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.
Contact Louis Freedberg.

John Fensterwald joined EdSource in 2012 as editor of EdSource Today. Prior to joining EdSource he was editor and co-writer for the "Thoughts on Public Education (TOP-Ed)" website, one of the leading sources of California education policy reporting and opinion, which he founded in 2009. For 11 years before that, John wrote editorials for the Mercury News in San Jose, with a focus on education. He worked as a reporter, news editor and opinion editor for three newspapers in New Hampshire for two decades before receiving a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1997 and heading West shortly thereafter. His wife is an elementary school teacher and his daughter attends the University California at Davis.
Contact John Fensterwald.

Kathryn Baron joined EdSource in 2012 as senior writer for EdSource Today. Prior to joining EdSource, she was co-writer of TOP-Ed (Thoughts On Public Education in California), and has been covering education in California for about 15 years; most of that time at KQED Public Radio where her reports aired on The California Report as well as various National Public Radio programs. She also wrote for magazines and newspapers before going virtual as producer and editor at The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Kathy grew up in New York in a family of teachers. She moved to California for graduate school and after spending one sunny New Year’s Day riding her bicycle in the foothills, decided to stay. She and her husband live in Belmont. They have two children, one in college and one in high school.
Contact Kathryn Baron.

Shaun Baksh joined EdSource in 2012 as our Finance Manager. Shaun graduated from the California State University, Sacramento with a BS in Accounting. He has worked in the private sector as well as with non-profit organizations. Shaun is responsible for agency and grant budget development and monitoring, accounts payable, and the administration of staff benefits. Contact Shaun Baksh.

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 Today. 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. Contact Erin Brownfield.

Lisa Chavez is Senior Research Associate at EdSource. She earned her Ph.D. from the Sociology Department at UC Berkeley and has worked in several research settings including the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at Berkeley Law, the Center for Latino Policy Research at UC Berkeley, WestEd, and MPR Associates. A fourth-generation Californian from the San Gabriel Valley, she is passionate about conducting research that will promote educational opportunity in her home state. Contact Lisa Chavez.

Susan Frey is a writer and editor who has been at EdSource since 1999. She is responsible for writing articles for EdSource Today, and researching, writing, and editing some reports. 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. Contact Susan Frey.

Michelle Maitre, senior editor at EdSource Today, is a Bay Area native with more than 15 years of education reporting and editing experience. Michelle started covering higher education as a reporter at the San Jose State University college newspaper and later held education reporting jobs at several small to mid-sized daily newspapers. She joined the regional staff at the Oakland Tribune in 2003 as higher education reporter before moving into editing, where she worked as deputy projects editor for the Bay Area News Group and assistant managing editor at the Oakland Tribune, among other positions. Contact Michelle Maitre.

Lillian Mongeau joined EdSource in 2012 as an early childhood education reporter. She has a special focus on science, engineering technology and math (STEM) in the pre-K and elementary grades. Prior to joining EdSource,
Lillian was a freelance education reporter. Her written work appeared in The East Bay Express, on The New York Times SchoolBook blog and on The Hechinger Report, among other places. Her radio work aired on KQED-Bay Area
and KUSP-Central Coast public radio. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism in May 2011. Lillian began her career with Teach For America as a seventh grade English teacher on the Texas-Mexico
border. When she's not writing, she's running/skiing/biking/climbing/hiking/you get the idea. Lillian, her engineer husband and their collection of outdoor gear live in Silicon Valley. Contact Lillian Mongeau.

Smita Patel is a Web and Communications Manager 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 leads 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. Contact Smita Patel.

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. Contact Brent Zupp.

Consultants

Joy E. Carlson, Principal, J. Carlson Consulting, is an organizational development consultant specializing in strategic planning, and policy and program development, with particular focus on non-profit organizations in transition or start-up modes. She is the founder and former executive director of the national organization the Children¹s Environmental Health Network, and has worked in the non-profit sector for several decades. She has provided consultation to state, national, and international organizations.

René Durazzo is a communications and community action strategist. He is the founder of All-In Strategies, a consultancy based in Oakland, California specializing in achieving high-impact community change, particularly in public education and public health. René has over twenty years of experience in developing communications, policy and community action initiatives in communities ranging from San Francisco, California to Durban, South Africa.