People on the Move
New Executive Roles for Papay, Osumi, Harris, Dove, Guerrero, Harless, Sikora
Educators, Administrators Tapped for Benchmark's New Educational Advisory Board
- By Kristal Kuykendall
- 07/12/23
Editor’s Note: THE Journal welcomes submissions about new hires and promotions among ed tech industry executives and K–12 public school administrators in the United States. Contributed news items will be published regularly on THEJournal.com; the archives can be accessed at any time at THEJournal.com/articles/list/people-on-the-move.
To submit news about new leadership and management changes at K–12 ed tech companies and at nonprofits in the K–12 ed tech space, complete the form at bit.ly/EdTechPeopleNews. To submit news about new hires and promotions among K–12 public schools administration, complete the form at bit.ly/K12AdminNews. News releases should be emailed to [email protected].
Papay Named Director at Brown’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Educational inequality scholar John Papay, who also serves as associate professor of education at Brown University, has been appointed the next director of Brown’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
Papay has served as interim director since January. As director, he “will continue to position the Annenberg Institute to serve as a hub of education scholarship that confronts some of the most pressing issues in teaching and learning, including opportunity gaps and learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the organization said in a news release. “By creating a broader set of opportunities for engagement and learning for students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, scholars and practitioners across campus and beyond, Papay plans to expand the institute's robust set of collaborative research projects, generating insights that can be directly applied to teaching practices and education policy.”
Since joining the Brown faculty in 2012, Papay’s research has focused on policies that affect teachers and their work, and how schools and policies perpetuate or ameliorate educational inequality. He currently leads the Educational Opportunity in Massachusetts project, a longstanding partnership with the Massachusetts Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Papay also is credited with building a partnership between the institute, the Rhode Island Department of Education, and the Providence Public School District, which aims to improve student engagement and teacher learning, among other things, by combining educators’ expertise with data-driven research methods, according to the news release.
Papay, who also serves as a research affiliate with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, holds a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College and master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He is a former high school history teacher.
Papay succeeds Susanna Loeb, who served as Annenberg Institute director from 2018 to 2022.
GoGuardian Announces New CFO Osumi and CRO Harris
Ed tech conglomerate GoGuardian has appointed Ichiro Osumi as Chief Financial Officer and promoted Luke Harris to Chief Revenue Officer, moves that further prepare GoGuardian for “significant growth” in the curriculum and instruction space, the company said in a news release.
With over 20 years of finance and strategic leadership experience, Ichiro Osumi comes to GoGuardian from the software and private equity industries, the company said. He has served in senior roles at Autodesk, Littlejohn & Co., Aurora Capital Group, Bear Stearns & Co., and Wind River Systems, where he served as Vice President of Finance.
Luke Harris, who joined GoGuardian in 2016, most recently served as Vice President and General Manager of GoGuardian subsidiary TutorMe. During his tenure with GoGuardian, Harris has led Strategy Operations, Customer Support, and Strategic Revenue Initiatives, and he is credited with building out GoGuardian’s implementation and business development teams. In a previous sales leadership role, he achieved the largest year-over-year revenue growth in the company's history, according to the news release.
Learn more at GoGuardian.com.
Dove Named CEO at Ellipsis Education
Computer science curriculum provider Ellipsis Education has promoted Vice President of Product Whitney Dove, Ph.D., to CEO, according to a news release.
Dove’s career has included managing the online professional development programs at the National Institute for STEM Education, served as a founding member of the STEMscopes Curriculum team, teaching eighth-grade science, and serving as an instructional coach.
Dove holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Tech University; a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Texas – Arlington; and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Austin College.
She has led Ellipsis Education’s product development and growth from its early focus on coding, and its rebrand from the previous name, Codelicious. Ellipsis Education’s mission is “to remove barriers to teaching computer science” and give educators the tools needed to effectively teach computer science regardless of their level of subject-matter experience, the company said.
In addition to Dove’s new position, Ellipsis said that Vice President of Finance Sara Larco, CPA, has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer.
Learn more at EllipsisEducation.com.
Portland Superintendent Guerrero Tapped to Lead Council of the Great City Schools
Guadalupe Guerrero, superintendent of Portland Public Schools, has begun his one-year term as chair of the Council of the Great City Schools' Board of Directors, effective July 1, according to a news release.
The 156-member CGCS board includes the superintendent and a school board member from each of the 78 big-city school districts represented by the Council.
Guerrero has served as superintendent of Oregon’s largest school district since 2017; under his leadership, the Portland school system “has established a K–12 climate justice curriculum, expanded arts education, and secured a $1.2-billion school modernization bond to improve the health, safety, and infrastructure of the district's school buildings,” CGCS said.
