Our Team

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Lauren Morando Rhim

Lauren Morando Rhim is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Center for Learner Equity (CLE). She provides CLE strategic vision and oversees a variety of research, advocacy, coalition developing, and field-based capacity building projects. Lauren’s recent work includes conducting secondary analyses of the federal Civil Rights Data Collection, examining the challenges associated with developing equitable special education funding formulas, and developing a strategic city-based framework for effectively and efficiently educating students with disabilities. Lauren comes to this work out of a passion for and commitment to social justice and an optimist’s belief that we can make public schools work for all learners.

Prior to founding CLE, worked as a researcher, consultant, and advocate, striving to identify strategies to create and sustain high quality public schools for all students. She has published extensively about school reform and regularly consults with federal, state and local policy leaders as well as practitioners. As the founder of LMR Consulting, she specialized in pressing education reform issues pertaining to school turnaround, charter schools, special education, and state and district support for school improvement. She was formerly a Senior Consultant at Public Impact where she conducted her own work and led project teams to produce research, evaluation, and technical assistance, and provide direct support to clients. As a faculty Research Associate at the University of Maryland, she conducted both research and external consulting and evaluations. While at UMD, Lauren directed Project Intersect, a four year, federally funded study of special education in charter schools and was a consultant to three other related initiatives: Project SEARCH, SPEDTACS, and the TA Customizer.

Lauren holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont, a Masters from The George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Education Policy and Leadership from the University of Maryland. When Lauren is not working, she is committed to community service at the local level, having served on either her locally elected school board or a charter school board for the last eight years. She also enjoys swimming, cycling, and generally spending as much time outside as possible. She lives in Norwich, Vermont with her husband, her unrully dog Tucker and occassionally, her two adult children.

Senior Fellow Emeritus

Paul T. O’Neill

Paul O’Neill is the Co-founder and Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Center for Learner Equity. At CLE, Paul focuses on both internally and externally facing work. He engages in program projects, policy priorities, organizational planning and leadership, as well as on representing the organization with external stakeholders. Paul’s recent projects have included developing project work in New Jersey, Florida and New York, drafting op ed pieces on key issues, and leading CLE’s Equity Coalition convenings. Paul comes to this work as a person who has grappled with learning disabilities and ADHD all of this life. He is committed to equity for all students and creating opportunities for all kids to learn.

In addition to his work at CLE, Paul is an education attorney, professor and author. He has extensive experience in guiding education organizations through challenges and growth. Throughout his career he has advised schools, authorizers, networks, non-profits, government agencies and philanthropies on the rules and complexities that apply to educational organizations as well as on effective board governance. Paul’s professional experience spans the education sector. He served for several years as General Counsel of the SUNY Charter Schools Institute (CSI), one of the nation’s leading charter school authorizing offices. He has also served as a lawyer in private practice, for boutique law firms specializing in education law as well as large corporate law firms, and as an in-house attorney at a large charter school management organization. He is a former Associate Director of the Newgrange School and Educational Outreach Center in New Jersey, which serves individuals with learning disabilities. On the academic side, Paul serves on the adjunct faculty of Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he teaches courses on education law and policy. He is a frequent guest lecturer at other universities on a range of education reform topics and is the author of several books and numerous scholarly and professional articles.

Paul holds his bachelor’s degree Oberlin College, his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his M.Ed. from Teachers College. When Paul is not working, he is committed to community service. He helped found charter schools in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and New Orleans, and is currently on the board of a pair of charter schools in New York City devoted to serving students with autism. He served for several years as Chair of the Education & Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, as well as on the Professional Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, and on the board of the Learning Disabilities Association of New York City. He likes to take unreasonably long walks and is devoted to pizza.

