CWC is being founded by a highly accomplished Board of Directors that includes experts in education, finance, business, management, facilities, law and more. Individuals involved in these efforts include:

Mark Gordon, Founder/Honorary Chairman: Mr. Gordon is an award-winning producer with more than 70 motion picture and television projects to his credit. For television, Mr. Gordon is currently executive producer on the ABC series GREY'S ANATOMY, PRIVATE PRACTICE, as well as the CBS drama CRIMINAL MINDS and Lifetime's ARMY WIVES. Mr. Gordon is a five time Emmy nominee with two wins. He has been nominated for multiple Golden Globe Awards, with two wins. He earned Academy Award and BAFTA nominations and won a Golden Globe for Best Picture as producer of Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The film also won Best Picture honors from the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Broadcast Film Critics, among others, and brought Mr. Gordon a Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America.

Mr. Gordon's other motion picture credits include the Roland Emmerich-directed films 10,000 BC, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid), THE PATRIOT (Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger), PAULIE (which won a BAFTA Award for Best Children's Film), BROKEN ARROW (John Travolta) and SPEED (Keanu Reeves); TALK TO ME (Don Cheadle), THE HOAX (Richard Gere), CASANOVA (Heath Ledger); THE PAINTED VEIL (Edward Norton and Naomi Watts) and HOSTAGE (Bruce Willis), PRIME (Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman), THE MATADOR (Pierce Brosnan), Sam Raimi's A SIMPLE PLAN; and THE JACKAL (Richard Gere, Bruce Willis and Sidney Poitier).

Mr. Gordon also has produced more than a dozen long-form television projects, including the HBO film WARM SPRINGS about Franklin Delano Roosevelt (16 Emmy nominations, winning five, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie), HBO's AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF (nine Emmy Award nominations) and THE WAR BETWEEN THE CLASSES (Emmy for Best Children's Program). He also directed and produced the Emmy nominated CHILDREN REMEMBER THE HOLOCAUST.

Mr. Gordon is the former chairman of Teach for America Los Angeles, and a former board member of The Holocaust Documentation and Information Center, and The UCLA Lab School. He is the current Vice President of the Producers Guild of America and is a board member of the Virginia Film Festival, The Archer School for Girls, The Jewish Television Network, Chrysalis and The Motion Picture and Television Fund. He is a graduate of New York University Film School.

Kristean Dragon, Founding Board Chair: Ms. Dragon is Executive Director of The Wonder of Reading, an acclaimed school library renovation and literacy program that has partnered with more than 200 public elementary schools throughout Southern California. Previously, Ms. Dragon served in several capacities with Teach for America, including as a corps member in South Los Angeles, Executive Director of its Los Angeles operation, and ultimately Vice President, Regional Operations, in which she managed six western regions from Denver to Hawaii. She has also served as Professional Development Coordinator at UCLA's acclaimed Center X, developing mathematics curricula and training more than 4,000 teachers in LAUSD. She currently serves as Board Chair for Larchmont Charter Schools, and has served as Vice Chair of the Board of Community Magnet Elementary School. Dragon graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Alabama, and she received a Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Josh McLaughlin, Current Board Chair: Josh McLaughlin serves as both CWC's Chair and parent representative to our Board of Directors. Josh, along with his wife Stacey, initially became involved with CWC in 09-10 as Founding Parents prior to CWC opening its doors. In his time away from CWC, Josh is the Executive Vice President of Peter Chernin Entertainment. McLaughlin was formerly co-head of the motion picture division of The Mark Gordon Company where he produced the critically acclaimed film Talk To Me starring Don Cheadle and written/directed by Kasi Lemmons. Mr. McLaughlin began his career as an assistant at The Gersh Agency and later worked as a Creative Executive at The Mutual Film Company. In his role as a film executive, Josh is constantly working towards bridging both the creative and business sides of the industry in order to execute large-scale projects. In much the same way, Josh has been excited to lend that same expertise and skill-set to CWC, where there is ongoing and important work to make the inspiring philosophy and creative vision of our school sustainable for years to come.

Dan Nieman: Mr. Nieman currently serves as Managing Director of the Political Leadership Initiative for Teach For America, where he is responsible for managing relationships with a variety of partnerships to support Teach for America alumni in their pursuits of elected office. Mr. Nieman also coordinates Teach for America's School Board Fellows Program and Emerging Political Leaders Fellowship for corp member alumni. Mr. Nieman began his career as an elementary school teacher, teaching at P.S. 153 in Harlem with Teach for America, and then serving as a Founding Teacher of the Bronx Charter School for the Arts for two years. After teaching, Mr. Nieman moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles and participated in the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. Most recently, Mr. Nieman spent the past three years as the Director of Community Affairs for Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Marlene Canter. There he served as a liaison between 120 schools, principals, teachers, parents, and constituents and the school board member. Mr. Nieman has a B.F.A from the University of Michigan, School of Art and Design and a M.S. in Education from the Bank Street College of Education.

