Executive Director

Louis Freedberg joined EdSource as executive director in July 2011. (See press release.) The EdSource Board of Directors selected Freedberg after conducting a national search and he is just the third executive director in the organization's 34-year history. Freedberg is working with the EdSource staff and board to expand the reach of the agency's work, establish new partnerships, and develop innovative ways to engage Californians on the future of public education in the state.

For more than two decades, Freedberg has analyzed and reported on local, state, and national education policy issues. Most recently, Freedberg was the founding director and senior education reporter at California Watch, a pioneering nonprofit journalism venture. Prior to that, he spent more than a decade at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was an award-winning education reporter, Washington correspondent, columnist, and member of the editorial board. He has served as an executive director of several nonprofit organizations, including Youth News. He also directed youth programs at Pacific News Service/New America Media. A South African by birth, he founded and directed the Institute for a New South Africa. Freedberg has been a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, a Visiting Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C., and a Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in developmental psychology from Yale University.

EdSource Staff

Erin Brownfield joined EdSource in 2010 as development and communications manager. She is responsible for grants management and development work, and writes education posts for EdSource Extra. Prior to joining EdSource, Erin was a senior communications officer at The Wallace Foundation in New York where she managed major grants related to increasing awareness of the value of high-quality afterschool programs and other education initiatives. She also oversaw numerous foundation communications projects such as an award-winning online tool that calculates the costs of afterschool programs for youth in a variety of settings. Brownfield also served as director of communications at Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research organization focused on early childhood education and work-life issues. She holds a Master's of Public Policy and Administration from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, where she completed a yearlong final research project on health and education outcomes for the children of former substance abusers in supportive housing. She holds a B.A. with honors in English from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She volunteers in the classroom at Stevenson/PACT public elementary school in Mountain View.

Susan Frey is a Program Associate who has been at EdSource since 1999. She is responsible for editing all publications and overseeing their design and printing. She also researches and writes parent guides, issue briefs, voter guides, articles for the website, informational materials, and occasional reports. She is responsible for managing all phases of EdSource's Resource Cards from research to printing. Frey also serves as secretary for Friends of African Village Libraries, a nonprofit that builds libraries and promotes the culture of reading in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from Ohio State University and a B.A. with honors in Journalism from San Jose State University.  

Smita Patel is a Web and Communications Specialist for EdSource. She coordinated the first redesign of EdSource Online in 2000 and the development of a content management system and e-commerce capability for the website in 2001. Since that time she has worked with EdSource on a variety of projects, including managing the survey recruitment and retrieval for EdSource's Similar Students and Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades research projects and helping launch the California School Finance website. She is responsible for coordinating website projects and EdSource's work on the Ed-Data partnership as well as providing outreach and communication support. She co-founded and volunteers actively for the Mountain Children's Forum, a project to empower children in rural mountain communities. She holds a B.A. with honors in Journalism from San Jose State University.

Rae Ann Ewbank has been Finance Manager at EdSource since 1995. She is responsible for agency and grant budget development and monitoring, accounts payable, payroll, and benefits administration; and assists in preparation for the agency's annual audit. Ewbank is a former PTA Treasurer at the unit, council, and district levels; and a former Co-Chair, Fremont Union High School District Budget Advisory Committee. She holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Hawaii.

Maggie Rancatore is a Senior Administrator at EdSource and has been with the organization since 1999. She is responsible for board, fund development, and executive support, and assists with outreach efforts and Forum logistics. Before coming to EdSource, she worked as a library instructional aide with the Los Altos School District (LASD). She has served as the Mountain View High School Parent Association president, as president at the California State PTA unit and council levels, and on the LASD Long Range Planning Committee. She holds a B.S. degree in Business from San Francisco State University.

Raquel Gonzales joined EdSource as an Administrative Assistant in October 2007. She provides administrative, program, and customer support for the EdSource team. Prior to joining EdSource, she was an office manager for a local energy conservation consulting firm for almost 10 years. Gonzales was an active public school volunteer during her children's school years. She currently volunteers at her grandson's school and at a food for low-income families program. She recently earned her B.A. in English at San Jose State University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an A.A. in Liberal Arts – Business and Information Systems from De Anza Community College.

Brent Zupp is a Web Editing Consultant for EdSource. He is responsible for the overall quality of the user experience for the EdSource website, including web content editing, posting, and quality control; technical management; and contributing to site development and enhancement. Prior to working for EdSource, he was a web production manager/web editor for IBM alphaWorks & developerWorks. He has also served as a web content developer and email production manager for Razorfish, and as an interim managing editor for Fatbrain.com. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Reed College and a Masters in Business Administration from Oregon State University.

Consultants

Mary Perry served as the Deputy Director of EdSource from 1993 to 2011 and currently serves as a consultant to EdSource. Perry is widely known for her ability to clearly explain complex education policy, data, and research to a wide range of education stakeholders. Topic areas of particular expertise include standards-based reform and California school finance. In 2006, she was the study project director for a collaborative partnership between EdSource and School Services of California under the auspices of the Getting Down to Facts portfolio of school finance studies. EdSource's work yielded a groundbreaking report in March 2007 called School District Finance Management: Personnel, Policies, and Practices. She was also project director for a study of developmental course taking in the California Community Colleges, and was part of the research teams that conducted EdSource's Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades study and follow-up algebra placement analysis.