Members of the Commission

Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University where she has launched the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the School Redesign Network and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and member of the National Academy of Education. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school reform, teacher quality and educational equity. From 1994-2001, she served as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching in the United States. In 2006, this report was named one of the most influential affecting U.S. education and Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation's ten most influential people affecting educational policy over the last decade. In 2008-09, she headed President Barack Obama's education policy transition team.

Among Darling-Hammond's more than 300 publications are The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (Teachers College Press, 2010); Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs (Jossey-Bass, 2006); Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do (with John Bransford; Jossey-Bass, 2005), winner of the AACTE Pomeroy Award; Teaching as the Learning Profession (co-edited with Gary Sykes; Jossey-Bass, 1999), which received the National Staff Development Council's Outstanding Book Award for 2000; and The Right to Learn (Jossey-Bass,1997), recipient of the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award for 1998. Among recent recognitions, she is recipient of the 2011 Brock International Prize in Education and the 2009 McGraw Hill Prize for Innovation in Education.

A native Californian, Alicia grew up on the beaches and in the mountains of Santa Cruz. She knew she wanted to be a teacher in kindergarten when Ms. Condor, her kindergarten teacher, allowed her to eat the cheese cut into various shapes upon reciting the correct shape name. 

Alicia has been teaching elementary school for 15 years in the Cambrian School District, where she lives for the joy and excitement for learning on her students' faces. Aside from teaching full time, Alicia has spent time active in her teacher's union where she served as President for four years. She also is a representative for California Teachers Association's State Council where she serves as Chair of the Credentials and Professional Development Committee. 

Alicia has three wonderful children, ages 9, 11 and 13 who enjoy laughing, the beach and throwing big parties. In her free time Alicia can be found underwater scuba diving and taking pictures to bring back to her students. She also enjoys poetry, hiking and fine wine.

Kirsten Barnes has worked for the Hanford Joint Union High School District for the past 21 years. She began her career as a teacher for the continuation high school and after obtaining her counseling credential became the counselor of the continuation high for 5 years before transferring to Hanford West High School. She has been at Hanford West for the past 13 years. Kirsten also works part time in the evenings as a teacher and counselor for Crossroads Charter School in Armona, California. 

Kirsten is the current President Elect of the California Association of School Counselors, (CASC), a State Council Representative for the California Teachers Association, Treasurer and Bargaining Chair of her local association: HSEA, and Vice Chair of the Tulare Kings Service Center Council. She is also a member of American School Counselor Association, National Education Association, Humane Society and the SPCA. She received her Masters in School Counseling from Fresno Pacific University and her Bachelors in Liberal Studies from Mount St. Mary's College. 

Kate Williams Browne is a tenured professor and Chair of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Department at Skyline College and Coordinator of the San Mateo Region of the California Early Childhood Mentor Program. She currently serves as President of the Faculty Senate of Skyline College and Executive Secretary of the California Community College ECE Faculty Association. A native Californian and the first in her family with a college education, she holds a BA (with Academic Honors) in Psychology from Stanford University and MA (with Academic Scholarship) in Early Childhood Education from the University of Michigan. Her education credentials include Elementary Certification from Michigan, a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from California, a California Children's Center Permit and a California Community College Credential. 

Among Kate's professional experiences are ECE teacher and administrator (including parent co-op, child care, bilingual preschool, kindergarten/first grade and 15 years at Stanford's Bing School); textbook writing (Beginnings & Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education, Beginning Essentials, To Teach Well: ECE Student Teaching Guide, and Guiding Young Children in a Diverse Society); and higher education instructor (Stanford University, Foothill, De Anza, Canada and Skyline Colleges). She also served on the Steering Committee for the ECE Competencies Integration Project at the California Department of Education. Among recent recognitions, she is the recipient of the Meyer Award for Teaching Excellence (Skyline College), ECE Professional of the Year (Peninsula Association for the Education of Young Children) and Who's Who of American Professional Women.

