Alpha’s Mission

A product of public education and a native Californian, Allison is passionate about ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to pursue educational and cultural opportunities. She is a proud Teach For America alumna, where she taught 5th grade in St. Louis, MO and was chosen to represent and speak on behalf of the 2005 corps at the 15th Anniversary Alumni Summit. After her classroom experience, Allison worked for a marketing and customer loyalty company, where she managed on-site logistics for corporate events of Fortune 500 companies.

Allison then moved back to the Bay Area and to work for City Year San Jose / Silicon Valley, where she managed AmeriCorps corps members to implement high impact tutoring and extended learning time at an East San Jose elementary school. She is now serving as the Director of Individual Giving at Teach for America Bay Area. Allison earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Southern California and Masters degrees in Arts Management and Business Administration from the University of Oregon.

Alison is an active member on several boards, including the Peninsula School Endowment and Trust Fund, The Northfield Mt Hermon School and SV2, the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund. Prior to serving on boards, Alison addressed social and environmental challenges as the Executive Director for the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team at the Center for Social Innovation.

Alison has also taught middle school, co-authored two books about software for children and spent ten years creating marketing programs and consulting companies like Apple Computer, Claris and Ansa Software.

Alison has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in history from Vassar College.

Ann served as Executive Director of Boston’s Achievement Network where she built and oversaw the partnership with 20 high-performing charters and 40 district schools.

During Ann’s tenure as the BPS Director of Strategic Planning, UP Academy Boston doubled math proficiency rates and had the highest student growth in the state. Ann was also Executive Director of Excel Academy, a charter public school whose primarily low-income, Latino students have consistently outperformed other public middle schools in Massachusetts.

Ann is an alumna of the Broad Residency in Urban Education. She holds a BA from Harvard and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Frances is the founder of Voices College-Bound Language Academies. As a National Board Certified Teacher, Frances is committed to serving children in urban school settings. She has worked as a university instructor, principal coach, school administrator, instructional facilitator and Dual Immersion Language teacher.

Frances grew up in East San Jose and didn’t speak English until she went to Kindergarten. Although she did well in high school, she wondered why her education didn’t prepare her for college. This experience motivated her to establish a school that would improve the lives of historically underserved students by building on a student’s assets and home culture.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Child Development and a Masters of Elementary Education from San Jose State University.

Patricia is a passionate immigrant rights advocate and strong supporter of pro bono volunteerism in the legal community. She has been in private practice since April 2012 and specializes in family-based immigration.

Since September 2014, she has appeared on Noticiero Telemundo’s weekly immigration segment, helping viewers navigate the complex immigration system. Patricia is also a Board Member of the Santa Clara County La Raza Lawyers Association, an Advisory Board Member of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, and a former Board Member of Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN.)

Patricia was born and raised in San José, California and is a first generation college graduate. Her parents immigrated to the United States in 1974 from Zacatecas, Mexico.

She received her J.D. from Lincoln Law School of San Jose and her BS in Sociology, with a double minor in Ethnic Studies and Anthropology, from Santa Clara University.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Valerie leads KIPP’s multi-year strategic planning and communications as well as special projects through which network-wide working groups pursue strategic initiatives. In addition to leading KIPP’s national Strategy Team, Valerie partners with and oversees KIPP’s Government Affairs team (focused on leading KIPP’s federal advocacy strategy and execution while advising KIPP regional teams on local advocacy strategy) and the national Marketing team.

Valerie came to KIPP from McKinsey & Company where she led teams to develop strategies for leading institutions in the financial, technology and education sectors and helped launch McKinsey’s Financial Inclusion Practice. Prior to McKinsey, Valerie worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley in the Latin America and Real Estate groups and also served as weekly tutor at a local public school. Valerie holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an BA in Economics from Princeton University.

Richard Garrett is a member of the board of directors at Focus Business Bank, which was formed in 2007 by long time local residents to meet the needs of closely held businesses in Santa Clara County. Dick was also the founder and CEO of Richard Garrett Associates, a bank consulting firm with primary emphasis on credit examination, due-diligence, litigation support, expert witness, documentation and compliance. He was educated at the University of Colorado, and Western State College in Colorado, where he received his Bachelor’s degree.

His post-graduate studies were at the University of Denver and the Pacific Coast Banking School in Seattle, Washington. Dick’s longtime commitment to help people in need has led him to support the Clarence Foundation of Oakland, Hospice of the Valley in San José, the First Congregational Church, Planned Parenthood, the San José Repertory Theatre, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies in Berkeley, the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others.

