Board of Directors
Jenerra Williams
CHAIR
Jenerra Williams (Chair) is currently Co-Teacher Leader of the Mission Hill School, a Boston Public School, in Boston, MA, and has been with MHS for over 18 years. Before working at MHS, Jenerra had a variety of jobs, including working at Northeastern University at the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute. It is there that her love of teaching and connecting with students was discovered. While obtaining her M.Ed. through Northeastern, Jenerra was placed as a student intern at Mission Hill School. Her passion for teaching and making meaningful connections combined with the school’s philosophy and approach to learning was a perfect fit. Her work at Mission Hill has taken her across the country and internationally as well. From the hallways of the Capitol building to schools in The Netherlands, sharing the work of MHS and what “good education” looks like has been an important part of her work as a teacher and leader.
Carlos Moreno
TREASURER
Carlos Moreno (Treasurer) is a Native New Yorker who grew up in the Bronx and came to Rhode Island to attend Johnson & Wales University, where he studied marketing and business administration. After graduating from college, and several years of working in the corporate and non-profit sectors, Carlos decided to bring his passion for helping youth to the forefront and entered the classroom as an educator. Carlos joined The Met School in 2002. In 2006, after successfully graduating his cohort of students and receiving his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership, Moreno was promoted to principal of The Met – Unity school. In 2008, his leadership as an administrator led The Met to promote Carlos to the newly created position of Director of Principal Support & Development. In that role, Carlos coached, supported and evaluated the leaders of The Met schools in Rhode Island. In 2009, Carlos decided to move closer to his family and his hometown when he accepted a position with Big Picture Learning as the Director of School Reform & Innovation – New Jersey. Carlos now directs and connects the multiple school-based national initiatives for Big Picture Learning as the National Director of School Network Support & Innovation.
Anasa Troutman
BOARD MEMBER
Anasa Troutman is a writer, producer, and entrepreneur who has dedicated her work to the importance of culture and the power of love. As CEO of her company, Culture Shift Creative, Anasa works to build and execute strategies for artists and organizations that are aligned with her vision of a loving world and her belief in creativity as a pathway to personal, community and global transformation. Best known for her work as strategic advisor and executive producer for long time friend India.Arie, Anasa recently stepped into leadership as the first Executive Director of the historic Clayborn Temple in Memphis. Anasa has provided strategic and creative support in many important cultural, political and social justice spaces; she has designed and facilitated national learning exchanges, served as a consulting producer, trained and transitioned the leadership of organizations to integrate cultural strategy as a community organizing tactic, produced tours & festivals, curated artistic programming, shepherded many artists and creative thinkers through the process of manifesting their own creative vision and has been invited twice to the White House by the Obama administration to advise on cultural policy.
Ana Yris Guzmán Torres
BOARD MEMBER
Ana Yris Guzmán Torres is co-founder and Executive Director of Nuestra Escuela, Inc. (Our School, Inc.). Nuestra Escuela, Inc. is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2000, that practices an Alternative Education model that provides services to children and young people in the municipalities of Caguas, Loíza and Vieques. She is also the elected President of the Board of Directors of the Single Voice Movement of Puerto Rico. Ana Yris Guzmán Torres is a committed educator that has centered her energy and knowledge towards the development of an educational Service Model that strengthens and fosters the talents of the students, who for various reasons, have parted away from the traditional school. A specialist in the biopsychosocial academic approach, this distinguished pedagogue counts with vast experience in working with educational programs that, in addition to attending to the formative aspect of the students, provide them and their families with a personal development tool, leadership, healing and strengthening of their affective dimension. Her work was recognized in 2014 with the “Defender of Human Rights” award that the College of Professional Social Workers of Puerto Rico bestows. In 2008 she was designated as a “Vanguard Educator,” a distinction granted by the Leadership Fellows program.
KWESI ROLLINS
BOARD MEMBER
Kwesi Rollins is Vice President for Leadership & Engagement, at the Institute for Educational Leadership. A member of IEL’s Senior Leadership Team, Kwesi guides IEL’s portfolio of programs designed to develop and support leaders with a particular emphasis on Family and Community Engagement, Early Childhood Education and Community-based Leadership Development. Kwesi directs the District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and Leaders for Today and Tomorrow, an initiative that designs and delivers professional learning and support opportunities for school and district leaders. Kwesi has years of experience working with local communities and state agencies to improve cross-sector collaboration and service delivery systems supporting children, youth and families. Mr. Rollins provided technical assistance and training to a range of state and county agencies, school districts, local schools and community-based organizations in projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Working with young people is also a personal passion for Kwesi who has special expertise in resiliency and youth development. He has been recognized as the Big Brother of the Year in the District of Columbia and is an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the National Capitol Area. He holds an MSW degree from the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work where he was a Maternal and Child Health Leadership Training Fellow.
Maisie Brown
BOARD MEMBER
Maisie Brown is an 19 year old Mississippi native, activist, and organizer. Throughout the years, she’s published several pieces about the need for the change of the state flag, state universities, and the need for a call for change to Mississippi. She’s been heavily involved in advocacy throughout the years which even took her to the nation’s capitol to advocate for the need to change the state flag while also presenting a TEDxJackson talk on the importance of the social media generation in the fight for equality. She’s volunteered on numerous campaigns including the Mike Espy for US Senate campaign. She is currently the Youth Program Director at the Institute for Democratic Education in America where she works to create and facilitate programs with students around Jackson on the concept of democratic education and learning to advocate for themselves and their communities. Upon graduation from Murrah High School, she co-organized Jackson’s Black Lives Matter protest in the summer of 2020 that was the largest protest since the 1960’s civil rights era in the state of Mississippi. Concurrently, she is the Jackson branch leader of 601 for Period Equity, a Mississippi based group that provides supplies and resources for black menstruators across the state. She currently studies History and Political Science at North Carolina A&T State University.