Jamie Salka (Chair)

Bio coming soon

Walter DaLuz (Treasurer)

Bio coming soon

Eric Gurna

Founder & Executive Director, Development Without Limits

As the founder and Executive Director of Development Without Limits, Eric Gurna designs and facilitates staff development, curriculum and other resources for community organizations and schools on topics including youth development, literacy, diversity, leadership, communication and organizational development. Eric also designs and directs youth programs, including Project Unity, an internship program where teenagers create and perform plays based upon their own experiences and ideas.

Eric previously served as Director of Staff Development for LA´s BEST After School Enrichment Program in Los Angeles, where he co-founded the LA Partnership for After School Education. Prior to that, Eric worked for Educators for Social Responsibility and Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families (now Harlem Children’s Zone) and received his Master´s Degree in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the New School for Social Research.

Eric has presented workshops for dozens of organizations and conferences nationwide, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Beacon Community Center, the PASE/OST Advisory Committee, and the TASC Training Advisory Committee.

Frank Hardart

Partner, Educate LLC

Frank Hardart has been a Partner with at Educate LLC since 2001. Frank's experience with technology goes back to his days as an Account Manager with Compuserve from 1988-1993. Compuserve was the predecessor of the Internet as we know it today and Frank worked with many companies in the Northeast to help them use online technology to communicate all over the world using technologies like email and online bulletin boards. Frank took this experience to both Viacom and then to NBC in his role as Director of Business Development. He helped to plot out the strategy to integrate the Internet into properties like Nickelodeon, MTV, and CNBC. Frank then started to focus more on children and education during his subsequent role as Vice President of Business Development with MaMaMedia. Spun out of the MIT Media Lab, MaMaMedia quickly became the largest independent children’s website in the country. Based on constructionist learning principles, the website offers learning activities for children. Though on the business side, Frank became acutely more aware of the power of technology and the Internet to engage children and to be a powerful tool in their education. This experience combined with his role on the advisory board of an inner city school drove Frank to work with Bob Flanigan to bring educational technology to schools in New York with Educate LLC.  Frank has a BS in Engineering and a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the JL Kellogg School of Business. 

Anna Markowitz (Co-Founder)

Anna graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Business. While in college, she founded and successfully ran a nonprofit vintage clothing store called Better Than Toast Inc. which was going strong for four years until it closed in 2007.

After graduation, Anna joined the Teach For America Admissions team as the Budget Coordinator where she managed and tracked a two million dollar budget. She then worked as a Grant Analyst for Inwoodhouse’s Youth for REAL after school program, freelanced for a Wall Street financial company (Finance NYC) writing business plans and creating financial models, was the Program Coordinator for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship's Public Policy department, and taught Business and Creative writing through Girls For Gender Equity's afterschool progam at MS 61. Read more about Anna and her thoughts on education on her LinkEducation profile >>

Dirk Tillotson, Esq.

Founder & Director, New School Incubator for the New York State Charter School Association 

Dirk is the Founder and Director of the New School Incubator for the New York State Charter School Association, a program developed to seed and grow strong and sustainable community based charter schools dedicated to educating underserved student populations.  He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in new school planning and also the development of internal systems of accountability to drive continuous improvement. Mr. Tillotson has been the lead developer or rejuvenator for several charter schools, including the National Blue Ribbon award winning American Indian Charter School in Oakland, California. During his 15 years working with charter schools, Mr. Tillotson has focused on underserved community groups, helping them develop and implement high quality and sustainable schools.  

Prior to his work with NYCSA, he served as COO and interim CEO for the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, and consulted for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, post-Katrina in New Orleans.  He also led the school based aspects of RAND education’s largest project; reform of the education system of the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, and the implementation of charter-like “independent schools” there.   His charter school work began in Oakland, California, where he led or developed several high achieving schools and founded a charter support organization, Oakland Charters Together.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Albany and his law degree and master’s degree in jurisprudence and social policy from UC Berkeley. 

Raj Thakkar

Founder & CEO, Charter School Business Management Inc.

Raj Thakkar is the Founder & CEO of Charter School Business Management Inc. He has supported more than 60 existing and proposed charter schools in NYC, New Orleans and Chicago and charter school support organizations including the NYC Center for Charter School Excellence, New Schools for New Orleans, New Leaders for New Schools, The Renaissance Schools Fund in Chicago and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.  Mr. Thakkar provides guidance on how to create and maintain a strong foundation of finance, operations, human resources and compliance at each school he serves.  He shares best practices, ensuring that business and operations leaders are trained and prepared to manage the non-academic responsibilities of their charter schools.  These services, which are tailored to the unique culture and needs of schools, are proven techniques that allow school leaders to focus on what’s most important - student achievement. Previously, Mr. Thakkar was the Chief Financial Officer of Explore Charter School for 4 years, where he managed the areas of accounting, finance, human resources, payroll, facilities, compliance, charter renewal, and technology.  His work with the school’s Executive Director led to the renewal of its charter for a full 5 years and to Explore being recognized as 1 of the Top 53 charter schools in the U.S. in May 2007.  His 12 years of work experience at for-profit, start-up companies and small businesses has led to a specialization in turnaround management, operational efficiency, treasury management, expense reduction, and systems implementation.  Mr. Thakkar earned his MBA in Finance from NYU's Stern School of Business and a BS in Engineering Science from Hofstra University. He is an Advisory Board Member for 7ARTS and now a Board Member for LinkEducation. He is a native New Yorker.

Rachel Brill (Secretary)

Bio coming soon

Rachael Beard (Executive Director)

Bio coming soon

Eric Cipra (Advisory Board Chair)

Bio coming soon