Our Team
CommunityShare was founded by Josh Schachter in collaboration with a passionate group of educators, entrepreneurs, artists, ecologists, nonprofit organizations, technophiles, graduate students, and community leaders.
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Luke Bultman Product Manager
Luke operates as our Product Manager, guiding and coaching our product team to turn our visions into reality for CommunityShare and our customers. Luke has spent time leading teams of people and products for over 15 years in both start up and corporate cultures. His diversified experience stretches into the ed tech and entertainment industries. During his career he’s mostly worked on SaaS products that have been built to serve the needs of the customer. A passionate part of his existence is working alongside people, because after all we need people to build tools that ultimately benefit others, our communities and our world. He greatly enjoys coaching, partnering and rolling up his sleeves to do the work, and building the things that create change in the little and big spaces. Born and raised in Arizona, Luke loves the desert, and can be found wandering its paths running long distances – sometimes with friends, solo or his dogs. Active in his community, you may see him coaching youth on the soccer field, serving in volunteer roles or traveling with his family.
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Josh Schachter Director & Founder
Josh is an educator, visual storyteller and social ecologist. His passion for real-world learning started in high school when he had the opportunity to undertake turtle research in South Carolina and Alabama with herpetologist Jeff Lovich. This field experience led Josh to pursue a career in ecosystem management. He earned a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he explored the role of youth-produced media in supporting personal and community transformation. Over the past 20+ years he has collaborated on community-based media projects with youth, teachers, neighborhood groups, and nonprofit organizations in places ranging from New Delhi to Nigeria. He co-founded VOICES Inc., a nonprofit organization that hired low-income youth to work as journalists to tell the stories of their lives and communities in Tucson. Josh co-founded the Finding Voice program with ELL teacher Julie Kasper in Tucson to support the literacy, multimedia, critical thinking, collaborative, and civic leadership skills of refugee and immigrant students.
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Jason Hansen CTO & Software Engineer
Jason oversees CommunityShare’s online platform and other tech-related needs. Jason earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona, and worked for Raytheon as an aerospace and flight controls engineer. Gradually Jason learned how to program and shifted his focus to simulation and enterprise application development, before leaving Raytheon to work in the startup space. Since then he’s focused on expanding his skills in web-based product development, including programming, design, and user experience. Past hobbies include embedded programming, 3D modeling and game development. Current hobbies focus more on human-centric skills including facilitation, conflict resolution, and coaching.
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Jil Mackenzie Professional Learning Designer
Jil designs and facilitates professional learning for educators across CommunityShare’s network. A teacher at heart, she earned a Master’s in Secondary English Education from Syracuse University and spent the next decade in middle and high schools across New York. She honed her skills as an educator, instructional coach, and program designer in partnership with EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) and Outward Bound Schools, whose holistic vision of student achievement and active, community-engaged approach to learning directly align with CommunityShare’s mission. Jil believes deeply in the power of education to help us all build a better world and is honored to work alongside educators, students and communities, as we reimagine systems and forge new bonds that enrich us all. In her free time, Jil can be found in the woods of Wilmington, DE on a mountain bike, just trying to keep up with her husband and their three year old daughter.
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Jill Helme Director of Operations
Jill directs CommunityShare’s daily business and administrative operations and works closely with all staff to advance Community Share’s mission and strategic goals. Jill began her career as a high school language arts and math teacher where she learned that a true robust, quality education required both in-school and out-of-school programming. She went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and has spent the past 15+ years leading nonprofits focused on youth-based workforce development, music and arts education, and afterschool programs. In her spare time Jill enjoys traveling and camping with her family, running, and making ice cream.
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Michelle Magnusson Director of Community Engagement & StrategyMichelle leads CommunityShare’s community engagement strategy and work. She has been a teacher, strategy consultant, and Executive Director of Partners in Education in Santa Barbara. Her primary role is to coach stewards to grow their community-engaged learning capacity and grow the interconnectedness of the CommunityShare network. Using best practices and sharing tested tools, Michelle helps communities increase connections, reduce duplicative work, identify trends and gaps, and organize the human and financial capital of a community in ways that meet the needs of learners and partners.
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Bryan Rafael Falcón Organizational Development Strategist
Bryan guides our organizational development and growth strategy. Bryan is an award-winning theater director and edtech entrepreneur with a passion for both education and scaling successful organizations. In addition to working with CommunityShare, Bryan is the Artistic and Managing Director at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. The theater is dedicated to telling diverse stories that raise challenging questions with a focus on language, music and physical theatre for all ages. Prior to founding and running the non-profit, Bryan was Co-founder and CEO at Haiku Learning (now PowerSchool Learning). At the time of acquisition in 2016, Haiku served over 5 million parents, teachers and students across the world with its elegant user experience. Prior to Haiku Learning, Bryan was Co-founder and President at LightSky, an outsourced web IT company. LightSky grew into the largest company of its class in its region and served a wide variety of clients including school districts, hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies. When not directing and designing for theater, Bryan loves playing board games with his family, reading and hiking.
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Caroline Arima UI Designer
Caroline oversees the design of CommunityShare’s user interface. She earned a BS in Agricultural and Resource Economics and a BA in Japanese Language from the University of California Davis. As an English teacher in Japan. She spent several years applying design thinking towards curriculum development and translating students’ pain points into engaging, effective learning resources. This experience transformed the way she thought about designing for the user and catalyzed her transition into UI/UX design.
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Melinda Englert Director of Communications
Melinda guides CommunityShare’s communications, marketing, and outreach efforts. Melinda developed a passion for education and community connection from a young age thanks to her family and educators.This led her to obtain her B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Journalism from the University of Arizona and to spend more than a decade working and volunteering in youth and community development, education, and literacy nonprofits in Arizona and Colorado. Melinda believes in the power of stories and enjoys design, writing, photography, and video as opportunities to share stories that build connections, collaboration, and possibilities. Born and raised in the Sonoran Desert, Melinda enjoys hiking, bike riding, gardening, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family (especially outside).
Our Team
CommunityShare was founded by Josh Schachter in collaboration with a passionate group of educators, entrepreneurs, artists, ecologists, nonprofit organizations, technophiles, graduate students, and community leaders.
-
Josh Schachter Director & Founder
Josh is an educator, visual storyteller and social ecologist. His passion for real-world learning started in high school when he had the opportunity to undertake turtle research in South Carolina and Alabama with herpetologist Jeff Lovich. This field experience led Josh to pursue a career in ecosystem management. He earned a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he explored the role of youth-produced media in supporting personal and community transformation. Over the past 20+ years he has collaborated on community-based media projects with youth, teachers, neighborhood groups, and nonprofit organizations in places ranging from New Delhi to Nigeria. He co-founded VOICES Inc., a nonprofit organization that hired low-income youth to work as journalists to tell the stories of their lives and communities in Tucson. Josh co-founded the Finding Voice program with ELL teacher Julie Kasper in Tucson to support the literacy, multimedia, critical thinking, collaborative, and civic leadership skills of refugee and immigrant students.
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Michelle Magnusson Director of Community Engagement & StrategyMichelle leads CommunityShare’s community engagement strategy and work. She has been a teacher, strategy consultant, and Executive Director of Partners in Education in Santa Barbara. Her primary role is to coach stewards to grow their community-engaged learning capacity and grow the interconnectedness of the CommunityShare network. Using best practices and sharing tested tools, Michelle helps communities increase connections, reduce duplicative work, identify trends and gaps, and organize the human and financial capital of a community in ways that meet the needs of learners and partners.
-
Bryan Rafael Falcón Organizational Development Strategist
Bryan guides our organizational development and growth strategy. Bryan is an award-winning theater director and edtech entrepreneur with a passion for both education and scaling successful organizations. In addition to working with CommunityShare, Bryan is the Artistic and Managing Director at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. The theater is dedicated to telling diverse stories that raise challenging questions with a focus on language, music and physical theatre for all ages. Prior to founding and running the non-profit, Bryan was Co-founder and CEO at Haiku Learning (now PowerSchool Learning). At the time of acquisition in 2016, Haiku served over 5 million parents, teachers and students across the world with its elegant user experience. Prior to Haiku Learning, Bryan was Co-founder and President at LightSky, an outsourced web IT company. LightSky grew into the largest company of its class in its region and served a wide variety of clients including school districts, hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies. When not directing and designing for theater, Bryan loves playing board games with his family, reading and hiking.
-
Caroline Arima UI Designer
Caroline oversees the design of CommunityShare’s user interface. She earned a BS in Agricultural and Resource Economics and a BA in Japanese Language from the University of California Davis. As an English teacher in Japan. She spent several years applying design thinking towards curriculum development and translating students’ pain points into engaging, effective learning resources. This experience transformed the way she thought about designing for the user and catalyzed her transition into UI/UX design.
-
Luke Bultman Product Manager
Luke operates as our Product Manager, guiding and coaching our product team to turn our visions into reality for CommunityShare and our customers. Luke has spent time leading teams of people and products for over 15 years in both start up and corporate cultures. His diversified experience stretches into the ed tech and entertainment industries. During his career he’s mostly worked on SaaS products that have been built to serve the needs of the customer. A passionate part of his existence is working alongside people, because after all we need people to build tools that ultimately benefit others, our communities and our world. He greatly enjoys coaching, partnering and rolling up his sleeves to do the work, and building the things that create change in the little and big spaces. Born and raised in Arizona, Luke loves the desert, and can be found wandering its paths running long distances – sometimes with friends, solo or his dogs. Active in his community, you may see him coaching youth on the soccer field, serving in volunteer roles or traveling with his family.
-
Jil Mackenzie Professional Learning Designer
Jil designs and facilitates professional learning for educators across CommunityShare’s network. A teacher at heart, she earned a Master’s in Secondary English Education from Syracuse University and spent the next decade in middle and high schools across New York. She honed her skills as an educator, instructional coach, and program designer in partnership with EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) and Outward Bound Schools, whose holistic vision of student achievement and active, community-engaged approach to learning directly align with CommunityShare’s mission. Jil believes deeply in the power of education to help us all build a better world and is honored to work alongside educators, students and communities, as we reimagine systems and forge new bonds that enrich us all. In her free time, Jil can be found in the woods of Wilmington, DE on a mountain bike, just trying to keep up with her husband and their three year old daughter.
-
Melinda Englert Director of Communications
Melinda guides CommunityShare’s communications, marketing, and outreach efforts. Melinda developed a passion for education and community connection from a young age thanks to her family and educators.This led her to obtain her B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Journalism from the University of Arizona and to spend more than a decade working and volunteering in youth and community development, education, and literacy nonprofits in Arizona and Colorado. Melinda believes in the power of stories and enjoys design, writing, photography, and video as opportunities to share stories that build connections, collaboration, and possibilities. Born and raised in the Sonoran Desert, Melinda enjoys hiking, bike riding, gardening, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family (especially outside).
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Jason Hansen CTO & Software Engineer
Jason oversees CommunityShare’s online platform and other tech-related needs. Jason earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona, and worked for Raytheon as an aerospace and flight controls engineer. Gradually Jason learned how to program and shifted his focus to simulation and enterprise application development, before leaving Raytheon to work in the startup space. Since then he’s focused on expanding his skills in web-based product development, including programming, design, and user experience. Past hobbies include embedded programming, 3D modeling and game development. Current hobbies focus more on human-centric skills including facilitation, conflict resolution, and coaching.
-
Jill Helme Director of Operations
Jill directs CommunityShare’s daily business and administrative operations and works closely with all staff to advance Community Share’s mission and strategic goals. Jill began her career as a high school language arts and math teacher where she learned that a true robust, quality education required both in-school and out-of-school programming. She went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and has spent the past 15+ years leading nonprofits focused on youth-based workforce development, music and arts education, and afterschool programs. In her spare time Jill enjoys traveling and camping with her family, running, and making ice cream.
Our Board
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Jenny Volpe Secretary
Jenny is a writer, strategist-consultant, teacher, and community builder working with nonprofits and initiatives in the education sector. She is passionate about raising our collective wisdom, compassion, connection, and consciousness, and works with mission-driven organizations to unlock potential and create more impact. She specializes in creating transformational learning and development experiences that elevate our human potential and create meaningful change. Jenny is the former CEO of Make Way for Books and led the organization for 13 years catalyzing innovation and co-creating award-winning impact with an incredible team. She is a Teach for America alum passionate about educational equity and believes in the power of education as a means for social change. She has taught everything from PreK to 10th grade and has worked to develop and launch innovative community-based educational programs and initiatives in the U.S. and beyond.
