Hall of Fame

David Domenici is the director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. David has been working with at-risk and court-involved youth for 15 years. He is an Ashoka and Echoing Green Fellow and is a graduate of Stanford Law School and the University of Virginia. In March of 2019, FOCUS DC inducted David along with James Forman Jr. into the Charter School Hall of Fame for their work with See Forever Foundation and Maya Angelou Schools.

James Forman Jr. is the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Forman is a graduate of Atlanta’s Roosevelt High School, Brown University, and Yale Law School, and was a law clerk for Judge William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. In March of 2019, FOCUS DC inducted James along with David Domenici into the Charter School Hall of Fame for their work with See Forever Foundation and Maya Angelou Schools.

Dr. Ramona Hoage Edelin is a scholar, activist, and executive consultant with 45 years of experience in leadership to uplift and advance African Americans and the economically disadvantaged. Under her leadership, cutting-edge programs in education, community empowerment, and young adult leadership development have been established and sustained. Her primary priorities are urban policy, the definition and cultivation of African American cultural leadership, and the building of policy collaborations.

Josephine Baker is a founding member and the former Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB), and is considered a pioneer in the education reform landscape and an unstoppable force in the charter school movement in the District of Columbia. In 2009, Baker was inducted into the Charter School Hall of Fame by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools for her pioneering efforts in the development and growth of charter schools and for her inspiration to others in the charter school movement.

Robert Cane was the executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) from 1998 to 2015. Supported by a talented staff, Robert also built FOCUS into one of the nation’s premier charter school advocacy and support organizations, whose efforts in quality charter school startup and school support have been nationally recognized. Cane was an honors graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern University School of Law, and now makes his home in Reno, Nevada.

Ms. Gutierrez is president emeritus and founder of the Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School, and has spent close to 44 years as a counselor, principal, advocate, and organizer to more than 80,000 adult immigrant students. On June 5, 2015, Mayor Bowser and the D.C. City Council named the 500 Block of V Street, NE as the Sonia Gutierrez Campus Way. Ms. Gutierrez is the only Latino in DC to have an honorary street with her name.

Donald Hense founded D.C.’s Friendship Public Charter School in 1997. Thanks to Mr. Hense’s vision and relentless insistence on excellence, thousands of District students have achieved academic success with the nation’s best educators and administrators directing students to college and a rewarding future. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and attended graduate school at Stanford University, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow. He was a Rockefeller intern in economics at Cornell University; a Merrill Scholar to the University of Ghana; and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jack McCarthy is president and CEO of AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation and AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School. Under McCarthy’s leadership, AppleTree has grown as an enterprising leader in the field, with 175 staff and a growing impact on policy and practice. Today, AppleTree educates more than 1,200 children across 10 charter preschools in high-need neighborhoods.

Julie Meyer is the former Executive Director of The Next Step Public Charter School. During Meyer’s tenure, she oversaw significant growth at the school, including the purchase and renovation of a beautiful building; an increase in enrollment to serve nearly 500 students annually; and the expansion of program offerings to include evening classes and robust student support and career preparation services. Meyer is a testament to why we invest in leadership and develop the supports that our charter schools need and deserve in order to thrive in an ever-changing landscape.

Linda Moore is the founder of Elsie Whitlow Stokes Public Charter School. For more than 35 years, she has worked to improve conditions for underserved children and families. A tireless advocate and leader, Moore has served on the FOCUS Board of Trustees, the D.C. Charter School Association Board of Directors, and as the chairperson of the D.C. Special Education Cooperative. She has been recognized locally and nationally, including an induction into the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ Hall of Fame in 2013, an honor that affirmed a vision for developing a new generation of scholars and global citizens who are committed to social justice and prepared to be the leaders required by our communities, our nation, and our world.

Before starting a real estate development business, Malcolm Peabody served as deputy assistant secretary for equal opportunity at the D.C. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Peabody has devoted considerable time outside his business to developing the Washington International School, where he was board chair for 11 years, and he also founded Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) with the mission to establish the public charter school movement here in the nation’s capital. Through FOCUS, he worked with others to pass the School Reform Act of 1996, which established the public charter school program in DC.

Cassandra Pinkney (deceased) was the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Eagle Academy Public Charter School. Her decades-long career in the community and in the D.C. public school system brought her to opening Eagle Academy PCS with a goal of ensuring that the District’s young children with special needs would receive the best possible attention and education, including timely assessments and support services. She is remembered best for her love of children and her creative genius, and was a true leader in innovative, child-centered education.

Irasema Salcido is the founder of Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools. The daughter of Mexican immigrant farm workers, she was a D.C. educator for more than 30 years. In 1998, she founded the Chavez Schools in Washington, D.C. to ensure that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, would have access to a high-quality education that prepared them to graduate from college and give back to their communities. Salcido retired in 2015, and currently serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the DC Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), the board of directors of LearnServe International, and the board of directors of Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools, and as a trustee of the St. Albans School Governing Board.