Layla Avila

Layla Avila serves as CEO/Executive Director of Education Leaders of Color. Along with Kaya Henderson and Aimée Eubanks Davis, Layla convened eighteen prominent African-American and Latino education leaders to discuss whether a new entity of education leaders of color was necessary to expand the faces, voices and emphases of education efforts and build the bridges needed to sustain and expand its success. This group became EdLoC’s Leadership Committee.

Previously, as Executive Vice President, Layla led TNTP’s efforts to broaden TNTP’s impact through strategic partnerships. She also served as Chief of Staff for CEO Dan Weisberg, and oversaw TNTP’s new business development and federal grant strategy, external research and evaluation, and organizational accountability. Layla also oversaw all of TNTP’s work to recruit and train new teachers where TNTP’s Teaching Fellows Programs pioneered new ways of preparing teachers to be effective in the classroom. Before that, as Vice President and Partner for TNTP’s Teaching Fellows programs, Layla managed the design and implementation of projects across the Southwest.

Layla started her career with Teach For America in 1997, working as a bilingual and ESL teacher at August A. Mayo Elementary School in Compton, CA, and serving on the school's Leadership Team. She also served as an analyst for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence For Hispanic Americans, an interagency working group to increase educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

Layla holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an MA in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Layla was elected to the South Whittier School District Board of Trustees in 2005.

Sharhonda Bossier

Sharhonda is the Deputy Director at Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). In her current role, Sharhonda focuses on identifying, equipping, elevating and sustaining talented Black and Latino leaders to thrive in the highest-level education roles and lead a more inclusive education reform movement.

Prior to joining EdLoC, Sharhonda Bossier worked with Education Cities, a national non-profit that supports and advises city-based education organizations on their efforts to grow great public schools. In addition to core advising work, Sharhonda utilized her experience launching and leading a multi-state education engagement and advocacy organization to help members develop the skills and capacity to engage much more effectively with stakeholders. Prior to joining the Education Cities team, Sharhonda co-founded Families for Excellent Schools where she developed their training program and overall parent engagement strategy.

A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sharhonda started her career in education as a public school teacher and also brings years of legislative and electoral campaign experience in both volunteer and leadership capacities to her work at Education Leaders of Color.

Kaya Henderson

Kaya Henderson leads the Global Learning Lab for Community Impact at Teach For All. There, she seeks to grow the impact of locally rooted, globally informed leaders, all over the world, who are catalyzing community and system-level change to provide children with the education, support, and opportunity to shape a better future. She is perhaps best known for serving as Chancellor of DC Public Schools from 2010-2016. Her tenure was marked by consecutive years of enrollment growth, an increase in graduation rates, improvements in student satisfaction and teacher retention, increases in AP participation and pass rates, and the greatest growth of any urban district on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) over multiple years.

Most recently, Kaya has served as a Fellow with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a Superintendent-in-Residence with the Broad Leadership Academy, a coach with Cambiar Education, and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Georgetown University.

Kaya's career began as a middle school Spanish teacher in the South Bronx, through Teach For America. She went on to work as a recruiter, national admissions director, and DC Executive Director for Teach for America. Henderson then served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at The New Teacher Project (TNTP) until she began her tenure at DCPS as Deputy Chancellor in 2007.

A native of Mt. Vernon, NY, Kaya graduated from Mt. Vernon Public Schools. She received her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and her Master of Arts in Leadership from Georgetown University, as well as honorary degrees from Georgetown and Trinity University. Her board memberships include The Aspen Institute, The College Board, Robin Hood NYC, and Teach For America. She chairs the board of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC), an organization that she co-founded.

Richard Nyankori

Richard Nyankori is the founder and CEO of SPEDx—a startup that explores data to attain the most extraordinary success for students with special needs. Prior to founding SPEDx, Richard was the executive vice president of the international education consulting firm Insight Education Group and headed its award-winning product development team. He is the former the Deputy Chancellor of Special Education for the Washington, DC Public Schools and is credited for vastly improving the provision of services for students with disabilities. Prior to his work with DCPS, Richard served as TNTP’s director for training and certification.

Richard is faculty to some of the sector’s top leadership development programs including the Pahara-Aspen Fellowship, NAATE, and the Surge Fellowship. He serves as an advisor to Goalbook, Curriculum Associates, and IO Education. He is a founding board member of Educational Leaders of Color (EdLoC) and NewOrg, an Atlanta-area education impact investor, and the SWIFT Center. Richard began his career in education as teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools as TFA corps member (’93). He earned his PhD from the University of Maryland, an MS from McDaniel College and a BA from Emory University. .

