There are thirteen Philadelphia residents on the Educational Nominating Panel. Four members represent the public at large, and nine members are city leaders that represent higher education, organized labor, parent-teacher associations, neighborhood associations, and more.
As Director of Partnerships for The Salvation Army in Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware since 1999, Rev. Bonnie Camarda is at the heart of The Salvation Army’s initiatives to form fruitful partnerships with business leaders, government leaders, prospective donors, fellow social service organizations in the area. Most importantly building relationships with individuals who seek her for spiritual guidance and hope. Her professional accomplishments and community involvement are truly remarkable, and she has been recognized for her rare ability to reach men and women, the elderly and children, across socioeconomic and cultural lines.
A persevering advocate for the underserved, Rev. Bonnie’s goal is to continue maximizing the neighborhoods’ spiritual assets, social capital and civic values. She is a non-violent activist encouraging mutual trust and respect through amnesty programs that provide musical instruments. Rev Bonnie is also an avid supporter of education and supported the Philadelphia’s “Schools for Weapons Program” that were turned into the authorities.
Rev. Bonnie recently accompanied Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf with a host of delegates from the Philadelphia-area and Unidos Pa’PR to visit The Salvation Army in Puerto Rico to learn more about the long-term recovery of the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Upon returning from Puerto Rico Rev. Camarda received a Citation from City Council as an Honorary Puerto Rico Citizen of the Year in 2018. The honoree was selected for her outstanding work for all Puerto Rican citizens recovering from Hurricane Maria especially those that transition to Philadelphia.
Rev. Bonnie is committed to transfer lives through the impactful relationships she builds with everyone she encounters in behalf of The Salvation Army with God’s guidance.
Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, a commercial banking executive with more than 30 years of experience, is President of Citizens Mid-Atlantic Region.
He serves on Citizens Financial Group’s Executive Leadership Group, the company’s senior leadership team. Citizens Financial Group is headquartered in Providence, R.I.
Fitzpatrick, a native of Northeast Philadelphia, is a former chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and serves on its executive committee, its Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team, and its CEO Council for Growth. As chairman of the CEO Council’s Human Capital Working Group, Fitzpatrick has focused on collaborating with public, private, and nonprofit partners to provide workforce development solutions and opportunities to disadvantaged populations. Fitzpatrick is also a member of the Board of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and a member of the Heinz History Museum Board in Pittsburgh.
Fitzpatrick serves as Chairman of Philadelphia Works, Inc., Philadelphia’s workforce development corporation. He is also a Vice President of the Board of The Union League of Philadelphia and a member of the Board of The Wistar Institute. Fitzpatrick serves on the board and executive committee of The Satell Institute. He is also a member of the executive board of Elementary Education for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center Innovation Advisory Board and is a member of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Corporate Council. Fitzpatrick is a former member of the board of trustees of La Salle University and served on the advisory board of Drexel University’s College of Engineering.
As a result of Fitzpatrick’s community efforts, he and Citizens have received numerous community awards from such organizations as the Commodore Barry Award, the Police Athletic League Award, Philadelphia Academies Inc, the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians. In 2016, Fitzpatrick was named an Emerging Icon in Financial Services by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Dan received the Lifetime Achievement award from City & State’s and AARP’s Annual Pennsylvania Fifty over 50 Awards, honoring Pennsylvania’s most prominent leaders. Dan was also named one of 2021’s Most Admired CEOs by the Philadelphia Business Journal, recognizing the region’s top executives.
Fitzpatrick earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from La Salle University and an MBA from Drexel University. He is a CPA and a Chartered Financial Analyst. Fitzpatrick lives in Philadelphia, Pa., with his wife Beth and they have four adult children.
Dr. Darren Lipscomb is a community activist and the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management at Community College of Philadelphia. He has over a decade of experience in education. The West Philadelphia native is also a product of the Philadelphia School District and an alumnus of Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences.
Dr. Lipscomb has served as the Senior Vice President for Programming for the Philadelphia chapter of the nationally renowned Minds Matter college preparatory mentorship program and as past-Chairman for the Mayor’s Commission on African American Males. He has also served as an intelligence analyst in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard during which he supported Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Louisiana in 2005 and deployed to Iraq in 2009. He currently serves as a board member for the Philadelphia Parks Alliance and the Philadelphia Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc, as well as the Chapter’s mentorship program for boys and young men in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Dr. Lipscomb holds a doctorate in Higher Education Leadership, Master’s degree in Counselor Education and Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. He is currently completing his final semester of Law School at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.
