The 2020 Education Power 100: 51-100

Queens native Peter McNally was an elementary school principal and special education supervisor in New York City before joining the New York State Federation of School Administrators, which represents 14,000 principals and supervisors from Buffalo, Yonkers and New York City. As executive director, McNally has lobbied to change the principal and teacher evaluation system;this year he’ll weigh in on the all-important review of state graduation requirements. 

A former teacher whose own son has intellectual disabilities, Lori Podvesker supports policies that help children with disabilities get the services they need to thrive. In addition to serving as policy chairwoman of the New York City Panel for Educational Policy, Podvesker is director of disability and education policy at the nonprofit INCLUDEnyc, which creates “access to educational, employment and independent living opportunities” for thousands of New Yorkers with disabilities. 

Paula White is as well-rounded an education leader as they come. A first-generation immigrant, she taught in Atlanta Public Schools, founded a charter school, led school turnaround efforts at the New Jersey Department of Education and advocated with Democrats for Education Reform. Since joining the teacher advocacy group Educators for Excellence in 2018, her influence has grown in the Empire State as she’s pressed officials to recruit, train and graduate a more diverse teacher workforce.

Charissa Fernández has helmed the New York chapter of Teach for America since 2013. It’s a difficult time to be in her shoes as the teaching profession struggles with widespread turnover and the Trump administration dismantles the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which counts Teach For America corps members and students as recipients. Still, Fernández is blazing a path forward: She’s led a reengineered teacher hiring process and launched a New York regional training institute. 

When it comes to protecting the interests of Jewish day schools and other nonpublic education institutions, Maury Litwack is a force to be reckoned with in the corridors of power. An education policy expert and lobbyist, Litwack has grown the Teach Coalition into a multi-state network and notched legislative wins in New York, including bolstering private school security and securing state aid for STEM instruction in New York City’s religious schools.

Under Brigid Ahern’s leadership since 2018, Turnaround for Children has delved deeper in its work to equip educators with science-based tools to minimize the effects of trauma and stress on student learning and development. The nonprofit has long partnered with New York City schools and expanded its reach last year to Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Bay area, Tulsa and Chicago. Previously, Ahern worked at Uncommon Schools and the city Department of Education.

Brett Peiser taught in New York City public schools and founded Boston Collegiate Charter School before joining Uncommon Schools, where he became CEO in 2012. The network of 54 Northeast charter schools is recognized for its work “helping students achieve significant academic gains and college readiness.” Peiser recently joined forces with other charter leaders to publicly urge Democratic presidential candidates to rethink policy proposals viewed as “hostile to charters,” in a Daily News op-ed.

Yomika Bennett was hired in 2019 to lead the nonprofit New York Charter Schools Association amid the group’s rebranding. As executive director, Bennett, an established Albany insider, represents 300 charter schools statewide in various policy debates. Her prior experience as a budget analyst in the Assembly, secretary of transportation under Gov. Andrew Cuomo and deputy commissioner at the DMV give her an edge as she forges this new chapter.

Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung both bring impressive advocacy and education resumes to the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families. As co-executive directors since 2017, Gundanna and Leung – who also sits on the Panel for Educational Policy – have prioritized a campaign to overhaul the city’s specialized high school admissions test. They prefer an admissions process that weighs multiple factors, arguing the status quo furthers segregation and inequity in public schools, per a 2018 report. 

An energetic LGBTQ activist and former union organizer, Alan van Capelle became CEO of the well-established Educational Alliance in 2014. The lower Manhattan-based organization delivers multi-generational community services including preschool, kids’ summer camp and after-school programs. Van Capelle, a Long Island native, is also plugged in to City Hall, where he worked as deputy comptroller from 2010 to 2012, and currently serves on the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Committee. He also teaches at New York University.

The Master Teacher Program run by Josephine Salvador is the secret sauce that helps teachers statewide be more effective and fulfilled in their jobs. Since 2013, Salvador has been the low-profile, high-impact leader of the program backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, overseeing its growth to include more than 1,200 K-12 STEM teachers and helping deliver high-quality training. She’s held past school supervisory roles and leadership positions in state and national educational organizations. 

Yonkers-based educator Jamaal Bowman made a name for himself as the “founding principal of a well-regarded middle school in the Bronx,” as Chalkbeat put it. He’s now wagering that his 20-year education career will help him unseat Rep. Eliot Engel in New York’s 16th Congressional District. A vocal supporter of the opt-out movement and restorative discipline practices, Bowman has nabbed endorsements from Diane Ravitch and political action committees that backed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. 