Michael Cooney is a partner in Investment Group of Santa Barbara and President and General Counsel of Cimarron Management Company. Mr. Cooney is also currently a member of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission. He served on the California Student Aid Commission from 2000-2004 and was Chair of that commission for 3 years. He was on the Board of Directors at EdFund from 2006-2010 and a trustee with Montecito Union School District from 1977 to 1988. Mr. Cooney also was a partner with Price, Postel & Parma in Santa Barbara, California for 30 years.

Marysol de la Torre-Escobedo received her Bachelor's Degree from UC Berkeley and her Clear Social Science Teaching Credential and M.A. in Education from Stanford University. In 2003, she began her teaching career as a founding member of East Palo Alto Academy High School. As a founding member of EPAAHS de la Torre-Escobedo worked closely with the Stanford School Redesign Network and their efforts in meeting the needs of all students and creating a model of school reform. 

De la Torre-Escobedo has taught AVID, Economics, Spanish, US History, and World History in the Bay Area, the Dominican Republic, the Glenn County Juvenile Hall, and Chico. She has been a teacher for the Chico Unified School District since 2007. In 2010, she co-founded Chico's first in-district charter school, Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, where she currently teaches. In 2013, she was selected as a Chico Rotary Educator of the Year and she also received the Golden Apple/KHSL Teachers are Heroes Award in 2014. 

De la Torre-Escobedo is the first generation daughter of Mexican immigrants. She currently resides in Butte County with her husband and two children, ages 6 and 4.

José L. González has been an educator for 18 years. He is the current Superintendent of the Planada Elementary School District, a position he has served since November 2010. Prior to serving the Planada Learning Community, José was Superintendent/Principal of the Ballico-Cressey School District for four and a half years. Aside from his professional duties as an educator, José is the Immediate Past President of CALSA, serves on the SEAC Board of Directors, ACSA Superintendent's Council, and most recently received a gubernatorial appointment to serve on the CTC. In 2009, José was awarded the ACSA Region IX Superintendent/Principal of the Year Award. 

José is the son of Mexican and Portuguese immigrants. Growing up, he saw the challenges his mother and father faced due to a lack of formal education. As a result, José feels a deep commitment to ensuring that all children, regardless of their personal struggles or circumstances, receive the quality education that will give them opportunities in life. He is married to María González who is a Second Grade Teacher in Livingston. They have two beautiful daughters, Alexí 15 and Alía 9.

Marquita Grenot-Scheyer is a proud product of the California State University system, having completed all of her educational degrees at California State University, Los Angeles. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, with a minor in Child Development, a Multiple Subject credential and Special Education credential, the Administrative Services credential, a Master of Arts in Education and her Ph.D. in Special Education from the Joint Doctoral Program with the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA. In recognition of her career, she was selected as the Distinguished Alumnus, CSULA Charter College of Education, in 2008. 

Grenot-Scheyer currently serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Teacher Education and Public School Programs with the CSU Office of the Chancellor. Prior to this appointment, she served as Dean of the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and Program Coordinator for both the Master's program in Special Education and the Special Education Credential program. 

She was the Chancellor's Office representative on two state-wide committees: The State Superintendent of Public Instruction's Autism Advisory Committee and the California Department of Education, State Performance and Personnel Development Plan Stakeholder Group. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP) and served on the CAEP Commission on Standards and Performance Reporting. 

Grenot-Scheyer's current research and work is focused on collaborative teacher preparation models to support student success. She has published numerous articles and book chapters in the areas of severe disabilities, inclusive models of education, and culturally responsive teacher preparation and is co-editor of the books, At the end of the day: Lessons learned in inclusive education (Paul H. Brookes, 2001), 1998) and Making friends: The influences of culture and development, (Paul H. Brookes, 1998). 

Bonnie Klatt currently teaches high school English and serves as English Department Chair at the Performing and Fine Arts Academy at Natomas Charter School. Prior to working at Natomas Charter School, she worked for five years as a consultant and administrator for the California Department of Education and the California State Board of Education on projects including the California High School Exit Examination, a variety of programs within the Charter Schools Division, and the implementation of new statewide assessments. Before joining the Department of Education, she taught high school English, media literacy, and AVID in the Center Unified School District and in the Grant Union High School District for a total of 15 years. At Center High School, she acted as a technology mentor, helped to implement and build a California Partnership Academy program, and co-developed districtwide writing assessment tools. 

