Brian Rogers, Board President
Executive Director, Rogers Family Foundation
Brian Rogers, an Oakland native, is currently the Executive Director of The Rogers Family Foundation, a supporting organization that supports and enables Oakland education and youth development organizations. The Rogers Family Foundation works with Oakland organizations, schools and community groups in order to create systematic change as well as nurture innovative educational strategies. Previous to his current position, Brian was the manager of the Lair of the Bear, a family summer camp run by the UC Berkeley Alumni Association. Prior to that, Brian was an English teacher and tennis coach at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland.  Brian graduated from UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School as an undergraduate in 1995 and received his California teaching credential from St. Mary’s College in 2000.

Susan Harper, Board Treasurer
Director of Education, Low Income Investment Fund
Ms. Harper directs LIIF’s Education Program and is responsible for the growth in LIIF’s cumulative charter school lending activity since 2003 from $4 million to more than $90 million. She leads LIIF’s capitalization, research, lending business development and policy activities for education. Ms. Harper joined LIIF in 2002 as a Community Facilities Senior Loan Officer. Previously, she was an Assistant Vice President with NCB Development Corporation (NCBDC), the non-profit affiliate of the National Cooperative Bank in Washington DC, one of the first CDFIs nationwide to lend to charter schools. Ms. Harper’s work with charter schools at NCBDC was in addition to her work overseeing NCBDC’s $12 million economic development portfolio. Previously, Ms. Harper was a consultant with Price Waterhouse, focusing on urban economic development programs. Ms. Harper has a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelors degree in Spanish and History from Williams College.

Sanjay Dholakia, Board Secretary
Chief Executive Officer, Crowd Factory
Sanjay Dholakia is the Chief Executive Officer of Crowd Factory, where he is responsible for the strategic direction and vision of the company. Sanjay joins Crowd Factory from Lithium Technologies, the leading provider of Social CRM solutions, where he was the Chief Marketing Officer. Dholakia was responsible for driving the vision, go-to-market strategy, and customer acquisition programs that helped the company drive 100% year-over-year growth as well as a 2X increase in valuation during his tenure. Prior to joining Lithium, he served as senior vice president and general manager for SumTotal Systems, responsible for a $100M business that was the clear market share leader in learning management software and solutions. During his tenure, the company grew over 10X. Dholakia also served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and Andersen Consulting, advising Global 500 companies across a broad range of industries, helping to drive tens of millions of dollars in revenue and operating efficiencies. Sanjay holds a B. S. from the Wharton School and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Sarah Chavez

D'Lonra Ellis

John Hall
Educational Consultant
John Hall is an educational consultant whose clients include the Oakland Unified School District, Alameda Unified School District, California Charter Schools Association, New Leaders for New Schools, BayCES, EdTec, charter management organizations, and individual schools. He serves as a project manager for the Chief Academic Officer in OUSD, where he provides support and guidance to the leadership team, frames policies and policy conversations, coaches district leaders and principals, and serves as a "boundary spanner" between research and practice. As part of OUSD’s redesign team, he led the development of the district’s academic strategic plan and reorganized the district’s office of charter schools. John was one of the initial architects of Leadership Public Schools, serving as the Vice President for Curriculum and Instruction. At LPS he managed the organization’s education team, developing systems and structures in areas such as instruction, assessment, human resources, and operations. He also briefly managed human resources for Envision Schools. John received a BS in Biology and a BA in Education from the University of Washington, as well as an MA in Education from UC Berkeley. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Education Policy at UC Berkeley.

Mike "JB" John-Baptiste
President, End2End Solutions
JB started End2End Solutions in 2006 in order to create a venue to more directly impact the creation of supply chain finance programs in key markets globally by facilitating relationships in global trade & commerce.  His mission in the workplace is to help people find success and happiness in their professional pursuits.  JB has been a business development executive, financial advisor, investor and market strategist for well over a decade.  During this time he was a Vice President, Business Development for two payments and financing companies.  He also spent several years at First Data Corporation investing in and managing a consumer and business-payments portfolio.  In the early part of his career JB was an investment banker with Robertson Stephens where he largely focused on raising strategic capital for private and public internet and new media company.  Clients included CBS Sportsline, Excite and Stamps.com.  JB is heavily involved in the local community with a focus on youth development.  He co-founded a nonprofit called TennisTalk in 2000 and he currently serves on the board of Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, California. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics.

Monica Montenegro
Executive Director, East Bay Consortium
Mónica  Montenegro is the Executive Director of the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, a nonprofit agency in Oakland established in 1978 as part of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal-SOAP).  EBC leads collaborative projects with secondary and postsecondary institutions in an effort to improve academic achievement and to increase educational opportunities for underrepresented students.  Mónica has directed the East Bay Consortium since 2000 and has been with the agency since she was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.  She serves on the Lawrence Hall of Science Community Advisory Board and the Planning and Oversight Committee of the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth.  She is a Eureka Communities Fellowship Program alumni, an on-the-job leadership training program for nonprofit executive directors in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Soo Zee Park
Director of Operations, Leadership Public Schools
Soo Zee Park is the Director of Operations for Leadership Public Schools, a network of small charter high schools in the Bay Area. Prior to her time with LPS, Soo Zee previously worked with the non-profit Unity Council and Fruitvale Development Corporation. While there she served as the project manager for the $68MM mixed-use Fruitvale Transit Village adjacent to the Fruitvale BART Station. She also worked on a $2MM Fruitvale Streetscape Project with the City of Oakland. Ms. Park has over seven years of experience in architecture and construction administration working on a variety of residential, mixed-use, university and museum projects including the award winning Tenderloin Elementary School in San Francisco. Ms. Park holds a Master of Business Administration from John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, as well as a Bachelor degree in architecture from North Carolina State University.

Jonathan Velline
Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo
Jonathan Velline manages Wells Fargo’s network of more than 6,500 ATMs which is the third largest bank ATM network in the United States. Velline is also responsible for distribution planning for Wells Fargo’s network of more than 3,100 banking stores. Velline began his career with Wells Fargo in 1991 as a financial analyst. Since that time he's held a variety of positions responsible for charting Wells Fargo's retail banking and distribution strategy.