Who's who at IDEA? Meet the crew.

IDEA Founders and Leadership Team
The founders and leaders of IDEA bring a great deal of experience to this initiative, including starting democratic schools and youth empowerment programs, organizing conferences, publishing articles, working in state education and youth departments, engaging in community organizing, managing non-profit organizations, and connecting to the broader policy world in the fields of education and youth. Most importantly, they bring the skills of pragmatic and systemic sensibility, organizational development, deep respect for young people, and a sense of humility and openness to learning as our work unfolds.

Leadership Team:

Executive Director: Dana Bennis

Communications Director: Melia Dicker

Board of Directors: Chris Balme, Melia Dicker, Scott Nine, Dana Bennis

Advisory Board: Elizabeth Baker, Jonah Canner, Jake Escher, Adam Fletcher, Shawn Gaillard, Cooper Zale

Meet the Leadership Team:

Dana Bennis, Executive Director
Dana has been deeply involved in the growing network of democratic education practitioners and supporters since 2001, dedicating his time to researching, teaching, and advocating for education that respects young people to be meaningfully involved in their learning. He has taught in democratic, progressive, and conventional school settings and earned a Masters Degree in Education from Vermont College of Union Institute and University. Dana has published essays in various education journals, and collaborates with others locally, nationally, and internationally to advance democratic education. He brings to IDEA his commitment to youth engagement and democratic practice, national and international education connections, and his strengths in research, education theory and analysis, and critically listening to the viewpoints of others. Dana lives in Tarrytown, New York with his partner and fellow educator, Julie Hill.

Melia Dicker, Board of Directors, Communications Director
Melia is a writer and educator who has worked with students of all ages in the U.S. and abroad. She has a degree in Psychology from Santa Clara University and is an alumna and board member of AmeriCorps' Public Allies. With fellow IDEA board member Chris Balme, Melia co-founded Spark, a nonprofit organization providing youth with leadership development and apprenticeships in their dream jobs. She co-directed Spark for four years, overseeing summer and after-school programs and building community partnerships, and she remains on the Board of Directors. Melia writes a blog called Reschool Yourself, based on her year of retracing her steps through education, from kindergarten through college. She brings to the IDEA team her experience in starting and managing a nonprofit organization, bridging differences between alternative and traditional educators, and using personal narrative to introduce democratic education to mainstream audiences. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Melia now lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

Chris Balme, Board of Directors
Chris has seen the education system from a variety of angles and is dedicated to helping learners of all ages find motivation and inspiration. He has traveled around the world visiting democratic schools, taught with the Breakthrough Collaborative, and worked as a National Science Foundation Fellow, where he developed and taught new science curricula in the Philadelphia public schools. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, Chris moved to San Francisco and co-founded Spark (with fellow IDEA Founder Melia Dicker), an apprenticeship-based youth empowerment organization. As Executive Director of Spark, Chris is leading the organization’s growth into a national program serving thousands of youth per year. Chris believes deeply in the power of democratic, self-motivated learning to empower individuals and communities, and brings his skills in organizational leadership, program development, partnership-building and fundraising to the founding of IDEA.

Scott Nine, Board of Directors
Scott is the Executive Director of the Village Free School in Portland, Oregon - a leading democratic school in the movement to create systemic change at the grassroots level. A dynamic public speaker, Scott has keynoted on issues of leadership and ethics, and presented on crisis intervention, community organizing, social justice, and personal change at the international, national, and local levels. Scott has a Masters degree in Social Work from Arizona State University and has ten years experience working at two state universities and teaching public school. Scott's skills include program planning, community organizing, financial management, grassroots fundraising, and working with inter and intra personal conflict. He is the father of two kids, ages nine and fifteen months, and is still in love with his partner, Hollie.

