Board of Directors

Jessica Cunningham Akoto joined KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools as the Chief Executive Officer in June 2018. Jessica started her career as a 4th grade teacher in D.C. Public Schools. She later transitioned to KIPP DC as a sixth-grade math teacher at the region’s flagship school: KEY Academy. Jessica founded KIPP DC’s third middle school, WILL Academy, and served as the school’s principal for four years. She then served as a Chief Academic Officer for two years before deciding to return to school leadership in 2012 as the principal of KIPP DC’s high school, KIPP DC College Prep. Most recently, she worked as the KIPP Foundation’s Executive in Residence, where she provided critical on-site support to KIPP regional leaders to identify and execute the steps needed to improve outcomes for students and alumni.

Jessica earned a B.S. in African American History from Florida A&M University and a Masters in Elementary Education from American University. She is a Fellow of the fourth class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a 2015 Milken Educator Award winner. Most recently, Jessica was named a 2020 Minority Business Leader by the Philadelphia Business Journal. Jessica currently sits on the board of directors of EdFuel and the KIPP Foundation. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys spending time with her family, travelling, and exploring Philadelphia’s best restaurants.

Maria is the Senior Vice President for Strategy at Arizona State University, where she innovates on ways of serving learner populations that have traditionally not been well served. As a Latina first-generation college graduate, Maria has dedicated her career to improving access to education for all learners. She served as Vice Chancellor of Planning and Budget at University of California (UC) Riverside, and worked at the UC Office of the President on financial and strategic system-wide initiatives to improve operational efficiency.

Maria was also the senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Chief Financial Officer of ed-tech start-up Minerva Project, and held finance roles at Barclays Capital and Deloitte. She currently serves on the Board of Regents for the University of California, the Board of the Campaign for College Opportunity, Foundry College, and the James Irvine Foundation. Maria holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Emma Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Murmuration, is fixated on filling gaps to ensure that organizations seeking to reduce inequality and improve outcomes for all kids through politics, advocacy and organizing have what they need to effect real, sustainable change. Murmuration, which she launched in 2014, provides sophisticated data and analytics, proprietary technology, strategic guidance, and programmatic support to help partners build political power and marshal support so necessary changes are made to improve our public schools. She previously served as Chief of Staff at the Robin Hood Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty in the five boroughs of New York City.

Emma sits on the boards of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation, the KIPP Foundation, New Classrooms, and Leadership for Educational Equity. She is a graduate of Princeton University, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, and lives in New York City.

Katherine Brittain Bradley is the founder and chair of CityBridge, an education-focused not-for-profit based in Washington, D.C. CityBridge makes early stage investments in education sector entrepreneurs and helps bring their best ideas to market.

Katherine serves as a board member for the National Geographic Society, the D.C. College Access Program and Princeton University. She graduated in 1986 from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Katherine and her husband David Bradley live in Washington D.C. and have three adult sons.

John Fisher is the Executive Vice Chairman of Pisces Inc., and Co-Founder of Sansome Partners, which are the family office and investment group, respectively, for the Fisher Family, founders of The Gap. The Doris & Donald Fisher Fund focuses on education reform and charter schools, and was founded by Doris Fisher and the late Donald Fisher.

In addition to serving on a number of corporate boards, John helped found and continues to serve on the board of Charter School Growth Fund and Silicon Schools Fund, and is a Special Advisor to the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund. He holds an AB in Politics from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997. In 1991, Reed founded Pure Software, which made tools for software developers. After a 1995 IPO, and several acquisitions, Pure was acquired by Rational Software in 1997. Reed is an active educational philanthropist and served on the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. He is currently on the board of several educational organizations including KIPP and Pahara. Reed is also a board member of The City Fund. Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983, and an MSCS in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University in 1988. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland.

Shavar Jeffries has been an advocate for social justice and educational equity for more than two decades. He joined the KIPP Foundation as CEO in January 2023, a culmination of his many years as a champion for KIPP schools. Shavar was founding board chair of KIPP Newark in 2001; joined the KIPP Foundation Board in 2019; and is a proud KIPP parent, as his two children graduated from KIPP Spark Academy and KIPP Team Academy in Newark. His commitment to improving education stems directly from personal experience. As a first-generation college graduate, he understands implicitly the life-changing power of a high-quality education.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Shavar was President of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and its affiliate organization, Education Reform Now, where he led the organization in passing well over 100 policies at the federal and state level that expanded educational opportunities for low-income students of color. Throughout his career, Shavar has practiced law, worked as an assistant attorney general in New Jersey, and served as the elected president of the Newark school board. Among many career highlights, Shavar, as school-board president, led Newark Public Schools in implementing systemic changes that produced historic gains in student outcomes; as state assistant attorney general, executed a strategy shifting juveniles from detention centers to community-based programs that produced nation-leading reductions in recidivism; and, as a civil-rights lawyer, litigated numerous class-action cases that released hundreds of millions in education funding, rescinded racially discriminatory tracking of students of color to remedial classes, and provided special-education services to tens of thousands of children.

