Kathleen O’Sullivan – National Director of EdVisions Schools

Kathleen O’Sullivan’s purpose and passion is to make a difference in how we prepare our young people for success. She has extensive experience creating innovative programs for at-risk youth, particularly focusing on workforce development. Ms. O’Sullivan is a pioneer and leader in the charter school movement in California and the Founder and past Executive Director of Odyssey Charter School. She has become known as the ultimate “Resource Choreographer” for her ability to creatively leverage a wide array of resources in new ways to make things happen.

Ms. O’Sullivan has been a presenter on creating 21 st century learning envi ronments at conferences in the U.S., United Kingdom, China, and Taiwan. In 2006, the Pasadena YWCA honored Ms. O’Sullivan as Woman of Excellence in Education. Ms. O’Sullivan is a graduate of Leadership Pasadena and is chair-elect for the LP Board. She also serves on the executive board of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and is an active member of Pasadena Rotary. Ms. O’Sullivan has a growing love of photography and is pursuing her passion as a photography student at Art Center at Night.

Mayte Tormo – Community Outreach

Mayte Tormo is a native of Valencia, Spain. She has a degree in Arts and Architectural Design. After marrying, she arrived in Austin, Texas, where she taught ESL for adults and worked as a Spanish teacher in the Austin Independent School District. She collaborated with the Rotary Club and the Police and Fire Fighters Department as a translator for Elderly and Children’s Home Safety Programs. She has two children in an alternative, parent-participation elementary school here in California, and she works as a Spanish teacher. Mrs. Tormo is very involved with the community: she translates parent teacher conferences and IPO’s for schools including Ponderosa Elementary in SCUSD and Castro Elementary in MVWSD. She is an active volunteer in the Sunnyvale Alliance Soccer Club and coaches boys soccer.

James Reinhart ­– Development

Beacon co-founder and Chief Operating Officer James Reinhart began his career as a teacher. In 2003, he became the Development & Communications Director at Pacific Collegiate School. Prior to that, he was a teacher at PCS. During his time at PCS he coordinated their Federal Dissemination Grant where he was directly involved in raising more than 2 million dollars in private donations.

From 2003-05, while managing a Federal Dissemination Grant for “best-practices in governance and curriculum,” Mr. Reinhart visited more than 60 of the best public schools in 8 states across America.

He is the founder and CEO of the Darwin Consulting Group, which offers fund development, communications and management solutions to charter schools throughout California. Mr. Reinhart is a product of New Jersey public schools and a graduate of Boston College; he is currently a Master’s in Public Policy (M.P.P.) candidate focusing on education policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Wanny Hersey – Middle and High School Leader Expertise

Wanny Hersey has been an educator for 23 years.   Starting as a classroom teacher in Vancouver, Canada, her career in education includes teaching and administrative experience spanning elementary, middle, and high school levels. As an administrator, she has been a high school dean of students, an assistant principal at both the elementary and middle school levels, a summer school principal K-8, and the principal of Bel Aire Elementary School in Tiburon for seven and a half years.  During her tenure at Bel Aire, it was named a California Distinguished School, a National Blue Ribbon School, and only 1 of 12 schools in the nation to be recognized as a National Blue Ribbon Technology School. During her tenure there, Mrs. Hersey also served as the district BTSA representative to the Marin County BTSA collaborative, the administrative representative for CTAP, Region IV, an integral member of the district1s Strategic Planning Committee, and was invited to present at the National School Reform Conference in Florida.
 
Mrs. Hersey is currently Superintendent/Principal of Bullis Charter School (BCS) in Los Altos. Since opening its doors in 2003, BCS is already recognized as one of the leading public schools in the state and has garnered many accomplishments including: an API score of 973, a $360,000 State Implementation Grant, and full WASC accreditation status. In 2006, Mrs. Hersey was named California "Educator of the Month" by the California Charter Schools Association in recognition of "excellence in improving student achievement and furthering the goals of the charter school movement in providing high-quality education options for the students of California."

Pam Garcia – School Operations

Pam Garcia is a Business Administration graduate of Cal State Hayward with over 20 years of experience in managing State Department of Education contracts. She also provides accounting and consulting services for 20+ non-profit organizations including several schools. She is currently working on a strategic management template for managing attendance based programs with multiple funding sources.

Peter Gumaer – Legal

Peter Gumaer, an attorney with Pratt and Associates in Campbell, handles civil litigation and appellate matters with an emphasis in business and real estate litigation. He also represents non-profit organizations including charter schools and homeowners associations. He has successfully represented real estate developers, real estate brokers, buyers and sellers in both litigation and transactional matters. His experience also includes litigation in intellectual property matters involving trade secrets, copyrights and unfair competition. Mr. Gumaer is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College and Santa Clara University. He lives in the CUHSD attendance area and was an instrumental player in the recently opened Discovery Charter School.

Steve Rapa – Public Affairs

Steve Rapa is a Media Producer/Director in the Bay Area and owns a production company, Steve Rapa Productions. He has focused his energy on producing educational materials for more than twenty years. His credits include a Gold Apple Award from the National Educational Film Festival, several Telly Awards for producing educational programming for NASA, as well as many other awards in the areas of Corporate Education and Training.

Mr. Rapa is a former Board Member of the Village School in the Campbell Union School District. There, he held the position as Public Relations Director. His daughters attended the Village School. Mr. Rapa graduated at the top of his class from the College of Recording Arts at San Francisco, which sent him on his path to supporting education through media. Mr. Rapa also teaches a video production class and private music lessons.

Wanda Whitehead – Founder Experience, School Culture

Wanda Whitehead is the Executive Director of Casa di Mir Montessori School. She was the first teacher for Casa di Mir and assisted the founding board in the establishment of the school in 1989. Her key focus and vision is Dr. Maria Montessori’s “Education for Peace.” Ms. Whitehead taught for 17 years in the Palo Alto Unified school district, grades 2-6. She holds a State of California Standard Teaching Credential for elementary K-8 as well as AMS Montessori Certification for ages 6-12.