Senior Director of Strategy & Impact

Jennifer Coco

Jennifer Coco is the Senior Director of Strategy & Impact at the Center for Learner Equity (CLE). At CLE, Jennifer supports the initial piloting and implementation of specialized CLE programming and various projects within the policy team.  Her recent projects have focused on leading a consortium of New Orleans stakeholders to improve special education coordination and capacity in the city’s all-charter school system, and deepening CLE’s policy investments in issues of school climate and discipline in order to eradicate inequitable impacts on students with disabilities. Jennifer comes to this work with a passion for education law and policy and achieving equity for kids.

With a background as a civil rights attorney, Jennifer’s career has been dedicated to achieving systems change to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, particularly within the areas of special education, ending the school to prison pipeline, and English learner programs. Prior to joining the Center, Jennifer was the founding Director of Policy and Advocacy at New Pathways New Orleans and an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Her proudest accomplishments include the groundbreaking lawsuit P.B. v. White, which produced systemic improvements in special education in New Orleans’ all-charter school system, and serving as the first elected Chairperson of the Louisiana Advisory Council on Student Behavior and Discipline, where she led negotiations with diverse education interests to overhaul the state’s school discipline statute. Jennifer is also proud to have served as the volunteer Chair of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Bureau of New Orleans, a local organization that provides mental health and trauma interventions to children and families.

Jennifer received her law degree from the DePaul University College of Law and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. When Jennifer is not working, she enjoys being a doting mother to her two young children, cooking and baking, and being a critical consumer of TV pop culture.

Strategy and Research Assistant

Lauren Davis

Lauren Davis is the Strategy and Research Assistant at the Center for Learner Equity (CLE). At CLE, Lauren is responsible for assisting the CLE team in alignment with our vision and mission, ensuring daily operations run smoothly as well as providing support to programs.

Lauren received her bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science with a minor in Human Rights and Public Service from the University of Montevallo. During this time she served as an intern for the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, in addition to leading a program working to civically educate youth in the city of Montevallo called the Students’ Institute. Lauren continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin to earn a Masters in Public Affairs. During graduate school, she worked with the City of Austin through Leadership Austin and their Conservation Corps program. The program’s goal was to gather diverse populations and facilitate robust conversations around difficult and biased subjects while avoiding conflict.

When Lauren is not working, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, time outdoors, and exploring new places.

Research Analyst

Li Ma

Li Ma works as a Research Analyst at the Center for Learner Equity (CLE). Li leads in research design and collaborates with other members of the CLE research team in data
collection, analysis, and report writing. She brings over a decade of research and data analysis expertise in system change and community development advancing equity.
She specializes in synthesizing strategic policy recommendations based on both quantitative and qualitative data.

Coming from an immigrant background, Li has been passionate about inclusion and equity for historically marginalized groups. While teaching and conducting research projects in higher education institutions (Cornell University, Tongji University, and Calvin University), Li also worked with nonprofits and philanthropic foundations in strategic planning and community-based social justice work. She is a published author of seven academic books. Before joining CLE, Li worked as a Senior Consultant leading research projects at a social justice consulting firm. Li Ma received a Master’s degree in Sociology of Education from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University.

In her spare time, Li enjoys swimming, hiking, singing karaoke, family movie time, and traveling with her husband and two very active and artsy children. She likes to cook and host friends to share good food together.

Director of Talent, Culture, and Project Coordination

Jacy Nary

Jacy Nary (she/her) is the Director of Talent, Culture, and Project Coordination for the Center for Learner Equity (CLE).  Jacy’s primary responsibilities include talent strategy, talent acquisition and onboarding, project coordination, human resources operations, organizational culture, and Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion.  

Prior to her role with CLE, Jacy served Boise State University leading several people operations-related teams.  While at Boise State, Jacy served five terms on the Professional Staff Association, holding multiple leadership positions, including Vice President.  Under her leadership, the Association advocated for equity and inclusive opportunities in the workplace. Jacy used the experience of COVID-19 to develop effective strategies for building and leading cohesive teams in a remote and hybrid environment, focusing on each employee’s individual experience as well as the collective team.  Before Boise State, Jacy was the City Clerk for Meridian, Idaho.  Through this role, Jacy developed a passion for community, youth, and making space for experiential learning.  As a founding Board member for the Children’s Museum of Idaho and Commissioner for Meridian’s Historic Preservation Commission, Jacy focused on developing learning opportunities that encourage curiosity and growth while building and supporting the family relationship.

