Our Board
Tina V. Fernandez is currently the director of the newly established Pro Bono Program at the University of Texas School of Law, whose vision is that UT Law students engage in pro bono work to increase access to justice and develop a lifetime commitment to providing legal services to those in need. Ms. Fernandez is also a member of the UT Law legal research and writing faculty.
Prior to serving in this capacity, she was the managing director of Alumni Engagement and Infrastructure for Teach For America, a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap in this country. In that role, she worked to engage Teach For America’s then 14,000 alumni through fundraising and volunteer recruitment. During her tenure, Teach For America engaged a record percentage of alumni — over 40 percent in 2009. Prior to joining Teach For America’s staff, she was the associate director of career services at the University of Texas School of Law. In this position, she worked primarily with students interested in pursuing public interest legal careers and served on the national board of PSLawnet, a national clearinghouse of public interest organizations and opportunities.
From 1999 to 2004, Ms. Fernandez worked as a litigation associate at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. During that time, she handled several pro bono cases, representing indigent women in divorce cases and children in abuse and neglect cases. She also served on the firm’s diversity committee. She earned her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law where she was a recipient of a Human Rights Fellowship Award. She was also a member of the Human Rights Law Journal and contributed to A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual, a handbook of legal rights for incarcerated individuals.
Before attending law school, she was a Teach For America ’94 corps member and spent two years as a bilingual elementary teacher in the South Bronx. She graduated from Harvard University in 1994 and is from the Rio Grande Valley. She currently serves as chair of the Teach For America Austin Alumni Association and vice-chair of the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin Charitable Foundation. She is also a founding member of FuturoFund Austin, a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting nonprofits that have an impact on Latino communities in Central Texas.
Kathleen McCartney, the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development, joined the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2000 and has served as dean since 2006. As dean, she has implemented a strategic plan that has resulted in the creation of a new degree program, the doctorate in education leadership (Ed.L.D.); growth in core faculty (from 61 to 76); a doubling of financial aid for Ed.M. students; a dramatic increase in fellowship support for Ed.D. students; the creation of the Center for the Developing Child with the School of Public Health; marked increases in sponsored research funding; and continued growth of the School’s self-sustaining professional education and publishing enterprises.
Dr. McCartney’s research program concerns early experience and development, and she has published more than 150 articles and chapters on child care, early childhood education, and poverty. She is a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network, which summarized the results of its 18-year longitudinal study in Child Care and Child Development. She also co-edited The Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development and Best Practices in Developmental Research Methods.
She received a B.S. in psychology summa cum laude from Tufts University, where she now serves as a trustee, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Yale University. She has served as an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University as well as a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, where she directed the Child Study and Development Center, a school for 140 children, from birth through kindergarten. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. She is also a fellow of the American Education Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society.
Ted Mitchell is the president and CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund. He also serves as president of the California State Board of Education. He serves on the board of directors of Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, EnCorps, Friendship Public Charter School, Green Dot Public Schools, and New Leaders for New Schools.
Prior to taking the helm at NewSchools in 2005, Mr. Mitchell served as president of Occidental College in Los Angeles. He has also served as deputy to the president at Stanford University, vice chancellor and dean of the School of Education and Information Studies at University of California-Los Angeles, and professor and chair of the Department of Education at Dartmouth College.
He is a national leader in the effort to provide high-quality education for all students and has long been active in education reform initiatives throughout California and Los Angeles. He chaired the Governor’s Committee on Educational Excellence, charged with making recommendations to improve California’s system of K-12 finance and governance, and currently serves on the California P-16 Council and chairs the Commission on Teacher Effectiveness for the Los Angeles Unified School District. In addition, he has been an active board member for a number of high-performing organizations, including Children Now, ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, The McClatchy Company, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. He also served for eight years on the NewSchools board before becoming CEO. He also serves on the advisory council for Stanford University’s Initiative on Improving K-12 Education and the advisory board of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) Innovation Fund.
He graduated from Stanford with bachelor’s degrees in economics and history and also earned a master’s degree in history and a doctorate in education there. He lives in southern California with his wife, Christine Beckman, who is a professor of strategy and management at the Paul Merage School of Business at University of California-Irvine, and their children, Caroline and Theo.
Sid Smith is the founder and president of SRS Counsel, P.C., a solo law practice that provides virtual general counsel services on a range of corporate and transactional matters. He serves as general counsel to Syncom Venture Partners, a leading media and communications venture firm, and the National Association of Investment Companies, the leading trade association for investors in ethnically diverse companies.
Prior to founding SRS Counsel, Mr. Smith practiced for almost 14 years at the law firms of K&L Gates and Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. Most recently, he was a partner in the corporate and securities group at K&L Gates. Before becoming an attorney, he was Assistant for External Affairs for New Jersey Governor James J. Florio and prior to that he was Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs for New Jersey Congressman Robert G. Torricelli.
He is active in many organizations dedicated to service in the areas of education and economic development. He currently serves on the board of directors of the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law Foundation and is co-chair of the Multicultural Affairs Committee on the Phillips Academy, Andover Alumni Council. He has been involved with the Greater Washington Division of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for over a decade, serving as outside general counsel and as advisory board chair. He is also a charter member of The Marathon Club, an organization focused on increasing investment of capital into businesses with significant minority ownership or management. In addition, he has chaired the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce Incubator Advisory Board and has served as a commissioner on the Virginia Governor’s Commission on Minority Business Enterprise.
Mr. Smith graduated with a B.A. in English from Yale, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is also a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover.