About Great Minds

Donna M. Brown joined Great Minds in January 2021 and is a senior corporate, securities, and privacy counsel with dual-state licensure in Florida and Massachusetts. Previously, Donna worked as Senior Counsel at Marriott Vacations Worldwide as well as Assistant General Counsel at CNL Financial Group, Vice President at State Street Corporation, Counsel at Baker & Hostetler, LLP, Vice President, and Assistant General Counsel at Monster Worldwide, Inc. Donna has extensive experience with securities regulations, corporate governance, corporate finance including securitizations and credit facilities, intellectual property, privacy, compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. Donna graduated from Harvard Law School and Yale University. She is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and has been a past faculty member of Lex Mundi International Mergers & Acquisitions trainings for mid-to-senior level corporate counsel in law firms based around the world.

Lorraine oversees the development of the Great Minds Humanities curriculum and supporting products. She leads a team of teacher–writers who craft coherent, knowledge-rich content. Lorraine joined Great Minds in 2008, when she was invited to serve on the inaugural Great Minds board. After teaching for 27 years in a Title One North Carolina public school, she came to the Great Minds Humanities team full-time. She has experience as a national consultant for Core Knowledge, has co-written 13 reading fluency books, and taught for seven years at UNC Asheville in a university preservice education program. Throughout her teaching career, Lorraine taught K–5 in various teaching roles. She received her teaching certification from Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, North Carolina, and her master’s degree in elementary education at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

Ian leads the teams responsible for the software products in support of Great Minds curricula. Previously, he served as Chief Technology Officer & Head of Platform at LearnZillion, where he helped it reach one-third of all US K-12 educators with its Illustrative Mathematics, EL Education, Guidebooks, and other OER curricula. He worked at Imagine Learning for three years after it acquired LearnZillion, which continued to grow significantly year after year under the new name Imagine Learning Classroom. Ian dove head-first into web development in the mid-1990s, creating websites for small businesses and nonprofits. He’s since built software products and led teams at companies like Lockheed Martin, LivingSocial, and MightyCause. Ian has a computer science degree and certificate in British and American literature from the University of Maryland and a master’s in human-computer interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also graduated from Lockheed Martin’s Leadership Development Program. 

Andrea comes to us from FLG Partners, a financial consulting and advisory practice of experienced CFOs based out of San Francisco. She has more than 15 years of senior management experience as a CFO. In her roles working for a media company and a Fintech company in the health and wellness space, Andrea has had finance, accounting, IT, operations, and customer service teams report to her. She has a strong focus in strategy and finance as well as significant transactional experience.

Andrea resides in the Bay Area with her family. She earned an AB in economics from Cornell University and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business.

Steven directs the continued development of Great Minds’ Eureka Math^® and Eureka Math^2® curricula and all supporting products and services. He joined Great Minds in 2019 as Senior Director of Great Minds Schools and launched the first Great Minds School in San Tan Heights, Arizona. Over the past two years, the school has demonstrated incredible gains in academic growth, teacher retention, and student behavior referrals. Steven also oversaw the development and launch of Great Minds Virtual, an enriched virtual school that engages students across the country in Great Minds curriculum. Steven holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Concordia University and spent 18 years as an Illinois mathematics teacher, building leader, and school district leader. 

Rachel leads the product development teams across math, science, and ELA. Rachel joined Great Minds in 2015 after serving as vice president of Literacy Content and Instruction for Scholastic Education. She has more than a decade of experience as a teacher. Rachel began her career teaching third and eighth grade in New York, NY. She then taught high school world and American literature in Pittsburgh, PA. Rachel received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Vassar College and a master’s degree in secondary education from Hunter College, City University of New York. She's been honored to lead the teams behind the creation of Great Minds knowledge-rich Wit & Wisdom^® core ELA curriculum and Geodes^®, our innovative books for emerging readers. 

John White serves as Chief Success Officer, responsible for ensuring that Great Minds products meet the learning needs of children, teachers, and school systems across the nation. He works within the company and with its partner schools to research Great Minds’ effectiveness, to provide professional learning to educators, to support school-level implementation, to enhance the company’s digital capabilities, and to connect with education leaders across the country.

John previously served as Louisiana State Superintendent of Education. Over eight years in that role, he developed nationally recognized efforts to unify the state’s fragmented early childhood system, to modernize curriculum, to professionalize the preparation of educations, and to provide pathways to prosperity for all high school graduates.

Louisiana’s class of 2019 included 5,000 more graduates than did the class of 2012. Five thousand more students in that class earned the state’s TOPS college scholarship, and 5,000 more enrolled in college after graduating high school. In that time, the number of Louisiana students earning Advanced Placement early college credits increased by 167 percent, and Louisiana now ranks number one in the nation in the percentage of high school seniors completing an application for higher education financial aid.

In 2019, Louisiana students ranked first in the nation for improvement in 8th grade mathematics on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Over the decade spanning John’s tenure, Louisiana ranked in the top 10 states for improvement on every one of the four main NAEP tests.

