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

Nirupa Mathew

Deputy Executive Program Officer, Content for Teaching and Learning

Bryce Carpenter, Ph.D.

Executive Administrative Officer

Rochelle Michel, Ph.D.

Deputy Executive Program Officer

Christyan Mitchell, Ph.D.

Executive Operating Officer

Lynelle Morgenthaler

Executive Program Officer

Executive Team Support

Joana Espinoza

Executive Assistant

Erica Gutierrez

Executive Administrator to the Executive Director

Lisa Forns

Executive Assistant

Human Resources

Valerie Chavez

HR Specialist

Kahil Hankston

Director of Human Capital Strategy

Sakinah Nuckles

HR Coordinator

Internal Operations

Ana Maria Dascalita Haut

Project Manager

Melissa Estuesta

Contract Monitor

Camilla Fincham

Project Manager

Susan French

Contract Monitor

Rami Houssari

Budgeting and Financial Analyst

Diana Lomas

Administrative Specialist

Renee Longoria

Project Manager

Marty Mineck

Director, Business Development

Militza Seehaver

Finance Specialist

Russ Wegfehrt

Director, Strategic Planning

Jackie Wyatt

Project Manager

Communications and External Affairs

Kimberly Blanchard

Director, External Affairs Programs

Amulet Chambers

Records Specialist

Haya Whang

Events Coordinator

Ashley Byrum

Communications Specialist

Vaneh Darakjian

Communications Specialist

Michael Navarre

Director, Communications

James Nicholson

Writer & Editor

Content and Student Supports

Wendy Mathieu

Senior Director, Product Management

Jason Varcoe

Lead Product Manager, Tools for Teachers

Fernando Castillo

Lead Mathematics

Mary Irwin

Lead Product Manager, Reporting

Tere Jimena

Lead, Accessibility & Inclusion

Natasha Johnson

Associate Director, English Language Arts/Literacy

Tina Posner

Director, Tools for Teachers

Lori Sheirich

Technical Project Manager

Shauna Stewart

Administrative Specialist

Bryan Toller

Director, Mathematics

Mark Valderrama

Business Systems Analyst – Test Packaging Lead

Brad Vasil

Director, ELA

Katlyn Westgate

TIMS Production Specialist

Information Technology

Louis Blakely

Cloud Infrastructure Manager

Rashidul Bhuiyan

Quality Analyst

Kristin Bradham

Senior Web Developer

Alex Chivers

Administrative Specialist

Alex Dean

Associate Director, Systems Architecture

Andrew Facchiano

Sr. Web Developer (TIMS)

Peter Flores

Director, Application Services

Melissa Lauzon

DevOps Administrator

David Malveaux

Associate Director of Infrastructure Services

Charles McIntyre

Senior Director, IT

Javasia Mixon

Business Analyst

Ipsita Mohapatra

Test Automation Engineer

Jessica Müller

Associate Director, Systems Architecture

Shankar Ramachandran

Associate Director, Application Administration

Kristi Seymour

UX

Danny Shultz

Associate Director of Systems Architecture

Sanket Sharma

Java Developer

John Wood

Sr. Business Analyst

Xuping Xu

Senior Java Developer (RDW)

Member Services

Supports for Instruction

Sarah Birgé

Educator Engagement Specialist

Lauren Butler

Project Manager, Consortium Reporting

Genoa Faber

Document Specialist, CA Reporting

Chari Holman

Administrative Specialist

Muriel Ortiz

Coordinator, Tools for Teachers

Systems Design

Tharunya Chandrashekar

Data Analyst

Teresa Dillard

Administrative Specialist

Catherine Francis

Director, Psychometrics

Hotaka Maeda

Psychometrician

Shumin Jing

Psychometrician

Donald Murray

Director, Research Data Analysis

Aren Simmons

Research Data Analyst

Julia Wallace

Data Analyst