Meet the Team
Holly Kreider, Director of Family Math
Holly Kreider, Ed.D., is the Director of NAFSCE’s Center for Family Math. During her eleven years at the Heising-Simons Foundation, as both a Program Director and Program Officer, she oversaw a variety of portfolios, including ones focused on local community empowerment, organizational effectiveness, democracy reform, gun violence prevention, and special projects. Dr. Kreider also oversaw the Foundation’s initial investments in family engagement, including the very first planning grant to NAFSCE.
Prior to working in philanthropy, she devoted her career to family engagement research, evaluation, and practice in her long-time role as a Principal Investigator and Research Associate at the Harvard Family Research Project and later in her position as Senior Program Director at Raising A Reader’s National Office. She has authored and edited over 50 articles, book chapters, and books on family engagement and was a proud member of NAFSCE’s Board of Directors for two terms.
She graduated with an Ed.D from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA in Psychology from UCLA. She lives in Silicon Valley and has two daughters, Sarena and Carmen.
Contact Holly at kreiderh@nafsce.org
Vito Borrello
Vito J. Borrello is the first Executive Director for the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), appointed in September 2014.
Since its founding, NAFSCE has addressed systemic issues to advance family, school and community engagement as a strategy for child development, student achievement and school improvement. Initiatives include Reframing the Family Engagement Conversation and the establishment of the National Alliance for Family Engagement; the 18-state State Consortium on Family Engagement in partnership with the Council for Chief State School Officers; and its Family Engagement Consortium on Pre-service Educator Preparation. Prior to his current position, Mr. Borrello served as the 19-year president of Every Person Influences Children, a New York-based organization providing parenting education, and family engagement in education programs. Current National Advisory Board Member roles include Scholastic, and the Center for Education Equity. Recent previous national roles include membership on the National Family, School and Community Engagement Working Group; and two completed terms as both an Appointed and At-Large Board Member for National PTA, where he also served on committees for finance, legislation, resource development, strategic planning and leadership recruitment. He is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus for the NY State Family Engagement Coalition. Prior to his NAFSCE appointment, Mr. Borrello was Chairman of the NY State PTA Urban Initiatives Task Force, Steering Committee member of the NY State Parenting Education Partnership, and a past appointee to NY State Education Department workgroups for Teacher Standards, Striving Readers, and Safe Schools. In his home community of Western New York, Mr. Borrello is a past Board Member for the State University of NY at Buffalo’s Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention; past Chairman for the Care Management Coalition of Western New York, and past Board member for Buffalo’s Read to Succeed literacy initiative. He is a graduate of the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York Fellowship program and a 1998 graduate of Leadership Buffalo. Mr. Borrello has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Wittenberg University and resides in East Amherst, New York with his wife, Maria, and has two daughters, Marisa and Samantha. He commutes to the NAFSCE offices located in Alexandria, Virginia.
Contact Vito at borrellov@nafsce.org
Jennifer McCray
Jennifer McCray is an Associate Research Scientist and the Principal Investigator of the Early Math Collaborative at Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development. The Collaborative provides professional development in mathematics to early childhood teachers nationally, conducts research on the teaching and learning of early math, and disseminates information through its books, journal publications, newsletter, and website. Jennifer’s dissertation, which focused on teachers’ understanding of early childhood mathematics content, won two national awards. Her current research focuses on teachers’ use of language and modeling in the teaching of early mathematics.
Jennifer McCray is an Associate Research Scientist at the Erikson Institute in Chicago where she serves as Principal Investigator of the Early Math Collaborative. She began her career as a preschool teacher, and completed her graduate work at Erikson Institute, the only graduate school in the nation entirely dedicated to child development. As part of her dissertation, she developed the PM-PCK, an interview that assesses teacher knowledge for teaching preschool mathematics. She received two national awards for this work, which has been utilized as an evaluation measure for a large efficacy trial of a STEM-focused preschool curriculum, and adapted for use as a survey for studies on early childhood teacher knowledge and attitude in Germany.
