Board of Directors

Mike has recently retired from a successful career, having provided financial expertise to non-profit and educational organizations since 2004. He served as CFO at Aspire Public Schools, Reading Partners, and Center for Youth Wellness, and since 2019 has filled a variety of interim roles at other nonprofits. He has also served on the boards of multiple charter schools (St. Hope Public Schools, Oakland School for the Arts, and Education for Change). Mike began his career in the tech sector and then made the move into nonprofits in 2004where he found his true passion.

Elizabeth Choi has built a career betting on bold ideas, developing leaders, and enabling ecosystems – all with a deep commitment to equity and inclusion. As a former teacher, nonprofit executive, co-founder, community builder, coach, and advisor, she is currently Envision Education’s COO, a national nonprofit that works with districts across the country and operates schools in the Bay Area.

She also partners with leaders during their seasons of growth and scale. Her partners include Desmos, Formation Ventures, Google, Swing Education, Moonshot edVentures as well as other K12 education and workforce development organizations.

Previously, Elizabeth was the Senior Vice President at the Pahara Institute, an organization that provides transformational development opportunities for American education leaders. She launched a new programmatic department and led the organization’s operations. She also served as the Chief Program Officer at Summit Public Schools, where she co-founded the Summit Learning Program, a national program that enabled students to attain the skills, knowledge, and habits to live a fulfilled life. Under her leadership, the program grew from 19 schools across 10 states to over 380 schools in 40 states serving over 65,000 students.

Elizabeth earned her B.A. in Public Policy and MA in Education from Stanford University. She enjoys serving her community as a board member of Summit Public Schools and has also advised the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on their K12 education strategy. Elizabeth is a recipient of the 2019-20 Stanford University Award of Merit and a 2017-2018 Pahara Fellow. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys spending time with her family and friends over food and tea.

Anna Gregory is an education consultant with extensive leadership experience across both traditional district and charter schools. She specializes in driving strategic initiatives at the intersection of talent, organizational strategy, and communications, partnering with school systems and nonprofits to maximize their potential.

Before becoming an independent consultant, Anna served as Chief Talent Officer at KIPP DC, where she oversaw talent acquisition, human resources, and leadership development across the network’s nine campuses and network office. Prior to KIPP DC, she spent a decade at DC Public Schools, holding various leadership roles, including Chief of Staff to the Chancellor.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas, a Master of Arts in Teaching from American University, and a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University.  She lives in the Bay Area with her daughter and husband.

Michele Hansen is an advocate in the education space and a former educator herself, who started as a first grade teacher in the Poway Unified School District and soon after became a First Grade Team Leader. For the next nine years, Michele spent her time at Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, CA, leading marketing and engineering teams, forging external relationships, supported in defining joint goals, strategies and budgets for Hewlett Packard’s Executive Team.  Michele then joined California Charter Schools Association as the Vice President of Products and Services, while managing the public relations, marketing, data analytics, finance and strategic planning. Previously, Ms. Hansen served as the is currently the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Activate Instruction, which provides an enriched, personalized learning experience through playlists. Ms. Hansen presently serves in a volunteer capacity as the Vice-Chair of The Girard Foundation Board of Directors.

Michele received a Bachelor Degree in Government from Claremont McKenna College, a Masters in Education from Stanford University, an Elementary Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the the J.L Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Michele’s experience and knowledge about instruction, business management, finance, professional development, public relations and marketing as well as organizational leadership make Michele an exceptional nominee for the Summit Public Schools Board of Directors.

Mr. Steven Humphreys has been a member of Summit’s Board since its founding, and was one of the original contributors to our initial charter. He was instrumental in recruiting Ms Tavenner and others into Summit from its early days, and has served on the Summit Board for 18 years. In addition to serving on the board of Summit Public Schools, Steve has served as a trustee of the Portola Valley School District and on numerous other boards. Steve is currently CEO of a publicly-traded security company, Identiv, Inc, which protects places including the White House, all of our federal courthouses, airports, schools and other security-sensitive places. He’s started and run several other technology companies, and began his career at General Electric Company where he worked in a variety of manufacturing and information technology positions. Steve received a BS from Yale University and an Masters in Science and Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University.