Tequilla Banks

As an Executive Vice President, Tequilla Banks co-leads TNTP’s Client Team and partnerships with school systems, with a focus on building a thriving team and positioning TNTP for impact. She oversees TNTP’s research and evaluation efforts and chairs our Diversity Leadership Council. Prior to this role, Tequilla served as a Vice President and led TNTP’s work with school districts to design integrated approaches to talent and academics. Previously, as Senior Strategist, Tequilla helped lead projects such as measures of student learning with the New York City Department of Education and TNTP’s new work on student surveys.

Before joining TNTP, Tequilla worked for nine years in Memphis City Schools, where she oversaw the district-wide effort to improve student outcomes by increasing teacher effectiveness. Working alongside TNTP’s staff, Tequilla helped build community support for quality education, and drove human capital reforms that led to significant policy changes.

Tequilla holds a BA in psychology from Yale University and an MA in social work from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. She recently completed coursework for her capstone degree, and is currently writing her dissertation on policy implications surrounding teacher effectiveness.

Kenya Bradshaw

Kenya Bradshaw oversees TNTP’s strategy to support districts in dramatically transforming their approach to community engagement in order to create real and lasting changes in education. Previously, as a Partner, Kenya led TNTP’s work with the Houston Independent School District to develop an effective teacher evaluation system, and completely redesign the district’s staffing process and compensation system to recruit and retain only the most effective teachers.

Before joining TNTP, Kenya served as the Tennessee Executive Director for Stand for Children. She also has worked for the Urban Child Institute, The University of Tennessee, and the First Years Institute, advocating on behalf of children and youth. In 2008, her work with the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth led to the creation of child impact statements as a tool for local governments to use to ensure that every action they take is in the best interest of children.

Kenya’s community engagement expertise runs deep. She has served on numerous community boards including the Girl Scouts of the Mid-South, Tennessee Pre-K State Advisory Council, and Common Ground, a local racial reconciliation effort. In 2012, she was named one of “12 Who Made a Difference” in Memphis by the Commercial Appeal, and an honoree for the Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Awards.

Kenya received her BS in marketing and MBA at The University of Tennessee.

Aimée Eubanks Davis

Aimée is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Braven. She was inspired to start this innovative initiative based on her deep passion and belief that our next generation of leaders can emerge from everywhere. Growing up in low income and underrepresented communities and working with young people from similar backgrounds drives her to be on a mission to discover, develop, and connect extraordinary, diverse, and driven young people to high-quality opportunities and networks.

Eubanks Davis has spent the majority of her career at Teach For America. In 2002, she joined the TFA staff as Vice President of New Site Development, helping to grow the organization’s presence into Miami and Philadelphia, as well as doubling TFA’s presence in New York City.

In 2005, Eubanks Davis became the Chief People Officer and oversaw the organization’s staff growth from 200 to over 2500 staff members. Additionally, she worked on the development of a comprehensive competency model for staff recruitment, selection, performance management, and learning and development, ensuring that the Human Assets team was positioned to fuel the growth and success of TFA. In 2011, Eubanks Davis took on the expanded role of Executive Vice President of People, Community and Diversity, leading TFA’s work to uphold its commitment to diversity and to build an organization that is a model of fairness and equality. In January of 2013, she began overseeing the Public Affairs and Communications teams.

Before joining TFA staff, Eubanks Davis was a program officer at The Breakthrough Collaborative; prior to that position, she led the Summerbridge New Orleans site to become one of the most successful sites in The Breakthrough Collaborative. Eubanks Davis, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, was a 1995 TFA corps member and taught sixth grade social studies and language arts in New Orleans.

Natalie Gordon

Natalie Gordon began her career in school leadership by obtaining a Master’s in Education degree from Trinity College via the New Leaders for New Schools Program, a year-long program designed to develop outstanding leaders for service in urban schools. She received her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and she is currently pursuing an Executive Master’s in Leadership with the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Ms. Gordon has over 18 years of experience in urban education, with a particular expertise in school start-up. She is currently the principal of Jefferson Academy, a newly established, DCPS International Baccalaureate middle school. She was also the Founding Principal of Friendship Tech Prep, and both Principal and Assistant Principal at DC Prep’s Edgewood Campus. Ms. Gordon began her education career in New York City as a middle school teacher with Teach for America. Beyond school leadership, Ms. Gordon has worked with TFA as an advisor to corps members, a summer institute faculty director and a regional recruiter. She has extensive experience in the non-profit sector as both the Education Director and Executive Director of DC SCORES, a consultant with The New Teacher Project to lead administrator recruitment in DC Public Schools and manager of the DC Teaching Fellows Program.

