Our Staff

Executive Director
Todd Mann

Leader, innovator and consensus builder, Executive Director Todd Mann guides the vision and future of Magnet Schools of America by elevating the awareness, significance and value of magnet education. Todd’s immediate background has been STEM focused. He has served as the Executive Director of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools, an association representing the leading high schools in the country that specialize in STEM approaches and outcomes.

With 18 years of association leadership and 17 years of direct business experience, Todd’s strategic planning expertise, success at integrating technology as an accessible tool to members and – with regard to the private sector – consumers, has created new methodologies for delivering key messages, education, and resources to multiple audiences. While Todd leads with experience, he encourages new ideas from staff, members and others as part of his on-going mission to be inclusive and to innovate.

His advocacy for magnet schools comes naturally as Todd spent the first few years of his career on Capitol Hill. Since then, he was part of the team that created the concept of placing full-service banks branches in supermarkets and pioneered an educational TV channel over the Internet made possible by patenting technology from a company he took public.

Todd was among the first men to attend Vassar College, where he graduated cum laude and later served as a Trustee. He completed a financial executive education at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Todd may be reached at todd.mann@magnet.edu

Director of Magnet School Leadership
Kelly Bucherie

Kelly Bucherie’s most recent work with the Public Education Foundation of Las Vegas, Executive Leadership Institute, utilized her expertise in building administrative capacity with principals throughout the State of Nevada.  She has further worked with the State’s Regional Professional Development Program to deliver Nevada Educator’s Performance Framework training to district administrators and teachers.

As Assistant Superintendent/Academic Manager, she supervised and coordinated the operations, program procedures, processes and public relations of the Magnet Schools, Career and Technical Academies and College of Southern Nevada High School campuses in Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada.   Additionally, Kelly supervised the Department of Magnet and Career and Technical Academies, open enrollment, flexible budgeting for schools with granted autonomies, middle school curriculum initiative, and implementation of national Academies Foundation year of planning (YOP) schools.

As a team member of several previous NIMSL projects, Kelly has consulted with districts providing program evaluation and action plans.

She has served as the project manager for a MSAP federal grant and has worked to implement several magnet programs.  Kelly presents and trains locally and nationally on a variety of topics including theme integration, data dives, curriculum development, and supervision and evaluation.

Kelly may be reached at kelly.bucherie@magnet.edu

Director of Operations
Judy Shen

Whether it is her diverse background of personal interests, her teaching experiences abroad or her first-hand experience of managing city-run afterschool and summer programs in high school, Judy Shen brings the ‘perfect storm’ of attributes to magnet Schools of America as Director of Operations and Events Coordinator.  Teaching English abroad in China and working to integrate kids and families of economic backgrounds into  the community of her own neighborhood stateside, has created a sensitivity to the value of diversity and exposure to varied activities by children.

Judy joined MSA in 2007 and in addition to overseeing all aspects of conference planning as well as office-related operations, she manages the awards programs and MSA website content.  A graduate of the University of Maryland (College Park) with a B.A. in Communications, her diverse portfolio includes teaching English in the Fujian Province of China at Hwa Nan Women’s College, managing a restaurant stateside and working within the hospitality industry in special events.

She believes strongly in the critical assets that magnet schools provide to children – such as exposure to a variety of cultures, races and backgrounds as well as specialized curriculums that fully engage students.  As a former varsity volleyball player at the University of Maryland, Judy recognizes the teamwork aspect of magnet school education – a characteristic that encompasses the totality of the education experience in magnet schools.

Judy may be reached at judy.shen@magnet.edu

Legislative & Communications Manager
John Laughner

If there are two things (we’re sure there are more!) that make John Laughner, MSA’s Legislative & Communications Manager, successful in his frequent trips to Capitol Hill, it would be the convergence of his legislative and policy experience combined with his career immersion in education advocacy.

Building federal support for magnet schools nationwide comes naturally to John, who was Legislative Director for the Committee for Education Funding – the nation’s largest and oldest education coalition, which spearheaded efforts to increase federal funding for public school education.  In his career, he has tracked and analyzed state legislation on behalf of Fortune 500 companies, worked at the U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Office of the Ombudsman, where he helped resolve student financial aid disputes and has served several members of Congress.

The depth of his background includes work for a lobbying firm, experience in identifying federal grant opportunities for universities and colleges and assistance with congressional appropriations.  John earned his Bachelor’s degree in American Politics and Policy from the University of Central Florida, and his Master’s degree in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University.  When he’s not busy advocating for the future of magnet schools, he manages MSA’s monthly eChoice newsletter, website and social media outreach.

