CCEE Staff Bios
Dr. Stephanie Gregson
Deputy Executive Director
Dr. Stephanie Gregson serves as the Deputy Executive Director for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE). In this role, Dr. Gregson works closely with Executive Director Matt Navo, overseeing the Direct Technical Assistance efforts focusing on school turnaround centering on improving teaching and learning within districts and schools aimed at equitable access, opportunity, and outcomes for students. Dr. Gregson is the former Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction and has more than 25 years of experience in public education starting her career as an elementary school teacher in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
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Rocio Gonzalez-Frausto
Senior Advisor
Rocio Gonzalez-Frausto is a Senior Advisor for the Teaching, Learning, and Leading center for the CCEE. In this role, Gonzalez helps the team develop, support, and coordinate the Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) that local educational agencies (LEAs) receive from the CCEE. Gonzalez, provides support in other state-wide initiatives, she is a member of the Universal Preschool and Transitional Kinder Local Implementation and Promising Practice Design Team.Before joining the CCEE team, Gonzalez was a Regional Superintendent providing academic and systemic support toTK-12 Title I schools in the Bay Area.
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Dr. Jennie Wright
Senior Advisor
Dr. Jennie Wright is a Senior Advisor for the Teaching, Learning, and Leading for the CCEE. In this role, Dr. Wright helps support and coordinate the Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) that local educational agencies (LEAs) receive from the CCEE. Prior to joining the CCEE team, Dr. Wright was a capacity building coach with InnovateEd providing support and facilitation to LEA’s across California implementing Fullan & Quinn’s coherence framework, as well as continuous improvement processes and practices for district leaders, site leaders, site leadership team and Professional Learning Communities within and across schools and districts.
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Stacey Wedin
Assistant Director
Stacey Wedin serves as Assistant Director of Teaching, Learning, & Leading for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence providing technical assistance and support in developing a statewide professional learning infrastructure focused on evidence based accelerated learning strategies. In this role, Wedin will assist with designing and implementing systems that provide coherence across the accelerated learning grants, Direct Technical Assistance cycles, and other professional learning efforts led by the CCEE.
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Jennifer Biagio
Assistant Director
Dr. Jennifer Biagio serves as Assistant Director of Teaching, Learning, & Leading for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence providing Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) to local educational agencies (LEAs) across the state.
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Dr. Gonzalo Avila
Senior Manager
Dr. Gonzalo Avila is the Senior Manager of Instructional Systems and Innovation for the CCEE. In this role, Dr. Avila assists local educational agencies (LEAs) in a systemic review to accelerate learning and achievement. Dr. Avila has served as an educator leader for 27 years. During his career, he served as a bilingual teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Dr. Avila has held increasingly responsible director roles, which have included Director of English Learners, Director of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Director of Accountability and Continuous Improvement.
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Franchesca Sonoyama
Program Specialist
Franchesca Sonoyama is a Program Specialist for the CCEE. In this role, she provides programmatic and team support including process improvement, material development, and project management within the Teaching, Learning, and Leading Center (TLLC). Franchesca supports the implementation of the Systemic Instructional Review (SIR) for the TLLC team alongside partner LEAs. Prior to joining the CCEE team, Franchesca served as program manager with a non-profit performing arts organization to provide equitable, enriching, and culturally relevant arts education to majority Title-1 schools in Sacramento and abroad.
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Belinda Gaspar
Program Specialist
Belinda is a Program Specialist for CCEE’s Teaching, Learning, and Leading Center. She primarily works on the administration and project management of the Learning Acceleration System Grant and the evaluation projects associated with the grant. She also supports the center’s efforts to provide Direct Technical Assistance to districts across California. Belinda also supports CCEE’s communication and data collection strategies to better measure the agency’s impact on California’s education systems, educators, and students.
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Sandra Brandt
Administrative Assistant II
Before joining the CCEE team, Sandra served as an Administrative Assistant at Visions In Education, a TK – 12 Independent Study charter school serving nine counties. She served over six years as administrative support to the Chief Operations Officer, Director of Operations, and Controller in the Business Services Department. While working at Visions, she was chosen to work on several special projects, including charter independence, integration of a new school information system, and an intranet redesign project. Sandra worked on various implementation teams where she developed and managed systems for fiscal and business operations. She was also a team member of the DEI Group, in which she participated with teachers, counselors, and administrators to develop an outreach program for the organization. Sandra has worked in the education field for over 12 years.
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