Ms. Klatt is a lifelong resident of the state and has either attended or worked for California public education institutions since kindergarten. She earned her B.A. in English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her M.A. and teaching credential in English at California State University, Sacramento.

Kevin Kung works as a chemistry teacher at Palisades Charter High School. He previously taught science at Lowell High School and Hoover Middle School, both in San Francisco and at Beverly Hills High School. Mr. Kung also taught summers in China for the Center for Talented Youth program for Johns Hopkins and worked several years as a staff seismic geologist at URS Corp. Mr. Kung completed his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and master’s degree and single subject teaching credential from San Francisco State University. He held teaching fellow positions at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Teachers at Stanford; and the Tribal College and Universities Program at Middle Tennessee State.

Monica R. Martinez is an education strategist, author, speaker on innovation and education, including high school redesign, teaching, and college access. She is currently the Senior Strategist for the XQ Super School Project. She was a Senior Fellow for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and an appointee to the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics by President Obama. Her career encompasses major programmatic, management and executive leadership roles, including hands-on experience running and supporting major foundation initiatives related to expertise of secondary reform and college success. Monica was as an independent consultant where she served in an advisory capacity to multiple organizations, including non-profits, state systems, and foundations to assist in creating, revising, or implementing their education strategies and initiatives. Prior to this role, Monica served as the President of the New Tech Network and the Vice President for Education Strategy at KnowledgeWorks. 

In Washington, DC, Monica was a senior associate at the Institute for Educational Leadership where she founded the Washington, D.C. based National High School Alliance. Her book, Deeper Learning: How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century reflects her cumulative experience and shows how we can transform public education for the 21st century. She is on the Board of Trustees for Learning Forward, a national professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development, and Marin Humane, a local non-profit organization focused on animals. In 2016, she was name as a Distinguished Alumni of New York University where she received her doctorate degree.

Castle Redmond is a program manager at The California Endowment. Castle is currently responsible for developing policy and funding strategies to improve health outcomes for boys and young men of color in California, with an emphasis on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and investing in youth.

Previously, Castle worked as a program manager at Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) overseeing the Juvenile Justice Center Wraparound Strategy for the City of Oakland and the school district. There he collaborated with the county probation department on reforms to the juvenile justice system, among several other responsibilities. He also served as a discipline hearing panel case manager for OUSD, during which he coordinated services for students, worked with new teachers and administrators on strategies to address school climate, and provided outreach to families, community-based organizations, and government agencies.  During his time as case manager, Castle participated in OUSD’s first restorative justice pilot program at Cole Middle in West Oakland. 

Castle also served as a Commissioner for Alameda County’s Human Relations Commission where he co-led the Sexually Exploited Minors Task Force efforts at building community engagement and raising awareness of the issue. In addition, Castle co-drafted the official task force recommendations for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

Castle, an Oakland resident, earned his B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and his law degree from Georgetown University.

Haydee Rodriguez is a bilingual/bicultural National Board Certified Teacher in Social Studies who received her bachelor's (with distinction) in History from San Diego State University and earned a master's in education in 2002 from Stanford University. While a graduate student at Stanford, Rodriguez participated in the founding of East Palo Alto High School, a student-centered/teacher-led school. Additionally she has been with the Central Union High School District since 2005; during this time Rodriguez has advised the Interact Club and as coach has taken the ACADEC and Mock Trial teams to victory at the county-level and on to state competitions. Rodriguez has taught AP Spanish Literature and Language, Humanities, US History and is currently teaching US Government and Theatre at Southwest High School in El Centro, CA. 

