MLC Board of Directors  

Dr. Kirsten Bonaventura, Clinical Psychologist 

Dr. Kirsten Bonaventura earned her Master’s Degree in clinical psychology in 1996 at Pepperdine University and her Doct orate in Clinical Psychology from The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) in 2001, with a special emphasis in working with children, adolescents and families. 

She has a private practice in Northridge and is currently a supervising staff psychologist at Northpoint School, within the Child and Family Guidance Center. Her specialty involves creating positive behavioral interventions at school for clients with emotional and behavioral issues, and assisting clients in expressing their thoughts and feelings in positive ways.  Dr. Bonaventura has also had experience as a school-based therapist, and in facilitating parenting, social skills, adoption and anger management therapeutic groups. 

Ellen Comis, Finance Officer 

Ellen Comis is a Senior Housing Finance Officer for the Community Redevelopment Agency for the City of LA. She is involved in financing affordable housing transactions that include both public and private funding for rental and ownership projects. She also worked as the Senior Administrative Analyst for the Housing Division for the City of Santa Monica for over 13 years. During this time she assisted with the financing of predevelopment, construction, rehabilitation and permanent financing for non-profit organizations in collaboration with both public and private lending services.  

Her passion for bilingualism brought about a desire to personally instruct her children in both English and Spanish, providing them with the capabilities of fully mastering these languages.  Her aptitude for both tongues allowed her to assist in the implementation of a fifteen million dollar primary health and family planning program in Lima, Peru.  

She graduated from Pitzer College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and the completed her master’s degree at the University of California in Los Angeles in the area of Urban Planning.  

Ellen has been a guest speaker at both SCANPH and ICE Workshops presenting on the topic of Community Land Trusts. She has served on various committees such as the LA City Housing Authority Selection Committee, Developer Selection Committee for city-owned Mobile Park, Low Income Housing Fund Committee, and the Oxnard Affordable Ad Hoc Committee.  She currently serves on the Boards of the West Valley Community Development Corporation and the Multicultural Learning Center. 

Stuart A. Comis, Attorney at Law 

Stuart A. Comis is an attorney with Nelson, Comis, Kahnn & Sepulveda LLP located in Oxnard, California. His practice is focused on: real estate transactions involving purchase, sale, financing and operation of real estate; formation, operation, and dissolution of businesses; and some estate planning and intellectual property work.  

Stuart graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of California at Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry. He received his law degree and graduated Order of the Coif from the University of California at Davis School of Law.  He was admitted into the California State Bar and the Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California (Federal Bar).  

He is a member of the Ventura County Bar Association and has served on the Board of religious and nonprofit organizations and was an adjunct professor at Pierce Community College where he taught business entities, contracts, and real property courses within their Paralegal Program. He currently serves on the Boards of the Ventura County Law Library and the Multicultural Learning Center.  

Jacqueline Elliot Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) 

Ms. Elliot has been dedicated to public school reform since 1986 when she first became a teacher in Pacoima. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology, a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential, an Administrative Credential and a Master's degree in Educational Administration. She is currently completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change at Fielding Graduate University.

As a former LAUSD employee, Jacqueline Elliot was driven by an intense desire to improve the state of public education. She first became acquainted with the charter school movement in 1994 while serving as a teacher leader at Montague Elementary when she co-authored the school’ s petition that converted Montague to charter status. Dedicated to creating high quality charter schools for the students in Pacoima, she founded Community Charter Middle School (CCMS) in 1999. The school was the first charter middle school to serve students in Los Angeles and was so successful and well received by the community, that Ms. Elliot subsequently founded two more schools to serve the same geographic area.

Ms. Elliot began collaborating with Dr. Ref Rodriguez in 1998. Together they have collaborated and supported each other's efforts while co-founding and operating Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) and a total of seven schools. Ms. Elliot currently serves as an elected representative to the California Charter Schools Association Membership Council. 

Dr. Drew Fountaine, CPA 

Dr. Drew Fountaine earned his Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 1997 and his Doctorate in Education in 2011 at California State University at Northridge.  His dissertation focused on using activity-based costing analysis in a charter school setting, allowing schools to create systematic reform through a better understanding of their resource use. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed to practice in the State of California. 

He is a consultant with Phillips, Fractor, & Gorman, where he assists with litigation support in the areas of economics, finance, accounting, and human services. He worked as a professor in the department of Accounting and Information Systems at California State University at Northridge where he taught various financial, managerial, cost, and tax courses.  He has also taught classes on external accounting, domestic and international finance at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College.  