Mr. Thompson is President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Proteus Digital Health. He is a veteran of Silicon Valley biomedical startups, formerly serving as President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of FemRx and Chief Financial Officer of CardioRhythm. As a consultant and venture capital investor he contributed to several successful healthcare companies including Cell Genesys, Cytotherapeutics, Northstar Neuroscience and QRx Pharmaceuticals. He holds an MA in engineering from Cambridge University and was a United Kingdom National Engineering Scholar from 1982 to 1985. He also holds an MA in education and an MBA from Stanford University. Mr. Thompson was a founding board member and Foundation President of Summit Preparatory Charter High School.

Jimmy Zuniga’s passion for transformational learning environments began as a student in the second graduating class at Summit Prep, where he developed a deep commitment to equity and innovation in education.

Currently, Jimmy serves as a Director at the Bay Ed Fund, where he partners with school districts and communities to create the conditions for bold, student-centered change. His work focuses on building strong partnerships, sharpening strategy, and aligning teams to bring a community’s shared vision to life.

Previously, Jimmy was a Portfolio Director at Transcend Education, where he co-led national efforts to expand access to community-based design. He also worked at Panorama Education, coaching school and district leaders across the country to use whole-child data to drive meaningful systems change. Earlier in his career, he spent eight years at Summit Public Schools, teaching high school English and later serving as Executive Director of Summit Everest. In that role, he led the school through critical transitions, including the rapid shift to virtual learning during the pandemic.

Jimmy earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Educational Studies from Tufts University, where he focused on systemic inequities in education. He also holds a Master of Arts in Education from Stanford University, where he studied approaches like Complex Instruction to design inclusive, high-performing classrooms.

Malia is the CEO of OpenSeat, a national non-profit supporting mental wellness in schools.  Most recently before joining OpenSeat, Malia served as the Chief Program Officer at Summit Public Schools where she designed and implemented organization-wide pilots and programs to improve student outcomes while also overseeing Summit’s Special Education team and support of Multilingual Learners. Prior to her work leading  initiatives for Summit, Malia was a senior director of schools, leading the Washington region and was the founder and leader of Summit’s first high school in Seattle – an innovative, diverse, and community-oriented school.

Before her work leading at Summit, Malia was an assistant school leader and teacher at the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, IL. She began her teaching career in the Bronx where the incredible young people in her classes taught her the magic that can happen in a classroom and the transformational possibility of school when we get it right.

Malia was born on Kauai and connects her deep belief in the power of diversity to growing up in a culturally rich and diverse community. Malia is an alum of Seattle University and Columbia University. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two sweet, energetic sons. In her free time, you can find Malia watching the sunrise over Lake Washington with her rowing team or eating great food in friends’ homes or in Seattle’s great restaurants.

Mafara Hobson is a dynamic storyteller and executive communications strategist with more than a decade of experience in mission-driven, strategic communications and media relations. She has demonstrated expertise in creating and disseminating transformative narratives that have advanced key objectives in government, corporate and nonprofit sectors.

Mafara is the current Director of Communications at the Swedish Medical Center where she directs strategy, plans, executes internal communications and public affairs across five hospitals and seven campuses in the Seattle area. Mafara joined the Swedish Medical Center after more than two years as the Executive Communications Director at the City of Seattle. Mafara came to Seattle after serving an appointment in the Office of General Services in the Obama Administration.

Mafara has deep roots in public education advocacy and was a pivotal member of Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty’s team at a time of significant transformation within the DC public school district. Later Mafara joined forces with StudentsFirst a national non-profit organization in support of education reform based in Sacramento. As the Marketing and Communications Chief, she drove digital and social media strategies in creating a grassroot movement to attract and engage more than one million parents, students and public school advocates across the country to join forces with the movement. Mafara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Howard University.

Hillary Hoffer Arnold is the Director of Principal Giving at the University of Washington, where she leads strategy and engagement with the University’s top philanthropic supporters to secure transformational gifts. Prior to her time in higher education, she spent more than a decade in nonprofit development with a focus on K-12 education.

Hillary began her career as a seventh-grade math teacher in Phoenix, where she saw first-hand that it takes a community of supporters to create change. This informed her decision to become a development professional where she has cultivated major gifts, led strategy development, and managed institutional giving relationships for organizations such as Teach For America and Habitat for Humanity. Immediately prior to joining UW, she built development systems and partnerships for a growing college access nonprofit in Phoenix.

Her commitment to service extends beyond her professional career, and she has served as a volleyball coach, an after-school tutor, a volunteer coach for Youth Run Nola, as well as a former board member for Camp Catanese Foundation. In her free time she enjoys hiking and playing board games with her family.

Bio is forthcoming

Bio is forthcoming