Elizabeth Baker, Advisory Board
Elizabeth is an educator and visionary from Colorado, currently directing and teaching at The Patchwork School, a democratic school she co-founded in Louisville, Colorado. Additionally, she serves as President of the school's non-profit board of directors. Elizabeth studied Philosophy and Education at Colorado College and earned a Masters degree in Educational Psychology and a teaching license in Early Childhood Education from CU Denver. Elizabeth has taught at several schools, including The Albany Free School in New York, Tamariki School in New Zealand, and Boulder Journey School in Colorado. While learning in and out of school, Elizabeth has focused on democratic education as a means of changing both educators' and students' orientation towards learning. Elizabeth brings her strengths of inquiry, networking, visioning and singing to the IDEA table.

Jonah Canner, Advisory Board
Jonah is an Educator from New York City. He is the Co-Founder and Educational Director of The Fertile Grounds Project, an Educational programming and consulting organization that works with NYC schools and operates a summer camp for NYC youth. Jonah was a founding Teacher at the Community School for Social Justice in the Bronx, where he designed and implemented curricula; developed performance based assessment measurements; served on the school's strategic planning committee; and mentored many students through their journeys toward graduation. Jonah received his Masters in Education from the New School University in New York. Jonah became interested in education through his experience as a summer camp counselor and has brought the camp spirit to all of the work he does with young people. To the IDEA effort Jonah brings his leadership and workshop facilitation experience, writing skills, and connections to inner-city public school reform.

Jake Escher, Advisory Board
Jake is a high school student at the Village Free School, a democratic school in Portland, Oregon, having previously attended conventional public schools. A leader at Village Free School, serving as a student advisor to the school’s Leadership Council, Jake is skilled with computer and Internet technology and is a dynamic musician.

Adam Fletcher, Advisory Board
Adam is an internationally-recognized writer, educator and speaker who focuses on youth engagement throughout society. He is the founder of The Freechild Project and SoundOut, which provide resources, training and technical assistance on youth engagement to community organizations and schools. Adam has almost twenty years experience working professionally with young people and adult allies in a variety of settings, including community-based organizations, national nonprofits, foundations and government agencies. He received his Bachelors degree in critical pedagogy and youth studies from The Evergreen State College and began his graduate studies in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Washington. Adam brings his commitment to radical democracy and critical pedagogy, his local youth and education connections across the U.S., and his strengths in facilitation, research and public speaking to the IDEA effort.

Shawn Gaillard, Advisory Board
Shawn is a Philosophy student at Arizona State University and a graduate of a public high school and community college. He is strongly committed to social change work and is a talented musician.

Cooper Zale, Advisory Board
Cooper and his partner, Sally Rosloff, are parents of two grown children, who both unschooled rather than attend high school. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1978 and worked for the past 20 years as an information systems analyst. He has a degree in Communications from the University of Michigan in his hometown of Ann Arbor, and in Computer Science from California State University, Los Angeles. A longtime feminist and member of the National Organization for Women, he served on the Los Angeles NOW Chapter Board from 1982 to 1988, and worked as a paid organizer for NOW during those years. As a member of the Sepulveda Unitarian-Universalist Society for the past 17 years, he served as Board President from 1994 to 1996 and currently volunteers as a youth advisor and co-chair of the Religious Education Committee. He is also a member of the Alternative Education Resource Organization as an advocate for educational alternatives and unschooling in particular. Cooper brings skill and experience in political organizing, cooperative leadership and group facilitation, information systems and information content management, technical writing, and as a youth advisor.

Laura Stine, Executive Director, IDE Northwest, Fiscal Sponsor of IDEA
Laura has been involved since the 1960s as a progressive educator and activist, taking advantage of openings in the law to found publicly-funded progressive and democratic schools. Given that the ‘status quo’ aims to close such openings in the law when they are found, she is a veteran of the associated struggles. Laura is co-founder and Executive Director of the Northwest Institute for Democratic Education, Inc., a tax-exempt non-profit, whose mission is to advance the progress of democratic education in the Northwest United States. In an effort to increase access to legislative decision-making, Laura and the headquarters of IDE Northwest have recently moved to the Oregon capitol in Salem. Laura earned a Bachelors degree in Education from California State University, Long Beach and a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine. Through her work she has acquired skills associated with political activism and community organizing, starting-up and maintaining small businesses and schools, and a life-time of giving testimony regarding the benefits of self-directed learning and the empowerment of the learner.