Washington, D.C.
Flamboyan Foundation opened its doors in Washington, D.C. in 2008 with the mission of improving educational outcomes for children in some of the worst performing schools in the nation. On average, only 14% of 8th graders in the Washington, D.C. perform on grade level in reading1 and more than 90% of D.C. Public School students drop out of high school, never enter college, or fail to get a college degree.2
We began our work by asking stakeholders what education strategies proven to improve student achievement were not being adequately addressed. These informal conversations led us to commission a local landscape assessment of family engagement and education advocacy practices, which we eventually chose as our areas of focus for the region. As we soon discovered, parents have felt dissatisfied and frustrated with Washington, D.C. schools for decades. There has been a general feeling among families that most D.C. schools do not welcome family involvement, do not treat parents as capable of supporting their child’s learning, and were not open to the opinions of parents who desired to take part in their children’s education.
We believe that in order for children to succeed, families and schools need to work together and share in the responsibility of education. As such, this is the issue that Flamboyan Foundation is trying to address in Washington, D.C.
1 Center for Education Statistics. NAEP Grade Reading Results. http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/state_g8.asp
2 Kernan-Schloss, A., & Potapchuk, B. (2006). “Double the Numbers for College Success: A Call to Action for the District of Columbia.” Washington, D.C.: DC College Access Program, et al.
Staff
Ricky Da Costa
Administrative Assistant: Washington, D.C.
Ricky M. Da Costa joined the Flamboyan Foundation as the new Administrative Assistant in August 2011. In this role, he is responsible for supporting the day-to-day operations of the Foundation. Ricky is a 2010 graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton with a B.A. in History and Geography. While at Binghamton, he was elected Student Association Vice President for Multicultural Affairs in addition to serving on the executive board of the Haitian Students Association. During the Summer of 2009 he interned at the New York State Washington Office of the Governor, serving as the staff’s primary legislative and administrative assistant. In 2008 Ricky took part in the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program’s Summer Research internship which culminated in the presentation of his project “U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean: 1915-1935” at the University at Buffalo McNair Research Conference. Ricky is also a former volunteer assistant wrestling coach at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Long Island, New York.
Nathan Driskell
Program Associate: Washington, D.C.
Nathan Driskell is the Program Associate at Flamboyan Foundation. Nathan supports all of the Foundation’s district, school, principal, and teacher partnerships. He also manages the Foundation’s quarterly newsletter, grant disbursement and reporting process, data system landscape assessment, and home visiting initiative. Prior to assuming his current role, Nathan served as Flamboyan's Program Assistant, providing administrative support to the Foundation's offices.
Nathan joined Flamboyan Foundation after receiving his bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Brown University in 2009. Previously, he worked as an Administrative Assistant at the Choices for the 21st Century Education Program, a national education initiative that provides teaching resources and teacher professional development on historical and current international issues, and volunteered as a writing instructor at Hope High School in Providence, RI.
Kristin Ehrgood
President and Board Chair: Washington, D.C.
Kristin Ehrgood is the President and Board Chair of Flamboyan Foundation. Additionally, she is the founder of Sapientis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing a diverse and informed network of change agents committed to improving the quality of public education in Puerto Rico, and was part of the founding team of DC School Reform Now, a non-profit organization committed to supporting education reform in Washington, D.C.
After earning her master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2001, Kristin and fellow Kennedy School alumnus Vadim Nikitine started Sapientis in Puerto Rico. In the spring of 2005, her work at Sapientis was recognized by Ernst & Young when she was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the area of Social Responsibility.
Kristin attended Bucknell University, where she earned a B.A. in International Relations, before joining Teach For America and teaching for three years. She later joined the Teach For America staff as Executive Director of their New Jersey region and then as Director of New Site Development.
Kristin currently lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Vadim Nikitine, their son, Pavlik, and their black lab, Zubi. She also sits on the boards of Sapientis, DC School Reform Now, Stand for Children, Teach For America *D.C. Region, and Venture Philanthropy Partners.
Kennietha Jones
Director of School Leadership: Washington, D.C.
Kennietha Jones is Flamboyan’s Director of School Leadership and supports our partnerships to build the capacity of D.C. schools and principals to engage families in ways that accelerate student learning.
