Doug McCurry
Co-CEO and Superintendent
In his role as co-CEO and superintendent, Mr. McCurry oversees student achievement across the Achievement First network through the training and coaching of principals, the development and implementation of principal best practices, and the evaluation of principals and schools. Prior to co-founding Achievement First in 2003, Mr. McCurry was one of the founders of Amistad Academy, serving as the school's instructional leader for three years. In his teaching roles at Amistad Academy, Mr. McCurry achieved outstanding results. His math students achieved 100 percent proficiency on the Connecticut Mastery Test, and his reading and writing students consistently showed over two years of growth in a single school year. Mr. McCurry led the development of Achievement First's standards-based curriculum, including Athena, Achievement First's online interim assessment and data analysis system. Mr. McCurry also leads professional development efforts at Achievement First, and he is a sought-after presenter and coach of teachers. Before coming to Amistad Academy and Achievement First, Mr. McCurry was a management and technology consultant in Atlanta, GA, and taught history and writing and coached basketball and tennis at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. A Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Mr. McCurry earned a B.A. in history and journalism there, and was recently awarded the university’s distinguished young alumnus award. Through the Klingenstein Private School Leadership program, he earned an M.A. in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Laurie Bussmann
Vice President, Information Technology
Ms. Bussmann manages Achievement First's IT support, IT networks, data storage and backup, VOIP, and systems integration for each school and across the network. Ms. Bussmann has led the development and support of Achievement First's technology infrastructure since 2004, when she was servicing a single school, as Amistad Academy's IT manager. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Bussmann supported the technology at Regional School District 17 in Haddam-Killingworth, Connecticut, and worked as a buyer for Compaq/Hewlett Packard. Ms. Bussmann graduated, with honors, from Providence College with a Bachelor of Science in computer science. She is currently continuing her education with a Master of Information Systems from University of Phoenix.

Laura Clancy
Chief of Staff
Ms. Clancy oversees organization-wide performance management, planning, and learning and development efforts. Before joining Achievement First, she served as managing director at New Sector Alliance and executive director at the organization’s Boston office. Earlier in her career, Ms. Clancy worked with the Bridgespan Group for clients that included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Boston Foundation, College Summit, Communities in Schools, and Center for Health Care Strategies. Ms. Clancy has also worked as a development and strategy consultant at New Visions for Public Schools and with Community Resource Exchange, a management consulting firm focusing on grassroots nonprofits in NYC. She has served as associate director of corporate and foundation relations of the national office of Big Brothers Big Sisters and has served on the Boards of the Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard University, the Guidance Center, and AF Crown Heights. Ms. Clancy holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, where she was a William Randolph Hearst Scholar, and a B.A, magna cum laude, from Harvard University where she was awarded their annual Women’s Leadership Award and the Donald W. Moreland Award for Public Service.

Sarah Coon
Senior Director, Talent Development
Ms. Coon leads Achievement First’s Teacher Career Pathway, designed to identify, develop and recognize excellent teachers. Ms. Coon joined Achievement First in 2008 as a Broad Resident in Urban Education. Prior to joining the Broad Residency, she was the founding executive director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Policy Center, an organization that influences education policy with high quality research on teacher and organizational learning. Previously, she was research coordinator for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Commission on Training America’s Teachers and program director for Apangea Learning’s community outreach initiative. Ms. Coon’s interest in education policy developed as a teacher in low-income communities, and she pursued this interest as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Her classroom experience includes teaching fifth grade during the founding year of the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy and teaching first grade as a Teach For America Corps Member in San Jose. Ms. Coon has a B.A. in human services from the George Washington University and an M.P.M. in education policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Tracy Epp
Regional Superintendent
Ms. Epp oversees and supports a portfolio of Achievement First elementary schools to ensure that students continue climbing the mountain to college. She began her career as a gap-closing eighth-grade history teacher in south Texas as a Teach For America corps member. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Epp helped establish and lead the expansion of IDEA Public Schools, a network of charter schools in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. During her time at IDEA, she served in a number of roles—first as a co-author of the charter and founding board member, then as founder and principal of the flagship high school, and finally as chief academic officer coaching school principals and leading the creation of IDEA's K-12 curriculum, assessments and teacher professional development strategies. Before her involvement with IDEA, Ms. Epp served as both a program director and member of the national program team at Teach For America, coaching and developing novice teachers and assisting in the development of metrics around teacher effectiveness. She holds dual bachelor's degrees in history and political science from Case Western Reserve University and an M.Ed. in educational leadership from the University of Texas at Pan American. In addition, she will be conferred a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Texas at Austin.

