MEET THE BEABLE^®
ADVISORY BOARD

Terry Bowman is the Executive Director of ReadWorks, an edtech nonprofit organization focused on helping to address the reading crisis in America. Mr. Bowman has dedicated his career to working with and for at-risk and low-income young people, starting with his work with juvenile offenders in San Francisco and Oakland, CA.  He has held leadership positions across the education and workforce developments fields, including vice president of education and workforce at Mentored; executive director at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), New York; and senior director, Labor Policy and Implementation at the New York City DOE. 

Dr. Randolph Crew is President of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. A lifelong educator and author, Dr. Crew’s career has spanned from the classroom to the chancellorship of the nation’s largest school district, New York City Public Schools. Dr. Crew is a renowned leader and reformer who has made it a mission to improve student achievement, especially for poor and minority students. Dr. Crew has served on numerous boards, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Communities in Schools, Al Shanker Institute, and the Public Education Network. He is the recipient of many awards, including the NAACP Educational Leadership Award, the Arthur Ashe Leadership Award and the AASA National Superintendent of the Year.

Dr. James Egenrieder is a Washington, D.C. based specialist in public education programs and scientific and technical training, and technical (STEM) workforce development. He is on the Virginia Tech’s Engineering Research Faculty, the Natural Resources Graduate Faculty, and director of its DC Metro Area STEM Education and Workforce Development programs. He serves on the university’s Diversity Faculty and the Executive Committee of Virginia Tech’s College Access Collaborative. Dr. Egenrieder is President Emeritus and a Journal Editor of the Washington Academy of Sciences, and an active board member of the Regional Workforce Council, the Virginia Technology and Engineering Education Association, the Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education, the Northern Virginia Science Museum, the Advisory Board of Urban Alliance, and the ACTE Work-Based Learning Leadership.

Dr. Cindy Elsberry works as a consultant with school districts across the country. Prior to consulting, Dr. Elsberry served as superintendent in Horry County Schools for six years. This diverse, high-poverty district won national acclaim for its personalized digital transformation under her leadership and was rated as one of South Carolina’s highest-performing school districts. Prior to her work in Horry County, Dr. Elsberry served as a superintendent, special education director, principal, and assistant principal in Alabama. 

Dr. Esther Klein Friedman has served New York City students as a teacher of special education and reading in all levels; staff development trainer for Manhattan Region; principal in District Two; director of literacy and social studies in District Six; regional director of academic intervention services and local instructional superintendent in Region Ten; director of secondary school reform, director of academic intervention services K-12, director of a Supplemental Educational Services program internal to the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) central office; interim superintendent in District 3; executive director of literacy, and academic intervention services at NYCDOE central office. Dr. Friedman currently works as a literacy teaching and learning consultant serving schools, districts, literacy organizations, as well as collaborations with academia, advocacy organizations and the political community.

Sue Gamm, Esq., has spent more than 40 years blending her unique legal and special education programmatic expertise with her experiences as the chief specialized services officer for the Chicago Public Schools, attorney/division director for the Office for Civil Rights (US Department of Education), and special educator to become a highly regarded national expert as an author, consultant, presenter, and evaluator. This background has enabled her to study and understand evidence-based practices, policies, and procedures that support a systemic and effective education of students with disabilities and those with academic challenges. Ms. Gamm’s areas of expertise include multi-tiered system of supports, systemic management and operation of special education, racial/ethnic special education disproportionality, and special education compliance.

Dr. Walt Griffin spent 40 years as an educator, including 37 in Seminole County. He worked as a math teacher before taking on a number of administrative roles, including serving as principal of Millennium Middle School and Seminole High School. His last role was as superintendent of Seminole Country Public Schools where there were no “D” or “F” schools in the district. His accomplishments included more vocational education programs and a nearly 93% graduation rate, the highest in Seminole County’s History. Dr. Griffin was awarded the CTE Superintendent of the Year by the Florida Association for Career and Technical Education.

Annette Gurley has over 30 years of service with Chicago Public Schools, where she served in multiple roles including teacher, assistant principal, principal (elementary and high school), and as chief of the Austin North Lawndale Network (ANL). She was also appointed to the role of Chief Officer of the Office of Teaching and Learning. Under Ms. Gurley’s leadership, the ANL Network, which had been one of the lowest performing networks in CPS, led the district in academic growth in reading and math. 

