Category: Bio

The founder of the Social Studies Accelerator at Education Leaders of Color, Andrea Foggy-Paxton, has devoted her career to expanding excellence and equity in education in the non-profit sector, including hands-on experience with translating theory into practice and implementing innovative new curricula in the classroom. She served as the Managing Director for Partner Strategy for the Broad Center.

Previously, she was the executive vice president at Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing first-rate math instruction for all students and worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, developing and managing innovations in professional development, high-school transformation, college completion and personalized-learning grants. Previously, she served in leadership roles at the Tavis Smiley Foundation, L.A. Youth at Work, Rock the Vote, and Freedom Schools. She is currently a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education and the Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation Board.

Jay O’Connor is a senior software industry executive with a track record of driving extremely rapid growth, helping transform young businesses into industry leaders, and helping create two multi-billion dollar businesses.

O’Connor currently serves as CEO of Voices, a software company that operates the largest voice marketplace in the world and provides AI voice solutions. He also serves as a venture partner at Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.

Previously, as SVP of Worldwide Marketing at NetSuite (NYSE: N), he led the marketing team that grew revenues nearly sevenfold in less than 4 years, and helped NetSuite become one of the world’s leading software as a service companies and go public with a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Earlier in his career, at Intuit (INTU) he led the marketing and product management team that acquired the first million QuickBooks customers, grew revenues from zero to $80 million in 4 years, grew market share to 72%, and built the foundation for what became a multi-billion dollar business.

O’Connor has a passion for driving rapid growth, creating a “wow” product and customer experience, and building outstanding teams.

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice, was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and receiving the Pyne Prize, the highest academic honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from 1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992–1998. In 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she served from 1998–2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role August 8, 2009.

Wendy May-Dreyer, Esq. is the immediate past Board Chair for iCivics and our longest serving board member. Wendy has worked with iCivics for over a decade to grow its national leadership, pursue nonpartisan civic education in our schools, and inspire a new generation toward responsible civic engagement. Her deep desire for a national civics awakening correlates with her Denison Ministries partnership offering a biblical worldview to current events. Wendy is a retired Partner from Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP in Dallas, Texas, where Wendy spent over 25 years as a trial lawyer representing national and Fortune 500 companies in litigation, crisis management services, policy directives and national product recall campaigns. Wendy also devotes time to child advocacy work through Dallas CASA and World Vision.

Larry Kramer has been President and Vice Chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science since 2024. From 2012-2024, he was President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Under his leadership, the foundation undertook major initiatives and launched new efforts on a range of pressing and timely problems, including climate change, democracy, cybersecurity, disinformation, new economics, racial justice, education, women’s reproductive health and rights, global governance, performing arts, and philanthropy itself. He wrote and spoke extensively on issues related to effective philanthropy, including the importance of collaboration among funders and the need to provide grantees with long-term support. He frequently lectures and writes about broad societal issues, from global climate change to the challenge of maintaining democratic government in the 21^st century.

Before joining the foundation, Larry served from 2004 to 2012 as Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean of Stanford Law School. During his tenure, he spearheaded significant educational reforms, pioneering a new model of multidisciplinary legal studies while enlarging the clinical education program and incorporating a public service ethos. His teaching and scholarly interests include American legal history, constitutional law, federalism, separation of powers, the federal courts, conflict of laws, and civil procedure.

At the start of his career, Larry served as law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Second Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Following his clerkships, Larry served as professor of law at the University of Chicago and University of Michigan law schools. He joined the faculty of New York University School of Law in 1994, where he served as Associate Dean for Research and Academics and Russell D. Niles Professor of Law until leaving for Stanford in 2004. Before joining Stanford, he also served as a special consultant for Mayer Brown, LLP.

Larry is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. He serves as a director on the boards of a number of nonprofit organizations, including the National Constitution Center, Independent Sector, and the ClimateWorks Foundation.

Larry received an A.B. in Psychology and Religious Studies from Brown University, graduating magna cum laude in 1980, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, magna cum laude, in 1984. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including “The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review.”

Mya Baker joined iCivics in 2024 as the Chief Learning Services Officer, leading business strategy and the design of learning services for teachers, leaders, and districts.

Prior to this, Mya was Vice President in the Consulting division at TNTP, where she oversaw work across 14 states, significantly expanding TNTP’s impact and revenue—from $3 million to $15 million in four fiscal cycles—supporting over 3 million students. Her leadership encompassed curriculum adoption, instructional improvement, school turnaround, community engagement, talent management, and leadership development. She also developed an equity-based academic diagnostic process used in hundreds of schools annually.

