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Dennis Campbell
Director of State and Federal Affairs

Dennis Campbell is the Alliance's Director of State and Federal Affairs. Prior to joining the Alliance he served as Committee Clerk for the District of Columbia Council's education committee. In that capacity he worked with board member Kevin Chavous on expansion of the District's vigorous charter school sector. Dennis co-founded and directed a business-literacy program for low-income youth in northern California. He also taught sixth grade at the Sidwell Friends school in Washington, DC. Dennis is a graduate of Tufts University with a Masters degree in child development, with an emphasis on public policy.

Angela Christophe
Operations Manager

Angela Christophe is the Operations Manager for the Alliance. She has served on the staff of the DC Public Charter School Board and most recently as the Business Affairs Director for a mental health agency. Mrs. Christophe is an active resident of Washington, DC, serving as a member of the Georgia Avenue Economic Development steering committee, and was elected as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. A New Orleans native, Mrs. Christophe is a graduate of Howard University's School of Business.

Andy Smarick
Director

Prior to working for the Alliance, Andy was the Senior Legislative Assistant to US Representative Wayne T. Gilchrest. In that capacity, he was the congressman’s primary aide for education issues, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Andy has also been a legislative aide for members of the Maryland State Legislature. He is a founding board member of the KIPP Harbor Academy in Annapolis and a member of the Governor's Commission on Quality Education, a blue-ribbon panel established by Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich to recommend reforms to K-12 education in the state. Andy graduated from the University of Maryland, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in Government and Politics and has a Masters degree in public policy from the Maryland School of Public Affairs.


Nelson Smith
President

Nelson Smith, a nationally recognized expert on charter schools and education policy, is the President of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. His experience includes senior management positions at the U.S. Department of Education, the D.C. Public Charter School Board, the New York City Partnership, and most recently at New American Schools, where he served as Vice President for Policy and Governance. In 2002, he was appointed by Education Secretary Rod Paige as one of 21 negotiators who developed federal regulations for the No Child Left Behind Act. Nelson is a graduate of Georgetown University and a resident of Washington, DC.


Colleen Sutton
Communications Director

Colleen Sutton is the Communications Director for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Previously, she served as the Senior Manager, Media and Communications for Save the Children, where she helped create and implement communications strategies for the organization's development and relief work in more than 40 countries, including the United States. Colleen also previously held communications positions at organizations that addressed issues ranging from the environment to e-business. She obtained her B.A. in English from the State University of New York College at Fredonia.


Artisha Tyson
Staff Assistant

Prior to joining the Alliance team, Artisha worked for nearly three years as Lead Boarding Instructor at the SEED Public Charter School of Washington, D.C., the nation's first urban public boarding school. While there she earned her master's degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. During her undergraduate years at Howard University, where she majored in political science, Artisha performed volunteer work in D.C. public schools as well as with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.


Todd Ziebarth
Senior Policy Analyst

Todd Ziebarth is Senior Policy Analyst for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Previously, he worked as a Policy Analyst both at the Education Commission of the States from 1997 to 2003 and at Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates from 2003 to 2005. He has a Bachelors of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver.