Who We Are

ALISON NAKASHIMA, BUSINESS ANALYST. Before joining School Wise Press in 2005, Ms. Nakashima worked with Educational Testing Service as a consultant to district staff on the California STAR testing program. Her additional work experience includes running a tutoring program for AmeriCorps and working in academic publishing. In her spare time, she is a board member and volunteer with a nonprofit mentoring program that pairs Asian American high school students with adult mentors. Ms. Nakashima has a BA in Mathematics from Oberlin University.

CASEY REINHARDT, CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR. Before joining School Wise Press, Ms. Reinhardt was a Teach for America teacher working in a small charter school in Colorado Springs. During her two years of teaching, she designed standards-aligned curriculum for her second grade and kindergarten classes. Ms. Reinhardt graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in political science. In 2009 she lived in Dakar, Senegal, where she studied public health and development. While in Senegal, she attempted surfing, learned to communicate in Wolof and ate incredible food with her hands. Ms. Reinhardt loves the outdoors and is looking forward to an incredible ski season!

CATHY RATH, CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR. In addition to providing client support for School Wise Press, Cathy Rath teaches two undergraduate courses in women’s health at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She earned her master’s degree in education at SFSU in 2006 and was thrilled to be invited back as an adjunct faculty member. Ms. Rath also works with local law enforcement agencies facilitating violence prevention workshops for teen girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her empowering curriculum promotes healthy decision making and personal safety skills. She has served as a community advocate in an alcohol and drug prevention program and as a certified tobacco cessation educator for the American Lung Association, and she has taught quit workshops for three East Bay public health departments. Ms. Rath is also is a diehard San Francisco Giants fan, set backs and all.

GARY JONES, IT OPERATIONS MANAGER. Gary Jones began his career designing and installing production control systems in the oil fields and coal mines of Wyoming for companies such as Amoco, Amax, Union 76, Sun Oil, and ARCO. After moving to California in 1984, his entire career has been in the information technology industry, primarily in network and systems management, and software and database development. Before joining School Wise Press, Mr. Jones held management and engineering positions with Bank of America, ProBusiness, and ADP.

GREG SMITH, TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIC PARTNER. Greg Smith is a technology advisor, database developer, programmer, and systems analyst. He has worked in computer journalism and small business systems consulting for 15 years. He has contributed to a variety of publications, including InfoWorld and PC World, where he directed their testing and usability labs.

JEFF ANGUS, OPERATIONS STRATEGIC PARTNER. Jeff Angus has been a management coach and public lecturer. His book, "Management by Baseball," was published in 2006 by Harper Collins, and is evidence of his expertise in both disciplines. He is also a statistician and member of the Society for the Advancement of Baseball Research. Mr. Angus has popularized baseball statistics for the Seattle Times, and also covered baseball in Seattle as a reporter for the Associated Press. His experience as a reporter and columnist in the computer journalism world prepares him well to contribute to our publishing team here at School Wise Press.

ROBERT ROSS, PRODUCTION MANAGER. Mr. Ross runs the publishing system that produces your reports. His prior experience includes sales and customer service in two high-tech companies, where his expertise was helping people use and understand new technologies. In addition to making sure the day-to-day production operations are running smoothly, Mr. Ross also advises clients on improving their method of linking to accountability reports from their districts’ websites. Mr. Ross is a graduate of the San Francisco Unified School District.

STEVE REES, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER. In starting School Wise Press, he brought to education leaders a level of professional data, analytics and reporting skill previously available only to those in the financial and scientific fields. He has been a frequent presenter at CSBA’s annual conference, and is author of two newsletters on accountability policies and practices. Mr. Rees currently sits on the advisory board of the Institute for Evidence Based Change, which encourages education leaders in both K-12 and higher education systems to use data to boost student achievement. Before launching the company, Mr. Rees worked in magazine management for more than 15 years.