Celine Coggins is the founder and CEO of Teach Plus. Coggins is a former teacher and current Mind Trust Education Entrepreneur Fellow. She has a background that includes research, policy and K-12 teaching. She originally launched Teach Plus in 2007 as a subsidiary of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy in Cambridge, MA and incorporated it as an independent 501c3 in 2009. She has been a labor-management consultant in Providence, RI as well as Worcester and Springfield, MA and was formerly special assistant to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education on teacher quality. She is the author of more than two dozen reports and journal articles and the editor of two books. She earned her Ph.D. in Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University.

Watch Celine on "The Mind Trust Fellows with Jane Pauley."

Monique has been President of Teach Plus since its incorporation in 2009.  She brings experience as a social entrepreneur, management and human capital consultant and reform-oriented district administrator to the Teach Plus team.  She started her career in the business sector (Quaker Oat Co.) in marketing and brand management before moving to the education sector as a consultant for McKenzie Group, opening model middle schools in Washington, DC.  After spending a year as the assistant principal of one of those schools, Monique then worked as Special Assistant to the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Public School District, which informed her understanding of the need for quality training of urban school teachers and leaders.  This focus on human capital development lead her to co-found, and co-lead as President and Chief Curriculum Officer, New Leaders for New Schools. She later worked as a consultant for Building Excellent Schools, supporting the leadership capacity of some of Boston’s strongest charter schools. Monique earned her Bachelor's Degree from Dartmouth College, her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and her Master’s in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is ABD for her doctorate in Education Administration and Social Policy.

Read her testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee on the T3 Initiative.

Heather has spent her career committed to transforming education in the United States, especially for low-income and minority students. Previously, Heather served as the Director of Teacher Quality at the Education Trust, a national non-profit organization dedicated to raising standards and closing achievement gaps in education. At Education Trust, Heather managed research, data and policy analysis; wrote nationally-released reports on teachers; conducted presentations across the country; and developed federal and state policy to ensure access to effective teachers.

Heather earned her master's degree and doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. There, she was a founding member of the "Project on the Next Generation of Teachers," a research collaboration devoted to studying new teachers. Heather is a co-author of the award-winning book, Finders and Keepers: Helping New Teachers Survive and Thrive in Our Schools, as well as reports and articles on alternative certification programs, new teachers' experiences and conceptions of career. She has also worked as a School Director at Teach for America's Summer Institute, managing the preparation of several hundred new teachers. Heather launched her career in education as an elementary teacher and Teach for America corps member in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Heather graduated from Kenyon College with magna cum laude honors, earning a Bachelor's Degree in religion and South Asian studies.

Alice joined Teach Plus as National Director of Policy in October of 2011, bringing more than 20 years of state, national, and international public policy experience. She spent six years as Congressman George Miller’s chief advisor for K-12 education where she helped develop Race to the Top, the Investing in Innovation Fund, the Teacher Excellence for All Children Act, the RENEWAAL Act (to assist Gulf Coast schools after Hurricane Katrina) and revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Alice also advised Senator Paul Simon on education policy and served on the education committee that advised then-Senator Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. She developed policy recommendations that were adopted by the New Zealand government through a fellowship awarded by Fulbright New Zealand. At the Children's Defense Fund, Alice helped build the national grassroots advocacy program that led to state and federal policy changes benefitting low-income children and families. At the National Institute for Literacy, she helped build a new national network of literacy providers that successfully advocated for state and federal policy changes on behalf of their students. Other experience includes several years teaching GED and ESOL classes to low-income and homeless adults and refugees. Alice currently co-chairs Hope Street Group’s Education Policy Council and serves on the Board of the Success for All Foundation.

Before joining Teach Plus to lead the T3 Initiative, Meghan was the Project Director for School Turnaround Strategies at Mass Insight, where she provided overall project management and partner development for programs in Mass Insight’s school turnaround focus area. Prior to Mass Insight, she held positions as the Director of Strategic Planning and the Director of Operations in the New York City Department of Education’s Student Enrollment office, and taught second grade for several years. She earned an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management, a B.A. from Boston College, and an M.Ed. from Lesley College as part of the Lesley-Shady Hill School Teacher Training Program.

