the elevate team

Bill Phillips

Bill Phillips is the president of the New York Charter Schools Association (NYCSA). He oversees the operations of NYCSA and maintains a focus on grasstops advocacy. Mr. Phillips served in business development leadership positions with Beacon Education Management and SABIS Educational Systems. Prior to entering the charter sector, he worked as a marketing and new product specialist and a manufacturing supervisor with Texas Instruments, Inc. During that period he also served as a school board member in Massachusetts and, during his tenure, founded a regional charter school in Foxboro. Mr. Phillips earned his Masters in public administration from George Washington University and a Bachelors of Science from Lehigh University. bphillips@elevatecharters.org

Jill Shahen

Jill E. Shahen is the Managing Director of the New York Charter Schools Association. In this role she oversees school membership relations, compliance and oversight issues for all Association member schools, provides Help Desk services to member schools, and oversees the daily operations of the Association. Ms. Shahen also provides consulting services through NYCSA's Elevate Charter Schools project through CharterShield, CharterRenew and CharterGo. Her experience is specifically concentrated in board governance, compliance and oversight, and school policy implementation.

Ms. Shahen is the former Director of Charter Accountability for the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York, a position she held for over seven years. At the Institute she was responsible for charter oversight, monitoring and compliance issues for over 40 SUNY authorized charter schools including charter schools that were closed. Ms. Shahen also served as the Institute's liaison with the SUNY Board of Trustees and the New York State Education Department. Ms. Shahen worked with School Performance on compliance and oversight issues for the Albany, NY charter schools. jshahen@elevatecharters.org