Meet the Commissioners

Board Chair

Johnette A. Richardson is the Deputy Director for Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore, a community development financial institution that sparks renewed vitality in neighborhoods by engaging community partners, increasing sustainable homeownership, and advancing innovative capital solutions. She is a frequent speaker at local and national training institutes and foundation convenings on topics related to neighborhood revitalization and community economic development. 

An advocate of volunteerism, Mrs. Richardson served as the board of directors president for Afya Baltimore, Inc., a Baltimore City public charter school organization. She serves on the City Leadership Committee for the Community Development Network of Maryland and the Community Initiatives Advisory Committee for Neighborworks America. She is a Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership graduate, completed Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Leadership program, and is a past Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Fellow. In 2012 she was named one of the Daily Record’s Leading Women; in 2017, she was named one of Associated Black Charities’ Women on the Move; in 2018, she was named the Daily Records Maryland's Top 100 Women.  

Before receiving her master’s degree in Business Administration from Regis University, Mrs. Richardson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University. She was appointed to the Board of Commissioners in January 2018. 

Richardson is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Board Vice Chair

Ronald S. McFadden is a musician, educator, and advocate for educational equity in America's urban communities. Reared in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Mr. McFadden is a classically trained baritone receiving his B.A. in Music and his M.A. in Teaching degrees from Morgan State University in Baltimore.
 
Comfortable on the opera and concert stage, McFadden has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist and chorister in venues such as the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Carnegie Hall (New York, NY), Reichold Center for the Performing Arts (U.S. Virgin Islands), The Municipal House with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (Prague, Czech Republic), and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Baltimore, MD).

Ronald began his formal teaching career in Baltimore City Public Schools at the Historic Booker T. Washington Middle School, where he taught music and served as director of The Golden Voices. He helped to establish an arts-integrated school curriculum as art team lead and member of the school’s instructional leadership team. In 2015, Ronald was inducted into Cohort 14 of the Emerging Leaders Program with New Leaders for New Schools. Emerging Leaders is a national program that equips current and aspiring leaders with instructional expertise aligned to college- and career-readiness standards. McFadden has served as a coach, grade-level lead teacher, and department chairperson throughout his public education career. In 2019, McFadden was named a top 5 finalist for Baltimore County Public Schools' Teacher of the Year. Mr. McFadden currently serves as a middle school assistant principal in Baltimore County.

In addition to public education, Mr. McFadden is the Founding Artistic Director of the Urban Choral Arts Society, a 501c3 organization dedicated to improving the achievement and esteem of Baltimore area youth through choral music and cultural arts. He is a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the Maryland Music Educators Association (MMEA), the National School Boards Association (NSBA), and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America Inc.

Mr. McFadden chairs the Teaching and Learning Committee and is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. 

Commissioner

Dr. Durryle Brooks, Ph.D., is an early career interdisciplinary researcher and a social justice practitioner from Baltimore, MD. He is the Founder and CEO of Love and Justice Consulting LLC, an organization that provides leaders with diversity and social justice learning opportunities to increase their capacity to effectively and authentically engage difference. Additionally, over the past 15 years, Dr. Brooks’ research agenda has explored the impact of systemic oppression on the holistic health of Black communities with a focus on exploring how racism, sexism, and heterosexism impact Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) people’s mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and sexual health. As an educator, Dr. Brooks’ work focuses on social justice education pedagogy, curriculum design, healing, trauma-informed approaches, and strengths-based practices to address educational and health disparities. Dr.  Brooks is a Research Associate in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology. His emerging research seeks to examine the material impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Black Gay and Bisexual young men, and the community supports they need to feel safe and heal.

Dr. Brooks is a member of the Teaching & Learning Committee.

Commissioner

Andrew Coy is a driven problem-solver with experience at the intersection of nonprofit, government, and technology. After serving as a teacher and technology integration specialist in the Baltimore City Public School System, Mr. Coy launched the Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center in 2013 and the Center of Excellence for Innovation in Technology Education in 2014. In 2015 he was asked to serve as a Senior Advisor on President Obama’s Tech and Innovation Team in the White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he served through the end of the Obama Administration. In this capacity, he led initiatives including National Week of Making, Nation of Makers, and the Kid Science Advisors Campaign, and was on the organizing team for numerous other efforts, including the WH Science Fair, WH Water Summit, WH Frontiers Conference, and South by South Lawn.

After leaving the White House, he has consulted on national projects, including CSforALL, the Nation of Makers Conference, the 2018 National STEM Summit, STEM Next Opportunity Fund, and was the lead author for the Computer Science Education and Professional Development Findings Report to Governor Lawrence Hogan and for the Invention Education Framework commissioned by Lemelson Foundation. In 2018, Andrew returned to his role as Executive Director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, where he leads the organization’s efforts to advance digital equity for everyone, increase diversity in the technology sector, expand educational opportunities, and create technology innovation for the public good through impact opportunities locally and across the country.