Tamala has devoted fourteen years of enthusiastic work in urban schools as a teacher, assistant principal, and most recently middle school principal. As a classroom teacher, Tamala developed a passion for new teachers quickly realizing the need for supporting new teachers in an effort to retain them in urban education. This passion led to her creating a district recognized new teacher support program while serving as Assistant Principal at White Station High School (Memphis, TN) from 2003-2006. In April 2006, Tamala was appointed Principal of Wooddale Middle School to begin the 2007-2008 school year. Having served for four years, Tamala’s effective instructional leadership focused on team-building, new teacher support, and data-driven decision making moved this urban school from an NCLB status of Target to Good Standing. Most recently, Tamala was recognized by the TN Association of Middle Schools as the 2010 West TN Administrator of the Year.

Tamala’s leadership training for urban education is attributed to her participation in The Memphis Leadership Fellows Program (2005-2006). Additionally, she is an April 2006 Fellow of The Leadership Academy, a highly respected program that gives emerging leaders the tools, experiences and exposure needed to drive community change in Memphis.

Tamala earned a B.A. in English from Tougaloo College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Jackson State University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Instruction Curriculum and Leadership from the University of Memphis where she is ABD.

Maria is the Teach Plus Boston Executive Director. Maria first joined Teach Plus as a Boston Teaching Policy Fellow in 2007. During the Fellowship, Maria focused on her interest in empowering teachers to lead turnaround efforts for underperforming schools. She was a lead writer of Ready for the Next Challenge, which became the T3 Initiative in three of Boston’s turnaround schools. Maria has been an invited panelist and speaker at the Learning Forward summer conference, the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching teacher panel.

Maria taught in Boston Public Schools for six years. Her path into the classroom was through the Boston Teacher Residency. Prior to that, Maria received an Ed.M. in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. summa cum laude from Colby College. As a teacher, Maria was an active participant in school-based leadership such as the Instructional Leadership Team, Data Team, School Site Council, and Personnel Subcommittee. In 2006, Maria co-founded and led the Boston Teacher Action Network through the Boston Plan for Excellence. She is actively in touch with many former students, who inspire her every day.

John Lee has committed his career to urban public education and brings a strong track record of entrepreneurial education reform. Previously, John served as the Executive Director of Larchmont Schools, a network of charter schools in Los Angeles. He also served as the Director of Leadership for the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), where he advised new charter schools on growth, training, establishment of program goals, strategic planning, data-driven decision making and leadership development. Prior to joining CCSA, John was the Founder and Principal of KIPP Los Angeles College Preparatory School, a high-performing charter middle school serving students in Lincoln Heights and surrounding communities. In this role, he created a successful academic program and operational infrastructure, created and managed budgets, and recruited and developed staff.

As a Teach for America corps member, John began his career as a social studies teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. John earned his B.A. from UCLA and his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University where he was a learning team leader mentoring teachers on effective teaching strategies in the urban classroom. He also completed the KIPP School Leadership Program, an intensive year-long program that trains individuals to open a KIPP school. John serves on the board of two Los Angeles-area nonprofit organizations and is currently pursuing a doctorate degree at UCLA through the Educational Leadership Program.

Ms. Slavin’s career includes a broad range of experiences, including more than ten years working directly with diverse stakeholders in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Most recently, she served as the Academic Initiatives Manager in the Office of Teaching and Learning at CPS. In this role, she led the redesign of specific, measurable CPS Learning Targets in a variety of subject areas. Ms. Slavin also led a team that worked on the national Common Core State Standards Initiative. She also served as a senior data analyst for the district, working to drive data-based decision making and providing data to principals to do so, and worked for several years as a school improvement coordinator. In addition, she has experience working in marketing and media. Ms. Slavin holds a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and Communications Studies from Northwestern University.

John Marshall is the Executive Director in Indianapolis. John began his career in education teaching social studies for five years at a public high school in New Jersey, where he also coached baseball and basketball and advised numerous school clubs. More recently, John served as the Director of Curriculum and Assessment (9-12) for Lighthouse Academies, a national network of charter schools, where he previously was the Director of Data Management and Analysis. John was also the founding partner of an education consulting firm and has done volunteer work in urban public, parochial, and charter schools. John was an Education Pioneers Fellow in 2009.

John earned a Master of Business Administration degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame (Mendoza College of Business) and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in government from Harvard University.

