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Meet Our Team

 Learn more about the minds behind Mastery Portfolio.

Constance Borro
Chief Executive Officer

Constance Borro is a veteran educator and educational support services provider. She earned a B.A. from Yale University in 2008 and her Masters in the Science of Education in Secondary Mathematics from City University of New York, Lehman College in 2010. Constance began her full-time teaching career in New York City as a Teach for America Corps Member and then served for five years as a Master Teaching Fellow with the prestigious professional organization Math for America. She most recently served as Mathematics Department Chair and Instructional Coach at Columbus School for Girls, her alma mater, before leaving her school-based work to build out her educational services businesses. Constance founded Ivy Tutor Connection, LLC., in 2015, a successful tutoring and educational support services company that specializes in serving students with unique academic profiles through a holistic whole-child approach. In this role, she consults with school-based interventionists to help craft IEP goals and articulate accommodations and modifications to support the students her tutors work within Columbus, OH but also as far as Princeton, NJ.  She currently works as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mastery Portfolio, LLC, Mastery Portfolio, and EdTech and Educational Consulting company on a mission to inspire creativity and innovation by reimagining the assessment and feedback loop. Constance has presented on innovations in grading and assessment and other workshops at the National Coalition for Girls Schools, The Summit for Transformational Learning, and Math for America. Constance can be reached at constance@masteryportfolio.com.

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Starr Sackstein
Chief Operating Officer

Starr has been an educator for 20 years and in that, she has made reforming assessment practices locally, nationally, and globally a priority. She is the author of many educational books centered around putting students in charge of their own learning. Passionately she evangelizes about the need to give up grades so we can stop labeling students and treat them with the dignity they deserve. Starr most recently has been a full-time educational consultant, instructional coach, speaker and publisher at Mimi & Todd Press. Before this, she was a proud High School English and Journalism teacher, a K-12 Director of Humanities, and blogger for Education Week Teacher. Starr has received numerous recognitions, from “outstanding educator of the year” by Education Update to ASCD “Emerging Leader” of 2016. Additionally, Starr achieved National Board Certification and presented a Tedx Talk about Giving Up Grades as well as serving as the New York State Director for the Journalism Education Association (JEA). She is a bold voice and nationally renowned for her work in assessment and her advocacy for teachers and students. Starr has traveled the United States and the world sharing ideas about assessment reform in Canada,  Dubai, and South Korea and is hoping to continue changing the system for kids everywhere. Starr can be reached at starr@masteryportfolio.com.

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Benjamin Nockles
Technical Founder

Benjamin Nockles is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer at Mastery Portfolio, LLC. After graduating from NYU in 2008, Benjamin began teaching mathematics and computer science as a Newton Fellow with Math for America. Benjamin renewed his fellowship twice as a Master Teacher, facilitating several professional development workshops for teachers and spearheading the adoption of MfA’s electronic attendance by developing the prototype app. While teaching, he developed several applications for teachers and published three of them on the Apple App Store under his own business, Solutions for X. Whenever Benjamin is not working on Mastery Portfolio, he is sharing his stories and entrepreneurial advice through his YouTube channel, NeverBenBetter. Benjamin is married and has two children. As a military family, (his wife, Ilona, is a Navy dentist) Ben moves all over the world and currently lives in Washington, DC. Benjamin can be reached at ben@masteryportfolio.com.

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Emma Chiappetta
Mastery Coach & Implementation Specialist

Emma has held a wide variety of titles as an educator, including: teacher, department head,  Curriculum Coordinator, DEI coordinator, Instructional Coach, Director of Faculty, and Mastery Coach. Across these roles she strives to bring out the best in each of the students and teachers she works with.  She listens carefully and with empathy to their stories, helps them discover their strengths, and brainstorms solutions with them that are compatible with their values. Emma constantly immerses herself in continued learning by reading, collaborating, asking questions, and attending conferences. She regularly shares what she has learned and is a passionate learner and contributor to the growth of the field of education. This is exemplified by her many published blog posts for Edoptia and her recent book, Creating Curious Classrooms. Emma is currently located in central Utah where she spends her time rock climbing and cooking delicious meals with her husband Zeb. Emma can be reached at emma@masterportfolio.com.

Alan Schmidt
UI/UX Designer and Lead Engineer

Alan earned his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado in 2004. His graduate work focused on identifying learning patterns and applying those, alongside techniques from natural language processing and computational linguistics, to solve problem sets from other disciplines. He spent additional professional time focusing on web service platforms and user interface design. As the spouse of a military member, he enjoys exploring other cultures and learning foreign languages. He’s also an avid musician and enjoys teaching others. When he’s at home, you can probably find him cooking up culinary delights for his wonderful wife and daughter. He can be reached at alan@masteryportfolio.com.

Branden Jones
Advisor

Branden is an entrepreneur building diverse and inclusive ecosystems. He Co-founded BLK hack in 2016 to work with Underrepresented founders, freelancers, and upcoming entrepreneurs. He has assisted with launching fundable startups and helped aid in discovering new career paths for those looking to get into the tech industry. Branden has 10+ years of experience in marketing, building strategic partnerships, and working with scalable brands. Branden is a co-founder of Venture Suite, a shared workspace for one of the fastest-growing entrepreneurial segments in the midwest, women, and racially/ethnically diverse people. At VS, diverse creatives and founders will have a safe space to be innovative and collaborate with other like-minded freelancers. Branden knows that diversity breeds innovation and has made it his mission to keep those pipelines flowing. As a recent recipient of the Venture Ohio venture catalyst award he is helping to transform underserved communities by launching entrepreneurial pilots and resources.

Max Moyer
Legal Counsel

Max Moyer has spent over a decade practicing corporate law at top law firms, within a startup company and on his own, helping high growth companies, their founders, and stakeholders navigate every important stage of growth from inception to exit.   Max focuses on venture capital and private financing, startup and high growth company representation, investor counsel, mergers and acquisitions, and day to day general corporate and contract work.  With experience serving as COO in a startup company, he has a key business perspective that helps him "quarterback" client teams making important legal decisions.

Max was a member of the executive team at Windpact, Inc., and previously practiced law at Cooley LLP and Holland & Knight LLP.  Max earned his JD from Vanderbilt University Law School as well as a Law and Business certificate from the Owen School of Management.  Max  (Homer) Moyer is a member of the Virginia State Bar.

Katie Mead
School Liaison and Technical Support

Katie Mead has worked in education across a variety of disciplines and specialties, including private tutoring, lead instructor in an inclusive, high-needs classroom, and leading classroom education in a student-led STEM program over the course of 13 years.  Through the course of her career as an educator, she became passionate about the concept of Whole Child Education, and worked to ensure her students basic needs were being met and create a safe environment for learning.  Since leaving the classroom, Katie has supported this goal further by encouraging other educators in the use of mastery-based instruction with Mastery Portfolio.  She lives with her husband and three beautiful children in East-Central Indiana, where she enjoys baking and operating a small business out of her home.

Crystal Frommert
Mastery Coach and School Liaison

Crystal Frommert, M.Ed, has over 20 years’ experience as an educator in middle and high school. Crystal has taught math, computer science, and social justice in public, parochial, and international schools. Beyond teaching, she has served as an instructional coach, school board member, adjunct college instructor, technology coordinator, and assistant head of middle school. Crystal is the author of the book, "When Calling Parents Isn’t Your Calling: A teacher’s guide to communicating with parents".