Board of Directors

Doug Borchard has served as New Profit’s Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer since 2005. In that role, he oversees New Profit’s internal infrastructure (finance, talent, operations) and portfolio grant-making and support. Doug has worked closely with several of New Profit’s portfolio organizations, including Achievement First, iMentor, KIPP, New Classrooms, Pivot Learning, and Year Up, and currently serves on the board of Leading Educators. Doug previously served on Pivot Learning’s Board of Directors, and brings diverse experience as an accomplished entrepreneur and senior executive in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. 

Prior to New Profit, Doug was Vice President of Prospecting Solutions at Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business information, and iMarket, Inc., a venture-funded provider of sales and marketing software and internet solutions that he co-founded. Doug also spent several years as a consultant at Bain & Company.

Sarah Brayton is a Senior Consultant in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy practice with expertise in strategic planning, market assessments, and operating model design in the Social and Education Sectors. Select consulting engagements include reimagining a large federated nonprofit’s business model, scaling a three-day leadership program for public school principals, and reimagining career services for a top-tier university. Sarah also serves on the Board of Directors for the YMCA, and previously served as the Chair of the Board for Pivot Learning.

Sarah graduated with her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management where she was the Student Association President. Sarah was an Education Pioneer fellow working with Rocketship Education to help evaluate how costs would scale as the network grew. Sarah also worked with A Better Chicago, a venture philanthropy fund focused on education in Chicago and Chicago Public Schools on their education materials strategy. Sarah is passionate about ensuring every child has access to a quality education.

Todd Collins has spent his career investing in, advising, and building high-performance companies in a wide range of industries. He is a co-founder and Managing Director at Tregaron Capital, a private equity firm. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant with Parthenon Group. He has served as an active board member and board adviser of over 30 organizations, from small start-ups to large public companies. Active in the community, Todd is an elected member of the Palo Alto, California school board and is active in several education reform initiatives.

Sonjhia Lowery is a 25-year educator, kid champion, and agent of change, committed to providing all students with equitable access to high-quality education. Sonjia currently serves as the Chief Equity and People Officer at California’s Aspire Public Schools. Previously, Sonjhia served as the Superintendent of the Old Adobe Union School District. She also has experience as an elementary, middle, and high school teacher; elementary school Vice Principal and Principal; and the Director of Learning Support Services for the Elk Grove Unified School District, where she led a continuous improvement system to improve student outcomes at 67 schools. While serving as the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services for the Stockton Unified School District, she was responsible for curriculum adoption, creating conditions that supported equitable student outcomes, and developing systems to enhance professional learning and improve teaching and learning at 55 schools. 

Sonjhia was named the 2018 Administrator of the Year – Central Office by the Association of California School Administrators Region 3, and, in 2019, she received the Outstanding Leadership in Education Award by the California Association of African American School Administrators. Sonjhia previously served on Pivot Learning’s Board of Directors.

Beth Mejia has spent 25 years in education, specializing in the acquisition, development, marketing, and deployment of high-quality, educational content and courseware. Beth has served in leadership positions in marketing, editorial, and digital product development at Macmillan, Pearson, McGraw- Hill, Triumph Learning, and EyeLevel Consulting. Known as a champion of customer-centric product development, Beth has shaped, built, and launched several market-leading products including CONNECT™ from McGraw-Hill, Waggle (purchased by HMH), and Capella University’s competency-based professional learning program. Most recently, Beth serves as a partner in EdSolutions, a consulting firm dedicated to helping philanthropies and mission-based organizations to use the levers of the educational market to generate lasting social impact at scale. She is also the co-founder of the Center for Education Market Dynamics, a market-intelligence platform where district leaders can find contextualized data that helps them make decisions about learning materials and services that generate equitable outcomes. Beth serves on the Board of Directors for Power My Learning, and previously served on Pivot Learning’s Board of Directors. 

Beth has an MA in Teaching from the University of West Alabama and a BA in English from Bethany College in West Virginia. She is the mother of three sons and lives in northern New Jersey with her husband, a serial entrepreneur, and a very lazy dog.