Drew has served on numerous academic committees addressing such things as taxation curriculum, freshman retention, and strategic initiatives. He served on the Advisory Board and the Faculty Grievance Hearing Panel at CSUN.  

He has published work in such periodicals as the Journal of Asset Management and Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting. He has received multiple teaching and publication awards from the California State University at Northridge, along with an award from the Wall Street Journal. He currently serves on the Board of the Multicultural Learning Center.  

Dr. Rosemary Gonzalez, Professor, Child and Adolescent Development, CSUN 

Dr. Rosemary Gonzalez is an Associate Professor in Child and Adolescent Development and Chicano/a Studies at California State University Northridge. She received her Ph.D. in Psychological Studies in Education from Stanford University. Her work focuses on dispelling stereotypes about ethnic minority youth and identifying effective multicultural education practices. She teaches pre-service teachers how to analyze Chicano/Latino children’s literature and create books that allow children to examine inequality. Her students evaluate children's books to assess whether they foster equality (i.e., beyond festivals and holidays).   

Danny Miller, Secretary, Multicultural Learning Center, Writer 

Danny Miller has been a writer/editor of educational materials for the past 25 years. He was the editor-in-chief of the Galef Institute's "Different Ways of Knowing" curriculum and has worked on many teacher resources for Heinemann, Scholastic, and other publishers.  

Ref Rodriguez, CFO Multicultural Learning Center, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) 

Ref Rodriguez is the founder and co-chief executive officer of Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC Schools), a charter school management organization serving communities in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and Northeast Los Angeles. Ref's original inspiration for starting a charter school was to offer high quality learning experiences for middle school students residing in Cypress Park, the working class community northeast of downtown Los Angeles where he grew up. Prior to venturing into the charter school movement, Ref worked in the business sector and as a teacher and administrator in parochial schools.

He is one of five children of Mexican immigrants. He is the first (but not the last) in his family to graduate from college. Ref is the Vice Chair of the Board of the California Charter Schools Association and serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Los Angeles and the Small School Alliance. In 2005, he was appointed, by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, as a City Commissioner in the area of affordable housing. Ref holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He recently began studies on a second doctoral degree as a student in the inaugural class of the Executive Work-Based Learning Program offered jointly by the Wharton School of Business and Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include teacher leadership and charter schools that are closing the achievement gap for Latino students. 

Marcia Vargas, President of the Board of Trustees Multicultural Learning Center 

Marcia Vargas is the Former Director of 2-Way CABE, an affiliate of the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) that works specifically with two-way bilingual (dual) immersion programs.  Ms. Vargas has been involved with two-way bilingual immersion programs for the past fourteen years and has been instrumental in the organization of the annual National Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Program Summer Conferences, including acting as co-chair for many of them.  She has made it a priority to spread the message of two-way bilingual immersion programs throughout the U.S. and internationally through conference presentations, professional development institutes, and direct assistance to school districts.   

Ms. Vargas worked as Curriculum Coordinator for Dual (Two-Way) Immersion Programs for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools office.  Ms. Vargas began her work with two-way bilingual immersion programs while working as a senior professional development specialist with the Center for Language Minority Education and Research (CLMER) at California State University, Long Beach.  During her educational career, she also worked as a bilingual classroom teacher, bilingual resource teacher and bilingual coordinator.  In addition to providing professional development and technical assistance for two-way bilingual immersion programs, she has presented workshops on a variety of topics including biliteracy, bilingual program design, English language development (ELD) and specially designed academic instruction in English (SDAIE). 

Ms. Vargas has taught classes at the university level for California State University, Los Angeles, California State University, Long Beach, Claremont Graduate University and the University of California at Riverside. She is currently an Instructor for Fielding Graduate University.  

Ms. Vargas has a B.S. from Cal Poly, Pomona, M.A. from California State University, San Bernardino and has completed class work toward a doctorate at the University of Southern California.  

Marcia is married to Raúl and is mother to Tracie and César, mother-in-law to Amy and grandmother to Alexandra.  When she is not sharing her passion for TWBI, she spends her time rooting for USC (football), camping, traveling and reading.   

Board Meeting Information:

01/26/2012 Board Meeting Notice

09/19/2011 Emergency Board Meeting Minutes

06/23/2011 Annual Board Meeting Minutes