Mary D'Anella is a native Philadelphian, early proponent of the charter school movement, and founder of The D’Anella Group. She led the turn-around team for The Philadelphia Charter School for the Arts and Sciences and later served as its CEO, spearheading a successful school-wide reading improvement program that included intervention, remediation, and enrichment. Previously, she was a founding board member of the city's largest charter, The Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School, and served as Director of Communications for its management company, String Theory School Education. In that capacity, she selected and directed a group of independent designers, photographers, writers, artists, and filmmakers to create and publish all promotional material.
Carmel Melso Galati is an award-winning Philadelphia educator with more than 25 years of experience in urban education. As a certified reading specialist in the School District of Philadelphia, she has implemented proven school-wide reading programs and interventions. She has written curriculum, conducted professional development, and has received both the Rose Lindenbaum Improvement of Education Award and the Schoolmen's Club Service to Children Award for her stellar contributions. Carmel holds additional certifications in Elementary K-5, Elementary Principal, Reading Recovery, Nursery through 3rd grade, and Supervision of Curriculum and Instruction. In addition to being a reading specialist, she has held positions as a grade teacher, kindergarten teacher, regional literacy coach, professional development facilitator, and reading recovery teacher.
Doran Twer, a veteran Senior Consultant with the Hay Group, a worldwide management consulting firm, specializes in communications, implementation, employee survey research, and employee selection. His clients have included Major League Baseball, General Dynamics, Heineken, Aramark, AstraZeneca, Liberty Mutual, Bayer, Sankyo, the Culinary Institute of America, and American Eagle Outfitters, among others. Earlier in his career at Hay Group, he served as a vice-president, directing Hay’s internal and external marketing and communications programs. Since 2009 he has worked with Mary D’Anella and Santilli & Thomson to serve charter schools and related organizations in the Delaware Valley, including the design and maintenance of websites as well as external communications campaigns that included the creation of events and all related materials, such as press releases, commemorative booklets, and videos. His charter clients have included Philadelphia Charter School for the Performing Arts, First Philadelphia School for Literacy, Philadelphia Charter School for Math, Science & Technology (MaST), and Santilli & Thomson. Doran—who holds an MA in Education from Teachers College at Columbia, and an MA in Communications from The Annenberg School of Communications at The University of Pennsylvania—also has worked as a teacher in New York City and Philadelphia.
Marguerite Del Giudice is a national-award-winning journalist and education writer who brings innovative ideas to the challenge of teaching students how to write well. In addition to having edited books and magazine articles, she has coached writers and taught magazine writing at Temple University. Her writing has appeared in national publications and been translated worldwide, including cover stories for The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. A onetime staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Boston Globe, she contributed articles to the submission that won the The Globe staff a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of school desegregation, and, as an education beat reporter, was named a grand prize winner by the national Education Writers Association. She worked with Mary D’Anella as a consultant for The Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School and has designed an afterschool program in the Japanese martial art of aikido, in which she holds the rank of sandan, or third-degree black belt.
Sharon Ann Jachter has been a social services and project consultant for Philadelphia-area university and social-service-related agencies for many years. Her strengths in communications, organizational detail, management, and team leadership are indispensable to facilitating our Charter School renewal process. Sharon, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, has also been a college counselor and for the past 15 years has worked as a case manager and group leader in private and parochial schools throughout Camden County, New Jersey.
Candida Lowry whose two children graduated from Philadelphia public charter schools, is an educator of special needs children. She is certified in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey in elementary education, special education, and education of the deaf (using the Total Communication Method) has also taught language-impaired and autistic children in the Pennsylvania public school system.
She has worked with student recruitment which places talented children into academically demanding independent day and boarding schools. She can educate parents and students about independent schools, help with access to the schools, and streamline the application process.
She has worked with student recruitment which places talented children into academically demanding independent day and boarding schools. She can educate parents and students about independent schools, help with access to the schools, and streamline the application process.