- Mattie Adams, Principal, Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy, Wilmington, CA
- Fred Crawford, Principal, Legacy Early College Charter High School, Greenville, SC
- Cecilia Cunningham, Executive Director, Middle College National Consortium , Long Island City, NY
- Sue Doyle, Principal, Middle Early College High School at Erie Community College, Buffalo, NY
- Justin Fuentes, Principal, Challenge Early College High School at Houston Community College Southwest, Houston, TX
- Scott Jenkins, Vice President-Student & Administrative Services, Mott Community College, Flint, MI
- Nicholas Mazzarella, Principal, Brooklyn College Academy at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
- Joyce Mitchell, Member Emeritus/Director of High School Initiatives, Memphis City Schools, Memphis, TN
- Deborah Shanley, Dean of School of Education, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
- Chery Wagonlander, Principal, Mott Middle College High School at Mott Community College, Flint, MI
The Executive Board meets biannually at the winter and summer conferences. The Executive Board consists of the Executive Director, Dr. Cecilia Cunningham, and nominated representatives drawn from a pool of active member Principals/Directors, emeritus members, and/or host college administrators.
Power and Responsibility
The affairs and business of MCNC are managed and directed by the Executive Board, specifically to:
- Formulate, implement and supervise the operation of all programs of the Consortium and assist the various committees in carrying out such programs.
- Prepare an annual operating budget and manage and supervise the financial operation of the Consortium.
- Make recommendations to the Board of Directors on the membership policy of the Consortium and annual dues.
- Seek to obtain public understanding, acceptance and esteem for the Consortium, its purpose, programs and services.
Executive Board Members Bios
Mrs. Adams is the principal of Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington, California.
W. Fred Crawford
Mr. Crawford brought an extensive knowledge of public education to Greenville Technical High School (GTCHS) when he became Principal/CEO on July 1, 2002. Since assuming the leadership of GTCHS, Mr. Crawford has helped the school achieve national prominence. He received a B.S. and a M.Ed. in Secondary Education from the University of South Carolina. Mr. Crawford has over thirty of experience as a teacher, coach and district administrator. He is engaged in school reform efforts at both the state and national levels to include the Coalition of Essential Schools, Annenberg Principals Institute at Brown University, the Principals’ Center at Harvard University and currently serves on the MCNC Executive Board of Directors.
Cecilia Cunningham
Dr. Cecilia Cunningham is the Executive Director of the Middle College National Consortium. She served as the Principal of Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College for 22 years until 2002. She is the co-founder of two other Middle College High Schools on LaGuardia’s Campus: The International High School and Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Secondary School for Art and Technology. In 1993, she founded the National Consortium of Middle College High Schools, a network of more than 30 Middle College High Schools located on college campuses that academically engage traditionally under-served students. She started her career as a math teacher and holds a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She has done professional development for new principals in New York City for 13 years and was the founder of the Bank Street Principals Institute. As the Director of the Middle College National Consortium’s Early College Initiative funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Kellogg Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Ford Foundation, she is responsible for starting 18 new Middle College-Early College High Schools and redesigning 12 existing Middle College High Schools to Middle College-Early College High Schools. She is the recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education Award, 2004.
Susan M. Doyle has been employed by the Buffalo Public Schools for the past thirty-two years. She attended State University College at Buffalo, receiving her B.S. in Elementary Education and Special Education, M.S. in Special Education Learning & Behavior Disorders and a C.A.S. Degree in School Administration. Ms. Doyle taught emotionally disturbed 14-21 year olds for eleven years. She then moved on to School Administration, serving as an Assistant Principal in a Comprehensive High School for four years before being promoted to a Secondary Principal in a grade five through twelve magnet school, Buffalo Traditional, which accepted students from the entire District. Ms. Doyle served in that position for nine years.
In 2003, Ms. Doyle was asked to open the first Middle Early College High School in Western New York. Middle Early College High School is housed in an office building in downtown Buffalo and is partnered with Erie Community College and D’Youville College. The school is in its eighth year of existence.
Ms. Doyle was elected to the Executive Board for the Middle College National Consortium in 2007. She is also a member of the Secondary Principal’s Association in Buffalo, as well as serving on the Smart Scholars Advisory Board for SUNY.
