QUINCY, MA – The Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the largest philanthropy in New England devoted exclusively to education, has elected two new members to its Board of Directors:  Margarita Muñiz, Principal of the Rafael Hernandez School in Boston, MA and Janet Phlegar, Director of the Learning Innovations Program at WestEd’s Woburn, MA and Williston, VT locations.

 “We are very pleased to welcome Margarita and Janet to the Foundation’s board of directors. We look forward to benefiting from their diverse experience and passion for education as we embark on our new strategic path to investigate and promote high-quality, varied approaches that help students –especially those from underserved populations - acquire the skills and knowledge necessary in the 21^st century,” said Lawrence W. O’Toole, Chairman of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Margarita Muñiz
Ms. Muñiz has been Principal of Boston’s Rafael Hernández School, the premier dual language school in Massachusetts, for the past 27 years.  The Hernandez School is a Pre-K/Grade 8 school where all students learn in both Spanish and English and also participate in Expeditionary Learning. The school was established in the 1970s when community activists petitioned the Boston School Committee to establish a school where Latino students' educational needs could be met. Under Ms. Muñiz’s leadership, the Hernandez School has been among the first schools recognized and celebrated as a Compass School by the Massachusetts Department of Education. The state’s Compass School program recognizes schools for improvement and encourages sharing of effective practices.  The school was also named an Effective Practice School by the Boston Plan for Excellence for 6 straight years; and in 2005, it received a Teacher Team of the Year award from USA Today.
 
Ms. Muñiz began her career with the Boston Public Schools in 1972 as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in the Office of Bilingual Education.  She served as District Coordinator of Bilingual Education in the Multicultural Office.  In 1981 she became Acting Principal of the Hernandez School and was named Principal in 1983.  She also served as a Cluster Leader for several years.  She came to America at age eleven without her parents, and throughout college it was her dream to work for the Boston Public Schools and make a difference in the lives of children for whom English was a second language. 
 
Ms. Muñiz’s current affiliations include a fellowship at the Barr Foundation, as well as associate board membership at the Community Music Center of Boston and the Friends of Rafael Hernandez.  She earned her Masters in Education from Boston State College and her Bachelor’s of Arts from Boston University.  

Janet Phlegar

Ms. Phlegar is the Director of WestEd’s Learning Innovations Program located in Woburn, Massachusetts and in Williston, Vermont. WestEd’s Learning Innovations Program specializes in customized technical assistance; training; and research and evaluation services to schools, districts, state agencies, communities, and institutions of higher education, particularly in the Northeast, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. She serves as project director of several major initiatives, including partnership in the Regional Education Laboratory-Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), the New England Comprehensive Assistance Center and the New York Comprehensive Assistance Center.

Previously, Ms. Phlegar was Deputy Director of the Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands, and a program director for a national experiential citizenship education program in Washington, DC.

She currently serves on the national board of directors of Educators for Social Responsibility, and locally, for her town’s educational foundation. Her experience as a middle and high school teacher are the basis of her high interest in school-based action research and the multiple roles of teachers.

Ms. Phlegar is a co-author of Dynamic Teachers: Leaders of Change and Planning into Practice, and is one of the developers of Learning Innovation’s The Authentic Task Approach.

She holds a B.A., Sociology, from the University of Michigan and an M.A.T., History and Teaching, from Emory University.