Board of Directors

Melissa has more than 15 years of K-12 experience as a teacher, curriculum designer, higher education instructor, consultant, and non-profit leader. At Teach for America Colorado, she provided executive leadership in strategy, finance, and operations. Prior to Teach for America, she designed and launched Relay’s Early Childhood Master’s program. Before that, Melissa served as the Vice President of Lifelong Learning at the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware. In addition, as the Director of School Solutions at Innovative Schools, Melissa successfully led three founding school boards through the charter approval process in the state of Delaware. Melissa graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a dual degree in Sociology and African American Studies, has a Masters's degree in Urban Education and Policy Studies from Temple University, and completed all doctoral coursework in Reading, Writing, and Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Luis Colón is a seasoned business executive with over 25 years of experience in the areas of business strategy, finance, operations management and change management. He currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer at History Colorado, where he oversees the Finance, Accounting, Procurement, Real Estate, Human Resources, Program Evaluation, and Technology functions. Prior to joining History Colorado, Luis spent much of his career in management consulting, working with clients around the globe on issues of corporate strategy, operations management, and change management. He has a passion for community service and has volunteered with several nonprofits.

Luis has been honored with several special awards and recognitions. He received the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s highest recognition, the Brillante Award, in 2000. In 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Gates Family Foundation fellowship to attend the Leadership Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard and was selected by the Denver Business Journal as one of their “Top Forty Under 40” award recipients. In 2009, Luis received the American Diabetes Association’s Father of the Year Award.

Luis was born and raised in Puerto Rico and holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge (U.K.), and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He now resides in Lone Tree, Colorado.

Terrence Cummings is the Senior Vice President of Member Services at Guild Education, a company on a mission to unlock opportunities for America’s workforce through education and upskilling. Guild works with leading Fortune 1000 employers such as The Walt Disney Company, Target, Discover, Chipotle, Walmart, and Lowe's to transform their education and upskilling programs through Guild's technology platform, payments system, and learning marketplace.

Before Guild, Terrence led Product, Marketing, Partnerships, Engineering, and Analytics teams across a range of startup companies, and was previously a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a BS in Finance, and after stints in Boston and San Francisco, now lives in Denver with his wife and 9-year-old son.

Pat joined RootED in February 2019 and is the Managing Partner. He leads the autonomous school investments and operations of RootED. His favorite part of working with RootED is the team chemistry and deep focus on equity and quality. Most recently, he was part of the executive leadership team at Revolution Foods where he managed the national school/community partnerships within existing and expansion markets across the United States. Pat is a graduate of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, from which he also received a graduate degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology. He and his wife have three children ─ Kaitlyn, Max and Sean ─ all of whom graduated from DPS schools (DCIS-Baker and East).

Khadija Katherine Haynes is a native of Denver and a fourth-generation Coloradoan. In addition to years of engagement in cultural arts, she has been an activator, community leader, and strategist in the Denver community. Ms. Haynes has carved a national niche as an astute and sought-after political advisor and governmental manager. She is well-known for her breadth of experience, her strong management capabilities, and her excellent leadership skills.

Jackie Hawkey was Managing Director, Ares Real Estate Exchange (AREX), an investment solution of Ares Management Inc (Ares). She was responsible for managing the AREX program, which included structuring and distributing private placement offerings to accredited investors through a network of distribution partners. Since Ms. Hawkey joined AREX (and predecessor Black Creek Exchange) in 2006, the exchange business has raised over $2 billion in equity capital for its real estate investment funds.

Prior to Ares, Ms. Hawkey served as a Principal in CapEx, LP, a private equity fund that invested in small to mid-sized companies. Before joining CapEx, Ms. Hawkey spent four years as a principal with Corporate Properties of the Americas (CPA), an industrial real estate developer and owner operating throughout Mexico, which was eventually sold to a large state pension fund. Additionally, Mrs. Hawkey spent five years as an investment banker with William Blair & Company in Chicago and several years in commercial banking.

Ms. Hawkey holds a Bachelor of Science from Dartmouth College and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.