Justin Fuentes is the Principal at Challenge Early College High School(CECHS) in Houston, Texas. He has been in this position since January of2006. Prior to this he was the founding Dean of Students at CECHS and servedin this capacity for the schools’ first two and a half years. He trained as a School Administrator through Houston Independent School Districts’ Principal Leadership Program in conjunction with the University of Houston, where heworked with a cohort of aspiring administrators. The program gave him theopportunity to serve as a Principal-Intern for a full year at large comprehensivehigh school, shadowing the Principal daily. Before entering administration,he was a teacher of mathematics and Student Council sponsor at anotherlarge comprehensive high school for his first five years in public education. Justin has served on the Executive Boards of MCNC since 2009 and the Association for Hispanic School Administrators since 2008, and has coached in Early College and school initiatives in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina,and Wisconsin.
Challenge Early College High School opened in the fall of 2003 in temporarybuildings in the parking lot of Houston Community College’s West Loop campus,becoming the first Early College in Texas and one of fifteen in the nation atthat time. In 2005 CECHS served as the model school for the Early CollegeInitiative in Texas which now holds forty-nine such schools state-wide, and wasnamed as a national Model School by the International Center for Leadershipin Education in 2006. Challenge has most recently been recognized nationallyby the US Department of Education by being nominated for Blue Ribbon Schoolstatus in 2011. Other accolades include the Silver Medal award from US News& World Report, top schools recognition by Newsweek, and both inclusion inthe Texas Education Agency’s “Best Practices” Clearinghouse and receivingthe Gold Performance Acknowledgement for Advanced Placement achievementin 2010. Challenge ECHS also belongs to multiple state and national schoolcollaboratives which include the MCNC, Jobs for the Future (JFF), Texas HighSchool Project (THSP), and the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES).
Scott J. Jenkins is the Vice President of Student and Administrative Services at Mott Community College (MCC). Mr. Jenkins has played a leadership role at MCC since first coming to the college in 1988 to oversee Corporate Services. He became a Vice President at MCC in 1997 and was instrumental in the establishment of Mott Middle and Early College (MMEC) on MCC’s campus in that role. He has worked closely with administrative staff at MCC, MMEC and the local Genesee Intermediate School District as the middle and early college as the college has taken on national and state level dissemination initiatives.
Under Vice President Jenkins’ leadership, funding was secured from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for the MMEC to provide dissemination support to community colleges exploring the potential of starting a middle/early colleges as well as technical assistance to existing colleges. Vice President Jenkins provided oversight when this national dissemination work led in 2008 to MMEC being identified as the Center for Middle and Early Colleges in Michigan to address the strategic efforts of the State of Michigan Department of Education to expand middle and early colleges around the state.
Additional highlights of Vice President Jenkins’ leadership include the development the development of the college’s Workforce Education Center (WEC). The WEC receives more than $9 million in grant funding per year for program delivery and serves over approximately 5,000 individuals, annually. Education at the WEC is provided in a Career Pathway format, bridging non-credit into credit bearing programs and utilizing best practices from national initiatives such as “Breaking Through” to accelerate remedial skills and completion for low-skilled participants.
Vice President Jenkins supervised the construction of the Regional Technology Center on MCC’s campus which carries a state of Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) designation and an additional M-TEC site in nearby Livingston County, Michigan. He has also led an expansion of the college’s service areas by establishing extension sites in three additional counties. Five Community Technology Centers (CTC’s) that provide access to technology and a bridge to MCC within accessible neighborhood settings were also established under Vice President Jenkins’ leadership.
Vice President Jenkins received his associate’s degree in Community Education from Mott Community College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan-Flint in Social Science, a Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University in Higher Education Administration, and is a Doctoral candidate at Wayne State University, in Curriculum and Instruction.
Nick Mazzarella
Nicholas Mazzarella currently holds the position of Principal at Brooklyn College Academy, an Early College High School located on the Brooklyn College campus and the Annex site on Coney Island Avenue. Starting his tenure at BCA in 2005, Mr. Mazzarella has initiated several collaborations with: The Brooklyn College School of Education (Dean Deborah Shanely), Middle College National Consortium (MCNC), and the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER). In 2009 he was awarded the John Goodlad Award from the NNER in Seattle Washington for his outstanding work as a leader in equitable education for all students. He has continued to participate in the following NNER Symposiums: Charleston, West Virginia, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, Normal, Illinois and Seattle, Washington. Mr. Mazzarella has attended the annual conference of the Council of Great City Schools for the past three years. On October, 2010, Council of the Great City Schools accepted his proposal entitled Peer Review – BCA Style which was presented in Tampa, Florida. He has participated at the MCNC student leadership conference and annual summer conference for the past five years.
