FairTest Staff and Board

Jesse Mermell

Jesse Mermell is Executive Director of FairTest. Formerly Executive Director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (MWPC), a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1971 to increase the number of women in elected and appointed office in Massachusetts. Mermell has led the MWPC since 2004, providing hands on assistance to the women who are at the forefront of Massachusetts politics through the MWPC's signature Campaign Leadership Training, MassGAP program, and Red Alert Networking Series. During Mermell's tenure, MWPC-endorsed candidates for elected office have enjoyed a win rate of over 90%.

Prior to joining the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, Mermell served as the Executive Director of Massachusetts Democratic Future. She is also a sought after senior staffer for campaigns across the Commonwealth, having served as Field Director for John Slattery for Lieutenant Governor and Campaign Manager for Pam Resor for State Senate. A popular public speaker, Mermell has been featured at events and schools including Revolutionary Women, Boston College, Simmons College, and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Mermell is an activist in the Massachusetts Democratic Party as a member of the Democratic State Committee, where she served on the Executive Committee from 2001 to 2004. In 2002 she was awarded the Michael S. Dukakis Award for service to the Massachusetts Democratic Party. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachsuetts Advocacy Fund.

Mermell is a resident of Brookline, Massachusetts, where she is a member of the Board of Selectmen.

Monty Neill, Ed.D

Monty Neill, Ed.D., is currently Deputy Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). He has led FairTest's work on testing in the public schools since 1987. He has initiated national and state coalitions of education, civil rights, religious and parent organizations to work toward fundamental change in the assessment of students and in accountability. He currently chairs the Forum on Educational Accountability, an alliance working to overhaul federal education law (the No Child Left Behind Act, in particular) based on the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB, signed by nearly 150 national groups. Under his leadership, FairTest has worked on graduation tests and other high-stakes tests with organizations in many states.

Among many publications, he is co-author of Failing Our Children, a report analyzing the federal No Child Left Behind Act and providing guidance toward new, helpful accountability systems. He led the National Forum on Assessment in developing Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems, signed by over 80 national and regional education and civil rights organizations. He also authored Implementing Performance Assessments: A Guide to Classroom School and System Reform, and Testing Our Children: A Report Card on State Assessment Systems, the first comprehensive evaluation of all 50 state testing programs.

He earned a Doctorate at Harvard University with his dissertation The Struggle of Boston's Black Community for Quality and Equality in Education: 1960-1985. He has taught and been an administrator in pre-school, high school and college, and he is a grandfather of three children in the public schools.

Robert Schaeffer

Robert Schaeffer has served as Public Education Director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, since its founding in 1985. He also is Treasurer and Clerk of the organization's Board of Directors.

Prior to the creation of FairTest, Mr. Schaeffer was Editorial Writer at the NBC-TV affiliate in Boston, Research Director for the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Committee on Human Services and Elderly Affairs, host of a talk show on a regional National Public Radio station, and writer for an alternative weekly paper.

He also worked for several years as a research assistant at the Education Research Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was both an undergraduate and graduate student.

Bob Schaeffer is the author of Standardized Tests and Teacher Competence (School Voices, Fall, 1 996) and coauthor of Standing Up to the SAT (ARCO/Simon & Schuster, 1 989) as well as many FairTest publications, including Testing Our Children: A Report Card on State Assessment Systems, Standardized Tests and Our Children: A Guide to Testing Reform, Implementing Performance Assessment, The SAT Coaching Cover-Up, Sex Bias in College Admissions Tests:How Women Lose Out, and Test Scores Do Not Equal Merit: Enhancing Equity & Excellence in College Admissions by Deemphasizing SAT and ACT Results.

He is listed in Marquis Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World, as well as Strathmore's Who's Who and the National Directory of Who's Who in Executives and Professionals.

Lisa Guisbond

After many years as a writer and editor, Lisa Guisbond became interested in
education policy as a public school parent with an interest in special
education. She is on the board of Citizens for Public Schools and is the
principal author of the "Campaign for the Education of the Whole Child." She
co-authored "Failing Our Children: How 'No Child Left Behind' Undermines
Quality and Equity in Education. Her writing on education and assessment has
appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, USA Today and The New York Times. She served on the MCAS and
Assessment subcommittee of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Readiness
Project.

David Mirabella

David Mirabella works as the Office Manager and Program Associate at FairTest. David has been with FairTest since the year 2000 and is available for general questions and information requests, he also maintains FairTest's web site, design and desktop publishing needs, as well as day to day office operations.

FAIRTEST BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dr. Sophie Sa, (Chair ); Executive Director (retired), Panasonic Foundation, Secaucus, NJ
Laura Barrett (Clerk); Communications Specialist, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston, MA
Judith Browne-Dianis, Esq. (Vice-Chair); Co-Director, Advancement Project, Washington, DC
Betty Rauch (Treasurer), Board Chair, The Fortune Society, New York, NY
Deb Goldberg, Chair, Adoptions With Love, Brookline, MA
Robert Schaeffer; President, Public Policy Communications, Sanibel, FL
Deborah Meier, Founding principal, Central Park East (NYC) and Mission Hill (Boston) schools, Hillsdale, NY
Dr. Judith Renyi, Vice-President Academic Affairs, American College of Education, Chicago, IL
John Weiss, Publisher, Colorado Springs Independent, Colorado Springs, CO

National Policy Panel

Dr. Leonard Beckum, Duke University
Dr. Beverly Cole, CRESPAR
Dr. Harold Dent, Association of Black Psychologists
Henry Der, California Department of Education
Arnold Fege, Consultant
Norm Fruchter, New York University
Dr. Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Dr. Lucinda Lee Katz, Univeristy of Chicago Laboratory Schools
Jonathan Kozol, Author
Hayes Mizell, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Aurelio Montemayor, Intercultural Development Research Association
Harry Pachon, Tomas Rivera Center
Vito Perrone, Harvard University
AIfredo de los Santos, Maricopa Community Colleges
Cinthia Schuman, Nonprofit Sector Research Fund, The Aspen Institute
Eleanor Smeal, Fund For a Feminist Majority
Dr. Gail Thomas, Texas A&M University
Ron Vera, Attorney