Our Staff

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF DATA AND ANALYTICS
LaToya Bufford

LaToya serves as a Senior Director of Data and Analytics for CORE’s Data Collaborative team. LaToya is the intermediary between CORE’s analytical partners (Education Analytics) and CORE’s school system partners. Additionally, LaToya helps manage the day-to-day operations of the CORE Data Collaborative which includes recognizing partner needs and opportunities, streamlining communications, and identifying data and reporting solutions.

LaToya has experience with student testing administration projects, reporting projects, and program evaluations. LaToya is familiar with state and federal accountability and testing requirements for California school districts. In addition, LaToya has worked directly with the research staff, district administrators, technical support staff, and teachers on a variety of data and research-related projects. LaToya has hands-on experience when it comes to coordinating data processing functions, assessment administrations, survey projects, and the facilitation of trainings for district administrators.

LaToya received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and has a master’s degree in business administration. LaToya currently resides in her hometown, Sacramento, with her husband and five children. Her goal is to provide support to schools and districts by helping to improve access to comprehensive, reliable, and usable research that ultimately provides a basis for improving student outcomes and student success.

Email: latoya@coredistricts.org

PROJECT SPECIALIST
Dave Calhoun

Dave Calhoun provides data system support for the CORE Districts and Data Collaborative districts and partnering educational agencies. He also provides measurement consultation support for various CORE improvement projects, and he manages the social and emotional learning survey system that CORE developed.

Dave was a high school mathematics teacher, and the Executive Director of research, evaluation, and assessment in Fresno Unified School District for 30 years prior to his direct work with CORE. As a Fresno Unified administrator, Dave served as the CORE liaison for many projects since CORE’s formation in 2010. Dave was recognized as the Fresno Public Education Fund High School Teacher of the Year in 1995. He has worked to develop and provide mathematics professional development across the country as a part of the Interactive Mathematics Project (IMP), and he has published and presented various research papers.

Email: dave.c@coredistricts.org

CHIEF OF IMPROVEMENT, SCHOOL NETWORKS
Juli Coleman

Juli Coleman has worked in public education for 27 years, which has spanned across K-12, including regular and special education. She began her career as an elementary teacher in the Menifee Union School District. Juli moved to the Oceanside Unified School District and worked in a variety of roles and schools. She was a Resource Specialist at an elementary school, Teacher on Special Assignment at a middle school, and a Coordinator at the high school. She has worked at the San Diego County Office of Education as an Executive Leadership Coach for the past 7 years, where she has worked closely with districts through out the County helping to plan their improvement efforts. She also serves as the regional lead for Imperial, San Diego, and Orange County for the statewide regional system of support (RSDSS) that provides assistance to Title I funded schools. Juli has her master degree in special education, doctorate in educational leadership, and recently completed the Institute of Healthcare Improvement coaching program. She lives in Carlsbad with her husband and they have six kids, a dog, and one cat.

Email: juli.c@coredistricts.org

PROGRAM MANAGER
Hanah Garcia-Uhl

Hanah Garcia-Uhl is a Program Manager for CORE Districts, where she focuses on providing resources to participants who then utilize these materials to support students in their schools. Her dedication to delivering high-quality work, even in small tasks, stems from her commitment to helping students thrive and learn through their educators.

Before joining CORE, Hanah completed her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a secretary for a middle school in the San Juan Unified School District. This experience in an educational setting has informed her current role and passion for supporting students indirectly through her work.

Hanah holds a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Sacramento. Outside of work, she enjoys indulging in iced matcha lattes and exploring local thrift stores. Hanah currently resides in the Sacramento area, where she continues to pursue her passion for educational support and resource development.

