NBPTS Board of Directors

Mona Al-Hayani, NBCT

Toledo Public Schools Toledo, OH

Mona Al-Hayani is the Vice President of the Toledo Federation of Teachers and she has been teaching history in Toledo Public Schools, her alma mater, for twenty-seven years. She is a part time instructor at the University of Toledo Judith Herb College Education, and she is the chair for the school/youth education subcommittee for the Lucas County, Ohio Human Trafficking Coalition. Mona has been a National Board Certified teacher since 2008, and was chosen as the 2020 Ohio History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and was chosen as the 2019 Ohio Teacher of the Year by the State Board of Education. She has received numerous awards for her human trafficking, human rights, and social justice advocacy work.

Heather Anderson, NBCT

Reading and Math Intervention Teacher and Literacy Coach Bend, OR

LaTonya Barnes-Sibley, NBCT

National Educational Consultant Montgomery, AL

Carol Bauer, NBCT

Vice Chair of the Board of Directors – York County Public Schools Yorktown, VA

Travis Bristol – Chair of the Board of Directors

Assistant Professor, University of California-Berkeley Berkelely, CA

Travis J. Bristol is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Before joining Berkeley's faculty, he was a Peter Paul Assistant Professor at Boston University.

Dr. Bristol's research is situated at the intersection of educational policy and teacher education. Using qualitative methods, he explores three related research strands: (1) the role of educational policies in shaping teacher workplace experiences and retention; (2) district and school-based professional learning communities; (3) the role of race and gender in educational settings. Dr. Bristol has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Urban Education, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, and Harvard Educational Review. He is currently co-editing (with Conra Gist) The Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers, which will be published by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Ford Foundation, and AERA awarded Dr. Bristol dissertation fellowships in 2013. In 2016, he received the inaugural teacher diversity research award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

In 2019, Dr. Bristol received a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and an emerging scholar award from the Comparative and International Education Society, African Diaspora SIG. In 2020, he received a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. More recently, in 2021, Dr. Bristol received the Early Career Award from AERA (Division-K). Dr. Bristol chairs the California Department of Education Teacher Diversity Advisory Group. He is also on the Board of Directors of Teach Plus; the National Center for Teacher Residencies; the Albert Shanker Institute; and the East Bay School for Boys. He is a former student and teacher in New York City public schools and teacher educator with the Boston Teacher Residency program.

Dr. Bristol received his A.B. from Amherst College; an M.A. from Stanford University; and a Ph.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Peggy Brookins, NBCT

President and CEO

James Brooks, NBCT

West Wilkes High School Millers Creek, NC

Elizabeth Brown-Davis, NBCT

Lockhart Elementary Magnet School Tampa, FL

Jie-Qi (Jackie) Chen

Executive Director of Early Teaching and Learning Academy Erikson Institute Chicago, IL

Melissa Collins, NBCT

Elementary School Teacher Memphis, TN

Sharif El-Mekki

Founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development Philadelphia, PA

Kelly Elder, NBCT

C.R. Anderson Middle School Helena, MT

Kelly Elder has been teaching 6th grade World Geography for over a decade at C.R. Anderson Middle School in Helena, Montana. Mr. Elder began his career working as a Montana Exchange Teacher in Kumamoto, Japan. This experience allowed him to focus primarily on high school students, but spend one day a week in a nearby elementary school. It was through this overseas position that Mr. Elder realized he could one day teach early adolescents. Back in the states, Mr. Elder began work teaching American History at Fergus High School in Lewistown, Montana. After earning his masters in Political Science/Constitutional History as a James Madison Fellow ’00, Elder began teaching American Government. He also added two courses to the offerings at his school: Economics and AP Government.