Prior to being named State Superintendent, John served as Superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District, leading the reformation of public schools in New Orleans in the years after Hurricane Katrina. He previously served under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein as Deputy Chancellor for the New York City Department of Education and served as Executive Director of Teach For America – Chicago and Teach For America – New Jersey. He began his career as an English teacher at William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey.

John is co-founder of Propel America, a non-profit start-up connecting recent high school graduates with good first jobs, and Watershed Advisors, a consultancy to governments scaling high-impact education initiatives. He is a former director at Great Minds PBC and an Education Advisory Council member at the global consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. John earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.

Co-Director Emeritus of the Gordon A. Cain Center for STEM Literacy at Louisiana State University

Nell McAnelly has taught mathematics at the high school and university level for more than thirty years. As an active member of the educational community, Nell has been a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences, is an author of the “Pre-service Point of View” in the Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics Journal, and has been recognized with numerous teaching awards, including the BP Amoco for Outstanding Teaching and the George H. Deer Distinguished Teaching Award. Her achievements include a central role in establishing the Elementary Math Specialist certification and Instructional Coaching Leadership Endorsement in Louisiana and developing the Pilot Professional Development Program funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Nell’s professional role also includes serving as a director of high-profile, complex projects, requiring expertise in the design and implementation of standards-based professional development and curriculum instruction for K-12 teachers. She has provided leadership to more than 25 state-wide and district initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Louisiana Systemic Initiative Program, the National Math and Science Initiative, the Quality Science and Mathematics Program, and the State Math Science Partnership. Most recently, Nell was Great Minds’s Project Director for the New York State Mathematics Curriculum Development Project (EngageNY) now known as Eureka Math^®.

Serena has dedicated her life to the advancement of science and to science education with the nation’s most promising youth. Dr. Serena McCalla was raised in New York City and fell in love with science as an elementary school student. She earned her bachelor’s degree, as a double major, in Biological Science and African American & African Studies from the State University of New York at Binghamton University with the intention of becoming an ER physician. However, she quickly realized she was more inspired by research than medicine. To satisfy her craving for deeper scientific understandings, Dr. Serena McCalla earned an MS degree in Hematology/Microbiology, a Ph.D. that explored the use of diagnostic tests to improve the comprehension of genetics, photosynthesis, and respiration in secondary and collegiate courses.

Dr. McCalla began teaching science shortly after earning her BS degree and a remarkable thing happened. In the classroom, her appreciation for the sciences became more profound as the students exposed her to nuances of various scientific disciplines including material science, nanotechnology, computer science, computational biology, and physics. Dr. McCalla is currently the Founding Manager for iResearch Corporation while working as the Science Research Coordinator for Jericho UFSD, Jericho, NY. She founded iResearch Corporation, the parent company of iResearch Foundation, iResearch Institute, iResearch Academy, and iResearch Science where she shares her research practices with educators and students from around the globe. The iResearch Foundation supports underrepresented and underprivileged students’ participation in iResearch Institute and iResearch Academy. These programs promote science research method training and review of fundamental and advanced sciences by conducting laboratory experimentation and data science/bioinformatics data analysis and research to test novel hypotheses. The iResearch Institute promotes research science learning and educational prowess of all students but has increased its focus to support underserved students. Additionally, the iResearch Institute provides a review of the scientific method and research method practices through its international summer research program. The scientific training of these students encourages them to a) systematically address limitations in their processing of the scientific method, b) allows for completion of novel experimentation, and c) promotes expertise in presenting and writing journal-worthy papers. Secondarily, after Dr. McCalla assumed the position of Science Research Coordinator for Jericho Union Free School District (UFSD) she has designed the curriculum to foster excellence in scientific research and has become one of the preeminent science research programs in the United States. Under Dr. McCalla’s tutelage the school is lauded annually for its continued success in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and Regeneron (formally Intel) Science Talent Search (STS) competitions with 87 semifinalists and 14 finalists.

Dr. McCalla had the unique experience of participating as a principal subject in the National Geographic documentary Science Fair. The immensely likable film chronicles the importance of science fairs in the high school learning experience and highlights the trials, tribulations, and successes of Jericho High School students in a variety of science competitions (the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), Junior Science and Humanities (JSHS) Competition, Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), etc.). The documentary was selected for and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and was honored by winning the festival’s first-ever overall Festival Favorite Award. The film was subsequently awarded by many other outlets and earned an Academy Emmy Award.

A natural competitor, Dr. Serena McCalla is not only a science research professional and enthusiast she also considers herself a science geek and competition supporter. She is the President of the New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF) because she believes in the necessity of promoting student excellence and encouraging accompanied recognition in science. iResearch Corporation parallels the environment Dr. McCalla built at Jericho High School and UFSD, the culture of her classroom and lab brings forth copious avenues to help students excel in science, math, bioinformatics, data science, and engineering research. She enjoys that each day provides a new opportunity to encourage students to explore and impact the future of science and society. Her pivotal goal is to have student learning and works extend past successes in their universities and ultimately manifest themselves in the global arena. Dr. McCalla believes these works will propel this generation of students to improve life on this planet as we know it.

