Our Board
Board Members
​Charles E. Coleman, Ed.D.
Dr. Charles E. Coleman received a Doctorate Degree in Educational Administration and a Masters of Public Administration from Ball State University. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education conferred by Indiana State University. Dr. Coleman and his wife, Holly, have three children.
Dr. Coleman’s first Superintendency was in Marion, Indiana from 1995-2000. Two schools received national recognition by Education Trust for closing the achievement gap between Caucasian and African-American students. In 1999, the District was one of six in the nation to become a recipient of the National UAW-NEA Partnership Award.
Dr. Coleman became Superintendent of Battle Creek Public Schools in July, 2000. During his tenure, Dr. Coleman led the school district in the creation and execution of a five-year strategic education plan, developed an elementary and high school fine arts academy, implemented an alternative education program, and created the Carson Scholars scholarship program. Under Dr. Coleman’s leadership, the district made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Michigan Educational Assessment Profile six of the last seven years of his ten year tenure. In addition, the school district passed a $68.9 million Bond Issue on the initial attempt, the first in over 50 years, to upgrade facilities.
Dr. Coleman became Superintendent of Schools for Joliet Public Schools District 86 in July of 2011. He oversaw 11,766 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade, 1,471 employees in 23 buildings, and a $147 million budget. In his first year, Dr. Coleman successfully led the District in developing a three-year strategic plan, opened a new $15.2 million elementary school, and implemented a full day six-week student summer school program.
Under Dr. Coleman’s leadership, Professional Learning Communities were established in all schools and Instructional Literacy and Mathematics Coaches were hired to support teachers with goals, lessons, and professional development. Dr. Coleman was also instrumental in working with the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry to establish an annual college scholarship program for students in grades 4-8. In the past two years, $1,000 college scholarships were awarded to 74 Joliet area students, including 39 Joliet District 86 students. In 2015, a new strategic plan was created to guide the work of employees to assist in the success for all students. In addition, an array of Professional Development is offered to staff to improve teaching and learning, including training for all administrators and teachers on the Charlotte Danielson framework for teacher evaluation model and a recent Best Practices Institute Day was attended by over 650 District 86 teachers.
In October of 2011, Dr. Coleman received the Community Leader Award from St. Mark C.M.E. Church in Joliet and in November of 2015, the Gold Star Award for Education from the National Hook-Up of Black Women, Inc. Dr. Coleman served as director on the Joliet Grade Schools Foundation for Educational Excellence, a member of Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry Education Committee, and a member of Joliet Rotary Club International. In addition, he served as a member of the Illinois Superintendent’s Roundtable, the Illinois Superintendents Commission for the Study of Demographics and Diversity, the Suburban Superintendents Association, and the Illinois Association of School Administrators.
Mrs. Diana Daniels
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Mrs. Diana Daniels is a teacher, central office administrator, consultant, college professor, entrepreneur, historian and community activist. She has worked more than 39 years in public education. She holds a B.S. degree in Social Sciences and Psychology from Ball State University, M.S. degree in Elementary Education from Butler University, and 45 plus hours toward a doctorate in Reading, Special Education and School Administration.
Mrs. Daniels teaching assignments have covered Kg -12 grades. She has taught at all levels, high school through elementary in IPS. Her elementary experiences cover several IPS schools teaching Kg, 1st grade and Title 1 remedial reading classes grades 3-6. While working with the Indianapolis Public Schools, she supervised and managed one of the country's largest staff development projects for literacy with the National Urban Alliance.
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After Mrs. Daniels' retirement from the Indianapolis Public Schools in 2001, she served three years as Midwest Regional Director for Ventures Education Systems Corporation.
In 2004, she began a partnership with Quality Leadership Resources, Inc. as Vice President of Sales/Staff Development. The focus was on restructuring schools through leadership and the alignment of structure, function and processes of a school and school district. She has delivered and participated in the staff development training of school boards, district leadership teams, and school teams. Mrs. Daniels compassion for educating African American children, and her community involvement is reflective in her membership in many organizations, including the National Alliance of Black School Educators, NAACP, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, She has a passion for educating Black Boys, and urgently wants to change the conditions under which a high percentage of them are currently being educated.
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Mr. Richard Bonds
Richard Bonds, a native of Indianapolis, received his B.S. in marketing from Indiana State University (ISU). His human resources career began at ISU and after a few years joined RCA Records in Industrial Relations. His more than 30-year tenure at Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase) began as an employment representative through advancement to Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the Midwest Region.
