Our Team

We’re a team of experienced, results-driven education executives with over 10 decades of executive experience leading CMOs across 10 of the largest charter school markets in the U.S.

Veronica Conforme

CO-CEO

  • Veronica Conforme is a Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Greenhouse E3. She joined Greenhouse in June of 2023 after leading UP Education Network for six years in Massachusetts. She previously served as Chancellor of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) of Michigan from 2014 to 2017. As Chancellor of the EAA, Veronica oversaw the state district focused on transforming the turn around of schools in the City of Detroit, spearheading important improvements in those schools by reversing long standing trends for students in math and reading.

    For over a decade, she served in senior leadership roles in the NYC Department of Education including Chief Operating Officer overseeing a $23 billion budget and 130,000 employees. Veronica also worked as Vice President for the Access to Opportunity campaign at The College Board.

    Veronica’s deep content knowledge, experience at the senior most levels of two of the country’s largest urban school districts, and leading turn around work and transformation in the charter sector has prepared her for leading Greenhouse E3.

Nikeira Roker-Harewood

PROJECT COORDINATOR & EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

  • Nikeira Roker-Harewood is the Project Coordinator and Executive Assistant of Greenhouse E3. She is self-motivated and progress-driven, with an extensive background in education. With over 15 years of experience in education and most of those years with the largest charter network in the country, KIPP Public Schools, she has made tremendous gains as a teacher, grade-level lead, instructional coach, and operations manager.

    Nikeira founded two KIPP Schools and served as an operations manager, focusing on planning, and implementing logistics, managing computer systems, and communicating with stakeholders.

James Willcox

CO-CEO

  • James Willcox is a Co-Founder and a Co-CEO of Greenhouse E3. He serves as an executive coach and advisor to a diverse set of charter school leaders across the country. He also serves as a senior advisor to Strategic Growth Partners where he previously served as co-founder and CEO from 2016-2020.

    Prior to founding SGP, James was the CEO of Aspire Public Schools from 2009-2015. During his tenure, Aspire grew from 17 schools serving just under 6,000 students to 39 schools serving over 15,000 students, with annual revenues of $215M. Under his leadership, Aspire was the highest performing, high-poverty large school system in California. Aspire was also cited as one of the world’s fastest improving school systems by McKinsey & Co.

    James is a founding Board member of Schoolzilla and Alder Graduate School of Education, two equity centered organizations that he spun out of Aspire during his tenure as CEO. Earlier in his career, James was the founding COO of Education for Change, a Principal at NewSchools Venture Fund, a consultant at The Bridgespan Group, and a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army.

Jessica Cunningham Akoto

PARTNER

  • Jessica Cunningham Akoto is a Partner at Greenhouse E3. In this role, she leads the organization’s thought leadership work and serves as a faculty member for GE3 cohorts. Prior to joining the Greenhouse E3 team, Jessica was the Chief Executive Officer at KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools from 2018 - 2023. During her tenure, KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools grew from five schools serving 2300 students to seven schools serving 3000 students, with annual revenues of $60M.

    Jessica began her career in public education as an elementary school teacher with D.C. Public Schools. Jessica later joined KIPP DC where she founded the organization’s third middle school, WILL Academy, and served as the school’s principal for four years. During her time with KIPP DC Jessica went on to serve as both a high school principal and Chief Academic Officer. After 14 years with KIPP DC, Jessica joined the KIPP Foundation as an Executive in Residence, where she provided coaching and on-site support to KIPP regional leaders to identify and execute the necessary steps to improve student outcomes.

    Jessica is a Fellow of the fourth class of the Pahara Fellowship and a 2015 Milken Educator Award winner. She also serves as chair of EdFuel’s board of directors.

Herneshia Dukes

NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP DIRECTOR

  • Herneshia Dukes serves as the National Fellowship Director for Greenhouse E3. Before joining the team, Herneshia held the position of Executive Director of School Leadership for New Schools for New Orleans. Her primary responsibility was to develop and oversee the E3 Fellowship, a program focused on creating leadership pipelines for aspiring chief-level executives for charter organizations in the city of New Orleans. Herneshia is thrilled to have the opportunity to expand E3 beyond NOLA and to provide a world-class fellowship experience for CEO's and charter leaders across the country.

