Board of Directors

Chris Adams is a vice president at Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused private equity firm, where he focuses primarily on investments in the software and services sectors. Previously Adams worked at American Securities Capital Partners, where he executed private equity transactions in a variety of industries including energy, defense, and consumer products. Prior to that, he was with Bain & Company as a strategy consultant. Adams currently serves on the board of directors of two private companies: QuadraMed, a provider of clinical and financial software systems to hospitals, and Discrete Wireless, a provider of fleet management solutions for local vehicle fleets. Over the past four years, Adams has worked with GreatSchools in various financial advisory capacities. He earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BS in computer engineering from Georgia Tech, with summa cum laude honors.

Anthony J. Colón is widely respected as one of the nation's most forthright diversity advocates and has been instrumental in bringing education reform to the Hispanic community and increasing recruitment and professional development opportunities for minority educators. In 2008 he cofounded the AVANTI Strategy Group, LLC, a strategic planning and consulting firm serving small businesses, nonprofits, and Latino-driven health and education initiatives. In 2007, drawing on his extensive background in education and his ongoing work with nonprofits, he formed AJ Colón Consulting, LLC., a firm dedicated to training and helping educational systems for low-income, minority, and underserved children. Colón was vice president of the National Council of La Raza's Center for Community Educational Excellence. He has 30 years' experience as a teacher and school administrator in public, private, and parochial schools and has served on the faculty of Lehman College at the City University of New York and at Fordham University's Department of Bilingual Services. Colón is a founding member of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, serves as chair of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and served as vice chair of the DC Public Charter School Board. He holds a master's degree and professional diploma in educational administration from Fordham University in New York and a bachelor's degree in sociology from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York.

Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is also chair of the executive committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas and a member of the CALDER Management Team. He is chair of the board of directors of the National Board for Education Sciences, a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 education. Hanushek has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, with a special emphasis on the determinants of student achievement. He was the first researcher to measure teacher effectiveness by the learning gains of the teacher's students. His books on education include Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children, Handbook on the Economics of Education, The Economics of Schooling and School Quality, Improving America's Schools: The Role of Incentives, Making Schools Work: Improving Performance and Controlling Costs, Educational Performance of the Poor, and Education and Race, along with more than 200 professional articles. Hanushek's government service includes posts as the deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office, senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers, and senior economist for the Cost of Living Council. Hanushek is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he earned his BS degree. He received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As a teacher in the United States and China in the late 1980s, Jackson came to recognize the extraordinary influence parents have over their children's education. Then, as an Internet entrepreneur in the 1990s, he recognized the extraordinary potential of the Internet as a communications medium to engage and support parents. He founded GreatSchools in 1998 to tap the power of this new medium to help parents be more effectively involved in their children's education. An avid school volunteer, Jackson is a member of the California P-16 Council and serves as secretary of the Parent Association Council at Chinese American International School and a volunteer at Miraloma Elementary School. He has also served as a director of the San Francisco Education Fund and as treasurer for two San Francisco school financing measures and a school board campaign. Jackson holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University and is a graduate of the San Francisco Coro Fellows Program. As the former president of the Scientific Society at Phillips Exeter Academy, he loves hearing about his two daughters' elementary school science experiments.

Larry Kane is a partner in the emerging company practice group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He represents both emerging and public companies in several areas, including formation and structuring, financing, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and private and public offerings of securities. For the past 17 years, Kane has also served as volunteer head coach of the wrestling team at Galileo Academy of Science, where he has led hundreds of wrestlers to both athletic and academic success. He also serves on the San Francisco Library Commission and ran for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Education in 2004. Kane serves on the board of Aim High, the San Francisco School Alliance, and Pivot Education, and he counsels pro bono a number of community groups and organizations, including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Kane earned his JD from the Columbia University School of Law and his BA from Columbia University.