Harris Ferrell
Chief Information Officer
Mr. Ferrell is responsible for information practices, processes and systems across the Achievement First network. His goal is to ensure that Achievement First’s data and information practices are supported by the proper enterprise systems to efficiently and effectively communicate, document, share, analyze, report, plan and review all facets of its best practices and organizational performance. Formerly, Mr. Ferrell was a co-founder and senior vice president of AdvancePath Academics, a company that sets up and operates drop-out recovery academies on behalf of school districts. Mr. Ferrell attended Yale University as an undergraduate and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has worked in education in many different facets: a classroom teacher through Teach For America in Houston, a designer of education software as director of product management at SchoolNet and an investor in education as an associate partner at NewSchools Venture Fund.

Maia Heyck-Merlin
Chief Talent Officer
Ms. Heyck-Merlin currently oversees recruitment, development and evaluation of school leaders, teachers and operational team members. She began at Achievement First in 2007 as the chief talent officer. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Heyck-Merlin worked at Teach For America in a variety of capacities. She began as a corps member in South Louisiana where she taught fourth grade for two years. Following her commitment in the corps, she went on to teach fifth grade at Children’s Charter School and also directed Teach Baton Rouge’s first summer training institute. In 2002, Ms. Heyck-Merlin returned to Teach For America as the executive director in South Louisiana, overseeing development and programmatic efforts for a corps that had recently doubled in size. She then served for three years as the director of the Houston Institute, leading the training and development efforts for the incoming corps. In her last role at Teach For America, Ms. Heyck-Merlin founded and led the National Institute Operations team, which managed the national operations for all five summer training institutes. Ms. Heyck-Merlin holds a B.A. in child development from Tufts University where she served as president of the Leonard Carmichael Society, the largest student body organization. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, beautiful daughter and three playful cats.

Becca Howlett
Vice President, Recruitment
Ms. Howlett leads Achievement First’s school recruitment initiatives in New York and Connecticut. Her team is charged with ensuring that every Achievement First school is staffed with talented teachers and school leaders dedicated to developing the academic and character skills of all students. In 2003, Ms. Howlett founded a not-for-profit organization, Literacy for Incarcerated Teens, aimed at building libraries for juvenile offenders in NYC. She was a teacher in the NYC Department of Education where she taught in an alternative district and the NYC juvenile detention system. In 2002, Ms. Howlett participated in Coro Leadership NY XIV and worked alongside talented leaders from across the for-profit, public and non-profit sector. Ms. Howlett earned a B.A. in history at the University of Connecticut and a M.S.Ed from Bank Street College.

Elana Karopkin
Regional Superintendent
Overseeing a portfolio of schools, Ms. Karopkin is responsible for training and coaching principals in the development and maintenance of academic programs and a school culture that fosters high student achievement and positive character development. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Karopkin was the founding principal of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice (SLJ) which served Title I students from all five boroughs of New York City. At SLJ, Ms. Karopkin (and her students) achieved extraordinary results: 93 percent of the founding class graduated on time, 100 percent applied to and were accepted to college, and nearly 85 percent of those students are currently enrolled in colleges including Bates, Amherst, Colby, Hamilton, Skidmore and the CUNY Macaulay Honors Program. Ms. Karopkin’s significant experience as a leader in urban education also includes roles as a regional literacy specialist, assistant principal, English department head and English teacher. Ms. Karopkin graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and holds an M.A. in English education from New York University, where she received the prestigious Jonathon Levin fellowship.

Sara Keenan
Vice President, Leadership Development
Ms. Keenan oversees Achievement First’s leadership development for principals, principals-in-residence, deans and teacher leaders. Her team also manages the school leadership pipeline, supporting Achievement First’s talented teachers and leaders throughout their career paths in the organization. Prior to working at Achievement First, Ms. Keenan coached teachers in New York City schools and worked as a high school and middle school English teacher, teaching in both an affluent suburban district and in Chicago Public Schools. While in graduate school, Ms. Keenan was an Education Pioneer and worked at the NYC Department of Education in the Office of Accountability. She holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a M.A. from New York University, where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Ms. Keenan is also currently participating in The Broad Residency in Urban Education.

Jeff Kiker
Vice President, Business Information Systems
Mr. Kiker oversees the systems that gather and store Achievement First’s school-generated data, as well as the tools that enable school and Network Support staff to use data to improve results for all our scholars. Before joining Achievement First, Mr. Kiker was a consultant for the New York City Department of Education working on their online product strategy. Prior to the NYC DOE, he led a unit of the Internet Products Group at Pitney Bowes, Inc. and held various business development positions at Modem Media/Digitas and DoubleClick. Mr. Kiker holds an M.P.A. from New York University, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in engineering from the University of Florida.

