ABOUT GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION

Denver Public Schools Foundation

Richard Tagle

Chairperson | Denver

Richard Tagle is the President and CEO of the Denver Public Schools Foundation having joined the team in March 2022. In this role, Richard works collaboratively with the Board of Directors to execute a highly strategic vision and facilitate relationships with key stakeholders. Richard serves as a lead fundraiser to direct and execute a comprehensive and multi-faceted fundraising and community engagement operation to support both long-term vision and annual goals of the DPS Foundation.

Prior to DPS Foundation, Richard was the President and CEO of the Andy Roddick Foundation in Austin, Texas. Previous positions held include Managing Partner at High Think, Chief Executive Officer at Higher Achievement, Chief of Staff at Public Education Network (a network of local education funds and public school foundations), and Senior Program Officer at the United States Conference of Mayors.

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Richard earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from American University and his Master of Arts in Applied Sociology/Social Policy from the same institution.

The NEA Foundation

Sara Sneed

Vice Chairperson | Washington, D.C.

Sara Sneed is president and CEO of The NEA Foundation in Washington, D.C. Sara joined The NEA Foundation in February 2019, after almost 20 years with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, one of the nation’s largest community foundations. While with the Hartford Foundation, Sara served as director of education investments, promoting educational equity and excellence with partners at the local, state and national levels. Sara also led the development of strategy and policy advocacy to close persistent educational opportunity gaps and improve student outcomes across some of Connecticut’s highest need school districts. She is credited with developing dynamic new learning opportunities both for and with educators and students; successful advocacy for equity-focused fiscal practices among schools and school districts; and effective grants programs, policy advocacy, and cross sector collaboration supporting English Learners, whole child development and increased family, school and community partnership. Among her national leadership roles, Sara currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington D.C.; on the Grantmakers for Education Equity Impact Group; and on the steering committees of the Education Funders’ Strategy Group and Community Schools’ Funders Group.

College Futures Foundation

Elizabeth González

Secretary

Elizabeth González is a long-time philanthropy professional working for national, state, and regional foundations in support of advancing intergenerational mobility and public-sector systems change strategies. She joined College Futures Foundation in 2019. As chief program & strategy officer, Elizabeth leads the development and implementation of the Foundation’s strategy.

Previously, Elizabeth was a portfolio director at The James Irvine Foundation, where she oversaw education and workforce portfolio and team - the Better Careers initiative, postsecondary success grantmaking, and Linked Learning, Irvine’s signature initiative to integrate academic and career-technical education for better student outcomes in high schools throughout California. Prior to her work at the Irvine Foundation, González was a postsecondary success program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation overseeing a national portfolio of municipal partnerships for college success.

A first-generation college graduate, Elizabeth earned a B.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a focus on poverty, labor market inequality and social policy. She currently serves as a member of the Grantmakers for Education board, USC’s Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy advisory board and the Public Policy Institute of California’s Statewide Leadership Council.

Rodel

Paul Herdman

Treasurer | Delaware

Paul is president and CEO of Rodel, which he joined in 2004. He is a founding member of the Vision Coalition, Delaware’s public-private partnership whose aim is to transform public schools to world-class status. Paul is an Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellow in entrepreneurial leadership, and a 2010 recipient of the NewSchools Venture Fund “Change Agent of the Year” award. He has served as a senior manager at New American Schools, consulted with Brookings Institution, RAND, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and The World Bank. Paul has taught K-12 in the U.S., South Africa, and Australia, and co-founded an Outward Bound-based school-within-a-school in New York City. He assisted the secretary of education for two governors in Massachusetts during the wholesale redesign of the state’s policies on standards, choice, and finance during the 1990s.

ECMC Foundation

Lynn Alvarez

Member

As ECMC Foundation’s vice president of programs and strategy, Lynn Alvarez is responsible for directing strategy across the foundation’s portfolios. She works directly with the foundation president and all team members to implement the Foundation’s goals, grantmaking, investments and initiatives. Before joining ECMC Foundation, Lynn operated her own philanthropic advising firm for 15 years, where she helped private and community foundations develop and manage initiatives, refine their grantmaking systems, evaluate their impact, train their grantmaking staff and manage funding portfolios. Before starting her own consulting firm, Lynn oversaw a large grantmaking portfolio at The California Endowment and worked at the California Community Foundation and the Peninsula Community Foundation (now known as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation). Lynn also had a career in the legal field, including supporting immigrant rights and as a professor at UCLA. She is fluent in three languages—English, Spanish and French. Lynn holds a J.D. and a BA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Stuart Foundation

