KIPP Texas Leadership

Sehba Ali is the former Superintendent of KIPP Houston Public Schools. In 2004, she founded KIPP Heartwood Academy Middle School in San Jose, CA, which was consistently rated one of the highest-performing middle schools in California. Prior to taking the helm at KIPP Houston, Sehba served as Chief Academic Officer for KIPP Bay Area Schools. She began her career as a middle school English teacher in Houston, Texas with Teach For America. Sehba earned her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and her Masters from Stanford University. She was a Pahara-Aspen fellow and completed the Broad Academy for Superintendents. She currently mentors two KIPP EDs and serves on the Connect Community and The Post Oak School boards.

In direct support of the Chief Executive Officer, Larry serves a key role in building and managing the newly created KIPP Texas Public Schools while promoting the academic, character, and life success of KIPP students (KIPPsters). Larry is a founding member of the leadership team of KIPP Texas Public Schools and is helping to lead the first-ever integration of KIPP regional organizations (KIPP Austin, KIPP Dallas-Fort Worth, KIPP Houston, and KIPP San Antonio). This integration encompasses 50+ schools that are serving 25,000 students across Texas.

In the CAO role, Larry is instrumental in pioneering approaches to charter school integration, talent management, HR service delivery, professional development, and teacher recruitment at scale. Larry also is responsible for school and regional talent and human resources functions including benefits, payroll, school leader and teacher talent branding, hiring, training, development, retention, and remote workforce practices.

Sơn was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2022. Son’s family immigrated to the United States in 1975 and are refugees from Viet Nam. He previously served as Controller for KIPP Houston for 4 years before leaving for South Sudan. When returning to the United States, KIPP Texas asked Sơn to return and soon served as Interim CFO for KIPP Houston at the nascent stages of the KIPP Texas merger. After the merger, Sơn served in the Deputy Chief of Finance role leading accounting, FP&A, compliance, and procurement. Sơn graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA and Master’s in Public Accountancy. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant. Read more about Sơn’s leadership story here.

Laura brings 15 years of experience within the KIPP community, serving in various roles, including Principal, School Leader Manager, Managing Director of School Operations, and most recently, Deputy Chief of School Operations. Her deep understanding of our organization, ability to approach operations from multiple angles, and experience as a School Leader make her an invaluable operations and organizational leader. Laura oversees school operations, operations services, and strategy.

Ann Scott joined KIPP in October 2019. In her role, she raises funds to support strategic initiatives. As an advocate of educational opportunity and equity for all students, Scott works to ensure all children can have access to an education that prepares them for success in life.

Upon graduating from Oakwood College, Ann joined Teach For America and taught at White Elementary School in the HISD for four years. Ann subsequently joined the staff of Teach For America and led the region to double its presence in Houston and improve teacher impact on student outcomes. She has also worked as the Chief Human Resources Officer for HISD. Striving to improve the teacher evaluation process, Ann led the district’s teacher effectiveness efforts including the design and implementation of an improved teacher appraisal and development system that would hold teachers accountable to student achievement as part of their evaluation. Ann had the privilege of returning to Teach For America to manage and develop alumni leadership initiatives. In this role, she pioneered the development of a fellowship for experienced alumni to transition into leadership roles in districts across the country.

Dan Caesar is one of KIPP’s longest-standing Big KIPPsters with more than 27 years of service. He has honed his craft as an instructional expert as a former teacher, grade level chair, assistant principal, founding school leader of KIPP 3D, school leader manager, and the Regional Superintendent for KIPP Texas-Houston.

Longtime Big KIPPster, Dr. Rona Simmons, was named the Chief Academic Officer beginning September 2023.

In 2018, Dr. Simmons decided to join the KIPP Texas Team and Family. Since then, she has been a School Leader Manager, Managing Director of KTX Middle Schools, and the Deputy Chief of Academic Recovery. Nearly two decades after stepping foot into her first classroom as a teacher, Dr. Simmons continues to honor her commitment to children and families. In every role, she consistently demonstrates a keen ability to lead with humility, inspire others, re-imagine what is possible for children, and, most importantly, ensure we achieve outstanding academic results for Little KIPPsters.

Vanessa ​Segovia Barry believes every student deserves a high-quality education. Her dedication to educational equity starts with her own story: her mother became the first person in the family to attain a college degree, which changed her life and was a life-changer for her children and grandchildren as well. A Houston native, Vanessa was raised in the Rio Grande Valley and has lived in all four KIPP Texas regions. While running marketing, communications, creative services, enrollment, and events at IDEA Public Schools, she ​helped the network grow from 16 to 120 schools, while exceeding student enrollment goals and transforming its brand identity. She also founded a ​family-focused magazine reaching nearly 100,000 readers, commissioned a software platform to maximize enrollment, and produced large-scale events attended by thousands. Vanessa lives in the San Antonio area with her husband and their two children.

Justin Scott is the Regional Superintendent for KIPP Texas – Austin. He is passionate about fostering brave and belonging spaces that ensure access and opportunity for all children. Mr. Scott comes to this work with more than 20 years as an early childhood teacher, a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan, a founding school leader for KIPP Austin Comunidad, and an executive, systems-level lead learner for KIPP. He is a proud Chicano leader and the first in his family to attend and graduate from college. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Developmental Psychology from Santa Clara University, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin. Justin’s most important role is father to his two young children (Simone and Georgia) and partner to his wife, Kelly.

Long-time Big KIPPster Eric Coleman has led the KIPP Texas – Dallas-Fort Worth region since 2022. In the last decade at KIPP Texas, Eric has repeatedly proven that he makes decisions with students at the center, has a deep personal connection to our mission, and lives our values through and through. We are grateful for his deep experience managing schools, drive to chase excellence, unwavering commitment to creating brave and belonging spaces, and outstanding instructional expertise.

Frank first joined KIPP Houston in 2007 as a 2nd-grade teacher and Miles Family Fellow at KIPP SHINE, working with the Class of 2018, our first set of primary Little KIPPsters in the nation. He went on to serve as the founding school leader of KIPP Explore Academy on the East End campus. It was there he honed his craft and developed his passion for serving our littlest KIPPsters. Over the years, Frank continued to excel in teaching and inspecting instructional excellence.

Outside of the classroom, Frank is a tremendous partner to many when solving day-to-day school management matters and an exemplary coach. During his time as head of schools, he has coached school leaders at eleven of the fourteen KIPP Texas-Houston campuses. Frank is committed to leadership development as he helped to coach seven of his former teachers at KIPP Explore Academy to later become KIPP Texas-Houston school leaders. He’s also an avid youth baseball coach in both the East End and Southeast communities of Houston.

Guadalupe started her journey as a bilingual teacher educating students on the West side of San Antonio. After teaching, she became a campus instructional coordinator and coached and managed PK-8th grade teachers. She then became an assistant principal, coached teachers, and managed all school operations.

Soon, Guadalupe was promoted to principal of IDEA Carver Academy. In three years, she and her team were able to move the entire body of K-5 readers from 26% to 77% reading on and above grade level. She has also led the region’s lowest-performing school to become top-rated, receiving an “A” rated state distinction and the campus of the year. She then accepted the position of Vice President of Schools, achieving great success with the nine schools she managed.