Board of Directors
PCSD’s board of directors brings an abundance of philanthropic, business, and development experience to help guide the organization as it moves forward with its goals.
Kevin Hall
Kevin Hall is President & CEO of Charter School Growth Fund, which invests philanthropic vetnure capital in the nation's highest performing charter school operators. He joined CSGF in July 2009 to lead a process of developing CSGF's new strategic plan, refining its investment strategies and launching its second fund. Before joining CSGF, Mr. Hall served as the Chief Operating Officer of The Broad Foundation for several years where he led various aspects of the Foundation's grant investment strategy and work. Prior to Broad, he was a co-founder and ran business development for Chancellor Beacon Academies, a manager of charter and private schools across the U.S. Previously, Mr. Hall ran a division of infoUSA, and worked at McKinsey & Co., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Teach For America. Mr. Hall was an elementary school teacher and teaching fellow at Harvard University, and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Swarthmore College.
Julie Mikuta
Julie Mikuta is a Partner with NewSchools Venture Fund’s West Coast office, where she oversees investment strategy, and management assistance to the firm’s portfolio ventures. A former Rhodes Scholar, Mikuta has worked as a high school teacher for Teach For America and later served as the organization’s Vice President of Alumni Affairs. She served on the District of Columbia’s Board of Education and helped start the DC-based SEED Public Charter School. Mikuta holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Oxford University.
K. Robert (Bobby) Turner
K. Robert Turner is a Managing Partner and Co-Chair of Canyon-Johnson Realty Advisors, Co-Chair of the Fund Investment Committee, and a Managing Partner of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors. An expert in the acquisition, development, finance and management of commercial real estate assets, Turner directs Canyon’s real estate activities. At Canyon, he has been involved in over 164 real estate and mortgage transactions, totaling in excess of $1.8 billion dollars. This includes the development, construction, rehabilitation, and repositioning of over 7 million square feet of commercial property located throughout the U.S. Prior to the formation of Canyon, Turner was a Senior Vice President at Banque Indosuez, where he specialized in structured real estate transactions including CMBS and whole loans. Turner received a B.S. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
James Willcox
James Willcox is Chief Executive Officer of Oakland-based Aspire Public Schools. He was previously Aspire's Chief Operating Officer, and prior to that, the founding Chief Operating Officer for the Education for Change, a nonprofit charter management organization that restructures underperforming district schools as independent charter schools. Willcox has also served as a Principal at NewSchools Venture Fund, where he evaluated investment opportunities and the design and implementation of NewSchools’ charter school facility investment strategy. Willcox holds a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and an M. Ed. and M.B.A from Stanford University.
Glenn Pierce
Glenn Pierce is President & CEO of Canyon Agassi Partners, a newly created investment arm of Canyon Partners formed in 2010 for the purpose of encouraging mission related investments in high-quality public charters schools nationally. Prior to that, he founded and led Pacific Charter School Development since 2004 as Director, President & CEO.
Eli Kennedy
Eli Kennedy is the interim President & CEO of Pacific Charter School Development. He is an expert in urban school district strategic redesign, including efficient human resource operations, performance-based pay and performance accountability. Prior to PCSD, he was an Associate Director at The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, managing the foundation’s investments in school districts, and prior to Broad, was the Western regional director for Platform Learning, a New York-based tutoring company. His previous experience also includes working as a senior analyst at UC Berkeley, as a manager of strategic planning for DNET in San Francisco and as an analyst and senior consultant for Accenture in Atlanta. Kennedy has a B.S. in business administration and finance from Howard University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