Jacy holds multiple Human Resource certifications, including the Society of Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and is a certified human rights professional through the Wassmuth Center. When not working, Jacy enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, bonus kids, and mini dachshund puppy named Chandler.  She can often be found at the beach, eating tacos or enjoying copious amounts of coffee.

Senior Policy Fellow

Wendy Tucker

Wendy Tucker is the Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Learner Equity (CLE). She is an attorney, disability advocate and education policy expert. At the Center, Wendy works at the federal, state and local levels to support policies that ensure students with disabilities have the quality educational opportunities and choices they need to thrive and learn. Wendy’s recent projects have focused on policies that address the needs of students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, including preserving IDEA protections and encouraging the use of COVID relief funding to support students with disabilities. Wendy comes to this work out of a passion for the rights of students with disabilities, fueled by her experience with her own daughter and her prior work representing students in special education matters.

Prior to coming to CLE, Wendy worked as a trial lawyer, first as an assistant public defender and later in private practice. In 2005, inspired by her own daughter’s journey as a student with a disability, Wendy began representing families of students with disabilities in special education matters. She has worked extensively at the state and local level in Nashville, Tennessee to advocate for education policies, especially those that benefit students with disabilities. She has held leadership roles in several non-profit organizations focused on education and special education issues, including serving as the founding board chair of Nashville’s Diverse Learners Cooperative and currently serves as a charter school authorizer in Tennessee as a commissioner on the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.

Wendy holds a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Tulane University’s Newcomb College and a doctorate of law from Tulane Law School. When she is not working, Wendy enjoys running, gardening and going on adventures with her family.

Senior Director of Educational Leadership

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Director of External Relations and Communication

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Director of Research

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Executive Coordinator for Operations

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Board Chair

Robert Garda

Professor Garda teaches contracts, commercial transactions, international commercial transactions, employment discrimination, legal methods, and scholarly writing. He is the author of numerous articles and reports on education law. His recent articles appear in the North Carolina Law Review, Florida Law Review and Journal of Law & Education. His legal scholarship covers a variety of topics including: the rights of disabled students, affirmative action, integration in K-12 education, special education spending and legal issues surrounding charter schools. His current projects concern: introducing outcome accountability into special education law, the impact of monied interests on education legislation and the changing purposes of education as recognized by the Supreme Court and embodied in recent legislation.

Professor Garda was the past national Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Education Law and currently serves on its Executive Committee. He also serves as a member of the Louisiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Board of Directors for the Louisiana Mental Health Advocacy Services. He has worked on projects with the Louisiana Bar Foundation and Louisiana Appleseed. He also works with national and local public interest groups on education and disability issues and is a frequent commentator in the Louisiana media on education issues. He was awarded the 2010 Good Apple Award from the Appleseed Network and the 2009 Gillis Long Poverty Law Center Public Service Award for his public service. He was also voted the Favorite Professor of the Year in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

Professor Garda joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 2002. Prior to entering academia he graduated from Duke University Law School where he served as Articles Editor on the Duke Law Journal. After externing for Justice Zimmerman of the Utah Supreme Court, Professor Gardabecame a partner at the Salt Lake City firm of Fabian & Clendenin focusing primarily in the areas of education law, commercial litigation, and employment law.

Board Vice Chair

Shannon Hodge

Shannon Hodge is the founding Executive Director of the DC Charter School Alliance. She previously served as the executive director of Kingsman Academy Public Charter School in Washington, DC, which she co-founded to serve students at risk of dropping out because they were overaged and undercredited, had attendance and truancy issues, or had emotional and behavioral challenges. A former high school counselor and guidance director, Shannon has worked in and around education at the local, state, and federal levels for much of the past twenty years. Before becoming a charter school leader, she was an attorney representing a variety of educational organizations, including school districts and universities. Ms. Hodge has served as co-chair of the editorial boards of the Harvard Educational Review and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties. Shannon holds a bachelor’s degree in Afro-American Studies from Harvard, where she also completed the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program; a master’s degree in educational and psychoeducational studies from Purdue; a master’s degree in educational administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard; a law degree from Stanford; and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Georgetown.

Board Treasurer

Cliff Chuang

Cliff Chuang currently serves as Senior Associate Commissioner for Educational Options at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He is responsible for supporting and overseeing the wide range of educational options available to Massachusetts families, including charter, virtual, and other redesigned school models; career technical education; adult basic education; early learning; and out-of-school time programs. He also oversees the Department’s student and family support initiatives and the state’s problem resolution system to ensure educational equity. The Department has been recognized as a national leader for charter school and career/vocational technical educational quality, and in the way leaders partner with the field in research and support initiatives. He serves on the board of The Center for Learner Equity and the national advisory board of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Cliff previously served as the director of charter schools for the New York State Education Department. He started his career teaching secondary mathematics and science in Boston, in both district and charter school settings. He holds a A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University, and a M.Ed. in Secondary Mathematics Teaching from Boston College.

Board Secretary

Renita Thukral

In addition to being a partner at Civil Rights Solutions, Renita Thukral serves as the Sr. National Legal Advisor at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In these roles, she leads and grows a national network of charter school attorneys known as “The Alliance of Public Charter School Attorneys”; provides technical assistance and training to charter school operators, authorizers, attorneys and advocates seeking to improve school-level civil rights policies and practices; addresses fiscal equity and labor issues confronting charter schools; provides litigation and strategic assistance to state partners considering litigation; and supports charter school advocates and operators seeking to improve their regulatory and authorizing environments.

Prior to this work, she served as the Policy Director at the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and the Director of Policy and Advocacy at New Schools for New Orleans. Renita earned her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. She taught junior high school math in Los Altos, California, before attending law school, and she served as a public defender for over six years in New York City before joining the charter school community.

Board Member

Mashea Ashton

Mashea Ashton is the Founder and CEO of Digital Pioneers Academy, a new charter school proposed for Washington, DC in Fall 2018. Mashea recently returned back to the Washington, DC area after spending the last 20 years implementing and scaling the best practices in urban education across the country, after starting her career as a special education teacher in Williamsburg, Va and Washington, DC. Mostly recently, Mashea served as the CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund, where she oversaw a $48 million initiative to support the quality growth of charter schools. Under Mashea’s leadership, Newark’s charter sector grew from 8% to an estimated 30% of the children in Newark’s public schools in 2016, while being ranked the second highest performing charter sector in the country, according to Stanford University’s 2015 CREDO study. Mashea has previously served as the executive director for the New York Program and senior advisor for charter school policy for New Leaders for New Schools. Mashea has also served as the executive director for Charter Schools for the New York City Department of Education, and the national director of recruitment and selection for the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). Mashea is the Vice- chair of the board of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and serves on the boards of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, The Center for Learner Equity, National Charter School Resource Center, and Eagle Academy Foundation Advisory Board. She has been honored as the New Jersey Charter Champion for Advocacy by the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, the First Lady of Charter Schools by Marion P. Thomas Charter School, the Shirley Chisholm Trailblazer by SHE Wins LLC, a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow by the Aspen Institute, and as an Education Award recipient from Leadership Newark. Mashea is a frequent speaker and panelist for charter school and education reform advocacy organizations around the country. Mashea has a M.Ed. in special education with an emphasis on learning disabilities and emotional disturbance, and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and elementary education from the College of William and Mary. She and her husband Kendrick are the proud parents of twins who are in kindergarten.

