Board of Trustees

Alison Arnold currently serves on the board of the Washington Performing Arts Society where she is a member of the Education Committee and the Governance Committee. She is also on the executive board of the Reston Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. During the last two years, she has served as treasurer of the organization – creating and managing the chapter’s budget. In addition to these duties, she is a past President of the Parents Association at Maret School and a former member of the Trustee Board.

Her professional experience includes teaching business law at Kennesaw State University and practicing corporate law, at Hale and Dorr (Boston) and Kilpatrick and Cody (Atlanta) law firms.  She received her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She also holds a BA in Economics from Harvard-Radcliffe College.  Over the past 20 years,  Arnold has enjoyed being involved in the schools of her three sons.

Camila Camborda is the Director of Communications & Outreach at Lee Montessori Public Charter School, which provides over 400 students with a unique, top-tier, public education at two campuses – including the only Montessori school east of the Anacostia River. She has experience across the education, advocacy, philanthropy and international development sectors and brings a passion for raising constituent voices and expanding equitable opportunities to her work.

Previously, Camila worked at Education Forward DC, a local foundation that partners with schools, educational programs, and advocacy groups across the city. Camila supported a portfolio of public engagement and advocacy organizations that worked to advance equity-advancing policies. Prior to that, Camila spent time in Boston working as a community organizer, worked for an international development crowdfunding platform, and supported the largest network of domestic and international organizations focused on feedback.

Camila graduated from Boston University with degrees in International Relations and Economics. She is a proud resident of DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood and spends her free time biking, bouldering, and hiking.

John Campbell is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) who brings passion, energy, and innovative thinking from over 10 years of development and organizational management experience in the social sector.

John founded FundED Strategies, LLC in 2018 to support schools, education nonprofits, and small to mid-size organizations start, scale, and sustain their fundraising programs. Prior to forming FundED Strategies, John served as Director of Advancement for Eagle Academy Public Charter School. At Eagle Academy, John was responsible for the cultivation of over $5 million in strategic resources and partnerships which were designed to improve student success as well as organizational strategy. While at Eagle, John was instrumental in the formation of the Cassandra S. Pinkney Foundation, a private foundation formed after the passing of Eagle Academy’s founder with the mission of making space for opportunity. John served as the Foundation’s first Executive Director.  

Previously, John held roles that include development director and executive director, where he was responsible for producing and implementing multimillion-dollar development and cultivation strategies.  

John graduated from Lebanon Valley College with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Economics, and earned his Master in Business Administration from the Kogod School of Business at American University.

As a volunteer, John serves as co-chair of the ProInspire Leadership Network, board chair of Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso (FAN),  and is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. John lives in Washington, DC, enjoys wine and traveling with his husband. 

For the last decade, Sarah Dillard has been working to improve U.S. education. She is the Founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope. Previously, she served as the CEO of SPD Advisory, where she provided strategic advice for education clients. Dillard has also worked on the policy team at the U.S. Department of Education, the founding team at the National Math and Science Initiative, and the management team at Quad Learning. She’s contributed to two big district transformations (New Orleans and Memphis), overseen the development of a student services function that dramatically increases community college graduation rates, and taken a successful local program to national scale while maintaining impact.

Dillard holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics, magna cum laude, from Duke University where she was an A.B. Duke Scholar and won the Holton Prize for education research. She has a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Reynolds Fellow and a George Fellow.

In addition to serving on the CCPCS board, Dillard is a founding member of both the Alumni Advisory Council at the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the advisory board at Guild Education.

Quameice Harris has provided support to top-level executives in Washington, D.C. for over 15 years. Currently, she is the Special Assistant to the Director of the D.C. Department of Human Services. In this role, she helps ensure that the agency continues to support low-income families and individuals in the city.

Previously, Quameice worked at the D.C. Executive Office of the Mayor, where she was responsible for managing day-to-day communications and tasks for the Mayor's Chief of Staff. Quameice also holds expertise in the education field, having worked at the D.C. Office for the State Superintendent of Education Division of Early Childhood Education.

Quameice is an active member in the Capital City community. She has served as the co-Vice President for the Parent School Association (PSA) since 2017.  She also volunteers outside of Capital City, serving as a mentor in the Family-to-Family Mentoring Program through the Perry Foundation.

Quameice currently lives in Washington, D.C. and is a proud Capital City parent of two Lower School students and a High School student.

Email: boardvicechair@ccpcs.org

Anne Herr is responsible for the DC Charter School Alliance's services to public charter schools, including performance management support and the start-up and expansion programs in her role of Director of Policy and Programs. Herr co-founded the Capital City Public Charter School in 2000 and served as its Executive Director from 2004-2009, providing leadership during its expansion from a successful PreK-8th grade school to incorporate a high school. Before getting involved with education and charter schools, she worked for the U.S. Department of State as an intelligence analyst, covering arms control and Russian foreign policy.

Herr is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs. Anne's three children attended Capital City.

Rochanda Hiligh-Thomas has over 17 years of legal experience serving the District of Columbia community. As the Executive Director for Justice and Education (AJE), she is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the legal services division of the organization, including the supervision of legal staff, partnership development, fund management, and client services. Her work has focused on juvenile justice and AJE’s school discipline project.

Prior to working with AJE, Hiligh-Thomas was Assistant Director for Legal Operations at Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP). In her position at NLSP, she spearheaded the organization’s legal initiatives, monitored staff compliance with Legal Services Corporation regulations, and had a proven track record of effectively representing the legal needs of the client community. Hiligh-Thomas holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of the District of Columbia David Clarke School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from Tuskegee University. She is the parent of three Capital City students.