Kennietha comes to Flamboyan with a strong background in teaching, school leadership, coaching and professional development. She is the former Director of Strategic Programs with New Leaders for New Schools-Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for coordinating program delivery for aspiring principals and shaping the support offered to new principals of the New Leaders community. Prior to New Leaders, Kennietha served as Managing Director of Program with Teach for America*Baltimore. She also has experience in transformational school leadership having served as a Principal, Director of Instruction, and a member of the first cohort of Boston Principal Fellows with the Boston Public Schools. Under Kennietha’s leadership, Mildred Avenue Middle School received the First in Math Outstanding School Achievement Award. As a former English teacher and adjunct graduate professor at University of Massachusetts, Boston, she has extensive experience in middle school learning and teaching. Kennietha received her B.A. in English from Spelman College and an Ed.M. in Teaching & Curriculum from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Kendall Mattos
Special Assistant to the President and Board Chair: Washington, D.C.
Kendall Mattos is the Special Assistant in the office of the President at Flamboyan Foundation. She provides support to the President on internal foundation management and communications strategy. Kendall comes to the Foundation with five years of experience providing administrative and project support to nonprofit executives. Prior to joining the Foundation, she spent two years at policy consulting firm EducationCounsel, providing executive-level support to the Managing Director and assisting with the management of a strategy group of 20-30 of the country's leading education foundations focused on policy.
Kendall began her professional career supporting the manager of the family office of AOL founder Steve Case, eventually moving on to provide program and development support for two of the Case Foundation’s grantee organizations, PlayPumps International and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.
In her spare time, Kendall celebrates her family’s heritage by serving as a volunteer staffer for cultural and community outreach programs at the Embassy of the Republic of Cape Verde to the U.S. She studied at the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University.
Lela Spielberg
Manager of Professional Development Partnerships: Washington, D.C.
Lela Spielberg is the Manager of Professional Development Partnerships at Flamboyan Foundation. In this role, she develops curricula, training, and resources for teachers and other school personnel to engage families in ways that improve student academic performance. She also provides expertise on structures and operations, such as school wide data-sharing systems, that support teachers in their efforts to partner with families around monitoring student learning and progress.
Previously, Lela was the Education Policy Analyst for the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), where she monitored and analyzed legislation, regulations and federal funding streams related to public education and family engagement in education. During her tenure at PTA, she spearheaded the bipartisan introduction of the Family Engagement in Education Act of 2010 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Prior to joining PTA, Lela was a Teach for America (TFA) corps member in Phoenix, where she taught 4th grade and facilitated professional development for other corps members on investing and engaging students and families, data-driven instruction, and classroom management. Lela holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University.
Susan Stevenson
Executive Director: Washington, D.C.
Susan Stevenson is the Executive Director of Flamboyan Foundation’s Washington, D.C. office. In this role, she is responsible for shaping, implementing, and overseeing all aspects of Flamboyan Foundation’s strategy in Washington, D.C.
Susan brings over twenty years of experience in non-profit management, strategic planning, early childhood development and education to her role at Flamboyan. She began her career in international development, working for Save the Children in Bolivia and serving as Vice President, Latin America and later as Vice President, International for Ashoka. At Ashoka, Susan oversaw the expansion of programs in Latin America from two to eleven countries and, in her capacity as VP, International, she managed 45 staff in 31 countries.
Susan spent several years with McKinsey and Company as a management consultant in McKinsey’s New York and Buenos Aires offices. She also co-founded and served as President of En Route Entertainment, a start-up company that provided movie and hardware rentals to Amtrak train travelers.
More recently, Susan co-directed Success by 6, United Way America’s national network of 350 early childhood initiatives. Susan’s previous experiences in D.C. education include strategic planning consulting with a D.C.-based education non-profit and many years of active involvement in her children’s DCPS school, where she has served as LSAT co-chair, annual campaign co-chair and recruitment committee member.
Susan has a master’s of business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor of arts in political science and Spanish from Indiana University.
Helen Westmoreland
Director of Program Quality: Washington, D.C.
Helen Westmoreland is the Director of Program Quality at Flamboyan Foundation. She is responsible for overseeing the foundation’s school and principal partnerships and informing the development and implementation of Flamboyan’s strategic family engagement initiatives. In this capacity, Helen identifies partners, strategies, and exemplary programs that will help Flamboyan achieve broad impact and she designs systems to evaluate its results.
Before coming to Flamboyan, Helen worked for the Harvard Family Research Project, where she provided research, evaluation, and technical assistance support to non-profits, philanthropies, government agencies, and research policy organizations across the country. She has also consulted with a variety of organizations to document and share their lessons learned with others in the field. Prior to that, Helen oversaw student tutoring services and site evaluations for community-based afterschool programs in the Duke–Durham Neighborhood Partnership.
Helen has authored numerous publications on the topics of family engagement, education organizing, and out-of-school time. In 2011, she was asked to join the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a leadership collaborative whose purpose is to inform the development and implementation of federal policy related to family, school, and community engagement in education.
Helen received a master's degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2006 and bachelors’ degrees in Spanish and biological anthropology from Duke University in 2003.