Noah Bookman is the Executive Director of CORE’s Data Collaborative. In his role, Noah leads CORE’s strategic initiatives, including CORE’s newly launched cross-district improvement community focused on math achievement gaps for African American and Hispanic/Latino youth, and CORE’s multi-district continuous improvement, holistic data system serving 1.8 million students.
As Chief Accountability Officer at CORE from 2013 to 2016, Noah oversaw the implementation of the CORE No Child Left Behind Waiver, which included a first of its kind whole child approach to school accountability, emphasizing academic success, social-emotional development and positive school culture-climate. He also led the development and implementation of two school intervention programs – School Pairing and Communities of Practice – that together operated in over 200 low performing Title I schools in the state of California.
Before CORE, Noah served as the Director of Performance Management for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). His responsibilities involved developing and implementing a coherent system to articulate, monitor and deliver outcomes for schools, for the regional and central office units that support and manage schools, and for the operational divisions of the District’s central office. Noah also played a leadership role in the District’s educator effectiveness initiative. Noah has also served as a Managing Director at the After-School-All-Stars (ASAS), a national after-school program for at-risk youth and was an English teacher in the LAUSD. He is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles and has a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Noah lives in the Greater Los Angeles Area with his middle school sweetheart, and their son and daughter.
LaToya serves as a Data Strategist on the CORE Data Collaborative team. Prior to CORE, she worked as an Evaluation and Assessment Analyst for Elk Grove Unified School district and subsequently as a Project Specialist for Sacramento County Office of Education. 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 even 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 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.
Dave Calhoun retired in 2017 from his position as the Executive Director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment (REA) for Fresno Unified School District in Fresno, California. He has been serving on the national SEL Assessment Work Group team facilitated by CASEL. He began his career as a secondary mathematics teacher, and moved to the Fresno Unified’s REA office in 1996. With Fresno Unified, he has conducted and directed multiple program evaluations for both foundation and USED grant-funded projects, developed and implemented a performance-based assessment system, and managed State and district assessment programs. Along the way, he completed a second Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. He has been an adjunct instructor in the graduate program for the past 10 years at California State University, Fresno, in both research/statistics and in Marriage and Family Therapy program. He has participated as a Fresno Unified representative with the CORE collaborative since its inception, functioning as Fresno’s CORE Waiver lead and as the Data Lead.
Juli Coleman has worked in public education for 27 years, which has spanned across K-12, 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 of 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.
Sonum Dixit has worked as Program Assistant, then Program Associate for the past 3 years at CORE Districts. Before CORE, she worked at OCA-Greater Los Angeles (OCA-GLA) and Committee of 100 (C-100) to plan events and raise awareness about issues affecting the Asian American community in Los Angeles.
She received a B.A. in Neuroscience and completed a Post Baccalaureate Program, both at Amherst College. While at Amherst, she gained extensive research experience and a passion for issues affecting women and children of color. She was a Young Leaders Institute fellow with South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and co-founded It Happens Here Amherst, an activist group and magazine addressing campus sexual assault.
After moving back to Los Angeles, she continued pursuing her passion for advocacy, specifically related to children. In 2016, she became a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and in spring/summer 2017, she mobilized fellow Asian Americans and political leaders to support SB-562, a bill that would have created single payer healthcare in California. In fall 2017, she was volunteer field director on a school board campaign in the district where she attended K-12 schooling. She also completed training with Wellstone Action Data/Analytics Camp in spring 2018 to sharpen her political/policy data skills.
Atiyyah Edwards currently serves as Program Manager for CORE Districts, based in Sacramento, CA. Prior to joining CORE, she worked for ten years in Washington, DC supporting U.S government foreign assistance programs. While at the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Education Development Center, she provided project management support to their initiatives in Francophone Africa, focused on education quality and access, community development and poverty reduction. Atiyyah began her career in the Boston Public Schools supporting the district in recruiting, training and developing a career track for aspiring school leaders through its flagship programs: the Boston Principal Fellowship and the New Principal Support System. Atiyyah holds a Master’s degree in International Education from the University of Leeds and a Bachelor’s in African American Studies and International Relations from Smith College. She is proficient in French.
Brandon is the 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 excited to be doing that work with CORE.
As I start my new role as a Senior Improvement Coach for the North Bay region, I am thrilled to be a part of the CORE Districts Improvement Family! I have been coaching in some capacity for the majority of my career as an educator and leader over the last 19 years in education; where I have had the opportunity to hold several roles serving children, teachers, and community partners. As a former teacher, instructional coach, assistant-principal, and principal, I have learned that working towards full equity and excellence in education continues to energize me personally and motivates my professional work. For fun and self-care, I am a lover of music, dancing, reading, meditation/yoga, and spending time with family and friends creating great memories!
Doug is a 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.
Morgan is the program specialist for the CORE Districts. Most recently Morgan served as an education policy analyst in San Francisco USD. In San Francisco she supported district and county high school site leaders in using data, facilitating data-based discussions, and leveraging equity-centered design thinking and improvement science processes. She has four years of experience coaching school site administrators and a passion for building bridges between research, technical, and practitioner audiences. Morgan lives in Oakland.
Amanda Meyer serves the CORE districts as 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.
