ECC Bios

Jill E. Shahen

Co-Founder & Managing Partner Empire Charter Consultants

Jill Shahen is a founder and managing partner of Empire Charter Consultants, a national charter school services provider. 

Jill began working in the charter school movement in 1999 and was Director of Charter Accountability at SUNY’s Charter Schools Institute prior to leaving. After eight years at the Institute, she decided being a bureaucrat wasn’t her thing and became an advocate as the Managing Director of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, working in both Connecticut and New York. She continues to be a fierce advocate for charter schools as both a service provider and authorizer watchdog; the latter makes her a hero in the eyes of some and enemy of others. She loses no sleep over this. 

Andrea Rogers Barry

Co-Founder & Managing Partner Empire Charter Consultants

Andrea is a founder and managing partner of Empire Charter Consultants. She provides technical assistance and support services for schools at every stage of their life cycle - from the initial founding stages to renewal and replication. She leads ECC’s technical writing projects and has helped schools in multiple states write new school applications, renewal applications, and grants. 

Andrea has now worked in educational policy and technical support for more than 20 years. Andrea was drawn to this work because she firmly believes in honoring parents and educators who want to establish schools for the children within their hyperlocal communities. To her, chartering should provide a meaningful policy choice that allows for grassroots activism combined with innovation in ways that truly serve the needs of learners. 

Jessica Mokhiber

Communications Director 

Jessica Mokhiber has worked with charter schools for more than 10 years to help them tell their stories, highlighting their incredible successes and the stellar educations so many of them are providing to families and communities. 

 Jessica worked in TV news and for the NYS Senate prior to her work with charter schools. Working on a justice-oriented issue energizes her. Joining Andrea and Jill as they launched ECC was a thrill and allowed her the freedom to voice her own opinions and viewpoints on issues she believes deeply in. This has been freeing in a way she never expected professionally. The ECC team is thoughtful about public stances on charter school issues and the politics surrounding them and Jess enjoys sharing the comments of the team especially when ECC is the only group publicly calling out injustice or bad behavior. 

Wendy Diamante

Data and Analytics Research Consultant

Wendy Diamante is the energetic founder of The Diamante Group, a consultancy she started with her husband in 2018. As the go-to data analytics and research consultant for Empire Charter Consultants, Wendy brings meticulous detail and relentless curiosity to her work. Her insights drive instructional strategies and uncover educational trends for member schools. Before founding her company, she shaped data systems and compliance at the Northeast Charter Schools Network, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the Colorado Charter School Institute, establishing over 15 years of experience with charter schools and education policy. Wendy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Management from SUNY Albany. Combining sharp analytical skills with a playful spirit, Wendy is dedicated to enhancing education through data-driven insights.

Dr. Natasha Howard

Dr. Natasha Howard would like us to describe her as whimsical, free-spirited, and ebullient. We’d be lying. The truth is that she is deadly serious about fighting an educational system that punishes students based on skin color, geography, and family income.   
A psychologist by training, Dr. Howard applies a unique lens to her work, artfully pairing rapid situation analysis with a focus on organizational development and capacity-building. Process is her love language, and data-based decision-making makes her swoon.  More than a decade in various leadership roles at the NYC Department of Education and as Managing Director of Program at the SUNY Charter Schools Institute nearly crushed her soul, so she left the bullcrapbureaucracy and hasn’t looked back.

Kristin Greer

Kristin has spent over two decades dedicated to educational reform and supporting underserved learners in NYC and Chicago. In various roles, including high school principal and mentor teacher, Kristin's leadership has delivered record-breaking results. Inspired by her mentor, Jill Shahen, a strong advocate for charter schools, Kristin researched the educational challenges in South Carolina's "Corridor of Shame". Motivated to effect change, Kristin developed a new high school model to break the underperformance cycle and foster progress through innovative approaches.
Passionate about education and the arts, Kristin founded a non-profit performing arts company to empower youth and promote social awareness through theatre. Kristin is also the CEO and founder of Excel Empowerment Educators Network, continuing her mission to inspire positive change. 

Joe Shahen

Joe Shahen is a services and communications consultant with Empire Charter Consultants, providing support to schools in all stages of their life cycle and assisting with the organization’s internal operations and digital media. Joe got his start in the charter movement in 2010 as an Assistant Data Analyst with the New York Charter Schools Association, becoming the Deputy Communications Director for New York as the organization grew into the Northeast Charter Schools Network. After six years in charter advocacy, and desperate to prove to himself that he wasn’t just a nepo baby, he traded education policy for energy policy, becoming the Communications Director of the Independent Power Producers of New York and a Communications Manager with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. He returned to charters in early 2023 and was surprised to see numerous Success Academies chartered during the Obama Administration had still not opened.

Regina Lauricella

Regina Lauricella is a collaborative, solution-oriented leader with an unwavering belief that every child deserves access to a high-quality, supportive education that will propel them into a future that is rightfully their own. Regina recently joined ECC as an Executive Leadership Consultant and services schools from inception through daily operations, strategic thinking, and planning. Her primary focus is the charter application process and  improvement, innovation, and expansion through strategic planning. Prior to joining ECC, Regina spent 20 years in the field of education, including a decade founding, growing, and leading a highly successful community-based charter school in New Jersey. Regina intimately understands the ins and outs of charter school regulation and governance as well as the day to day operations of a school. She uses that knowledge along with a perspective centered on growth and achievement to connect with school leadership to drive schools forward and maximize a collective impact on children.