Derren Mangum is the Director of Institutional Giving for Opera Philadelphia, where he provides leadership for the organization’s foundation, corporate, and government fundraising campaigns. He is a founding member of the company’s Equity and Inclusion Committee, an internal staff and board workgroup. Prior to his work at Opera Philadelphia, Derren worked in online and corporate communications, real estate settlement, and web design, always maintaining a core focus on written communications both professionally and personally. Derren holds a B.A. in Rhetoric and Communications Studies from the University of Virginia. He completed over five years of board service for the C.W. Henry School PTA in the roles of treasurer, vice president, and president. He and his wife are the proud parents of one graduate and three current students of the School District of Philadelphia.
Ellen Mattleman Kaplan was most recently Philadelphia’s Chief Integrity Officer for Mayor Jim Kenney’s first term. Prior to that, she was the Vice President and Policy Director for the regional good-government organization, the Committee of Seventy. She also served as the Managing Director of Public Policy and Communications at the business and civic-leadership organization Greater Philadelphia First and the Associate Director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a statewide non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to reforming Pennsylvania’s judicial system.
Ellen earned a J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University, majoring in History and Russian Areas Studies.
Ellen’s interest in public education comes directly from her parents, Marciene and Herman Mattleman. Marciene was the founder of After School Activities Partnership and Philadelphia Futures, and was the city’s first Executive Director of the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy. Herman is a former President of the Philadelphia Board of Education
Ivy Olesh (she/her) is the Vice President for Field Operations and Executive Director of Playworks Pennsylvania and the Greater Delaware Valley, a nonprofit dedicated to using play as an educational tool to teach social/emotional and life skills to children. Her professional experience ranges from work with organizations in psychology and social science, to economic development, to health and wellness and her passion is helping organizations and projects scale through efficiency, good strategic planning and strong team culture. She is an experienced nonprofit executive who is always honing her skills in fundraising, relationship and partnership development, executive leadership, and implementable strategic planning centering sustainable and equitable practices.
Ivy is a proud Philadelphia School District parent and a a civic leader, volunteering and serving on boards that focus on recreation, public space and play, public education and public art. She is the founding member and past-President of the Friends of Chester Arthur, a nonprofit that supports the neighborhood public school in Philadelphia where she resides and where her son attended elementary school. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Smith Memorial Playground. Ivy lives in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood of Philadelphia along with her husband, Matt, and their 11-year-old son, Brody. If she’s not at work or in a nonprofit board meeting, you can find her throughout the many vibrant communities in Philadelphia with her husband and son, eating and shopping for unique ingredients, or on the fields and courts watching her son play youth sports.
Joanna Otero-Cruz, Executive Director and President of Women Against Abuse, has a rich history of serving children, families, and survivors of intimate partner violence. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader with deep roots in the Philadelphia area:
- Mostly recently, Joanna was appointed by Mayor Kenney to the role of Deputy Managing Director of Community Services for the City of Philadelphia, where she oversaw eight city departments and a $23 million budget.
- Joanna served as Executive Director at Concilio (Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations) for six years, during which she reinvigorated the organization by ushering in a new strategic plan, rebranding, relocation, restructuring, and Board development.
- Joanna directed Behavioral and Family Health Services for Congreso de Latinos Unidos, which included the organization’s bilingual domestic violence program – one of Women Against Abuse’s community partners.
As Executive Director and President of Women Against Abuse, Joanna oversees the implementation of the organization’s mission from both a strategic and operational standpoint.
Kimberly Pham is a national activist focused on improving the conditions of young people across America. A proud Philly girl from the Kensington section. Kim is focused on reshaping the narrative and culture of how young people engage in processes of driving positive change in their community. Kimberly is a member of the Project U-Turn Collaborative, which focuses on learning and implementing best practices and strategies for opportunity youth in the City of Philadelphia. Kimberly has been recently appointed by Mayor Kenney to serve on the Education Nomination Panel to assist with identifying members for Philadelphia’s new local school board. She was a former member of the National Council of Young Leaders, which founded the movement Opportunity Youth United and is now serving with OYU full-time. Opportunity Youth United is a movement that is focused on increasing the number of young people who have access to solution-based leadership opportunities. OYU provides a platform where young people cannot only stand up for the issues they care about, but they can speak up and strategize around solutions that alleviate or eliminate barriers they may be facing in their community and country. She is currently a national board member with the Forum for Youth Investment. Kimberly is greatly dedicated to serving her community and continues to be a driving force through self-development and intentional community building.