Shavar graduated from Duke University and Columbia Law School, where he concentrated on civil rights law and policy. He has been recognized broadly for his work—by the NAACP, the National Bar Association, and the Congressional Black Caucus, among others.

Martha L. Karsh, an attorney, has practiced law, formed an architecture/design firm and done extensive non-profit work.

In 1998, Martha co-founded the Karsh Family Foundation, with a focus on supporting education. To date, the Karshes have made gifts and pledges of nearly $300 million to support scholarship and education at all levels. Their largest gifts have been for need-based financial aid at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Brown, Spelman, Howard, and Virginia Law School, as well as for KIPP and Teach for America in K-12. They are also major supporters of Charter School Growth Fund and UNCF.

Martha currently serves on the national board of KIPP Foundation, co-chairs the bicentennial “Honor the Future Campaign for the University of Virginia,” and is a Trustee Emerita of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation. She chairs the KIPP SoCal Public Schools Trustees and successfully led the $70 million growth campaign for KIPP in Los Angeles.

Martha is a graduate of the University of Virginia (1978) and Virginia Law School (1981). In 2016, she published her first book, The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night: A Private Archive. Martha and her husband, Bruce, live in Los Angeles and together have raised three children

After graduating from Yale University in 1992, Dave Levin joined Teach For America where he taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas. In 1994, Dave won Teacher of the Year honors from his school in Houston, the Jefferson Award for outstanding community service in the city of Houston, and an outstanding teaching award from Teach For America.

Dave co-founded the Knowledge is Power Program in 1994, and the next year went on to found KIPP Academy in the South Bronx. Dave served as Superintendent of KIPP NYC until 2012. Dave currently works at the KIPP Foundation with KIPP leaders on instructional innovation, leadership development, and teacher training.

Dave has been awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, our nation’s second highest presidential award for a private citizen; Thomas Fordham Foundation Prize for Valor; the National Jefferson Award for Distinguished Public Service by a Private Citizen; the Charles Bronfman Prize; the Ashoka Fellowship; the McGraw Hill Prize; and the National Community Service Award from Spelman College.

Dave holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from both Yale University and Duke University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University. Outside of KIPP, Dave helped co-found five organizations: Relay Graduate School of Education, the Character Lab, Zearn, nXu, and Together Education. Dave lives in New York City with his wife, two sons, and three dogs.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Dr. Michael 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.

Michael came to Dillard after thirty years in Atlanta, where he pursued simultaneous full-time careers as a university professor and public servant. Michael is a member of the founding Council of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and is a member of the Boards of Directors of Teach For America and the Studio Museum in Harlem.  He is a former trustee of Emory University and the High Museum and was the founding chair of the National Black Arts Festival.

A’Dorian Murray-Thomas is the Founder and CEO of SHE Wins Inc., an organization that offers a free leadership and social action program for middle and high school girls who have been affected by violence in Newark, New Jersey. A’Dorian founded SHE Wins to create a pipeline of college, career, and community ready young women leaders using an early intervention and long-term engagement model in the city where she was born and raised. A trauma-informed program, SHE Wins consists of a Summer and Afterschool Leadership Academy where girls hone their leadership, literacy, and self-regulatory skills through mentorship, project-based learning, and service-learning opportunities. At 23 years old, A’Dorian became the youngest woman ever elected to the Newark School Board, the largest school district in state of New Jersey.

A’Dorian has been recognized as one of President Barack Obama’s 2016 White House “Champions of Change for College Opportunity”, a Glamour Magazine “College Woman of the Year”, a Youth Service America “Everyday Young Hero”, a Thomas Jefferson Governor’s Award recipient, and one of “The Root” Magazine’s 25 Young Futurists for her work in education and youth development. A’Dorian and her SHE Wins scholars have been featured in ESSENCE Magazine’s ‘Black Girl Magic’ docuseries, ABC’s “Here and Now” talk show, The New Jersey Star Ledger, USA Today, Positive Community Magazine, and Fox Nightly News.

