Board of Directors

Leslye A. Arsht, Chairman of the Board
Co-Founder, StandardsWork®
Washington, DC

Leslye Arsht's career in communications and education policy has spanned over thirty years.  She founded and served eleven years as StandardsWork’s President.  Since February 2006, Ms. Arsht has served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy. In this role, she is responsible for policy, advocacy and oversight of quality of life programs for service members and their families.

In July 2003, Ms. Arsht was recruited to be Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Education in Iraq.  She was instrumental in developing Master Teacher Training that led to the training of 32,000 secondary school teachers and 3,000 supervisors. Ms. Arsht also advised Iraq's new Minister of Education as the Ministry began to frame the national dialogue on the new Iraqi education system and the process for curriculum reform.

She was a counselor to now U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) during his term as U.S. Secretary of Education; she left to found StandardsWork, Inc.  

Before working at the U.S. Department of Education, she was the associate vice chancellor for news and public affairs at Vanderbilt University. She also served as a deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1986 to 1988. Arsht is a member of the Board of Trustees of Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire.

A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Arsht makes her home in Arlington, VA.

Arthur L. Curry

Educational Solutions, LLC

Wilmington, NC

Dr. Arthur L. Curry has decades of experience working to improve education in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area and around the nation.  He currently serves as president of his own educational consulting firm, Educational Solutions, LLC of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Dr. Curry previously served as Acting Chief Academic Officer (CAO) and State Executive Director for Career and Technical Education for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS).  As CAO, he launched the effort to identify new content standards for the D.C. schools and led an effort to ensure the long-standing (much criticized) textbook adoption process resulted in the selection of tools capable of supporting the teaching of the new, rigorous standards.  As head of career and technical education, he worked with education leaders, public officials, and business and community stakeholders to strengthen academic and technology programs by better utilizing available resources.

Dr. Curry held numerous positions in Prince George’s County (Maryland) Public Schools, including teacher, administrative specialist, principal, Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools for Business and Community Outreach, and Director of the Prince George’s County School-to-Work Initiative, in which capacity he developed and implemented a seamless K-Life School-to-Work educational initiative for the county.  As chair of the Prince George’s County Principals’ Organization, Dr. Curry restructured the organization, improving its effectiveness for both members and the school system.  Dr. Curry also assisted in the design of the Prince George’s Country Youth Council.

In the academic arena, Dr. Curry designed and introduced the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Bowie State University and later served as Coordinator of the program.  He also served as an Assistant Professor, teaching graduate and undergraduate education courses. Dr. Curry has been a national keynote speaker at high schools, colleges, universities, and businesses on a variety of educational topics.    A native of Alabama, Mr. Curry makes his home in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Barbara Davidson, President
StandardsWork ®
Barnesville, MD

Ms. Davidson, President of StandardsWork, Inc., is an experienced manager whose work in education spans 22 years and has involved significant senior operational assignments. She began with StandardsWork five years ago, launching and managing the highly successful HireStandards executive search program, and she took over as president in July of 2003. Ms. Davidson has served in the U.S. Department of Education as White House Liaison, Executive Secretary, and Chief of Staff in the Office of Postsecondary Education. She has had private-sector management experience as Executive Director of Policon, a political risk-assessment firm. Ms. Davidson launched her career in the early 1980s as a classroom teacher for learning disabled students in the Norfolk (Virginia) Public Schools and has worked on behalf of a couple different educational publishing companies providing professional development in phonic-based reading instruction for teachers.

A native of the Washington, DC area, Ms. Davidson makes her home in Barnesville, MD.

Tom Howard, Board Secretary/Treasurer
Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll
Washington, DC

Mr. Howard, an associate in the Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll Law Firm, provides his services as Secretary/Treasurer of the Board, pro bono. Mr. Howard has been an attorney in the U.S. Claims Court and the U.S. Tax Court. From 1971-1975, he served as attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Howard holds a JD. From Vanderbilt University and an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown Law Center.

John Danielson
President and CEO, Chartwell Education Group, LLC
New York, NY

Along with former United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige, John Danielson is a co-founder of the Chartwell Education Group LLC, an international education consulting firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C.  Chartwell is comprised of a talented, bi-partisan team of educational experts that offers a sophisticated level of services to the pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and post secondary education sectors, including providing counsel for accelerating systematic student achievement, executing comprehensive, results-oriented reform designs, and bringing to scale the best innovations in products and services that support the goals set forth under No Child Left Behind.

