Together We're Stronger

Luis joins the Stronger team following eight years of service in the education space as a turnaround leader at Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, a founding teacher and world language expert at Noble Street Network in Chicago and a partnership advisor to schools and districts across the country while at Springboard Schools.
Luis experienced the disparity caused by differences in community income levels in the two school districts he attended. He grew passionate in exploring how to improve social structures that limit individuals’ potential outcomes. Through his work, Luis has seen how the lack of access to a quality education can be a gatekeeper to success.

Luis is an Alumnus of Teach for America. He holds a BA with honors and a Child Advocacy certificate from Montclair State University and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a M.S. in Urban Education. “With each partnership, we can strive to close the educational opportunity gap for children so that they can grow up to be the best version of themselves”.

Jose Manuel Andre Iniguez is the Director of Talent and Strategy Consulting at Stronger. Born in East LA and raised in the rural farm town of Tulare in California’s Central Valley, Jose has dedicated his professional career to developing students toward achieving their full potential in and out of the classroom. He most recently served as Site Director for Year Up San Francisco where he oversaw the site’s efforts toward bridging the opportunity divide for talented young adults by training and then matching them for internships at top finance and tech companies in the Bay Area. Previously, he served as the Director of High School Preparation and Alumni Programs at Equitas Academy Charter Schools, where he oversaw the strategy development, implementation, and evaluation of the inaugural alumni program providing the network’s scholars and families with support through pathways toward college graduation. As Senior Program Manager at City Year Los Angeles, he led and implemented school transformation efforts inside K-5th grade classrooms that empowered students to get back on track to graduate high school. He has also led youth development and digital media efforts at MTV, Participant Media, and Swipe Out Hunger, among others. Raised by Mexican immigrant parents and the first to attend college in his family, Jose graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and earned a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also a graduate of the Broad Residency in Urban Education, earning a master’s degree in education leadership from The Broad Center.

Brian Johnson joins the Stronger team as the Associate Director of Operations following 16 years of service in the higher education space as a practitioner working in Student Affairs, specifically within Student Housing and Residence Life programs. Brian has dedicated his professional career to creating robust residential programs that allow students to learn more about themselves, build relationships with others, and understand the importance of making a positive social impact in the communities that they live and serve. Born and raised in upstate South Carolina, Brian attended Coastal Carolina University where he earned dual Bachelor of Science Degrees in Business Administration, Management and Marketing. One of his greatest accomplishments during his time at Coastal was chartering the Beta Beta Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated – a service organization built on the ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and service. It is within this organization that Brian grew a passion for civic engagement and working to develop strategies to improve educational experience for minorities. After his undergraduate experience, he matriculated to Eastern Illinois University where he earned a Master’s degree in Higher Education and Counseling.

In his previous position serving as the Director of Residence Life and Second-Year Experience for Student Housing and Residence Life at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Brian set the strategic vision and leadership for all aspects of the Residence Life program and the Second Year Experience initiative. During his time at UAB, Brian assisted with the onboarding of several retention and assessment tools, improved functional area operations by collaborating with campus partners and University stakeholders, conducted and reported assessment analysis to senior leaders, and developed people strategies to improve the employee experience and overall organizational culture.  

Jade is a passionate problem-solver committed to educational equity and social justice. Her career in education started when she supported a charter school in Memphis through fundraising and grant writing. Her passion for college access and success led her to join Teach for America where she managed college and career programming. While a corps member, she joined Leadership for Educational Equity where she developed a framework for merging her two passions. Her work with LEE led her to be recruited to lead the launch of a chapter of a national nonprofit that focused efforts on recruiting and training parents, students, and teachers to address community-based issues that impacted schools. After a fulfilling time in community organizing, she returned to her academic role where she now supports students and families to ensure that 100% have access to a post-secondary pathway that allows a life of independence, choice, and fulfillment. Jade considers herself a natural recruiter and looks forward to connecting people to opportunities that are the best fit for them- especially for roles that elevate opportunities for disadvantaged youth. She lives in Memphis, TN with her husband,  daughter and newly arrived son.

Adriana is the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Stronger Consulting. Adriana has spent the majority of her career in the social impact and education space. She served as an AmeriCorps member with City Year Boston, where she worked in a systemically under-resourced school as a full-time tutor and mentor. She fulfilled the wishes of children with a critical illness in her role at the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

She returned to San Diego in 2015 and began working at Calibr, a nonprofit transnational research institute dedicated to creating the next generation of medicines. In 2017, she rejoined City Year to work on their recruitment and admissions team where she served as a recruitment director for the West Region where she led a team of eight recruiters across four sites, L.A., Sacramento, San Jose and Seattle. 

Adriana earned a BA in Human Development and a minor in Spanish Literature from the University of California, San Diego in 2012 and an MA in Nonprofit Leadership and Management at the University of San Diego. Adriana loves to spend time with her husband and their six year old mini-goldendoodle. She also loves yoga, CrossFit, hiking, cooking, and traveling.

Fernando joins Stronger Consulting after two years in operations at The Broad Center, where he supported the recruitment and selection activities for The Broad Residency in Urban Education, delivered career support to Residency alumni, and operationalized the launch of The Broad Center at Yale School of Management.

