Board of Directors

RAPSA Board of Directors

The RAPSA Board adheres to the mission and vision of the Association and assists with implementation of goals.

 

RJ Guess

President

RJ Guess is the CEO at John Muir Charter Schools. RJ has been with John Muir in various capacities since 1998. RJ started as an instructional assistant and then became a teacher and lead teacher overseeing all instruction. In 2003, was promoted to deputy director with oversight of all academic and vocational programs for John Muir Charter Schools. RJ has broad and deep experience in a variety of issues such as school budget, personnel, public policy and legislative duties at the state and federal level. RJ has a professional clear teaching credential in social sciences from Humboldt State University, a clear/tier II administrative services credential in education from Loyola Marymount University, and a bachelor's degree in political science and government from Humboldt State University.

 

Jonathan Brack

Secretary 

Jonathan Brack is the Director of the Collaborative Impact Program at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Through this program, Jonathan leads the Foundation’s efforts to incubate, scale, and sustain creative endeavors to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all Californians. For the past 20 years, Brack has worked at the intersection of youth development, education, and workforce development throughout California. Jonathan began his career as the founding director of the long-term, academic mentoring program Berkeley Scholars at Stiles Hall. He then served as Director of Workforce Development at the California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC) and was also on the founding team of CODE2040, a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on removing barriers preventing Black and Latinx people from participation in the innovation economy. Most recently, Brack served as the Capacity Building Manager at Tipping Point Community, where he led the organization’s efforts to provide talent management and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) resources to the nonprofits that Tipping Point supports.

 

Debra Gore-Mann

Debra Gore-Mann is the President and CEO of The Greenlining Institute. Debra guides the organization’s growth and strategic direction and serves as the unifying voice for our multifaceted policy work, bringing her unique, intersectional perspective to bear. She works with our board to oversee the organization’s finances, management and governance and partners with our staff and board to develop programs and policy strategies to advance racial and economic justice and to strengthen ties with The Greenlining Coalition.

Debra joined the Greenlining team from a background of in-depth strategic and business development expertise. With an engineering degree and an M.B.A. from Stanford her work has spanned across the private, public and political sectors in uplifting low opportunity communities with funding, team building and financial and people resources. Most recently, she led the San Francisco Conservation Corps, America’s first urban municipal youth corps.

 

Dr. Rudy Cuevas

Interim Executive Director 

Dr. Cuevas firmly believes that good schools can rebuild and sustain our democracy. His present day preference for highly collaborative work settings emanated from the realization that while individual resilience needs to be validated, such resilience should be secondary to the kind of democratic collaboration we need in both our schools and communities.

Inspired by the above framework, Dr. Cuevas works as the Superintendent and Chief Collaboration Officer at YCSC, where he currently collaborates with a network of 14 YouthBuild programs that are partnered with YouthBuild Charter School of California. Via this unique collaboration with YouthBuild programs, Dr. Cuevas has facilitated the development and implementation of an innovative youth development school model that features the kind of project based learning to support young people moving into college and career pathways.

To support the above collaboration with YouthBuild programs, Dr. Cuevas has also facilitated the development of quantitative and qualitative metrics that reliably and uniquely measure the success of YouthBuild program participants, students, staff, and stakeholders.

Dr. Cuevas has spent the last 21 years working in various capacities in education from high school social studies teacher, dean, track coach, principal, director of curriculum/instruction, and now Chief Collaboration Officer. Dr. Cuevas is a founding board member of the LMU School of Education Alumni Association and an inaugural fellow of the Executive Latino Leadership Association.

 

Tony Simmons 

While working with national recording artists as an entertainment lawyer, Tony met David "TC" Ellis and assisted him in the formation of Studio 4 / High School for Recording Arts. He co-founded Another Level Records, the first national student-operated record label. Tony is the Executive Director of the High School for Recording Arts, Co-Founder / Co-Director of the New School Creation Fellowship and Co-Founder of the Center for Love and Justice both at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.Tony is also co-founding director of 4 Learning which supports schools and districts in creating recording arts studios and programming within their learning communities. Tony has served as board member to such leading national school reform organizations as Education Evolving, Reaching At Promise Students Association (RAPSA), Coalition of Independent Charter Schools and Edvisions, Inc. He has also consulted with the Black Alliance for Education Options.  His association with RAPSA led to his contribution to the report, "Seizing The Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning" and to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report “Over-Age, Under-Credited Students and Public Charter Schools.” He was also a part of the working group that lead to the National

Association of Charter School Authorizer report on alternative accountability and has been a member of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.  Tony has been a member of the Saint

Paul School District Quality Review Team and a peer reviewer for the Minnesota Department of Education for Federal Charter School Program grants. Tony has keynoted or made major presentations to educators across the United States and internationally in Bangkok, Xian, Vancouver, Montreal, Oxford, and Copenhagen. He attended Howard University and Pace University and also earned a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University School of Law.

 

Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong

Treasurer

Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong, author of Intersectional Leadership:  Strategies for Building Resilient Workforces,  began her educational career as a public school teacher in the Puyallup School District (WA) and has since devoted over two decades to various roles in elementary, middle, and high schools, with a focus on leading and supporting staff. She serves as Deputy Superintendent in Vancouver, Washington. Dr. Armstrong's previous roles include cabinet-level Chief Academic Officer in Portland Public Schools (OR), Executive Director of Equity and Public Relations in Edmonds School District (WA), Assistant Superintendent in Tamalpais Union High School District (CA), and Associate Superintendent in Santa Rosa City Schools (CA). Her leadership journey includes serving as principal at Kenmore Junior High and later at Mount Miguel High School (CA).

 Dr. Armstrong earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication from California State University East Bay, Masters in Business Administration from City University of Seattle and later obtained a Doctor of Education Degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a Washington State Superintendent Certification from the University of Washington.

 With a steadfast dedication to learning and liberation, Dr. Armstrong is actively involved in community service and academic enhancement. Her commitment to service is evident through her membership in Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Reaching At-Promise Students Association, and Warner Pacific University.

 As a first-generation college student who attended Abraham Lincoln High School and City College of San Francisco, Dr. Armstrong is passionate about promoting advancement, nurturing a growth mindset, and developing resilient workforces for employees across the United States. Inspired by her own experiences, she is determined to create an environment that is adaptable, supportive, and empowers individuals to thrive as their authentic selves.

 

Liz Brenner

Ms. Liz Brenner has been a champion for At-Promise youth for over twenty years. She started her career in education in California at the San Diego Job Corps Center where she taught youth aged 16-24 who were disconnected from school. She led efforts to promote a more Trauma Informed environment in this space and is dedicated to promoting equity for all students by providing access to a standards-based education that includes the supports needed to meet students where they are and to achieve their goals. She has been a Charter School administrator at the site and charter level and currently serves as the Superintendent and CEO of Compass Charter Schools.