Jamie Phillips is a longtime leader among school business officials and works as assistant superintendent for business and support services in the Lancaster Central School District. An active member of the Association of School Business Officials’ western chapter, she was honored as the 2017 Business Official of the Year for Western New York. This fall, she steps into a bigger role as president of the statewide association, representing more than 2,500 school finance pros. 

Carol Burris is a nationally recognized school principal who retired from South Side High School in Rockville Centre, Long Island, in 2015to fully dedicate her energy to reversing New York’s high-stakes testing and the linkage of teacher evaluations to student test scores.Since then, her efforts as executive director of the Network for Public Education Foundation – the brainchild of education historian Diane Ravitch – have frequently succeeded.

Thomas Rogers was hired as the superintendent of Syosset Central School District in 2014. The suburban Nassau County district has long been well-regarded in national and state rankings, and under Rogers’ tenure, students have continued to outpace their peers statewide on Regents exams and graduation rates. Rogers was trained at Teachers College, Columbia University, and he honed his skills at the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Joyce Szuflita is the cure for what ails thousands of overwhelmed Brooklyn parents seeking the right school for their kids amid New York City’s arcane school admissions maze. Szuflita opened NYC School Help, a wildly successful consulting business, after her own school search process for her two now-adult daughters left her with encyclopedic knowledge of the borough’s schools – and she realized there was a huge market to be tapped. 

The New York City Department of Education inked a $70 million deal with Apple in 2019, making the tech giant the highest-paid education technology provider of the year, citywide and statewide, based on our review of public records. Robert Frelow joined Apple as the sales lead for the city Department of Education in April, and he’ll be instrumental in securing such deals in the future. He previously sold hardware and software at IBM, Dell and HP.

Shawn Bay runs eScholar, an “education data solutions” company he founded in 1997 that provides data warehousing, analytics and other tools used by the federal government, states and school districts such as Syracuse City Schools to promote student-personalized learning. The Westchester-based company had a $14.8 million contract with the state Education Department to license a warehouse system and data model for a student information repository system in 2019. 

Another education technology contractor that pulls in substantial dollars for education services is SHI International Corp., a New Jersey-based company run by billionaire Korean American businesswoman Thai Lee, who founded it a couple of decades ago with her then-husband. The New York City Department of Education has a $9.3 million contract with SHI for wireless infrastructure and access management services – both essential elements if schools are to deliver digitally driven instruction. 

Gladys Cruz began her career as a teacher in Puerto Rico, served as director of curriculum services for the state Education Department and landed at Questar III BOCES in 1998. Cruz, who has 23 school districts under her purview and oversees programs delivered statewide, last year joined BOCES leaders to advise state officials on their review of high school graduation requirements. She strongly supports changes that account for New York’s diverse student population. 

A self-described “K-12 computer science evangelist,” Diane Levitt serves as a bridge between the Cornell Tech graduate campus (launched in 2011 on Roosevelt Island) and New York City’s K-12 computing education ecosystem. She recently led a coaching program that enables more public school teachers to teach computer science, especially to underprivileged students of color, and also convenes leaders to move the field forward at an annual conference, To Code and Beyond.

Ray Domanico came to the conservative Manhattan Institute in 2018 after serving as director of education research at New York City’s Independent Budget Office during the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations. His thoughtful analysis of the education reform movement, the charter cap (he favors lifting it) and the difficulty of integrating city schools is published widely. Domanico’s experience teaching educational research and policy analysis at Brooklyn College and Baruch College informs his data-driven commentary.

Aaron Pallas is a speaker, writer, researcher and professor who is chiefly concerned with “strengthen[ing] the capacity of research to enhance educational discourse in the public sphere.” Pallas is frequently sought out for his nuanced, data-informed commentary on New York City and state education debates, including the gifted and talented program and the Renewal schools initiative.He recently co-authored a book, “Convergent Teaching: Tools to Spark Deeper Learning in College,” with colleague Anna Neumann.

A seasoned school superintendent who started his career as a social worker in the New York City Department of Education, Michael Kohlhagen now leads a nonprofit serving 146,000 students in more than 300 districts and charter schools. CEI offers enrichment programs for at-risk students and “capacity building” for educators and parents to help improve school climate, student achievement and engagement. Under Kohlhagen’s leadership, in 2018 the organization won a federal arts education development grant. 

Scott Crowder is CEO of Educational Vistas Inc., a for-profit company based in Schenectady that provides software, data analysis and test-scoring services to hundreds of districts upstate and downstate, as well as charter schools. Its clients include the New York Charter Schools Association and multiple Boards of Cooperative Educational Services. A 30-year veteran in the software industry, Crowder is knowledgeable about everything from programming to design to data management.