Starlee Coleman is the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Starlee has 25 years of experience turning public policy ideas into laws. Through strategic public affairs and PR campaigns, grassroots engagement, and coalition development, Starlee has contributed to the passage of dozens of bills in state legislatures, Congress, and at the ballot box. Most recently, Starlee served as the Texas Public Charter Schools Association’s (TPCSA) CEO, where she oversaw the daily operations of the organization and helped ensure that TPCSA’s policy recommendations cross the finish line, whether the finish line ended at a Governor’s desk, city hall, on an election ballot, or in the courtroom. Prior to TPCSA, Coleman founded SchoolForward LLC, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. that advances education reform policies. The firm advises a number of high-profile clients, including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Starlee’s work has earned a Templeton Freedom Award for Best Initiative in Public Relations in 2008 and the Spark Freedom Award for Best PR Campaign. Starlee has done hundreds of media interviews, including formerly having a weekly appearance on the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Ariz., where she debated current affairs with a leading elected official. She has appeared on nationally-syndicated radio and TV programs, including CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, FoxNews and Fox Business, Wall Street Journal Live, NPR’s 1A, and the Lars Larson Show. Starlee has delivered dozens of speeches on current affairs to civic groups and presented at several conferences on effective communications and marketing strategies and on crisis communications. Starlee earned her Bachelor of Arts in English at Arizona State University. She lives in Austin with her husband, daughter, and rescue pup.

Nella García Urban is the CEO of DSST Public Schools in Denver and Aurora, Colorado. Nella came to DSST from YES Prep Public Schools where she spent over 20 years leading and operating charter schools. She graduated from Rice University as a Mellon Mays Fellow and received a master’s degree from Sam Houston State University in Education Leadership. Nella has completed the Pahara Fellowship, the Broad Academy for Superintendents program, and is a certified Executive Coach through the John Doerr Institute at Rice University. Nella is the Board Chair of LEAL - Latino Educators Advancing Leadership - an organization working to increase the number of Latino leaders in charter schools.

Andrew Rotherham is co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether. He also serves on the Virginia Board of Education. Rotherham writes the education blog and newsletter Eduwonk and was previously a columnist for U.S. News & World Report and TIME. His earlier roles include work in teaching, think tanks, and the White House, where he served as special assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Clinton administration. He sits on boards of various organizations within and outside the education sector, including, most recently, Classroom Champions, The 74, and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on the American Workforce. He was a founding board member of NAPCS.

Hanna Skandera is a national leader known for turning bold vision into transformative impact. With a career spanning classrooms, boardrooms, state capitols and the White House, Hanna brings a unique blend of strategy and execution, consistently connecting big ideas to scalable outcomes. As President and CEO of the Daniels Fund, one of the largest foundations in the Rocky Mountain region, Hanna stewards a $1.7 billion endowment that equips people to reach their fullest potential. Under her leadership, the Fund has introduced a “Big Bets” strategy to fuel scalable solutions. launching entrepreneurial efforts like the National Civics Bee, Youth Sports Giving Day, and the National Ethics Case Competition. Hanna is one of the nation’s most accomplished education leaders having served as Secretary of Education in New Mexico, leading landmark reforms that produced record-high graduation rates and expanded school choice. She held senior roles as Undersecretary in California, Deputy Commissioner in Florida, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. A trusted voice on leadership and innovation, she has taught at Harvard and Pepperdine as Visiting Professor of Education Policy and Impact, co-founded several initiatives for women leaders, and completed fellowships at the Hoover Institution and the Aspen Pahara Institute.

Andrea Zayas is Chief of Collaboration & Partnerships of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the nation’s advocacy organization for charter schools. Andrea advised philanthropy, non-profits, and schools through her consulting firm, Upstream Education for several years, designing novel strategies and leading change. Prior to consulting, Andrea worked for the Ballmer Group as National Director for K12 where she developed and executed the organization’s education portfolio strategy. In 2018, Andrea joined the Boston Public Schools and led the district through the pandemic as Chief Academic Officer and solidified the district’s commitment to the science of reading and the passage of college and career aligned graduation policy. Andrea previously worked at the KIPP Foundation where she led professional learning for the network’s C-suite leaders. Earlier in her career, she founded La Cima Charter School, a dual-language and social justice focused charter in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She served as a charter authorizer in the Klein-Bloomberg administration in NYC writing the city’s first charter accountability handbook and taught in arts and literacy classrooms in the South Bronx. Andrea began her work with charter schools managing start-ups for an Education Management Organization that partnered with non-profits led by people of color to support them in opening the school of their dreams. Entrepreneurship, community, and justice are core values that drive Andrea’s work. She was appointed by President Biden as Commissioner of the White House Initiative for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, and currently serves on the board of Propeller, a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs grow their nonprofits and small businesses to tackle social and environmental disparities in New Orleans. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, her master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Urban. Education Leadership at Xavier University of Louisiana.