Our Board
Board of Directors
Allen Anderson (Secretary)
Allen Anderson is the Vice President of Selection at Pahara Institute. In his role, Allen leads the vision-setting and strategy for identifying, selecting, and developing outstanding education leaders for the Pahara Fellowship. Allen has spent most of his career leaning into his passion of developing talent in others, building and cultivating leader pipelines, and helping others realize their potential. Prior to Pahara Institute, he served as the Sr. Director of Impact and Culture at Education Opens Doors where he oversaw organizational effectiveness and strategy, as well as talent management and development. For the first decade of Allen’s career, he served across several leadership roles at Uplift Education in Dallas, TX. Those positions included the Sr. Director of Talent Acquisition where he oversaw all network recruitment, selection and talent pipelines work, as well as the founding Middle School Principal at Uplift Grand Preparatory in Grand Prairie. Allen is a 2009 charter Teach for America Dallas-Fort Worth alum, and a graduate from The University of Oklahoma where he majored in Public Relations. He received his masters in Education Policy and Urban Leadership from Southern Methodist University.
Tracie Brown
Tracie has spent more than 25 years in public education in large urban school districts. Prior to joining Bezos Academy as the Superintendent of Schools, Tracie served in Arlington Independent School District as Chief Schools Officer and in Dallas Independent School District as a teacher, principal, and executive director for PK-12 schools. A staunch advocate for changing outcomes for all children, Tracie leverages her experience as a “turnaround leader” to create systems and structures to transform the learning experience for children. Tracie is passionate about closing the opportunity gap for children and has successfully led numerous schools to achieve national recognition. Tracie earned her Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications from Texas Woman’s University, a Masters in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M Commerce, and a doctorate in Educational Policy and Leadership Program from Southern Methodist University. She also serves on the board of two mission-driven educational non-profit organizations. Tracie’s favorite children’s books include Mel Fell and The Same But Different Too.
Dee Chambliss
Dee Chambliss is a veteran educator with over twenty-five years of service in public and private education, philanthropy, and government. She currently serves as Director of Research and Network Evaluation for NAF (naf.org), driving program effectiveness and youth engagement through participatory action research for the network of career-themed academies throughout the U.S. and the Virgin Islands. Before joining NAF, Dee served as Program Officer and Director of External Partnerships with Educate Texas of Communities Foundation of Texas. There she managed a variety of high-level policy, educational, philanthropic, community, and corporate relationships critical to the growth and long-term success of the schools and students involved. She began her career in Jackson, MS, teaching high school and college science classes before transitioning to various leadership positions in education at the district and state levels. Dee is a graduate of Millsaps College, Jackson State University, and Delta State University and relishes her roles as a wife and a mom to three young adult children.
Josie Hernandez-Gutierrez
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Josie presently works in the Waco Independent School District as the Deputy Superintendent, assisting the Superintendent with the day-to-day operations of the school district and overseeing the supervision of principals. Previously, she was the Founder and CEO of Proactive Leaders, LLC, an educational consulting firm providing leadership development and job-embedded coaching to district and school leaders. Josie has supervised and coached more than 200 principals in more than 150 schools. During her 26 years in education, she has served as the Chief of Schools in north Houston, a national school turnaround consultant for the University of Virginia School Turnaround Program, and as an Assistant Superintendent in Dallas where she led school transformation in 62 schools. Josie opened and headed the Office of Transformational Leadership and School Improvement in Fort Worth. She has a B.A in Education from Texas Christian University and an M.Ed. and Ed.D. in Education Administration from the University of North Texas.
Anson Jackson (Board Chair)
Anson Jackson is the Academic Programs and Strategy Senior Adviser at Bellwether Education Partners. Anson most recently served as the Deputy Chief of Schools at Uplift Education where he oversaw 20+ middle and high schools. Prior to that role, he led Summit Public Schools in the Bay Area and in Seattle as the Superintendent. At Summit, he played an integral role in developing district leaders and designing the network’s goal-setting framework built through the lens of equity. Before leading Summit Public Schools, he was a Managing Director at Uplift Education where he managed and coached a cohort of middle school principals serving over 4,000 students. After joining Teach for America in 2004, Anson began his career in education as a middle school math teacher in Donna, TX. He later worked as a math teacher and interventionist at KIPP TRUTH Academy and Grand Prairie ISD. He received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Kansas and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy from Southern Methodist University.
Rosemary Perlmeter
Rosemary Perlmeter has spent the last 25 years as an education entrepreneur in North Texas. In 2010 she co-founded Teaching Trust with Ellen Wood and, fourteen years prior, in 1996 she founded Uplift Education, one of the first and most successful charter school operators in Texas, for which she was recognized with the Innovation in Nonprofit Leadership Award from the Center for Nonprofit Management. Rosemary served as the first director of Teaching Trust’s Aspiring Leaders program in partnership with SMU and was a Clinical Associate Professor & Director of the Urban School Leadership Program at SMU Simmons School of Education. Before moving to education, Rosemary had a 15-year career as an attorney and an executive with Zale Corporation. She received a B.A. in English and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University. Among other volunteer activities Rosemary has served on the board of Educate Texas, Texas Charter Schools Association, Las Colinas Medical Center, Las Colinas Association. Rosemary is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow.
Ellen Pryor
Ellen Pryor is currently Professor of Law Emeritus at UNT Dallas College of Law. Before joining UNT Dallas as founding Associate Dean of the College of Law in 2013, Ellen was a professor at SMU Dedman School of Law. At SMU, she served for five years in university-wide academic administration as an Associate Provost for the university. She was an inaugural recipient of SMU’s Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award, and she was named a Piper Professor by the Minnie Piper Foundation in the State of Texas. Ellen’s pro bono practice has included matters relating to disability law and education. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Ursuline Academy, and she was a member of the committee that prepared the 2013 strategic report on Catholic elementary education in the Diocese of Dallas. Ellen received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Law Review, and a B.A. from Rice University.
Milan Sevak
Milan Sevak co-founded SustainED Leaders and currently serves as the inaugural Executive Director of the Center for Socioeconomic Mobility through Education at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Prior to UNT Dallas, Milan served as Clinical Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University, where he launched their Ed.D. program in educational leadership and led their M.Ed. program for aspiring urban school principals. Previously, he served in school and district leadership roles in a variety of settings including as an Assistant Superintendent (Dallas ISD), Deputy Chief of School Performance (Chicago Public Schools), Special Assistant to the Superintendent (Austin ISD), and Director of Instruction & Assessment (Leadership Public Schools). He has also taught middle and high school students in Richmond (CA), New York City, and India. Milan received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Chicago, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University, and an M.Ed. and Ed.D. from Harvard University.
Jacob Stainbrook
Before co-founding SustainED Leaders, Jacob served in senior leadership roles at multiple school districts. He has coached and managed leaders as the Vice President of Schools at IDEA Tarrant County and as a Managing Director at Uplift Education. As a principal, he led the turnaround of a low-performing middle school in Dallas, Texas, transforming it into one of the highest-rated middle schools in Texas. Jacob has worked as a national consultant at TNTP and taught instructional leadership courses to graduate students as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University. He received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver and an M.Ed. in Urban Education Leadership from Southern Methodist University.
Ellen Wood (Treasurer)
Ellen Wood was a Co-Founder of Teaching Trust and led fundraising for the organization as the Director of Major Gifts. She serves on the board of The Commit Partnership, a Dallas education collaborative, and the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation, as well as several foundation investment committees. Prior to her work in education, Ellen spent two decades working in the investment, healthcare, and real estate fields. She received a B.B.A. in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business where she received the John W. Gardner Volunteer Leadership Award.