Candace brings experience in both policy and practice to the executive director position in D.C. Prior to joining the Teach Plus team, she was the assistant director for pre-K-12 school and district assistance at the Education Trust, a non-profit focused on eliminating the achievement gap and improving achievement for all students. As a member of that team, she worked directly with schools and districts improving assignments for students and providing coaching and professional development on practices to close achievement gaps. Ms. Crawford started at Ed Trust as a member of the teacher quality team coordinating the Instructional Practices of Effective Teachers study, a two-year study of middle school math teachers in the Kansas City, MO area. She has taught sixth-grade math and middle and high school history. She has also worked in higher education, serving as an assistant director of residential life and assistant women’s basketball coach at Bowdoin College. Ms. Crawford is a trustee of Capital City Public Charter School, an award winning expeditionary learning school in DC. Ms. Crawford earned her bachelor’s degree in history at Dartmouth College and her master’s degree in education policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Elisa MacDonald has a strong background in developing district-wide professional learning communities, coaching teacher leaders, and leading school-based inquiry teams. As a consultant with Teachers21, she led professional learning, specializing in teacher leadership, in over fifteen Massachusetts school districts. She also co-taught action research to graduate students at Boston College. Elisa is committed to excellence in urban education and has been a teacher and lead mentor, literacy coach and assistant headmaster of instruction in the Boston Public Schools for 14 years. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Calderwood Writing Fellowship and ESU Treadwell Scholarship, and was featured in Middle Ground Magazine (Volume 5, #3 Dec. 2001).

Elisa has authored several texts, most recently, When Nice Won’t Suffice: Honest Discourse is Key to Shifting School Culture. (2011, June) JSD, 32 (3), and contributing author to Beyond Mentoring, 3rd edition (2010, Teachers21). Her forthcoming book, The Skillful Team Leader: Navigating Challenges in Professional Learning (Corwin Press, 2012) provides a research- based understanding of common roadblocks to team learning with practical strategies on how to overcome them in order to positively shape school culture. She earned a M.A. from UMass Boston, and a B.A. from Brandeis University.

Lindsay Sobel leads the national T+ Network for Teach Plus. Prior to joining Teach Plus, Lindsay spent nine years at Citizen Schools, an organization focused on expanding the learning day for low-income middle school students. At Citizen Schools, Lindsay worked with more than 500 students as a cofounder of the 8th Grade Academy program, and also served as the Massachusetts Director of Development.

Lindsay started her career as a political journalist, helping to launch Slate Magazine, covering Congress for The Hill newspaper, and founding the American Prospect’s online political magazine. She has also served as an adjunct journalism professor at Emerson College. Lindsay holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.P.P. from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Nathan has a background as a social entrepreneur, development professional, and finance and operations consultant. Nathan comes to Teach Plus from the private sector, where he was an economic consultant at Analysis Group in Boston. Prior to economic consulting, Nathan consulted on corporate development strategies for Unis-Cité, a national service organization in Paris, France. While earning his MBA at Boston College, Nathan conducted research on corporate volunteering and philanthropy at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

Prior to receiving his M.B.A., Nathan managed City Year’s national corporate partnerships with Timberland, Bank of America, and CSX. Nathan developed and grew Care Force, a revenue-generating community service model at City Year, to earning over $1 million annually. He served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Boston developing a Boston-based revenue-generating program at City Year.

Nathan has also spent time as a teacher in an urban classroom and working for after school organizations such as Citizen Schools and BELL. Nathan received his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his M.B.A. from Boston College. He serves as an officer on the board of two Boston-area nonprofit organizations. Nathan is currently an adjunct professor teaching nonprofit management at the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College.

As an educator in the public and non-profit sectors, Daryl has served as a classroom teacher, teacher leader, administrator and consultant. In Boston Public Schools, he taught middle school Math and Science; in the Public Schools of Brookline, he has taught high school Chemistry and middle school Math. As a Teacher Leader in the Public Schools of Brookline, Daryl co-led Brookline's Educational Equity Project, a system-wide collaborative project to eliminate the racial achievement gap. Daryl's teacher leader role in Brookline led to a consultant role at Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC). As a Senior Associate at IISC, Daryl served as a designer and facilitator of professional development and as a collaboration consultant for teacher leaders and school-level and district-level leaders. Currently, Daryl teaches sixth grade Math at Pierce School in the Public Schools of Brookline and is a member of a team of teacher leaders that leads Pierce School's Instructional Rounds process. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Wofford College, Daryl brings a deep commitment to learning and educational equity to his work as an educator.

Emily is an educational researcher focusing on issues of teacher quality. She has consulted with a variety of non-profit organizations on issues such as teachers unions, school reform efforts, Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) programs, and teacher qualifications. Most recently, she has consulted at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, working with a team to reform the state's framework for educator evaluation. Emily began her teaching career as a Teach for America corps member in Baltimore and subsequently taught at a Boston charter school. She also directed professional development programs for both new and experienced teachers in the Boston Public Schools.

Emily earned her master's degree and doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she is a research affiliate with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers (NGT). Emily also holds a B.A. in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia.

