Staff

David Pickens, Executive Director

David Pickens is a former military officer who started his career in education via an alternative certification program.  After spending nine years as an award winning middle school teacher at Price School in Chicago Public Schools, he became an assistant principal at Arai Middle School.  

Shortly after Arne Duncan was appointed CEO, he tapped David to be his Deputy Chief of Staff.  David remained as Duncan’s Deputy Chief of Staff for two years until Duncan created the position of Deputy to the CEO.  In that position, David became senior advisor and system-wide manager to the CEO and was responsible for a wide array of high profile departments and initiatives.  Departments included System-wide External Communications, Internal Communications, Governmental Affairs, Community Relations, Local School Council Relations, External Partnerships and External Resources.  Initiatives included school closings, consolidations, turnarounds, and relocation, the violence reduction initiative and the creation of the automated Board Report Process for the entire district. A few months after President Obama appointed Arne Duncan United States Secretary of Education, David Pickens was appointed Chief of Staff to the Chicago Board of Education.  In that capacity he was the highest ranking employee in the Chicago Board of Education and one of only two direct reports to the Chicago Board of Trustees, with the other being the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. 

David became the Executive Director of DC School Reform Now in August of 2010.  He attended Michigan State University, University of Illinois in Chicago and holds a Masters Degree in Education and a Principal’s certification from Roosevelt University in Chicago and University of Illinois in Chicago respectively. David has served on a number of boards and won a number of teaching awards.  He was named a Golden Apple Finalist in 1999.  David is married and has two children in elementary school.

Lacey Pittman, Director of Communications

Lacey Pittman is a communications professional and former teacher with a passion for school reform.  She attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Political Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in History.

Upon college graduation, Lacey joined Teach for America and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana where she taught English to high school sophomores. Despite working at a school under corrective action by the State of Louisiana due to poor performance, Lacey led her students to close the gap in achievement between themselves and the highest performing students in the state by 20% on the English portion of Louisiana’s Graduate Exit Exam.

In June of 2010, Lacey moved to Washington D.C. and began working on Bill Ferguson’s campaign for the Maryland State Senate (MD-46). Upon successful completion of the campaign, Lacey began work at Powell Tate | Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations firm. At Powell Tate, Lacey supported many accounts, including media relations, executive visibility, branding, marketing and event coordination for the National Center on Time & Learning, the KnowHow2Go campaign, the National Association of State Boards of Education and the U.S. Army.

Lacey Pittman joined DC School Reform now as the Director of Communications in June 2011.

Krista D'Amelio, Development and Project Manager

Krista D’Amelio is a recent Masters graduate in Social Policy, with a concentration in education policy, from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice; prior to obtaining her Masters, Krista graduated with honors from the University of Connecticut with Bachelors degrees in Political Science and Sociology.

Before joining DC School Reform Now, Krista came to Washington, D.C. in May of 2011 to work as the Family Economics Success Intern at the National League of Cities, Institute for Youth, Education and Family. During her time at NLC, Krista assisted in providing support to the YEF Institute’s efforts to help cities develop programs to financially empower families through the “Bank On Cities” initiative, which helps city efforts to connect low-income families to mainstream financial services, savings campaigns, public benefits, and other financial access and education.

Krista has always possessed a passion for policy and civil service, and was very active in government relations in her home state of Connecticut. While an undergraduate, she completed an internship within the Office of former Lt. Governor of Connecticut, Michael Fedele, and conducted published research for the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association. Moreover, her research tracing the evolution of social policy in Connecticut led her to be granted the John G. Hill Political Science Excellence Award upon graduation in 2010.

In January 2010, Krista joined Michael Fedele’s gubernatorial campaign as the Events Coordinator. This increased her passion for enhancing public engagement on critical social and public reform needs. Krista joined DC School Reform Now in August 2011.