SLC is governed by a twelve member Board of Trustees. With the inception of the grant in 1997 the board was made up of 6 members appointed by SLC’s major funder Baptist Community Ministries and 3 members each of SLC’s partners University of New Orleans and Xavier University. In 2011, the makeup of the board changed to 15 members selected from local, regional, and national educators.  Current board members or staff nominates new members that are voted on by the entire board. Members serve unlimited 4 year terms.

Dr. Scott Bauer (Ph.D. Cornell University) serves as Associate Dean of Advanced Education & Doctoral Programs in the School of Education & Human Development, University of Colorado Denver. His research interests involve the application of organizational theory to the improvement of schools and the efficacy of various strategies used to develop school leaders at all levels. Prior to joining the faculty at UC Denver, Dr. Bauer was on the faculty at George Mason University, the University of New Orleans, and served as Research Director of SLC. In addition to serving on the SLC Board, he is also a member of the board of directors of the Apple Federal Credit Union Education Foundation and serves on the Supervisory Committee of Apple Federal Credit Union.

Dr. Brian Beabout  is a former teacher at Marion Abramson Senior High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. His research focuses on educational change, charter schools, school integration, and urban school leadership. His work has been published in numerous outlets including Multicultural Education, The Journal of Thought, Education and Urban Society, The Journal of School Choice, and The Journal of Educational Change. He is the co-editor (with Mirón & Boselovic) of Only in New Orleans: School Choice and Equity Post-Hurricane Katrina (Sense, 2015). He was named an Emerging Scholar by the Educational Change Special Interest Group of AERA. He co-founded the Coalition of Diverse Charter Schools and has served on the boards of the Morris Jeff Community School and the School Leadership Center of Great New Orleans.

Robert Mora is managing partner of Pedelahore & Co. LLP. A graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, Mr. Mora is a member of the Louisiana Society of Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the New Orleans Estate Planning Council. Mr. Mora is actively involved in development and support for various locally and nationally recognized non-profit organizations. His current positions as either officer or director include the Epilepsy Foundation, Cabrini High School, New Orleans Rotary Club, New Orleans Rotary Foundation, Southern Eye Bank, and Richard Murphy Hospice.

Dr. Cynthia J. Reed is the Dean of the Bagwell College of Education at Kennesaw State University. She joined Kennesaw State University after after 5 years of academic and leadership service at Northern Kentucky University as Dean and 17 years at Auburn University, during which time she served as the Emily R. and Gerald S. Leischuck Endowed Professor of Educational Leadership, as Director of the Truman Pierce Institute (TPI), a research and outreach center, and as a Professor of Educational Leadership. Her first career was in K-12 education. Dr. Reed is a past president of the University Council for Educational Administration and is on the editorial review board of several national and international journals. She was a Lilly Endowment Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education and the founding coordinator of the Access to College Education Initiative housed at SUNY Cortland. Dr. Reed earned her B.S. in Elementary Education and her M.S. in Elementary Education with Specialization in Gifted Education from SUNY Oswego; a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Administration and Supervision from SUNY Cortland; and an Ed.D. in Administrative and Policy Studies with Specialization in Policy, Planning, and Evaluation from the University of Pittsburgh.

Patty Riddlebarger  is Entergy’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility. Her department is founded on the idea that companies are a part of the communities they serve, and so have the duty to help those communities thrive – beyond charitable donations and philanthropy. Ms. Riddlebarger’s area of responsibility encompasses eight states. She is also responsible for low-income customer service initiatives, a series of programs designed to address the needs of Entergy’s low-income customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Ms. Riddlebarger received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and her MBA from Tulane University.

Dr. Ronald S. Rochon is the current president for the University of Southern Indiana, where he has also served as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. He was the co-founder and, for seven years, the director of the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Rochon has over 15 years of experience as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. His primary research interests are culturally responsive education and administration, history and philosophy of American education, and multicultural education. Dr. Rochon earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Educational Policy Studies.

Dr. Tom Becker is the current principal of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic School. Dr. Becker has served many roles in the Archdiocese of New Orleans as teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent over the last two decades. He has served as an executive board member for the Louisiana Middle School Association, past-president of the Archbishop Rummel High School Alumni Association, and past board member of the Archbishop Rummel High School and St. Augustine High School Advisory Boards. Dr. Becker earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola University of the South, with a major in Secondary Education. He later went on to graduate from Louisiana State University with a Master of Arts in English. He also received a doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of New Orleans.