Christine is the Program Coordinator at Teach Plus. She brings with her a deep passion for improving the quality of educational opportunities for all children. Prior to joining Teach Plus, she served as a founding kindergarten and first grade teacher at KIPP:SHARP College Prep Lower School, a school serving pre-K3 to 4th grade students predominantly from low income backgrounds. She has also taught Summer Academy for 5th and 6th graders at Achievement First's Crowned Heights Middle School in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to teaching, she has worked with nonprofit, philanthropic, and government organizations focused on education policy and research.

Christine is a 2008 Teach For America Houston Corps Member and has earned a Masters in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelors of Science from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Before joining Teach Plus, Kate spent three years in the UK, where she worked with fifth graders with special educational needs in a London primary school. Previously, Kate was a Reading Specialist for the Harlem Children’s Zone. At HCZ, Kate co-founded and co-directed a performing arts program for middle school students that staged Shakespeare productions at Harlem’s National Black Theatre. Kate is also a writer whose work has appeared such publications as the Huffington Post, Slate, and Narrative Magazine, and onstage Off-Broadway. She holds a BA in American Studies from Yale and a master’s in Social Anthropology from Oxford, where she was a recipient of the Weidenfeld Scholarship. Born and raised in Cambridge, MA, Kate is also a proud graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

Meagan is the Boston T+ Network Coordinator at Teach Plus. In addition to her role at Teach Plus, Meagan is also a current teacher at Blackstone Elementary School in Boston. Previously, Meagan served as an Academic Coach in Durham, North Carolina, where she was responsible for the oversight and support of literacy instruction for twelve classrooms in grades 3 through 5. Prior to this coaching role Meagan was a results-oriented teacher in both 4th and 5th grade. While maintaining her role as teacher, Meagan also pursued policy internships during her summer breaks, including a fellowship at the National Council on Teacher Quality and work with the Department of Policy and Strategic Planning at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Her interest in policy and research work has been, and continues to be, focused on the role of teachers in improving outcomes for urban students.

Meagan grew up in the Boston area and graduated summa cum laude from Boston University’s School of Education with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education.

Ky is the Policy and Operations Associate with Teach Plus. Prior to working with Teach Plus and the T3 Initiative, Ky was Operations Manager for a start-up musician management company, handling tour logistics on the local, national, and international levels. Ky holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Bates College in Maine.

Anna is the Program and Operations Associate at Teach Plus. Before joining Teach Plus, Anna taught fifth grade for two years in Charlotte, North Carolina as a corps member with Teach for America and was a Public Affairs Fellow at the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

Yasmine joins the T3 - Initiative team from Miami, Florida where she worked for the YMCA of Greater Miami. Prior to coming to Teach Plus and Boston, Yasmine managed and instructed a youth- centered digital literacy program called Digital Connectors and also served as the branch office manager. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Multinational Business Operations and International Affairs from Florida State University and is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Human Services with a concentration in Organizational Management and Leadership at Springfield College.

Tamara is the T+ Network Coordinator for Teach Plus in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Teach Plus, Tamara taught middle school science and health for three years at a public school in Mid‐City Los Angeles. Tamara’s interest in education policy began as a corps member with Teach For America, and continued when she served as a Policy Fellow at an education trade association in Washington, DC. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies from the University of Southern California, as well as a California State Teaching Credential in secondary science.

Prior to joining Teach Plus, Sarah taught 10th and 11th grade English at Hughes High School in Hughes, Arkansas and is an AP English Literature certified teacher. Additionally, Sarah served at the 2011 Mississippi Delta Summer Institute as a Corps Member Advisor for Teach for America. Since 2010, Sarah is proud to call Memphis home and is eager to work with fellow teachers in Memphis to achieve high academic outcomes with our students. Sarah is a 2009 Teach for America Mississippi Delta Corps Member. She earned a B.A. in Government and a B.A. in Chinese Language both from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Gin Thomas Hooks is a former Chicago Public Schools high school librarian and first became active with Teach Plus as a Teach Plus Chicago Fellow. Before her work as a teacher, she worked with the Chicago Urban League, Columbia College, and Chicago Community In Schools. Gin earned her BA in English from Bradley University, M.Ed from American College of Education and her M.LIS from Dominican University. In addition to her work in information access, she has a special interest in cultural exploration experiences for students, parents and faculty; she co-founded the Cultural Intellect Ambassadors program to further those efforts. She has a great depth of understanding around community outreach and program management. Gin is also part of The VIVA Project Chicago Writing Collaborative.

