OUR TEAM
Our organizational infrastructure is configured to address the specific needs of the See Forever Foundation and the Maya Angelou Schools. Accordingly, our board members have expertise in key fields, including education, community service and nonprofit management, parenting and community engagement, finance, law, communications and corporate governance. There are ad hoc and standing committees of each board who engage in more in-depth organizational planning, support, and operations.
Maya Angelou Public Charter School Board of Directors
Dr. Leone has monitored, evaluated education services, and provided technical assistance in jails, detention centers, training schools, and prisons in a number of states. He is the former Director of the National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice at the UM and he served on the Blue Ribbon Commission for the reform of the Texas Youth Commission in 2007. His research examines access and equity of education services for marginalized youth particularly those in institutional settings, school exclusion, and litigation involving individuals with disabilities in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Mr. White has particular experience in legal aspects of accounting and auditing. He currently serves as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC). He founded Focus on Audit Committees, Accounting and the Law, a WilmerHale blog that provides a legal perspective on developments in accounting standards, financial reporting, auditing and regulation of the accounting profession. As General Counsel of WilmerHale, Mr. White advised internal and external clients on professional responsibility and legal practice issues.
Since retiring from WilmerHale, Mr. White’s focus has been teaching activities. Beginning in September 2018, he will be a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, where he will teach a course on “Governance of Financial Reporting.” In January 2018, under the auspices of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, he taught a course on Accounting for Lawyers to a class of 26 female law students and recent law graduates at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He also led the Washington office of the National Council of Teachers of English, securing authorization and funding of a comprehensive federal literacy program; directed large scale projects and multidisciplinary teams across multiple organizations and government agencies focused on education policy, technology, assessment, and professional learning for the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, Intel Education, EDUCAUSE, and the American Association for Higher Education; and taught higher education and integrative studies at George Mason University.
He has served on the Technical Advisory Board of IMS Global, third country representative for the Europortfolio project, and founding board chair of the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning. He currently serves on the board of the Maya Angelou Schools. A keynote speaker at national and international conferences in eight countries on four continents, he has authored, edited, or produced more than 35 research and policy publications, including award-winning books, reports, interactive web sites, and video collections. He won the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Faculty Prize for Eportfolios for Lifelong Learning and Assessment in 2012.
The Maya Angelou Academy’s success has been widely recognized. Students at Maya Angelou improve their reading and math scores at an annualized rate of nearly 1.5 grade levels. Over 50% of the students who earn a GED or high school diploma while at the Academy go on to postsecondary school—a rate nearly unheard of in youth correctional settings. Retention rates (the percentage of students remaining in school or holding jobs after release to the community) have doubled since the Maya Angelou Academy began serving D.C.’s incarcerated youth. The changes at the school have been termed “remarkable” by a national expert and court-appointed monitor. David left the Maya Angelou Academy in the fall of 2011 to start the Center for Educational Excellence in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lewis served as intern for the Hon. Maurice A. Ross of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He received the following degrees: The George Washington University Law School JD in 2008 and from the University of Tennessee BS, cum laude, Finance, 2004.
Forman taught at Georgetown Law from 2003 to 2011, when he joined the Yale faculty. At Yale, he teaches Constitutional Law, a seminar called Race, Class and Punishment, and a seminar called Inside Out: Issues in Criminal Justice, in which Yale law students study alongside men incarcerated in a Connecticut prison. Professor Forman teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure and criminal law policy, constitutional law, juvenile justice, and education law and policy. His particular interests are schools, prisons, and police, and those institutions’ race and class dimensions.
Dr. Johnson is a long-time board member and former board chair for Maya Angelou Schools and an advisor to CampusESP, an ed-tech startup that engages parents to support college student success. She has served as a professorial lecturer in education at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development and a community college adjunct instructor at the UDC Community College. She received her Ed.D. in Educational Policy from The George Washington University, Ed.M. in Higher Education from Harvard University, and B.A. in English from Azusa Pacific University.
Prior to joining Walmart Foundation, Marshall spent six years in the Obama administration. She last served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education where she managed the development of the Department’s strategic plan and led efforts to create transformative impact in low/moderate income communities. Marshall was on the launch team for the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Federal Task Force and managed its policy apparatus, designing solutions to expand access to opportunity for and address barriers experienced by boys and young men of color. She also led the administration’s Rethink Discipline effort to encourage more effective policies to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and served on the Second Chance Pell selection committee providing Pell Grants to incarcerated students.
Alise is a native of Shelbyville, KY and received her B.A. from the University of Kentucky.
Before joining Virginia Tech, Tanji worked for as a district-level literacy specialist in Charlotte–Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, where she supported middle schools across the district to refine their literacy practices. She also worked to prepare the district as they transitioned to Common Core standards. Additionally, as a Title I literacy coach, Tanji worked with targeted schools to improve literacy instruction for traditionally underserved students. Her career also includes elementary and middle school classroom teaching in North Carolina and New Jersey, which has allowed her opportunities to consult with school districts across the country to refine and focus teacher practice on literacy and to strengthen student achievement — with an emphasis on traditionally underserved students. Tanji holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis on teacher practice with high-achieving African American students, from Virginia Tech; a master’s degree in English education, with a focus on critical literacy, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston College. She served as Counselor and Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton during her whole tenure as United States Secretary of State. After leaving the State Department in January, 2013, she founded BlackIvy Group, which builds businesses in Africa.
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ADMINISTRATION
CLARISSE MENDOZA DAVIS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Clarisse Mendoza Davis currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the See Forever Foundation and Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools. In this role, Clarisse will lead the organization’s network of schools with a primary focus on academic performance, long-term planning, and sustainability. Dr. Mendoza Davis joined our team in 2016 as the Chief of Schools, with over ten years of experience serving students and families in urban schools in both traditional district and charter settings. After teaching high school English in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Clarisse served as Principal of Tindley Renaissance Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana, Chief Operating Officer of the Early Stages Division of DCPS, and Deputy Chief of Schools at the UNO Charter School Network (now the Acero Network of Schools) in Chicago, Illinois.
Clarisse earned her Ed.D. and M.Ed. in Education Leadership from Teachers College-Columbia University. She also holds a M.A. in Teaching from American University and her B.A. with Honors in English and Music from Loyola University in Chicago. In 2019, The Leadership Center for Excellence recognized Clarisse in their “40 Under 40” 2019 Class for her demonstrating exceptional and impactful leadership. Outside of her career, Clarisse enjoys spending time with her husband William, and their daughter Sophia. Some of her hobbies include baking, trying out new recipes in the kitchen, and reading. One of the ways Clarisse defines her leadership style is through this quote written by Dr. Maya Angelou, “Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
