Our Team

Nora Houseman

Nora Houseman grew up in Washington DC, attending (tracked and segregated) public schools there and leaving high school determined to further equity and justice in public schooling. She taught middle school (all subjects; math through social justice) for nine years in Oakland, San Lorenzo, and San Francisco, then served as the school leader (principal) for four years at San Francisco Community School. SFC - a racially diverse, K-8, project-based school with democratic leadership structures - allowed Nora to grow deeply in her practice and leadership, working collectively to interrogate and interrupt inequitable structures and practices, and seeking to create transformative ways of “doing school” and building and strengthening community with SFC’s students, adults and families. This is now Nora’s third year serving as Supervisor in SFUSD’s Department of Professional Growth & Development leading the Professional Learning and Leadership Team, designing and supporting various professional development programs and initiatives, including the Teacher Leader Fellowship, the ParaEducator Leadership Network, the Project Based Learning Support Team, the Lesson Study Project, the Leading for Equity PLCs, and PD Hours for Educators. These programs focus on educator-led, grassroots, professional learning and leadership, supporting SFUSD educators at all stages of their career to design, deliver and/or experience high quality, equity-centered professional development - in order to grow and enhance their practice and their leadership - so that we transform student outcomes and student experience in SFUSD schools.

Raye Richardson

Raye has worked in both the mental health and educational field. During her years of working at a mental health clinic, and the San Francisco Unified School District, she has advocated for the well-being, uplifting, and advancement of families in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a community outreach worker, she established partnerships between mental health clinics and San Francisco Unified School District to help support schools and their families by making mental health services accessible to those youth needing services and crisis intervention. She assisted in developing a summer program for youth to ensure they continued to receive mental health services while providing a safe haven during the summer months. For over two decades she has worked for The San Francisco Unified School District as a Student Advisor/ Community Relations Specialist. Here she helped students resolve their conflicts, as well as train upper grade students in Restorative Practices and Conflict Resolution to help mediate problems between students in lower grades. In addition, she has advocated for families who are in transition and/or homeless, victims of domestic abuse, or in need of outside resources. Raye is currently a Paraprofessional on Special Assignment where she takes on the role as a coach and mentor for the Paraprofessional Leadership Network.

Janet Eberhardt

Janet is a proud paraeducator of 32 years working with the SFUSD where she has valued her role as a Community Relations Specialist/Elementary Advisor working as a child and family advocate. She started in this unique paraprofessional position from the inception of its creation and to this day, she shares with others the value of this position and its great impact it plays in the outcome of students, families and communities of San Francisco. As an Elementary Advisor she has work to address the needs of the whole student which encompasses the family and community. This position allowed her to be creative and provide extra-curricular programs to address students needs. Janet has had the opportunity to spread her love and skills throughout the district working at various elementary schools throughout her career. Although she completed the credential program (San Francisco State) in 1999, she often states she is a paraprofessional by choice which validates her love for the work she did as an advisor. Her work as an Community Relations Specialist afforded her the opportunity to touch student lives in many different ways. As a CRS, her work focused on building student self esteem, organizing student conflict managers programs, student council committees, and various incentive programs and activities. Her passion is working with students, challenging each student to focus on goals to achieve in helping that student to be successful and thrive in the school setting. She recently extended that level of commitment when she step away from working directly with the students and families and she is currently working as a PSA, Paraprofessional on Special Assignment working as a mentor and coach for paraeducators throughout the district. She is most excited about her work as a PSA which allows her the opportunity to spread her passion for advocacy, equity and her educational philosophy (simple logic) with other paraeducators.

Sean Nunley-Willis

Sean is the newest Para on Special Assignment (PSA). He was a member of the Para Leadership Network (PLN) for three years and has been with SFUSD for about seven years and has 11 years of diverse youth development and education experience. Sean has experience in both elementary and middle schools, although he has a real passion for middle school students. He loves to support their social-emotional growth. He believes that students need trusted adults who build authentic relationships during these critical years of their lives. This is what led Sean to work with his peers to create more inclusive, equitable, & fun communities. As a coach, Sean wants to encourage his fellow para educators to learn and grow and challenge themselves & to shine a light on the hard work of these educators.