As the founder and CEO of Alpha Public Schools, John Glover helps to prepare and empower 1,600 K-11 students from East San José for a successful future. Founded in 2010 by a group of East San José parents who personally selected and recruited John for the leadership role, Alpha’s network of four high-performing charter schools prepares students to be the community’s next leaders. Alpha’s model emphasizes personalized learning, computer science, and character development.

An experienced teacher and administrator, John worked as a financial advisor before entering the field of urban public education. He quickly rose from effective teacher to leader and administrator, including school principal, executive director, and chief operating officer at a network of high-performing charter schools in Oakland, California. As a teacher, John ensured that all of his students were accepted to four-year colleges and universities; later, as COO, he supported the schools’ operational needs, including staffing and student recruitment.

John serves on the Board of Directors for Navigator Schools which focuses on using education to improve communities in California’s Central Coast. He also participates in the Charter Network Accelerator, an intensive leadership development program for charter leaders, created through a partnership between Achievement First, YES Prep and Aspire Public Schools.

John earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston College and his teaching credential from the Hufstedler School of Education at Alliant International University.

As Chief Schools Officer for Alpha Public Schools, Shara Hegde supports school leaders across four school sites and special education, and also partners with the CEO to provide leadership, vision, and strategic direction for the organization.

Prior to joining the Alpha team, Shara served as the Founder and Executive Director of Cornerstone Academy, a K-8 charter school that is now part of the Alpha network. Since its opening in 2010, Cornerstone Academy has been amongst the highest performing schools in the city of San Jose and was named a California Distinguished School in 2014.

Shara also serves as Vice-Chair of the California Charter Schools’ Association Member Council for Region 5 and is an advisory board member for several nonprofit education startups. She was named a 2015-16 Leverage Leadership Institute Fellow with the Relay Graduate School of Education. Prior to founding Cornerstone, she taught elementary school in Miami, Florida for several years through the Teach for America program.

Shara received her Bachelor’s Degree in History from Brown University in Providence, RI and has her Master’s Degree in Education Policy, Organizations, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University. She also has an additional Master’s Degree in Instructional Leadership from the Reach Institute for School Leadership in Oakland, CA.

As Chief Operating Officer for Alpha Public Schools, Chris Kang manages the operations, marketing, and finance teams. Prior to joining Alpha, Chris worked as Senior Director, KIPP School Leadership Programs Operations at the KIPP Foundation.

Chris began his career in education as an AmeriCorps member at Partners in School Innovation in San Francisco. After moving to New York City, Chris worked for the next five years as a middle school math teacher in public and charter schools in New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey. Chris then served as the Director of Operations of the Excellence Boys Charter School Middle Academy, part of the Uncommon Schools network in Brooklyn, New York.

Chris holds a BS from the University of Michigan, an MA from Bank Street College, and an MBA from Yale University.

As Director of Instruction and Leadership Development, Hope Evans develops the instructional coaching capacity of Alpha leaders. Hope has also served as the Founding Principal at Alpha: José Hernández Middle School.

She joined Alpha as an Education Pioneers Graduate Fellow when the organization was only 10 people strong. She then went on to serve as the Assistant Principal at Alpha: Blanca Alvarado, and then the interim Principal of the Blanca campus.
Hope began her career in education as a reporter for Catalyst Chicago and also was a teaching intern at Breakthrough Collaborative. She joined Teach for America and served as a middle school ELA instructor on Chicago’s South Side. There, she served as a founding 8th grade teacher and earned a M.A. in Teaching.

After teaching in Chicago for several years, Hope attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and specialized in curriculum and assessment and teacher development. While at Harvard, Hope also served as an Instructional Coach at Breakthrough Collaborative.

Hope holds a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University and a M.Ed. in Education Policy and Management from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

Greg Callaham co-developed Alpha’s “Personalized Leadership Training” program – an integrated social-emotional learning program with a focus on hands-on practice and leadership development. This innovative program empowers students to coach, mentor and teach their peers, with adults as facilitators. Greg also coaches school leaders in implementation of positive culture systems and strategies across the network’s elementary, middle and high schools.

Greg served as an assistant principal at Alpha’s flagship middle school prior to taking on his current role. He also participated as a school leadership resident at High Tech Middle School in San Diego, California, was the director of educational game design at an EdTech startup in Shanghai, China, and taught middle school math in Portland, Oregon.

