National Board of Directors

Marlene Canter

Marlene Canter - Board Chair

Former LAUSD Board President

Marlene Canter has spent the majority of her career in education: first as a special education  teacher, then co-founding and helping to run a teacher training company (Canter and Associates, now Laureate Education, Inc.) for 25 years, and, finally, serving eight years on the LAUSD School Board as a policy maker.  She retired in 2009. She is currently the Board Chair for Green Dot Public Schools National and serves on the Board at City Year Los Angeles. Marlene divides her time between her chaplaincy studies, her leadership roles in education reform, and being with family and friends. Ms. Canter is now in school at the Academy for Jewish Religion where she is pursuing an MA in Jewish Studies and a Chaplaincy degree. She was motivated to take this path as a result of watching the challenges that people faced in their day to day life and was interested in becoming more skillful at helping people to find meaning in their lives. Ms. Canter has two married children and two beautiful granddaughters.  She resides in Los Angeles.

Paul Miller

Paul Miller

Senior Consultant/Practice Manager

Paul Miller is a Senior Consultant/Practice Manager. Previously he was a Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to that he was a Program and Policy Development Specialist in the Human Resources Department of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Paul Miller joined LAUSD after serving as Chair of the transition team for Superintendent John Deasy. Prior to joining LAUSD Paul Miller served Teach For America as Executive Director of the Los Angeles region from 2009-2011. Paul Miller came to Teach For America after spending the previous two years leading economic development efforts in Camden, New Jersey, first as President of the Cooper Grant Neighborhood Association, and subsequently, as President of the Board of Directors and Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Camden Empowerment Zone Corporation. Paul has worked and studied in the UK, earning an M.S. at the London School of Economics and pursuing a Ph.D. in International Studies at Cambridge University. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California where he earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Psychology.

Tim Wahl

Timothy Wahl 

Faculty Member, Cal State Northridge

Timothy Wahl has more than 40 years’ experience as an attorney specializing in banking and finance, business law and compliance issues in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Wahl currently serves as a faculty member at California State University at Northridge teaching an advanced course in business law. Prior to this, he was a consultant to a private equity firm and earlier, served Fidelity Capital Market Services as Vice President for Capital Markets compliance. Previously, Mr. Wahl was General Counsel for Citigroup Capital Strategies and earlier served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for First Nationwide Bank and General Counsel for Citigroup’s consumer bank. His background includes the position of senior attorney at several U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, the Justice Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Mr. Wahl also serves on the Board of Directors for Green Dot Public Schools. Mr. Wahl earned a B.A. from Villanova University, an M.B.A. from Rutgers University and a law degree from California Western School of Law.

Ly Cecilia Nguygen

Ly Cecilia Nguyen

Co-founder and CEO of Leigh & Siena

Ly Nguyen is the co-founder and CEO of Leigh & Siena, a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business. Previously, she was a manager at Bain & Company advising senior executives on go-to-market strategy, operations improvement, and merger & acquisition. As an Education Pioneers Graduate fellow, she led and implemented strategic and operational projects for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Additionally, she has worked in strategic planning and development for Green Dot Public Schools. Finally, she serves on the board of Safe Place for Youth, a nonprofit helping homeless youth in Los Angeles, CA. Ly graduated with an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she focused on Social Entrepreneurship.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in French from the University of California, Berkeley.
larry jacobs

Larry Jacobs

West Region Sales Director, Shell Oil Company

Larry Jacobs is the West Region Sales Director for Shell Oil Company, accountable for a $250MM budget. He has more than 20 years of domestic and international experience with Shell Oil across a variety of leadership and business development roles.  Larry attended UCLA and earned a BS in Applied Mathematics. While in college he worked for the Young Black Scholars – an organization dedicated to preparing high school students for college.  He believes this opportunity was invaluable and spurred his passion for educational youth programs. Early in his professional career he also mentored college students through the Black Executive Exchange Program (BEEP) — an organization committed to exposing college students to corporate executives in hopes of gaining career insights and opportunities. Years later a friend invited him to participate in career day at Green Dot. Larry was impressed with the students’ drive and the school’s ambition. He soon after became an ambassador and helped support Green Dot through personal and corporate philanthropy. Larry values diversity in corporate America and believes education to be the greatest equalizer. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, working out and playing the bass guitar.  

Board Meetings

The Green Dot National Board meets bi-monthly. These meetings are free to attend and open to the public.

To access our board meeting agendas and minutes from August 1, 2019 on, please visit our board meeting platform.