Max Koltuv
Regional Superintendent
Mr. Koltuv oversees a portfolio of Achievement First elementary schools and supports their leadership teams in producing dramatic academic gains. Before joining Achievement First, he supervised all Brooklyn elementary instructional leaders at the Prep and Excellence networks of Uncommon Schools as the director of Brooklyn elementary instruction. Mr. Koltuv originally joined Uncommon Schools as the founding head of school at Leadership Prep Bedford Stuyvesant, a college-prep elementary school. He started his career at The Monitor Co., an international strategy consulting firm, before transitioning to a teaching role at a high-performing, urban charter school in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship and of the KIPP School Leadership Program, and holds a B.A. in history from Yale College.

Paige MacLean
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Ms. MacLean facilitates the sharing of Achievement First’s strategies, tools and lessons learned with other organizations interested in systemic reform. She is also responsible for developing Achievement First’s long-term strategy and guidelines for external partnerships and oversees Achievement First’s broader engagement with New Haven Public Schools, including the development of the Residency Program for School Leadership. Prior to her work at Achievement First, Ms. MacLean was a senior manager at Wellspring Consulting, a consulting firm focused on nonprofit strategy, and a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.  Ms. MacLean received an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and earned her certificate in Afro-American studies and B.A. magna cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs at Princeton University. After graduation, Ms. MacLean lived in the former East Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, where she taught English and interviewed residents about their experiences making the transition from a communist to a capitalist economy. 

Marc Michaelson
Regional Superintendent
Mr. Michaelson oversees a portfolio of schools and is responsible for coaching Achievement First principals in the development and implementation of academic programs and school culture initiatives. Prior to transitioning to the role of regional superintendent, Mr. Michaelson served as principal of Elm City College Preparatory Middle School. He began his Achievement First career at Amistad Academy Middle School, where he taught reading and history as well as directed the school's MicroSociety and Encore! programs. While at Amistad Academy, Mr. Michaelson's students consistently showed two to three years of reading growth in one year on state and national assessments. Prior to joining Achievement First, Mr. Michaelson worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, a program manager with Save the Children and a fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs. Mr. Michaelson holds a B.A. from Tufts University and an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame. He has completed the KIPP Summer Institute in school leadership at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Management.

Mel Ochoa
Senior Director, Marketing & Communications
Mr. Ochoa is responsible for marketing and communications, which includes brand management, digital and social media initiatives, media relations, and graphic design. Prior to Achievement First, he was the acting director of marketing at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a family destination in Sausalito, Calif., dedicated to art, science and hands-on fun for children up to age 8. Previously, Mel was vice president of corporate affairs and a co-founder at BridgePath, an enterprise software provider to the staffing industry. Past experience also includes work with Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer, a U.S. congressman in Washington, D.C., and Schwartz Communications, a leading high-tech PR agency. Mr. Ochoa holds a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he was a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship.

Jonathan Paul
Senior Director, Budgeting and Strategic Planning
Mr. Paul oversees the execution of all financial functions for Achievement First and its schools and coordinates the formulation and implementation of Achievement First’s strategic financial plans. Before joining Achievement First, Mr. Paul served as director of financial planning and analysis at Teach For America, an organization that places the nation’s most promising future leaders within schools in low-income communities. In addition, Mr. Paul has taught over 3,000 students within the business schools at the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales in Australia. Prior to joining the education reform movement, Mr. Paul worked in the for-profit sector at Volvo, Compaq and the Royal Agricultural Society. Mr. Paul has a Ph.D. from Sydney University and a Bachelor of Business from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Ken Paul
Vice President, Development
Mr. Paul is responsible for all fundraising and donor stewardship for Achievement First’s schools, Network Support and special projects. Previously, he was a co-owner of the Bridgeport Bluefish minor league baseball team, a founder of a Major League Lacrosse team and an airline pilot. Mr. Paul served for 20 years as a board member and development chair for Hopkins School in New Haven and for four years as the board chair of Habitat for Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County. Mr. Paul is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and began his career as a U.S. Navy pilot.

Max Polaner
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Mr. Polaner oversees the finance, operations and facilities teams at Achievement First. He joined Achievement First in 2006 as CFO and has been deeply involved in many of the non-instructional areas of Achievement First's network as it has grown from six to 20 schools.  Before joining Achievement First, Mr. Polaner was the chief financial officer of Inductis, an analytical consulting firm which tripled in size during his tenure and was then acquired in July 2006. Prior to Inductis, he founded and ran Impromptu Gourmet, an online gourmet food company, and before that was a consultant at McKinsey and Company in New York City. Before graduate school, Mr. Polaner led the quality control department at Polaner Preserves, the company started by his great-grandfather, until its acquisition by American Home Products in 1993. Mr. Polaner spent the first four years of his career as a public middle school math, social studies and music teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Polaner received a Masters of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, his teacher's certificate from San Francisco State University and his B.A. from Yale University.

