Leadership and Service on Local School Boards: An Alumni Panel Conversation
Event Details
06:00PM - 07:30PM
Map address
***Stanford alumni may register on this site using their Stanford Alumni login credentials. Non-alumni guests may email mmansure@stanford.edu to reserve a ticket to this event. Event registration payment can be remitted on site via credit card.***
Join us for a panel discussion featuring alumni who are using their leadership on local school boards to facilitate change across their community's education system. Panelists will share more about their decision to run for school board, their biggest impact and challenges in making critical decisions in their district, and why every local resident should pay close attention to their school board. This event is geared toward educators, school and district leaders, parents, students, and community members interested in learning more about education governance at the city/district level.
Registration includes panel conversation, Q&A, and a post-event reception with beverages and appetizers.
Panelists and Moderators
Matt Haney, MA/JD '10
Supervisor Matt Haney is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 6 (Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mid-Market, SOMA, Yerba Buena, Rincon Hill, South Beach, Mission Bay, Treasure Island). Supervisor Haney is a past Commissioner and past President and Vice President of the San Francisco Board of Education. He was elected to the Board of Education in 2012, and re-elected in 2016. In 2016, Barack Obama endorsed Supervisor Haney’s successful re-election race for School Board making him the only local San Francisco elected official to ever receive that honor. As President of the Board of Education, Haney led initiatives to build affordable housing for teachers and protect them from evictions, launch a new school in Mission Bay, secure housing and expand services for homeless students, and ensure all our kids have access to computer science and technology. He passed landmark policies to better support undocumented students, students with incarcerated parents, and unaccompanied minors.
Jennifer DiBrienza, PhD '08
Jennifer's career as a teacher began in the New York City public school system. She spent 8 years as an elementary classroom teacher and staff developer for grades K-8 and then became an Education Consultant for schools and districts in the U.S. and internationally. In 2001 she moved to the Bay Area and began a PhD program in Education at Stanford's Graduate School of Education. Since completing her dissertation in 2008 she has worked locally, teaching at the Stanford GSE, consulting for education technology companies, and supporting teachers and administrators in schools and districts across the Bay Area. In 2016 Jennifer was elected to the Palo Alto school board. She currently serves as Board President and serves on the district's LGBTQQ committee. She was recently elected as a delegate to the California Democratic Party.
Devon Conley, MA '09
Devon was elected to the Mountain View Whisman School Board in November of 2018. As a national award-winning elementary school teacher, Conley’s career in education spans the past seventeen years and includes working in education policy research and teaching elementary school in San Francisco, San Jose, and Mountain View. Most recently, she taught science in low income schools with the non-profit organization Science is Elementary. Conley earned her BA in Architecture from Yale University, her Masters in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley, her Masters in Education from Stanford University, and her teaching credential from San Francisco State University. Conley was previously the Vice Chair of the City of Mountain View’s Parks and Recreation Commission and president of the Shoreline West Association of Neighbors. She is also a room parent for her son's first grade classroom.
Michael Kirst (co-moderator)
Mike is Professor Emeritus of Education and Business Administration at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Under Governor Jerry Brown, Kirst held the role of President of the California State Board of Education from 1977 to 1981 and from 2011 to January 2019. As a policy generalist, Professor Kirst has published articles on school finance politics, curriculum politics, intergovernmental relations, as well as education reform policies. Before joining the Stanford University faculty, Dr. Kirst held several positions with the federal government, including Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment and Poverty, and Director of Program Planning and Evaluation for the Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education in the U.S. Office of Education (now the U.S. Department of Education). He was a Budget Examiner in the Federal office of Budget and Management, and Associate Director of the White House Fellows. He was a program analyst for the Title I ESEA Program at its inception in 1965.
Michelle Nayfack (co-moderator)
Michelle is the Associate Director of Research Practice Partnerships at California Education Partners. As part of this role she serves as the Director of the Stanford-Sequoia K-12 Research Collaborative, which was launched in 2017. This Collaborative is a partnership between Stanford University and nine school districts in San Mateo County. Researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and practitioners across all nine districts are working to conduct research in partnership that will both inform policies and practices within the districts and contribute to generalizable research in education more broadly. Prior to serving in this role, Michelle held a variety of education policy research positions including at Stanford’s Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Michelle started her career in education as a high school English teacher in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in English Literature from Columbia University, a California teaching credential from California State University, Northridge, and a PhD in Urban Education from University of Southern California. Michelle also currently serves as a school board trustee in her home district of San Carlos, CA.