Lisa Lineweaver, Ed.M., currently serves as the Director of Accelerated Improvement for the Blackstone. A former 5th grade teacher and previous program director at the Boston Plan for Excellence, Ms. Lineweaver is a proven inquiry facilitator and data coach. She has worked in many BPS schools and taught four-semester series of graduate courses to teacher teams which contributed to substantial gains in student learning over a three-year period. In the 2010-11 school year, Ms. Lineweaver is responsible for training and coaching the T3 teacher-leaders to build their teams’ capacity to rapidly and systematically improve the quality of instruction through data-based inquiry and RTI.

Katie is a T3 coach at Orchard Gardens, leading the school’s teacher teams in implementing turnaround strategies. While working for T3 and Orchard Gardens, she is also completing her doctoral study at the Boston University Graduate School of Education, with a degree expected in 2012. Katie’s past teaching experience includes fifth and sixth grade reading and writing at the Boston’s Epiphany School as well as middle and upper English at the SEED Public Charter School in Washington DC. Katie holds a Master’s degree in Education from the Boston University Graduate School of Education as well as a BA from Harvard.

Toby N. Romer has served in numerous roles in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) over the past 15 years. He is currently Director of Professional Development and Data Inquiry at Orchard Gardens K-8 School, where his role includes supporting the T3 teachers. Previously, he was a facilitator for the Accelerating Improvement through Inquiry (AI2), a grant from the Carnegie Foundation run by the BPS and the Boston Plan for Excellence, where he supported teachers’ and school leaders’ efforts to improve the achievement of struggling students. From 2004 to 2009, he served as headmaster of Brighton High School, a large, diverse urban high school. At Brighton High, he led the re-organization of the school’s small learning communities, created extended learning times, focused resources on struggling learners, fostered strong community partnerships, and actively developed teacher leadership structures. Under his tenure, the school was recognized by the Mass Insight Education and Research Institute as a Vanguard School, selected as a BPS Strategic Practice and Effective Practice School, and named as one of the top 1500 high schools in the nation by US News and World Report. He holds an A.B. in Social Studies and Education and an M.Ed. in School Administration from Harvard University.

Jamie is the Dean of Curriculum and Instruction (English, Social Studies, and PEPA) at UP Academy. Previously, Jamie taught reading and writing at James M. Singleton Charter and New Orleans College Prep in the Recovery School District. Prior to teaching, Jamie worked in consulting for Collective Next, Inc. and monitored the large-scale implementation of Reading First in Kentucky elementary schools. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Post-Bachelor's Teacher Certification from the University of Kentucky.

Jesse is the Dean of Curriculum and Instruction(Math and Science)at UP Academy. For the 2010-2011 academic year, Jesse has worked as the Academic Achievement Manager for Math and Scholar Support at Unlocking Potential. Before that, Jesse was the Director of Curriculum and Assessment at Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School, a Boston Public School. There, she supported teachers to implement data-driven instruction, developed tutoring programs, and ran new teacher support. Jesse was previously the Dean of Support Services at Boston Preparatory Charter Public School, a high performing charter school in Boston. Jesse also has taught high school math in San Jose, CA and 5th and 6th grade math in New York City through Teach For America. She earned her BA from Oberlin College, her M.Ed. in History from Boston College, and her Ed.M. in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Chad Leith is Director of the English Language Acquisition Program at the Dearborn Middle School, where he supports T3 teachers in leading the school’s turnaround efforts. After serving as a Peace Corps teacher trainer in Cape Verde from 1994 to 1996, Chad joined the Boston Public Schools, where he has worked as a classroom teacher, bilingual assessment specialist, and district-wide instructional coach. He has frequently collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Education to provide training in sheltered content instruction to middle and high school teachers. In addition to his work with Teach Plus, Chad is an adjunct faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he lectures as part of the Teacher Education Program. He holds an Ed.M. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Boston University and earned both his A.B. in Government and his Ed.D. in Culture, Communities, and Education from Harvard University.

Karen Loughran is the T3 Turnaround Coach at the Trotter Elementary School, leading teams of teachers to use data to improve instruction. Previously, she was the Site Director for the Boston Teacher Residency. She supported resident teachers and mentor teachers as they focused on curriculum development and instructional strategies that promote student achievement. Prior to that, she was a Small Learning Community Leader at Charlestown High School, a large diverse urban high school. In this role, she organized and facilitated common planning time, student support, data analysis, and a variety of strategies that promoted student achievement. She taught middle school and high school for ten years, including teaching math and language arts. She earned a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University where she focused on school leadership, urban school reform, and using data to improve instruction.