In October 2001, President George W. Bush appointed John Danielson as the Chief of Staff to the United States Department of Education.  Mr. Danielson served Secretary of Education Rod Paige in this capacity through October 2003.  As Chief of Staff, Mr. Danielson was responsible for the daily operations of a government agency with approximately 5,000 employees and an annual budget of $50 billion.  Mr. Danielson also served as the principal liaison for Secretary Paige with both the White House and Congress. 

Prior to joining the Department of Education, Mr. Danielson was one of five co-founders of Community Education Partners (CEP) – founded in December 1995.  CEP is a private education company that works in partnership with public schools to get disruptive and low-performing students back on track.  CEP serves students who are violent and disruptive; low academic achievers; and, those students likely to drop out of school.  CEP presently operates schools in Houston, Orlando, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Atlanta.  Mr. Danielson served as the Executive Vice President for CEP responsible for marketing and external affairs.  He served in this capacity from 1995 through 2001.

In July 1991, former President George H. W. Bush appointed Mr. Danielson as the Special Assistant to then-United States Secretary of Education and current United States Senator Lamar Alexander.  As the National Community Director for AMERICA 2000, Mr. Danielson worked with governors, mayors, community leaders and education officials throughout the United States to encourage bi-partisan community participation for revolutionary ideas in education reform, grounded in the National Education Goals.  Mr. Danielson continued his work with Senator Alexander in Nashville, Tennessee from 1993 through 1995 as the Political Director for the Republican Fund for the 90s.  Prior to joining the Department of Education, Mr. Danielson worked as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of OSHA at the Department of Labor under then-Secretary Elizabeth Dole.  He served at the Department of Labor from June 1990 through July 1991.

Mr. Danielson is an original member of StandardsWork’s Board of Directors.  He has served on the Board from 1996-2001 and again from 2003 to the present.  Mr. Danielson also serves on the non-profit boards of The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C. as well as the for-profit board of BrightStar.  Mr. Danielson is a member of the Union League Club of New York City, the Houston Club, and the Petroleum Club of Houston.  Mr. Danielson is a native of Houston and was graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1985 where he received a bachelor’s degree in business.  He currently resides in Darien, Connecticut with his wife and three children.

Jim Nelson
Executive Director, AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination)
San Diego, CA

\Jim Nelson was named the Executive Director of AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) in May, 2006.  AVID is a highly respected national program which challenges students to achieve high academic goals by emphasizing individual effort, high standards and social support.  Prior to his leadership of AVID, Mr. Nelson was Superintendent of Richardson Independent School District from 2004 until 2006.  Additionally, Mr. Nelson served as a board member and officer for Ector County ISD in Odessa, Texas from 1984 through 1995, twice serving as board president. During that time he also served as a board member and in several officer positions for the Texas Association of School Boards, including state president in 1993.

In 1996, he was appointed to the newly-created State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), by then-Governor George W. Bush where he served as chairman until 1999, when he was appointed by Governor Bush as the Texas Commissioner of Education. During his time as commissioner, Mr. Nelson managed the more than 800 Texas Education Agency employees who worked to implement state education policy for the approximately 1100 Texas school districts. The agency's major challenge and achievement during his period as commissioner was the continuing development and implementation of the current Texas school accountability system, including the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. While commissioner, he also served simultaneously as Executive Secretary of the State Board of Education.

In the spring of 2002, Mr. Nelson departed state service to become Senior Vice President of State and Federal Relations for Voyager Expanded Learning Systems in Dallas. In the spring of 2003, at the request of the White House and Department of Defense, Mr. Nelson traveled to Baghdad, Iraq as a Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Education to assist with the rebuilding of the Iraqi school system. He briefly returned to Voyager after his service in Iraq until the beginning of his duties as Richardson ISD Superintendent in the summer of 2004.