As the founding Director and current Principal Investigator of the Early Math Collaborative (the Collaborative), she has guided its growth from a single professional development project serving a small group of preschool and kindergarten teachers to a collective of adult educators, researchers, and students working with hundreds of teachers throughout the U.S. to improve math instruction for young children. A current major project is Collaborative Math: Creating Sustainable Excellence in Mathematics for Head Start Programs. Through a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the Collaborative will demonstrate the promise of a professional development initiative designed to create sustainable excellence in math teaching in early childhood settings. Jennifer is also the Principal Investigator of a recently-awarded four-year Goal 5 Measurement development grant from the Institute for Education Sciences under the topic of Early Learning Programs and Policies. This project will develop and validate the EQUIP-M, a video-based observational measure of mathematics instructional quality in preschool classrooms. The Collaborative maintains a robust and systematic website (www.earlymath.erikson.edu), developing and curating video and written materials for teachers of young children, and its first book, The Big Ideas of Early Mathematics: What Teachers of Young Children Need to Know, was published by Pearson in 2013. Jennifer is the first editor of a second book, Growing Mathematical Minds: Conversations between Developmental Psychologists and Early Childhood Teachers, published by Routledge in 2018.
Contact Jennifer at JMcCray@erikson.edu
Laurie Ascoli
Laurie Ascoli is NAFSCE’s Manager of Programs, splitting her time evenly between supporting the Center for Family Math and the organization’s training and engagement work. Over her 17 year career in education, she has focused on program design and management, arts education, and family engagement.
She is particularly interested in how the intersections between school, family and community can be catalyzed to create equitable conditions in which all children can receive a high quality education. Prior to joining NAFSCE, Laurie served as the Program Manager at Young Playwright’s Theater and the Associate of Effective Family Engagement at Flamboyan Foundation. She received her M.Ed. from Johns Hopkins University with a focus on Urban Education with School, Family and Community Partnerships. Laurie lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband Ryan, her daughter Maisie, and their dog Blaze.
Contact Laurie at Ascolil@nafsce.org
Reyna Hernandez
Reyna Hernandez is NAFSCE’s Senior Director of Research and Policy. She is a longtime community advocate who supports education, leadership development, and capacity-building in the Latino community. Prior to joining NAFSCE, Reyna worked as the Community Wellness Director at Latinos Progresando. She also provides strategic support to nonprofits, startups, and school districts independently and as a Changemaker with Innovare SIP. She is adjunct faculty at DePaul University, teaching on issues of Latinos, English learners, and education.
Reyna previously served as an Assistant Superintendent at ISBE for five years, overseeing the Division of English Language Learners, Early Childhood, and family and community engagement efforts. Her previous experiences include Research and Policy Associate at the Latino Policy Forum, Community Education Parent Facilitator at Waukegan CUSD 60, and educational director and trustee at the National Hispanic Institute. She graduated with a J.D. from New York Law School and an A.B. from Harvard University.
Contact Reyna at hernandezr@nafsce.org
Sherri Wilson
Sherri Wilson is NAFSCE’s Senior Director of Training and Engagement. Sherri is a nationally recognized expert and consultant in family engagement. Formerly, she served as the Director of Consultative Services at Scholastic and was a founding partner of the Center for Active Family Engagement (CAFE).
Prior to that, she served at the Senior Manager of Family Engagement at the National PTA. During her time at the National PTA, Sherri oversaw the implementation of the National PTA Standards for Family School Partnerships and led the Urban Family Engagement Initiative. She was the staff lead and primary author of the Family Reading Experience, Powered by Kindle. She provided training, information and support to National PTA staff as well as state and local members related to family engagement and the implementation of the National PTA Standards for Family School Partnerships. Ms. Wilson was the Co-founder of the Alabama Parent Education Center and served as Alabama PIRC Director for over fourteen years. She has served on a wide variety of national, state, and local boards and committees and was a founding board member for the National Association of Family School and Community Engagement. Ms. Wilson holds an MBA with a concentration in Marketing, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Marketing, a Family Development Credential from the University of Alabama and is a Certified Grant Administrator and Certified Grant Evaluator. Ms. Wilson has presented information to families and educators in a variety of formats at the local, state and national levels.