John served as a member of KIPP Colorado’s Associate Advisory Board before joining the Board. He is a Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s FDA and Health Care group. His practice focuses primarily on internal and government-facing investigations and associated litigation (particularly in the life sciences, healthcare, and technology industries). He has particular experience working on matters involving international anti-corruption laws, domestic anti-fraud and anti-kickback statutes, securities fraud, response to whistleblower allegations, and complex commercial litigation. John received his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School in 2007. While there, he served as an Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 2002 with a B.A. in History and Psychology. Before joining Gibson Dunn, John clerked for the Honorable David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2007 to 2008.

Jennifer Rocks is a Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting and is the Consulting Managing Partner for the Denver, Colorado office where she is responsible for more than 1000 consulting practitioners who report into Denver, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, WY, and Santa Fe, NM. As a Human Capital leader in the Government and Public Services (GPS) practice, Jennifer is an organization transformation advisor for several strategic accounts in state and local government, higher education, and global not-for-profit organizations. Jennifer brings more than 22 years of public sector experience in developing and delivering Organizational Change Management (OCM) programs for complex government technology and business transformations. In addition to being on the board of KIPP Colorado, Jennifer is the Advisory Board Chairperson for College Track, Colorado - a nonprofit working to increase high school graduation, college eligibility and enrollment, and college graduation rates among underrepresented communities. Prior to consulting, Jennifer was a member of the Teach for America program teaching 6th grade students. She holds a Master’s degree in Government Administration and a Master’s of Science degree specializing in education policy.

For more than twenty years, Soto has dedicated her career to being a leading advocate for Latino immigrant equality, inclusion and health equity in Colorado and throughout the nation. From working with teen parent programs and serving on the Colorado Vaccine Equity Task Force, to promoting health equity at the American Diabetes Association, Soto has pioneered a wide range of programming designed to empower marginalized communities.

Her advocacy efforts have appeared in publications throughout Colorado, as well as NPR, Time magazine, and a new documentary from the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. And her success in leading and managing evidence-based prevention programs serving new immigrants has been recognized at both the state and national levels. Her work and achievements continue to inspire other immigrant hopefuls and newcomers in Colorado and across the globe. A Channel 22 documentary chronicling her journey navigating systems in the United States and becoming successful in a new country, Mexicanos Exitosos, aired in both Mexico and Spain. In 2021, Soto’s innovative programming and community-based intervention strategies earned one of Colorado’s most prestigious honors when Colorado Governor Jared Polis proclaimed September 20, 2021 as “Julissa Soto Day”. Since then, Julissa’s efforts have led to the vaccination of more than 18,000 Latino adults, youth and children, as well as the distribution of more than 90,000 COVID-19 tests and 40,000 masks.

Today, Soto is proud to serve as the Founder and Executive Director of Casa Inmigrante and she continues to provide consulting and education services to partners and agencies throughout Colorado. She serves on the Health Equity Commission for the Colorado Department of Public Health and is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Co-Chair of the Regional Accountable Entity (RAE) Program Improvement Advisory Committee (PIAC), which provides guidance on health equity and outcomes. She also serves on the Suicide Prevention Commission for Colorado representing the voices of suicide attempt survivors, and particularly those facing multiple disparities. At the national level, Soto currently serves on the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) steering committee.

Steven K. Talley was a member of the Corporate Transactions Practice Group. He works primarily in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions. Mr. Talley has represented a number of public and private companies and private equity clients in connection with acquisitions and dispositions in numerous industries including telecommunications, high tech, manufacturing, and energy. Mr. Talley received his law degree in 1991 from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, and an Articles Editor on the High Technology Law Journal. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1984. In addition, he has taken a significant number of graduate-level economics courses at the Claremont Graduate School.

Beth has over 20 years’ experience helping companies align people strategies to their business strategy. She has deep experience creating organizational programs to recruit, onboard, and develop employees, and coaching individuals through layoffs and career transitions. She has worked with all sizes of companies from startups such as Guild Education to global organizations such as Deloitte Consulting. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and her MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Beth lives in Denver with her husband, son, and daughter and enjoys skiing, running and practicing yoga.