On Your Mark

Careers

Meet The Team

Ashley Chin Morefield

Managing Director of Strategy and Operations

Gabriel Sanchez Ramiro

Manager of Recruitment

Jamie Thomas

Senior Director of Program

Aaron Schlessman

Director of School Partnerships & Operations

Mindy Sjoblom

Founder and CEO

Shauntia Schweigart

Senior Director of Talent

Iren Raye

Director of School Partnerships & Operations

Christina Chester

Director of Coaching

Karina Lepeley

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Darla Davert

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Dawn Craan

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Melita Burton

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Ashley Chin Morefield

Managing Director of Strategy and Operations

Ashley comes to OnYourMark with over a decade of experience in education – a mix of finance, operations, and teaching. Most recently, Ashley served as the Director of Financial Planning & Analysis for Relay Graduate School of Education. In this role, Ashley executed all aspects of the institution-wide annual budgeting and forecasting process and supported budget managers and senior leaders to make strategic decisions.

Before joining Relay’s Finance team, Ashley was the Senior Director of Operations for Relay’s Chicago Campus, where she partnered with the campus dean to set a long-term strategy for growth and financial sustainability. During Ashley’s time as the Senior Director of Operations, the Chicago campus enrollment grew from 65 to 300 students and Relay Chicago became the second largest Relay region across the country.

Prior to her work at Relay, Ashley managed program operations for the Chicago Teaching Fellows, a teacher licensure program through TNTP. Additionally, as an alumna of Teach For America, she taught high school math both in Houston (HISD) and Chicago (Noble Network of Charter Schools). Ashley holds a BA in Mathematics from DePauw University.

Gabriel Sanchez Ramiro

Manager of Recruitment

Gabriel Sanchez Ramiro currently serves as the Manager of Recruitment for OnYourMark.
He is responsible for bringing in all the necessary talent our students need to succeed, providing engagement and communication during the process.
 
Before joining OnYourMark, Gabriel served in Teacher Recruitment for the second largest District in Texas, ensuring that more than 140,000 students had access to the best talent, especially those that needed it the most, the ACE campuses.
 
Gabriel began his career as a coach and a teacher back in 1993 in Spain, from where he is natural. Relocated to DFW seven years ago, he has made North Texas home.
 
Gabriel obtained his bachelor’s degree in Education from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). 

Jamie Thomas

Senior Director of Program

Jamie is the Founding Senior Director of Program with OnYourMark. She leads the program team by training and supporting Early Literacy Fellows and Coaches in addition to helping to launch and support OnYourMark’s tutoring programs in partner schools with K-2 students and staff. 
 
Jamie is drawn to entrepreneurial work in education. Her passion is ensuring that all students have access to the foundational skills that are based on the science of reading and necessary to be proficient readers. 
 
Jamie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Development: Language and Literacy. She has been a classroom teacher, founder and Director of an Early Childhood program that supports a school network and surrounding community, helped launch a second Early Childhood program focused on early language development, and coached classroom teachers in early literacy based on the science of reading.

Aaron Schlessman

Director of Partnerships & Operations

Aaron joins OnYourMark with nearly 20 years of training and education experience – initially at a global capacity with the United States Navy followed by a decade of public education in Chicago (Noble Network of Charter Schools). 

As a classroom teacher, department chair, and assistant principal, Aaron served across all four high school grade levels (9-12), his primary instructional focus aimed at developing and teaching ELA-oriented curriculum. Within this work, his efforts were always heavily informed by social justice underpinnings and the belief that equitable education lives in achieving the best possible outcomes for every single student. 

Aaron has his Bachelor’s Degree in Justice Studies and Sociology and Master’s Degree in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership (EPOL). He is currently an EPOL Doctoral Candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focus revolves around diversity and equity in education.

Mindy Sjoblom

Founder and CEO

Mindy started OnYourMark with a passion for early literacy and deep experience building systems to cultivate and develop educators. Mindy loves bringing new ideas to life that are centered in increasing outcomes for students and educators alike. While preparing to launch OnYourMark, Mindy served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Charter School Growth Fund where she started her early literacy journey at the nexus of a growing demand for high dosage tutoring to address pandemic learning recovery and increased need to support schools with foundational skills reading instruction across the country. 
 
Prior to this newest adventure, Mindy served as Founding Dean of Relay Chicago, where she oversaw all aspects of campus growth/strategy, financial health, partnership development, political advocacy, and teacher preparation programming. Under her leadership, Relay Chicago became the second largest and most diverse provider of teachers in IL. Before joining Relay, Sjoblom served as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, then as principal, at Rauner College Prep, one of the Noble Schools. While she was principal, Sjoblom’s students earned the highest average ACT scores in the school’s history. Before that, she served as founding humanities teacher at the Crossroads School in Baltimore. Sjoblom, an alumna of Teach For America, earned an M.A.T. from Johns Hopkins University, School Administrative credentials from National Louis University and a B.A. in political science from Butler University.

Shauntia Schweigart

Senior Director of Talent

Shauntia Schweigart currently serves as the Senior Director of Talent for OnYourMark.
She is responsible building and scaling OnYourMark’s talent work; with a particular focus on developing systems for recruiting hundreds of tutors annually.
 
