Our Team
Cynthia Cole, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Dr. Cynthia Cole is an experienced educator with over 20 years of dedicated service as a certified K-12 teacher, tenured university professor of elementary and secondary education, university administrator of teacher preparation programs, and U.S. Department of Education Senior Policy Advisor. As the Founder and Executive Director of Fontanelle Academy of Early Learning, she is responsible for the school’s curriculum design, accreditation, monitoring teacher and staff credentialing and professional development, learning outcomes, and integrity. She ensures that the school’s faculty and staff, learning environment, curriculum, and instructional design, as well as program implementation are educationally sound and conducive to nurturing infants, toddlers, and preschoolers into well-rounded and academically achieving learners.
Dr. Cole served as an elementary and secondary school teacher in Chicago Public Schools where she taught kindergarten through eighth grade reading and comprehension, secondary English and Language Arts, and the social studies.
After years as a teacher, she left K-12 classroom to become a professor of education teaching in a Masters of Arts in Secondary Teaching and Elementary Education programs. Dr. Cole was tenured by Purdue University as Associate Professor of Education and served as Department Head of Teacher Preparation over P-12 Elementary Education, a dual licensure program in Elementary Education and Special Needs and Secondary Education programs in English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics—all of which were nationally accredited.
She was also responsible for managing the department’s fiscal budget, as well as hiring and supervising staff and faculty through the promotion and tenure process.
Dr. Cole left Purdue University to serve as Senior Policy Advisor in The Office of the Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education. As Senior Policy Advisor, Dr. Cole provided strategic and contextual advice and counsel to the Under Secretary regarding education policy matters, wrote agency reports, and designed and facilitated strategic and impactful convenings to affect change, strengthen systems, and assess policy on a national scale. Some of the areas in which Dr. Cole provided counsel include teacher preparation, diversification of the educator workforce at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels, The White House Initiatives on Educational Excellence for Minorities, the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as well as developing relationships between the Department and States, Universities and Colleges, and stakeholder organizations.
After her tenure with the Obama Administration, Dr. Cole launched Cole, Alex, and Miles, LLC, a successful education and management consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and Springfield, Virginia.
Dr. Cole received her B.A. in Psychology (concentration on child development) from The University of Chicago, her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Illinois at Chicago, and her Ph.D. in Curriculum Design from The University of Illinois at Chicago.
Arlene Hambrick, Ph.D.
Curriculum Advisory Board Member
Dr. Arlene Hambrick retired as Clinical Professor of Education from Purdue University in 2016 after serving as an educator for over 50 years. She also served as a special educator for 40 years, i.e., 25 years at the elementary level in Chicago Public Schools and 15 years in Boston Public Schools.
Dr. Hambrick’s career in higher education includes serving as a Professor of Special Education at Bluefield College in Virginia, Professor of Elementary Education at National-Louis University in Illinois, and Clinical Professor of Education in Elementary Education and Special Needs at Purdue University in Indiana.
Arlene’s service at the national level includes serving as the Director of Mathematics and Science in 11 states, while serving numerous times as a special consultant to The U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Hambrick’s legacy to the field of education includes the development and implementation of rigorous and impactful math and science practices. Her expertise and acclaim in these areas resulted in her international educational service to many countries in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. She has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards from her work in special education, mathematics, science, humanitarian contributions, and theology in the U.S. and abroad. She is also author to numerous scholarly publications.
Dr. Hambrick earned her bachelor’s degree from Chicago State University, Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary, and her doctorate from The University of Massachusetts.
James Cole, Jr., Esq.
Advisory Board Member
James Cole, Jr. is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Jasco Group, a multidimensional investment management firm based in New York City.
James has held several previous positions focusing on educational achievement, access, and opportunity for all students. He is currently the Founder and President of Jasco Philanthropies, which promotes, empowers, and educates Black and Brown people. He serves on The University of Chicago Law School Council. James also serves on the National Board of Directors of Jumpstart, which provides language, literacy, and socio-emotional programming for preschool children from under-resourced communities. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the National Student Legal Defense Network, which works to advance students’ rights to educational opportunity and to support their economic mobility by using litigation and advocating on their behalf.
James is also currently a member of the board of directors of American International Group (AIG).
From January 2016 through January 2017, James was the US Delegated Deputy Secretary of Education and General Counsel. As Delegated Deputy Secretary, he served as the chief operating officer and chief legal officer at the US Department of Education, and oversaw a broad range of operational, management, policy, legal and program functions. James also oversaw the Department’s work on President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, which sought to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color, and to ensure that all young people are able to reach their full potential. A key milestone of My Brother’s Keeper was ensuring that children entering kindergarten are equipped and ready to learn.
The U.S. Senate confirmed James as the Department of Education’s General Counsel in 2014.
From 2004 to 2011, James served on the board of directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. From 2005 to 2011, he also served on the board of trustees of Prep for Prep, a New York City-based youth leadership development program that identifies and prepares students of color for the rigors of independent day and boarding schools.
Prior to joining the US Department of Education, James served as the Deputy General Counsel at the US Department of Transportation. Prior to joining DOT, James was a partner in the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, where his practice focused primarily on advising corporations in the US and around the world on mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.
James received his B.S. in Finance with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his J.D. from The University of Chicago, where he served as a comment editor of the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable.
Janas L. Jackson
Advisory Board Member
Janas L. Jackson is the Communications/Diversity and Inclusion Advisor for FedEx Express, the world’s largest express transportation company serving 220 countries and territories. In this role, she manages strategic diversity programs and corporate sponsorships, executive communications, and ten employee resource groups. She previously served as Manager of Human Resource Compliance/Affirmative Action as well as Program Advisor – Diversity in the FedEx Social Responsibility Department.
Her career accomplishments include serving as communications advisor and chief speechwriter to seven corporate CEOs. She has also served as communications liaison for FedEx operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As a result of her accomplishments, Janas has been awarded the corporation’s highest global honor – the FedEx Five Star Award, as well as the Global Communications Excellence Award.
Janas currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis.
Additionally, Janas is the recipient of the Memphis & Shelby County Achievers Award and the Tri-State Defender newspaper’s Women of Excellence Award.
Her background also includes work as the Director of Corporate Communications for the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division where she was responsible for all media relations, internal communications and community relations initiatives.
As a Public Relations and Communications consultant, Janas has written video scripts narrated by such celebrities as Richard Gere, Angela Bassett, Martin Sheen, Magic Johnson, Bryant Gumbel, Julian Bond, Tavis Smiley, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Additionally, she has served as a writer and communications advisor for civil rights activist and actress, Yolanda King daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King) and motivational speaker Les Brown. Her work with the King family also includes authoring speeches delivered at the groundbreaking of the King Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the re-entombment of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King at the King Center in Atlanta, GA.
Her educational background includes a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Additionally, she received postgraduate training in executive speechwriting, communications, and diversity and inclusion through executive programs offered by Harvard University, New York University & McGraw Hill, the University of Memphis, Georgetown University, and DePaul University.