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

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

Tammi Carlson

Executive Assistant

Joana Espinoza

Executive Assistant

Lisa Forms

Executive Assistant

Sandra Ramos

Executive Assistant

Human Resources

Valerie Chavez

HR Specialist

Kahil Morales

Director of Human Capital Strategy

Internal Operations

Kimberly Blanchard

Head of Program Management, Operations and Innovation

Ana Maria Dascalita Haut

Project Manager

Melissa Estuesta

Contract Monitor

Camilla Fincham

Project Manager

Susan French

Contract Monitor

Rami Houssari

Budgeting and Financial Analyst

Renee Longoria

Project Manager

Marty Mineck

Director, Business Development

Bobette Nelli

Project Manager

Russ Wegfehrt

Director, Strategic Planning

Jackie Wyatt

Project Manager

Communications and Public Affairs

Content and Student Supports

Amulet Chambers

Records Specialist

Natasha Johnson

Associate Director, English Language Arts/Literacy

Lori Sheirich

Technical Project Manager

Vitaliy Shyyan, Ph.D.

Director, Student Supports

Shauna Stewart

Administrative Specialist

Bryan Toller

Director, Mathematics

Mark Valderrama

Business Systems Analyst – Test Packaging Lead

Information Technology

Louis Blakely

Cloud Infrastructure Manager

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

Ipsita Mohapatra

Test Automation Engineer

Jessica Müller

Associate Director, Systems Architecture

Shankar Ramachandran

Associate Director, Application Administration

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

Danny Shultz

Associate Director, Systems Architecture, CA Reporting

Systems Design

Tharunya Chandrashekar

Data Analyst

Teresa Dillard

Administrative Specialist

Shumin Jing

Psychometrician

Hotaka Maeda

Psychometrician

Donald Murray

Director, Research Data Analysis

Aren Simmons

Research Data Analyst

Julia Wallace

Data Analyst