Staff
West Wind Education Policy Inc. has a multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual staff team encompassing a variety of backgrounds and decades of experience working with leaders from across K-12 education, with a special emphasis on racial equity.
Circe Stumbo
President
circe @ westwinded .com
Circe is president of West Wind Education Policy Inc. (West Wind), which she founded in January 2001. West Wind works across the country to build the capacity of leaders to imagine and enact public K-12 education systems that overcome historic and persistent inequities and engage each and every child in learning. Read more about Circe here.
Mandi Bozarth
Project Director
mandi @ westwinded .com
Mandi Bozarth is a Project Director and an Equity Leadership Coach at West Wind, where she supports our team with budgeting, strategy, marketing, program design, human resources, and client support. She works with districts and state departments of education in their efforts to create learning opportunities for each and every student. Her work includes project management, group facilitation, research for state initiatives, and writing briefing papers, policy memos and planning documents for use by leaders in education. Read more about Mandi here
Ellen Daye-Williams
Senior Leadership Facilitator
ellen @ westwinded .com
Ellen is a Senior Leadership Facilitator at West Wind, where she supports administrators and HR officers and nonprofit leaders across the state through implicit bias and equity professional development. Ellen also served as a designer of and trainer in a program to help prepare members of marginalized communities to serve on public boards and commissions. Read more about Ellen here.
Sally Denison
Payroll Supervisor
sallywestwind @ gmail .com
Sally is dedicated to assisting the company in its financial interactions with clients and vendors, managing accounts receivable and accounts payable. Sally makes certain that West Wind employees’ payroll and benefits are taken care of and she monitors and orders the supplies necessary to a smoothly running office. Read more about Sally here.
Fellows
Mary Antón-Oldenburg
Equity Fellow
Mary Antón-Oldenburg provides leadership coaching for senior and emerging leaders with a focus on leaders of color. Mary provides professional learning opportunities to schools and districts tailored to schools’ current assessed DEI needs. Currently, Mary is on the Board of Directors of People of Color in Independent Schools of Northern California. Read more about Mary here.
Kristine S. Grant
Research Fellow
Kristine currently serves as Associate Clinical Professor of Multicultural and Urban Education at Drexel University. Before joining the Drexel faculty, Kristine was a Research Associate with Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit engaged in educational research and evaluation. Read more about Kristine here.
DeeAnn Grove
Policy Fellow
Contact DeeAnn directly via email.
deeann @ westwinded .com
DeeAnn Grove is a Policy Fellow at West Wind, serving also as an Equity Leadership Coach. An experienced teacher educator, DeeAnn most recently served as a lecturer at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. DeeAnn’s research focuses on the social and political foundations of education policy and practice. Read more about DeeAnn here.
Deanna Hill
Research Fellow
Deanna is currently Assistant Clinical Professor and Program Director in the School of Education’s Education Leadership and Management Program and Higher Education Program at Drexel University. Her research interests include education law and policy, intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, educator workforce issues, and school choice. Read more about Deanna here.
Trusted Subcontractors
In addition to our Fellows, West Wind works closely with subcontractors from across the nation who are poised to support our work on a short- or long-term basis. Our nimble responses to clients are possible partly because we have such highly qualified consultants on call.
Adrienne Bailey
Senior Consultant, School Board Equity and Governance
Adrienne is currently a senior consultant providing strategic coaching and equity solutions to urban school district leaders and boards of education. Adrienne brings with her over 25 years of experience working in the fields of education and social justice to support disenfranchised youth living in urban and rural communities throughout the world. Read more about Adrienne here.
Christopher Johnson
Consultant, Equity Research and Coaching
Chris is an Assistant Professor of Education and African American Studies at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he teaches Sport and Black Culture, Interracial Communication and an Advanced Topics course. His research focuses on racial identity, representation and interracial interactions. Chris also serves as an Equity Leadership Coach with West Wind and is part of our think tank team.
Kimathi Johnson
Consultant, Student Voice
Kimathi Johnson is an Advancement Associate with the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. He supports West Wind to engage student voice in our projects. Kimathi’s unique collegiate experience as a leader in athletics, movement organizer, and an office assistant position him to approach his work at West Wind with care, commitment, and gusto. Read more about Kimathi here.
Amira Nash
Consultant, Equity Research and Professional Learning
Amira Nash serves as the Associate Director of Partnerships and Programs in the Baker Teacher Leader Center at the University of Iowa College of Education. Prior to this role, Amira taught high school social studies and students identified as English Language Learners (ELL) for four years. Amira supports West Wind’s equity-focused programming as a trusted consultant. Read more about Amira here.
Angelina Ramirez
Consultant, Student Voice
Angel Ramirez is a Youth Project Facilitator for Kids First Law Center in Cedar Rapids and the Co-Founder of Our Future, an organization to empower young people doing social justice work socially, professionally, and financially. As a first-generation college student, Angel’s desire to empower underrepresented members of the community is evident through her leadership and involvement in organizations throughout the community. In recognition, Angel was recently named as a Newman Civic Fellow. She also was recognized as a “Woman of Achievement in the Community” by the broader Cedar Rapids, Iowa, community. Read more about Angel here.
Beverly Smith
Senior Equity Consultant
Dr. Beverly A. Smith has held numerous leadership and teaching positions in Iowa and works with educators across the country. Prior to her retirement from K-12 education in 2019, Dr. Smith was Associate Superintendent for Human Resources and Equity for the Waterloo Community School District. Just as soon as she retired, she stepped out of retirement to serve as interim principal for Lincoln Elementary in Waterloo from 2019-2020. Since then, she has continued to consult with West Wind and other agencies across the country. Read more about Beverly here.