Andrew is married to a fellow former Baltimore City Public School teacher, Ann Passey Coy, and has three children in Baltimore City Public Schools. He is active in his church and community and enjoys riding bikes and hiking. He holds a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Education and an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University. Growing up in a military family, he was born in Germany and grew up in Eagle River, Alaska.

Coy is a member of the Policy Committee and Operations Committee.

Commissioner

Ashley Esposito is one of two of the first-ever elected Commissioners! Ms. Esposito is a mom, artist, and community builder. She is a passionate advocate for trauma-informed care, disability inclusion, and restorative practices. She has worked as an IT professional and in communications. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Software Development and Security from the University of Maryland Global Campus. Ms. Esposito lives in Southwest Baltimore with her husband, Calo, and son Vinny.

As a high school student, she barely graduated. She has several learning differences, spent time in foster care and independent living programs. Thankfully, she had access to a comprehensive school-based wellness center. She had an amazing art teacher who believed in her abilities. Her school also provided students with night school, and it allowed her to graduate on time. Through art and these relationships, she began her healing process. Ms. Esposito went on to work in social services and community-based agencies after high school.

Superpowers are the unique gifts we share with the world, usually influenced by our experiences. Ms. Esposito’s superpower is being neurodivergent and her ability to meet people where they are. She believes in authentic community engagement in decision-making and solution creation. She believes in the superpowers of our students, families, teachers, administrators, and community members in Baltimore City.

Ashley Esposito is grateful for this journey which has provided many opportunities to connect with students, families, and communities across the city. These conversations inspire her service on the board.

Esposito is a member of the Policy Committee and Operations Committee.

Commissioner

Ateira Griffin is a lifelong Baltimore City resident, entrepreneur, educator, and community organizer. She earned a bachelor's in civil engineering from Morgan State University, a master’s in secondary education, and a school leadership and administration certificate from Johns Hopkins University. Her love for teaching led her to serve as a k-12 educator and school administrator at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and create leadership training for adults in Baltimore and across the nation. She is the founder and CEO of BOND - Building Our Nation’s Daughters, Inc., which mentors single mothers to cultivate positive mother-daughter relationships and increase their economic mobility two generations at a time.

Ms. Griffin has always believed in the power of a black woman’s voice and uses every chance to lift hers and amplify others. Recently she testified in front of Congress advocating for equitable housing practices across the nation. Ms. Griffin also co-hosts Point of Hue, a podcast by and about women of color. She has spoken on many panels, led sessions, and created experiences for black women, girls, and Women of Color. She has started two initiatives - We See Us: a unifying space for Black women and femmes, and Blackenomics Collective: an organization aiming to advocate and educate for black economic power.

Currently, she serves on the board of Teach For America - Baltimore, The Unity Hall in West Baltimore, and 211 MD. She was awarded 2019 Echoing Green Fellowship and the 2020 Open Society Institute Fellowship to recognize her leadership and work with BOND. She believes a part of her life’s purpose is to disrupt all things oppressive to the black community, women of color, and single-mother households. Through her experience in urban education, policy, and community organizing, she has learned that purpose, action, and unconditional love go a long way to creating change.

Griffin chairs the Policy Committee and is a member of the Teaching & Learning Committee.

Commissioner

Kwame’ Jamal Kenyatta-Bey has been an educator with Baltimore City Public Schools for close to three decades in one form or another.  His boots-on-the-ground expertise brings wisdom that can only be garnered with time on the front line.   

Educated by Baltimore City Public Schools at Alexander Hamilton Elementary, Gwynn’s Falls Park Junior High, and Edmondson High Schools, He and his wife Karleen raised 3 of his Grandchildren who all attended Baltimore City Public Schools.  His collegiate experience led to his obtaining a BA in Theatre Arts from Morgan State University. This intentional choice after being wooed by other entities including Yale and The US Naval Academy was predicated upon an intense desire to focus on serving the community that nurtured him. 

His primary source of growth came from Joseph and Willie Gross (mother and father), Edmondson and Poplar Grove (where he grew up), and Grace AME church of which he is still a member. 

He has been a strong presence in the arts in Baltimore and Nationally having been a technical director, an actor, a production manager, and over the last decade a Theatrical Director.  His presence in the media included being the youngest reporter in the City of Baltimore at the age of 17.  This led to a career in radio as an assistant news director and assignment editor, in the print media as the editor for a local magazine, and in television as a camera person for Maryland Public Television. 

In the field of development, he has been an independent fundraiser and the Alumni/Media director for Coppin State University.   

However, his greatest pride is the hundreds of students he mentored over the years in Business and Finance and for the last 8 years in ESOL. 

Unity and peace of mind are what Commissioner Bey hopes to foster wherever he leaves his footprint. 

Kenyatta-Bey is a member of the Teaching & Learning Committee and the Audit Committee.

Commissioner

Vernon A. Reid, Jr., is a retired investment professional who worked at T. Rowe Price Associates from 1977 to 1987 and 1999 to 2018. During the intermediate period, he served as principal partner of V.A. Reid & Associates. He graduated from three Baltimore City public schools: Frances L. Murphy Laboratory, William H. Lemmel Junior High School, and Forest Park High School. 

