Board of Directors

Cynthia High

Cynthia High, Ph.D., Board President, has a doctorate in Educational Administration, Policy and Planning from The University of Texas at Austin, and a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction. High teaches in the Master’s of Education program for teachers at Concordia University and in the College of Business graduate program at St. Edward’s University. High conducted a school reform bringing a minority, near failing, and threatened-to-close school to Exemplary in one year. She taught school in Beijing, China where she learned to speak Mandarin. She worked in schools in Chicago, IL. High advises nonprofits on organizational leadership, strategic planning, grant winning and management. High worked for over 15 years as an educational consultant in business management, continuous improvement and organizational development. High employed apposite development skills in schools and nonprofits to increase board leadership and increase academic scores.

Deborah Havens

Deborah Havens, Ph.D., Board Vice President, has over 30 years of experience in the field of Special Education. She taught emotionally disturbed children for 10 years with her MS from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, before earning her Ph.D. in School Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a Special Education Director at the local level in five different states, a compliance monitor for the Office of Special Education Programs in DC, taught at the university level, served as the Assistant Director of the Charter School Division at TEA and is currently the Director of Diversified Learning at Winfree Academy Charter Schools in Irving. Dr. Havens is a nationally recognized expert in the field of special education. The US Department of Education, Public Charter School Office has called upon her to assist in the development of special education cooperatives for charter schools, to perform compliance visits for charter schools in need of assistance and to advise new charter schools as they create their special education programs.

Felix A. Lopez

Felix A. Lopez, P.E., Board Treasurer is an Electrical Engineer, Senior Engineer of the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) of the Comptroller of Public Accounts. Provides technical support for energy conservation programs for LoanSTAR Loan program, the Renewable Energy program, the School and Local Government program, & the Housing Partnership program. Lopez is Program Administrator for the State Agencies program, (Building Codes and Standards and the Texas Design Standard for state-funded buildings). 17 years of experience working with energy conservation, including 7 years with the Bonneville Power Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, and the last 10 years with SECO. Following the passage of Senate Bill #5 of the 77th Texas Legislature in 2001, Felix is in charge of the education and outreach workshops on residential and commercial energy.

Suzanne Garcia Mateus

Suzanne Garcia Mateus, M. Ed, Board Secretary is a 6-year Bilingual Reading Specialist/Writing Coach with A.I.S.D. She has worked as a mentor teacher and is a former two-way immersion first grade teacher. Ms. Mateus holds a Master’s in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and is currently a Doctoral student in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at the UT Austin. She is a member of the National Association of Bilingual Educators.

Cheris Lifford

Cheris Lifford, Board Member is a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) with 10 years of education experience. She is a Foreign Language Education alumni of The University of Texas at Austin. Lifford is the founder of the Dual Language Austin website and the mother of two young children.

Gwendolyn Chance

Gwendolyn Chance, M.S., Board Member is the former director of the Texas Head Start-State Collaboration Office. She worked in the Texas Education Agency Parent Involvement Division before retiring from state service. Chance continues to work as a Teacher/Teacher Aide Specialist for Booz Allen Hamilton, contractor for the Administration for Children and Families Head Start Office Region VI. Gwen has more than thirty years of experience as a director, consultant, trainer, program specialist and monitor in the field of Early Care and Education and Title I programs. She was previously employed as an Adjunct faculty member at Austin Community College District. In 1996, Ms. Chance was awarded a national fellowship for one year to work in Washington, D.C. with the Head Start Bureau in the Training and Technical Assistance Branch.

Advisory Board

Angel Abitua

Angel Abitua is the Deputy District Director for LULAC District VII. District VII encompasses the Greater Austin area, including Georgetown, Round Rock, Taylor, Buda, Bastrop, Leander, and Cedar Park. LULAC is also a statewide and national organization. He has been a member for 39 years. Also, he helps to coordinate LULAC Youth programs at seven high schools in both RRISD and AISD. Improving education and youth leadership development have two of his major goals in the last several years. In a 2007 edition of La Voz de Austin, a local community newspaper, he was named one of the top 25 most influential Latinos in the Austin area. He was also cited in 2006, by the city of Round Rock and the Round Rock ISD, for his work with Hispanic youth programs. Always vocal about the need to support education innovation and initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for Hispanic students, he has been a strong advocate of the proposed Austin Community School, a charter school that will feature dual-language instruction.