John may be reached at john.laughner@magnet.edu

Manager of Sponsorships & Exhibits
Andy Falter

With more than 25 years of sales experience, Andrew (Andy) Falter, Manager of Exhibits and Sponsorships provides a valuable and unique strategic perspective to clients and industry leaders.

Andy is an expert at offering sound strategic direction and innovative sales solutions to increase revenue through creative sponsorship opportunities. He is particularly knowledgeable about the hotel industry, having represented it to the association market for many years. This gives him a unique outlook on the association community and has exposed him to myriad approaches to generating exhibit and sponsorship sales.

Andy began his career with Hilton Hotels Corporation, moving next to a business development position with the Tishman Hotel Corporation. Most recently, he managed the mid-Atlantic association market for the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort.

As a graduate of Michigan State University, Andy participates as a mentor in the University’s Spartan Mentor/Mentee program, volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and the Future Business Leaders of America and is active member of Toastmaster’s International.

You may reach Andy at andy.falter@magnet.edu

Accounting Manager
Jynaya Joiner

After earning her CPA, Jynaya Joiner began her accounting career as an auditor with Coopers & Lybrand/PricewaterhouseCoopers. She then transitioned to private industry, working in the accounting departments of various media companies including Weider Publishing Group and Active Interest Media, where she served as Controller. Jynaya is highly skilled in streamlining financial closing, reporting and budgetary practices as well as establishing sound internal controls for financial proceedings. She joined Magnet Schools of America in 2015.

Jynaya brings with her the ‘perfect storm’ in accounting – the right blend of private industry experience along with non- and for-profit entities.  She served as Director of Financial Reporting for the United Way Worldwide, Assistant Market Controller for CBS Radio Washington, and worked as the Accounting Officer for the Washington Convention and Sports Authority.

Jynaya graduated from Howard University with a BBA in Accounting and received an MBA from Pepperdine University. In addition to her analytical side, Jynaya’s artistic venture is running a dance education company for young children and spending time with her family and friends.

You may reach her at jynaya.joiner@magnet.edu

Membership Coordinator
Faith Goodwin

Faith Goodwin… has a

Faith may be reached at faith.goodwin@magnet.edu

NIMSL Coordinator
Ashley Rubenstein

Ashley Rubenstein joined Magnet Schools of America in 2016 as the Coordinator for the National Institute for Magnet School Leadership.  Ashley’s primary duties are to provide technical assistance and support to Magnet Schools of America certification cohort members, and other critical assistance to our membership seeking professional development services and contracts.

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Ashley worked in the field as well as becoming a mother to two wonderful children.  It was at this time that she became intrigued with choice schools.  Ashley has been instrumental in ensuring that all the certification cohorts, as well as other services provided by the NIMSL department, are provided with optimal customer service and technical assistance.

Being born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, she continues to reside there with a family of four of her own.  In her spare time, she enjoys the simple things in life, spending time with her family, and watching her children grow.

Ashley may be reached at certification@magnet.edu

Administrative Assistant
Adriyanna Andreus

Adriyanna R. Andreus joined Magnet Schools of America in 2017. Adriyanna studied Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and Community Development at Howard University. She has had a great deal of experience in politics, social justice and civic engagement both locally and internationally. Additionally, Adriyanna serves in numerous leadership positions. She recently served as the Political Director for Pay Our Interns, a national campaign to advocate for more paid internships for millennials; lobbying and engaging Congress leaders to offer fair wages to interns.

Currently, she is the founder and Chair for the DMV Haitian Student Association and the creator of #Home2Haiti a program to send young Haitian American adults from all over America to Haiti as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Haitian and Haitian American communities around the world, to strengthen the sense of solidarity between Haitian youth and communities throughout the world, and to promote the idea of a trip to Haiti for all of the Haitian Diaspora.

She also serves as the Secretary for the Board of Directors for the DeAngels Foundation, a nonprofit providing access to meaningful educational resources throughout the entire Caribbean. Recently she was featured on Al Jazeera’s town hall highlighting 20 DC students who are instrumental in the 2016 Presidential Elections. She has been quoted on MSNBC, Politico and featured on CNN.

Adriyanna may be reached at adriyanna.andreus@magnet.edu

Learn how to become a Nationally Certified Magnet School

Raise the level of performance consistent throughout school districts nationwide and creates a platform from which all magnet schools can flourish. Magnet Schools of America’s national certification process is designed to recognize the hard work of the best magnet schools in the nation and to help them as they grow.

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