Our Team

Caroline leads the Leadership Development & Design team, responsible for designing world-class civic leadership development programs, workshops and courses that inspire LEE members to investigate their values, articulate their theory of change and deepen their leadership impact. 

For the past twenty years, Caroline has been working as a designer, facilitator and evaluator of civic leadership development programs, helping to connect leaders to the skills, tools and networks needed to make change in their communities.  Prior to LEE, she worked at the Center for Progressive Leadership, building statewide leadership development programs and growing the political leadership of hundreds of leaders across the country. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan and earned her Master’s of Public Administration, from Michigan State University. Caroline lives in Denver, CO with her husband and three sons. Outside of work, she can be found watching her kids’ sports, experimenting with recipes in her kitchen or planning her family’s next big adventure. 

Michael leads the organization, responsible for LEE’s overall strategy and impact. 

Prior to joining LEE, Mike was a partner in the New York office of McKinsey & Co., where he was a leader in the financial institutions practice focusing on insurance and asset management. He has also worked with various education organizations throughout New York City.

Mike is a graduate of Michigan State University and the New York University Stern School of Business.

Mike lives in New York City with his three children. 

Marcus and the Regional Impact team are responsible for helping LEE members across the country engage with LEE’s civic leadership development skill building supports and resources, connect with our incredible network of leaders, and to take action in their communities. 

Marcus has been at LEE for seven years serving in several capacities, including: Director of Houston Impact, Senior Director of Regional Impact, and Chief of Staff to the Executive Director. He has directly engaged over 700 LEE members through one-on-one coaching and group leadership development training during this time. 

Marcus became an educator after graduating with a degree in government from The University of Texas at Austin by joining Teach For America. He spent eight years with KIPP teaching primary school in Houston, New Orleans, and Chicago. He currently lives in New York City, but calls El Paso, Texas home. 

Steven leads the Technology team, responsible for imagining, developing, and sustaining innovative technologies that power the LEE network to create impact.

Prior to joining the LEE Leadership Team, Steven led the development of mission-critical systems and data science processes as LEE’s senior director of the Technology Innovation Laboratory. Before joining LEE, Steven led Innovation Teaching, an education technology startup that brought process automation using simple barcode scanning to schools across the globe.

In addition, Steven is a life-long advocate for the communities of the Bronx, NY — especially in the areas of educational equity, prison abolition, and policing reform. He is a former Borough president appointee to the Community Education Council for District 10, a former appointee to the Bronx and Brooklyn Taskforce on Gifted & Talented Education, and a former 3rd-grade teacher for the Bronx’s District 7.

Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latino studies from Columbia University, a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and a Master of Education from the City University of New York. He is the proud father of two geeks.

Christine leads the Legal and Compliance team, responsible for compliance and legal support across all of LEE’s work and affiliated entities.  Before joining LEE as the organization’s first full-time general counsel, Christine served on the Teach For America legal affairs team counseling the organization on tax-exempt organization law, contracts, lobbying, and compliance.  Prior to Teach For America, she served as the first general counsel at Victory Schools. 

Christine began her career as a Teach For America corps member, teaching third grade in the South Bronx. Christine serves her community as a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel NYC Chapter’s Women & Gender Committee and as an officer of her children’s public school PTA.

Christine holds an AB from the University of Georgia, an MSEd from Bank Street College of Education, and a JD from the Villanova University School of Law.

Sheri leads the Talent, Learning, & Culture team, responsible for the people strategy and experience of all LEE staff. 

Before joining LEE, Sheri led recruitment, hiring, evaluation, and staff retention efforts as chief talent officer at UP Education Network, a Boston-based school turnaround organization. She has also served as a senior consultant at American Institutes for Research and as director of teacher effectiveness for Chicago Public Schools. Sheri began her career as a Teach For America corps member in Washington, D.C., where she taught first and second grade. Sheri holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, a Master of Arts in teaching from American University, and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Sheri lives in the greater Boston area with her husband, two children, and her parents. On the weekends, you may find her visiting a good library, dragging the family on a walk in the woods or about town, or making (and eating) breakfast. 

