Issue Experts and Press Contacts
Nelson Smith, President
Nelson Smith, a nationally recognized expert on charter schools and education policy, is the President of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. His experience includes senior management positions at the U.S. Department of Education, the D.C. Public Charter School Board, the New York City Partnership, and most recently at New American Schools, where he served as Vice President for Policy and Governance. In 2002, he was appointed by Education Secretary Rod Paige as one of 21 negotiators who developed federal regulations for the No Child Left Behind Act. Nelson is a graduate of Georgetown University and a resident of Washington, DC.
Todd Ziebarth, Vice President for Policy
Todd Ziebarth is the Vice President for Policy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Previously, he worked as a Policy Analyst both at the Education Commission of the States from 1997 to 2003 and at Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates from 2003 to 2005. He has a Bachelors of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver.
R. Brooks Garber, Federal Policy Director
R. Brooks Garber is the Federal Policy Director for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Mr. Garber has been called upon to speak about public charter schools and education policy both domestically and internationally. Prior to joining the National Alliance, Brooks worked as the Associate Director of Policy at the Center for Education Reform in Washington, DC. Before that, he worked at the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations where he assisted the Legislature in the development of a new education funding formula for the state. Brooks has campaign and political experience at Federal, State, and Local levels. Mr. Garber has a Bachelor of Science in History and Human and Organizational Development, and a Master's in Public Policy, with an emphasis on education policy, both from Vanderbilt University.
Anna Nicotera, Research and Evaluation Director
Anna Nicotera is the Research and Evaluation Director for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Prior to joining the Alliance, Ms. Nicotera was a pre-doctoral research fellow with the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and a Graduate Research Assistant at the National Center on School Choice. Her research experiences include program evaluations of whole school reform models and professional development initiatives in urban school districts, as well as a multi-state, longitudinal examination of the impact of the NCLB school choice provision on student achievement. Ms. Nicotera received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and she is a doctoral candidate in Education Leadership and Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University.
Contact Our Experts
Sarah Johnson
Communications Manager
(202) 289-27