Paula Ximena Rojas-Urrutia

Paula Ximena Rojas-Urrutia is a community organizer with 15 years of experience in Youth Development and Community Organizing. She's currently a consultant for the Praxis Project, a national not for profit institution dedicated to capacity building, technical assistance, research, and training for community-based policy change. She is a co-founder of Sista II Sista (a young women's leadership development organization) and is a national board member and trainer for Incite (Women of Color Against Violence). She is a graduate of the (IB) International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and is the mother of a fully bilingual 4 year old.

Deborah Palmer

Deborah Palmer, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at UT Austin, where she directs Proyecto Maestria, a grant-based program designed to foster strong bilingual teacher leaders. A former two-way immersion fourth grade teacher, she has worked as a teacher, mentor and conducted qualitative research in two-way immersion programs. She is a member of NABE (the National Association of Bilingual Education) and its Texas and Austin affiliates (TABE and AAABE). Palmer has a daughter in kindergarten at AISD.

Sam Greer

Sam Greer, M. Ed, is completing his Ph.D. in Ed. Admin. with a focus on Charter School Finance with a minor in non-profit management counseling at UT. An expert in charter school management, operations, governance, and state compliance and is currently developing a facility finance program and charter school bond guarantee fund for the Texas Charter School Association. Mr. Greer was the Co-Founding Exec Director of Austin Discovery School Charter School which recently received Recognized rating in its 4th year from TEA, he directed charter application and first 2 years of operations, and is now its Board Treasurer. He was a Project Manager for American YouthWorks Charter School and designed programs at Austin ISD for at-risk youth. Mr. Greer also served as Superintendent/Principal of Cedars International Academy Charter School during its first 2 years of operation.

Mayte Antelo-Ovando

Mayte Antelo-Ovando, M.S., N.C.S.P. is a family physician and the Director of the UT Community Wellness Center, a health clinic for people without private insurance. She also serves as faculty with the UT-Austin School of Nursing and is the president of Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is the mother of two young daughters who are learning to speak both Spanish and English. is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist working in the San Diego Unified School District. She has worked at SDUSD for three years, this is her fourth. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and has lived in the United States and abroad (Utah, Texas, Massachusetts, California, Saltillo, Coahuila-MX, Santa Cruz-Bolivia, Seville-Spain). She obtained her Masters and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from Northeastern University in the area of Educational and School Psychology. She obtained her BA in Psychology, with a minor in French from the University of Texas at Austin. She is passionate about children, their education and their overall well-being. Her areas of interest are bilingual education, bilingual assessment, children's rights and organizations that strive to meet the needs of children.

Lisa Doggett

Lisa Doggett, MD, MPH is a family physician and the Director of the UT Community Wellness Center, a health clinic for people without private insurance. She also serves as faculty with the UT-Austin School of Nursing and is the president of Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is the mother of two young daughters who are learning to speak both Spanish and English.

Katie Jensen

Katie Jensen earned a Bachelor of Interior Architecture from Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design. Prior to joining the City of Austin, she completed a year as an AmeriCorps* VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) at a service learning non-profit organization that serves at-promise youth. Jensen is an Environmental Program Coordinator with Austin Energy Green Building. Since joining the award winning team at Austin Energy in 2001, she has coordinated the Seminar Series provided monthly to building professionals, researched green building products and practices, helped develop the current version of the Commercial Rating and Multifamily Rating, and supported education and marketing of green building to the general public and other City of Austin departments. Katie currently coordinates the Multifamily Program. She is Chair Emeritus of the US Green Building Council Central Texas-Balcones Chapter Board of Directors and is a LEEDTM Accredited Professional.

Jamie Cameron Turner

Jamie Cameron Turner, J.D. is an associate in the firm of Powell & Leon, L.L.P. Ms. Turner graduated from Hardin-Simmons University and Baylor Law School. She focuses her practice on the representation of public school districts assisting clients with employment law, student discipline issues, special education, and elections. Ms. Turner is the daughter of two public school administrators. She is married to an attorney and they have one son.

