Kitchen Cabinet Members
Linda Asato
Executive Director
California Child Care Resource & Referral
Linda Asato has been with the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network since 2012. She brings over
20 years of successful public-sector, nonprofit management experience, and a lifetime commitment to child and
family advocacy. She has extensive experience from community organizing to public administration and
organizational development, and incorporates her ground up approach and community connections to the
world of policy and public system support. Her work has included serving as executive director of Wu Yee
Children’s Services in San Francisco, a multiservice and child care resource and referral agency, and working
in the San Francisco Unified School District as director of the Intergovernmental and School Linked Services.
She also served as chief planner for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Children, Youth and Their Families.
Asato has served as Commissioner on the San Francisco Children and Families Commission (First 5 San
Francisco) since 2011. She has also served as chair of various local planning bodies including the Early
Childhood Interagency Council and the Mayor’s Children and Youth Planning Council, and has served as
member of numerous nonprofit boards.
She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University School of International and
Public Affairs, and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Phyllis Brunson
Associate Director
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Phyllis R. Brunson is an associate director for Community Change at the Center for the Study of Social Policy.
She manages the CSSP’s work that is designed to connect the authentic voices of constituents — parents,
customers, clients, neighborhood and community residents — with opportunities to actively influence public
policy, improve service systems and create sustainable, measureable community change. Through her work,
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Brunson provides technical assistance, including designing and customizing trainings to support the
development of community collaboratives, high-functioning partnerships, community-based results
accountability, resident engagement and community decision making. She is advancing a new body of work,
Customer Satisfaction, which utilizes direct feedback from residents, customers and parents in a community to
test, assess and rate the quality of services made available to them by installing the same type of selfcorrecting market and demand approaches used in the corporate world to improve service access and service
quality; especially in placed-based settings.
Oscar Cruz
President & CEO
Families In Schools
Oscar E. Cruz serves as president and CEO of Families In Schools. Previous to this position, he formerly
served as vice president and first came to Families In Schools as director of Community Engagement and
Advocacy. Cruz has held various management positions, including program director for Community Partners,
where he directed projects in the areas of community technology and civic engagement, and as senior program
manager at Center for Civic Education, where he managed an international network of civil society
organizations, school districts, universities and foundations working to implement civic engagement programs
for students and youth throughout the United States and Latin America. He has traveled extensively throughout
Europe and Latin America and served as an official international electoral observer in Mexico’s federal
elections (2000 and 2006). He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Latin America Studies from Georgetown
University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Latin America Studies from the University of
California Los Angeles, and is fluent in Spanish. Cruz’s passion revolves around helping families and
communities strengthen their capacity to support their children’s education so they can provide their children a
pathway and more opportunities to achieve the American dream.
Elida Gonzales
Senior Director of New Business Development
AVANCE
Elida Gonzales is responsible for providing overall direction and guidance for the execution of business
development strategies that align with AVANCE’s priorities, mission, vision and core values. She has more
than 20 years of specialized experience in all aspects of the financial operations of major nonprofit
organizations. Before AVANCE, Gonzales served as principal auditor for a large, privately owned auditing firm
responsible for monitoring government grants to ensure fiscal responsibility and compliance with allowable
expenditures of government funds. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from St. Mary’s
University and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Diane Grigsby-Jackson
Senior Advisor
AARP Experience Corps
Diane Grigsby-Jackson offers a lifelong commitment to education reform and advocacy, both in her
professional and personal life. Currently she is a senior advisor of Strategic Partnerships for AARP Experience
Corps. As senior advisor, Grigsby-Jackson has lead responsibility for determining new markets, partners and
school relationships. In her more than 25 years of experience, she has a proven track record of transforming
educational systems in both public and private school settings. Her experience in leadership management
includes tenure as chief of staff for Chicago Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia; two of the
largest urban districts in the country. She played a pivotal role in implementing major school reform initiatives
that effectively improved student performance outcomes, school leadership and accountability. By doing so,
she earned a reputation for achieving success in large-scale system management and demonstrated a deep
understanding of pragmatic issues that impede student readiness and school success.
To complement her mastery of management skills, Grigsby-Jackson is a certified trainer in the Covey Four
Disciplines of Execution, and has exercised these disciplines in her service on numerous executive boards and
local school councils. In addition to holding a master's degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor of
Science in Psychology, she has participated in the Harvard Graduate School of Education continuing education
program for early literacy.