Contact Sherri at wilsons@nafsce.org
Margaret Caspe
Margaret Caspe, PhD, is the NAFSCE’s Senior Research Consultant. She co-leads the Pre-Service Family Engagement Consortium which is a collaborative of national partners and state and higher education teams dedicated to supporting educator preparation in family engagement. Over the past 20 years, she has studied how partnerships among families, schools, and communities influence children’s development in a variety of areas, including language and literacy, and bilingualism, as well as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Prior to joining NAFSCE she worked with the Global Family Research Project and Harvard Family Research Project where she developed tools to support faculty in developing courses on family engagement topics and oversaw a project to amplify family engagement in public libraries. She is co-editor of Promising Practices for Engaging Families in STEM Learning and author of a variety of articles published in journals such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Public Library Quarterly, School Community Journal, Childhood Education, and Young Children. As an advisory member of various national collaboratives, including the Family Math Roadmap Project, she provides insights on the intersection of research, practice, and policy to promote innovative family engagement strategies. Margaret earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, where she currently teaches courses as an adjunct faculty member. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and three daughters.
Contact Margaret at caspem@nafsce.org
Fred Ji
Fred Ji is NAFSCE’s Senior Manager of Communications. As a communications professional, he specializes in brand building, community management, and cross-platform digital campaign and strategy. Throughout his professional career, Fred has always been passionate about helping education-focused non-profit organizations advance their reach and impact.
Prior to joining NAFSCE, he worked as the Certification and Community Specialist at National Geographic, managing its online learning system and digital community for educators across the world. Fred earned his B.A. in Journalism from Rutgers University, and his M.A. in Communication, Culture, and Technology at Georgetown University.
Contact Fred at jif@nafsce.org
Shawn Harris
Shawn Harris is NAFSCE’s Director of Finance & Operations. A graduate of Howard University with a BS in Accounting, Shawn provides strategic leadership for NAFSCE’s finance functions. He oversees budget and financial planning and reporting, business applications development, as well as procurement services. With over 10 years of finance and accounting management, Shawn brings experience in a broad range of industries, including public accounting, government and nonprofit.
Managing the operations of the Alexandria HQ office, Shawn is responsible for the cross-functional collaboration of the executive leadership divisions at NAFSCE. In his free time, Shawn volunteers with a number of non-profit organizations in the DC area.
Contact Shawn at harriss@nafsce.org
Shanice Johnson
Shanice Johnson serves as NAFSCE’s Program and Operations Coordinator. Shanice’s responsibilities include facilitating communication with partners and members, as well as managing various organizational and administrative tasks.
Her background includes experience in administration from both the hospitality and non-profit sectors. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a focus on Project Management. This educational background, combined with her passion, positions her to contribute to NAFSCE by promoting effective member, partner, and client engagement, as well as leveraging her project management expertise within the organization.
Contact Shanice at johnsons@nafsce.org
Michelle Booth
Michelle Booth is the Director of Strategic Communications at NAFSCE. She has two decades of experience in communications having worked as a news reporter for several years before moving into nonprofit and government communications and public affairs. Prior to joining NAFSCE, Michelle was the Communications Director for Educate Nevada Now, a nonprofit public policy and advocacy organization focused on ensuring all Nevada students have the school resources to succeed regardless of zip code or income.
Michelle also served as Communications Director and interim Chief of Staff for the fifth largest school district in the country, Clark County School District, where she managed the communications team and led internal and external communications. As a firm believer that education is the great equalizer, Michelle is passionate about serving schools, families, and educators in a professional and personal capacity.
She received her M.B.A. from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and a Bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Texas, El Paso. Michelle is a proud military spouse and lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and three children, Olivia, Jaimito and Max.
Contact Michelle at boothm@nafsce.org
Jeffrey Snyder
Jeffrey Snyder, PhD, is NAFSCE’s Research and Policy Associate. He brings more than 15 years experience in education policy and research to strengthen all aspects of NAFSCE’s research and policy program.
His past research investigated roles played by various parties in education policy, collaborations among schools and other social service providers, and the ways parents and the public interact with education reforms. Prior to NAFSCE, Jeff was an Assistant Professor at Cleveland State University. He earned his PhD in Educational Policy from Michigan State University, Master’s of Public Administration from Cornell University, and BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in northeast Ohio with his wife and son.
Contact Jeffrey at snyderj@nafsce.org
Meet the NAFSCE Team
The Center is proud to be a part of the National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), the first membership association focused solely on advancing family, school, and community engagement. Together, we are making family math an every day experience.