In 2015, Dr. Shaun Nelms was asked to create and implement a school transformation model for the lowest performing school, in the lowest performing district, in New York State, where the graduation rate the year prior was 29%. In 7 years, the school increased its graduation rate to 85% and expanded the Career in Technical Education (CTE) to include pathways in Culinary Arts, Information Technology, Computer Technology, Biomedical Health Sciences, Business and Computer Essentials, Precision Optics, Teaching and Learning, and Vision Care.

Shaun is the superintendent of East Upper and Lower Schools, formerly East High School in Rochester, N.Y., a new position created through a unique partnership between the New York State Education Department, Rochester City School District, and the University of Rochester.  As a result of his success in creating a replicable school model, he was named the first William and Sheila Konar Director for the Center for Urban Education Success (CUES) at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Human Development. In this role, Shaun leads CUES’s efforts to support the success of K-12 urban schools. He also teaches courses in human resource management, school governance, and leadership for school transformation. 

As CEO of the Nelms Consulting Group, he is also a frequent speaker on topics related to the creation of equitable school systems and administrative leadership. He is active in numerous community organizations, a member of Phi Beta Sigma and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternities, and has been honored with several awards for his leadership and work in education.

Gislaine N. Ngounou brings a breadth of experience that includes work with nonprofits, individual schools, and school districts. Most recently, she served as the Interim President and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. Prior to her work at Nellie Mae, she served as the Chief Program Officer for Phi Delta Kappa International, a national professional organization for educators. In this role, she designed and led programs that supported school district leaders, provided leadership coaching surrounding issues of equity and social justice, and created and facilitated an ongoing community that allowed system-level leaders in districts from across the country to learn from one another.

Gislaine also worked for school districts including Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and the Kansas City, Missouri School District. She is passionate about social justice, racial equity, adult learning, youth and community empowerment, system change, and increasing educational opportunities for all students. Gislaine holds a Bachelor of Science degree and an Education Specialist in Administration degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City, a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Missouri Central, and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Emma Pengelly is the Director of Philanthropy at Ingeborg Investments, which invests in women-led businesses. Previously, Emma was the Deputy Director of the Home Region Program at the Walton Family Foundation, where she was responsible for strategy development, and overseeing efforts to support the economic and cultural vibrancy of Northwest Arkansas. Emma has also served as Senior Program Officer for the Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 education program, where she focused on innovation in education and new teacher pipelines as well as leading a place-based portfolio of work focused on the state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston. Emma previously served on Pivot Learning’s Board of Directors.

Emma has served as an adjunct professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a teaching fellow at Bank Street College of Education, teaching classes in general education leadership with a focus on teaching and leading in diverse classrooms and schools to both master’s degree students and doctoral candidates. Emma began her career in public schools as a teacher and a school leader in Brooklyn, New York. Emma has a BA in Women’s Studies from Harvard College, a Master’s Degree in General Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education, and a Doctorate in Education Leadership (EdLD) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lacey Robinson sets UnboundEd’s vision for equity-driven national change as she carries the pride and tears of her enslaved ancestors and the native sons and daughters of this sacred land to this work. While continually monitoring the design, delivery, and quality of UnboundEd’s antiracist work, Lacey concurrently maintains the nonprofit’s health, sustainability and vision for what teaching and learning can be in the 21st century. 

Lacey engaged with education partners to support standards-aligned, content-focused, equity-driven adult professional learning and development from the organization’s infancy as its Chief of Program and Engagement. She also supported vital design and execution elements for UnboundEd’s signature professional learning opportunity, the Standards Institute. Lacey’s contributions led to the rapid growth of the organization and positioned UnboundEd as a sector leader. 

As a teacher, principal, and staff development specialist, Lacey has maintained a focus on literacy, equity, and school leadership for more than two decades. Her life’s work aims to help educators in school systems disrupt systemic racism and all of its legacies in classrooms. Inspired by Langston Hughes, her path is to build temples for tomorrow, as strongly and bravely as she knows how, and to ensure that future generations can stand freely within themselves to be whomever they choose to be. As CEO, Robinson pursues this passion by leading an organization known for the highest integrity in professional development.