Email: hanah@coredistricts.org

SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER
Brandon Giles

Brandon Giles is the Senior Program Manager for CORE’s improvement communities and CORE capability building programs. Prior to joining CORE, Brandon led the implementation of City Year’s Whole School Whole Child program at a South Central Los Angeles USD middle school. Working with educators, he supervised teams of AmeriCorps members serving as tutors, mentors, and role models for hundreds of students. Brandon also helped to develop and implement an affinity group for Latino and African American AmeriCorps members that provided professional development throughout the year as well as a staff mentor.

Brandon’s passion for education comes from his background. He grew up similar to the ways some of the students we serve at CORE do. He wants to help do his part in education equality and is excited to be doing that work with CORE.

Email: brandon@coredistricts.org

SENIOR DATA STRATEGIST
JR Gold

JR Gold serves as a Data Strategist for CORE Districts’ Data Collaborative. He works with districts in the Data Collaborative and, through data, supports CORE’s work in the Breakthrough Success Community, the College Roadmap project, custom dashboard development, and the Improvement Capacity Building Program. JR comes to CORE Districts after 9 years as a Research Analyst in the Assessment, Evaluation and Planning department at San Juan Unified School District. While at San Juan, JR learned to utilize business intelligence software and multiple data tools to create in-depth reports in support of the district’s On-Track metrics, enabling teachers and administrators to better support students through timely interventions.

JR’s passion for data and equity in education fuels his desire to assist districts in their continuous improvement efforts through better data and increased capability. He looks to grow in strategic thinking, program evaluation, and technical expertise to strengthen his abilities to support districts and their data needs.

JR holds a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from UC Davis, and an MBA from Azusa Pacific University. He resides with his wife, two children, and dog in Carmichael, CA .

Email: robert@coredistricts.org

SENIOR DATA STRATEGIST
Kristen Joie Ignacio-Phu

Kirsten Joie Ignacio-Phu serves as a Senior Data Strategist for CORE District’s Breakthrough Success Community and Data Collaborative Network through data dashboard building and project management & support.

Prior to CORE, Kirsten served as a preschool teacher and case manager for young children and families in the Bay Area. Her passion for ensuring that children and families are improving and garnering positive outcomes from social and educational programs catalyzed her career in program evaluation and data. 

Kirsten is a first-generation graduate with a B.A. in Psychology from UC Irvine and a Master in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. She currently resides in the Bay Area with her husband and their three fur babies- Max the Maltipoo, Koa the Chihuahua, and Willow the American Shorthair Cat. During her spare time, Kirsten enjoys figure skating, brisk walking, and reading.

Email: kirstenjoie@coredistricts.org

SENIOR IMPROVEMENT COACH
Doug Kriedeman

Doug Kriedeman is a senior improvement coach for site and district improvement teams in Southern California. Most recently, Doug served as a high school principal in Oceanside USD, where he is credited for supporting a culture of risk and reflection and building the capabilities of teachers to use data for improvement. He has more than a decade of site and district leadership experience, purposefully creating systems where teachers empower and energize students. Doug lives in Oceanside.

Email: doug@coredistricts.org

SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
Brandi Lites

Brandi Lites servers as the Project Manager for CORE Districts. In her role, she supports the program leaders who run CORE’s District Partnerships, School Networks, and Capability Building Programs. Brandi is responsible for implementing platforms designed to support and assist all team members as well as ensure successful program launches.

Prior to joining CORE, Brandi worked as a Legislative and Strategic Projects Manager for a tech start-up company that manufactures the world’s first digital license plate. She managed lobbying teams across the country as well as an overseas design team. Brandi graduated from Sonoma State University with a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Political Science with a focus in Iberian Peninsula studies.

Brandi comes from a family of educators and understands the importance of providing young scholars with every opportunity to achieve their highest potential. Her passion to work with marginalized communities aligns with CORE’s mission to bridge education equity gaps and assist students to reach their goals. Brandi currently resides in her hometown, Sacramento, with her cat, Hoagie.