Leanna Landsmann was president of Time for Kids, a magazine reaching more than 4.2 million students nationwide. Before joining Time, she was editor and publisher of Instructor, the nation's leading magazine for teachers, and director of Harcourt Brace Children's Books. She founded Leanna Landsmann Inc. (LLI), a company that helped corporations and organizations contribute successfully to schools. She was founding volunteer director of New York City's Principal for a Day and founding board member of PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning). She writes "A+ Advice for Parents," a weekly column syndicated by United Features. She helped launch the Canandaigua New York Lake Watershed Alliance Education Program. She is co-chair of the Scripps Florida Council in Jupiter, Florida. The council is dedicated to supporting basic research in disease prevention and cures at the Scripps Research Institute, the world's leading not-for-profit biotechnology center. Landsmann started her career as a teacher in West Africa.

Clesont Mitchell has spent over 25 years in the field of parent involvement and education. He believes that, through true collaborations at all levels; we can help all our children succeed. He has fostered the idea of parent partnerships to better reflect the true ideal of working together to help our children succeed. Mitchell has served as president of LaGuardia High School of Music and Art Parents Association, president of the Council of Specialized High Schools, president of the Manhattan Federation of Parent Associations, and vice president and chairman of the executive board of United Parents Associations of NYC, Inc. He has also worked as the program coordinator and outreach director of the New York Urban League's Citywide Parent Engagement in School Leadership Teams. Mitchell has served on the Parent Advisory Panel for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition. He is currently a member of the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE) and the National Coalition for Parents of English Language Learners (NCPELL) and serves on the boards of GreatSchools and Citizens for Effective Schools.

Sean Ryan is the chairman of Meez, a leading social entertainment company combining avatars, games, and a virtual world. He is also a partner at Loki Partners. Ryan previously served as vice president of music services at RealNetworks, where he managed the music division after selling Listen.com to Real in August 2003. As CEO of Listen.com, Ryan helped lead the development and roll-out of the award-winning Rhapsody subscription music service. Prior to joining Listen.com, he ran business development for online game company SegaSoft Networks, spent several years at the GAP helping launch the successful Old Navy clothing line, and worked at Chemical Bank. Ryan holds an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management and a BA from Columbia University.

Michael Schmier is vice president of media and audience products at Focus.com, a leading B2B media company providing open, peer-powered expertise to all business and IT professionals. Previously, Schmier held a wide range of executive positions including vice president of products and marketing at BabyCenter, the leading online destination for new and expectant parents, and vice president of product marketing and business development at Merced Systems, a market leader in enterprise performance management and analytics systems. He has also served as practice manager at the Advisory Board Company, an industry research and consulting company. He has extensive experience in developing and marketing online products as well as managing online commerce, media, and SaaS business models. Schmier received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alan Tripp has made a career of enhancing student motivation, success, and achievement. As founder and CEO of InsideTrack, his attention is now focused on the success of college students, as reflected in academic performance, persistence, and graduation rates. A wide variety of colleges contract with InsideTrack to provide its coaching services directly to students. When students are coached by InsideTrack, they are more likely to engage in their academic experience, achieve their goals, and graduate. Previously, Tripp launched SCORE! Educational Centers, a national system of K-12 centers aimed at helping students strengthen their academic skills and love for learning. As the founder, CEO, and general manager of SCORE!, Tripp helped to grow the company to nearly 100 centers with more than 1,500 employees. The company is now a unit of the Washington Post Company. Tripp was a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate Schools of Business and Education from 1999-2004, where he co-taught the core course for education entrepreneurs. He holds a BA in economics and an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Dr. Jerry Wartgow is currently a senior specialist with the U.S. Fulbright Program. Wartgow was most recently the interim dean of the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. He served as a superintendent of Denver Public Schools from May 2001 to July 2005 and was president of the Colorado Community College System from 1986 to 1998. He has served as deputy executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and as dean of the International School of Bangkok. Dr. Wartgow holds a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Denver, a master of education degree from the University of Hawaii, and a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin; he has completed postdoctoral work at the East-West Center in Honolulu and Harvard University. He is the author of Why School Reform Is Failing: 10 Lessons From the Trenches (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).