Who We Are

Frank London Gettridge, EdDPresident and CEO

Frank London Gettridge is an educator who has dedicated his career working to improving the lives of the most vulnerable children and families. A New Orleans native, Frank possesses over 25 years of experience in education logging in impressive time and variety as an early childhood, elementary and high school teacher and administrator. Prior to joining the National Public Education Support Fund (NPESF) as the Executive Director, Frank was a Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) overseeing the integration of national program strategies, and managing a team of officers and support staff to support WKKF’s efforts to address issues of inequality, including creating the conditions that help vulnerable children to achieve. Previously, as an Education Program Officer, rising to National Lead of Program Strategies at WKKF Frank elevated investments focused on strengthening the teacher of color pipeline, transformative family engagement, and closing the 3rd grade achievement gap.

Earlier in his career, Frank was a dedicated elementary school principal in the Chicago Public Schools. During Frank’s time at Clara Barton Elementary School, academic achievement, parent engagement and school enrollment increased, while discipline, suspension, and expulsion rates significantly decreased. In 2013 when the City of Chicago attempted one of the largest school closing plans in this country’s history, it was Frank’s leadership and collaboration with the local community and organizations that lead to the successful removal of Clara Barton from the closure list.

Frank holds a doctorate of global education from the University of Southern California, during which time he studied public education systems across three different countries. He holds a master’s degree in child development from the Erikson Institute in Chicago, IL and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA. Notably, Frank was also selected as a National Head Start Fellow, an Association of Black Philanthropic Executives Fellow, a Children’s Defense Fund Fellow, and served as a National Association for the Education of Young Children Governing Board member.

Kent McGuireBoard Chair

Kent McGuire is the Program Director of Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads the investments of our teaching and learning and open educational resources strategies, with a focus on helping all students succeed in college, work and civic life. Kent is a veteran of the national education movement for public education.

Previously, Kent was the President and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation, an organization committed to advancing public education in the American South, with a focus on equity and excellence. Prior to that, he served as the Dean of the College of Education at Temple University and was a tenured professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

From 2001 to 2003, Kent was a senior vice president at the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, where he split his time between research projects on school reform and directing its department on education, children and youth. He has also been an education program officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts and directed the education program at the Lilly Endowment. Kent served as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education from 1998 to 2001.

Kent earned his Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Colorado, an M.A. from Columbia University Teacher’s College, and a B.A in economics from the University of Michigan. He serves on the boards of the Wallace Foundation, the Institute for Education Leadership, and the Panasonic Foundation.

Barbara ChowBoard Treasurer

Barbara Chow is the director of the Education program at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she completed an eight-year term as the director of the Education program for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Before that, Barbara was the policy director of the House Budget Committee and the executive director of the National Geographic Education Foundation. During the Clinton administration, she served as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, associate director for Education, Income Maintenance, and Labor programs at the Office of Management and Budget, and special assistant to the president for White House Legislative Affairs. Previously, she also worked for the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. Barbara earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in government from Pomona College.

Na’ilah Suad NasirBoard Secretary

Na’ilah Suad Nasir is the sixth President of the Spencer Foundation, which funds education research nationally. She has held a faculty appointment in Education and African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley where she also served as the Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion. She also served on the Faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Education from 2000 to 2008. Nasir’s research examines the racialized and cultural nature of learning and schooling, with a particular focus on the experiences of African American students in schools and communities. In her co-edited book, We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys, Nasir explores the teaching practices and organization of the African American Male Initiative in Oakland, the first district-wide initiative of it’s kind focusing on supporting the achievement of Black male students. She is also the author of Racialized Identities: Race and achievement for African-American youth, published by the Stanford University Press in 2012, and co-editor of Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice, published by Teachers College Press in 2014. Her work has examined the organization of learning in cultural practices outside of school, the intersection of identity and learning, and equitable teaching in mathematics. Nasir is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. She is on the board of the National Equity Project, and serves as an advisory board member for the Public Policy Institute of California, and the Division of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also currently the President-Elect of the American Educational Research Association.

Linda Darling-HammondBoard Member

Linda Darling-Hammond is the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University, where she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped redesign. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and recipient of its award for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, and Research-to-Policy.  She is also a member of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education.

Linda’s research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school reform, teacher quality and educational equity. From 1994 to 2001, she served as Executive Director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report, “What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future,” led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching across the United States. In 2006, this piece was named one of the most influential reports affecting U.S. education, and Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy over the last decade.

Daniel LeedsBoard Member

Daniel Leeds is the Founder of the National Public Education Support Fund, the Education Funder Strategy Group and the National Public Education Action Fund. He helped found the Alliance for Excellent Education (ALL4ED) and the Global Science of Learning Education Network. Dan is a proponent of looking at education through the lens of the science of learning and in a global context.  He was an early supporter of PISA and other OECD global education assessments.