    Prior to her work with E3, Herneshia served as a founder, principal and head of schools with KIPP Public Schools. While school leader, her campus received a letter grade of an “A” for growth four years in a row and was publicly recognized by Orleans Parish School Board and the state of Louisiana in 2018-2019 for their performance. In 2018, her school ranked in the top quartile in the KIPP national network for the quality and effectiveness of professional development. Herneshia has also served on faculty for KIPP School Leadership Programs (KSLP) where she coached, designed and led programming for KIPP leaders.

    Herneshia is the founder and lead coach at I.D.E.A. Education Consulting, where she provides coaching, training and development for districts, charter networks, and non-profit education programs.

Shaneé Francher-Donald

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Malka Borrego

PARTNER

  • Malka Borrego is a Partner at Greenhouse E3. As the founder of the MB Consulting Company, she brings expertise in the areas of school system leadership, educational equity, and community engagement.

    She is a Latina who has successfully founded a charter management organization that has created positive change and high-quality educational opportunities for students in the community where she was raised. Her leadership is a testament to her commitment to her community and her passion for educational equity. Malka Borrego has over 15 years experience as a successful CEO. She is positioned to support organizations, their leaders and boards in strategy, change management, finance, facilities, talent, communications, DEI work, programs, community engagement and fundraising.

    She earned a BS in Sociology from Pomona College and an MA in Social Science from Stanford University’s School of Education.

Quinn Donayre

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

  • Quinn Donayre is the Special Projects Manager for Greenhouse E3, where she serves the Managing Partners in leading strategic, cross-departmental initiatives.

    Prior to joining Greenhouse E3, Quinn served as the Chief Operating Officer of Launchpeer, a startup incubator for early-stage tech entrepreneurs. She helped lead the company to 3X revenue growth, increased profit margins by 18%, and increased employee happiness by 14%.

    In addition to her work in the private sector, Quinn also worked for the NYC Department of Education, where she managed a $14M budget and led multiple process improvement initiatives for her division.

    Quinn is excited to continue her work in education and bring her expertise in process improvement and implementation to the Greenhouse E3 team.

Ana A. Lopez

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Jay Altman

SENIOR ADVISOR

  • Jay Altman is a Co-Founder of Greenhouse E3 (GE3) and a Senior Advisor for both GE3 and New Schools for New Orleans. He leads the development of the current E3 Fellowship for aspiring charter management executives. Jay is also a Senior Advisor to America Achieves’ Good Jobs Project, a national initiative to improve our country’s workforce development systems.

    Jay was a Co-Founder of FirstLine Schools, a network of charter schools across New Orleans, where he served as CEO from 2008-2019. He is also the founder and a board member of Leading Educators and was Director of Education for ARK Schools in London, leading a network of academies and co-founding two national leadership training programs for leaders of open admissions urban schools.

    Through board service, Jay also supports the work of SELF (Special Education Leader Fellowship), Catalyst-Ed, and the New Orleans Career Center.

Dr. Tracy Epp

CHIEF PROGRAM OFFICER

  • Dr. Tracy Epp is the Chief Program Officer of Greenhouse E3 where she leads the development of GE3 curriculum, ensuring our fellows have a world-class experience.

    Prior to joining the Greenhouse E3 team, she served as the Chief Academic Officer for Richmond (VA) Public Schools where she led turnaround efforts, including the dramatic improvement of high school graduation rates, reduction in dropout rates, the development and rollout of a robust $100 million early literacy plan and the transformation of curriculum & instruction across the school district. Prior to joining the team in Richmond, she served as the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at The National Math + Science Initiative, where she led an overhaul of program design, and led the development of its five-year strategic plan.

    In addition to serving as the CAO in Richmond, Tracy has led academic strategy, program design and has been responsible for student achievement at both Achievement FIrst Public Schools and IDEA Public Schools as the founding CAO in both organizations, ensuring quality as both respective organizations scaled. She is passionate about utilizing curriculum to create transformative, equitable learning for all students.

Cristina De Jesus

PRESIDENT & CEO, GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS - CALIFORNIA

Lynzi Ziegenhagen

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Our Board

Dana Peterson

CEO, NEW SCHOOLS FOR NEW ORLEANS

Veronica Conforme

CO-MANAGING PARTNER, GREENHOUSE E3

Jeff Snipes (Board Chair)

FOUNDER AND BOARD CHAIR, MILLENNIUM SCHOOL / MILLENNIUM.ORG

James Willcox

CO-MANAGING PARTNER, GREENHOUSE E3