Current Board Members

Judy Kogan is a Parent Board Member with two children attending OCS. She is passionate about helping people and excited to continue on the OCS Board this year as Board Chair! After graduating from UC San Diego with a degree in Political Science, Judy worked at a non-profit foundation in Santa Monica where she researched the impact of education technology, teacher quality, and charter schools on student learning. Her commitment to helping others continued after she graduated from Loyola Law School in 2005 and began her career working as a civil rights litigator. These days Judy advocates on behalf of developmentally disabled children through her company, California Advocacy Group. Judy was *almost* a 3rd generation Los Angelina, but she was born in Kalamazoo during her parents’ stint in graduate school. During her free time, you can usually find Judy spending time with her husband and kids. The Kogans love to hop on a cruise ship, travel overseas, visit national parks, explore sandy beaches, and try new restaurants. If you would like to contact Judy, her email address is judy.k@ourcommunityschool.org.
David is a Parent Board Member with a son in the second grade, and a daughter who graduated from OCS in 2021. He has served on the Board since 2020, the Finance Committee since 2018, and initially volunteered with the Spring Fair set up crew.  David spent the first decade of his career as a Certified Public Accountant (performing financial audits of school districts, cities, and counties), then began practicing as an attorney/civil litigator in 1990, and has specialized in forensic accounting, damages analysis and providing expert testimony at trial since 1994. David’s wife is also an attorney who previously held a parent leadership role at a local private school, and shares his passion for education and serving our community.  Things that you may not know about David are that he loves sports, walking, music and being a kid with his kids.  If you would like to contact David, his email address is david.c@ourcommunityschool.org
Yi Ding (Ding) is a Community Board Member. She is a librarian at CSUN, where she discovered her passion for K12 when offering workshops and tours to local students. Heading the campus textbook affordability initiative further inspired her to support vulnerable students in the wider community. After chairing the Education Committee at the Northridge West Neighborhood Council and co-founding the family-driven nonprofit CHEER, she wants to give back to children and youth more directly and deeply by bringing years of education and nonprofit experience to the OCS board. Things you might not know about Ding is that she has a four-year-old boy, loves producing podcast episodes in Mandarin, is a lazy cook, but enjoys food of all kinds. If you would like to contact Ding, her email address is ding@ourcommunityschool.org.
Kelly Simon is a community board member. Dr. Simon serves as the Director of Bridges Charter School, a K-8 public Charter School in Thousand Oaks. As an innovative, strategic, and data driven leader, Dr. Simon leads the school resourcefully around the school’s guiding principles of Whole Child Education, Project Based Learning, and Family Partnerships. Before transitioning into K-12 leadership, Dr. Simon was a teacher and a teacher educator for over a decade at many colleges and universities across California. She earned her PhD in Education with an emphasis in Teaching and Learning and a specialization in Literacy, Language, and Composition Studies from UC Santa Barbara, and she earned her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from CSU Fresno. Dr. Simon aligns with the mission of OCS and is a strong supporter of charter schools. She is looking forward to partnering with the board and school leadership to ensure the continued longevity and success of OCS! If you would like to contact Kelly, her email address is kelly.s@ourcommunityschool.org.
Greg Knotts is a Community Board Member. He is the Chair of the Elementary Education Department at CSUN. He taught elementary school for 10 years in Long Beach, Inglewood, and Lawndale prior to teaching at Loyola Marymount University which is where he earned his BS in Business Administration and an MA in Elementary Education. His Ph.D. is from the University of Southern California in International/Intercultural Education which is a pretty high-fallutin way of saying he is supposed to know things about differences in education across contexts. Most of his scholarly work and publications are in social studies education and around multicultural issues of gender and sexuality in elementary education. A thing you might not know about Greg is that he has a 12-pound Maltipoo, Stella, that is both the bane of his existence as well as a rare treasure (anyone want a dog?).  If you would like to contact Greg, his email address is greg.k@ourcommunityschool.org.

Tamara Schiff is a community board member. Dr. Schiff brings charter school board experience to the OCS Board having served on the HighTech LA Board for a decade. During that time, she also served on the Board of the Milken Community High School. Tamara was formerly the Senior VP for Research and Administration at the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, where she helped develop and implement a comprehensive school reform focusing on teacher effectiveness that is still used in schools across the country. For the past 12 years, she has consulted on educational issues, ranging from teacher and leadership effectiveness to executive leadership placement, and curriculum development. Dr. Schiff earned her Ph.D. and MA in Higher Education from UCLA, where she also earned her BA in Psychology. Tamara has long been a supporter of charter schools and looks forward to working with the OCS Community. If you would like to contact Tamara, her email is tamara.s@ourcommunityschool.org.

Kimberli Robinson is a new OCS Board Member who joined in August. She is a long-standing strategic leader in managed care with a passion for partnerships with healthcare providers, moving away from transactional relationships and toward strategy building.  She is the Sr. Director of Provider Partnerships at Blue Shield of California, responsible for the engagement and optimized performance of healthcare practitioners in Southern California. She has experience building initiatives and joint ventures that promote value and high performance. Kimberli is passionate about the power of collaboration that inspires creativity, efficiency and innovation which is not only reflective in her work but relationships and volunteer efforts. She and her husband Cliff own Magnolia Counseling, a non-profit mental health counseling center serving the families and children in the community of Agoura Hills.

Kimberli grew up in the San Fernando Valley and currently lives in Encino where she and Cliff have raised their two boys who are now 21 and 24. Miles currently attends the University of Chicago while Makai has graduated from the same university and now lives in Los Angeles. The Robinsons are a football family where Kimberli and Cliff have supported youth football for the past 16 years.  If you would like to contact Kimberli, her email is kimberli.r@ourcommunityschool.org.
Carey Bartlow - Executive Director

Deja Munn - 2nd Grade Lead Teacher

Ana Jimenez Gomez - 5th Grade Lead Teacher

Ryan French - Panda Partners Co-President

Tina Herrera - Panda Partners Co-President