Kwaku Andoh is a partner at Cohen & Gresser LLP. His practice focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, joint ventures, and other corporate transactions, as well as general corporate counseling. Prior to joing Cohen & Gresser, Andoh was managing director and associate general counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he advised on over $10 billion in mergers and acquisitions transactions, investments in FinTech startups, and venture capitla transactions for all JPMorgan Chase lines of business worldwide. Andoh began his career with the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York, where he practiced for seven years, focusing primarily on international financings, private placements and mergers and acquisitions for a diverse group of clients. Andoh received a bachelor of arts degree in economics, cum laude, from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1986 and a master of arts degree in economics from Boston University in 1989. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1992, where he served on the Stanford Law Review as a notes editor. He is the author of a note entitled Countervailing Duties in a Not Quite Perfect World: An Economic Analysis, Note, 44 Stanford Law Review 1515 (1992), for which he received the Irving H. Hellman, Jr. Award for the outstanding student note published by the Stanford Law Review in 1992.

Board Treasurer Shelly Cleary is a senior vice president at Community Development Trust (CDT), a community development real estate investment trust. At CDT, Cleary developed, secured funding for, and leads their Charter School Lending Program, where she is responsible for the marketing and structuring of all charter school project transactions. Prior to this role, Cleary served as senior vice president for underwriting at CDT, where, during her fiften-year tenure, she originated over $200 million of affordable multifamily housing debt through her various roles within CDT's Debt Group. Prior to joinign CDT, Cleary held positions in housing finance at the National Equity Fund, a syndicator of federal low income housing tax credits, and at the Community Preservation Corporation, a regional construction lender that specializees in affordable housing. She began her career in the education department at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Cleary holds a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Virginia and a master's of public administration from the Humphrey Institute of Public Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Board Secretary Amanda Craft is senior director of recruitment at Uncommon Schools. Prior to joining Uncommon, Craft was a recruiting research analyst at Bridgewater Associates, an investment company that oversees $120 billion in international investments for diverse clients, including foreign governments, university endowments, and charitable foundations. After graduating from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature, Craft served as a regional recruitment fellow for Teach For America (TFA) in New York City. Later, she served as the managing director of strategy in TFA’s human assets department. At the TFA Summer Institute, Craft worked as director of data management, devising systems for improving corps member training. Craft has also taught business English in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the New York community, Craft has worked as a youth group coordinator of the Village Church. She lives in Brooklyn.

Board Chair Stephanie Mauterstock is the vice president of Tugboat Education, where she provides consulting services related to school founding and start-up; strategy and business plan development; finance and funding; human resources and talent development; grants; and accountability for charter schools, authorizers, school districts, and education non-profits. Mauterstock was previously chief operating officer for Students for Education Reform, an organization developing college students into grassroots organizers who fight for educational justice in their communities. Earlier, Mauterstock was chief operating officer at 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 for the school. 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.

Board Vice Chair Kathleen Quirk is chief of staff at The Partnership for Inner-City Education (Partnership Schools), a network of six urban Catholic elementary schools in Harlem and the south Bronx. She was formerly chief operating officer of Cambridge Leadership Associates (CLA), where she focused on management operations and refining CLA’s business development strategies to meet clients’ needs. Prior to joining CLA, Quirk worked for the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) as special assistant to chancellor Joel Klein and later as associate director of knowledge management. In these roles, she managed the 2006-2007 district-wide winning application for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and also worked closely with NYCDOE’s governing body, the Panel for Education Policy. She previously held positions at the University of California Berkeley in student affairs and served as a Jesuit/AmeriCorps volunteer in an elementary school in West Oakland, California. Quirk holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a bachelor's in English from the College of the Holy Cross. Quirk was a New York City Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and has been an active member of the New York City Coro Leadership Center, and an onsite support staff member for a volunteer community in Bedford Stuyvesant.

Architect Christine Schlendorf is a principal at Perkins Eastman with more than 20 years of experience in creating beautiful and innovative educational spaces. She has been responsible for numerous public and private school projects in the United States and overseas, including Mott Haven Campus in the Bronx, a 2,200-student campus containing two high schools, one intermediate school, one charter school, and a performing arts center. Prior to joining Perkins Eastman, Schlendorf was an architect with the firm Louise A. Agnes AIA of Northport, New York. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture at Syracuse University.

Nadine Sylvester joined Ascend's board of trustees in July 2018. Sylvester is the director of internship services and employment placement at Year Up, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged young adults attain higher education and succeed in their professional lives. In her role, Sylvester oversees internship and employment placements and leads Year Up’s alumni engagement strategy; for this work, she has been named an American Express Emerging Leader in 2016. Previously, Sylvester worked as a program coordinator for Cypress Hills Local Development Corp, through which she provided counseling and crisis management services to at-risk youth seeking to complete high school or GED programs. A native of Central Brooklyn, Sylvester is an active leader in her community, serving as a team leader for New York City’s largest volunteering network, New York Cares, and as a member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 17. Sylvester holds a bachelor’s degree in history and social work from New York University and a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University. She is the proud parent of an Ascend student.

Rev. Oral Walcott is a a community leader and insurance specialist currently serving as a licensed agent at New York Life Insurance Company. Prior to joining New York Life, Rev. Walcott served for 12 years at the Beulah Church of the Nazarene as Sunday school teacher, youth pastor, pastor of discipleship and special events, and executive pastor. He has 13 years’ experience as a claims professional at a leading insurance company in Barbados. In 2010, Rev. Walcott was ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene and serves as secretary of the board of ministries of the New York district. Rev. Walcott serves on the board of directors of Healing for the Soul Ministries, and as secretary and director of Project CHANGE, a rehabilitative program designed for inmates of Her Majesty’s Prison in Barbados. He was one of the chief architects of the program and co-authored Project CHANGE’s handbooks and curriculum. Rev. Walcott received a Diploma in Management Studies, in human resources management from Nazarene Bible College and Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity. He has a bachelor's of science degree in business, management, and economics from SUNY Empire State College; a master of science in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University; and a professional insurance designation CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter). Rev. Walcott and his wife Nicole are the proud parents of two Brownsville Ascend students.