Don Frazier, Jr.

Don’s approach to education is centered on humanization, and equity driven. Don has applied his expertise in various roles such as Dean of Students/Head Counselor, after-school tutor, middle school assistant, Family Support Coordinator, Reentry & Preventative Services Counselor, middle school advisor, basketball coach, and co-advisor for a program centered on coaching young fathers.

Don obtained his Bachelor of Science in Media Arts Animation from The Art Institute of CA - San Francisco, and discovered his passion for social emotional development while working at San Francisco Friends School (SFFS). Don was encouraged to pursue a profession in counseling or therapy by the youth he worked with while at SFFS. Don went on to obtain his Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. He graduated and went to serve in the community as a Reentry and Preventative Services Counselor at Berkeley Youth Alternatives. Mr. Frazier’s passion for education moved him to apply to San Francisco State University to obtain his Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Dr. Frazier has demonstrated his obligation as a leader and scholar-practitioner to remain centered on enhancing the social experiences and academic outcomes of students through the institutions principles, and equitable practices of staff.

Don earned his doctorate after successfully defending his dissertation titled Power, School Culture, and Exclusion: The Socio-academic Realities of Four Under-credited Black Male Youth.

Nobie Camarena

Nobie has worked in public education since 1997. The majority of that time was spent working as a K/1 teacher at San Francisco Community School - a small, diverse, K-8 school in the southeast corner of the city. Throughout his time there, he anchored his classroom practice in project based learning, problem based learning, and other constructivist learning practices focusing on the interplay of agency and collaboration in creating a transformative community. Nobie is driven by a deep faith in the potential for love and community within humanity, intellectual honesty and curiosity, and the potential for joy in the midst of struggle. He believes our schools must be places where students can be and explore their whole selves, and that adults must create a new way of being and being together if schools are to be a place of transformation.

Jessica Fishman

Jessica Fishman has spent the last fifteen years working in public education. Jessica worked as a teacher, principal and instructional coach at San Francisco Community School - a diverse, K-8 school in the Excelsior. Jessica has been focused on educator leadership and development, equity, project-based learning and balanced literacy in her work at San Francisco Community School (my-sfcs.org). She began her career in education teaching early elementary in the South Bronx through Teach For America and holds a masters in education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education. This is Jessica’s third year serving as an instructional coach in PG&D. Jessica is particularly interested in how educators learn and grow together; fostering agency, collaboration, reflection and relational trust so that we can bring about the interruption and change necessary for our students and our community.

Kathleen Helfrey

Kathleen is a bay area native who has been working in education for the past ten years. She began her career in education in a rural community in Ghana, West Africa where she met a group of elders who wanted to build a library in their village. This moment led her to co-found an educational non-profit designed to make education in rural communities more accessible. Her passion for education as a form of liberation led her to begin her teaching career at San Francisco Community School - a diverse, K-8, project-based school with democratic leadership structures. Through her work here she was able to deepen her commitment to equity-centered educational practices and educator leadership opportunities to create conditions for all students to thrive. This is Kathleen’s first year on the Professional Learning and Leadership team where she works collaboratively with educators to grow their practice and leadership capacity in service of students.

Susi Brennan

Susi has been a public school educator for over 20 years. Most of her classroom teaching was at San Francisco Community School, where she taught 4th-8th grades and was a Resource Specialist for 3 years. After having received so much support as a teacher through SFC’s reflective, equity-focused, and shared leadership community, she wanted to support and empower teachers in other schools. She became an Instructional Reform Facilitator at Daniel Webster Elementary where she facilitated grade level meetings, co-designed professional development, and co-created a shared leadership model. Then, as an IRF at Hillcrest Elementary, she continued coaching and facilitating grade level meetings while supporting whole school lesson study. This is Susi’s first year on the Professional Learning and Leadership team and she is very excited to continue working with educators to build equitable, reflective, compassionate, empowered learning communities for students and adults.