Rick Miller serves as the Executive Director of the CORE districts. Prior to joining CORE, Miller was the Deputy State Superintendent for P-16 Policy and Information Branch of the California Department of Education. In this position, Miller 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 California Department of Education, Miller worked at Microsoft Corporation developing communications strategies on privacy, security, and overall corporate image. Miller also served as a strategic communications advisor to the Chancellor of the California State University System (CSU). Prior to working at CSU, Miller served the U.S. Department of Education in Washington D.C. as Press Secretary to Richard W. Riley, Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administration. Miller 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. Miller also serves on the Education Advisory Board for the Region IX Equity Assistance Center as well as on the Board of Directors for Rocklin Academy Family of Schools. He lives in Rocklin, California with his wife, Julie, an elementary school speech therapist and their two sons, Casey and Ryan.
David Montes de Oca has been working in education for twenty-five years, beginning as a teaching assistant, a teacher in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and later joining Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as a teacher.
During his time with the district, David also worked as the School Design Lead for new incubating secondary schools in the OUSD’s New School Development Group. Following the redesign of over a dozen schools over two years, David was recruited to design and direct a new Office of Charter Schools for OUSD to better oversee its 32 charter schools in Oakland. This lead to his position as the Executive Director of Quality Community School Development, establishing School Quality Standards, a School Quality Review process and co-constructing a Balanced Scorecard. Simultaneously he worked as adjunct faculty at Cal State East Bay’s Educational Leader department and as a member of the Lead Team for the State University of New York’s School Quality Review process.
Upon his appointment to the position of OUSD’s Associate Superintendent of Quality, Accountability and Analytics, the district transitioned to using online data dashboards, district-wide Cycles of Inquiry, and renewing school transformation & turnaround processes. For the past three years David has worked as the Senior Deputy Chief of Continuous School Improvement. In this role, David oversaw the implementation of a School Performance Framework (SPF) designed to establish a tiered system of differentiated supports to achieve equitable outcomes across all Oakland schools. His division also oversaw the Office of Charter Schools; the District’s data-driven Continuous School Improvement processes, as well as the newly envisioned Call for Quality Schools process to assist school communities in transforming the District’s persistently underperforming schools.
David lives in Oakland with his wife, an Oakland Kindergarten teacher, along with their two children who attend Oakland Public Schools.
Victor Phu is the Data Strategist of CORE’s Data Collaborative seeking to disrupt the cycle of intergenerational poverty and guarantee equity and opportunity for our most underserved youth through education. In his role, Victor is working with high-leverage stakeholders to improve student achievement through actionable data, meaningful partnerships, and reciprocal learning.
Prior to CORE, Victor served as a Data, Partnerships, & Planning Analyst in the African American Achievement & Leadership Initiative in San Francisco Unified School District, where he was tasked to close the academic achievement gap for African American youth in San Francisco by developing results-based accountability and data-driven frameworks for strategy implementation. Additionally, Victor was employed as a City Hall Fellow for the City & County of San Francisco tasked to create the My Brother & Sister’s Keeper Local Action Plan, which outlines the City and County of San Francisco’s plan to develop a cradle-to-college and career pathway for our African American, Latino, & Pacific Islander students.
Victor is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and has a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California’s Goldman School of Public Policy. As a product of public schools and recruitment & retention programs, Victor seeks to ensure low-income students of color are granted similar or better opportunities that he received through CORE Districts.
Samantha Pryor-Miller serves the CORE Districts as an Improvement Coach supporting school districts in equity-based reform initiatives. Before joining CORE, Samantha served as a classroom teacher in Los Angeles where she taught diverse student populations. In this role, Samantha developed an interest in technology integration in K-12 schools. Later, she designed computer science curriculum and supported districts in their journey to provide cutting-edge STEM programs to minority communities.
Samantha is a proud product of California’s education system. She holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State University, Fresno and a Master of Arts in Education from Pepperdine University. Her goal is to continue working towards improved education results for all students in California.
As the CORE Chief Academic Officer, Michelle Steagall is responsible for bridging the work to support the implementation of Common Core Standards and promoting teacher and principal effectiveness across the eight CORE partner districts. Michelle brings 23 years of 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, assistant principal in intermediate and elementary schools, an elementary principal and the associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Additionally, Michelle served for six 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 in Educational Administration from Fresno State, a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of La Verne in Southern California and is a licensed curriculum auditor. As a superintendent she was selected and served on various state wide committees with the California School Boards Association.
Whitney Stormberg currently serves as a Program Associate for CORE Districts. In this role, she provides liaison support between school site staff, district strategists and CORE’s Improvement Coaches; is responsible for the back end maintenance of CORE’s website; manages CORE’s insurance with all clients and partners; works as CORE’s office manager for the nonprofit organization and all remote staff, amongst other duties.
Previously, Whitney managed constituent affairs and performed event brief research for Governor Gavin Newsom while he was Lieutenant Governor of California. With a degree in International Relations and minor in Business Admin from Carroll College, she has continuously paired her interest in foreign affairs with her passion for service work. Within the past five years she has traveled and worked with Engineers Without Borders and various private entities; meeting, serving and developing friendships with those she has encountered both nationally and internationally. With a passion for public service, Whitney plans to always be a part of an organization whose mission is to improve the surrounding community.
Julie White joined the CORE Districts as director of external relations in July 2016. White serves as the organization’s primary spokesperson, sharing the CORE Districts’ work and latest news with educators as well as policymakers and the general public. Prior to this role, White served as director of communications for the California State Board of Education, managing media and public relations on California’s school funding and accountability system as well as standards and assessments. Previously, White served for 17 years as assistant executive director for the Association of California School Administrators and managed all association communications strategies. White has served as a senior consultant for the California State Assembly and as public information officer for California’s 11th largest school district, San Juan Unified. White and her husband, Tom, live in Sacramento. They have two children, Gavin and Abbie.
