We couldn’t be more excited to welcome our new Vice President, Ciara Mentzer. Ciara brings more than a decade of expertise in communications, policy, politics, and education. Ciara has been a public school teacher and education policy researcher, has worked in campaigns and government at the local, state, and federal levels, and has led communications for a national non-profit advocacy organization. Her unique mix of experience will make her a natural fit as we continue to help our partners navigate the complex intersections of communications, organizational strategy, policy, and politics.
We’re also thrilled to announce that we have formalized our partnership with Sharise Johnson of SMJ Communications Consultants. Sharise has nearly 15 years of experience in communications, particularly in internal and external communications management, public relations, print, broadcast, and social media, serving Fortune 100 corporations and educational institutions. We’ve had the privilege of working with Sharise on a variety of projects over the last year, and we are so grateful that she will continue to serve as a trusted advisor and collaborator moving forward.
You can learn more about Ciara and Sharise below. As alway, we’re grateful for your partnership, friendship, and support.
Best,
Caroline, Jonathan, Marie, and Matt
Ciara Mentzer
Ciara Mentzer has over a decade of experience leading communications, policy and advocacy efforts for nonprofits, government agencies, elected leaders, and political candidates.
Most recently, she served as the national communications director for Educators for Excellence (E4E), a teacher-led organization. While at E4E, Ciara guided the development and promotion of the organization’s first national teacher surveys, Voices from the Classroom, the results of which were featured in hundreds of national and local outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, CBS News and NPR.
At Chicago Public Schools, Ciara created bilingual communications plans to increase understanding of district initiatives and build buy-in from diverse internal and external audiences. Her policy and communications work at state-wide advocacy organization Advance Illinois helped secure more equitable school funding, increase teacher diversity, and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. Ciara has served in the Wisconsin and New York State legislatures, where she advanced a wide variety of issues, including voter access, film tax credits, and energy regulation. While she has an academic background in policy, education, politics and journalism, she owes much of her training to now New York State Senator Michael Gianaris, who gave her her start in communications in 2008. She lives with her husband and two children in Chicago.
Sharise Johnson
Sharise Johnson was born and raised in Atlanta, GA and attended college at Hampton University in Hampton, VA, where she majored in Broadcast Journalism and Spanish. She has nearly 15 years of experience in communications, particularly in internal and external communications management, public relations, print, broadcast, and social media, serving Fortune 100 corporations and educational institutions.
Prior to founding SMJ, Sharise served as the Senior Director of Communications for a school district based in Texas. In this role, Sharise stewarded the district's brand locally and nationally by spearheading an effective and innovative internal and external communications strategy. Additionally, Sharise served as the Managing Director of National Communications for Teach For America, a Communications Manager at Atlanta Public Schools and managed corporate communication strategy and implementation for major campaigns and announcements at AT&T.
Sharise currently resides in Charlotte, NC with her husband and daughters, Faith and Grace. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, kickboxing, yoga, spending time with family and friends, and participating in community service projects as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.