Stefan Huh has more than 20 years of financial management experience both within and outside of the District of Columbia. As the Director of Finance for Pathways to Housing DC, he oversees all aspects of the nonprofit organization’s finance, budget, and accounting functions.

Prior to his work with Pathways to Housing DC, Mr. Huh provided financial expertise in various roles at the Department of Education, Office of the State Superintendent of Education, and the government of the District of Columbia in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Huh is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Samoa as a business education volunteer.

Mr. Huh holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from James Madison University. He is the parent of two Capital City students.

Miz Kusairi brings more than 15 years of international cross-sector management experience across the philanthropic, nonprofit, and financial services sectors. Currently working out of Candid’s president’s office as Vice President for Planning, Miz’s role is to coordinate the workstream groups’ initiatives to integrate Foundation Center and GuideStar into a single organization and serve as board secretary. She is also lead for the workstream group on change management and culture. Miz previously led GuideStar's finance, strategic planning, special projects, and monitoring and evaluation systems. Before joining GuideStar, she served as vice president of operations, strategy, and talent at Global Citizen Year, a fast-growing and acclaimed internationally focused nonprofit social enterprise in youth leadership development. Miz also managed nearly $1 billion in investments and served in the chairman's office focusing on philanthropic initiatives at Usaha Tegas, a $10 billion business conglomerate in Malaysia. Earlier in her career, Miz spent time at the Fannie Mae Foundation, Citigroup, and the social investing firm Acumen.

She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. Miz is the proud daughter of two life-long educators and is also a DC resident.

Galo Pazmino joined Capital City’s board in 2017. He is the Co-Founder and President of SamiChakra LLC, a management consulting firm that advocates for socially and environmentally aligned business and production practices while helping foreign makers of premium organic products navigate complexities of introducing/positioning their products for the US market. Since starting SamiChakra LLC in 2016, he has engaged sales channels and developed over 40 sales points for an Ecuador chocolate maker, Ecuador superfood producer, and German spice producer, with potential run rate of $3.5M in three years. Previously, Pazmino was a Managing Director at AES Corporation, one of the world's leading power companies. As a member of the senior leadership team, he helped drive revenue from $15B to $17B. He also served as the Vice President for Finance for AgCert International PLC and a Lead Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Pazmino holds a Postgraduate degree in Business Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Auditing and in Business Administration from Catholic University, Ecuador. He is an Ecuador Certified Public Accountant and served as a member of the Ecuador Accounting Association for nearly 20 years. He is currently a member of Foodtank and the German American Chamber of Commerce. He has lived and worked in the US, UK, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Ireland, and France and is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Hiram E. Puig-Lugo was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1999 by President William Jefferson Clinton. Judge Puig-Lugo has handled criminal felony, juvenile delinquency, criminal misdemeanor, child abuse and neglect, domestic relations, Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS), Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), and domestic violence calendars. He is currently assigned to a Civil 2 Calendar.

Judge Puig-Lugo was born in San Germán, Puerto Rico, and is equally fluent in English and Spanish. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he was the first Latino member of the Wisconsin Law Review.  After graduation, he served as staff attorney with the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia for eight years and as trial attorney for the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, for three years.

Judge Puig-Lugo was appointed Presiding Judge of the Family Court between 2013 and 2016. He was also a member of the DC Access to Justice Commission for six years, sits on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and serves on the DC Courts Standing Committee on Fairness and Access and the DC Courts Strategic Leadership Council. Judge Puig-Lugo has been an instructor for legal education projects in Central America, South America, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the Federated States of Micronesia. He is currently adjunct faculty at the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Puerto Rico Law School. Judge Puig-Lugo is also a US representative to the Hague Judicial Network.  

Judge Puig-Lugo was recognized by the DC Bar Family Law Section in 2015 for his leadership to the Court and service to the residents of the District of Columbia.  He received the Judicial Leadership Award from the Hispanic National Bar Foundation in 2014, and the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia in 2011. 

Xiomara Santos is a member of Capital City's first high school graduating class and is the first alum to join the Board of Trustees. She is currently the Director of Government Relations at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Previously, Xiomara was the State Campaigns Specialist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and worked at a public affairs consulting firm where she handled advocacy projects and campaigns. She also worked at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), one of the nation's oldest and largest Latino Civil Rights organization. While at LULAC, she organized bilingual panels and workshops on fundamental policy changes impacting Latinos. Xiomara also coordinated advocacy events that allowed LULAC members to address relevant issues first-hand with members of Congress and policymakers.

In her free time, Xiomara loves to bake and volunteers with the Future Coalition to provide pro-bono campaign services to youth activists and youth-led organizations. 

Dr. Nitika Tolani is a Senior Education Advisor for USAID/Asia Bureau. She has a 15-year track record of achievements in strategic planning, innovative program design, management, research, and monitoring and evaluation across early and basic education sectors. She has provided technical assistance in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, and Europe.

Previously, Dr. Tolani led real time action reviews of education programs in Jordan (of Save the Children’s response to the Syrian crisis), and developed innovative strategies and systems to measure children’s access to/experience with education systems and education quality in Libya, Yemen and Iraq. She has proven leadership in capacity building activities with donor agencies, Ministries of Education, field-based NGOs, and civil society organizations through a diverse array of funders (USAID, UNICEF, NORAD, EU/ECHO, DFID, and multiple foundations). Dr. Tolani also led a consultative global process to develop an innovative, field driven methodology for assessing quality in Save the Children’s global education portfolio, called the Quality Learning Environment framework. It has now been rolled out to over 40 country programs in both humanitarian and development settings, and has been integrated into national education quality systems by several Ministries of Education.

She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology and MA in Applied Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, and earned a B.A. in Psychology and English from Santa Clara University.

Email: boardchair@ccpcs.org