Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
Brooke Barrett Founder & PresidentRaised $20M+ in previous ventures. Brooke started her career as a substitute teacher and, 20 years and two-ish advanced degrees later, she has served as a trusted advisor and partner to K12 organizations via her consulting firm, Edutelligentsia., Neeraj Saran Srivastava Interim VP, TechnologyRecently exited founder and CTO, DLT Labs and the inventor of enterprise blockchain. Member of the Forbes Technology Council and IBM's blockchain advisory board., Sandy Maynard VP, ExperienceRetired Executive Director, Enterprise Systems, San Francisco Unified Public Schools with over a decade of experience as a K12 Chief Technology Officer. Leading BenchK12’s experience team to ensure we exceed expectations for our education partners., Jennifer MacDonald VP, BrandTrusted leader with 15+ years in creative and strategic comms fields. A decade of agency experience supporting tech, education, nonprofit and gov't clients. Leading BenchK12’s brand including strategic communications, marketing, and visual identity., Yanique Taylor Director, EngagementEngaged a multi-sector set of partners to help students achieve a 72% graduation rate as the executive director, Communities in Schools PLCs. Government consultant who led Jamaica's successful national ID rollout and community engagement., Larissa McCartney Director, DesignLarissa is an artist and designer with a decade of experience ranging from brand identity and digital design to event branding and experiential activations. From small shops to Fortune 500 companies, she knows how to deliver smart design direction., Mike Baur Strategic AdvisorCurrently leads Amazon Web Service's EdTech Strategy and lead investor for BenchK12’s WeFunder community round. Nearly two decades of experience in K12 and Higher Education in edtech sales, product development, and coalition-building., Ed Comer Technical AdvisorOver a decade of experience in education data infrastructure and visualizations. Architect for the Ed-Fi technologies and real-time API, Relationships and experience working with over a dozen State Education Agencies (SEAs)., Lyria Gonzalez-Zeh Technical AdvisorA decade in the public and private sectors leading K12 technology, operations, and finance initiatives. Lead program officer at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation supporting the Teacher Preparation Data Model for the Ed-Fi Data Standard., Michael Goar Strategic AdvisorFormer K12 Urban Superintendent, CEO, and COO In Boston, Minneapolis, and Memphis public schools. Extensive experience sourcing and implementing HCRM and ERP solutions in the K12 sector., Natalie Gil Technical AdvisorGlobal CTO, entrepreneur, and industry advisor with AWS on Web3 and distributed ledger technologies. MIT Sloan Fellow and Board Member, Latinas in Computing.