Email: brandi@coredistricts.org

SENIOR IMPROVEMENT COACH
Iris Lopez

Iris Lopez is a Senior Improvement Coach supporting innovation and co-developing best practices alongside the 9th Grade Breakthrough Success Community (BTSC) in LA and Long Beach schools. In her role, Iris focuses on collaborating with school teams to identify, execute, and sustain equity-based strategies for 9th grade on-track success. Prior to joining CORE, Iris worked at Summit Public Schools as a founding teacher for the network’s second East Bay Area school that opened in 2016. In her five years at Summit, in addition to teaching 9th grade English, Iris led site staff in adopting quality improvement methodologies to structure adult learning and improvement teams and to address school-specific and org-level equity challenges, such as disproportionate suspension rates and learning gaps between emergent bilinguals and their peers.

As a former 9th grade teacher, mentor, and grade level team lead, Iris aims to help schools bridge the best that research and practitioner expertise has to offer on how school systems can best support the developmental and academic transition from middle school to high school. Iris is deeply interested in learning how systems are designed to produce the results that we see in education and how educators can reconfigure them to provide more caring and supportive environments for all students to have access to success. Before working directly in schools, Iris worked at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Post-Baccalaureate Fellow with leading education scholars and partners in learning how improvement science can be used to accelerate change in educational systems.

Iris earned her B.A. in Psychology from Harvard University with a focus on adolescent development and learning. Following her time at Carnegie, she obtained her Single-Subject English Credential and M.A. in Education at UC Berkeley.

Email: iris@coredistricts.org

CHIEF OF STAFF
Brigitte Marshall

At CORE, Brigitte Marshall serves as Chief of Staff. Originally from England, in 1991 Brigitte followed Southeast Asian refugees from the Thai refugee camps, where she worked as a teacher and teacher-trainer, to California’s Central Valley. A one-year plan to gain a deeper understanding of the resettlement and education challenges confronted by displaced people has turned into a 33-year odyssey of work in public sector systems, including social services and education.

Brigitte has worked as a teacher, Principal, Director, non profit Executive Director, and Associate Superintendent, and has also taught in teacher education and administrative service credential programs in the California State University system. She has published and edited articles and ESL training materials and textbooks. Brigitte concluded her career in the public education system with five years of service as the Chief Talent Officer for Oakland Unified School District.

Brigitte believes passionately in the need to develop relationally healthy public service organizations where people can excel and do their best work in service of the public good. She is committed to nurturing practices that reduce unproductive conflict, and restorative practices when conflict and harm have occurred.

Brigitte holds joint bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford in England, and a California Administrative Services Credential. She is also certified in Community Mediation and Conflict Resolution and serves on the Community Mediation Panel for Services that Encourage Effective Dialogue and Solutions (SEEDS). Brigitte is a Certified Professional Coach through Leadership that Works, accredited by the International Coaching Federation.

Brigitte lives in El Cerrito, with her dog Freddie, after launching her three publicly educated children, Pia, Gwen and Cole.

Email: brigitte@coredistricts.org

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Rick Miller

Rick Miller serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the CORE Districts. Prior to starting CORE, Rick was the Deputy State Superintendent for P-16 Policy and Information Branch of the California Department of Education. In this position, Rick developed policy recommendations on promising ways to improve student achievement throughout California, specifically focused on closing the state’s achievement gaps from PreK to Higher Education. Prior to his time at the CDE, Rick worked at Microsoft Corporation developing communications strategies on privacy, security, and overall corporate image. Rick also served as a strategic communications advisor to the Chancellor of the California State University System (CSU). 

Prior to working at CSU, Rick served in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington D.C. as Press Secretary to Richard W. Riley, Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administration. Rick also spent time during those years periodically detailed to the White House Office of Advance where he traveled domestically and internationally on behalf of President Clinton. 

Rick lives in Rocklin, California with his wife Julie, an elementary school speech therapist.  They have two children: Casey, a graduate from the University of Washington and Ryan, a junior at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.  Rick also serves on the board of the Placer County Food Bank and previously served as an elected member of the Rocklin Unified School Board.

