Our Leadership
The Board of Directors at West Denver Prep is a diverse, passionate group of committed citizens who have dedicated their experience and credibility to this project. Board members include community leaders and organizers, business leaders, and members of the local foundation community. Chris Gibbons, Lead Founder of West Denver Prep, has recruited board members based upon clarity of vision, relevant skills and expertise, and a deep commitment to educational excellence. The charter designation gives the founding board autonomous budgetary control, scheduling, curriculum, and hiring decisions – autonomy that is exchanged for a high degree of internal and external accountability.
Board of Trustees Meetings. Once a month, our Board of Trustees meets to review the progress of the school. Board of Trustees meetings are public and open to all parents and community members. The Board meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. Meetings for the remainder of the school year are:
- Wednesday, September 12th, 5:30 PM
- Wednesday, October 10th, 4:30 PM
- Wednesday, November 14th, 4:30 PM
- Wednesday, December 12th, 5:30 PM
The Head of School is the former director of Denver Summerbridge, a Denver Public Schools partner program serving low-income students. He has completed the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship, a one-year, nationally-recognized training program for potential charter school founders designing uncompromising schools of excellence. In its fourth year, Building Excellent Schools has trained fellows who have received 11 of the 15 charters issued by the Massachusetts Department of Education from 2002-2005. Building Excellent Schools fellows have received charters in Harlem, New York, Washington, D.C., and Camden, New Jersey.
Chris Gibbons, Head of School
Board of Directors:
Georgia Durán
Expertise and interest: Communications, community engagement and multicultural education.
Georgia is a first-generation college student who grew up in west Denver. She spent more than 15 years teaching at one of the top community colleges in the country, Santa Barbara City College. Georgia’s goal is to increase educational access for diverse students and parents through active community engagement, which she strives for daily as communication director for a metro school district. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University, her Master’s degree from the University of California and is enrolled in a Ph.D. program at CU-Denver.
Chris Gibbons
Expertise and interest: Educational leadership, charter school design and best practices, educational policy.
Chris is the lead founder and head of school at West Denver Prep. Chris is the former director of Denver SummerBridge, a non-profit education program providing college-preparatory academic support for middle school students from low-income public schools, and training for high school and college students to become teachers. Beginning his teaching career at the Teacher's Institute at City on a Hill Charter School in Boston, Chris initially served SummerBridge as a teacher and dean for five years before becoming a director. Fluent in Spanish, Chris holds a B.S. in Biology from Yale University and a M.Ed. from Regis University. He has completed the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship, a national leadership training program for charter school founders.
Shelley Gomez
Expertise and Interest: Higher Education, Post-secondary Planning, Educational Access.
Shelley volunteered with College Summit, a non-profit organization working to increase the college enrollment rates of low-income and underrepresented students, for five years before joining their staff full-time. Her prior experience includes eight years in Colorado higher education. As a first generation college student, Shelley sees the impact educational access and success have made on her life; she hopes to “pass it on” to current students by joining West Denver Prep. Shelley received a Bachelor’s Degree from Colorado State University and is currently enrolled in a Master’s Program at the University of Colorado at Denver.
Chris Henderson
Expertise and interest: Financial oversight, strategic planning, board development.
Chris is a Denver native who attended both Denver and Cherry Creek Public Schools. After some time on the East Coast, he returned to Denver with his family. Formerly a managing director at Vestar Capital Partners, Chris was recently appointed as the new chief operating officer for the city of Denver. He has worked as a financial analyst and English instructor, and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and an MBA from Columbia University. Chris believes passionately in the success and importance of public education and brings this passion and his business knowledge to West Denver Prep.
Jerry Lassos
Expertise and interest: Educator professional development, multicultural education, curriculum and instruction.
A lifelong educator, Jerry was raised in a low-income section of West Los Angeles and committed his life to improving the quality of education in such urban schools. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Cal State Northridge, a Master’s degree from the University of Colorado at Denver, and served in the United States Air Force. Jerry currently works for the Jefferson County School District as a professional developer.
Margaret Lin
Expertise and Interest: Educational and charter school policy, academic accountability, governance.
Margaret has dedicated her career to improving public education, particularly for urban students. She has been working to establish and support quality charter schools since 1996 in Chicago, where she co-founded and operated one of the first charter school resource centers in the country. Later, Margaret co-founded and served as executive director of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. She is now a consultant working with a variety of education organizations, charter-authorizing agencies and charter school support organizations across the country. Margaret was a Rotary Foundation Scholar in Brussels, Belgium and previously taught English and cross-cultural courses in Tokyo, Japan. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Nina Lopez
Expertise and interest: Public education policy and reform.
Nina is a first-generation college graduate who grew up in between New York City and Ramey, Puerto Rico. She spent 9 years as a corporate securities attorney practicing in Boston, Phoenix, New York and Denver before changing careers to follow her
passion - improving public education for all, but in particular poor and Latino students. Nina's goal is to ensure that neither race nor income dictate opportunities for our children, and she pursues that goal in her work as Vice President of Strategy and Operations for the Colorado Children's Campaign (www.coloradokids.org). She earned a B.A. degree in Literature from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges and her J.D. from Columbia University.
Alexander Ooms
Expertise and interest: Strategic planning, organizational capacity, teacher compensation and retention.
Alex has been involved in education reform and charter schools since 1997, when he visited the Academy of the Pacific Rim, a high-performing urban charter school in Boston, to visit a close friend who was then the principal. Over the past eight years, he has been a strong proponent of educational reform, and has both advised and served as a board member of several charter schools. He is a partner at ClearCreek Partners, a boutique investment banking firm, and also serves as an appointed member of the A+ Citizen’s Committee for Denver Public Schools. Alex holds a Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, an M.A. from Georgetown University and a MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
Chris Watney
Chris Watney is the Executive Vice President of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, an advocacy organization working to improve access to quality health and education for Colorado’s more than one million children. She has more than 10 years of communications and public relations experience, including serving as Communications Director for a United States Senate campaign and for eight years as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and in Denver during the Oklahoma City bombing trials. In 2007, Chris was named one of “Colorado’s 50 Movers and Shakers” by the Colorado Statesman. Chris has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.
