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Meet our
Team

We know the unique challenges charter schools face.

Meet our expert staff and board of directors who are passionate about championing Charter Schools in Rochester NY.

 Dr. Paul Miller, CEO

Dr. Paul Miller has emerged as an expert in education having produced consistent results for young black men, graduating 95% of his students yearly.

 

He builds systems that work for children that look like him. He has been in education for 25 years as a teacher, Asst. Principal, Principal and CEO, in the public and charter worlds.

 

Dr. Miller's career has been devoted to the practice of "doing better"; not allowing complacency in education, continuously pushing for excellence in our schools. He is known to be "Pro-GOOD Schools."

 

He is an author who writes about improving the mindset of children through Family, Community, and Education, with the goal of helping communities all over the country.

 

Currently, as the CEO of Rochester Charter Champions, Dr. Miller is working to build an organization that provides the innovative supports for Rochester Charter Schools. He aims to accomplish an equitably educated Rochester.

Melinda Goldberg, COS

Melinda brings a strong background in development, marketing, and communications to Charter Champions.

 

Prior to joining Charter Champions as Chief of Staff, Melinda served as Director of the Council of Agency Executives, a membership association of nonprofit organizations in greater Rochester NY. She previously worked for several nonprofit organizations, Hillel Community Day School, and also served as a grants and fundraising consultant to nonprofits.

 

Melinda believes that every child deserves the best possible education, with guidance from teachers who can help them thrive and be successful in school and beyond.

 

Melinda currently serves on the boards of the Breast Cancer Coalition and the Greater Rochester Quality Council. She received a BA from the University of New Hampshire and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Center for Community Engagement at St. John Fisher University.

Jared Jones - Parent Advocate Coordinator
Amya Miller -  Administrative Assistant
Board of Directors
Joe Klein, Board Chair

Realizing the struggles students in Rochester City Schools(RCSD) faced, Joe sold his business, Klein Steel, in order to focus on providing high quality K-12 public charter school education to children growing up in impoverished homes in Rochester.

 

Joe's focus is strictly on charter schools, as every report shows RCSD dead last in the nation in academic growth due to every pervasive dysfunction; with no hope of improvement as school board members are only concerned with adult interests.

 

Our mission is to make Rochester the nation's proof point that all children can learn by growing and supporting our public charter school sector.

Carlos Garcia, Treasurer

Throughout Garcia’s professional career he has attained a positive history of leadership in the areas of
planning and managing effective community-based initiatives, developing budgets with realistic
outcome measurements, creating and implementing effective communications plans, and performing effectively both strategically and tactically. As a servant leader, he has a proven track record of leveraging relationships of both internal and external stakeholders in order to create better operational and service delivery channels as well as dealing with the growing demand for services.

Rev. Robert K. Hoggard, Secretary

Rev. Robert K. Hoggard currently serves as the Associate Director for Academic and Student Affairs at Rochester Institute of Technology- where he leads the fundraising for diversity, equity, and belonging efforts. Robert also serves as the Senior Pastor of East Penfield Baptist Church, the first African-American pastor in its nearly 200-year history.

 

In pursuing an EdD in Educational Administration with a focus on Higher Education at the University of Rochester, his research seeks to understand African-American male college students' racial trauma and healing. Robert has taught and mentored students at the Leadership Academy for Young Men, Vanguard High School, Villa Maria College, and Keuka College.

Michael Perlson, PhD

Mike Perlson, President of Perlson Associates has over 50 years of experience in management development and organizational effectiveness. He is a graduate of Perdue University with a doctorate in Industrial Psychology.

 

Perlson Associates works with organizations that are committed to long term performance improvement through the growth of their people.

 

He is the author of the book, "How to Understand & Influence People and Organizations." He is a licensed psychologist and diplomate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, awarded by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Wayne Lewis Jr.

is the president of Houghton University and is the first African American president of the institution. Previously he was the inaugural dean and professor of education at Belmont University.


Lewis earned a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Loyola University, and a Masters in Urban Studies with a minor in Public Administration from the University of Akron’s Buchtel College of Arts and
Sciences in 2002. He also did Post-Baccalaureate Studies in Special Education-Mild/Moderate Disabilities
at the University of New Orleans in 2004. Lewis earned his Ph.D in Educational Research and Policy
Analysis with a minor in Public Administration from North Carolina State University’s College of
Education in 2009.

 

Lewis currently serves on the board of National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) and the advisory council for the Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Joseph D. Fargnoli

Joseph D. Fargnoli is a Rochester, NY based engineer, entrepreneur and investor dedicated to grass roots social and economic development. In addition to supporting major aerospace activities, he is developing impactful local businesses in nanotechnology, healthcare and IT and is also active in the investment community currently developing a new VC fund.

 

Joe is a Doctoral candidate in AI at George Washington University with keen interest in how AI can help advance education.  He is actively engaged in grassroots community building activities to raise the capacity of the population to take charge of its development.

Michael Patterson

was appointed to the Council to represent the Northeast District on December 17, 2013 to fill the vacancy created by Mayor Warren’s resignation from the North East Council seat.
 

Councilmember Patterson serves the Council as the Chair of the Neighborhood and Business Development Committee, and as a member of the Finance Committee.
 

Prior to his appointment to the Council, Michael was an elected member of the Monroe County
Legislature, where he served as the Legislator for the 29th Legislative District. He has been active in social justice and political causes and was a past member of the Metro Justice Council and served as its Social Action Chair. Patterson is a lifelong city resident and attended Rochester public schools. He is married and has three children.

Elissa Klein

is co-founder, and former Chief of Staff of ReGeneration Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization in Chicago and Cincinnati. In that role, she led all non-instructional work, building the home office and stewarding the leadership team and organizational strategy. She was accepted to the Charter School Growth Fund and Charter Network Accelerator. She raised $5.5 million to facilitate ReGeneration's expansion to Cincinnati, and she successfully authored the charter application for ReGeneration’s first Cincinnati turnaround school.


Elissa’s charter management experience began in Chicago, where she supported the turnaround of three struggling Chicago International Charter Schools and raised student achievement from the bottom 17% of Illinois to the top 39%. By 2019, all three schools ranked in the U.S. News top 10 charter elementary schools in Illinois.
 

Elissa holds a B.A. from Williams College, an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an M.A. in Educational Leadership from the Broad Center.

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