Dr. Matt Albert – Executive Director (ex officio)
Matt Albert has worked in education for the past fifteen years. He has worked as the director of admissions and recruitment at Hebrew Union College, taught graduate level courses on child and adolescent development, and published in academic journals. Matt spent nine years working at Milken Community High School, most recently serving as Assistant Principal. He has taught American Government & Constitutional Law, Holocaust, and designed an integrated Modern World & Jewish History course. During his time at Milken, he also served as Dean of Students and Director of Student Life. Matt also serves on the board of Camp Ramah in California. He holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Joseph Miller – Board Chair
Joseph Miller is the President of The Runyon Group, a real estate firm that develops dynamic real estate projects and provides management and advisory services to select clients in the Los Angeles area. Prior to starting The Runyon Group, Joseph was a member of the acquisitions and development team at The KOR Group, a privately held real estate development firm in Los Angeles. Outside of his work at Runyon, Joseph is involved with several community and philanthropic ventures. He currently serves on the Boards of The Society of Young Philanthropists and Camp Ramah in California. Joseph holds a B.A. in History from the George Washington University.
Dr. Zoë Blumberg Corwin
Zoë Corwin directs the Pathfinder U college access digital media project through the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California. Zoë’s research interests focus on race, gender, class and access to college. She is co-editor of Preparing for College: Nine elements of effective outreach with SUNY Press and has published several monographs designed for practitioners outlining effective college preparation strategies. She held Haynes and Spencer Foundation dissertation fellowships while working on a qualitative study examining college access and persistence for youth in foster care. Previous to her doctoral studies in sociology, Zoë taught middle and high school Spanish and global studies. She holds an MA in Spanish from Saint Louis University in Madrid, a single subject secondary education credential & BCLAD certificate from the California State University, Northridge and a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Catherine Lhamon
Catherine Lhamon is the Assistant Legal Director at the ACLU of Southern California, where she directs the racial justice program, specializing in race-based civil rights cases, education reform, and issues of police practices. Catherine focused the first five years of her time at the ACLU on a statewide class action, Williams v. State of California, the recent settlement of which ensures that all California public school students have access at least to such educational essentials as textbooks, trained teachers, and safe and uncrowded school facilities. In addition to that litigation, she has litigated cases involving school desegregation, police racial profiling, municipal mistreatment of the homeless, employment discrimination, and police misconduct. California Lawyer magazine honored Catherine as an Attorney of the Year for Civil Rights in 2004. Before coming to the ACLU of Southern California, she was a Supervising Attorney in the Appellate Litigation Program at the Georgetown University Law Center. Immediately after law school, Catherine clerked for Judge William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received her JD from Yale Law School and her BA from Amherst College. Catherine lives in New LA’s target area.
Jessica Mackenzie
Jessica Mackenzie works for an industrial real estate developer dealing with issues such as site selection, land use feasibility, project approvals, finance, and construction management. Previously, Jessica was an environmental planner and architectural historian at Christopher A. Joseph and Associates, a local urban planning consulting practice. She specialized in the due diligence and entitlement guidance for a range of real estate development and rehabilitation projects. Jessica is particularly passionate about the role dynamic neighborhood schools can play in their communities. Jessica is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional, and has provided green building guidance for numerous development projects. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and is currently pursuing a dual master’s degree in urban planning and real estate development at USC.
Julia Meltzer
Julia Meltzer is an artist and filmmaker and director of a non-profit arts organization, Clockshop. Clockshop produces public arts projects and a series of conversations that take place annually between artists, writers and civic leaders. She has been awarded grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Damascus, Syria in 2005-6. She is a third generation partner and board member of the Sieroty Company, a family owned and operated real estate company in Los Angeles. Julia received her BA from Brown University and her MFA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Susan Nickerson
After growing up in Long Beach, California and graduating from UCLA, Susan Nickerson pursued work in the entertainment industry, eventually starting her own visual research company. Armed with energy and a drive to solve problems, no matter how difficult, she built the premier research and clearance agency for the television advertising market and claimed her first Emmy-award-winning spot within a few years. Nickerson Research continues to be a sought-after participant in major advertising projects, with credits including the Apple “Think Different” spot and the Adidas “Impossible is Nothing” campaign, featuring Muhammad Ali boxing his daughter, Laila. Susan’s daughters attend Carthay Center Elementary School where she is the co-president and co-founder of Friends of Carthay Center, a grassroots effort to renew her community’s support of their neighborhood school. She is committed to embracing the diverse and wondrous Carthay neighborhood she and her family call home. Susan holds a B.A. in Theater from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Heidi Segal
Heidi Segal is a lawyer admitted to practice in the state of New York. Prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2007, Heidi worked in public policy with the Vera Institute of Justice in New York focusing on criminal justice, social justice, juvenile justice and child welfare issues. While at Vera, Heidi launched and directed the Institute’s Youth Justice Program (now the Center for Youth Justice) where she worked with government and community stakeholders around the United States on improving outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, by connecting research to policy, including the development of educational policy. As the inaugural director, she oversaw the Program’s grant writing, fundraising, development, strategic planning, and delivery of services. She worked to incorporate school officials into conversations about broader issues such as child welfare and the adjudication of status offenses, and has worked extensively with diverse populations and community leaders. Before working at the Vera Institute of Justice, Heidi was a Senior Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society of New York City, first in the Criminal Defense Division and later in the Capital Division. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and her B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from Vassar College. Heidi currently serves on the Education Commission for Temple Israel of Hollywood, where her son attends nursery school, and where she is the co-chairperson of the Parent Association.
Richard Weil
Richard Weil is Director of Finance and Administration and CFO of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Since joining MOCA in December 2008, Richard has played a key role in stabilizing the museum’s finances. Prior to MOCA, Richard worked in the for-profit world, most recently as a consultant to venture-backed startups. Richard’s broad experience includes working with companies involved with video game commerce, paid search advertising, law book publishing, gift certificates, electricity transmission, and derivatives pricing and risk management. Richard graduated from Columbia College in 1990 and is a CFA charterholder.
Emily Yukich
Emily Yukich is a partner at Folger Levin & Kahn LLP, where she has been practicing law since 2000. Her practice focuses on complex transactional and business counseling matters, including business formation, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, real estate matters, financing and securities matters, trademark and other intellectual property issues, and corporate governance matters. Before attending law school, Emily co-founded Copper Beech Montessori, an inner-city Boston pre-school, where she was a teacher and head of the school. She subsequently served as executive director of another Boston-area pre-school, where she enjoyed working closely with her Board of Directors. During that time she also assisted in the formation of a second Montessori school south of Boston. While in Boston, Emily taught Sunday school to third graders in the Workmen’s Circle, with a focus on Jewish immigration to the US. She also taught freshman English literature and writing at the University of Pennsylvania while doing graduate work there. Following law school, Emily clerked for Judge George H. King, United States District Court for the Central District of California, before starting at Folger Levin & Kahn.
