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Middle School Accelerator
Leaders from Bellwether's Strategic Advising practice and Opportunity 180 will be integral to participants in the Middle School Accelerator Cohort experience. Below, find more information about the project leadership's background and experiences in supporting organizations like yours.
Senior academic strategy adviser Bill Durbin will lead the work, shaping the thinking and approach to the work, driving preparation and facilitation of collaborative working sessions and primary stakeholder touchpoints, and managing the Bellwether team. Since joining Bellwether in 2017, some of the organizations Bill has worked with include New Schools Venture Fund, New Schools for New Orleans, Match Charter Public School (Boston), Urban Prep Academies (Chicago), EPIC Academy (Chicago), Prodeo Academy (Minneapolis), Hynes Charter School (New Orleans), Beta Academy (Houston), and Frontier Public Schools (Kansas City). The scope of work with these schools and organizations includes new school design, network growth planning, school improvement strategy, academic program vision development, school improvement strategy, and executive coaching.
Before Bellwether, worked in school networks for 18 years. Bill served for two years as the Chief of Schools at DSST Public Schools in Denver, Colorado. In this role, he was responsible for managing 12 schools (grades 6-12) and 5,000 students, leadership pipeline management, leader development programming, and the yearly school planning processes. Previous to DSST, Bill served as YES Prep Public Schools' Head of Schools from 2009-2014, where he was responsible for identifying, training, and managing school directors at the thirteen YES Prep schools (grades 6-12) serving 8,000 students in Houston, Texas. As part of this work, Bill also served as a steering committee member for the SKY Partnership, a district-charter school partnership between Spring Branch Independent School District, KIPP Public Schools, and YES Prep Public Schools. Before managing the YES Prep portfolio of schools, Bill spent 2002-2009 co-founding and leading three schools: YES Prep North Central, YES Prep East End, and YES Prep Gulfton. Bill started his career in 1998 as a founding teacher at YES Prep Southeast. He lives in Houston with his fiance and two daughters.
Rebecca Gifford Goldberg is a partner with Bellwether Education Partners and will advise on the work, supporting the project lead in shaping the thinking and approach to the work and facilitation of the working sessions. Since 2010, Rebecca has led projects focused on strategic planning, growth and expansion strategy, organizational design, market assessment, and grant development and implementation. She also works one-on-one with executives in the education sector to build their management capacity. Recent clients include Normandy School District (St. Louis Area), Communities in Schools, Education Forward DC, and over 20 schools, networks, and districts across the country. Prior to joining Bellwether, Rebecca worked at McKinsey and Company, where she managed engagements with leading global institutions on growth strategy, sales and marketing, and operational efficiency. Earlier in her career, she supported the ongoing operations of a public charter school in D.C. and helped launch an innovative school model in Maryland. Rebecca directed the Maryland Leadership Workshops’ senior high program for three years, working with students from diverse backgrounds from across the mid-Atlantic on leadership skills development. Rebecca holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. The sister, daughter, and granddaughter of public school educators, Rebecca lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and two children.
Monique is a senior consultant on the Academic Program Strategy, Strategic Advising team. She has 13 years of experience fighting for educational equity in a variety of roles and contexts including higher education administration, school, and network leadership. Monique is committed to being an anti-racist educator, building excellent equitable schools where children can thrive in joyful, rigorous instruction and have their unique talents and gifts cultivated and celebrated. Prior to joining Bellwether, she worked as the Managing Director of Primary Schools in KIPP Texas Public Schools. In this role, she coached and supported 22 primary school leaders across KIPP Texas Public Schools in providing academically excellent and equitable virtual instruction in response to COVID-19, including creating and communicating plans for delivering effective, asynchronous and synchronous instruction. She led a task force of regional leaders to plan for virtual instruction and professional development as we prepare to restart this schoolyear and build an engaging virtual school culture to keep our students growing and learning through this pandemic. Monique spent 10 years helping to found and lead KIPP Legacy Preparatory School in Northeast Houston, TX as a teacher, dean, and ultimately as the school leader. She was awarded KIPP’s prestigious KIPP Six Leader Award for serving in the principal role for 6 years. She was able to drive academic results and close educational gaps by building a culture of consistency and warmth that made the school feel safe, loving, and focused.