Previously, Mya served as Senior Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Uplift Education in Dallas-Fort Worth, managing five academic teams and overseeing curriculum development, academic programming, English as a Second Language support, and instructional coaching across 40 schools serving over 18,000 students. She was instrumental in the certification of 32 International Baccalaureate programs, making the district the largest group of IB continuum schools in North America.

Mya’s career began in school-based roles, progressing from a 5th-grade teacher to a Principal and Principal Manager in Washington, DC. During her early years, she also trained new teachers through Teach for America and DC Teaching Fellows. Mya holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master’s Degree in Teaching & Learning from American University.

Mya is a dedicated servant leader with a passion for fostering inclusive environments and advancing educational equity through strategic planning and development. Her extensive experience in instructional and district leadership informs her innovative approach to business strategy.

Molly is a seasoned nonprofit development leader with more than 20 years of experience helping high-impact organizations realize their ambitious visions—building deep and lasting relationships to secure significant and sustainable funding. Prior to joining iCivics, Molly worked in senior development roles for organizations transforming the lives of millions of people and communities throughout the world, including Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, UNICEF, Concern Worldwide and Sightsavers.

Molly joined iCivics in 2016 as Chief Development Officer, leading a small but mighty team to grow and diversify iCivics’ revenue. During her tenure, iCivics’ annual fundraising has grown five-fold, including support from some of the nation’s most prestigious philanthropists, and the organization launched and is nearing completion of its first growth capital campaign. An avid civics buff since childhood, she is thrilled to help iCivics raise the necessary investment to ensure every student in America is educated and inspired for lifelong civic engagement.

Molly holds a B.A. in Political Science from Trinity Washington University, as well as an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. She lives with her family in Boston, MA.

Tom is a third-generation computer scientist who started programming at the age of 12. In his final semester at Hamline University, Tom dropped his resume off at a company called MECC, and the next thing he knew, he was working on The Oregon Trail. At MECC, Tom discovered his love of edTech and the mission he continues today.

Tom’s career has seen him work on some of the most legendary education products: The Oregon Trail, Carmen San Diego, Compton’s Encyclopedia, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, Number Munchers, National Geographic, and many others. During his 30-year career, Tom has also worked in the advertising and entertainment industries building some of the first websites in the state of Minnesota and heading up external game studios for PlayFirst.

In 2001, Tom founded SnowOwl Studios, which created modern versions of Number Munchers and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. SnowOwl also created top ten titles for casual gaming clients like THQ and PlayFirst. One of the most interesting projects at SnowOwl was creating a digital reading program for special education curriculum that utilized adapted interfaces for kids will wide ranges of special needs.

The latest adventure for Tom was with Capstone, a children’s book publisher focused on the school library market. At Capstone, Tom built the development team around PebbleGo and Capstone Interactive. PebbleGo started life as a simple research and inquiry tool focusing on K-2 literacy. Tom’s team advanced PebbleGo from a simple web app to an entire education platform and has served up one billion articles to students in Tom’s tenure at Capstone.

Tom is an Eagle Scout, and his minor at Hamline was Political Science. Tom has a passion for civics and a deep sense of civic duty. At Hamline, Tom worked with the political science department to create computerized statistical models to predict election outcomes.

Tom lives in Plymouth, MN, with his wife, Karen. When not at the keyboard, Tom enjoys spending time at his cabin and supporting Karen’s adventures as a Hall of Fame marathon swimmer.

With over 20 years in the nonprofit sector, Roxy Garcia Marcus joined iCivics as the first Senior Director, Human Resources. Roxy has worked in People/HR roles for over 10 years, working to positively contribute to staff culture and team development. She has served in a variety of HR roles with a focus on employee relations, team management, organizational development, employee retention, and leadership development. She is passionate about supporting senior leaders and people managers to elevate and support their teams to high outcomes. Prior to working in HR, Roxy also served in a variety of nonprofit functions, including fundraising, site operations, external engagement, and direct programming. She leverages this varied experience to better understand an organization’s strategic needs and ties the HR strategy to those needs.

Roxy has a bachelor’s in public relations from the University of Florida and a master’s in organizational leadership and learning from The George Washington University. She is passionate about cultivating environments in which employees can thrive. Born to Cuban and Dominican immigrants, Roxy is a first-generation American, grew up in South Florida, and served two terms in AmeriCorps prior to completing her bachelor’s. Roxy now lives in Maryland with her husband Ben, their four kids, and an unruly Irish Wolfadoodle. When she’s not working, Roxy enjoys drawing, cooking, and reading.