Hon. Kristen Amundson brings more than two decades of experience as a policymaker to NASBE. She represented the 44th District in the Virginia General Assembly from 1999-2009. During that time, she was a member of Virginia’s P–16 Council and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Before successfully running for an Assembly seat, Amundson—a former teacher—served for nearly a decade on the Fairfax County, Va., School Board, including two years as its chairwoman.  Most recently, she was the senior vice president for external affairs at Education Sector, an independent think tank. She writes frequently on education issues and has been published in The Washington Post and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, among others.

Sharon Cannon is manager of special projects at NASBE. Most recently she was a project specialist in the education program at the American Institutes for Research. Prior to her stint at AIR, Sharon was the business manager at Education Sector where she oversaw human resources, accounting, and managed the organization’s events, while also serving as the liaison to the board of directors. Before joining Education Sector, she was the membership manager at the Consortium for School Networking (COSN). Sharon’s first job in the field of education policy was manager of member services for the American Association of School Administrators, overseeing all aspects of the member services award and recognition programs.A native of Washington, D.C., Sharon is a graduate of San Diego State University. She and her husband, Carl, live in Arlington, Va., where all three of their children attended public schools. 

Kimberly is the director of NASBE's school climate, discipline, and equity portfolio. She provides strategic direction for the organization's advocacy work to ensure that all students receive equal educational opportunities. This includes strengthening the capacity of state boards of education to create policies that improve student outcomes and reduce their involvement in the juvenile justice system as well as foster collaborative partnerships with state education agencies and non-profit and private sector organizations. Her work focuses primarily on monitoring the progress of state policy teams and providing them with technical assistance to improve school climate and eliminate disciplinary disparities.Kimberly also promotes innovation and business development for NASBE's Center for Safe and Healthy Schools and is currently working to expand strategic partnerships around teen pregnancy prevention and youth sports concussion "return-to-learn" policies.She holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Spelman College and a master of science degree in social policy and law from University of Pennsylvania.

Francis Eberle is NASBE's deputy executive director. Eberle joined NASBE  to direct the organization’s Next Generation Science Standards project after previously leading two organizations—the National Science Teachers Association and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, both focused on advocating for quality science education. At NASBE, he works internally with NASBE staff to build a strong portfolio of work across several disciplines. He has been invaluable to numerous state boards of education across the country in understanding the content, process, and implications of state education policy through one-on-one consultations, facilitating state board retreats, and managing NASBE’s popular state stipend project. Eberle is an educator at heart. For 15 years, he was a middle school science teacher and is an adjunct professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Eberle is a graduate of Boston University and University of Connecticut, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in science education from Lesley University and attended Harvard Business School’s Executive Management Program for nonprofit management.       

Winona is a project manager at NASBE, where she manages multiple projects, with a focus on science standards, early childhood education and school epinephrine policies. Winona brings extensive research and management experience to NASBE and writes reports and state policy handbooks. Before coming to NASBE, Winona taught pre-K and worked at Save the Children and the Institute of Public Policy at George Washington University, from which she also earned a master's degree in international education policy.

R0bert Hull directs NASBE's college, career, and civic readiness project. He been involved in education reform, mostly in West Virginia, for nearly 40 years. Hull started his career as an elementary school teacher in West Virginia’s Putnam County Public School District, and later became principal for eight years prior to moving to district administrative positions. Hull served as assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and directed early childhood education, federal programs, and community outreach for the school district during his tenure there.  In 2010, Hull joined the West Virginia Department of Education as assistant superintendent of schools in the division of teaching and learning. Quickly promoted to associate state superintendent of schools at the department, Hull oversaw numerous state programs including educator quality, early learning, career and technical innovation, federal programs, and policy development and deployment for Common Core State Standards and Smarter-Balanced assessments.In addition to his work in education, Hull has a background in fine arts and is an advocate for integrating all things creative and innovative in classrooms everywhere. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife and fellow-educator, Rachel, and his four-legged stress reliever, Emert the miniature schnauzer.

LeeNaura (Lee) King is an accounting assistant at NASBE. In this role, she provides administrative support to the accounting department. She also acts as liaison to NASBE's IT support staff, and maintains its infrastructure and office equipment. In addition, King assists the publications team with requests and mailings and maintains the organization's growing database.

Valerie Norville is NASBE’s editorial director, in charge of editing and producing NASBE publications, including its reports and The State Education Standard. She is an editor and publishing manager with 30 years’ experience producing content that makes cutting-edge research and technical expertise accessible to policy audiences. Previously, she was director of publications for the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she produced reports and books and launched its ebook program. Before that, she was director of publications and web development at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Ace Parsi is NASBE's project director for deeper learning.  He is the main point of contact related to this work and as such, Parsi builds partnership coalitions, authors policy updates and discussion guides, provides individualized assistance to state boards, plans and conducts tailored in-state workshops for state board members, coordinates speakers and agendas for conference sessions and online seminars, and promotes positive communications strategies for NASBE members.

Amelia Vance is the Director of NASBE's Education Data & Technology project. She works primarily on education data privacy, authoring NASBE publications on that issue, working with other education and privacy organizations, and supporting state boards of education seeking to create or implement stronger state privacy policies. In the past, she served as NASBE's policy analyst, collaborating with the NASBE team to produce analysis and materials relevant to education policy reforms, particularly state implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Amelia is a member of the Virginia State Bar. She previously served as a legal fellow at the Family Equality Council and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, interned at the White House, the State Department, and the House of Representatives, and worked on the 2008 Obama campaign. Amelia is a graduate of William & Mary Law School and McDaniel College. She can be followed on Twitter at @ameliaivance.