Emma Bean has extensive experience working with students in grades K – 8 and is a National Board Certified Teacher as well as trained and certified in Gifted and Talented education. Fluent in Spanish, Emma began her career in education working as a bilingual elementary school teacher in the Austin Independent School District. During those 5 years, she worked with the Dual Language Department to train teachers and write curriculum for the school district. She was awarded Teacher of the Year in 2014 and presented at the ¡Adelante! Dual Language conference.

After moving to the Bay Area, Emma assumed the role of campus director for Citizen Schools, a nonprofit that partners with middle schools across the country to provide after-school programming. In this role, she developed extensive management experience, while coaching and developing aspiring teachers. Most recently, she served as an Assistant Principal for Alpha: Blanca Alvarado School.

Emma Bean received her Bachelor’s Degree from New York University in Literature and her Master’s in Educational Leadership from Stanford University.

As principal of Blanca Alvarado School, Cynthia Nava Zavala is responsible for setting the vision and strategy for data-driven instruction and student and staff culture.

Cynthia began her career in education as a recruitment coordinator for the Raza Recruitment and Retention Center, while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Cynthia joined Teach for America in Newark, NJ, where she taught self-contained fifth and sixth grade bilingual students. After teaching in Newark, Cynthia went on to study at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, simultaneously serving as an instructional coach for Match Education and the Harvard University Undergraduate Teacher Education Program. Cynthia also served as a Campus Director for Citizen Schools in East San José, where she launched the first school partnership with Alum Rock Union School District.

Cynthia holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and earned a M.Ed. in Education Policy and Management from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Carlson began her teaching career in East Palo Alto as a 3rd grade teacher. While she was there, she also taught 5th grade and was the Math and Technology coach. Upon her acceptance to University of Southern California (USC) for her master’s degree in teaching, she moved to southern California. She moved out of the classroom as a Dean of Instruction and worked closely with the principal to create and monitor the instructional program as well as to provide workshops for families. Dr. Carlson went back to school where she received her doctorate degree in educational leadership and also completed a principal-leadership residency.

She was most recently the principal of a TK-8 school in Boyle Heights – located in Los Angeles, where her school serves a community very similar to Alpha’s, where over 90% of students received Free and Reduced Lunch. She’s excited to join the Alpha team as the new principal of Alpha: José Hernández and to continue to grow as a leader and learn something new from her students, staff, families, and community.

Besides living a few years in Mexico as a child, East San José has been Jorge’s home for over 25 years. Jorge’s academic and professional career started in San José City College, where he took general education classes before transferring to Santa Clara University. During his 3 years there, he worked with special needs students and students who were not doing well in school. At SCU, Jorge attached a Bachelors in Sociology while working at the Bill Wilson Center as a counselor and continued there until getting his teacher credential and Masters in Education.

For the past 4 years, Jorge has been in charge of academic culture, discipline, recruitment, parent participation, special education, and teacher coaching in a charter high school with a similar mission to Alpha. He is excited to bring his life and professional experience to Alpha and looks forward to continue to develop a culture of high expectations and academic excellence at our school.

Rebecca Cruz serves as the Recruitment Manager at Alpha Public Schools. She uses data to improve the hiring and selection process for all open positions in the organization, with a focus on creating and implementing a strategic recruitment plan.

Rebecca started her career in a major retail company in San Jose where she spent 4 years in Human Resources and became the HR manager. In this role, she was responsible for assisting with all functions of the business and led the talent acquisition efforts in her district.

While in HR, Rebecca focused on building strong relationships with local schools to provide students with entry level career opportunities. This exposure led her to transition into the field of education.

Rebecca earned her BA from San Francisco State University in Sociology and is currently finishing up her MBA at San Jose State University.

Trudy Day is the manager of the Alpha Residency Program and oversees the credentialing of all teachers across the organization.

Trudy has been a secondary English and History teacher, a school counselor and a high school principal. She has worked with two State Departments of Education and the USDOE and has been a School of Education Associate Dean at Alliant International University.

Trudy received her BA from Vanderbilt University, her MS in Counseling from Tennessee State University, and her EdD in Educational Administration from the University of Louisville.

Matt is responsible for setting up tech programs for all students and creating data visualizations. He attended Washington University in St. Louis and worked at Cornerstone Academy Preparatory School upon graduation in 2013, first as a tech teacher, then as a data and technology manager. Matt joined Alpha’s network team through the merger starting in the 2016-2017 school year.