Before joining OnYourMark, Shauntia worked for the largest public charter school in the Dallas/Fort Worth region. As the Director of Talent Pipelines and Partnerships, she co-led the districts talent efforts along with building and sustaining talent partnerships in effort to grow teacher pipelines. 
 
Shauntia began her career in education 8 years ago as an advisor for a K-8  innovation school before relocating to Dallas, Texas, where she currently resides. Shauntia obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Central Missouri and M.Sc  from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Iren Raye

Directors of School Partnerships and Operations
Iren Raye is one of OnYourMark’s Directors of School Partnerships and Operations. They oversee the relationship and logistical support for a portfolio of schools who utilize OnYourMark tutoring in their classrooms. 
 
Raye has a wide variety of experience in the world of education and non-profit operations, including two camps, five universities, a test prep company, several churches, a gap year volunteer program, and a library. Originally from California, Raye worked with a few of OnYourMark’s staff at Relay Graduate School of Education while living in Chicago for seven years. They currently live in Denver and spend their free time playing roller derby and exploring the mountains.

Christina Chester

Director of Coaching

Christina currently serves as Director of Coaching for OnYourMark Education. She is responsible for the planning and implementation of the OnYourMark tutor coaching framework within the program team.  She is the primary lead of all coaching and PDs to increase student achievement by improving the efficacy of coaches and tutor development around the science of reading and effective teaching strategies. Christina is driven by making sure that coaches and tutors are supported, knowledgeable, and utilize effective practices to ensure that every day and minute of student learning is maximized. 

Before joining OnYourMark, Christina was an Assistant Professor of Practice for Relay Graduate School (Chicago Campus), where she coached, supported, and taught multiple cohorts of 1st and 2nd-year teachers across the Chicagoland area for the past 4 years.  

Christina began her career in education in Chicago in many different capacities such as an Early Childhood teacher, mentor teacher for preservice as well as 1st-year teachers, teacher coach, and leadership roles in Chicago Public Schools for many years. Christina obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Governor’s State University, teaching certification in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois-Chicago, ESL endorsement from Roosevelt University, and Masters of Education in Urban Education from National Louis University-Chicago.

Karina Lepeley

Early Literacy Tutor Coach
Karina Lepeley is an Early Literacy Coach with On Your Mark. Using coaching practices, she supports and assists tutors in preparing and delivering instruction to students. In addition, she collaborates with other teams to further the growth of On Your Mark. Karina has eight years of experience coaching educators and parents on early literacy instructional practices in both English and Spanish throughout Chicago, Las Vegas, and Wisconsin. Her coaching style is heavily influenced by her training in holistic wellness as a yoga teacher, Alexander Technique instructor, and her Bachelor of Science degree in Holistic Health.
 
While completing her undergraduate degree, Karina worked as an exercise physiology research assistant. She co-authored the study, Airway Function during Exercise in Asthmatics is Homogeneous Despite Heterogeneous Airway Function Prior to Exercise. Karina also completed her own research to study the effects of the Alexander Technique on exercise function thanks to a research grant from the Vermont Genetics Network.
 
Karina believes anyone can learn anything with the right tools and the right knowledge of self, no matter their age.

Darla Davert

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Darla is an Early Literacy Tutor Coach with OnYourMark.  Using coaching practices, she supports and assists tutors in the preparation and delivery of instruction to students

Before joining OnYourMark, Darla taught second through fifth grades for 30-plus years.   Darla received her Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Elementary Education, and minors in English/Language Arts and Mathematics from Oakland University.  She received her Masters in the Art of Teaching Degree in Reading/Language Arts from Oakland University.  

Darla began her teaching career in Birmingham, Michigan teaching Special Education.  Two years later, Darla continued her teaching career in the Brandon School District in Ortonville, Michigan for the next thirty years!  During her tenure, she coached and supervised several student teachers and was a mentor for new teachers.  Last year, Darla joined OnYourMark as a tutor helping students acquire foundational reading skills to become lifelong learners and readers.

Dawn Craan

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Dawn is an Early Literacy Coach with OnYourMark. Using coaching practices, she supports and assists tutors in the preparation and delivery of instruction to students. In addition, she collaborates with other teams to further the growth of OnYourMark. 

Before joining OnYourMark, Dawn worked with Reading In Motion, a nonprofit literacy organization, as an Extra Dosage Instructor. She primarily worked with 1st grade students in small groups using a science of reading based curriculum. She also worked for Kids Like Us, a nonprofit literacy organization, that worked with administrators, teachers, librarians, and volunteers to get high quality, culturally relevant texts into the hands of students. 

Dawn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Science in Child Development.

Melita Burton

Early Literacy Tutor Coach

Melita is an Early Literacy Tutor Coach with On Your Mark.  Using coaching practices, she supports and assists tutors in the preparation and delivery of instruction to students.   In addition, she collaborates with other teams to further the growth of On Your Mark.

Melita has always been an advocate for the importance of early childhood education.  In fact, she founded and directed a Pre-k program in her community that helped serve over 200 students in its years of existence.

Prior to her time working with preschool, she also served as a former special education teacher and as a residential treatment counselor for special needs children.  Melita holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Teaching with an emphasis in special education.