From January 2001 to June 2005, Nicholas Mazzarella was the Principal of Park East High School, a small Alternative High School located in Manhattan. He was a founding faculty member at Hostos Lincoln Academy of Science on the campus of Hostos Community College from 1987 to 2001, In 1992, Mr. Mazzarella assumed the position of Assistant Principal at Hostos which he held until 2001.
Nicholas Mazzarella received his BS degree from Long Island University, MS degree from Long Island University, and his MS degree in Educational Administration from Pace University. He has held positions as Adjunct Lecturer at Long Island University, Hostos Community College and Brooklyn College.
Joyce C. Mitchell is currently the Academic Director of High School Initiatives and provides oversight for eight low performing schools in Memphis City Schools. Ms. Mitchell’s scope of work has expanded to providing leadership to the turnaround and transformational schools in the local Achievement School District. As high school initiatives’ director, she coordinates P-16 initiatives, forges university and community partnerships, and establishes innovative programs. She also works directly with schools’ leadership teams and the district’s cross functional teams to redesign high schools into career academies and smaller learning communities. Mrs. Mitchell facilitates the implementation of effective research-based strategies to improve student achievement. Additionally, she coordinates the district’s premier dual enrollment program where students from all secondary schools have the opportunity to earn college credits while in high school through multiple university partnerships. With extensive experience in MCS as a Spanish/English teacher, professional school counselor, bilingual instructional supervisor, and director, Mrs. Mitchell has provided a laser focus on college access and equity, college readiness, articulation, intervention programs, career and postsecondary planning.
Mrs. Mitchell was the founding principal of Middle College High School at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, Tennessee where she served as principal for 18 years. She is a charter member of the Executive Board of the Middle College National Consortium, which has a successful history of opening and providing technical assistance to middle/early colleges. She is a national presenter on high school redesign, smaller learning communities, early colleges, dual enrollment, and guidance and support services. Working collaboratively with the Memphis’ community partners, Mrs. Mitchell has provided extensive leadership in career and college readiness initiatives, middle colleges’ replication, systemic change, and educational reform.
Mrs. Mitchell holds masters degrees in Educational Administration and Supervision and Guidance and Counseling Services from the University of Memphis and Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Siena College.
Dr. Deborah Shanley was appointed Dean of the School of Education at Brooklyn College in 1998. Prior to coming to Brooklyn College she was Dean of The School of Liberal Arts and Education at CUNY/Medgar Evers College. Her work with multiple college and community constituencies earned her a Humanitarian Award from the CUNY Consortium for the Study of Disabilities and the Medgar Evers College Worker Education Program. Dean Shanley brings to the Brooklyn College School of Education a passion for improving teaching and learning in the public schools, as well as an activist perspective on teacher education renewal. Her current work focuses on creating collaborations and partnerships with New York City schools and cultural institutions as vehicles for extending teacher preparation beyond the walls of academia. Under her leadership the School of Education at Brooklyn College has partnerships with the American Museum of Natural History, the Lincoln Center Institute Teacher Education Collaborative, and The National Parks of New York Harbor Education Center. She is the Chairperson of the Governing and Executive Board of the National Network for Educational Renewal and Chairs the Deans group for The Council of Great City Schools.
Chery Wagonlander
Dr. Chery Wagonlander is the founding and current principal of Mott Middle College, a Genesee Intermediate School District, Mott Community College collaborative, in Flint, Michigan. The high school is celebrating its twentieth year as a multi-district full servicing middle/early college. Chery is the director of both the technical assistance center for Michigan Middle and Early Colleges located on the campus of Mott Community College and the recently formed Michigan Early Middle College Association (MEMCA). In addition, she has a long history serving in the role of a Middle College National Consortium (MCNC) coach to new middle and early colleges across the country.
Having earned a Masters Degree from the University of Michigan, a Specialist Degree from Oakland University and a Doctorate Degree from Eastern Michigan University, Chery has specialized in dropout prevention through high school reform. She successfully lead Mott Middle College through the process of re-designing into an early college high school, while motivating and coaching other Michigan middle/early colleges.
Prior to middle/early college positions, Chery worked as teacher, drama director, counselor and administrator for the Flint Community Schools and The Valley School, giving her both public and private school experience. She has also taught multiple courses for Ferris State University and Eastern Michigan University.
Chery shares her passion for education with her art educator and practicing artist husband Fred. They have two adult children: son, physician John Wagonlander and daughter, retail manager Katherine Wagonlander. Her latest passion has been enjoying the delights of grand parenting her first grand child Ella and tackling the challenge of “boomer yoga”.
