Staff

Eric Grannis, the Executive Director, is a graduate of Columbia Law School and former New York City public school teacher. He is a leading expert on charter school law who has provided legal counsel to more than a dozen charter schools.  He was a founding board member of the Bronx Preparatory Charter School and the Girls Preparatory Charter schools. Two of his children attend a charter school.

Charlotte Christopher, the Deputy Director, is a graduate of Wesleyan University.  Her interest in school choice is informed by experiences in both the private and public school systems.

Board of Directors

Gideon Stein, the Board Chairman, is a graduate of Wesleyan and a partner at Argyle Holdings LLC, a real estate development company. He previously was the founding president of E!, a magazine, and was Chairman of Omnipod. He is Chairman of Board of Harlem Success Academy 5 Charter School, a board member of Upper West Success Academy Charter School, and President of Future is Now Schools, a charter school management organization.

Greg David is a teacher at the Bank Street School for Children.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he also holds a Masters in English from NYU and a Masters in Childhood Special and General Education from Bank Street.  Prior to teaching, he was Co-Founder of Palyon Corp, a medical technology company, and Partner in two investment firms, Present Investments, LLC and WPG Farber-Present Fund, LLP.

Bryan Lawrence, a graduate of Yale and the Harvard Business School, is the founder of Oakcliff Capital, an asset management firm. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Lazard Freres. Mr. Lawrence was a founding board member of the Girls Preparatory Charter Schools and is Chairman of Public Prep, the related charter management organization.

James Ryan, a graduate of Yale and the University of Virginia Law School, is a Professor at the University of Virginia Law School. He is a leading scholar on educational desegregation, school financing and school choice and is the author of Five Miles Away, A World Apart (Oxford University Press 2010) a book about educational inequality and segregation.

Isela Bahena, a graduate of Duke University school of business, is the Director of the Energy and Infrastructure team at TIA-CREF. A graduate of the Chicago public school system, Ms. Bahena is a resident of Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and currently sits on the board of a charter school in Brooklyn.

Lorenzo Smith, a graduate of West Point, is an Associate with TIAA-CREF’s Distressed Investments team. Mr. Smith was previously with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Merrill Lynch and was a member of U.S. National Bobsled Team. Mr. Smith is a founding member of the Upper West Success Academy Charter School.