OUR BOARD
Silvestre Arcos
Silvestre Arcos grew up on the Texas-Mexico border in the Edinburg, TX or Edinburgo with his parents and three younger brothers. He began at Cornell University as a first generation pre-med student, but in his junior year, Silver studied Early Childhood Education in Gothenburg, Sweden. Teaching and learning alongside preschool-aged students and studying education policy inspired him to go all in on education. He worked in schools for 20 years teaching various subjects, from pre-K to 8th grade and across the country. His journey led him to found the blended learning math program at KIPP:Washington Heights Middle School where he also served as instructional coach, learning specialist, and assistant principal. He is currently a designer with Student Achievement Partners dedicating his role to the success of multilingual learners and Black students by partnering with school communities across the country. His professional passions include dual language immersion, educational technology, and math! In 2012, he was one of ten inaugural teachers to win a Big Apple Award which recognizes excellent teaching in New York City where he continues to learn and serve through education.
Sydney Bagrou
Sydney Bagrou is a Global Treasury and Payments Advisor at Silicon Valley Bank, with nearly a decade of experience in the Financial Services industry. Sydney recently completed his first year of Business School at New York University, and plans to continue on working in the financial services industry upon his graduation
Joshua Elder
Joshua Elder is the Director and Head of Grantmaking at Siegel Family Endowment, which explores the impact of technology on society across learning, infrastructure, and workforce. Joshua oversees strategic investments and partnerships across each of SFE's portfolio areas. Prior to SFE,
Joshua was Director of Strategic Initiatives at CSforALL, one of SFE's partner organizations, where he led strategic efforts to help build the capacity of school districts and other education
agencies to provide computer science education to all students. Prior to that, Joshua spent 10+ years in domestic and international education with a focus on science education, instructional leadership, and pedagogy. Joshua is a co-founder of a network of low-cost private schools
operating in South Africa and Kenya. Joshua has a Master's in Public Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, an M.Ed. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BS from Longwood University.
Erin Dunn-Franklin
Treasurer
Erin Dunn-Franklin is a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Sustainable Investment Group where she makes impact investments in private markets focused on climate- and environment-related opportunities. Previously, Ms. Dunn-Franklin was an investment banker also at Goldman Sachs focusing on ESG and sustainability for the real estate and lodging industries. Ms. Dunn-Franklin previously worked in institutional asset management for Bridgewater Associates and Wellington Management. At Wellington she also led the company's collaboration with City Year, an Americorps program that provides extra support to students in underserved schools across the country and served on the Emerging Leaders Board for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. Ms. Dunn-Franklin started her career as an elementary school teacher in the Bronx as a Teach for America corps member. She holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Cindy Lee
Cindy Lee has over 10 years of experience in charter school operations, as the founding Director of Operations for KIPP Washington Heights Middle School. Previously, she was a management consultant at Bain & Company, working in a range of industries including financial services, healthcare and consumer products. Cindy was inspired to enter the charter school world after working on pro bono cases with KIPP NYC and Uncommon Schools and is passionate about ensuring that all children have access to a high quality public education. Cindy graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a B.S. in Economics and Business Management, and is also certified as a yoga teacher and meditation coach. She is a founding steering committee member of Asian American Impact Fund, a philanthropic giving circle focused on giving to AAPI nonprofits in the Tri-State area, and serves on the board of Beyond Cheer Athletics, an all-star cheer program for inner-city youth.
Ellison Ward Merkel
Vice Chair
Ellison Ward Merkel is partner in the New York Office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, arbitration, and bankruptcy adversary proceedings. She has maintained an active pro bono practice, including successfully briefing and arguing an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of an issue of law under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). Before joining Quinn Emanuel, she clerked for Judge James C. Francis IV in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and was the Sinsheimer Fellow at the Partnership for Children’s Rights, where she assisted special education students and their families in identifying and obtaining needed educational services through administrative actions and litigation under the IDEA. Before law school, she worked as Policy Associate at the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (now the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College) researching education funding issues. Ms. Merkel holds an AB from Princeton University and JD from NYU School of Law.
Laura Reyes
Chair
Laura F. Reyes began her teaching career with Teach for America in 2007 at C.S. 211 in the Bronx as a self-contained special education teacher. In 2009, Laura returned to her alma mater, KIPP Academy Middle School as the 8th-grade math teacher and grade-level chair. In 2015, Laura became the founding 8th-grade math teacher and grade level chair at KIPP Washington Heights. After working as the School Director for TFA NYC Regional Institute at Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School for the 2017 & 2018 Corps, Laura joined DRIHSCS as the English Language Learners and Dual Language Program Coordinator. Currently, Laura is the Assitant Principal for STEM and ENL at the Charter High School for Law and Social Justice in the Bronx. She graduated from PACE University in 2010 with an M.Ed in Special Education and recently completed an M.Ed in Educational Leadership at Lehman College. Laura also serves on as a board member at Community Board 5 in the Bronx. Laura is passionate about creating equity for ELLs and SWDs in the classroom and creating solutions to support and grow teacher knowledge for special populations. She’s proud to be from the South Bronx and actively seeks ways to help better her community through activism and community outreach.
Jerelyn Rodriguez
Jerelyn Rodriguez is Co-Founder and CEO of The Knowledge House. Alumna of the first KIPP schools, Ms. Rodriguez was raised with the belief that knowledge is power. This hunger for knowledge and the opportunity to leverage technology for social good inspired her to start The Knowledge House. Previously, she coordinated STEM after-school programming at Beyond Z and was the Bronx Field Director for Reshma Saujani's 2013 campaign for NYC Public Advocate. In 2011, she joined Students for Education Reform (SFER) as the National Program Director, organizing and coaching college students in 35 states to advocate for education reform. Prior to SFER, she worked in the public school system, teaching and designing student programs. Ms. Rodriguez holds a BA from Columbia University. She is on the Leadership Council for South Bronx Rising Together, founding Datanaut at NASA, fellow at Camelback Ventures, and the Entrepreneur in Residence at the BXL: Bronx Business Incubator.
Cieja Springer
Cieja is a creative, strategic, innovative thinker with an entrepreneurial spirit. She is the Founder + CEO of ACM, a full-service marketing agency and is the host, producer and curator of her own podcast entitled From The Bottom Up!™ that shines a light on unheard voices across industries and their experiences in shifting the paradigms forward.
With over 18 years of experience, specializing in strategic marketing and creative marketing solutions, her experience encompasses campaign development, integrated marketing, business development, multicultural marketing, account management and media planning. She has worked to launch integrated campaigns for brands in the beauty, retail/fashion, luxury, CPG, automotive, telecomm, and spirits industries for the likes of L'Oreal USA/Paris, Maserati, P&G, Coca-Cola, Estée Lauder, Unilever, Kraft, Nordstrom, Verizon, AT&T, Rolex, Coty, and LVMH/Hennessy.
BOARD MEETINGS
Board meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month at 6:30pm. Locations are posted at least two weeks in advance.
Comments? Concerns? Complaints? Please email us contact@creoprep.org.