Brooklyn
Batey

Chief of Staff, Kode with Klossy

"Mr. Pritchard was the first and only teacher I had that looked like me. Every day I walked into his classroom greeted by a poster of Malcolm X and he always reminded me I belonged in a space that didn't always represent me. He held us to high standards and built relationships that lasted through adulthood until he passed away far too soon. I will forever be grateful for the impact he had on me."

Brooklyn is the Chief of Staff at Kode with Klossy, a nonprofit introducing young women and non-binary students to STEM. Prior to that she served as the Senior Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Honored. She also spent time in the education policy sector consulting with multiple K-12 and higher education clients. She spearheaded her passion for elevating education equity as an 8th grade ELA teacher in Denver, CO. Brooklyn received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Denver and went on to receive a Master's in Teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education and a Master's in Education Policy at Georgetown University. She now resides in Washington, DC and enjoys coaching lacrosse, watching live sports and exploring the city.

Katherine
Boone

Co-founder, Honored

"My high school English teacher, Mark Crotty, pushed me not just to write, but to think of myself as a writer. That identity has been fundamental to whom I am and to all the choices I’ve made about my education and work since. It is impossible for me to repay Mr. Crotty for all he did for me, but Honored is my best attempt."

Katherine is Co-founder of Honored.  She is the Vice Chair of the board at the Boone Family Foundation, a Texas-based organization dedicated to improving children’s quality of life through education, to advancing equity for women and girls, and to promoting environmental stewardship.  She also serves on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, where she chairs the Education Programs Committee. Katherine has previously served on the boards of DC Prep, a Washington, DC-based public charter school, and Teach for America DC, Reading Partners DC, and the Greenhill School Alumni Association.  Katherine graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Princeton University and received a master’s degree with honors in American History from the University of Texas.  She and her husband, Joshua Geltzer, live in Washington, DC with their three children.

Kareem
Farah

Co-founder and CEO, Modern Classrooms Project

"Mr. Seechin was one of my math teachers in high school and had a unique ability to both invest time and energy in my academic goals and support me as an individual. Mr. Seechin was able to think broadly about my needs as a student and personalize his support to ensure that I had the skills to realize my full potential. He had a profound impact on my life at that time and for years to come."

Kareem Farah spent his teaching career as a high school math educator in Hawaii and Washington, DC. He earned his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and later received a master’s degree in secondary education at Johns Hopkins University. Instead of using a traditional lecture model, Kareem taught mathematics through a blended model where students accessed content through his self-made videos. The cornerstone of his classroom was the ability for students to work through the content at their own pace and Kareem’s ability to employ mastery-based grading to evaluate student learning. In 2018, Kareem received the DC Public Schools Award for Classroom Innovation and was featured in Edutopia and CBS News for his work. In an effort to scale his classroom model, Kareem co-founded a nonprofit, Modern Classrooms Project. As the CEO of the Modern Classrooms Project, Kareem and his team train and support teachers who seek to redesign their classrooms around blended, self-paced, mastery-based learning to better meet all students’ unique needs. Kareem tweets regularly about education at @KareemFarah23.

Alka
Pateriya

Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Council of the Great City Schools

"I'll always be grateful to Mr. Morris, one of my high school social studies teachers. He inspired and challenged us every day in class, and graciously put up with a group of snarky teenagers (sadly, myself included) who thought we knew it all. He was the reason I decided to become a secondary social studies teacher. I look back on my years as a secondary teacher and administrator and hope that I had even a bit of the impact on my students that Mr. Morris had on me."

Alka is a professional in the K-12 education sector, currently Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the Council of the Great City Schools. She has been a middle school teacher, Dean of Students at a public boarding school in DC, researcher and project director, and company leader. She's lived in Washington, DC, for over 25 years. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.Ed. from George Washington University.

Sherrese
Smith

Managing Partner, Paul Hastings

Sherrese Smith currently serves as Managing Partner of Paul Hastings. In addition, she is the Vice-Chair of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice and a partner in the Media, Technology, and Telecommunications practice. Ms. Smith is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. As Managing Partner, Ms. Smith helps direct the growth, management, and strategy of the firm. In her practice areas, she is known as one of the preeminent Data Privacy and Cybersecurity and Media and Technology attorneys in the country. Consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA and Legal 500, she is consistently recognized throughout the legal, media, communications, and technology industries for her leadership, business acumen, and dedication to clients. Her work includes data privacy and cybersecurity and breach response issues, crisis response, regulatory investigations, and enforcement proceedings as well as counseling on global privacy and cybersecurity matters. Ms. Smith is also renowned for superior advisement on crisis issues, and as a result is regularly sought after by corporate board members and the C-Suite. Before joining Paul Hastings, Ms. Smith served as Chief Counsel to Chairman Julius Genachowski at the Federal Communications Commission. She was responsible for determining the agency's business and policy agenda on a multitude of media and technology matters and for leading the FCC's cross-agency efforts to refine and implement new rules on data privacy and cybersecurity for multinational companies navigating complex data and privacy rules in the U.S., EU, and Asia. Ms. Smith’s work also involved extensive interaction with external stakeholders, including wireless, media, cable, and telecommunications companies; industry groups and trade associations; federal and state agencies; and Congress.

Karen
Sonneborn

Co-founder, Honored

"I was inspired to start Honored by my late father, a university professor, who was deeply influential in so many of his students’ lives. It meant the world to him when former students reached out to share how much he meant to them. I know he would have loved reading the stories of our Honorees."

Karen is Co-founder of Honored and served as its CEO until 2023.  Previously, she worked at Warner Bros. in business development and at Goldman Sachs in investment banking.  She is a Trustee of The Potomac School, an independent K-12 school outside of Washington, D.C., and she serves on the President's Advisory Council and the Bridge Year Program Committee at Princeton University.  She has served on the boards of San Francisco Ballet, East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring, Ambassadors for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, the Los Angeles Zoo, and KCET, Southern California’s largest public television station.  While with KCET, she co-founded the award-winning KCET Council for Children and Families.  Karen graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in economics and received an M.B.A. with honors from UCLA.