Tiffany W. Thurman recently accepted the role of Vice President of Government Affairs with the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, one of the largest Y associations in the nation. She currently oversees government affairs and community affairs with responsibility for the association’s public policy agenda and civic engagement on a range of priorities. She also directs teams driving the Y’s social responsibility initiative that focuses on social and behavioral determinants of health.
Prior to this role, Tiffany served as the Pennsylvania Local Government Lead for Accenture, a global management consulting firm advising state and local governments, and K-12 clients throughout North America.
Before joining Accenture, Tiffany was the Chief of Staff for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation with the City of Philadelphia helping to oversee and expand recreational opportunities for children, improve safety in public parks and launch a multi-year workforce development strategic plan.
Tiffany also served as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Delegation with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where she worked with the Governor’s Office to advance the delegation’s broad agenda to create priority legislative policies in Pennsylvania’s state capitol. Before serving in government, Tiffany was a highly regarded consumer finance and behavioral economics program manager.
Tiffany holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania with a certification in economic development and growth. She completed her undergraduate studies with honors at Temple University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science.
Tiffany serves on the board of directors for Fairmount Park Conservancy, Urban Land Institute and Settlement Music School. She lives in Philadelphia with her daughter and husband who has taught in the School District of Philadelphia for 22 years.
Sozi Tulante lives in West Philadelphia. He was Philadelphia City Solicitor from 2016 to 2018 and in charge of all of the City’s legal affairs. As Solicitor, he led over 200 lawyers of the Philadelphia Law Department and worked on a variety of critical issues, including efforts to reform the police department and to return the Philadelphia School District to local control. He also created an affirmative litigation unit and led the lawsuit against the Department of Justice to safeguard critical law-enforcement funding. Before coming to the City, he was an Assistant US Attorney in Philadelphia, where he focused his work on criminal investigations and prosecutions.
A political refugee from then Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), Sozi learned English in the Philadelphia public schools, attending Clymer, Birney, Sullivan, Bethune, Conwell and Northeast High School. After leaving Philadelphia, he graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, both times with honors. He is now a partner at Dechert LLP.
Sean Vereen, Ed.D., is the President of Steppingstone Scholars, Inc. For two decades, Steppingstone has worked with families, students, partner schools, universities, and sister nonprofits to create pathways for educationally underserved students to college and the workforce in the Philadelphia region. Under Dr. Vereen leadership Steppingstone has launched a number of innovative programs and strategic partnerships that have increased the organization’s impact and scope. Steppingstone now serves 2,500 students (a 300% increase over his tenure) and has grown Its budget from $1.2 million to $4.9 million, supporting 30 full-time staff members and 100 part-time. Steppingstone’s goal is to be Philadelphia’s first College & Workforce pathway initiative that will increase college graduation and the employment opportunities of youth in Philadelphia.
Sean is the Vice Chair of the Mayor’s Education Nominating Panel that nominates members for the School District of Philadelphia’s Board of Education, board member of the Philadelphia School Partnership which is focused on increasing high performing school options for students in Philadelphia, and member of Johns Hopkins Access Advisory Board, a national advisory board working with John Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Office to support their efforts to realize the goals of Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion gift to Hopkins to increase the population of low-income and first-generation students. He is a co-instructor of an open online course created in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania focused on first-generation college applicants called How to Apply to College on the Coursera platform with 15,000 enrolled learners from around the world. He is a lecturer in the Higher Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Dr. Barbara Moore Williams attended Philadelphia public schools throughout her K-12 education and went on to serve in the Philadelphia School District for over thirty-five years as a teacher, coach/trainer, and director of teacher development. She helped to establish the District’s Teaching and Learning Network supporting professional development for teachers and principals. Dr. Williams has taught at Temple University and is currently an educational consultant with expertise in teacher development, school leadership, and anti-racism and diversity training in eight school districts.