Staff
Van Schoales is the Chief Executive Officer of A+ Denver, he was most recently the Executive Director of Education Reform Now, a national education policy and advocacy non-profit organization fighting to dramatically improve the quality of public education for America's most disadvantaged children still serves as a Senior Consultant. Van previously worked as a program officer at the Piton Foundation where he oversaw a portfolio of investments on state policy, district reform and new school development and before that the interim President of the Colorado Children's Campaign. He has previously been a high school science teacher, principal and non-profit leader working as an education reform advocate. Van has launched or help start a number of non-profits including the Odyssey Charter School (founding principal) , Bay Area Coalition of Equitable (formerly Essential) Schools, Denver School of Science and Technology, A + Denver, EdNewsColorado and Get Smart Schools. Van has authored and edited a variety of papers on school choice, school accountability, student achievement, school design, state policy and other education reform topics. He's regularly quoted in education news stories and can be found in the Denver Post, NBC, National Public Radio, EdNewsColorado, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Education Week, Univision and Fox News.
Van has a B.S, Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, M.Sc.,Geological Sciences from Brown University, M.A. Educational Administration from San Francisco State University and M.A., Education from Stanford University. Van liked rocks, graduate school and took awhile to decide to work on behalf of kids. He has a magnificent daughter who plays beautiful music and is about to head off to college.
Prior to joining A+ Denver as the Policy Director Jason served as the Public Affairs Associate at the Colorado League of Charter Schools. At the League Jason assisted in the coordination of the League's policy efforts, and also oversees the organization’s grassroots and community organizing work, managed the Colorado Charter Advocacy Network (Colorado CAN), and assisted in strengthening the League’s employment practice and facilities initiatives.
Prior to joining the League, Jason spent three years working with students at schools throughout Northeast Denver as a site teacher and program director for cityWILD, a non-profit that offers afterschool programming centered around service learning, life skills and experiential education, and as a founding member of Greenleaf, a non-profit that employs youth to combat health disparities by growing food in neighborhood plots and selling that food in areas with less access to healthy food. Jason holds a bachelor's degree from Colorado College where he majored in mathematical economics.
When not at work you'll find Jason running on trails, riding his bike or sliding on snow in the Colorado backcountry.
Elizabeth is the Director of Operations at A+ Denver and will be focused on bringing structure and systems to the organization. She is familiar with the Denver education reform landscape and has become passionate about working to improve education opportunities and student achievement through reform.
She previously worked as a Project Manager with Get Smart Schools through the AmeriCorps VISTA program where her main focus was coordinating a coalition effort to unify the enrollment system in DPS. She also worked closely with various advocacy and collaborative initiatives that GSS pursued such as the District-Charter compact.
Elizabeth graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2009 with degrees in Political Science and International Studies. She is currently attending UC-Denver, School of Public Affairs in the Masters of Public Administration program and hopes to graduate in December 2013. Liz previously worked for the State of Wisconsin and for the University of Wisconsin. In her free time she enjoys camping, hiking, biking and walks with her dog.
Contact Information
Address: 2543 California Street, Denver, CO 80205
Office Phone: (303) 736.2549