Fernando knows first-hand the positive impacts education can have from his own personal experience. Fernando was fortunate to have many great teachers who challenged him intellectually, helped him think more critically and grow socially, but they also built strong relationships to help guide and support him. Inspired by his own teachers and seeing the positive impacts of education in his own life, Fernando wanted to help make our public education systems more equitable for others as well.

Fernando attended Brown University, where he earned his BA in Environmental Studies and Economics and served in several teaching and leadership roles including coordinating an annual event for newly accepted students by Brown’s admissions office as well as mentoring hundreds of high school students regarding environmental issues.

Tyler is an eager and passionate recent college graduate who is set on making an impact on the lives of students. From his experience in coaching and developing youth leaders from a young age, Tyler brings a unique and fresh perspective to our team. Multiple years of 1:1 in-person coaching has prepared him to bring his personal passion for caring for and supporting others to his work. Tyler has grown into many different roles at Stronger Consulting; these include coordinating and managing multiple search projects, organizing and streamlining company financial operations, and driving the company’s social media marketing campaigns.

A native of San Diego, and graduate of CSU, Chico, Tyler enjoys spending his free time in the gym and outdoors where he dedicates his time to training himself and others to develop a passion for health and fitness. 

Tiffany Small-McKelvin is a change management and talent strategy consultant with nearly two decades of experience in organizational effectiveness, operational excellence, strategic planning, project management, equity and inclusion strategy, and leadership coaching and development across multiple industries including the K12 education sector where she held network-level leadership positions in school operations and talent strategy before serving as Vice President of Human Resources Operations at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools.  Tiffany attended UC, Berkeley, BS Bioengineering; Purdue University, MBA; The Broad Center, MEd, Urban Education and Leadership.

Kristin has 15 years of experience leading for education equity as a teacher, school administrator, founding executive director, and network leader in district and charter school settings in our nation’s largest cities. Kristin’s passion and expertise is in strategic planning, systems design, start-up work, and talent development. Most recently, Kristin served as the Chief Academic Officer at STRIVE Prep, a network of K-12 charter schools in Denver, CO, where she led organizational strategy and adult development programming. Prior to that, she was a founding school leader in New York City, and has helped grow new schools in teaching and leadership roles as part of Uncommon Schools and the Noble Network of Charter Schools. She began her career as a district school teacher and Teach for America Corps Member in Brooklyn, NY. Now you can find Kristin consulting with schools and nonprofits around the country on strategic planning, education equity, and talent development. When not working on work she loves, Kristin is obsessively rooting for her favorite baseball team or exploring the outdoors in Denver, CO with her two pups.

Will DeSmit brings more than 10 years of experience in executive recruiting, communications and operations roles from a variety of industries. Since 2019, he has been an independent consultant for nonprofits providing strategic support for various recruitment, research, and marketing initiatives. Previously, Will was a key member of the marketing and communications team at Koya Leadership Partners, a mission-driven executive search firm, where he helped with business development, design and strategy.

He also supported marketing and promotions for Warner Brothers unscripted television properties and served in a range of project management and operations roles for K-12 educational nonprofits, foundations, workforce development agencies and charter management organizations. He earned his BA at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and is currently a graduate student working towards a career as an Art Therapist and Counselor. He is based in Los Angeles.

Laura is a project management and talent professional with a 20-year career in driving actionable initiatives that strengthen organizations. Among her professional organizations are Clorox, Ghirardelli Chocolate, H2O+ Beauty, and Stronger Consulting. Laura is also adept at strategic project planning, cross-functional team leadership, and employee relations. Laura is passionate about education and understands that children have different learning styles and personalities, and come from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds. Laura is a former board member and long-time volunteer of Rebuilding Together Oakland California. She is a graduate of Temple University and makes her home in Pennsylvania.

Jodie is a senior education leader, with over 15 years’ experience leading national and local education programs in the US and UK. In the UK, Jodie led the expansion of its Charter school program; opening 300 schools in three years and led work to build strategic partnerships between Charter Management Organizations and local school districts. In the US, Jodie led the development and implementation of a new teacher evaluation system for the New York City Department for Education. Most recently Jodie worked at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools in Los Angeles, developing their organizational strategy and leading on their governance change program.

As a consultant, Jodie has led work on a variety of high-profile projects including establishing government and private sector partnerships to deliver national Apprenticeship reforms, establishing a strategic plan to improve teacher retention in New York City, and developing a Playbook for Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

JunJun grew up in Shenzhen, China where poverty persists alongside wealth and industrialization. Witnessing the stark contrast between the two communities, she developed a deep-rooted belief that education is tied to economic empowerment, the only way communities can become self-sufficient to overpower an unforgiving system of multi-generational poverty. JunJun graduated from Duke University studying Economics and Education to further understand how the two systems are interrelated and is currently attending Harvard University for a Master’s in Education Policy and Analysis to understand how to incur much-needed change for an equitable education system. Prior to Stronger, JunJun has experience working as a 4th grade teacher and instructional coach at an urban charter school in Brooklyn, NY.