He succeeds Kelly Gonez, school board president of Los Angeles Unified School District.
Marcia Andrews, school board member for Florida's School District of Palm Beach County, becomes chair-elect, stepping up from the Council's secretary-treasurer post.
Rounding out the Council's 2023-24 leadership team will be Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, who has been elected to the secretary-treasurer post.
Learn more at CGCS.org.
Harless Named Chief Product Officer at BookNook
Literacy and tutoring provider BookNook has announced the appointment of Jared Harless to the role of Chief Product Officer, according to a news release.
Previously, Harless served as Vice President of Product Strategy at Encoura, an educational data science and research firm, where he “built a product management organization and launched a new direct-to-learner product for high school students navigating the post-secondary planning process and a B2B2C experience for educators supporting those learners,” BookNook said. Prior to that role, Harless held various product leadership roles at McGraw-Hill Education, where he worked for more than 17 years.
Learn more at BookNook.com.
Benchmark Announces New Educational Advisory Board
Educational publisher Benchmark Education Company has unveiled its new Educational Advisory Board, comprising veteran K–12 administrators from large cities across the United States, according to a news release.
The board is tasked with helping “guide the company's publishing plans to best support the needs of today's students and educators,” Benchmark said.
BEC's Educational Advisory Board members are:
Dwight Jones, Advisory Board Chairman (Colorado Springs, Colorado), who has served as Colorado Commissioner of Education, superintendent at Clark County School District in Nevada, and interim superintendent at Denver Public Schools. He is also the founder and president of Education Practice and Policy Partners, a consulting firm advising education donors, investors, and executives.
Thomas Aurelio Davis (San Diego, California), a former middle and high school bilingual science teacher, coach, and administrator. He also founded Net4EdAccess, which aims to “connect the priorities of the business world to meet the needs of the education field,” Benchmark said. He is currently the Director of Business Development at the Center for Educational Innovation in New York and sits on the advisory boards of several nonprofit, education-supporting organizations.
Michael Hinojosa, Ed.D. (Dallas, Texas), retired superintendent at Dallas Independent School District. He served for 27 years as a superintendent/CEO at six public education systems and worked for over four decades in public education. Hinojosa is a 202 recipient of the Urban Educator of the Year award from the Council of the Great City Schools.
Christina Kishimoto, Ed.D. (Honolulu, Hawaii), founder and CEO of Voice4Equity, a Clinical Professor of Education at the USC Rossier School of Education, and former State Superintendent of Education for Hawaii. Previously, she also was district superintendent in Hartford, Connecticut, and Gilbert, Arizona, and a member of several boards, including the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, where she served as president.
Marcus Newsome, Ed.D. (Washington D.C./Baltimore, Maryland), the director of the Virginia Superintendents Leadership Academy and president of the National Bible College and Seminary in Fort Washington, Maryland. He previously was a school district superintendent in Virginia for 16 years, and he was honored at the White House in 2015 for his leadership in digital education.
Mike Poore (Little Rock, Arkansas) retired superintendent at Little Rock School District and 2021 Superintendent of the Year recipient (Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators). He has been a teacher, coach, athletic director, assistant principal, and principal, and served in other top administrative roles, including superintendent at Sheridan School District in Denver, Colorado, and at Bentonville Public Schools in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Alicia Thompson, Ed.D. (Wichita, Kansas), recently retired superintendent at Wichita Public Schools, the state’s largest school district. Her achievements include “guiding the district through the COVID-19 pandemic, raising graduation rates, and expanding the district's career technology programs,” Benchmark said. She began her career as an elementary school teacher and retired from her leadership role in Wichita at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
Learn more at BenchmarkEducation.com.
California Educator Sikora Appointed to National Science Panel
Sharon Sikora, Ph.D., an educator and Middle School Curriculum Director at California’s Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton,has been appointed to the steering panel for the National Assessment of Education Progress to update the science framework for the "Nation's Report Card" in 2028, according to a news release.
The report card includes the results of a nationwide exam for science that is given every four years to a random sampling of students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades. The Nation's Report Card is used in policymaking to determine education funding and legislation.
The last update to the framework was made in 2005, for the 2009 assessment. Following the panel’s recommended updates and a comprehensive bias study, the updated framework “working draft” will be open to public review, including feedback from national science and education organizations, according to the news release.
Sikora joins the steering panel that includes 30 teachers, curriculum experts, school administrators, policymakers and scientists; they are tasked with making recommendations for the framework of the nationwide assessment, NAEP said.
In addition to serving as a science educator for 35 years, Sikora brings experience in public policy to the panel, NAEP said; she was a Congressional Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow from 2016-2017.