Mr. Elder earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescence/Social Studies-History in 2009, instilling reflection as a standard part of his practice and resulting in an unending quest to improve his teaching for all students. In 2017, Elder joined other professional educators in testifying before the state legislature for a bill that later became law that added an annual state stipend for NBCTs in Montana. His work in education varies from within his district to statewide policy, serving both on the district Ongoing Negotiations Committee and as Chair of the Certification Standards and Practices Advisory Council for the Montana Board of Public Education. As the 2017 Montana Teacher of the Year, Elder began advocating for increased equity in learning and working toward recruiting and retaining quality educators in his state. As such, he is involved with the Montana chapter of Educators Rising and has mentored and conducted seminars with undergraduate education majors on multiple campuses around the state. He was also selected as one of five teachers of the year to represent U.S. educators on a weeklong-investigation of Finland’s Educational System in 2017 and did much the same in South Africa as a 2018 NEA Foundation Fellow in 2018.

Student Council has been a cornerstone of Mr. Elder’s extracurricular involvement with student leaders. He serves as the state’s Associate Director and was awarded the 2017 Region VII Mid-Level Student Council Advisor of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Elder stays active with his students. Since 2013, he has led student groups from his middle school on a biennial international experience to Central America (Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, and Guatemala over the years), and has traveled extensively around the world on his own, including a semester sabbatical that took him through a number of countries in South America in 2012. He also spent five weeks in Thailand and Myanmar studying education and native peoples on a Fulbright Cultural Seminar in 2001. He currently serves on the ASCD Global Educators Advisory Council, working to integrate elements like the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into American students’ curricula.

Tan-A Hoffman, NBCT

JKL Bahweting Anishnabe School Michigan

Tonia Holmes-Sutton, NBCT

Teach Plus Nevada Las Vegas, NV

Mae Jemison

Founder, The Jemison Group, Inc. former NASA astronaut

Dr. Mae C. Jemison is currently leading 100 Year Starship (100YSS) an initiative seed funded by DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to assure the capability for human interstellar space travel to another star is possible within the next 100 years. She also is founder of the technology consulting firm, The Jemison Group, Inc. that integrates the critical impact of socio-cultural issues when designing and implementing technologies, such as their projects on using satellite technology for health care delivery in West Africa and solar dish Stirling engines for electricity generation in developing countries.

Dr. Jemison, the first woman of color in the world to go into space, served six years as a NASA astronaut. She flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-47 Spacelab J(apan) mission in September 1992 and was NASA’s first Science Mission Specialist performing experiments in material science, life science and human adaptation to weightlessness.

Started after she left NASA, The Jemison Group also explores and develops stand-alone science and technology programs and companies. BioSentient Corporation, a medical technology devices and services company focused on improving health and human performance through physiologic awareness and self-regulation is such a company.

A strong, committed global voice for science literacy, in 1994 Jemison founded the international science camp The Earth We Share™ (TEWS) for students 12-16 years old from around the world, and founded and chairs the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, a 501(c)3. TEWS-Space Race launched summer 2011 to improve science achievement in Los Angeles area students underserved and underrepresented in the sciences. Over four years its goal is to directly impact up to 10,000 middle school students and train 600 teachers. In October 2006 the Foundation developed the program Reality Leads Fantasy—Celebrating Women of Color in Flight that highlighted women in aviation and space from around the world. Dr. Jemison serves as national advocate for Bayer Corporation’s award winning Making Science Make Sense program.

An environmental studies professor at Dartmouth College, Jemison taught sustainable development and technology design and ran The Jemison Institute for Advancing Technologies in Developing Countries. She was an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Dr. Jemison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine and is: on the Board of Directors of Kimberly-Clark Corp., Scholastic, Inc. and Valspar Corp.; a Trustee of Morehouse College; Board of Texas Medical Center; and served as Chair, Texas State Product Development and Small Business Incubator Board; Chair, Greater Houston Partnership Disaster Planning and Recovery Task Force; a member Board of National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Dr. Jemison is an inductee of National Women’s Hall of Fame, National Medical Association Hall of Fame and Texas Science Hall of Fame. Among many honors, awards and honorary degrees she received the National Organization for Women’s Intrepid Award, the Kilby Science Award and in 1999 was selected as one of the top seven women leaders in a presidential ballot national straw poll

Prior to NASA, Jemison was Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia for two and a half years overseeing the healthcare system for Peace Corps (and State Department in Sierra Leone). Throughout Jemison has worked internationally including in a Cambodian refugee camp and with the Flying Doctors of East Africa. A general practice doctor in Los Angeles, Jemison earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and the requirements for an A.B. degree in African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University and her M.D. from Cornell University.