A’Dorian formerly served at the Newark Opportunity Youth Network, where she empowered overaged and under-credited youth to reconnect to educational options, and supported restorative justice-based interventions for students on school suspension. A’Dorian is a 2016 graduate of Swarthmore College and holds a B.A. in Political Science and Educational Studies.

Mark Nunnelly is the former secretary of the Office of Technology Services and Security for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Previously he served as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and special advisor to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker for technology and innovation competitiveness. During his tenure, he has led a significant modernization effort across the Commonwealth’s diverse digital and technology services platform. In addition to his work for the Commonwealth, he serves on the board of directors for Dunkin’ Brands and Genpact.

From 1989–2014, he was a managing director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $70 billion of assets under management. Mark led the firm’s private equity business and served in a number of leadership roles. He also provided strategic leadership charting the firm’s expansion into multiple alternative asset classes and geographies. Prior to Bain Capital, Mark was a partner at Bain & Company. He has worked at Procter & Gamble in product management and he has been an entrepreneur.

Mark is an active supporter of a number of charitable organizations. He serves on the board of directors of New Profit (where he was the founding board chair), a national venture philanthropy fund providing social entrepreneurs with financial and strategic support. He also serves on the boards of Boston Medical Center, the Bridgespan Group, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Mark earned an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Centre College.

Charles Phillips is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Infor, the world’s third largest provider of enterprise software applications. Since joining Infor, Charles has built the foundation for digital transformation: industry applications, domain experts, a science lab at M.I.T, machine learning, Internet of things, design thinking, and hyper-scale clouds to challenge business models and create new ones.

Prior to Infor, Charles was President of Oracle Corporation and a member of its Board of Directors. Charles was also a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines artillery unit.

Charles serves on the boards of Viacom Corporation, Santander Bank, Apollo Theater, BENS (Business Executives For National Security), Jazz at Lincoln Center, the NYPD Foundation, the United States Air Force Academy Endowment Fund, The New York City Public Library, and The Posse Foundation. Charles also served on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Charles holds a bachelor’s in computer science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a JD from New York Law School, an MBA from Hampton University, and honorary doctorates from several universities. He is also a member of the Georgia State Bar.

Carrie Walton Penner is a K-12 education advocate and chairs the board of directors of the Walton Family Foundation. Her passion for educational equity was ignited during college when she witnessed first-hand the significant quality discrepancy in the U.S. public education system while tutoring high school students in Washington, D.C. She has been active in education research, evaluation, advocacy, and philanthropy for more than 20 years. She is focused on improving access to high-quality schools for every child, particularly those in low-income communities.

With expertise in developing effective governance models for high-impact philanthropy, Carrie has advised many nonprofit organizations on matters such as strategic planning, funder and grantee relationship building, and organizational transitions. In addition to the Walton Family Foundation, she currently serves on the boards of The Aspen Institute, Charter School Growth Fund, EdVoice, and Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Carrie holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in administration and policy analysis, and a master’s degree in program evaluation, both from Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Abigail S. Wexner, lawyer and community volunteer, is involved in philanthropic work nationally and locally, with a particular focus on children’s issues.

Mrs. Wexner is the CEO of Whitebarn Associates, a private investment company. She serves on the boards of L Brands, Inc., The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Environmental Defense Fund, the National Veteran’s Memorial Museum, the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, the Columbus Partnership, Pelotonia, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, The Wexner Foundation, The Wexner Center Foundation, and the United States Equestrian Team Foundation. She is founding board member and vice chair of the board for KIPP Columbus, founder and chair of the board for The Center for Family Safety and Healing and a past chair of the Governing Committee of the Columbus Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Mrs. Wexner also held a presidential appointment to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

From 2005 through July 2012, Mrs. Wexner served as chair of the board of directors for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Under Mrs. Wexner’s leadership, Nationwide Children’s completed the largest pediatric expansion in our nation’s history and has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals list every year since 2006.

Prior to moving to Columbus, she practiced law from 1987 to 1992 with the London and New York offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. She is a graduate of the Dwight School, New York City; Barnard College at Columbia University, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa; and New York University School of Law.

Mrs. Wexner is married to Leslie H. Wexner, chair emeritus and founder of L Brands, Inc. They are the parents of four children.