Governance
Breakthrough Montessori is governed by a Board of Trustees. The Board works with the executive director and other school leaders to ensure the long-term financial and programmatic success of the school. Some of their specific responsibilities include: evaluating the executive director, overseeing school finance, approving the budget, tracking school performance, and representing Breakthrough in front of the Public Charter School Board.
We invite you to review a detailed description of board responsibilities here. If you are interested in applying to join the Breakthrough Montessori Board of Trustees, we invite you to submit an application here.
Board of Trustees Meeting
Calendar 2023-24
Keith Whitescarver
Director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives, National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector
Keith Whitescarver, Chair of the Breakthrough Montessori PCS Board, was a writer of the charter application and and served as the Interim Executive Director during the school’s first year. Like many, Montessori advocates, Keith Whitescarver became familiar with Montessori through the schooling of his own child. Moved by the impact of the Montessori approach on learning and human development, he began to undertake research on Montessori, saw the need for a national organization solely devoted to public Montessori schools and co-founded the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS) in 2012. He currently serves as the Executive Director of NCMPS. Keith is a nationally known historian of literacy and American schooling who has written extensively about the development of the Montessori movement in the United States.
Previously, Keith served on the faculties of the College of William and Mary, Ohio University, Wellesley College, and Lesley University, and he worked ten years as a high school history teacher in Atlanta. He received a B.A. in History from the University of Florida and an Ed.D. in History of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Vivek Swaminathan (Board Secretary)
Practice Leader, Gartner
Vivek Swaminathan is a parent representative on the Breakthrough Montessori Board. His daughter has been enrolled at the school since its first year, and Vivek is committed to supporting the continued growth of the school, staff and student body. Vivek works as a Practice Leader at CEB, now Gartner, managing research and advisory services tailored for CIOs and their teams at midsized organizations. Previously, Vivek worked at PeopleSoft Inc. (now Oracle) with the professional services group supporting large scale technology implementations for education and government clients.
With over 15 years of experience in the private sector, Vivek brings expertise in strategic planning, workforce hiring and development, data analytics, and executive-level communications. Vivek holds a Master’s degree from The London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
Contact: tablatronic@outlook.com
Term Expires 2024
Katie Brown (Board Treasurer)
Director of Research Professional Learning, NCMPS
Katie Brown brings over 10 years of experience in public education and expertise in public Montessori schools. A native of Southern California, Katie began her career as a middle and high school English teacher in both district and charter schools, in traditional and alternative program settings. She was first introduced to Montessori education while working at the South Carolina Department of Education, a state with over 40 public Montessori programs. This experience inspired her to pursue a PhD in urban education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she studied outcomes for students of color in public Montessori schools. Currently, she serves as the Director of Research and Professional Learning for the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector, supporting research initiatives and professional development for public Montessorians across the country.
Contact: katie.brown@public-montessori.org
Term Expires 2025
Michael Bing (Board Chair)
Small Business Development Manager, DC Department of Small and Local Business Development
Michael Bing is a highly experienced economic development practitioner and small business growth strategist, making him a key asset at the Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) where he serves as Small Business Development Manager. Mr. Bing has more than 15 years of results-driven experience resulting in a body of knowledge in community development, capital access and business growth strategies. In less than a year of joining DSLBD, Mr. Bing developed a loan loss reserve program that leveraged $200,000 into $1.3MM in small business loans for DC-based businesses.
Prior to joining the DSLBD, Mr. Bing was the Director of the Washington, DC MBDA Business Center, a cooperative agreement with the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency, Mr. Bing’s efforts led to 2014-15 securing $178MM in contracts resulting in creating 222 jobs and from 2013-14, assisted clients in securing over $1.3Billion in contracts and $12 Million in financing.
From 2009 to 2013 while living in Philadelphia, PA, Mr. Bing was the Director of The Enterprise Center Capital Corporation (TEC-CC), a Community Development Financial Institution and U.S. Small Business Administration Micro Loan Intermediary that focused on minority and women owned businesses. Mr. Bing grew TEC-CC from a defunct Community-Based Lender to the second largest microlender by loan amount in Eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Bing is the proud parent of a Breakthrough Montessori Public Charter School student.
Juliette Berg
Principal Researcher, American Institutes for Research
Juliette Berg is a parent representative on the Breakthrough Montessori Board. Juliette became more and more enthusiastic about Montessori as she learned about the approach through her research at American Institutes for Research (AIR). As a parent of two girls enrolled at Breakthrough, she hopes to support Breakthrough’s vision for carrying out all that Montessori has to offer for developing children’s social, emotional, and academic skills, with equity and inclusion at the center. Juliette’s work at AIR focuses on how research, practice, and policy can harness the science of learning and development to help create the conditions and opportunities for young people to thrive. Juliette directs and contributes to mixed methods randomized control trials and quasi-experimental studies of programs to improve the learning environments and social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes of young people. She also contributes to efforts to synthesize and share what the science says about how young people learn and develop.
Juliette holds a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from New York University and a B.A. in Culture, Societal Structures, and Psychology from Brown University. She completed her post-doctoral work at University of Virginia.
Contact: jberg@air.org
Term Expires 2026
Betsy Romero
Betsy (she/her/ella) is an Afro-Honduran/Jamaican American from the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape, which you may know as the Bronx, New York. She currently resides in Ward 1 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. She is a community activist, educator, lifelong learner, Montessorian, momma of two, and an advocate for social justice issues in her community and beyond.
She has served the DC community in the educational field for 15+ years in DCPS and Montessori Charter Schools.
Betsy is passionate about anti-bias, anti-racist (social justice) education, Montessori education, immigration issues, and the undeniable need for her community to access quality education. She believes that education liberates in a way that nothing else can. She enjoys drinking coffee, dancing, writing poetry, and caring for her plants.
Jasmine Williams
Jasmine works with the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS) where she provides race and equity guidance and education, and delivers Montessori theory and practice instruction for the NCMPS Montessori Teacher Residency.
Jasmine holds an AMS Early Childhood credential and a M.Ed. in TESOL, Literacy, and Culture. She has worked in bilingual Montessori programs for 12 years, including 8 years in a public program, as a classroom teacher, reading interventionist, Montessori coach, and academic director.
Jasmine considers herself a citizen of the world, having lived/volunteered in and traveled to 48 countries around the globe, including living in China for four years. She is passionate about equitable and joyful Montessori education, and her dream is to bring free, socially justice centered Montessori training and education to marginalized communities throughout the world. Jasmine is currently earning a doctorate in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego with the desire to add to this body of knowledge in teacher training. Her focus is on decolonizing and rehumanizing Montessori education through teacher education programs.
Term Expires 2027
Gabriel Movsesyan
Senior Economist, Department of Transportation
Gabriel is a current Breakthrough parent. As a member of the board, he would like to contribute to and expand the school's mission of providing free, high-quality Montessori education. He is enthusiastic about how a Montessori education develops and supports the children's learning, growth, and maturation. He enjoys contributing to the Breakthrough community in various ways, such as conducting presentations to the Maple classroom, participating in school activities like the SHA culture potluck, and attending our monthly coffee chats.
Gabriel has extensive experience teaching economics and other subjects to diverse audiences, most notably to incarcerated women as part of the Bard College Prison Initiative. He has also taught and tutored students of all ages for various standardized tests. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Certificate in Demography from the City University of New York Graduate Center and a B.A. in Economics from Queens College (CUNY).