Board Members

-Joe Lucente Founder of Fenton Avenue Charter School, MOB ExEd Corportation
Joe Lucente was born to immigrant Italian-American parents in Renton, Washington. Mr. Lucente has lived, gone to school, and worked in Los Angeles most of his life. Mr. Lucente received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University, Los Angeles, in 1964. A Master of Science degree in Educational Administration was earned from Cal State Los Angeles in 1975. Mr. Lucente's employment background includes being an Administrative Officer in the United States Air Force, three-plus years in management positions with the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and thirty-seven years in education (two of them abroad). Mr. Lucente has been a teacher and administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District for 20 of the past 31 years. On January 1, 1994, Fenton Avenue Elementary School became the state's thirtieth charter school and one of few which are totally autonomous. Fenton Avenue Charter School is one of the largest public elementary charter schools in the nation and a nationally recognized model of a conversion charter school. As Co-Director of Fenton Avenue Charter School for the past 11 years, Mr. Lucente has helped his fellow employers/employees guide the school along a most successful path (1997 California Distinguished School Awardee). Mr. Lucente was one of five charter school directors from across the nation invited to the White House for a First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton/USDE sponsored conference for new D.C. charter schools in August of 1998. As the only California charter school director invited, he was asked to share his successes and experiences with the First Lady, the USDE and the 22 new area charter school administrators. Mr. Lucente has been chairman of the Education Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), past-chairman of the Alliance of Los Angeles County Charter Schools, Co-Chair of Independent Charters of Los Angeles (IC-LA), on the Board of Directors of the Excellent Education Development (EXED), a member of State Superintendent Eastin's Charter School Advisory Committee and a member of the California Legislature's Advisory Panel for Evaluation of Charter School Effectiveness. Mr. Lucente is immediate past-President of the California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) which represents over 450 California charter schools with over 170,000 students. Mr. Lucente helped birth the new California Charter Schools Association (CCSA).
E-mail: jlucente@fentoncharter.net
www: http://www.fentoncharter.net

- Alice M. Miller, Secretary of the Corporation and Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial and Technical Officer, Aurora High School (Bay Area Charter High) is a founder of the state's first charter school in San Carlos, and of BACH. She served as Executive Assistant, and electronic media expert for the California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC), is a Technical Consultant for the U.S. Charter schools Organization, and the Technology Coordinator for Arundel Elementary School and the San Carlos Charter Learning Center. Alice has made presentations to Computer Using Educators, to NECC and other schools and organizations. She was the Office Manager for Computer*Thought Corporation and received her BA from the University of California. She is a BACH board member, founder, parent, fundraiser, and recruiter and loves classic rock and roll and jazz.
E-mail: amiller@learningtech.org
www: http://www.charterhigh.org

- James R. Miller, Ph.D., President of Miramontes Consulting
A user interface design consultant; works with companies to produce web sites, applications, and consumer devices that give their users simple and direct tools for solving their problems. Has worked in corporate research labs, including Apple's Advanced technology Group and HP Labs, as both an individual contributor and as a first and second-level manager. Dr. Miller, held an elected chair of SIGCHI, the 5000-member ACM special interest group on human-computer interaction, from 1994 to 1996. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Cognitive Psychology,from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.S. in Social Science/Computer Science from Michigan State University.
E-mail: jmiller@miramontes.com
www: http://www.miramontes.com

- Mark L. Miller, Ph.D., President and Executive Director
An independent educational technology consultant, specializing in technology innovation to facilitate learning. Miller received his B.S. in Cognitive Science under Professor Don Norman at the University of California at San Diego, in 1972. Shortly thereafter, he became involved with intelligent tutoring systems being prototyped by Allan Collins, John Seely Brown and others at BBN in Cambridge, MA. His 1979 doctoral dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology involved a Computer Coach to help children learn Seymour Papert's LOGO system. Miller joined the Central Research Laboratories of Texas Instruments in 1978. In 1981 he cofounded Computer Thought Corporation, a venture which developed tools for knowledge-based training of programmers in the aerospace industry. In 1988, he joined Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group, where he later served as Lab Director for Learning Technologies. At various times, the lab included such programs as: Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT); Visualization and Simulation (Cocoa, which later evolved into Stagecast Creator), Business Learning and Performance Support; and Multimedia Authoring Tools (SK8).
E-mail: mlmiller@learningtech.org

- Don Shalvey, Ed.D., CEO and and Cofounder of Aspire Public Schools
Sponsored the first charter school in California and began participation in the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, the Hewlett-Annenberg Project and a federal Technology Challenge Grant. Cofounded Californians for Public School Excellence that led to the Charter Schools Act of 1998. He has also been a member of State Superintendent Delaine Eastin's Charter School Committee as well as an advisor to the California Network of Educational Charters. Earned a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership/Administration from the University of Southern California, Masters of Education in Counseling and Guidance from Gonzaga University, and a B.A. from LaSalle College.
E-mail: don.shalvey@aspirepublicschools.org
www: http://www.aspirepublicschools.org

In Memory Of:

- Sue Steelman-Bragato, Executive Director of the California Network of Educational Charters
Sue Bragato established CANEC in 1994 as the recognized state association for California charter schools. She started her work in the Charter School Movement as a founder of California's first charter school, the San Carlos Charter Learning Center. Through the Charter Friends National Network Ms. Bragato helped establish the formation of the charter school states associations network. As a charter school leader she was awarded the 1997 Hart Vision Award for her support of the California charter school movement. For the past seven years she has chaired the California Charter Schools Conference. She has also served as a conference planner for all three of the National Charter School Conferences, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Bragato also sits on the Board of Directors of two nonprofit organizations, BOK Ranch, and the Miller Institute for Learning with Technology, and is a 4-H leader in her community. She is a graduate of Pepperdine University where she received degrees in political science and journalism, and is a former White House and Congressional intern. She is the mother of two teenage children, Jenna and Chris Bragato.
www: http://www.canec.org/index.html

It is with the deepest regret that The Miller Institute notes the passing of Sue Bragato, on 5 January 2005, after a heroic, two-year struggle against advanced stage metastatic breast cancer. Sue was an inspiration to everyone she knew. At the request of Sue and her family, we have helped to create, and will continue to host and develop in her honor, a web site devoted to raising awareness of the need for research to cure this cruel disease, which touches so many women. The web site also serves as a repository for the stories and memories of Sue and others affected by the disease. We hope that the web site offers both comfort for loved ones and commitment to find a cure.