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About Rocketship Education

Founding Group

John Danner, Co-Founder and CEO, Rocketship Education
Before starting Rocketship, John served as a teacher in the Nashville public school system for three years, the last two as a second-grade teacher of students with limited English proficiency. In 2000, John co-founded Sacred Heart Nativity School, a private Catholic middle-school for at-risk Latino boys in San Jose. From 2001-2005, John served as the Chairman of the Charter School Resource Center of Tennessee, working for the successful passage of Tennessee’s charter school law in 2002 and assisting the subsequent establishment of twelve charter schools in Tennessee. John served as a founding director of KIPP Academy Nashville, a charter middle school in Nashville. Prior to his work in education, John founded and served as CEO of NetGravity, an Internet advertising software company. John took NetGravity public and sold the company to Doubleclick in October of 1999. John holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Master’s Degree in Education Policy from Vanderbilt University. John is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Preston Smith, Co-Founder and Principal, Rocketship One Public School
Before starting Rocketship, Preston was the Principal of L.U.C.H.A. Elementary School , a small school within Alum Rock Unified School District. He founded L.U.C.H.A in collaboration with neighborhood families in 2004 to provide parents with an excellent school focused on high academic achievement and parental involvement. In 2006, after two years of operation, L.U.C.H.A. received an API score of 834 and was the highest ranked elementary school in the district. Before founding L.U.C.H.A, Preston taught 1st grade for three years at Clyde Arbuckle Elementary School, the first two as a member of Teach for America (TFA). In 2003, Preston was named “Teacher of the Year” at Arbuckle and was also nominated as one of six finalists for TFA’s Sue Lehmann award, given to TFA corps members with the highest classroom academic gains in the nation. Preston graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Board of Directors

Jennifer Andaluz
Jennifer Andaluz is the co-Founder and Executive Director of Downtown College Preparatory (DCP). DCP was the first charter high school in Santa Clara County and one of the only schools in California to focus explicitly on college success for low-achieving urban students. DCP has received significant state, local and national recognition including a book about its founding and early years, Our School by Joanne Jacobs.

Fred Ferrer
Frederick J. Ferrer is president of Manzanita Solutions. For over nineteen years, Ferrer, as executive director of Estrella Family Services, oversaw their early education and family services to 300 children from infancy through seventh grade as well as Estrella’s Kids to Camp program which sent over 700 low income youth to summer camp. Fred is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University, a commisioner on the FIRST 5 Commision of Santa Clara County and is involved with many other organizations focused on child development.

Eric Resnick
Eric Resnick is managing partner of KSL Capital Partners, a $750 million real estate private equity fund. Eric is also Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of KSL Resorts, which owns and operates high-end resort properties such as the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Previously, Eric was the Vice President of Strategic Planning for Vail Resorts and a consultant with McKinsey and Company.

Don Shalvey
Don Shalvey is the CEO of Aspire Public Schools, the largest Charter School Network (CSN) in California. Aspire, founded in 1998, operates 17 public schools in school districts around the state including Oakland, Los Angeles, East Palo Alto, and the Central Valley. Before Aspire, Don was the superintendent of the San Carlos School District, where he opened the first charter school in California.

Alex Terman
Alex Terman was a founding employee of Leadership Public Schools, a non-profit charter management organization, and served as the organization’s first Chief Operating Officer until early 2007. Prior to joining LPS, Mr. Terman worked in business and corporate development roles at America Online and as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company, an international management consulting firm. Mr. Terman also has served as a John Gardner Fellow in the Office of the United States Trade Representative and as a board member and classroom volunteer for Junior Achievement of the Bay Area. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California, Berkeley, a Masters of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and has completed the Broad Residency in Urban Education, a two-year management development program that prepares leaders for senior management positions in public education.

Joanne Weiss
Joanne Weiss is a Partner and COO of NewSchools Venture Fund, where she oversees the organization's operations, as well as investment strategy and management assistance for many of NewSchools' ventures nationally and on the West Coast. As part of this work, she serves on the boards of Aspire Public Schools, Education for Change, Green Dot Public Schools, Leadership Public Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, and Teachscape. Prior to joining NewSchools Venture Fund, Joanne was CEO of Claria Corporation, an e-services recruiting firm and held executive positions at Pensare, an e-learning company, Academic Systems, Wasatch Education, and Wicat Systems.