Theodore J. Coburn, Board President
With 30 years devoted to a corporate finance practice, Ted Coburn has worked in the following disciplines: developmental stage finance and growth capital, global capital markets and equity underwriting, securities marketing and distribution, and mutual fund development. Having established Coburn Greenberg Partners in 2009, Coburn’s current activities include corporate finance and merger and acquisition advisory services and strategic advisory services. Additionally, he is working with various entrepreneurs who are pursuing public service initiatives.
Throughout his career, Coburn has been active in the not-for-profit community and during the 1990s he worked in various social services settings with at-risk youth. He was a founding team member of one of the first state-appointed charter schools in Massachusetts and a Harvard-based intervention and after-school program.
Coburn received his B.S. from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia University. He received a M. Divinity, M. Ed in Counseling Psychology, and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Cognitive Development from Harvard University. Among his academic and research interests is adolescent moral development, with a particular focus on psycho-socio developmental resilience.
Coburn has served as a director for a variety of public and private companies. He is currently on the board of trustees for the Allianz Global Investors mutual fund complex and a director for Ramtron International Corporation.
Jaime Fernand
Jaime Fernand has been an attorney at EdisonLearning, Inc. (formerly Edison Schools) since 2004, serving as associate general counsel and chief education counsel since 2010. In this capacity, he advises the company, districts, and charter schools on wide range of legal issues, including compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, special education laws, and charter school laws. He is a contributing author of The Charter School Law Deskbook (Lexis Nexis Publications, 2007), a comprehensive compilation and critique of laws impacting charter schools nationwide. Fernand is a graduate of Binghamton University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Gail A. Gilkes
Gail Gilkes is the pastor of discipleship and maturity at the Bethesda Healing Center in Brooklyn. She assists the senior pastor by preparing materials for workshops held locally and around the world, oversees the Children’s Ministry and the Worship and Arts Ministry, and advises the Concerned Parents Association. As youth president for the church, Gilkes supervises the coordination of weekly activities for the youth ministry (including annual conventions, concerts, weekly meetings, and conferences), and manages the tutoring program.
Gilkes previously served as traffic coordinator for Bozell Worldwide, one of the preeminent advertising agencies in the world. In this role, she managed advertisement development from preproduction to completion, including budget oversight, for a variety of accounts, including the New York Times, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Bahamas. Gilkes worked as library technician at the Dewitt Wallace Periodical Room of the New York Public Library’s main branch for 14 years.
Having grown up in Brooklyn, Gilkes received a bachelor of business administration in marketing from Bernard Baruch College. She currently holds two master’s degrees in theology for urban ministry and Christian education and discipleship.
Stephanie Mauterstock
Stephanie Mauterstock is co-director for business and operations of Manhattan Charter School. Having inherited a failing school, she managed its turnaround and growth; wrote the school’s renewal application; and secured full, five-year charter renewal in July 2010. Mauterstock also provides consulting services on projects relating to charter schools, accountability, funding, and grants. She previously worked for Edison Schools, where she served as a grants compliance manager and later as a strategy and market research analyst. Mauterstock began her career as a program officer at the Institute of International Education. A graduate of Tufts University, she has also studied in Paris and the Yunnan Province of China.
Shola Smith
As account director and executive of New York-based myMUZE, Inc., Shola Smith is responsible for the growth and development of a broad portfolio of advertising and marketing accounts. She manages senior-level client relationships and leads internal teams in the development of branding programs that meet clients’ strategic objectives. Smith also manages the day-to-day operations of World Changer Church Brooklyn, a satellite division of World Changer Church International. Previously, Smith served as an administrator for Publicis in New York City, and performed community outreach in East New York.
She attended Marymount College of Fordham University and is the mother of a student at Brownsville Ascend.
