Our Team

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
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Charles Gilford III
Deputy Director of Council Relations and Special Projects at City and County of Denver
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Eric Rowe
Principal, Prep Academy (Denver, CO)
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David Yirdaw
Lead Pastor, Anchor Church
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Michelle Quattlebaum
Founder, Creative Conversations, Parent/Community Liaison at Denver Public Schools
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Leah Horton
DIS Parent Representative
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Advisory Council
Antwan Jefferson
Associate Professor, School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver
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Vernon Jones
Executive Director, Northeast Denver Innovation Zone
Director of Operations & Strategy, FaithBridge Denver
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Monique Shuler
Senior Consultant/BA at BlackFin Group
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Danyell Lewis
Independent Consultant & Racial Justice Advocate
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Jonathan Bateman
Student Advisor
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Serenity Bateman
Student Advisor
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Alex H.
Student Advisor
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