Tonika Cheek Clayton, McKinsey
Tonika Cheek Clayton, who is managing partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, leads its tools and services team. Under her leadership, NewSchools has invested more than $9 million in 58 for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurs who are developing digital tools and services that support teaching and learning in pre-K through 12. Before she joined NewSchools, Tonika served as vice president of Amplify, a company that reimagines K-12 education by creating digital products and services that empower teachers, students and parents in innovative ways. She previously worked as a researcher for Harvard University’s Public Education Leadership Project where she consulted the first cohort of urban public school district leaders and co-authored several case studies seeking to identify more effective ways to drive student achievement by strengthening school district management and leadership. Her case study on the New York City Department of Education and case series on Race, Accountability and the Achievement Gap, in particular, are among some of the popular PELP case studies requested by educators.
She started her career in marketing and public relations with the NBA, promoting the NBA Store and NBA All-Star events before she transitioned to business development and the launch of the NBA’s Development League.
Tonika graduated from Harvard College and earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School. She is a board member for the Canterbury Episcopal School, which serves a predominantly minority community in south Dallas. Tonika also has raised funds for her husband’s congressional campaign, President Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and state Sen. Wendy Davis.
Katharine Hawthorne, The Builders Fund
Katharine Hawthorne is an impact investor, finance professional, and advisor who has dedicated her career to building a healthy, sustainable, and inclusive future. Katharine joined the Builders Fund in 2020 as Vice President on the investment team. Builders is a private equity platform and B Corporation investing in sustainable systems and human elevation. Previously Katharine worked with Patamar Capital, Citibank, and Tiedemann Advisors, and began her career as a finance and contracts manager at UCSF, where she oversaw a $50 million annual portfolio and negotiated over 30 transactions with federal, corporate, and philanthropic funders in the healthcare and life sciences industry. She holds a B.S. in physics from Stanford University and an MBA in finance with honors from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Katharine is Board Observer at MPOWERD Inc, a Certified B Corporation specializing in designing clean energy technology including solar lighting and mobile charging; and Board Director at Sharp & Fine, a San Francisco-based dance company.
Scott Miller, Greenhaven Road Capital
Scott Miller is a Co-Founder of Acelero Learning and has been part of its growth from a tiny office in Manhattan to over 1,100 employees. He has previously served in a variety of roles including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer. During his time at Acelero Learning, the organization achieved leading gains in child outcomes as well as attracting growth capital from leading double-bottom-line investors such as the Packard Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, New Schools Venture Fund, Boston Community Capital, and New Jersey Community Capital. Prior to co-founding Acelero Learning, Scott was an Associate Partner at New Schools Venture Fund.
He is also the founder of Greenhaven Road Capital, a boutique investment management firm that manages an investment partnership modeled after Warren Buffett’s pre-Berkshire Hathaway investment partnership. Scott is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA and master’s in education from Stanford University. Scott lives outside of New York City with his wife, three daughters and two dogs.
Mora Segal, A-Street Ventures
Mora is a Managing Director at A-Street. She is also the co-founder of Leading Now, an initiative to help school superintendents navigate politically-charged environments in order to serve all of their students. Mora is a board member of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, Open Up Resources, and America Achieves; and is the advisory board chair of the Eli and Phyllis Segal Citizen Leadership Program.
Previously, Mora was the CEO of Achievement Network (ANet), an organization dedicated to ensuring students in marginalized communities have access to meaningful, high quality instruction. Over the course of her ten years leading the organization, ANet supported thousands of K-12 schools nationwide with data-driven instruction, instructional leadership coaching, and the implementation of curriculum, assessment and professional learning systems. Mora led the organization’s growth from serving 60,000 students to 350,000 students, while deepening its impact for students. Her organization was recognized multiple times by the Nonprofit Times as one of the best places to work.
Prior to ANet, Mora held leadership roles at College Summit (now PeerForward) and SchoolSports (which became ESPN-Rise). She is a proud AmeriCorps alumna, a Coro Foundation Fellow and a Pahara-Aspen Fellow. Mora received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Yale University. She resides in Newton, MA with her husband and two daughters.
Aarthi Sowrirajan, BlackRock Impact Opportunity (BIO) Fund
Aarthi Sowrirajan is a Senior Portfolio Manager for BlackRock’s Alternative Solutions Group (ASG) within BlackRock Alternative Investors (BAI). An experienced impact investor, Aarthi manages the implementation of the BlackRock Impact Opportunities (BIO) Fund – a private markets, multi-alternatives fund focused on investing through a racial equity lens.