Email: rick@coredistricts.org

SENIOR IMPROVEMENT COACH
Samuel Milder

Sam Milder is a Senior Improvement Coach, helping high schools redesign the 9th grade experience to help all students experience a successful first year in high school. In addition to his coaching work, he supports the whole of the CORE Breakthrough Success Community network in administering a student-adult relationship survey and in fostering healthy relationships with their students.

Sam got his start in education as an English as a Foreign Language teacher and this taught him that knowing his students and their interests was the best way to make the language they were learning come alive for them. The lens of student-centered, authentic learning has continued to inform his work. 

Sam also worked in policy and program evaluation at the NYCDOE, was a founding member of two networks for school improvement working to improve outcomes for multilingual learners in South Brooklyn and the Bronx. He is the lead author of the NYC Improvement Science Handbook, and helped spread improvement methodology across the many programs of the NYCDOE. 

Email: samuel@coredistricts.org

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF IMPROVEMENT
Amanda Meyer

Amanda Meyer serves the CORE districts as a Senior Director of Improvement, supporting educators in their efforts to solve important problems of practice. Prior to joining CORE, Amanda was an improvement science specialist at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where she apprenticed with leading thinkers in systemic educational change and quality improvement. Over four years at Carnegie, she provided improvement science coaching to a variety of organizations and networks in K-12 and higher education. She managed the development of improvement methods sessions for the annual Summit on Improvement in Education, and delivered improvement science learning experiences in conference, workshop, and online settings. Amanda is particularly interested in the intersection of improvement, design, and equity work.

Amanda began her career in the classroom, teaching English as a Second Language at Sidney Lanier High School in San Antonio, Texas. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies, Spanish, and Educational Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to her professional roles, she has taught English language arts courses for a college access program in San Francisco and volunteers as a mentor for first-generation college students. Amanda currently resides in the Bay Area.

Email: amanda@coredistricts.org

CHIEF OF IMPROVEMENT, DISTRICT PARTNERSHIPS
David Montes de Oca

David, or ‘Montes’ as he is often called, is Chief of Improvement for District Partnerships at CORE. He leads our Holistic Coherence approach to organizational excellence and continuous improvement in large urban school districts. He provides leadership coaching to District Superintendents and senior leaders, as well as co-designing and facilitating executive leadership learning sessions, retreats, and project teams.  Previously, David led CORE’s Networked Improvement Community and co-led CORE’s Improvement Capacity Building programs.

With over 32 years of experience in public education, he has served as a teacher, school principal, and numerous central office district leadership positions, including Executive Director, and Associate Superintendent.

As the Founding Principal of Oakland Unified School District’s Urban Promise Academy, Montes collaborated with the National Equity Project and parent community organizers. He has led numerous initiatives, including secondary school redesign, development of school performance frameworks, and community-based processes for setting school quality standards.

Montes is motivated by a favorite quote: “Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.” Audre Lorde

Montes co-launched CORE’s Equity Council and has served on national panels and advisory boards focused on equity in education, including the Gates Foundation’s Equity in Continuous Improvement Design Team.

David is a husband, father, feminist, Chicano, & twin who has two adult children and lives in Oakland with his wife, a kindergarten teacher.

Email: david.m@coredistricts.org

CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER
Brenda Paredes

Brenda Paredes currently serves as Chief Business Officer for CORE Districts. Prior to joining CORE, Brenda worked as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Accountant of an accounting firm that specializes in non-profit organizations. In this role, Brenda provided financial consulting services to various large-scale non-profit organizations involved in higher education, poverty alleviation, and child development. She has experience in finance, operations management, and human resources, and also has a background in education. Her love for non-profit organizations and education developed over ten years ago, when she helped manage a Title I charter school in Sacramento.