The Founders

Justin Scott

Justin Scott is a founding member of Austin Community School and has had the pleasure of educating children for ten years in Washington State, California, Texas, South America and Central Asia. His past and current roles as an educational advocate include Autism Therapy, Teacher Trainer, Early Childhood Teacher, Peace Corps Volunteer, TEFL educator, Curriculum Coordinator, graduate school student and university guest speaker. As the Executive Director of Austin Community School, it is Justin’s sincere hope to help create a school that prepares children for their future as life long learners, dual language speakers and global citizens.
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Lori May

Lori May is a founding member of Austin Community School and has been an educator for 25 years. Lori has a M.Ed. in Education Administration and a B.S. in Elementary Education, Bilingual /ESL K-8. Lori is a Grade One teacher in the Primary Years Program (PYP) at the International School of Amsterdam (ISA), to learn and apply the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. Prior to this she was an Associate Principal (AP) in Hong Kong, China. Lori’s previous positions include starting an international school in Mexico and working in both Austin ISD and the Houston ISD as an administrator, Curriculum Coach, bilingual teacher and teacher of gifted children. Lori’s strong beliefs in Dual Language (DL) Curriculum are drawn from her own work-life experiences as a student in DL schools in Colombia and more recently, from the growing number of documented successes of DL schools throughout the country. Lori is a member of NABE (National Association of Bilingual Education); ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development); NAESP (National Association of Elementary School Principals) and ECIS (European Council of International Schools).
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María Figueroa

María Figueroa has been educating young children for more than ten years. She was born and raised in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in the Natural Sciences. Before moving to Austin she lived with her husband and children in the states of Florida and Georgia and in the country of Italy. In 1996, María started to volunteer and participate in academic and community activities at her children’s school. It was then when she discovered her love for education. She is very proud to be Hispanic and is fully bilingual. María strongly believes that every child is capable of learning in an environment that supports family heritage and culture.
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Andrew Hunter

Andrew is a founding member of Austin Community School and the ACS website guru. Thanks to him, our website is easy to browse and is looking spectacular!

Crystal Marchand

Crystal Marchand is a founding member of Austin Community School and has been an educator for six years. Her many roles have included Elementary School Teacher (3rd - 5th grade), Master Reading Teacher, Teacher Trainer, Campus Lead Mentor Teacher, university guest speaker, Campus Reading Specialist and the subject of a PhD dissertation about culturally relevant teaching. As an Education Plan coordinator and curriculum specialist, Crystal hopes to provide an authentic, student-focused education that prepares students to be thoughtful, globally minded leaders in our changing society.
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Monica Neshyba

Monica Vasquez Neshyba has been involved in education for the past ten years. She has served as a bilingual tutor and bilingual teacher, in addition to being a mentor for novice teachers, presenting at local, state and national conferences, and serving as a teaching assistant at The University of Texas at Austin. A native Austinite and current doctoral student in bilingual education at UT Austin, Monica is very eager for ACS to begin to serve the Austin community and promote multilingualism and multiculturalism for all students.
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Eunice Tanco

Eunice Tanco has promoted learning and development with children and families in Puerto Rico, the United States and Europe for more than a decade. She has been an Early Childhood teacher for more than twenty years creating communities of learners and implementing developmentally appropriate practices. As a female, bilingual, Hispanic woman it is very important for Eunice to continue helping our future generations. The demographics of our society are changing rapidly and making an impact on all of us. Eunice believes in fostering equality and social justice in our schools in order to create a better society for our children.
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Heather Taylor

Heather Taylor is a founding member of Austin Community School and has enjoyed working with elementary age children for 8 years. From her time teaching in a small school district in South Texas to her return to Austin, Heather has been involved in many aspects of school and community life. Through daily life and the study of literature focusing on community, Heather has developed a view of living and learning that she believes can empower and educate. It is Heather’s desire to help create a way of life and learning which encourages collaboration among students, parents, educators, and community members.
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