Kate Sobel: Ms. Sobel is the Principal of Camino Nuevo, Harvard K-8 Campus, a highly successful charter school in the mid-Wilshire district. She began her teaching career in 1998 with Teach for America in Compton and South Los Angeles, where she took on leadership opportunities including grade-level chair, lead teacher and literacy coach. She also served as family literacy program director and worked alongside parents to advocate for their children's rights in the district. During her graduate work, she published research on No Child Left Behind with The Civil Rights Project. Ms. Sobel then returned to Teach For America where she worked as the director of their summer institutes in New York and Los Angeles. Ms. Sobel earned a bachelor's in International Relations and Japanese Studies from Tufts University and a master's degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

Craig Tessler, CPA, Board Treasurer: Mr. Tessler is a partner in Chapman, Bird, Grey & Tessler, Inc., a management firm for prominent motion picture industry professionals and other high net worth families. Mr. Tessler has been a CPA since 1991. Prior to joining his current firm in 1994, he worked in the audit department of Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young), the tax department of Kenneth Leventhal and Co., and the firm Breslauer Jacobson Rutman and Sherman. Mr. Tessler holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara. He has served on the Board of Directors of the L.A. Junior Chamber of Commerce and currently is a Director of the Brotman Foundation.


Amy Dresser Held, Executive Director: Amy Dresser Held joined the board of Citizens of the World Charter (CWC) in January and became Executive Director in July 2010. Prior to joining CWC, Amy served as Executive Director of Palisades Charter High School, a diverse, high performing charter high school of more than 2,700 students and 200 staff. In her capacity as Executive Director, Amy oversaw academics, finance (a $22 million annual budget), facilities, labor relations, legal, and communications. Prior to joining Pali High in 2006, Amy worked for several years at the Los Angeles Unified School District on the staff of then-School Board President Caprice Young, then as a Special Assistant to Senior Deputy Superintendent Maria Ott, and finally as Director of Policy and Communications with then-LAUSD School Board President Marlene Canter. Amy began her career as a Teach for America corps member, teaching a bilingual fifth grade class in Phoenix, followed by a position with Kaplan and completion of the Coro Public Affairs Leadership Training Post-Graduate Fellowship in Los Angeles. Amy received her B.S. in Humanities in International Affairs from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Amy is passionate about the mission and vision of Citizens of the World Charter. Amy is a language aficionado and a world traveler who has lived abroad in France and Mexico, and considers herself a citizen of the world. As a mother of two toddlers and a veteran educator, Amy considers CWC an ideal environment to nurture and develop in children not only exceptional academic achievement but a deep appreciation of the rich diversity of our society and a commitment to be of service to the local community and the larger world in which we live.

Marissa Berman, Founding Principal: Marissa received her B.A. from Columbia University and her Master's in Education from UC Berkeley. Most recently, she was an administrator and teacher at the North Oakland Community Charter School (NOCCS), including a three year stint on their Board of Directors. Given her time at NOCCS as a K/1 and 2/3 teacher, Marissa is a hands-on instructional leader who is closely connected to her own experience as a classroom teacher and developer of curriculum. In her administrative functions at NOCCS, she helped lead fundraising efforts, while also having redesigned their after-school program, created a school-wide service-learning curriculum and developed a structure for after-school math intervention. Similar to her role at CWC, Marissa participated in teacher mentoring and professional development. Previous to her time at NOCCS, Marissa worked at various public and independent elementary schools in San Francisco and the Bay Area. She is a Project Zero Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, where she has led teacher training workshops and study groups on the Teaching for Understanding curriculum development framework, which CWC uses to structure thematic and interdisciplinary units at each grade level.

Marissa is a true "citizen of the world," growing up in Chicago and having lived in New York and San Francisco respectively for several years. Additionally, Marissa feels privileged to have had amazing opportunities living in Cameroon and France as well. With a true passion for travel, Marissa has learned a great deal from time spent in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, South America, Europe and North America. She speaks French and some basic Spanish.

Marissa is incredibly passionate about the mission and vision for CWC - she said when she was first reading our website she felt like we had written it personally for her! Her enthusiasm and leadership around CWC's core values is truly contagious. Marissa's great aim is that Citizens of the World will exist as proof that a progressive public school like ours will thrive in offering a diverse group of students an innovative, thought-provoking and educational experience - to, in essence, develop a new generation of positive leaders and thoughtful citizens of the world.

We are very pleased to welcome Marissa to CWC and believe she will be a tremendous instructional leader for our school.

In addition, CWC has assembled a prominent group of experts for our Advisory Board, all available to offer their talents and advice to our school.

Our Advisory Board Members are all highly accomplished experts who have agreed to support our school on an as-needed basis by providing advice and counsel to our Board and staff. These individuals include:

Wendy Barreno, Deputy Director, "I Have a Dream" Foundation-Los Angeles
Robert Burke, Principal, Open Charter Magnet School
Melba Culpepper, Executive Director, Hollywood Boys and Girls Club
Dr. Kristin Droege, Founding Principal, Larchmont Charter School, West Hollywood
Elizabeth English, Head of School, The Archer School for Girls
Dvora Inwood, Educational Consultant/Founding Educator of Larchmont Charter School
Tara Roth McConaghy, Social Strategy Consultant; West Coast Director, Goldhirsh Foundation; Founder, LA Edupreneurs

In addition, CWC has retained ExEd, the noted back-office management organization that currently works with more than 40 charter schools throughout Southern California, to assist us with financial management, accounting and other operational details. Middleton, Young and Minney, a law firm which specialized in charter school law and business operations, has drafted our by-laws and 501(c)(3) application to the IRS and is providing ongoing counsel. CWC is also an active member of the California Charter Schools Association.

Finally, a growing group of dedicated parent volunteers is working hard already to help make our school one of the best in Los Angeles.