Sophie Fanelli

Member

Sophie Fanelli is the president of the Stuart Foundation where she is responsible for leading the foundation’s investments to advance whole child education in California and Washington State. She oversees four grantmaking portfolios: School Finance & Accountability, Educator Leadership, Creativity & Arts Education, and Adolescent Learning. Sophie first joined the Stuart Foundation as senior program officer for education in October 2012. Previously, she served as director of research & policy at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA where she oversaw public policy and legislative efforts focused on education equity and access, student and parent engagement, and school transformation. She also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California where she concentrated on a range of social and racial justice issues including advancing education equity, LGBTQ issues, immigrants rights, and advocacy for the homeless. Sophie was trained as a lawyer in France, Italy and at the University of Texas in Austin where she focused on criminal justice issues.

Communities Foundation of Texas

John Fitzpatrick

Member | Texas

John is the executive director of Educate Texas, CFT's statewide education initiative. His role spans five areas: strategy, fundraising, advocacy, culture/talent and what he calls Team CFT. From 1997-2004, John had a dual role as the executive director of Skillpoint Alliance, a central Texas nonprofit, and vice president for education and workforce development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. John moved to Texas in 1994 to attend grad school at the LBJ School at UT Austin, where he met his wife, Kristen Vassallo. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill for Republicans and Democrats on education, workforce development, trade and other issues. John taught eighth-grade English and U.S. history for a year in Long Island, New York. He holds a bachelor’s in sociology from Wesleyan University, where he also played soccer.

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Charmaine Mercer

Member | California

Charmaine is a program officer in Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Her portfolio focuses on education policy, practices, and tools that advance deeper learning experiences and outcomes, especially for those furthest from opportunity. Prior to joining the foundation, Charmaine was a director and senior researcher for the Learning Policy Institute, where she led a small team of dedicated researchers, policy advocates, and communication specialists. In a previous role, she served as the vice president for standards, assessment, and deeper learning at the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization that focuses on secondary schools. Charmaine has also held various positions on Capitol Hill, including as a senior staffer for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a senior staffer for the Education and Labor Committee, and a researcher for the Congressional Research Service. Charmaine received her Ph.D. in politics and education policy from Claremont Graduate University, as well as her master’s degree in political science. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University. Charmaine is a native Californian, finally returning home after being on the East coast since 2002, and the shamelessly proud mom of adorable twin boys. She also enjoys running.

Raikes Foundation

Gisele Shorter

Member

Gisele joined the Raikes Foundation as an education strategy program officer in 2018. She leads the national School and System Redesign Portfolio and supports K-12 policy efforts. The heartbeat of her K-12 portfolio is the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Network. Collectively the BELE membership leverages their resources to develop an education system that ensures the intellectual, social, emotional, and cultural growth and wellbeing of all young people and results in social-cultural markers having zero negative predictive power on outcomes.

Over the past 15 years, Gisele has led large-scale and community-based programmatic, research and policy initiatives to advance justice and equity, close health disparities, and ensure access and opportunities for BIPOC youth to excel. Her work is rooted in a deep belief that an equitable society starts with an equitable education system.

Dr. Shorter earned her Ed.D. in health education from Columbia University Teachers College. She holds an M.P.A. from Long Island University and a B.A. from Amherst College. She is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

The Kresge Foundation

Edward Smith

Member | Michigan

Edward Smith is a program officer with The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program. He helps advance the team’s goals and functions by inviting and reviewing funding requests and making recommendations for investments in ongoing or emerging innovations. He also manages a portfolio of grants focused on promoting college opportunity and degree completion for marginalized student groups. He joined Kresge in 2019 after 10 years in education policy research, working to understand how city leaders develop and advance education attainment initiatives rooted in a city’s assets and suited to the needs of its people. Previously, he held positions at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, NASPA’s Research and Policy Institute and the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Ed has worked as a consultant in education administration and has taught at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels and at a correctional facility. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in education from Pennsylvania State University.

Carnegie Corporation of New York

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan

Member | New York

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National program and program director for Education. At the Corporation she oversees grantmaking and amplifying activities aimed at engaging parents and communities, improving teaching and leadership for learning, advancing innovative learning environment designs, providing K–12 pathways to college and career success, and fostering integrated approaches to innovation and learning. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Srinivasan joined Carnegie Corporation in 2014, arriving with extensive experience in senior-level leadership roles in the areas of urban district change, nonprofit education reform, and educational technology. She served as a deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (2003–2006), where, among other accomplishments, she designed and implemented Project Home Run, a strategically redesigned and streamlined system for recruiting, hiring, and placing teachers and school principals that greatly increased the teacher talent available to high-needs schools and which has been replicated nationwide.