A mother of two, Grigsby-Jackson is well known in her community as a longtime advocate for children with
Learning Differences and their parents.
Tammie Jones
Program Officer
The Skillman Foundation
Tammie Jones is a program officer at The Skillman Foundation, which seeks to
improve the lives of Detroit’s children by improving their homes, schools and neighborhoods. There she
supports efforts to ensure that children in the Foundation’s six target neighborhoods have high-quality
education options from birth through 12th grade so that youth graduate from high school prepared for college,
career and life. Previously, Jones served as the director of External Affairs for Detroit Parent Network, where
she led the organization’s outreach efforts, trained parents to advocate around state and local policy, and
conducted a series of learning tours across the country to explore groundbreaking work occurring at the
intersection of parent leadership development and advocacy. Prior to moving to Detroit, Jones spent more than
a decade working in youth development with Boys & Girls Clubs in Virginia. She completed her M.B.A. at the
University of Michigan — Ross School of Business, and her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia.
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Keith H. Liederman, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Kingsley House, Inc.
Dr. Keith Liederman is the Chief Executive Officer of Kingsley House, a United Way community impact partner,
and nationally respected as the oldest Settlement House in the South. Liederman oversees a comprehensive
array of nationally accredited and state certified programs focused exclusively on early intervention and
prevention, serving toddlers as young as 6 weeks old in Early Head Start and the Pre-School, to adults almost
as old as the institution itself in Adult Day Health Care and the Senior Center. Liederman also performs a
variety of civic functions on the local, statewide and national levels, including serving on the Child Welfare
League of America’s Board of Directors, the Every Child Matters Board of Trustees and the Louisiana
Association of Nonprofit Organizations’ Board of Directors. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of
Massachusetts (Amherst), his Master of Social Work at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work,
and his Ph.D. from Tulane University. He also serves on the adjunct faculty of the Tulane University School of
Social Work, teaching Diversity and Social Justice, Advanced Methods, Policy and Research courses. He and
his wife Luanne live in New Orleans and have an 18-year-old daughter Camille who is in her first year at
Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst).
S. Kwesi Rollins
Director, Leadership Programs
Institute for Educational Leadership
A member of IEL’s Senior Leadership Team, Kwesi Rollins guides IEL’s portfolio of programs designed to
develop and support leaders with a particular emphasis on Family and Community Engagement, Early
Childhood Education, Principal Leadership Development and Support, and Community-Based Leadership
Development. Rollins has years of experience providing technical assistance and training to local communities
and a range of state and county agencies, school districts, local schools and community-based organizations to
improve cross-sector collaboration and service delivery systems supporting children, youth and families.
Working with young people is also a personal passion — Rollins has special expertise in resiliency and youth
development, has been recognized as the Big Brother of the Year, and served as VP for Program Services on
the Board of Directors of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the National Capitol Area. He holds an MSW from the
University of Maryland School of Social Work where he was a Maternal and Child Health Leadership Training
Fellow.
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Ellen Schumer
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Community Organizing and Family Issues
Ellen Schumer is co-founder and executive director of Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) in
Chicago. COFI exists to build the leadership, power and collective voice of low-income parents to improve life
opportunities for their children and families. Since its founding in 1995, COFI has developed and implemented
a model called Family Focused Organizing to engage low-income parents and grandparents as leaders in
transforming their families, communities, institutions and public policies that affect them. Schumer previously
founded and directed the Women Leaders in Action Pilot Project, a women’s leadership development initiative,
and before that she served as Illinois Political Director and on the national political staff of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Schumer has more than 35 years
experience working in community organizing and with unions and political campaigns. She is the foster and
adoptive mother of two and a proud grandmother.