Board Member

Sam Drazin

Sam Drazin is a former elementary educator and the Founder/Executive Director of Changing Perspectives, a national non profit organization which provides disability awareness programs in schools. Sam consults with schools around inclusion and positive climate and culture. He continues to be amazed by the positive impact that disability awareness initiatives are having on students and educators around the country. Sam has been featured in the Washington Post and is active in the educational sector by presenting at educational conferences and serves on a number of boards.

Board Member

Charisse Gulosino

Charisse Gulosino, an associate professor in the Leadership and Policy Studies Program at the University of Memphis, received her doctorate in education from Columbia University and pursued a postdoctoral training at Brown University’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy. Her research focuses on the evaluation of educational policies and programs with a specific interest in school choice that enhances education access, equity, efficiency, and results-based accountability. Charisse has served (2006-2010; 2019-2022) as chair and program chair of the American Educational Research Association’s Charters and School Choice SIG. She held the position of Visiting Scholar/Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley from 2019-2020. She also serves as an Affiliate Faculty member at the Center for Research in Education Policy (CREP) within the College of Education at the University of Memphis. Her work has appeared in edited books and journals, including the Peabody Journal of Education, Planning and Changing Journal, Urban Education, Education Policy Analysis Archives, Education Economics, and Education Finance and Policy. Her research is available at https://sites.google.com/site/charissegulosino/personal-homepage.

On a national level, her research has been cited in journals, education agencies (i.e., Education Commission of the States, National Charter School Resource Center), academic blogs, and at different media outlets including press inquiries and interview requests (i.e., New York Times; Education Week; Chalkbeat; ProPublica; The Commercial Appeal; School Administrator Magazine; Brown University’s Daily Herald; California Matters; and the Hechinger Report). Her research on charter school boards in Massachusetts has been featured by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Her work on suburban and rural charter schools has been cited in a recent New York Time article. She served on the Technical Review Panel for the National Household Education Surveys (NHES) on homeschooling and virtual schools, sponsored by USDOE’s National Center for Education Statistics. She has worked with The Forum on the Future of Public Education at the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne as a Forum Fellow and the Network of Independent Charter Schools Project (funded by the U.S. Department of Education) to guest blog posts on current school choice programs and charter school issues. 

Charisse has leveraged the experience gained from her dissertation work, writing for a general audience (including policy audiences) and using data for planning and improving school performance to help create a dozen start-up charter schools in New York City, Newark, and Memphis, working in concert with boards, school leaders, and community-based organizations to strengthen school programs, accountability, equity, and continuous improvement system. In addition, throughout the pandemic, she has mentored aspiring school leaders in conducting improvement projects from a range of perspectives and methodologies, such as Improvement Science, Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR), Lean for Education, Six Sigma, and Networked Improvement Communities (NICS).

Board Member

Robin Lake

Robin Lake is Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, and is nationally recognized for her research and analysis of U.S. public school system reforms, including charter schools and charter management organizations, innovation and scale, portfolio school districts, school turnaround efforts, and performance-based accountability systems.

Ms. Lake has authored numerous studies and provided expert technical assistance reports on charter schools. She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs (CRPE, 2010) and editor of the annual report, Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She co-authored, with Paul Hill, Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education (Brookings 2002).

She has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures, presents regularly at conferences and summits around the United States, and serves as an advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the National Charter School Resource Center.

Board Member

Alex Medler

Alex Medler has been a national expert on charter school policy since the opening days of the movement, analyzing the first laws in 1992. He leads the Tri-State Alliance to Improve District-Led Charter Authorizing, which helps school districts in California, Colorado, and Florida strengthen their charter authorizing practices. As part of this work he directs the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers. He previously led the National Charter School Resource Center and directed policy, research, and technical assistance initiatives for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). He also served on NACSA’s Board of Directors from 2007 to 2009.

Additionally, Alex chaired the board of the state-wide charter authorizer in Colorado; directed research and policy development for the Colorado Children’s Campaign; led national activities for the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program; and directed charter school and school choice work for the Education Commission of the States.

Alex earned his Ph.D. (political science) from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a B.A. (politics) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two children.