Heather Harding

Heather Harding's professional career has spanned classroom teaching, professional development, non-profit management, and empirical research. Prior to joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a Senior Program Officer, she was the first Executive Director of EdCORE (The Education Consortium for Research and Evaluation) at George Washington University, where she was responsible for launching the new education research consortium focused on improving outcomes for DC’s public school students.

Over her career, Heather has held numerous roles in organizations including Teach For America, the Boston Plan for Excellence, Citizen Schools, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and KIPP. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A trained journalist, Heather attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and retains her love of investigative research and artful writing.

Kira Orange Jones

Kira serves as the executive director of Teach For America-New Orleans and she serves as an elected member on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Kira was a 2000 corps member in Baton Rouge, where she taught fourth grade at Eden Park Elementary. She went on to serve as school director for Teach For America's summer institute and, as vice president of new site development, leading the organization’s efforts to expand to three new regions.

Kira is also a moderator for the Pahara fellowship, a 2010 fellow of the Aspen-New Schools cohort, and a member of the Aspen Global Network. In 2015 Kira was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.Ed. in school leadership from Harvard University, and is an elected member of the statewide education policy making board, the Louisiana Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, advocating for policies to advance meaningful change for children throughout the state.

Jessica Levin

Jessica serves as a strategic advisor to Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). Previously, she served as Chief Knowledge Officer for TNTP where she launched TNTP’s policy arm and co-authored two widely-publicized national reports: “Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts” and “Missed Opportunities: How we Keep High Quality Teachers out of Urban Classrooms.” Before that, she was an education policy advisor in President Bill Clinton’s Department of Education, an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a parent and community organizer around quality federal education programs for the Center for Law and Education. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College.

Chastity Lord

In her role as chief external officer of Achievement First, Chastity is charged with leading the teams directly involved with external relations, marketing and communications, development, partnerships, and expansion.

Prior to joining Achievement First, she was a regional vice president for The Posse Foundation, Inc., a national organization that identifies urban public high school students with academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by the traditional college admission process. In her role as regional vice president, Ms. Lord was responsible for overseeing the Posse sites in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Before joining Posse, she served as the mid-Atlantic regional director for The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a non-profit educational consulting firm that partners with urban school districts, states and other governmental entities to enhance their capacity to recruit, select, train and support outstanding new teachers.

Directly before TNTP, Ms. Lord was the director of program services for Mentors, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes the academic, career and personal development of public high school students through one-on-one mentoring relationships and enrichment activities.

Chastity holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Chastity is a 2012-13 Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow with the Pahara Institute and the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and she also serves on the board of directors for the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.

Beatriz "BB" Otero

Beatriz “BB” Otero served as Deputy Mayor for HHS for the District of Columbia. She is the Founder and former President and CEO of CentroNía, a child and family services organization serving the DC metropolitan area since 1986. In 2004 she established DC Bilingual Public Charter School currently managed by CentroNía.

As its President and CEO, BB managed a multi-million dollar budget, and a staff of over 170 teachers, counselors, administrators and youth who serve some 1000 children and their families each year. A highly recognized community leader, BB has received a number of awards including the Leadership Washington’s Betty Whaley Leadership Award, the Association of Hispanic Employees 1994 Leadership Award, DC Action for Children Public Service Award 2007 and was named Washingtonian of the Year in 2000.

In 2006, BB was invited by the Rockefeller Foundation and the German Marshall Fund to participate in a month long transatlantic dialogue on Migration in Bellagio, Italy. In 2003, BB was appointed to serve on the Child Welfare Panel of the State of New Jersey responsible for oversight of its Child Welfare Reform Plan. BB serves on numerous boards including the Center for the Study of Social Policy, the Columbia Heights / Shaw Family Support Collaborative, the Equal Rights Center, the Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness and the Mayor’s Committee on Early Childhood Care and Education and is a past member of the DC Public Charter Board.

Beatriz Otero, a native of Bolivia, South America is a resident of the District of Columbia. BB holds a degree from the University of Maryland and an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Southeastern University. Ms Otero has over 35 years of experience in designing, implementing and directing community-based bilingual multicultural educational programs.

