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FAQ

John Fisher, Chairman

President, Pisces, Inc.

Mr. Fisher is President of Pisces Inc., an investment management company for the Fisher family. He is also a partner of Sansome Partners, the private investment partnership of the Fisher family. He sits on the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, San Francisco Day School and the Alliance for School Choice.

Mr. Fisher is a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He and his wife live in San Francisco with their four children.

Richard Barth, President

CEO, KIPP Foundation

Richard Barth was made CEO and President of the KIPP Foundation in December of 2005. Over the past six years, he has overseen the significant growth of the network from 45 to 109 schools, dramatically expanded KIPP's leadership development programs, advocated for high performing charter schools on Capitol Hill, and secured more than $190 million in new, long-term philanthropic commitments, including more than $75 million from the federal government.  

Barth came to KIPP from Edison Schools, where he served as President of District Partnerships and managed school partnerships serving over 40,000 students. Prior to joining Edison, Richard was one of the founding staff members of Teach For America. He earned a BA in American History from Harvard University, and is an Aspen Institute-New Schools Fellow. He currently sits on the board of directors of 50CAN, The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, and Be the Change, Inc. and is President of the KIPP Foundation Board of Directors.

Rhonda Kalifey-Aluise

Executive Director, KIPP New Orleans

Mrs. Kaliefy-Aluise, along with a group of reform-minded educators, began working to establish a Board of Directors that would manage a single KIPP school in 2005. Hurricane Katrina blew ashore two weeks after this school opened. While Katrina abruptly ended the school year and devastated the city, it opened the door for sweeping reform of New Orleans’ public schools and presented an unprecedented opportunity for the growth of KIPP in New Orleans. Seizing on this opportunity, Rhonda assumed the role of Executive Director of KIPP New Orleans Schools in 2007 and began growing the organization from a single school to a network of seven schools that currently serve more than 2,500 students. KIPP New Orleans Schools currently stands as the highest-performing open-enrollment public school network in the city. 

Mrs. Kaliefy-Aluise is a long-time resident of New Orleans and former Teach For America corps member with experience working with high-needs students in Texas, Virginia, and South Louisiana. Ms. Kalifey-Aluise holds a B.A. degree from Tulane University and M.A. in Special Education from University of Virginia and an M.A. from University of New Orleans.

Katherine Bradley

President, CityBridge Foundation

Mrs. Bradley is the president of CityBridge Foundation, a non-profit enterprise located in Washington, DC. Mrs. Bradley co-founded CityBridge in 1994 with her husband, entrepreneur and magazine publisher David G. Bradley. CityBridge directs practice areas in education and international health and created ServiceCorps, a corporate civic engagement initiative for companies in the Washington, DC area.

Mrs. Bradley has served on local boards including America's Promise, Teach For America (DC), the SEED Public Charter School, City Year, Samaritan Inns, and the Black Student Fund. Mrs. Bradley graduated in 1986 from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Philippe Dauman

President and CEO, Viacom, Inc.

Mr. Dauman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom and has served on the Company's Board of Directors since 1987. Viacom is the world's leading entertainment content company and it engages audiences on television, motion picture and digital platforms through many of the world's best known entertainment brands, including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, BET and Paramount Pictures. Under Mr. Dauman's leadership, in 2009 Viacom partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the "Get Schooled" initiative, which aims to increase high school and college graduation rates, improve postsecondary readiness and promote the fundamental importance of education.

Mr. Dauman earned his bachelor's degree from Yale College and his law degree from Columbia University Law School. He is a director of National Amusements, Inc. and Lafarge S.A. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the Board of Trustees for The Paley Center for Media and the Dean's Council of Columbia University Law School.

Mike Feinberg

KIPP Co-Founder and Superintendent, KIPP Houston

Mr. Feinberg currently serves as superintendent of KIPP Houston. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, Mr. Feinberg joined Teach For America and became a fifth grade bilingual teacher in Houston ISD. In 1994, Mr. Feinberg co-founded the Knowledge Is Power Program along with fellow TFA corps member Dave Levin; in 1995, he founded KIPP Academy in Houston.

Mr. Feinberg was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1994, awarded to leading social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions and the potential to change patterns across society, and along with Dave Levin was awarded The Thomas B. Fordham Prize for Excellence in Education and the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen in 2006.

Doris Fisher

Founder, Gap Inc.

Mrs. Fisher, co-founder of Gap Inc., is an exceptional volunteer and philanthropist whose generosity has positively impacted such fields as education, the arts and health care. A graduate of Stanford University, Mrs. Fisher's volunteer work there began in 1969, the year she and husband, Don, opened the first Gap store in San Francisco.

Over the years, Mrs. Fisher has offered exemplary services to the Graduate School of Business Advisory Board, the Stanford Art Museum Advisory Board, the School of Medicine, the Cantor Arts Center, the Stanford Alumni Association, the Office of Development, and the Board of Trustees. In addition, she has served on the Princeton Art Museum Advisory Board, the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors and the Northern California Cancer Center Board since 1983.

Reed Hastings

Founder and CEO, Netflix, Inc.

