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Our Team

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Joyelle Naomi

Founder/CVO

Joyelle Naomi is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of  Denver Independent School. She is a 2021 Camelback Venture Fellow, 2020 Moonshot edVentures Fellow and holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology.  Joyelle is a home educator and as a result of her own journey homeschooling Black children and especially through difficult life challenges she is deeply passionate about building equitable and liberated systems of access that support marginalized homeschooling families. Joyelle’s work includes advocating for and mentoring single, Black, working homeschooling moms, curating STEAM education for students, and designing liberated education spaces that support parents in cultivating sustainable home schools. Joyelle loves speaking to audiences about what she calls “ability currency”, focusing on the “how” of homeschooling, combatting the popular deficit-based idea that not all families can homeschool, especially families of color.

 

A proud Denverite, Joyelle loves the Colorado outdoors. She is a die hard Trekkie and is famous for saying, “There’s a Star Trek episode for that”!

Board of Directors

Antoinette Massey-Board Chair

President & CEO at ANM Innovative Solutions, LLC

Founder & Chief Executive, The JEKL Foundation for STEAM Education

Charles Gilford III

Deputy Director of Council Relations and Special Projects at City and County of Denver

Eric Rowe

Principal, Prep Academy (Denver, CO)

David Yirdaw

Lead Pastor, Anchor Church

Michelle Quattlebaum

Founder, Creative Conversations, Parent/Community Liaison at Denver Public Schools

Leah Horton

DIS Parent Representative

Advisory Council

Antwan Jefferson

Associate Professor, School of Education and Human Development at the University of  Colorado Denver

Vernon Jones

Executive Director, Northeast Denver Innovation Zone

Director of Operations & Strategy, FaithBridge Denver

Monique Shuler

Senior Consultant/BA at BlackFin Group

Danyell Lewis

Independent Consultant  & Racial Justice Advocate

Jonathan Bateman

Student Advisor

Serenity Bateman

Student Advisor

Alex H.

Student Advisor

All Hands In
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