Mr. Reid serves on the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST) boards and on the Impact Investing Subcommittee of the Baltimore Community Foundation. He also served as a vice-president of the T. Rowe Price Foundation, the Walters Art Museum, and the Baltimore City Board of Finance. He is a member of the New Psalmist Baptist Church.

Mr. Reid attended the United States Naval Academy. He holds a B.S. in business administration from Towson University and an M.B.A. with a concentration in finance from Indiana University in Bloomington. Mr. Reid was appointed to the Board of School Commissioners in Fall 2018. 

Mr. Reid chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Operations Committee.

Commissioner

Shantell L. Roberts is a Social Entrepreneur, Advocate for Maternal and Child Health, and Founder of Touching Young Lives, Incorporated, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that focuses on the health and well-being of infants and children. Since its formation, she has worked with families and caregivers throughout Maryland to prevent another untimely infant or adolescent death. Shantell is a Baltimore native and a graduate of three Baltimore City Public Schools: Yorkwood Elementary, Hamilton Middle School and Western High School. Shantell is also the parent of a student attending a Baltimore City Public School.

Shantell, an alumnus of the 2016 Johns Hopkins University Social Innovation Lab cohort, was awarded the program’s inaugural $25,000 seed funding for her Portable Alternative Crib program venture launch. In November 2017, she was selected as an Open Society Institute Baltimore Community Fellow and has since been named a Top 30 Visionary by the Baltimore Magazine, selected by the United Way of Central Maryland as one of the 2018 Philanthropic Five Honorees, the Daily Record for the 2018 V.I.P. “Successful by 40” list and one of the Daily Record’s 2018 “Leading Women” Honorees.

She currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for the University of Maryland’s Department of Pediatrics Center for Infant and Child Loss, as an Advisory Board Member for the Johns Hopkins University Social Innovation Lab, and was appointed by Governor Lawrence Hogan to the State Child Fatality Review Team in April 2019.

Roberts chairs the  Operations Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee.

Commissioner

Robert Salley has an unwavering commitment to improving outcomes for students and uplifting communities that are deeply rooted in his own lived experience and in his time in the classroom. Raised as a member of a military family, the values of giving back to the community and paying it forward in service have resonated throughout his career in public service and in the communities he has called home. Keenly important to him are addressing issues of equity, expanding educational attainment, and improving access to post-secondary opportunities for children and adults.

Robert began his teaching career here in Baltimore City where he taught middle school. His professional experience spans educational roles across K-12, higher education, non-profit, philanthropy, and government. Robert has systems-level experience in urban education, rural school systems, and Tribal/indigenous education. Through his policy work on the federal and state levels, he gained deep technical expertise in school accountability, school improvement, and public reporting measures. He has held key leadership roles working to expand federal policy on family and community engagement and leading the federal government’s trust responsibilities for Native youth including expanding native language preservation and upholding Tribal sovereignty. Robert is most passionate about his work to ensure vulnerable populations of children including—highly mobile students and those in foster care or experiencing homelessness—continue their education. Most recently, Robert worked on Capitol Hill, developing legislation to support the vitality of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and expanding access to minority-serving institutions. 

Robert holds graduate degrees from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University and is a proud undergraduate alumnus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He also is the recipient of the Administrative Management Fellowship from Harvard University.

Salley chairs the Strategic Planning Committee and is a member of the Policy and Audit Committees. 

Commissioner

Khalilah Slater Harrington is a respected leader who is driven by a life-long passion to achieve social justice through education, equity, and community engagement.

Khalilah serves as Chief Program Officer of Family League of Baltimore, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that serves as an architect of change by promoting data-driven, collaborative initiatives and aligning resources to create lasting outcomes for children, families, and communities. She leverages over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector to guide the design, development, and implementation of investment strategies that drive large-scale community improvement through partnerships with local leaders and organizations.

Prior to joining Family League in 2017, Khalilah was Program Manager for the Bainum Family Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland, where she developed comprehensive strategies to support educational programs and projects that assist children from early childhood through post-secondary school.

Khalilah previously worked with a variety of organizations in Cincinnati, Ohio, including Cincinnati Public Schools, The KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati, managing and directing youth-serving programs, developing community partnerships, and enhancing summer learning opportunities for students at low-performing schools.

Khalilah holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a master’s degree in Education from the University of Cincinnati. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband, Pickett, and their children Addison and Alexander.

Slater Harrington is a member of the Teaching & Learning Committee. 

Student Commissioner

Quinn Katz-Zogby (he/him) is a senior at Baltimore School for the Arts. Quinn has ample experience with youth leadership, student organizing, and public service. His in-depth understanding of district policy and the needs of City Schools students will improve the treatment of students and faculty's overall functioning. Quinn is excited to work with fellow board members and Baltimore City Public Schools' student leaders to continue improving our community and school system.

Quinn is a member of the Policy Committee.