Dr. Jemison is a highly sought after speaker on issues of health care, social responsibility, technology and motivation and has provided commentary for the BBC, McNeil Lehrer Report, ABC Nightline, NPR and CNN. In Find Where the Wind Goes, she writes for teenagers about growing up on the south side of Chicago, cultivating her aspiration to be a scientist, experiences as a medical student in Africa and her history-making journey into space. She appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, hosted the Discovery Channel’s series World of Wonder and was chosen one of People Magazine’s “World’s 50 Most Beautiful People” in 1993. Dr. Jemison resides in Houston and loves cats.

Dat Le, NBCT

Arlington Public Schools Arlington, VA

Doug Lea, NBCT

Elementary Band Director Columbia, Maryland

Toni M. Poling, NBCT

English Teacher West Virginia

Shelly Moore Krajacic, NBCT

English Teacher South Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Kareem Neal

Special Education Teacher Phoenix, AZ

Logan Okita, NBCT

Response to Intervention Coach Honolulu, HI

Gavin Payne

GPC Advisors, LLC San Luis Obispo, CA

David Pickler

Pickler Wealth Advisors Collierville, TN

Becky Pringle

President, National Education Association Washington, DC

NEA president Becky Pringle is a fierce social justice warrior, defender of educator rights, an unrelenting advocate for all students and communities of color, and a valued and respected voice in the education arena. A middle school science teacher with 31 years of classroom experience, Becky is singularly focused on using her intellect, passion, and purpose to unite the members of the largest labor union with the entire nation, and using that collective power to fulfill the promise of public education.

Although she often describes herself as “just a Black girl from North Philly,” Becky is a strategic, dedicated and tireless union leader who is—at her core—an educator who has been and continues to be motivated by what is best for students. Her passion for students and educators, combined with her first-hand classroom experience, equip her to lead the movement to reclaim public education as a common good. Becky was elected in 2020 as COVID-19 ravaged Black, Brown, and indigenous communities nationwide. When the pandemic shuttered the nation’s schools, Becky helped to focus the nation’s attention on ways in which the crisis laid bare and exacerbated inequities that have for generations existed in schools, colleges, and communities nationwide—inequities that Becky herself encountered as a student, and has fought against for her entire career as an educator. Yet, Becky isn’t merely focused on shining the light on these inequities, she has a sturdy track record built upon years of work that has focused on transforming public education into a racial and socially just and equitable system designed to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.

Before assuming NEA’s top post, Becky served as NEA vice president and before that as NEA secretary-treasurer. She directed NEA’s work to combat institutional racism, and spotlight systemic patterns of racism and educational injustice that impact students. Under Becky’s guidance, NEA works to widen access and opportunity by demanding changes to policies, programs, and practices. The Association’s goal is to ensure the systemic, fair treatment of people of all races so that equitable opportunities and outcomes are within reach for every student. This is why Becky is a staunch advocate for students who have disabilities, identify as LGBTQ+, are immigrants, or English Language Learners.

Becky co-chaired NEA’s Task Force on School Discipline and the School to Prison Pipeline. In that role, she guided the development of a school-to-prison pipeline policy statement that calls attention to and compels NEA’s 3 million members to address the inequitable and unfair policies and practices that push many students out of public schools and into the criminal justice system. Through this work, NEA is challenging zero-tolerance discipline policies, increased police presence in classrooms, and rising class sizes.