Rodriguez has received various awards and fellowships, among them the merit-based Governor's Teaching Fellowship in 2001, NCSS Student Teacher of the Year, in 2008 she was named ACSA Imperial County Teacher of the Year and was selected by Rotary International to represent Southern California in a group study exchange in Ghana and Togo. In 2009, she served on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Social Studies-History Standards Committee and is currently serving on the NBPTS Board of Directors. 

Rodriguez has demonstrated her commitment to equity, access and social justice by serving on various boards such at the AAUW-Imperial County, Orphanaid Africa, Literacy Volunteers of America, and ICAC. 

Rodriguez was born in Mexico and was raised in a rural border town in Southern California where she currently resides.

Ref Rodriguez is proud to represent the diverse communities in Board District 5 as a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.  He is co-founder and served as co-Chief Executive Officer of Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC), a charter school management organization serving communities in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and Northeast Los Angeles. During his tenure, PUC developed 10 schools and became a well-regarded charter management organization in California. Ref's original inspiration for starting a charter school was to offer high quality learning experiences for youth in the predominantly Latino working class community where he grew up. His outrage for being considered "fortunate" for having graduated from college because of his socio-economic background is what drives him to create and support schools where college graduation is an expectation for all. Before joining the charter schools movement, Ref worked in the business sector and as a teacher and administrator in Catholic parochial schools. He is the first of five children of Mexican immigrants to graduate from college. Ref is an advocate for the health and welfare of vulnerable populations. He has been appointed to boards and commissions that focus on serving those most in need. 

Ref is adjunct professor in the School of Education at his alma mater, Loyola Marymount University where we helped develop a Master's and Administrative Credential Program for aspiring leaders in charter schools. He is a fellow of the Aspen Institute-Pahara Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education, Class of 2007. He is a fellow of the German Marshall Fund's Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program, Class of 2011. Ref holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara.

Tine Sloan is the Acting Director of the Teacher Education Program in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara. She has taught courses in the Ph.D. and Teacher Education Programs focused on issues in human development, educational psychology, teacher education, and assessment. Her primary research interests revolve around teacher education, particularly with respect to teacher and teacher educator learning, as well as to the role that policy and context play in this learning and in program development. Related to this is her interest in understanding, developing and using valid and reliable assessments of teacher and student learning. All of her work is framed by her primary interest in understanding and advocating for the well being of children in educational contexts. Prior to coming to UCSB, she spent 3 years in Singapore and was a member of the faculty at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University. Dr. Sloan completed her teacher certification at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1988, and her master's and doctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1996.

Christine G. Zeppos has been serving as Dean and Professor in the School of Education at Brandman University, Chapman System, since 2010, where she oversees all teaching, administrative services, and pupil personnel services credential programs. Dean Zeppos earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Southern California, a master's degree in Education from Loyola University of Chicago, and a doctoral degree in Education with an emphasis in Higher and Adult Education from Arizona State University. She was the recipient of the Distinguished Doctoral Degree Candidate Award from the College of Education as the top graduate in the 1997 graduating class for her research on promoting diversity through structured curricular and co-curricular programs and how these programs affect the access, persistence and retention of diverse students in higher education.

For over 20 years, Dean Zeppos has led accreditation efforts with CTC, NCATE, APA, WASC and HLC. During her tenure as Assistant Dean at DePaul University, she served as an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Certification Officer and worked closely with Chicago Public Schools. Dean Zeppos is a member of CTC’s Board of Institutional Reviewers where she has served as site team lead/member and as AICCU’s representative on CTC’s Accreditation Advisory Panel (AAP) to strengthen and streamline accreditation in California. Dean Zeppos is past president of the Independent California Colleges and Universities Council on the Education of Teachers (ICCUCET), which is now a subsidiary of AICCU, and she is an accreditation site visit team member for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Dean Zeppos has been teaching at the university-level for over 20 years, primarily at the doctoral level.  Through this experience and through constant interaction with superintendents, educational leaders and business leaders in California, she became cognizant of the need to develop authentic transformational leaders to maximize our educational and societal potential. This led her to oversee the development of an innovative principal/admin PASC program and an interdisciplinary doctoral program focused on transformational leadership and change.