Dr. Shelley Jallow has decades of experience in school district turnaround and leadership operations. She is currently serving as an appointed State Monitor for a school district in New York State. As State Monitor, Dr. Jallow provides oversight, guidance and technical assistance related to the educational and fiscal policies, practices, programs, and decisions for the school district, including the Board of Education.

Dr. Jallow’s classroom and administrative experience is vast, having served as a mathematics teacher, mathematics director, director of curriculum and instruction, chief academic officer, founding principal, assistant superintendent, deputy superintendent, and associate professor. She has served traditional and charter school organizations throughout New York tri-state area, including 3 New York City school districts, Hartford, CT, New Orleans, LA, Prince Georges County, MD, Trenton, NJ, and Mt. Vernon, NY.

Dr. Lynn Moody is the Founder of ReThink ED. She enjoys facilitating thoughtful conversations for teams who want to create spaces for innovative learners to discover and hone their unique smartness. Previously, she served as superintendent for Rowan-Salisbury Schools, North Carolina– the first and only “Renewal School District” in the state. Renewal legislation granted complex charter-like flexibility to the entire system. She also served as superintendent for Rock Hill Schools, South Carolina. Rock Hill Schools was one of the first systems to implement a digital conversion. Dr. Moody is driven by innovation and helping others explore ways to educate children.

Debra Moran-Reimonenq is the Associate Superintendent of Saint Louis Public Schools and has over 40 years of extensive educational experience. She’s held various support and leadership roles across all grade levels.  Within the New Orleans Public School System, she has excelled in positions as a classroom teacher, lead teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Upon leaving the New Orleans School District, Ms. Moran served as Chief of Federal Funding for the Algiers Charter School Association. In this position she provided guidance to school leaders on using federal funding to provide maximum opportunities and resources for their school communities. These experiences provided the background needed for her next position as Director of Principal Certification for the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans. There Ms. Moran developed, designed, and implemented the Alternative Principal Certification Program.

Dan Shimoff is a seasoned technologist, business leader and strategist with an extensive background in educational technology.  Dan served as the Beable’s founding CTO and established its global engineering group and set the company’s engineering strategy and processes. For more than 25 years Mr. Shimoff has served in technology leadership roles, building companies and leading their engineering divisions, most notably PictureVision (acquired by Kodak), Demantra (acquired by Oracle) and Tegrity (acquired by McGraw-Hill Education).

Dr. Malbert Smith has worked on prestigious research projects with the National Center for Education Statistics, the Gates Foundation, and others to study a myriad of issues such as summer reading loss, the effectiveness of the NAEP assessments and English language learning. He has taught graduate seminars at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Smith has also been named a research professor at UNC’s School of Education, focusing on psychological and human development studies.

Dr. Donna Wright has served in many roles in her forty-plus year career as an educator.  She has positively influenced the educational field as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, deputy director, and prior to being named as the superintendent of schools for Wilson County (TN) in 2014, served as the Deputy Superintendent in Williamson County and Knox County Schools in Tennessee.  Dr. Wright has won many awards and was most recently named the “2020 Tennessee Superintendent of the Year” by the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents.  

Dr. Randy Bridges has served as superintendent of school systems in North and South Carolina and Virginia. He has been a public-school educator for over 35 years; holding positions as a classroom teacher/coach, middle school assistant principal, middle and high school principal, associate superintendent of human resources and public relations.

Dr. Bridges received his associate in arts degree from Louisburg Junior College, undergraduate and masters’ degrees from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and a Doctor of Education from Fayetteville State University.

Dr. Bridges was named North Carolina Superintendent of the Year by the North Carolina School Boards Association and the North Carolina Association of Educators during his ten years as a superintendent. In 2015, he received The Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award, which is the highest civilian recognition presented by the Governor of North Carolina.

Dr. Bridges and his wife Vernetta are the parents of two adult children: daughter, Dr. Randi Bridges-Raynor, who is the Director of Pharmacy for Iredell Health in Statesville, North Carolina, and son, Garrett Bridges, who is the Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at The University of Pacific in Stockton, California. Dr. Bridges and his wife have four grandchildren, Nova and Grey Bridges and Bryce and Dez Raynor.