Dr. McCalla has earned numerous awards for teaching and mentoring such as the U.S Presidential Scholar Program Teacher Recognition Award (2017 & 2010), the Distinguished Teacher Award from the Harvard Club of Long Island (2016 & 2012), the Teacher of Merit award earned annually from Regeneron/Intel Science Talent Search (2021-2010), received an honorary minor planet (named serenamccalla) from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force funded Outstanding Teacher Award in association with the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). Dr. McCalla’s students have won virtually all STEM competitions that are publicly accessible regionally, nationally, and internationally. She hopes to continue to foster the brilliance and determination of future scientists. In addition, she encourages her students to follow her quote- “if you dream it, complete the work to make your dream reality”.

CEO and founder Lynne Munson launched Great Minds^® in 2007 as a research and advocacy organization in pursuit of a high-quality, content-rich liberal arts education for all K–12 students. At the urging of educators seeking knowledge-building resources, Lynne and her team moved into curriculum development with Common Core curriculum maps in English language arts and then with EngageNY, which later became Eureka Math^®. Together, these two math resources are the most commonly used in US schools.

Working with educators and experts, Great Minds PBC has also developed Eureka Math ²™, Wit & Wisdom^® ELA, Geodes^® books for emerging readers, and PhD Science^®. These cross-curricular resources have earned top marks from curriculum reviewers. Under Lynne’s leadership, Great Minds also has created innovative, content-rich professional learning programs and initiatives that tap classroom teachers to help others successfully implement new curricula. The company has grown to more than 1,400 employees nationwide.

Lynne and her team launched Great Minds Schools in 2022. The portfolio includes a tuition-free virtual school and a brick-and-mortar public school run in partnership with Florence Unified School District in Arizona. Both are anchored by great teaching, a knowledge-rich curriculum, and the belief that all children are capable of greatness.

Before starting Great Minds, Lynne served as deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2001–2005, overseeing agency operations. Lynne was the architect of “Picturing America,” which put more than 75,000 sets of fine art images and teaching guides into libraries, K–12 classrooms, and Head Start centers. In 2005, Lynne led the first post-conflict US government delegation to Afghanistan to address issues of cultural reconstruction. In 2004, she represented the United States at UNESCO meetings in Australia and Japan, where she helped to negotiate guidelines for cross-border higher education.

Lynne was previously a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she wrote Exhibitionism: Art in an Era of Intolerance (Ivan R. Dee, 2000), a book examining the evolution of art institutions and art education. Lynne has written on education, the arts, and contemporary cultural issues for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Daily News, Inside Higher Education, Special Ed Today, The 74, the National Review, and other outlets. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, and Fox Business and frequently speaks to education groups and public audiences. She testified before Congress on research she led around rising tuition and the growth of college and university endowments. Her degree in art history is from Northwestern University.

Lynne lives with her family in Midlothian, VA.

Former Vice President, New York State United Teachers

Maria Neira, an elementary school bilingual teacher who rose through the ranks of union leadership to become a nationally recognized expert on educational issues, was a vice president of New York State United Teachers, representing more than 600,000 members.

Ms. Neira oversaw the statewide union’s initiatives involving educational policy matters. She was NYSUT’s front-line advocate to the Board of Regents and State Education Department.

She also served as a vice president on the New York State AFL-CIO Executive Council, the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO’s Workforce Development Institute and the Coalition for Labor Union Women. She was nominated by President Obama to the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She was also nominated to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Advisory Council. She is a member of the New York State Workforce Investment Board, the Greater Capital Region United Way Board of Directors, Capital District’s 100 Hispanic Women, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Education Fund. She directs NYSUT’s fund-raising as a statewide flagship sponsor for American Cancer Society programs, including the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer annual walks.

Neira has been honored by many groups, including the United Federation of Teachers Hispanic Affairs Committee, the Hispanic Latino Cultural Center, Long Island Latino Teachers Association, the Schenectady Hispanic Heritage Committee and the Girl Scouts of Northeastern NY. Neira also received the 2005 Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and an educational leadership award from the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2007.

Neira previously served as assistant to the president on education issues for the UFT, NYSUT’s affiliate in New York City public schools, where she helped develop strategic plans for education reform. She also served as director of the UFT’s Special Educator Support Program.

Neira began her teaching career in New York City in 1977 and served as a fourth-grade bilingual teacher at the Bilingual Bicultural Mini-school in Manhattan.

Neira, a graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York, has served on many state committees, including the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board and the State Committee of Practitioners. She is also a member of several professional organizations. She is married to Richard Neira.

Marc Sternberg is Co-Founder and Managing Director of A-Street. Prior to launching A-Street, Marc served as K-12 Program Director at the Walton Family Foundation where he led the foundation’s initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education for all of our nation’s children by empowering parents with quality options. Marc previously served as Senior Deputy Chancellor at the New York City Department of Education and education advisor on policy and strategy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. 
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Marc founded the Bronx Lab School, an unscreened New York City public high school, and served as its principal from 2004-2009.  He was a 1995 Teach For America corps member in the Bronx. Marc holds a B.A. in politics from Princeton University, and a joint M.B.A. and Masters in Education from Harvard University. He was selected as a 2009-2010 White House Fellow.