Susan Pimentel
Co-Founder, StandardsWork®
Hanover, NH

Susan Pimentel, co-founder of StandardsWork®, specializes in standards-driven school reform and works as an education writer, analyst, and consultant. After earning a bachelor of science in early childhood education and a law degree from Cornell University, Pimentel worked in the Maryland state legislature. She served as senior policy advisor for Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer, and then as special counsel to former Superintendent John Murphy in Prince George's County, MD, the nation's sixteenth largest school district. Her efforts resulted in the phase-out of student tracking, an enriched core curricula, advances in school-site management, and a results-based school accountability program. Subsequently, she was director of the World Class Schools Panel (impaneled to sculpt a concrete plan of action for school transformation) in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC.

In recent years, her work has focused on academic standards with corresponding work in principal evaluation, student assessment, and school accountability. Her efforts stress standards-setting, constituency building, policy analysis and strategic planning in such varied jurisdictions as Beaufort, SC; Chicago, IL; Red Clay, DE; Jackson, TN, Ardmore, OK, Elaine and Marvell, AR; and the states of Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. She has also worked with individual charter schools in Massachusetts. Pimentel is co-author with Denis P. Doyle of the best-selling book and CD-ROM, Raising the Standard: An Eight Step Action Guide For Schools and Communities.

In October 2007, Ms. Pimentel was appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB)..

Wes Stucky
President and CEO, Ardmore Chamber of Commerce & Ardmore Chamber Foundation
Ardmore, OK

Wes Stucky is President and CEO of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce, Ardmore Development Authority, and the Ardmore Chamber Foundation. The "organization" he heads is a unique combination of a public development trust authority, membership association, and tax-exempt charitable organization. After obtaining a Masters Degree in Public Administration, Wes held numerous positions in City Government in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Shawnee, Oklahoma; culminating with a stint as City Manager. He began working full time as an economic developer for the Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce in 1981 and later served in a similar capacity for the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Chamber.

Wes has been in Ardmore since 1987 and has been responsible for tremendous community progress and organizational growth. Wes was chosen as Chamber Executive of the Year in Oklahoma in 1990 and has received numerous leadership awards. The Development Authority has also witnessed tremendous progress under Wes's leadership.  The Authority was twice chosen by Site Selection magazine as one of the Top Ten Development Groups in the United States. In 1995 they were the recipient of the Arthur D. Little Award for Overall Excellence, given annually to the best economic development organization in the nation. In 1998 Business Facilities magazine chose the Development Authority as the best regional development organization in the nation.  

Wes was the first recipient of the International Economic Development Council Leadership Award.  He has served as Chairman of numerous organizations including the Governor's International Team, Oklahoma Economic Development Council, the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce Executives Association, and the Governors Economic Development Team. He is currently a Commissioner on the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission and on the Board of Leadership Oklahoma. Wes has served as an instructor at the Economic Development Institute and the Institute for Organizational Management.

Maurice Sykes

Executive Director, Early Childhood Leadership Institute

Washington, DC

Maurice Sykes is currently Executive Director of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute at the University of the District of Columbia. As the former Deputy Superintendent for the Center for Systemic Educational Change and Director of Early Childhood Programs for the District of Columbia Public Schools he demonstrated his ability to take charge of change and brought significant, lasting innovations to the DC Public Schools’ educational reform agenda. While at the U.S. Department of Education, where he served as an Educational Program Specialist, Maurice advised the Department on educational policy and programs related to urban school improvement. Mr. Sykes directed the Tufts University Day Care Center in Medford, MA, where he also served on the faculty in the Elliott Pearson Child Study Department.

Mr. Sykes has served as a teacher, a teacher trainer, and a curriculum developer. He has also directed the Education Policy Fellowship Program at the Institute for Educational Leadership where he trained mid-career educational leaders. In 1999, Mr. Sykes was elected to the Governing Board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Mr. Sykes has provided consultant services to the South Florida Annenberg/United Way Success by Six Initiative, the Hartford Foundation’s Brighter Futures Child Care Enhancement Project, the Danforth Foundation’s Getting Schools Ready for Children Initiative in Memphis, Tenn., and Washington D.C.’s Safe Passages Initiative. Additionally, he currently provides strategic planning and consulting services to elementary, middle, and high schools in Washington, D.C., around implementation of the No Child Left Behind legislation.

A native of Schenectady, NY, Mr. Sykes is a long time Washington, DC resident.

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