2024-2025 Parent Board of Directors

Number of Children at Highland: Two (One graduate)

Year Joined Highland Family: 2012

Year Board Term Began: August 2019

Professional Background: Brian is the Manager of Operations/Assistant Director for the Milwaukee Public Schools Department of Recreation and Community Services. Brian holds a B.S. in Parks and Recreation Administration, M.S. in Physical Education, and a M.B.A. Over the past 20 years, Brian has served in various positions within the Department of Recreation. As Manager of Operations, his chief responsibilities are oversight of the Department’s Finances, Facilities, Technology, After-School Operations, and Human Resources. Brian has helped foster countless collaborations with many of Milwaukee’s community-based organizations, leading to greater financial and human capital resources in many under-served neighborhoods. Brian is a committed advocate for equal access to high-quality enrichment and educational opportunities for all Milwaukee residents.

Number of Children at Highland: Two

Year Joined Highland Family: 2014

Year Board Term Began: August 2019

Professional Background: Amy is a nationally certified and licensed school psychologist in the state of Wisconsin.  She is currently a professor in the school psychology program at Loyola University Chicago where she works with the next generation of school psychologists on how to practice from a social justice lens.  She also serves as the Chair of the University’s Anti-Racism Initiative to implement strategic institutional change towards racial justice.  Prior to teaching, Amy worked for Milwaukee Public Schools as a school psychologist and researcher, supporting district-wide efforts in trauma sensitive school practices, equity, and improving school culture and climate.  As a result of her efforts to establish trauma sensitive practices across the district, Amy was awarded School Psychologist of the Year in the state of Wisconsin in 2015.  Amy also currently consults with schools and community non-profit organizations across the city of Milwaukee on equitable systems change and program evaluation focused on improving the lives and educational trajectories of children in the city.

Number of Children at Highland: Two

Year Joined Highland Family: 2019

Year Board Term Began: August 2022

Brenda has two children at Highland, Lola and Lenny. Since joining Highland, Brenda has watched Lola blossom into a kind, curious and confident person, and she knows that Highland has helped shape those qualities. Brenda can’t wait to be more involved in the Highland Community. Brenda lives in Washington Heights, and she is in love with her neighborhood. She will never move! She volunteers on the Washington Park Wednesdays committee because live music in the park is one of her favorite events of the year. Brenda has worked for the Marcus Corporation in the hotel business for 15 years. She is currently the Director of Food and Beverage at the Pfister Hotel, and she absolutely loves her job and enjoys going to work every day and taking care of people. Brenda enjoys being a member of Professional Dimensions, a women’s professional association in Milwaukee, where she has the privilege of being surrounded by amazing mentors.

Number of Children at Highland: One

Year Joined Highland Family: 2018

Year Board Term Began: August 2022

derria byrd is a parent, partner, and college professor. She grew up in Buffalo, NY, where most of her family still resides. Part of derria’s fondness for Milwaukee is the echoes of Buffalo she sees in the city’s landscape, history, and social interactions. After living in Boston and Oakland, graduate school drought derria to Wisconsin– first to Madison and now Milwaukee. While in Madison, derria earned a master’s degree in Public Affairs and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies, which led her to a faculty position in Marquette University’s Department of Educational Policy and Leadership. In her free time, derria enjoys yoga, reading, eating!, hanging at the beach and in Milwaukee’s many green spaces, and just sitting down somewhere. derria’s partner is a writer, educator, and urban arborist.

Number of Children at Highland: Two

Year Joined Highland Family: 2016

Year Board Term Began: August 2022

Kia Green has always had a fascination with words and language. Daily she combines her love of writing and speech as an Internal Communication Program Manager for R1 RCM, where she specializes in strategic communications, executive leader messaging, employer brand, and associate stories. A Milwaukee native, Kia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University. Passionate and committed to finding and sharing life’s stories, Kia is an active member in her church and community. She enjoys reading, writing, shopping and spending time with family and friends. Kia and her husband are the proud parents of three children, two of whom attend Highland.

Number of Children at Highland: Two

Year Joined Highland Family: 2020

Year Board Term Began: August 2022

Professional Background: Latisha is the Lead Business Program Manager at Northwestern Mutual’s Foundation Department, with an emphasis on place-based initiatives in three underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods. Formerly a nonprofit executive, Latisha holds a B.S. in Community Education & Engagement from UWM and an M.S. in Organizational Change Leadership from UWPlatt.  She has leveraged her education and decades of community experience to enhance operations and programming within youth-serving nonprofits in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, MD. Outside of work, Latisha serves as a nonprofit consultant and life coach. Her most rewarding role is being the mom of her HCS daughters!

Number of Children at Highland: 1

Year Joined Highland Family: 2017

Year Board Term Began: August 2024

Rashonda is the Coordinator of Prevention Advocacy at The Parenting Network, in Milwaukee. She and her team provide parent education and support to families across the state. Rashonda holds both a B.A. in Human Development and Family Studies, and a Master of Public Health, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Rashonda is a proud Highland parent of a fifth grader.  She loves being an active member of the Highland community, from chaperoning field trips to staffing resource tables at Highland events.  Rashonda’s goals for the board include: ensuring that both students and their parents feel supported along their Highland journey, as well as continuing to ensure that all students feel supported within the Highland community.

Number of Children at Highland: One

Year Joined Highland Family: 2020

Year Board Term Began: August 2023

Dr. Kantara Souffrant is an artist-scholar, museum educator, curator, and proud parent of a K5 at Highland. With a strong background in global perspectives and cultural arts, she is committed to global Blackness and pedagogy for liberation. Serving as the Curator of Community Dialogue at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Dr. Souffrant is passionate about community engagement and dialogue. Her strengths include building connections, mobilizing, and tackling challenges that lead to positive transformation. Her goals for the school involve enhancing anti-racist curriculum, assessing high school readiness, reconnecting parents, understanding community aspirations, and using the arts to foster cultural competency and global understanding.

Number of Children at Highland: Two

Year Joined Highland Family: 2016

Year Board Term Began: August 2024

Tim Vargo was born in Milwaukee and attended MPS for all of his K-12 education. He holds a B.S and M.S. in biology focused on tropical bird communities. For 22 years he has directed urban wildlife research at the Urban Ecology Center and has been particularly focused on the organization’s Equity, Diversity and Justice committee and the democratization of science. He was a founding member of the international Citizen Science Association and served as President of the Board for the Friends of Cedarburg Bog where he oversaw a strategic planning initiative. He enjoys spending time outside and traveling with his family through camping, hiking, biking – and roller skating. He was a skating referee with the Brew City Bruisers under the alter ego Citizen Defiance. 

Tim has two children at Highland who will be entering grades 4 and 6 this fall. He absolutely loves the family-centered and parent-involved community at Highland and holds sacred the daily pick-up and drop-off to check in with the teachers, other parents and students. He is invested in the growth and support of his children and their classmates and looks forward to taking that energy to support Highland through the Parent Board. He brings experience helping communities strengthen and become more sustainable and most looks forward to listening to and helping our amazing community of teachers, staff and students receive the resources needed to thrive