Ana Ponce

Ana Ponce is the Chief Executive Officer of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy (CNCA), a network of high performing charter schools serving more than 3200 Pre-K through 12th grade students in the greater MacArthur Park neighborhood near Downtown Los Angeles. CNCA schools are recognized as models for serving predominantly Latino English Language Learners and have won various awards and distinctions including the Title 1 Academic Achievement Award, the California Association of Bilingual Education Seal of Excellence, the California Distinguished Schools award, and the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) award. Born in Mexico, Ana is committed to providing high quality educational options for immigrant families in the neighborhood where she grew up.

An alumnus of Teach for America, she spent 3 years in the classroom before becoming one of the founding teachers and administrators at The Accelerated School, the first independent charter school in South Los Angeles. Under her instructional leadership, The Accelerated School was named elementary school of the year by Time Magazine in 2001. Ms. Ponce earned her undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and a master's degree in Bilingual-Bicultural Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her administrative Tier 1 credential and second master's degree from UCLA through the Principal's Leadership Institute (PLI) and earned a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Loyola Marymount University. A veteran of the charter schools movement in California, she serves on the Board of the California Charter Schools Association.

Derwin Sisnett

In 2015, Derwin Sisnett founded Maslow Development Inc. (Maslow), a nonprofit organization that develops communities around high performing schools. Prior to creating Maslow, Derwin co-founded Gestalt Community Schools (Gestalt), a charter management organization that manages the growth of high-performing, community-based charter schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Maslow was established in order to extend the community development and real estate practices that are a core part of Gestalt Community Schools’ mission to other high performing schools across the country. To date, Gestalt serves 2,300 K-12 scholars across 6 campuses in Memphis. In addition to his work at Maslow and Gestalt, Derwin serves on the Power Center CDC Board of Directors, the Crosstown Arts Board of Trustees, the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence Board of Trustees, the Methodist Extended Care Hospital Board of Directors, and the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Board of Commissioners, where he serves as Chairman. Derwin has earned a BA in Psychology from Emory University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Hollins University. Derwin is also a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and a Broad Academy Fellow.

Marco A. Davis

Marco A. Davis is a Partner at New Profit, a pioneering nonprofit national venture philanthropy fund. In this role, he serves as Organizational Lead on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and he manages the Proximity accelerator, engaging innovative social entrepreneurs of color.

Before joining New Profit, Mr. Davis served under President Barack Obama as Deputy Director and Acting Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, which included leading engagement with the Hispanic community on the President’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Initiative. He also served as Director of Public Engagement for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Previously, he was Director of Global Fellowship and Regional Manager for Latin America at Ashoka’s Youth Venture. Earlier in his career, he was Director of Leadership Development at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza).

Mr. Davis is a frequent speaker on the Latino community and education in the United States. He serves on the board of directors at Educators for Excellence and Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). He has been awarded the Hispanics in Philanthropy NGen Fellowship and the Presidio Institute Cross Sector Leadership Fellowship. In spring 2017, he was named a Pahara-Aspen Fellow.

Mr. Davis received a B.A. in History and Latin American Studies from Yale University, and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Originally from the New York City area, he lives in the District of Columbia with his wife and daughter.

Greg Gunn

Greg Gunn is the co-founder of Lingo Ventures, where he makes early-stage investments in education and workforce technologies. In 2000, he co-founded Wireless Generation, a leading educational software company now (as Amplify) serving more than 3 million children annually with groundbreaking assessment and instruction products. As President, Greg built the company’s product development, sales, services, and analytics divisions and shipped the award-winning mCLASS® handheld formative assessment platform.

Greg holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago, an MBA and Master’s in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He currently is a trustee of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, PowerMyLearning, and Education Leaders of Color. He was named one of Fast Company magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” in 2012. He serves as an expert-in-residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab and is on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Victor De La

Victor De La Paz is the Chief Financial Officer for the Achievement First Public Charter School network (AF), which manages 34 schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. In this role, he is responsible for steering all financial operations for AF such as revenue, payroll, accounts payable, internal audits and controls, and budgeting and forecasting. Prior to AF, Victor served as CFO for New Haven Public Schools and Baltimore City Public schools, as well as various leadership roles at Hartford Public Schools. A non-traditional education leader, he transitioned from corporate finance roles in the insurance and banking sector in 2008 through completion of the Broad Residency in Urban Education. Victor will be joining the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship in the Summer of 2018. He holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business and bachelor’s in History and Political Science from Rutgers College.