Melissa Rodriguez

Melissa has been an English/Language Arts and English Language Development teacher in both middle and high school for the past fifteen years in the Bay Area and the Salinas Valley. Throughout that time she developed her practice through project-based learning, performance assessments, culturally responsive teaching, and professional learning communities. She believes that schools and districts should provide excellent, inquiry-based, professional development in the service of students and that teachers should have the opportunity to collaborate and analyze student work and data in order to solve problems of practice and facilitate high-quality, meaningful learning. As a new member of the PLL team this year, Melissa is excited to support teachers and teams in the growth and development of their practice throughout the different stages of their careers.

Nicole Henderson

A Bay Area native, Nicole’s work is grounded in a passion for public service with a special interest in Education Policy reform. She has worked across the Bay Area school districts for more than a decade. After beginning her career in Oakland, as an independent contractor working in Behavior and Crisis Intervention Support and After School Programing; Nicole received a B.A. in Political Science, along with an M.A. and Credential in Special Education from San Francisco State University. In 2014 Nicole transitioned to SFUSD and began her work as an Education Specialist, serving students and families with exceptional needs, gaining an in-depth perspective of the varied conditions across the diverse communities within the district. This year, Nicole joins the Professional Learning and Leadership Team as an Instructional Coach, in addition to supporting the Teacher Leader Fellowship, and Leading for Equity Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Nicole is excited to continue the work supporting educators understanding on how to manage systems of oppression in order to better serve students in marginalized groups.

Jannah Schwab

Jannah comes from seven years as a classroom Humanities teacher at Oceana High School, an alternative public school with a deep culture of collaboration and project-based learning. In addition to classroom teaching, Jannah served as the coordinator of a schoolwide, multidisciplinary project completed by each graduating senior and supported directly by each certificated member of the school staff. Administration of this student inquiry-driven, year-long project provided Jannah with experience developing meaningful whole school projects and authentic exhibitions as well as course-specific project-based curricula. Jannah believes in the power of teacher leadership, in combination with community-driven school structures and culture, to empower educators to do their best work in collaboration with one another. Now joining SFUSD on the Professional Learning and Leadership team, Jannah is excited to leverage her role as a coach to support teachers in deepening collaboration, classroom practice, and sustainability.

Katharine Sullivan

Over the past 18 years Katharine Sullivan’s career in public education has spanned many school-based roles (infant-toddler teacher, after school coordinator, community school coordinator, and substitute teacher) and then on to administrative and policy-level work with large urban school districts and administrative teams.

Her range of experience has reinforced an appreciation for the interdependent relationship between public systems, community-based organizations, local leadership, philanthropy and the crucial relationships that must exist between them to ensure all students have equitable access to high quality educational experiences in and outside of the classroom.

Her work has resulted in long- standing improvements in the way thousands of students and families are served each year through cross-system partnerships, sustainable funding, and the implementation of innovative programming.

Ms. Sullivan is a Bay Area native who holds a BA in Sociology from San Francisco State University and a MA in Public Administration.

Nia Ross

All 15 years of Nia’s career as an educator have been in San Francisco. As a Pennsylvania native, she has enjoyed learning about the city she loves through her role as educator at various schools across the city. She’s worked with students in all the elementary grades as a classroom teacher and technology integration specialist. In her current role as Program Co-Coordinator for the National Board Support Program, she aims to help teachers develop the language and confidence to articulate their intentional planning and skillful instruction.

Maria Hunt

Maria was born and raised in the Bay Area. She began her teaching career in San Jose, then moved to New York where she taught in Bushwook, Brooklyn until finally coming back and settling down in San Francisco Unified. She has loved learning and growing in the different communities in which she has been an educator. Within schools she found her passion to be literacy and served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist , and instructional coach. She is beginning her first year outside of a school setting with the National Board Support Program. She is excited to work with educators as they engage in deep reflection to push their practice in the service of our students.