Andreina Velasco
Parent & Community Engagement Coordinator
Children’s Institute
Andreina Velasco joined the Children's Institute team in 2012. She is developing the parent and community
engagement aspect of Early Works by working closely with families, teachers and other community members in
the Earl Boyles Elementary School catchment area. Before joining the Institute, Velasco worked as a Spanish
immersion elementary teacher in the public school system. Prior to that, she worked to create leadership and
parent involvement opportunities for immigrant families in rural Oregon. These combined experiences have led
her to focus on the critical role early education plays in student success. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural
Anthropology from Reed College, a master's degree in Education from Portland State University, and an
Endorsement in English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Elaine Zimmerman
Executive Director
Connecticut Commission on Children
Elaine Zimmerman, the executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Children, has devoted her career
to developing and promoting model policy for children and families in health, safety and learning. Expert in
trend analysis and public will, she knows how and when to move initiatives forward to maximize public interest
and community partners for policy. Her organizing acumen includes a mix of community engagement and state
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and national partners. Zimmerman has been at the forefront of setting model policy in support of children. Her
work with state leaders includes design of law in school readiness, early reading success, anti-bullying, children
and disaster, children’s behavioral health, home visitation and anti-poverty law. She guided legislation to
establish Connecticut’s Blueprint in Reading and has helped lead literacy programs and initiatives. Zimmerman
is recognized for intentionally linking family leadership and civic engagement for good child outcomes. For this
work she was awarded the Good Housekeeping Award for Women. At the center of her work is the critical role
that community does and must play in preparing children for their future.
Speakers
Anne Mosle
Vice President, Aspen Institute
Executive Director, Ascend
Anne Mosle is a vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of Ascend. In these roles she is an
advisor to the senior leadership of the Aspen Institute and directs the vision and strategic goals of Ascend, a
policy program of the Institute and a hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that move children and their
parents toward educational success and economic security. The Aspen Institute’s mission is to foster
leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues.
Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Mosle served as a vice president and officer of the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, where she developed the Family Economic Security and Civic Engagement portfolios, oversaw the
launch of the $100 million Mission-Driven Investing pilot program, and spearheaded the New Mexico placebased programming. She served as the president of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation from 20002007. Earlier in her career, Mosle was a member of the leadership team at the Center for Policy Alternatives
and held positions on Capitol Hill. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Oxford University
Said School of Business. Mosle has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Richmond
and has completed graduate coursework at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Shelley Waters Boots
Senior Consultant
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Shelley Waters Boots is a senior consultant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation who brings over 15 years of
experience as a writer, researcher and policy expert on issues affecting the lives of children and families.
Currently she runs a consulting business where she advises philanthropic clients on investment strategy, policy
research and communications. Prior to her work with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Waters Boots worked as
a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, writing on issues of children, work and family. She has
honed a number of skills over the years – from developing grassroots policy campaigns to crafting new policy
ideas and innovative communication strategies as the founding director of the Early Education Initiative at the
New America Foundation. Prior to those positions, she directed child care and development policy at the
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Children’s Defense Fund and worked as a research director in California for a statewide resource and referral
association. Waters Boots earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Furman University, and a
master’s degree in public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Helen Westmoreland
Deputy Director
Flamboyan Foundation
Helen Westmoreland is deputy director at Flamboyan Foundation. As one of the D.C. team’s first staff
members, Westmoreland has held multiple roles there. She currently supports strategic planning and
management across Flamboyan’s family engagement work, and oversees its evaluation, advocacy, co-funding
and communications strategies.
Before coming to Flamboyan Foundation, Westmoreland worked for the Harvard Family Research Project,
where she provided research, evaluation and technical assistance support to nonprofits, philanthropies,
government agencies and research policy organizations across the country. She also consulted with a variety
of organizations to document and share lessons learned with others in the field. Prior to that, she coordinated
student tutoring services and site evaluations for community-based afterschool programs in the Duke-Durham
Neighborhood Partnership. Westmoreland has authored numerous publications on the topics of family
engagement, education organizing and out-of-school time. In 2011, she was invited to join the National Family,
School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a leadership collaborative whose purpose is to inform
the development and implementation of federal policy related to family, school and community engagement in
education.
Westmoreland received a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate
School of Education and bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and biological anthropology from Duke University.
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Staff
Leslie Boissiere
Chief Operating Officer
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Leslie Boissiere joined the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in October 2013. She brings over 15 years of
results-driven executive experience in strategy and operations for both public- and private-sector organizations.
Her background and skill sets allow the Campaign to leverage the momentum needed to accomplish the 2020
goal of doubling the number of children from low-income families that are reading proficiently by the end of third
grade.
Most recently, Boissiere served as a vice president for AARP where she set the strategic direction for programs
and offerings related to the financial security of AARP members. As executive director for the White House
Council for Community Solutions, she worked to develop cross-sector, community-based strategies to address
the needs of disadvantaged youth. She also provided leadership to Fannie Mae, serving as director of Housing
and Community Development. While serving in that capacity, she led strategic initiatives that created a
nonprofit channel focused on increasing home ownership in underserved markets.
