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 for Content and Accessibility
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 Administrator
Lisa Forns
Executive Administrator
Bobbi Ortega
Executive Administrator
Human Resources
Valerie Chavez
HR Specialist
Kahil Hankston
Director of Human Capital Strategy
Sakinah Nuckles
HR Coordinator
Internal Operations
Justyna Canning
Director of Finance
Ana Maria Dascalita Haut
Project Manager
Melissa Estuesta
Contract Monitor
Camilla Fincham
Project Manager
Susan French
Contract Monitor
Rami Houssari
Finance & Budget Manager
Diana Lomas
Administrative Specialist
Renee Longoria
Project Manager
Militza Seehaver
Finance Analyst
Russ Wegfehrt
Director, Strategic Planning
Jackie Wyatt
Project Manager
Communications and External Affairs
Kimberly Blanchard
Director, External Affairs Programs
Ashley Byrum
Communications Specialist
Vaneh Darakjian
Communications Specialist
Content and Student Supports
Sarah Arfeen
Quality Business Analyst
Cindy Gould
Lead Product Manager, Reporting
Alec Gross
Lead, Mathematics Assessment
Mary Irwin
Group Product Manager, Reporting
Tere Jimena
Lead, Accessibility & Inclusion
Natasha Johnson
Associate Director, English Language Arts/Literacy
Carmen Orellana Trejo
Director of Accessibility and Inclusion in Assessment
Tina Posner
Director, Tools for Teachers
Danielle Ricks
Lead, Mathematics Assessment
Gilbert Salazar
Director of Mathematics Assessment
Lori Sheirich
Technical Project Manager
Shauna Stewart
Administrative Specialist
Mark Valderrama
Senior Test Production Analyst
Bailey Vanderkolk
Associate Product Manager
Jason Varcoe
Lead Product Manager, Tools for Teachers
Brad Vasil
Director, ELA
Katlyn Westgate
Assessment Production Specialist
Information Technology
Rashidul Bhuiyan
Software Test Engineer
Louis Blakely
Cloud Infrastructure Manager
Kristin Bradham
Senior Web Developer
Alex Chivers
Administrative Specialist
Alex Dean
Director of Software Development
Andrew Facchiano
Sr. Web Developer (TIMS)
Peter Flores
Director, Application Services
Melissa Lauzon
DevOps Administrator
David Malveaux
Director of Infrastructure Services
Ipsita Mohapatra
Test Automation Engineer
Jessica Müller
Director of QA, UX and Agile
Shankar Ramachandran
Associate Director, Application Administration
Kristi Seymour
UX/UI Designer
Sanket Sharma
Java Developer
Danny Schultz
Associate Director, Tech Lead, Reporting
John Wood
Sr. Business Analyst
Xuping Xu
Senior Java Developer (RDW)
Member Services
Ashley McGrath
Senior Advisor, Government Relations
Supports for Instruction
Sarah Birgé
Lead, Tools for Teachers
Lauren Butler
Project Manager, Consortium Reporting
Chari Holman
Events Coordinator
Muriel Ortiz
Coordinator, Tools for Teachers
Systems Design
Tharunya Chandrashekar
Data Analyst
Teresa Dillard
Administrative Specialist
Catherine Francis
Director, Psychometrics
Shumin Jing
Psychometrician
Hotaka Maeda
Senior Psychometrician
Donald Murray
Director, Research Data Analysis
Aren Simmons
Research Data Analyst
Julia Wallace
Research Data Analyst