Sarah leads the Partnerships & Infrastructure team, responsible for LEE’s growth strategy, strategic partnerships and scalable operations to drive the LEE network to impact.

Over the last two decades, Sarah has held a number of executive roles within the public, non-profit and profit sector, all in the service of building more power and access to opportunities for underserved communities.  Just prior to joining the LEE team, Sarah served as the Chief Operating Officer for Education First, an education policy and strategy consulting firm.  Sarah’s expertise in leading and building systems and building the capacity of leaders stems from her early career experiences: as the Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Baltimore City Public Schools, serving as the Chief of Staff for Teach for America’s Regional Operations, and as a community organizer and educator in Baltimore and Guatemala City. In addition to her doctorate from Harvard’s Ed.L.D. program, Sarah holds an M.A.T. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in Communications from Penn State.

Sarah lives in Baltimore, MD with Team McLean (her husband and 3 children).  She can be found most weekends coaching soccer, carting children to endless activities, swimming (when it’s warm enough) or skiing (when it’s cold enough), reading (mostly fiction) or visiting friends/family.

Mildred leads the organization, her responsibilities include ensuring LEE members have high quality member experiences across all leadership pathways. This includes high quality programming, supports and leadership development nationally and in local sites across the country. 

Before joining LEE, Mildred served as chief education counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, where she managed the Senate majority’s education agenda, and its policy development and strategy for children from cradle to career including early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, and the workforce.

Mildred earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Social Work degree from the New York University Silver School of Social Work.  

Taylor serves in the Office of the Executive Director, responsible for supporting LEE-wide major initiatives to ensure members attain high-impact roles and realize transformational change in their communities. She began her civic leadership development work teaching American Government to high school students in Baltimore. Following her teaching career, she worked in fundraising and development for Teach For America while organizing in her community and leading political campaigns in her spare time. The organizing and campaign work led her to LEE and founding the Maryland region, supporting regions across the country, and then leading the community organizing work. Taylor earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri, her Masters of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University, and her law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. 

Taylor lives in Baltimore with her husband and daughter and can typically be found following her sports teams, serving in organizations around the city, connecting with friends and family, exploring near or far, or enjoying a good book. 

Cristina supports the Partnerships and Infrastructure team, responsible for LEE’s growth strategy, strategic partnerships and scalable operations to drive the LEE network to impact. She does this by partnering with teams across the organization and by liaising with current and potential partners to enable the success of their members. 

Before joining LEE staff, Cristina was a LEE member for almost a decade building her own civic leadership as a preschool assistant teacher in New York City, as a high school math teacher in Las Vegas, NV, and as a community activist in her adopted community of Arlington, VA. In 2020, with LEE support, Cristina was elected to the Arlington School Board for a term beginning in January of 2021. Cristina serves as the Chair of the Board for the 2023-2024 school year. 

Professionally, Cristina was an education policy consultant supporting school districts, state education agencies, and education organizations across the country to improve student outcomes by creating evidence-based systems and policies. Her previous work also includes helping teachers in Puerto Rico get back to school in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.  Cristina is a graduate of New York University with dual majors in Economics and History and holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas specializing in Secondary Mathematics. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and rescue pup and is an avid boxer.

Carl leads the Elected Leadership team and is responsible for the organizational strategy to inspire, develop, and support members to run for and win elected office.  

After serving in the United States Army, Carl taught middle school civics and remedial literacy in central Phoenix. This foundational experience led Carl to seek systemic and policy solutions to address the injustices and inequity his students (and he himself) experienced. Carl ultimately ran for school board and led his school district as governing board president. Carl also led both volunteer and professional advocacy initiatives at the school district and state levels in order to give students better opportunities by increasing public education funding and improving educator and school quality. Carl joined LEE’s staff in 2012 and contributed to founding the Regional Impact team and building out LEE’s candidate recruitment efforts. Carl holds a Master of Business Administration from W.P. Carey School of Business, a Master of Arts in Middle East Studies from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Arizona State University. Carl lives in Oregon with his family and rescue dog. He loves the outdoors and training for endurance races.