Under Karen’s leadership, Capital City became an award-winning model for school reform boasting over 600 graduates, a 100% college acceptance rate, and a college graduation rate for first generation students that significantly exceeded the national average.  Karen now coaches leaders and consults with organizations and governing boards.  She is a Certified Professional Diversity Coach and a Board Source certified non-profit board consultant.  Karen was a 2022 Pahara Fellow and a 2023 Seeding Disruption Fellow.

Naomi Deveaux

Prior to joining The Drexel Fund in 2024, Naomi was a partner at the National Charter Schools Institute where she enjoyed co-creating performance goals that capture school quality at its core and working with commission and board members on values-driven decision-making. She previously served DC students as a teacher, an advocate for choice, and at the DC Public Charter School Board, where she made school performance actionable for parents, including creating the first School Quality Dashboard. She began her career in education as an English teacher and literacy coach in traditional and charter high schools. She is a member of the Center for Learner Equity, DC Bilingual Public Charter School’s board chair, and a board member of the Diverse by Design Charter School Coalition. With a BA from Reed College and MA from CSU Long Beach, Naomi received a Fulbright scholarship and an Aspen-Pahara fellowship.

Raúl Alarcón

Raúl Alarcón is the Chief Academic Officer for ISANA Academies and leads the academic vision at ISANA through supporting charter school leaders as they navigate the implementation of instructional practices, curriculum, and assessments at six schools throughout the Los Angeles region. Raúl was previously the Chief Academic Officer for City Charter Schools and the founding principal of City Language Immersion Charter (CLIC), a dual language elementary school serving a diverse group of students in the mid-city neighborhood of Los Angeles CLIC was a proud DCSC member school. Raúl is a tenured lecturer for the Principal Leadership (PLI) program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has worked at UCLA for over 27 years. Raúl has worked in the educational field in Los Angeles for over thirty years and started his career in education as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Raúl obtained his Master of Arts in Educational Leadership through UCLA and his Master of Arts in Educational Leadership in Technology through California State University Los Angeles.

Mr. Alarcón’s work has always been guided by the belief that all children are very capable of learning, of achieving great things in life, and in making a difference in the lives of others. These guiding principles were nourished while at UCLA and are instrumental in designing the instructional program at CLIC. Raúl is a native Angelino and lives in the San Gabriel Valley with his wife and daughter.

Felix Li

As Chief Operations Office for Summit Public Schools, Felix brings to Summit over a decade of K-12 school and systems leadership experience in public education with expertise in school operations, systems design, cross-functional project management, budgeting & finance, crisis communication and management, strategy and people development. Felix brings a deep commitment to building a more anti-biased and anti-racist world to his work in his leadership of efficient and effective school systems that drive strong outcomes for all students. Prior to Summit, he started his career in public education serving as a middle school math teacher and Teach for America corps member in the NYC Department of Education for five years. He later spent nine years as an Associate Chief Operating Officer and school leader of an all-boys K-8 school with Uncommon Schools in Brooklyn, New York. Felix is a graduate of Duke University with a dual degree in Public Policy and Sociology, and holds a master’s in Teaching from Pace University.

Amanda Fenton

Amanda Fenton has 15 years of advocacy experience straddling both the California legislature and Washington DC. She specializes in developing and executing long-term legislative strategies to create and shape funding streams to meet a client’s needs. Accomplishments include securing over $100 million in federal funding and $60 million in state grants for clients, done through the methodological use of every stage of public funding process to pursue a competitive advantage for clients — from authorizing legislation to appropriations language, all the way down to the issuance of RFPs and the content of grant proposals. During this time she also achieved meaningful state legislative change to help clients pursue their objectives and realize innovative public-private partnerships.

Amanda has more than 10 years of experience in state and federal charter school policy, which includes the creation and execution of policy and funding advocacy campaigns for national associations and their regional members and affiliates, most recently as an in-house Director of Federal and State Policy for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. As the policy lead Amanda created the organization’s first federal policy platform, which included legislative, regulatory, and funding priorities. Using this platform, Amanda developed an advocacy strategy marked by success. This includes regulatory efforts that found success in the Biden, Trump, and Obama Administrations, as well as a funding strategy that created a new funding stream to support association interests that is worth up to $16 million annually. She also managed development and oversaw execution of a multi-state policy campaign that secured policy reform in 25 state houses over the course of just four years. Amanda is honored to continue working with trailblazers in the charter community, including national equity organizations, associations, and individual charter schools.

Amanda grew up in Alameda, CA and has lived in Berkeley, Oakland, New York, and the Washington DC areas. She currently lives in Hyattsville, MD, though she and her family escape to California often to see family and friends. She has a BA in Public Policy from Stanford University.

Ron Rice

Ron C. Rice has over 15 years of public policy experience in the fields of education, urban development, and community empowerment initiatives as an executive state government appointee and two-term local elected official.

Prior to joining the National Alliance, Ron served as the Special Assistant/Chief Policy Analyst for the Chief of Staff to the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education, and as a city councilman for two terms in Newark under Mayor Cory Booker where he created his ward’s Education Support Committee and consistently supported charter school facility needs and their growth and advancement throughout the city, specifically working with KIPP (TEAM Rise and SPARK Academies), Uncommon Schools (North Star Academy), and community charters such as Marion P. Thomas Charter School, Lady Liberty Academy, and Adelaide Sanford Charter School.

Ron has created and served on numerous boards, commissions, and school boards. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in Political Science/Public Administration. Ron received his Juris Doctor from the Seton Hall University, School of Law in Newark, NJ.

Angelica Jackson

Angelica Jackson is a visionary connector and innovative builder in the field of education. Jackson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Phoenix International School of the Arts, Charles County’s first public charter middle school combining arts and international studies. As a national thought leader in education, she collaborates with various innovative organizations and has initiated partnerships with notable artists like Pharrell and Christina Milian. Ms. Jackson holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania, and has been recognized for her contributions to education through fellowships, grants, and media profiles. A first-generation college graduate and award-winning musical theatre performer, she is committed to improving educational outcomes and preparing the next generation of global artists and changemakers no matter their given circumstances.

Valerie Braimah

Valerie Braimah, Senior Associate Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, has focused her career over 25 years on developing innovative school models for economically and racially diverse students. She is committed to challenging the status quo in public school education and creating opportunities for all students to access liberation, joy, and critical thinking.

Prior to finding her home at NewSchools, Valerie was Executive Director at City Charter Schools, one of the first DCSC member schools. Before that, she was Vice President of Community Learning and Engagement at Teach For America, Vice President of Instruction at the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, and Chief Learning Officer for Insight Education Group. She has led teacher professional development and facilitated school and district reform across the country. Valerie holds a Master’s Degree in Education Policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Jared Anthony

Dr. Jared Anthony serves as the Director of the Carnegie Foundation’s Postsecondary Commission. The Commission builds understanding, support, and demand for rigorous, experiential, affordable, and student-centered learning experiences, and innovative learning models across secondary and postsecondary institutions. Prior to Carnegie, Jared served as Director of Policy and Assessment Redesign at the Colorado Education Initiative. While there, he worked with districts throughout the state to co-create educational systems that support the use of performance assessments and student-centered instruction. For the past five years, Dr. Anthony also served as a co-lead for the Reimagining College Access Initiative for the State of Colorado. This national effort aims to advance the use of student performance assessment to inform higher education admissions, placement, and advising decisions. Jared also supported the Colorado Department of Education and the National Assessment for Educational Progress (ETS). He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Fordham University.