Along with his wife, Sunita, Dan co-chairs The Enfranchisement Foundation, which focuses on breaking the cycles of poverty and intolerance in the United States as well as on women’s issues. Mr. Leeds is the President of Fulcrum Investments LLC, a private investment firm. Until the sale of CMP Media in 1999, he was President of International Publishing. Through its publications, websites and licensees, CMP global a technology media company, reached audiences in over 70 countries.  The company was cited as “One of the Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune Magazine and Working Women Magazine.

Zoë Stemm-CalderonBoard Member

Zoë Stemm-Calderon joined the Raikes Foundation in 2015 to lead its education strategy. Before joining the foundation, Zoë served as a resident at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation while completing her doctorate in education leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She wrote her dissertation on philanthropic strategy for incubating and scaling personalized learning. Previously, Zoë was assistant superintendent of professional support and development at Houston Independent School District (ISD). Prior to her work in Houston ISD, Zoë was a senior leader at Teach for America, where she spent her 10-year tenure focused on advancing the organization’s approach to teacher, coach and manager development. Zoë began her career as an elementary school teacher in Houston. In addition to her doctorate from Harvard, Zoë earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of Washington.

Governor Bob WiseBoard Member

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise has spent his career advancing education opportunities for our nation’s students. In 2019, he completed 14 years as president of the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed), a national leader in advocating the policies and practices necessary for secondary school students to be ready for postsecondary education and careers. He was named one of the ten most influential people in education technology by Tech & Learning and one of NonProfit Times’s “Power & Influence Top 50.”

He currently focuses on driving the transformation of education systems that are rebuilding from COVID-19’s impact. He coordinates the Global Science of Learning Education Network as well as advocating for improving early literacy.  Gov. Wise served twenty-four years as governor, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and state legislator, and has become a prominent speaker and advisor on education issues and trends. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and a Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University.

Anthony TellishSenior Director of Operations and Organizational Effectiveness

Anthony Tellish joined the National Public Education Support Fund in January 2014, overseeing operations and the coordination of the international program. Previously, Anthony was a middle school social studies teacher in Maryland. Prior to teaching, he worked for the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC and more recently at The Doe Fund, a major homeless services organization in New York City. While at the Doe Fund, he spearheaded their major gifts program, which resulted in a significant increase to the organization’s overall annual fundraising capability. In addition to earning a Master’s Degree from New York University in Sociology of Education and Education Policy he earned a B.A. from American University in Political Science and his teaching certification from DePaul University.

Jennifer CleghornSenior Director of Strategy and Special Initiatives

Jennifer Cleghorn joined NPESF in February 2022 as the Senior Director of Strategy and Special Initiatives. In this role, she supports the organization’s efforts to foster the connection and capacity of networks, philanthropy, educators, policymakers and communities to advance racially just education and systems. Prior to joining NPESF, Jennifer was Vice President of Education for the Social Impact Exchange and Director of the Team Pennsylvania Foundation. She also served as a Special Assistant in the Pennsylvania Department of Education and as an Education Program Officer at the Annenberg Foundation. Jennifer holds an ED.M. in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University’s Teachers College and a B.A. from Earlham College.

Emma LangsnerNetwork Coordinator

Emma Langsner joined the National Public Education Support Fund in August 2019. Prior to joining NPESF, Emma worked at Isaacson, Miller, a premier executive search firm specializing in recruiting exceptional leaders to mission-driven organizations. While at IM, Emma acted as a liaison to clients, candidates, and search teams and coordinated logistical and administrative needs throughout the search process. Emma earned her BSSW from the University of New Hampshire in 2016 where she interned as a case manager for newly resettled refugees, and her MSW from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in 2017, during which she completed her fieldwork with the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office.

Margarette WilliamsExecutive Assistant

Margarette joined National Public Education Support Fund in December 2021. Before joining NPESF, she was a member of the leadership team for a charitable organization where she led and supported numerous internal initiatives and helped implement the plans and programs of its Executive Committee. Margarette brings a vast array of experiences throughout education with students of all ages a well as experience from the corporate world, having worked for a Fortune 500 Company coordinating with Capitol Hill staff, the Pentagon and Federal Government, and top US Corporations.

Lexus WhitfieldNetwork Coordinator

Lexus Whitfield joined NPESF in April 2022 as the Network Coordinator for the Education Funder Strategy Group (EFSG). Lexus is a Los Angeles native and has completed her master’s studies at Georgetown July 2021. Prior to joining NPESF, she worked at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement, and at Alexandria City Public School district.

Tejeswara ReddyGrants Coordinator

Tejeswara Reddy joined NPESF as Grants Coordinator in October 2022. He has held roles in the Obama Administration’s Department of Education and served as an aide to a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman. He is an alumnus of Teach For America (Phoenix ‘12), The Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs (’14-’15), the Fulbright Scholarship (Greece ’15-’16), the APAICS Congressional Fellowship (’16-’17), and the Leadership for Educational Equity Public Policy Fellowship (’18-’19).

Tejeswara is passionately committed to ensuring America’s educators are supported, qualified, and prepared to ensure every child in America has the opportunity to succeed.