Leila Fiester
Senior Consultant
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Leila Fiester is an independent writer, researcher and editor who specializes in social issues, initiatives and
policies, and philanthropic practice. She helps national foundations and organizations plan, assess and
describe their strategies; analyze practices and outcomes; distill lessons and implications; and share their
stories. From 1999-2011, Fiester wrote extensively about the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making
Connections initiative and in 2010 she wrote the KIDS COUNT special report that launched the Campaign for
Grade-Level Reading, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. Before becoming a
consultant, she was a senior associate of Policy Studies Associates in Washington, D.C., which conducts
education research and evaluation, and a reporter for The Washington Post. She holds a B.A. in cultural
anthropology from Macalester College and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Maryland.
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Yolie Flores
Senior Fellow
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Yolie Flores joined the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in early 2014 to support the development of a new
frame around “successful parenting” and the work of a group of communities making progress on school
readiness, school attendance, summer learning and grade-level reading by 2016. Flores has a bachelor’s
degree from the University of Redlands and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a
master’s in Social Welfare. She has 25 years of management and leadership experience in program, policy and
advocacy work addressing the needs of children and families. She served as CEO of the Los Angeles County
Children’s Planning Council — a public/private collaborative working to improve outcomes of child well-being
through systems change and community engagement efforts; was elected in 2007 to the LAUSD Board of
Education where she served as vice president throughout her four-year term; served as CEO of Communities
for Teaching Excellence, a national nonprofit advocating for effective teaching for every student in every
classroom, every year; and is in the process of joining Attendance Works as a senior associate. Flores lives
and plays with her puppy Molly in Los Angeles.
Andrea James
National Urban Fellow
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Prior to joining National Urban Fellows, Andrea M. James served as the director of Communications for the
Washington, D.C., Teachers’ Union. Before joining the education labor movement, James provided
multifaceted media relations and communications support for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, one of
the largest affiliates of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the capital campaign for the new National Children’s
Museum. She has also held broadcast journalism positions with Hearst Argyle Television and the PBS
NewsHour where she was recognized by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for
contributing to the Emmy Award-winning series The Price of Oil: Winners and Losers.
As a National Urban Fellow, James is interested in creating educational opportunities as a pathway to
economic security in high-needs communities and expanding community-based opportunities for family
engagement to eliminate the achievement gap. In her spare time, she enjoys mentoring local youth at Boys &
Girls Clubs throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and volunteering with Kids Enjoy Exercise Now
(KEEN) to provide one-to-one recreational opportunities for children and young adults with developmental and
physical disabilities.
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Ralph Smith
Managing Director, The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
& Senior Vice President, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
With the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Ralph Smith pursues a mission that has been a personal passion
throughout his many-faceted career: improving academic outcomes, and with them the life chances, of children
from low-income homes.
A senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Smith has served on the senior leadership team of
the Foundation since 1994. He led the design, development and management of the Foundation’s Making
Connections Initiative, a comprehensive effort to help communities improve outcomes for children by
strengthening families and neighborhoods.
A member of the Law Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania for two decades, Smith is a nationally
recognized legal scholar and attorney with expertise in corporate and securities law as well as education law
and policy. He also served as chief of staff and chief operating officer for the School District of Philadelphia,
and as a senior advisor to former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode on children and family policy. As the
founding director of both the National Center on Fathers and Families and the Philadelphia Children’s Network,
he helped launch and lead what is now known as the Responsible Fatherhood movement.
Smith is a nationally recognized leader in U.S. philanthropy. He served on the Board of Directors of the Council
on Foundations from 2000 to 2010 and as conference chair (2007), vice-chair (2007–2008) and then Board
Chair (2008–2010). He also has served on the boards of the Foundation Center, Wells Fargo Regional
Foundation, Venture Philanthropy Partners, the Clinton Center on Community Philanthropy and the Annenberg
Institute for School Reform.
Over the past decade, Smith has emerged as a leading advocate of philanthropy’s need for a “sector agnostic”
approach to build a “common-sense consensus” around “high-tech and high-touch” solutions to “the challenges
of our time”: ending intergenerational poverty; protecting the environment; responding to disasters, natural and
man-made; and promoting public health. This impulse toward cross-sector collaboration is a distinguishing
feature of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
In 2010, Smith received the Jane Addams Distinguished Leadership Award from the United Neighborhood
Centers of America in recognition of his lifelong work to improve quality of life for low-income individuals and
families through more effective social policy and practice.
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