LAPCS Welcomes New Staff Members

Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools Announces
Three New Staff Members
Organization welcomes its first Director of Membership Simone Green along with Special Projects Manager Nikki Chatelain and Development Director Toryah Cameron

The Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS) welcomes Director of Membership Simone Green, Special Projects Manager Nikki Chatelain and Development Director Toryah Cameron as the newest members of the LAPCS team, announced Executive Director Caroline Roemer Shirley.
 
"As charter schools grow across Louisiana, the LAPCS must also adapt to help our members navigate the changing educational landscape," said Ms. Roemer Shirley. "The needs of charter schools now are different than when we began our work five years ago."
 
A key component to these improvements is the addition of the LAPCS’ first Director of Membership, Simone Green.

A New Orleans native, Simone comes to LAPCS with over five years of charter school finance and operations experience. She began her career in charter school operations as the founding office manager at an all-boys charter school in Brooklyn, NY.  After living in New York City for eight years, Simone was thrilled to move home in 2008 to help reform public education in New Orleans, where she has served as a Director of Finance and Operations in three charter schools. She is excited to use her charter experiences to serve and support the charter school community across Louisiana as the Director of Membership and School Development with LAPCS.  Simone holds a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Sociology of Education with a concentration in Education Policy from New York University.
 
“We’re working hard to make the LAPCS more efficient and responsive to our membership’s needs,” said Ms. Roemer Shirley. “Simone will work directly with our schools to develop new programs and services, as well as facilitate collaboratives and networking opportunities for LAPCS members.”
 
Also a native of the New Orleans area, Special Projects Manager Nikki Chatelain spent several years working at LSU Health Sciences Center and Tulane University honing her event planning, graphic design, and communications skills.  She also spent two years teaching in a New Orleans charter school as a member of the inaugural TeachNOLA cohort.  Nikki earned a bachelor’s degree in Drama and Communications from the University of New Orleans, a post-Baccalaureate degree in Media Arts from Tulane University, a Master’s Degree in Mass Media Arts and Journalism with  a graduate certificate in Public Relations from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
 
“Nikki brings a great mix of skills and high energy to our organization,” said Ms. Roemer Shirley. “Nikki is not only the point person for LAPCS events, but also has a great social media presence and will do a great job building up those resources for our membership and staff.”
 
Toryah Cameron, Development Director for the LAPCS, began her professional career as a corporate finance attorney at the Washington, D.C. office of Sullivan & Cromwell before returning south after Hurricane Katrina to serve as staff attorney at the only stand-alone juvenile public defense organization in the country – Juvenile Regional Services. Learning more about the urgency for education reform through her clients led Toryah to join TeachNOLA, where she taught for almost three years in New Orleans with the Recovery School District and Algiers Charter School Association. She decided to combine the strategy and analysis honed in her legal career to ensure that non-profit organizations serving K-12 education interests created financially sustainable funding plans, spending two fiscal years as the Development Director at Teach For America-South Louisiana, and in the process, led the organization to its highest funding levels as a region in each of the two fiscal years of her tenure.  As Development Director for the LAPCS, Toryah will cultivate partnerships locally and nationally to secure the recourses and build the relationships necessary to support excellence in education for children in Louisiana. Toryah is a Mississippi native with a B.A. in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. from Howard University School of Law.
 
“Toryah, Simone and Nikki bring a lot of great energy and a wealth of experience to our team,” said Ms. Roemer Shirley. “I’m excited to be working with such great talents and look forward to having them with us for years to come."