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Chelsea Waite Chair
Chelsea is Senior Researcher at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Along with partners at Transcend and dozens of other collaborating organizations, Chelsea leads the Canopy project to build better collective knowledge on K–12 innovation from a diverse set of schools around the country. Before joining CRPE, Chelsea was an education research fellow at the Christensen Institute studying innovative school models, school change, student agency, and models for peer-to-peer support in K–12. Prior, she built partnerships and designed learning programs at Digital Promise, and taught English at the postsecondary level in the northeast of Brazil. Chelsea holds a BA in History from Brown University and an MSt in Social Innovation from Cambridge University. She is also accredited by the Partnership Brokers Association as a facilitator of multi-stakeholder collaborations.
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Miho Kubagawa Director
Miho is a connector of people, ideas and resources. She is currently the Organization Building Lead at Organizer Zero, where she coaches and supports parent leaders who are launching their own non-profits to lead parent-led movements in their respective communities. Her prior experiences include serving on the founding team of a new ed tech startup, managing a national portfolio of innovative school models, launching a teacher residency program, and teaching middle school math. She received her doctorate in Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) from Harvard University, her B.S. in Economics from Duke University and her M.S.T. in Adolescent Education from Pace University. She currently serves on the boards of Breakthrough Collaborative, CommunityShare and New Schools for Alabama. In her free time, she enjoys watching sports, writing, and pitching the random ideas in her head to anyone who will listen.
Our Key Advisors
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Antonio Parés
Antonio is the founder and principal of Walnut Hill Workshop. He advises firms and leaders on organizational and programmatic design and strategy and leads and consults on new business development in the education and nonprofit sectors. Antonio has advised the Mayor of Denver on education policy, consulted with national nonprofits focused on educational equity, managed philanthropic portfolios, worked on political campaigns in Texas and Colorado, and supported two school turnaround efforts within Denver Public Schools. He started his career as a secondary social studies teacher with Teach For America along the US-Mexico border in Texas. Antonio advises CommunityShare on its fundraising and scaling strategies.
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DaNel Hogan
DaNel is a Learning Officer at the . She advises CommunityShare on teacher professional development and “all things STEM.” She is passionate about positively impacting STEM education by providing world-class professional development to PreK-12th grade educators. Her work focuses on girls and underrepresented groups in STEM, early childhood STEM education, and energy literacy.
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Mary Bouley
Mary advises CommunityShare with the design and facilitation of our professional learning experiences with teachers and others. She was a classroom teacher for 11+ years and is a seasoned trainer, facilitator, and consultant who strives to impact systems through professional development and coaching. Mary is a Training Associate for Thinking Collaborative, providing professional development in Cognitive Coaching℠ and Adaptive Schools℠ Seminars. Mary’s work has focused in many different arenas, including arts and technology integration, place-based learning and community partnerships.
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Sara McClellan
Sara advises CommunityShare on communications, organizational development, evaluation, and program management. Sara has been a teacher, human resources manager, educational policy consultant, and nonprofit director. She loves to help people share resources—ideas, relationships, knowledge, tools, and energy—to strengthen communities and solve public problems together.
Our Educator Fellowship Facilitators
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Jackie Nichols
Jackie Nichols has been teaching middle school for 13 years at Lauffer Middle School in Tucson. Jackie holds an MA in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University, and a BA Business Administration/Regional Development from the University of Arizona. She primarily teaches engineering and sustainable urban design, helping students to design their own sustainable cities and presenting them at competitions in Arizona and nationally. Jackie aims to ignite a spark in every student, encouraging them to learn about their community and world.
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Rebecca Oravec
Rebecca Oravec is the middle school art teacher at Wrightston K-8 School in Sahuarita. Before moving to Tucson, Rebecca lived in Washington working as a preschool paraeducator, head secretary, and elementary art teacher. Rebecca believes in the holistic, hands-on approach to education, and designs her curriculum to explore the specific interests of her students. She also works to create multidisciplinary projects, and enjoys creating opportunities for students and families to create art together.