Brenda’s work at the school led her to earn a Master of Arts in Instructional Communication at California State University, Sacramento where she wrote her thesis on educational policy for English Language Learners. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, a certification in Dropout Prevention, a bookkeeping certification, PMP certification, and SHRM-SCP certification.

Brenda is passionate about community improvement, and her goal is to continue to work towards promoting an equitable educational environment for all students. As a first-generation immigrant, she understands the pressing need for student support at all levels. Brenda is fluent in Spanish.

Email: brenda@coredistricts.org

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Rina Patel

Rina G. Patel joined CORE in January 2024 as a Grants Director. Her role is focused on secondary and postsecondary education initiatives.
Rina’s work over the past decade has been driven by the question of how we can birth new systems, both within and outside our old systems, as we hospice the systems that are no longer serving us and our natural world.

Her attempts at answering this question have been through designing more heart and human centered approaches to change through her roles as a founder, facilitator, and mediator. Over the past decade Rina built and ran youth focused initiatives across the United States and Global South. Most recently, she was the founder and CEO of SHE Health, a teen focused mental and reproductive health company that was acquired in August 2023 by Backpack Health, a pediatric mental health company. SHE’s social and emotional learning programs over the past five years supported teens, parents, caregivers, and educators. Prior to SHE, Rina founded Aahana, an education and health non-profit for youth across rural communities in India.

Rina holds an MA in Creative Non-Fiction Writing, Storytelling, and Anthropology from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and a BS in Business Administration with concentrations in Marketing and Legal Studies and minors in Public Health and International Area Studies from Drexel University.

When Rina isn’t working, she is studying Ayurvedic Medicine where she is pursuing her studies to become an Ayurvedic Practitioner and fulfilling her broader vision to combine spirituality and holistic, nature based healing. She also loves running, writing, and going on long walks with friends.

Email: rina@coredistricts.org

SENIOR IMPROVEMENT COACH
Lynn Rocha-Salazar

Lynn Rocha-Salazar serves as Senior Improvement Coach. In her role, Lynn is responsible for supporting school districts in equity-based reform initiatives and continuous improvement efforts. Lynn brings 30 years of education experience to her role with CORE. Her career in education includes serving as a classroom teacher, Resource Teacher, Program Manager, Vice-Principal on Special Assignment, and Principal. As a site leader, she has been directly involved in developing an aligned instructional system based on the Common Core State Standards and championing the needs of Special Education students in the regional program at Ayer Elementary.

Most recently, Lynn has mentored teachers in continuous improvement efforts, developing and fostering partnerships with key stakeholders to address issues of equity and access in support of African American and Latino students. Lynn is credited with the development of specific enabling conditions that fostered the adoption of improvement principles. Lynn has been active in the Association of California School Administrators, serving in several capacities including Board President in Region 9. Lynn’s focus is to champion the work of improvement to disrupt the inequities that have historically persisted in our systems to improve the lives of the students we serve.

Email: lynn@coredistricts.org

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CORE CAPABILITY BUILDING PROGRAMS
Michelle Steagall

As the Executive Director of CORE’s Capability Building Programs, Michelle Steagall is responsible for growing understanding and use of continuous improvement (Improvement Science) within CORE districts and partners. Michelle brings extensive school district experience to her work at CORE. She began her educational career as a multi-graded classroom teacher amidst thousands of acres of wheat fields in rural North Eastern Oregon.

In 1990, she moved to California to join the Clovis Unified School District family, where she served as a teacher, an assistant principal, in intermediate and elementary schools, an elementary principal and the associate superintendent, for curriculum and instruction. Additionally, Michelle served for 6 years as the superintendent of the Clay Joint Elementary School District and the Chowchilla School District, both located in the diverse heart of California, the San Joaquin Valley.

Michelle earned a Masters of Educational Administration from Fresno State, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of La Verne in Southern California. She is a licensed curriculum auditor. As a superintendent, she was selected and served on various state-wide committees with the California School Boards Association.

Email: michelle@coredistricts.org