Nelly is one of the founding mothers of Rocketship Los Sueños and Alpha Public Schools. Her energy and passion for Alpha’s mission is limitless. She oversees student recruitment and ensures that families feel compelled and empowered to demand an excellent education for their children.

As Director of Finance, Damone Jordan is responsible for overseeing the annual budgeting process, preparing financial statements and reporting financial information to key stakeholders, including funders, lenders and members of the Board of Directors.

Before joining Alpha, Damone spent three years working in public schools in New Jersey and Maryland in various roles, including: Paraprofessional in a Special Education fifth grade classroom, Long Term Substitute Teacher for sixth grade math and social studies, In-School Suspension Coordinator at a middle school, and fifth grade Classroom Teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools.

Damone also spent time working in the private sector as a consultant for an economics consulting firm, as a Senior Analyst at Wells Fargo, and as a Finance Analyst for Johnson & Johnson.

Damone holds a B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University. He also has a M.A. in Economics from Duke University where he studied Public Policy and the Economics of Education.

As the bookkeeper for Alpha Public Schools, Pawan Kaur assists in managing day-to-day accounting and finance requirements. Pawan started her career as a junior accountant with a consulting firm in New York City. She also worked in Inventory and Reconciliation Accounting at Barnes & Nobles College and was a treasury Analyst at Dow Jones & Company.

Before relocating to California, Pawan worked as a Family Office Accountant at an Investment Bank where she helped multiple families with their finance needs.

As Talent Associate at Alpha Public Schools, Clarence Lal helps to drive day to day Recruitment Activities through sourcing, screening, and interviewing. He also assists with any HR programs or policies as they relate to employees.

Clarence was a Research Assistant in UC San Diego, running multiple studies on the physiological and neurological responses to experimental music. Clarence has also been a Stanford sleep science ambassador and conducted his own research on how social influence impacts charitable behavior. Today, Clarence uses these skills to help drive Recruitment and aid in any HR matters.

Clarence earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego.

Cecilia Mendoza supports the operational functions at the network level and facilitates the work of the Operations Teams at the school level. She supports school site operations, facilities maintenance special projects and events.

Cecilia has over 18 years of experience in educational administration services. Before joining Alpha, Cecilia spent 10 years overseeing all elements of the administrative running of Leadership Public Schools Campbell and San Jose. She started her career in public education at Campbell Union School District as a Campus Supervisor and Registrar at Campbell Middle School.

Cecilia holds an A.A. Degree from San Jose City College.

As Alpha’s Director of Special Education, Russ Michaud oversees the development, staffing, execution and measurement of Alpha’s special education services and programs across the network’s four schools. He is also responsible for supporting all of Alpha’s special education staff, including teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, psychologists and the designated instructional services team.

Originally from Boston, MA, Russ joined Teach For America and moved across the country to work with students in East San José. He spent 5 years in the classroom teaching elementary-aged students with emotional disturbance. Russ’s support helped students make significant progress on their academic, behavioral, and social/emotional goals. Russ simultaneously coached new teachers at Teach For America’s Summer Institute and helped in the development of first and second year special education teachers in the Bay Area.

Russ earned B.A. in Psychology from Ithaca College, an Administrative Credential and M.A. in Educational Leadership from San José State University, where he focused on the effective implementation of special education programs in the charter school setting.

As HR Manager for Alpha Public Schools, Kathy Ngo oversees Alpha’s HR programs and policies.

Kathy began her career in retail management, living and working in the San José community. She has over 10 years of experience with leading large teams of employees and managing different aspects of business operations for a large retail company. Her passion for the people side of organizations helped her obtain the role of HR Manager, where she focused on talent development, managing employee relations, recruitment and other HR operations.

Kathy earned her B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in HR and Marketing Management at San José State University and California State University, East Bay.

Jennie oversees the communications and marketing strategy at Alpha to increase brand awareness as well as enhancing Alpha’s image to gain continued support for growth.
She began her career as a recruiter and social media marketer for an in-home care company in Los Angeles where she managed full cycle recruiting and streamlined the social recruiting process to amplify hiring efforts. Jennie then transitioned to direct response marketing at DIRECTV/AT&T to target specific markets for customer acquisition in bundled services.

Jennie received her B.A. in Zoology and minor in Management at Miami University of Ohio.