Staff Announcement - August 2018
Today, Golden Apple released the following staff announcement:
Cristen Lain will be joining the Golden Apple staff as Director, Scholar Analytics and Summer/STEM Institute K-12 Relationship Management.
Bianca Aguilar is being promoted to Office Manager.
Cristen Lain, Director, Scholar Analytics and Summer/STEM Institute K-12 Relationship Management
Cristen will support Melissa Fischer, Vice President of Curriculum, Research and Accountability in enhancing the analytics to support decision-making and policies within our Scholars Program and in working with districts and schools throughout Illinois to identify diverse, urban, rural, and suburban on-site locations for the Golden Apple Scholars’ Summer Institutes.
Cristen brings over 10 years of education work experience to the Golden Apple team. Most recently, she served as the National Director of Alumni Programming for Spark, an organization working to engage communities to provide career exploration and self-discovery opportunities that help middle school students understand, experience and pursue what’s possible. At Spark, she lead, developed and designed programming that empowered students and prepared them for the transition to high school.
Prior to joining Spark, she served as the Academic Center Director for Lane Tech High School where she directed Lane Tech’s first fully-enrolled seventh and eighth grade Academic Center. At Lane Tech, one of the nation’s largest public, selective enrollment high schools, Cristen was instrumental in creating a highly innovative curriculum in which seventh and eighth-grade students are immersed in rigorous high school curriculum - including significant exposure to STEM subjects.
Cristen began her educational career as a mathematics teacher after earning her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Minor in Statistics and Actuarial Science from Loyola University, a Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning from DePaul University, and a Middle Grades Endorsement in Mathematics.
Bianca Aguilar, Office Manager
Bianca has been an engaging member of the team at the Foundation for over 16 years and exemplifies all that we strive for at Golden Apple. Her hard work, positivity and collaboration have been vital to the work we do each and every day. In parallel with her work at The Golden Apple Foundation, Bianca has done significant volunteer work at Benito Juarez Community Academy High School in addition to serving as a Parent Volunteer on the Local School Council.
As Office Manager, Bianca will oversee all office logistical supports, manage supplies and inventory, provide administrative support to select leaders, and will report directly to me.
Bianca believes the Golden Apple mission is one of a kind and she is motivated and inspired each day knowing that the Foundation is helping to develop great teachers who will support students of all ages in schools-of-need. We are thankful for her dedication to the Golden Apple mission.