Advisory Board

Anthony Colon

Mr. Colon serves on the board of directors of several national organizations, including: Alliance for School Choice; American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence; Foundation for Child Development; GreatSchools.net; Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options; National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (formerly Charter School Leadership Council). He serves on the DC Public Charter School Board, which authorizes the development of charter public schools in Washington, DC. He has received public recognition from such reputable national organizations as the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, and the Education Leaders Council.

Franklin Schargel

Mr. Schargel’s career spans thirty-three years of classroom teaching, school counseling and eight years of school supervision and administration. Mr. Schargel is a world-renowned expert in student drop-out prevention. He served on the Guidelines Development Committee for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Education and was an examiner for the Baldrige Award for two years. In addition, he served as a judge for the Secretary of the Air Force Quality Award and as a judge for the USA Today/RIT Quality Cup. He served as Chair of the American Society of Quality’s Education Division from 2003-2005. Mr. Schargel has presented countless workshops for educational, community and business groups throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Latin America and is the author of 7 books dealing with preventing student drop-outs and improving school achievement. The 15 strategies developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University in association with Mr. Schargel have been recognized by the National Education Goals Panel and the United States Department of Education as “the most effective strategies to help solve our school dropout problem.

Iris Metts, Ed.D.

Dr. Metts served as Superintendent of Schools/Chief Executive Officer of Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland. With 185 schools, over 15,000 employees, and approximately 132,000 students, Prince George's County Public Schools ranks as the nation's 17th largest school system. Appointed by the Governor of Delaware, Dr. Metts served as the state's first Secretary of Education from 1997 to 1999. From 1990 to 1997, Dr. Metts served as Superintendent of Schools for the Christina School District of Newark, Delaware. There, she built a nationally recognized program, reforming school finances, launching a theme school program, and introducing computer labs in all schools in the district. Dr. Metts also expanded volunteer mentoring by reaching out to individuals from all segments of the community, including business and religious leaders. A graduate of Hampton University, Dr. Metts received her master's degree from The College of William and Mary and her doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. She has done post-doctoral work at Harvard University and has held leadership positions in many professional and community service organizations.

Dan Stabile, PhD

Dr. Daniel L. Stabile completed his Ph. D in Educational Administration following his graduation from the Navy War College. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Stabile held a number of senior level responsibilities over the Department of Defense Oversees, Domestic and Secondary Schools. He has received numerous awards including, the Department of Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal for Extraordinary Services to Dependents Education and the Bureau of Naval Personnel EEO Award for Excellence. Mr. Stabile is currently serving on the Senior Fellows Board of Leaders for the Council for Excellence in Government.

Alan Peyser

Mr. Peyser brings to ProActive School his extensive business background and in depth understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the education arena. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Fairfax County Education Foundation, the Suburban Hospital and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He previously was an Advisor to Novak Biddle Venture Fund. He has held numerous senior management positions within the telecommunication industry including that of CEO and President of Cable and Wireless which he grew from annual revenues of annual $10 million to revenues of over $1.1 billion.

Velan Thillairajah

Mr. Thillairajah is one of the Forbes "Best and Brightest". He has over fifteen years experience in XML & Web tools, Telecom, B2B Integration and Application Development areas. He has worked with a range of clients such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Network Solutions, HP, Verizon, BMC, Agilent, Versign and AOL. A Cornell Engineering, MBA Simon University of Rochester graduate.

Martin Forman, M.D.

Dr. Forman is a Pediatric Physician and owner of Reston Pediatrics. He also owns a firm named Effective Learning Solutions that provides individual assessments and analysis of children for parents, teachers and other interested parties. His experience in teaching spans the range from elementary through College, graduate school and currently on-going post-graduate education of Pediatric residents.