Mr. Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and launched the subscription service in 1999. In 2005, Time magazine added Mr. Hastings to its "Time 100" list of the one hundred most influential global citizens. Earlier in his career, he founded Pure Software, which he built into one of the world's 50 largest public software companies.

Mr. Hastings was President of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. He has led successful statewide political campaigns for more charter public schools and easier passage of local school bonds. He received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983 and an MSCS degree from Stanford University in 1988. 

David W. Leebron

President, Rice University

Mr. Leebron has served as President of Rice University since July 2004. Mr. Leebron began teaching in 1980 at the UCLA School of Law and at the NYU law school in 1983, where he served as director of the International Legal Studies Program. In 1989, Mr. Leebron joined the faculty of Columbia University School of Law, where in 1996 he was appointed dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law.

Mr. Leebron is a member of the New York state bar, Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, Jacobs University Bremen Board of Governors, Harvard Law School Visiting Committee and the boards of directors of the Greater Houston Partnership and IMAX Corp. In 2006, Mr. Leebron was presented with France's Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Mérite.

Dave Levin

KIPP Co-Founder and Superintendent, KIPP New York

After graduating from Yale University, Mr. Levin joined Teach For America where he taught 5th grade in Houston, Texas, for three years. In 1994, he co-founded the Knowledge is Power Program with Mike Feinberg, and the next year went on to found KIPP Academy New York. Mr. Levin currently serves as Superintendent of KIPP New York, and serves on the Board of Directors of KIPP Foundation. He received the Robin Hood Foundation's John F. Kennedy Jr. Hero Award in Education in 1999, was appointed to the New York State Commission for Education Reform in 2003, was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1994, awarded to leading social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions and the potential to change patterns across society, and along with Mike Feinberg was awarded The Thomas B. Fordham Prize for Excellence in Education and the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen in 2006.

Michael L. Lomax

President and CEO, United Negro College Fund

As president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Dr. 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.

Dr. Lomax came to Dillard after twenty years in Atlanta, where he pursued simultaneous full-time careers as a university professor and public servant. Dr. Lomax is a trustee of Emory University and a member of the founding Council of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of Teach For America, The Carter Center, the Woodruff Center for the Arts in Atlanta, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the National Black Arts Festival, of which he was founding chair.

Mark Nunnelly

Managing Director, Bain Capital

Mr. Nunnelly is Managing Director of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston. In 1989, Mr. Nunnelly helped found Information Partners, a venture and technology fund backed by Bain Capital that focused on early stage investing. Currently, Mr. Nunnelly sits on the Boards of Domino's Pizza, Warner Music Group, Eschelon Telecom, and Houghton Mifflin Company.

Mr. Nunnelly is an active supporter of several charitable organizations, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Jumpstart. He has also been actively involved with City Year since its inception. Mr. Nunnelly received his MBA, with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and an A.B. from Centre College, where he is a Trustee.

Carrie Walton Penner

Trustee, Walton Family Foundation

Carrie Walton Penner is an education reform advocate who is committed to dramatically improving K–12 student achievement in the United States, especially in low-income communities. Along with the other Walton family members, she guides the Walton Family Foundation’s education reform strategies and investments. The Foundation believes that the best way to achieve continuous and sustainable improvements in K–12 schools is to create competition among schools by empowering parents to choose among them.

Ms. Penner serves as a board member of several organizations including the California Charter School Association, EdVoice, the Alliance for School Choice, and the California Academy of Sciences. She earned a B.A. in economics and history from Georgetown University and master’s degrees from Stanford University in education policy and program evaluation. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, Greg Penner, and their four children.

José H. Villarreal

Senior Advisor, Akin Group

José H. Villarreal serves as a senior advisor to Akin Gump, where he previously was a partner for many years. He served as U.S. Commissioner General to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, a post to which he was named by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Before that, Mr. Villarreal was an Assistant Attorney General in the Public Finance Division of the Texas Attorney General's office. He has also served as associate director of Presidential Personnel in the Clinton White House. Mr. Villarreal received his law degree in 1979 from Indiana University where he has been inducted into the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and his B.A. in 1975 from Purdue University. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

Mr. Villarreal has long been active in the non-profit sector. He served as Chair of the National Council of La Raza, where he led a successful capital campaign that raised funds to establish a headquarters building in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the board of the Center for American Progress, a leading think tank, and was a founding board member of the New America Alliance, an organization of distinguished American Latino business leaders.

Don Fisher, Founding Board Chair, Emeritus 

Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Gap Inc., Co-Founder KIPP Foundation

Mr. Fisher was the 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. Mr. Fisher was also on the California State Board of Education and was a director on the board of EdVoice and Teach For America.

Mr. Fisher 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 American Academy of Achievement.

In 2000, Don Fisher Co-Founded the KIPP Foundation and served as Chairman of the Board until 2009.

Shawn Hurwitz, Founding Board Member, Emeritus

President and CEO, MAXXAM Property Company

Mr. Hurwitz is 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, Mr. Hurwitz is responsible for the supervision and implementation of all real estate activities, including development, acquisition, disposition, investment, sales and marketing, and operating activities.  
 
Mr. Hurwitz 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.