Miriam Lewis Raccah
Vice President, External Relations NY
Ms. Raccah oversees legislative relations, governance, authorizer compliance, student admissions and parent advocacy for Achievement First in New York. Her many years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector include more than a decade in education reform. Most recently, she founded the Urban Teaching Corps (UTC) to attract people of color to teach urban youth. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Raccah founded and served as the executive director of Girls Preparatory Charter School, one of the highest-performing charter schools in New York City. She then helped lead the successful expansion of Girls Prep into a charter management organization, Public Prep Charter Schools, where she oversaw the opening of two additional Public Prep Inc. campuses. Prior to Girls Prep, Ms. Raccah served as director of business affairs and development for Harlem Day Charter School. Before becoming involved with charter schools, Ms. Raccah worked for Friends of the Family Academy, where she was director of development, and at The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, where she worked to support nonprofit organizations in Harlem and Upper Manhattan with grants and technical assistance. Ms. Raccah holds an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a B.A. in humanities, English and general business from the University of Arizona.

Jon Schwartz
Vice President, School Operations
Mr. Schwartz currently oversees Achievement First’s school-based operations, ensuring that every Achievement First academy has the operational support necessary for principals to focus on their core role as instructional leaders. Before joining Achievement First, Mr. Schwartz served as vice president of operations and finance at Envision Schools, a San Francisco-based charter management organization. As a member of Envision’s senior management team, Mr. Schwartz worked closely with the CEO and Board of Directors to define the organization’s overall strategic direction, problem solve institutional issues and execute key initiatives. Previously, he worked as director of services and products at the California Charter Schools Association, where he was responsible for devising earned-income revenue streams to diversify the Association's financial base. Mr. Schwartz began his career at Gap Inc. as an early member of the team that launched OldNavy.com, and his work experience also includes time with New Profit Inc., a venture philanthropy fund associated with the Monitor Group, and at Scholastic as a consultant in its corporate strategy and business development division. Mr. Schwartz holds a M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where he was a member of the lightweight crew team.

Reshma Singh
Vice President, External Relations CT
Ms. Singh oversees authorizer relations, governance, student recruitment, advocacy and parent engagement for Achievement First’s nine Connecticut schools. In addition, Ms. Singh is leading Achievement First ‘s efforts to open a portfolio of schools in Rhode Island, which would serve students from Providence and several surrounding communities. Prior to joining Achievement First, Ms. Singh served as vice president of development operations at Teach For America, where she was responsible for Teach For America’s overall development operations vision and strategy. Prior to that role, Ms. Singh served as development director for Teach For America’s New York City region where she led all aspects of fundraising strategy and execution for the organization’s largest regional office, growing the funding base and fueling its expansion from a 200 to 750 corps member region. Ms. Singh holds an M.P.A. from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and political science from Rutgers College. Ms. Singh is also currently participating in The Broad Residency in Urban Education.

Chi Tschang
Regional Superintendent
Mr. Tschang is responsible for driving high student achievement by overseeing a portfolio of schools and supporting Achievement First principals in developing and implementing rigorous academic programs and positive school cultures. Previously, Mr. Tschang founded KIPP Academy Fresno, a 2008 Title I Distinguished School in California. In addition to serving as principal for five years, he also taught fifth-grade history, sixth-grade math and seventh-grade English. Prior to that experience, Mr. Tschang taught history for four years at Boston’s Academy of the Pacific Rim charter school. After college, he participated in City Year, where he lived in a housing project and tutored fourth graders in south Providence. For his work in Boston and in Providence, he was profiled on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in the New York Times #1 best-seller, What Should I Do With My Life? Mr. Tschang holds a B.A. in history from Yale University, and is the recipient of several distinctions including the Comcast National Leadership Award.

Erica Williamson
Senior Director, Human Capital
Ms. Williamson is responsible for supporting Achievement First’s activities around HR systems, talent strategy, employment policies, benefits, performance improvement and compensation. Before joining Achievement First, Ms. Williamson was a fellow with the Education Pioneers 2008 New York cohort. During her fellowship, she worked at Teach For America on the recruitment strategy for emerging markets. Ms. Williamson began her career working as a strategy consultant at Monitor Group. Ms. Williamson holds an M.B.A. and an M.Ed. from Stanford University, and a B.S. in industrial engineering from Northwestern University.