Since retiring from Bank One (now Chase), he works part time as Vice President of Strategy for HR Dimensions, LLC a human resources consulting company. In addition, he is and has been active in various professional organizations including Indiana State University Board of Trustees, 100 Black Men, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Sigma Phi Pi Fraternity, United Way, Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame Committee and Freetown Village.
Recently, he has worked in an after school program at Lawrence Township School District where he was involved in managing 6 schools. His focus was on helping students improve their academic in reading, language arts and teaching character development traits. He is currently a volunteer tutoring and mentoring at IPS School #42.
Richard is an active member of University United Methodist Church. Richard and his wife Nadine have two adult sons and three grandchildren. He enjoys music, traveling and professional sports.
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Ms. Augusta Mann
Augusta Mann is recognized for her workshops, demonstration lessons, and programs in culturally centered intensified accelerated teaching models in literacy for African American and other urban students. As a consultant with the professional development initiatives of the National Urban Alliance (NUA), she has worked with educators in New York City, Indianapolis, IN, Prince Georges County, MD, Minneapolis, MN, Seattle, WA, Bridgeport, CT, Albany, NY, and Wyandanch, NY, as well as privately with educators in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Louisville, San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Berkeley, and West Contra Costa County.
She was program manager of San Francisco State University’s Center for Applied Cultural Studies and Educational Achievement (CACSEA), a professional development center devoted to applications of cultural-centered education for African American students. There she led
staff development projects in reading for teachers and administrators from four Bay Area school districts and directed large annual conferences for educators throughout California. Recently she was appointed Urban Mentor in Residence for a semester at the School of Education at North Carolina A and T University.
Augusta has been a classroom teacher, reading teacher, and staff developer in public schools in Chicago, Illinois; Oakland, California; and Yonkers, New York. Immediately prior to her appointment at CACSEA, she was director of the New York Urban Coalition’s Center for Educational Leadership in New York City. There, with a budget of $1.5 million, she led the development and operation of professional development programs for over 1,500 educators in 120 New York City Public schools.
Her Touching the Spirit workshops and classroom demonstration lessons focus on culture centered practical strategies to accelerate the learning of literacy skills by students who need to achieve multiple years’ growth in a short period of time. These sessions are interactive and lively and include many opportunities for questions and explanations specific to the needs of the participants.
Mr. Kamau Jywanza
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M.B.S. in Community Economic Development (CED) with a history and record of strategically developing CED organizations, social enterprises; developing human resource partnerships, programs and funding; ability to creatively resolve conflict and negotiate win-win strategies; experienced in persuasive communication, reports and presentations; administration, budgeting and finance management; electronic communications proficient.
Kamau works in the field of Community Economic Development, consults and contracts in business development, housing development, finance and packaging, human development, education and training, human services planning, operations management and administration and almost 30 years of experience in policy and program development at local, state, national and international levels. ​
Dr. Kathy Griffey​
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Dr. Kathy Griffey has 20 years central office experience and 44 total years as an educator. She received her B. A. from Purdue University and her Master’s and Doctorate from Ball State University. She recently completed five years as superintendent at Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation following nine years as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Battle Creek Public Schools in Battle Creek, Michigan. During her career she received recognition for state service to education from Michigan Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development, Indiana Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development, Indiana Association for the Gifted, and the Community Education Coalition. She was married to a 46 year educator. They have two children and six grandchildren. She currently serves as a consultant with Standard for Success helping schools implement effective teacher evaluation systems.
Kamau volunteers for many private, public, community and non-profit boards, committees, task forces and programs (i.e. Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, Bank One Community Advisory Board, Mayors Housing Strategy Task Force, National Low Income Housing Coalition and Information Services NLIHC/IS, N’COBRA) and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Community Action of Greater Indianapolis, works with REAL Consultants LLC to provide leadership development training for adults and youth and consults with “Reclaiming the Village” Rites of Passage program sponsored through H&H Corp of Marion County.
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Kamau is a lifelong resident of Indianapolis, IN, married with five (5) children. Growing up in the community where Lockfield Gardens and Indiana Avenue converged at the “Sunset” on Blake Street, Kamau’s exposure to the history, culture, music, and professionalism of the African American community of Indianapolis has given him a unique and first hand exposure and perspective to that part of Indianapolis’ history. An example was a steady diet of Wes Montgomery and other jazz music.
These experiences, aligned with accessing an excellent education and the opportunities to utilize these life impacts challenge Kamau to develop education, leadership and social enterprise initiatives that transform the lives of ordinary people.
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ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Members of the advisory committee will be updated soon.