Smarter Balanced Staff
Smarter Balanced is a public agency supported by its members, and is housed at the University of California Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension. Contact us.
Executive Team
Tony Alpert
Executive Director
Magda Chia
Chief Strategy Officer
Christyan Mitchell, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
Hillary Hunter
Executive Assistant
Communications and Public Affairs
Chris Barron
Senior Director, Communications
Renee Basick
Associate Director, Communications
Sophia Sun
Administrative Specialist
Content and Student Supports
Rachel Kachchaf, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Content and Student Supports
Amulet Chambers
Administrative Specialist
Terri Gibbs-Burke
Associate Director, Mathematics
Anita Grunwald
Associate Director, Quality Assurance
Ken Hermens
Director, English Language Arts/Literacy
Natasha Johnson
Associate Director, English Language Arts/Literacy
Trisha Klein
Director, Student Supports
Lori Sheirich
Technical Project Manager
Vitaliy Shyyan, Ph.D.
Director, Student Supports
Shauna Stewart
Administrative Specialist
Bryan Toller
Director, Mathematics
Mark Valderrama
Project Coordinator
Internal Operations
Russ Wegfehrt
Director, Strategic Planning
Kimberly Blanchard
Project Manager, Test Packaging
Ana Maria Dascalita Haut
Contract Monitor
Melissa Estuesta
Contract Monitor
Chera Finkbiner
Finance Manager
Susan French
Contract Monitor
Abigail Genzink
Accounting Specialist
Mehwish Nasir
Project Manager
Jessica Shankar
Finance Specialist
Member Services
Gail Pagano
Senior Director, Member Services
Supports for Instruction
Heidi Kroog, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Supports for Instruction
Lauren Butler
Project Manager, Consortium Reporting
Genoa Faber
Document Specialist, CA Reporting
Chari Holman
Administrative Specialist
Mark Mangoba
Systems Administrator, Consortium Reporting
Chelsey Shade, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Supports for Formative Assessment
Danny Shultz
Associate Director, Systems Architecture, CA Reporting
Amy Thierry
Director, Supports for Formative Assessment
Elizabeth Wakefield
Project Manager, CA Reporting
Addie Wright
Director, Reporting Assessment System
Systems Design
Leslie Pearlman, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Psychometrics and Data Analysis
Han Bao, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Psychometrics
Tharunya Chandrashekar
Data Analyst
Teresa Dillard
Administrative Specialist
Huey Dodson
Research Data Analyst
Donald Murray
Director, Research Data Analysis
Matthew Schulz, Ph.D.
Director, Psychometrics
Carol Woods, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Psychometrics
Information Technology
Charles McIntyre
Senior Director, IT
Louis Blakely
Systems Administrator
Alex Chivers
Administrative Specialist
Alex Dean
Associate Director, Systems Architecture
Peter Flores
Director, Application Services
Jessica Muller
Associate Director, Systems Architecture
Shankar Ramachandran
Associate Director, Application Administration
Brad Walker
Director, User Experience