FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shawna Ellis
se@schottfoundation.org
617-876-7700

The Schott Foundation is pleased to announce five new members to its Board of Directors:

Susan Taylor Batten
Carolina Espinal
Wendy D. Puriefoy
Eileen de los Reyes
Carlos Rojas Álvarez

“These stellar individuals bring invaluable insight and leadership to our team and a proven commitment to Schott’s mission to develop and strengthen a broad-based and representative movement to achieve fully resourced, quality PreK-12 public education,” said John H. Jackson, Schott President and CEO.

Susan Taylor Batten has over 25 years of experience directing, evaluating and advising public and philanthropic efforts to improve outcomes for children and families. She joined the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) as President and CEO in January 2009. In this role, she leads the organization’ s philanthropic advising and programming on responsive philanthropy in Black communities for foundation leaders, donors and aligned partners. Prior to joining ABFE, Ms. Batten was a Senior Associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she served as staff in the Community Change Initiatives Unit and coordinated a portfolio on equity, diversity and inclusion. In the public sector, Ms. Batten worked as a Senior Analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she directed research and evaluation on food assistance programs. In 2008, she was named Change Agent of the Year by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. She is a co-founder of the Race and Equity in Philanthropy Group and also serves on the Board of the United Philanthropy Forum.

Carolina Espinal is a seasoned strategist with expertise in public affairs, issues management, and inclusion & diversity. Mostly recently, she served as a senior advisor with Brunswick Group, a global strategic communications firm supporting Fortune 500 companies in a range of sectors including education. As a lead architect of an inclusion & diversity specialist offer, she supported the launch of CEO Action on Diversity & Inclusion™ – the largest CEO-driven initiative focused on D&I in the workplace. In the public sector, she has worked closely with leading nonprofit organizations in the U.S. including the NAACP, Unidos US, the Children’s Defense Fund and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Wendy D. Puriefoy served as the Director for Education at The Barr Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Puriefoy also served as the founding President and CEO of Public Education Network (PEN) from 1991 to 2012, the nation’s largest network of community‐based public school reform organizations. Under her leadership, PEN’s members successfully implemented reform initiatives in middle and high schools, teaching and teacher quality, school finance and governance, curriculum and assessment, educational leadership, parent involvement, college access, school libraries and school health. Ms. Puriefoy served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at The Boston Foundation, and  serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), Public Agenda, and MDC in North Carolina.

Eileen de los Reyes is the former Deputy Superintendent for Academics for the Boston Public Schools; she retired summer 2017.  Previously she served as the Assistant Superintendent for English Language Learners (ELLs). She also worked as a Research Associate at the Mauricio Gaston Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and from 1996 – 2002 was an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Ms. de los Reyes was born in Puerto Rico and moved to the US in 1972. She is the co-author of Pockets of Hope: How Students and Teachers Change the World (Bergin & Garvey), which focuses on the creation of democratic classrooms where students are educated in the practice of social and political change.

Carlos Rojas Álvarez is the Director of Special Projects for Youth on Board where he is spearheading the ListeningWorks project to address the nation’s current political climate of hate and division. Prior to that, he served as the interim Director for the Boston Education Justice Alliance (BEJA), which he helped to establish while in high school. As a student, Carlos became a leader of the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM) and Youth on Board’s Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) program, where he led major advocacy campaigns and sat on the Boston School Committee as the student representative in 2011-2012. When his status barred him from enrolling in college, he became an Education Policy Associate at Youth on Board and the New England representative to the National Coordinating Committee of the United We Dream (UWD) Network. He served as SIM’s Campaign Coordinator from 2013-2016 before becoming the Student Field Director for the successful Save our Public Schools campaign.

See the full Schott Foundation Board of Directors