Becky has also led NEA’s work to transform the education professions and improve student learning. Most notably, she led the work group that produced the Association’s groundbreaking “Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability”—NEA’s first broad endorsement of the need to develop a compelling vision of a system of accountability that relies on quality, capacity, and trust, and embraces inspiration, innovation, shared responsibility, investment, authentic assessment, and continuous improvement. This led to the development of two seminal frameworks, “Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility With Student Learning” and the “ Professional Growth Continuum for Education Support Professionals,” which focused on how we can improve educators’ professional practice to make an even greater impact on the health, safety, well-being, learning, and development of their students. Becky also led the Association’s development of a policy statement on Community Schools to guide NEA’s work to transform and create an educational system worthy of our students, their families, and our members.

Becky has a long and notable record of Association advocacy at the national, state, and local levels. She began her leadership journey as a local president, and then went on to serve on the Board of Directors for NEA and the Pennsylvania State Education Association. She also served two terms as a member of NEA’s Executive Committee where she distinguished herself as a thoughtful and passionate advocate for the nation’s public school educators and students. As NEA secretary-treasurer, Becky skillfully led the union through one of the worst economic periods in recent history. Her efforts enabled the Association to emerge on strong financial footing with more power to advance its mission.

The impact of Becky’s leadership is far reaching, and includes serving as finance chair of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; treasurer of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation; and on the Institute for Educational Leadership Task Force. She is a recipient of the National Peace Medal for Leader of Educational Excellence, a recipient of the Black Women’s Roundtable Education Innovation & Social Justice Leadership Award from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; the Woman of Power Award from the National Action Network; and she was named Community Woman of the Year by the American Association of University Women. She is also a lifetime member of the NAACP. Becky served with distinction on President Barack Obama’s Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Her work included addressing issues on teacher recruitment and retention, STEM access and opportunities, and college preparation and completion.

Those who know Becky best know that she is also a passionate Philadelphia Eagles fan, loves anything purple, and for two special someones holds the coveted title of “Best Nana B” in the world

Shannon Rasmussen, NBCT

Mentor Federal Way, WA

Rodrigo Rodriguez-Tovar, NBCT

Dual Language Instructional Coach Austin, TX

Rodrigo Rodríguez-Tovar is a Dual Language Instructional Coach for the Austin Independent School District. He holds a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Teaching and Learning styles from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), and he is a National Board Certified Teacher in the area of Middle Childhood Generalist. Mr. Rodríguez-Tovar possesses his teaching certificate from the state of Texas with endorsements in Bilingual (Spanish), General, and Gifted Education. He is a facilitator at the district level and a big advocate for Great Public Schools and Dual Language, he works with the National Education Association (NEA) English Language Learners (ELL) Cadre in providing professional development workshops to educators across the nation with Advocacy for ELLs, Standards-Based Instruction and Lesson Development for ELLs, and Assessment of ELLs, and also, supports educators who are transitioning out of the classroom to become instructional coaches within the NEA CAMI- Coaching and Mentoring Initiative. Mr. Rodriguez believes that coaching supports teachers to improve their capacity to reflect and apply their learning to their work with students and also in their work with each other.

Mr. Rodriguez-Tovar is also a National Board cohort facilitator/mentor for teachers who are perusing their National Board Teaching Certification. As a former National Board Fellow, he is committed to sharing valuable competencies with other educators to strengthen and improve the teaching profession to continue making an impact on student learning. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Network of Accomplished Minoritized Educators, NAME, and also for the Texas National Board Coalition for Teachers, TXNBCT. His research interests center on issues of language, culture, equity, and identity- especially as they affect, or are affected by, biliteracy practices. His K-5 public school teaching experience includes 14 years as an educator in a dual language classroom setting, alternating the last four years as the writing literacy coach in a maintenance bilingual program and also, providing interventions in Spanish to students with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Mr. Rodriguez-Tovar was named the National Bilingual Teacher of the Year by the National Bilingual Education Association in March 2017.

Juliana Urtubey, NBCT

Educator and Advocate Las Vegas, NV

Jose Vilson, NBCT

Educator, Writer, Speaker, and Activist New York City

Randi Weingarten

American Federation of Teachers New York, NY