Management Team:

The management team and board of directors bring skills and experience from business, charter school development and education to the challenge of expanding high quality charter schools along California’s central coast.

• Tom Brown, President and CEO, has significant startup experience in the private sector, as well as a background in corporate finance and education management. Prior to co-founding Beacon, he served as the President, and previously Chief Financial Officer, of Pacific Collegiate School, the top-rated, open-admission public high school in California. Email Tom
• James Reinhart, Co-Founder, began his career as a teacher. In 2003, he became the Development & Communications Director at Pacific Collegiate School 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”, James visited more than 60 of the best public schools in America. He is currently an MPP/MBA candidate focusing on education policy at the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, where he is a Goldsmith Fellow for his work in Social Enterprise. Email James
• J Zac Stein, Chief Operating Officer, has experience teaching at Bishop Cotton School in India, as a grant writer at the Center for Social Development in Cambodia, and as the Business Manager of IvyGate. J Zac has also assisted Professor Richard Light's ongoing research on student success in college. He graduated with highest honors in social anthropology from Harvard. Email J Zac
• Luz Macias, Community Outreach Coordinator, was born in Jalisco, Mexico. She moved to Watsonville at age two as the daughter of a migrant farm worker. Luz worked for nine years at Salud Para La Gente, a nonprofit community medical clinic, as a Medical Assistant and a Patient Service Coordinator. She then spent four years at Community Bridges' WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, where she worked as a Nutrition Assistant and as a Healthy Kids coordinator. Email Luz

Advisory Board:

• Christopher T. Cross was formerly an Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. From 1994 to 2002, Mr. Cross served as President and CEO of the Council for Basic Education (CBE). He is a member of the board of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, The New Teacher Project and EdSource. He served as a senior fellow with the Center for Education Policy and as a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Education Commission of the States.
• Reed Hastings is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Netflix, the world's largest online entertainment subscription service. Mr. Hastings is a founding member of NewSchools.org, Aspire Public Schools, Pacific Collegiate School, and EdVoice.net. He led the successful drive in 1998 for a stronger charter school law. He is a member of Technology Network (TechNet), where he served as CEO for a year. In 2000, he joined with the California Teachers' Association, Governor Gray Davis, John Doerr, and others to win the battle for easier passage of local school construction bonds. He also served as President of the California State Board of Education for two terms under Gray Davis.
• Michele Hutton advises the Network on best practices in middle school “study skills” building. She is the English Department Chair and the Director of Literacy Instruction at Prospect Hill Academy Middle School. Prior to Prospect Hill, Ms. Hutton spent six years in the Humanities Department at Pacific Collegiate School, the last three as the Department Head. While at PCS, she developed the school’s “Academic Literacy Class”, a study skills class for incoming 7th graders, the “Academic Base Camp,” a summer bridge program for incoming students, and calibrated the English and History curriculums to meet state standards.
• Mike Kirst is a former Professor of Education and Business at Stanford University, and remains the nation’s leading expert on aligning secondary education curriculum with college standards to improve college access.

  His recent book, From High School to College, concerns improving student preparation for success in postsecondary education. 

• Tara Roth McConaghy has been involved in both sides of the funding process – soliciting grant and sponsorship opportunities, as well as coaching those requesting funding. Tara has helped develop fundraising outreach plans and/or strategic communications for the California Charter Schools Association, Coro Southern California, After-School All-Stars, the California Children and Families Commission, and The Environmental Defenders, Los Angeles County’s environmental education program. She recently completed her MBA at Oxford University’s Said School where she was awarded a Skoll scholarship for her contributions to the field of social entrepreneurship.