Evan Coughenour is an associate partner in Bellwether Education Partners' Strategic Advising practice. Since Evan joined Bellwether in the fall of 2014, his clients have included charter schools, foundations, school districts, and education service providers. Prior to his time at Bellwether, Evan interned at A Better Chicago, worked as both a consultant and special assistant to the CEO at ASI Government, and taught in Washington, DC as a Teach For America corps member. Evan holds an MBA with honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a master’s degree in Elementary Education from American University, and a bachelor’s degree with Distinction in Psychology from Yale University. Based in San Francisco, Evan is an outdoor enthusiast, an avid runner, a committed singer, and proud husband of a KIPP school leader.
Yoshira Cardenas Licea is a consultant with Bellwether Education Partners in the Strategic Advising practice area. She has most recently worked with IDEA Public Schools, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, and a Texas-based strategic growth cohort of charter school leaders. Prior to joining Bellwether, Yoshira received her MBA from The University of Texas at Austin. Between her MBA years, she spent a few weeks as a summer fellow with Bellwether before serving as an Education Pioneers Fellow at Aspire Public Schools, where she created a competency model for non-teaching staff. Yoshira started her career as a Teach For America corps member in rural South Texas, where she spent four years as a bilingual third grade teacher and served as grade-level leader and technology representative. Yoshira holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College.
Stephanie Spangler is a consultant in the Strategic Advising practice of Bellwether Education Partners. She recently completed a dual degree at the University of Virginia, where she received her MBA from the Darden School of Business and her Masters in Curriculum & Instruction from the Curry School of Education. During the summer of 2018, Stephanie worked as a Special Assistant to the Chief Engagement Officer of Richmond Public Schools. In that role, she supported the development and drafting of the district’s five-year strategic plan.
Before graduate school, Stephanie taught in both charter and district schools in Washington, D.C. She began her career as a Capital Teaching Resident at KIPP DC, where she was part of a founding elementary school team. She later transitioned to DC Public Schools (DCPS), and taught fourth grade at Tubman Elementary School. Stephanie was consistently rated Highly Effective under the DCPS IMPACT System. She also served as a Grade Level Chair, a member of the Academic Leadership Team, and the author of the fourth-grade ELA curriculum.
Outside of the classroom, Stephanie participated in the Citybridge Foundation’s Education Innovation Fellowship and Teach Plus’ Teaching Policy Fellowship. She graduated magna cum laude from Emory University, where she was selected as a 2011 Truman Scholar.
Tam was born and raised in southern California where she earned her B.A. in Economics from University of California, Riverside. She began her education career through Teach For America in Washington D.C. as a middle school math teacher where she earned her Master’s of Arts in Teaching. She worked for Friendship Public Charter School and the District of Columbia Public Schools. She moved to Los Angeles to be closer to family and served as a math department chair, instructional leadership coach and joined the school leadership team for Animo Watts, a Green Dot Public Charter School.
In 2014, Tam found her new home in Las Vegas where she explored many types of development and training in hopes of supporting the teachers and leaders she works with to reach their full potential. Prior to working for Opportunity 180 she worked with Teach for America, TNTP, and Achievement Network. Her time in those organizations was spent working alongside birth through 12th grade teachers, coaches, principals, and district leadership to improve instructional outcomes for our most underserved students. Recognizing the systemic barriers school districts and school leaders face, she joined Opportunity 180 to lead the great schools portfolio by working collaboratively with the community to ensure all students and families in Clark County, especially our most underserved, have access to great public schools and people in those schools who are deeply committed to their success.
Outside of work, Tam stays involved in her community by serving as a board member for Nevada Prep, a Las Vegas Charter school, participated on the planning committee for the Southern Nevada Educator Leadership Symposium, and coached a Girls on the Run team at the Boys and Girls Club. Tam is driven by her vision of working alongside people in the community she calls home so that kids of color, first gen college kids, and kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds have many adults in their life supporting them to reach their full potential. In her personal life, she spends her time running, boating, any active outdoors activity and being a dog mom to Dash and Dakota.
Mina is a recent Nevada resident who strongly believes that every individual has a story and a unique set of strengths. She recognizes that access to opportunities is vital for community growth, so she is committed to opening doors for underrepresented groups.
Her experiences as a middle school mathematics teacher in her hometown Piscataway, New Jersey (P-Way, You know!), professional development facilitator in the New York and New Jersey area, coach for teachers, and administrative coach on the east coast, and most recently in Clark County helps her identify goals and solve problems from various perspectives.
Through Opportunity 180, Mina looks forward to improving the inequitable conditions underrepresented groups experience in education. She hopes to create more environments in Nevada where we can learn and grow as a community.
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