Senior Network Leadership

Tresha Ward is the Chief Executive Officer of Prospect Schools.

Tresha comes to Prospect Schools with nearly two decades of experience in education and a career underscored by an unwavering commitment to educational equity. A native of the Bronx, Tresha began her career as a Teach For America corps member in the Houston Independent School District. In 2010, she opened KIPP Legacy Preparatory School — an elementary school with an International Baccalaureate focus — and grew the school to serve 900 children. Tresha then served as the School Leader Development Director for the KIPP Foundation. In this role, she provided support to more than 200 of KIPP’s school leaders across the country, through the creation of leadership development programming, as an instructor for instructional leadership, and direct coaching. 

After her time with the KIPP Foundation, Tresha returned to schools as Managing Director of Schools for KIPP NYC, where she focused on principal management and school turnaround. Most recently, Tresha served as Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, where she led the academic and program strategy team. In this role, Tresha’s work centered around building the capacity of school and executive-level network leaders through advising and executive coaching. She has a particular passion for supporting leaders of color to sustain in their roles.

Education:
Vanderbilt University, B.A.
Stanford University, M.A. in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership

Hillary Prince is the Chief Financial Officer of Prospect Schools.

Joining the Brooklyn Prospect team in 2009, Hillary has been honored to serve as a member of the founding team of the original middle school, as well as the Prospect Schools charter management organization. Leading both finance and operations for many years, she developed scalable systems and established the school’s strong early operational reputation, built a foundation of strong fiscal health for the organization, and has led several building projects and new school launches. Since taking on the role of Chief Financial Officer in 2018, Hillary has narrowed her focus to finance and is now responsible for managing a budget which, under her stewardship, has grown from $2 million to greater than $35 million. Additional core responsibilities include business operations, real estate, and capital projects, and long-term strategic planning.

Prior to building a career in K-12 education, Ms. Prince developed leadership skills and gained operational experience through her work in event management with Madison Square Garden. Deciding to follow a long-held interest in education – and in particular, in school integration, herself attending an urban magnet high school – Hillary completed a yearlong graduate internship at a globally-focused International Baccalaureate magnet school in CT before moving to Brooklyn in 2006. She went on to hone and apply her operational skills to the educational space, holding several roles with The Princeton Review, including Regional Director of Operations, where responsibilities included leading the implementation and national expansion of federally funded afterschool programming.

Ms. Prince earned a B.A. in English-Literature from Skidmore College, and an M.S. in Language Arts Education from the University of New Haven, and is currently enrolled in a nonprofit leadership certificate program at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Hillary left NYC in 2016 to build a home in the Hudson Valley with her husband and two young children.

Education:
Skidmore College, B.A.
University of New Haven, M.S.

Yoni Samuel-Siegel is the Chief Operating Officer of Prospect Schools.

Yoni Samuel-Siegel has two decades of diverse experience in the field of education as a classroom teacher, non-profit leader, and charter school operational leader. Yoni began his career spending 10 years in the classroom as a Middle School Language Arts Teacher. During that time he took every opportunity to become more involved in his school community, including coaching basketball and track and founding a student peer leadership organization, and leading professional development sessions for fellow teachers in the region.

After leaving the classroom, Yoni transitioned to working in the education non-profit sector spending 5 years as Campus Director and Managing Director of Program with Citizen Schools in Houston, Texas. During his time as Managing Director, Citizen Schools launched two new sites of expanded learning-time programs at Houston ISD middle schools, bringing hundreds of volunteer professionals into classrooms to share their experience and helping to narrow the opportunity gap for nearly double the students in the city.  

Yoni then transitioned to leading charter school operations as the founding Associate Chief Operating Officer at Camden Prep, Uncommon Schools’ newest region, where he led all school and regional operations. During his time as ACOO, Camden Prep doubled its number of enrolled students and launched two new schools while opening a new building and substantially renovating another to ensure students in the City of Camden had the beautiful school facilities they deserve.  Most recently, Yoni served as Chief Operating Officer for BRICK Education Network, a Newark, NJ based charter management organization.

Yoni holds a BS from Rutgers University in Administration of Justice and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from William Paterson University.

When he’s not working or spending time with his family, Yoni enjoys cooking, playing games, and crossfit. 

Lisa is the Chief People Officer at Prospect Schools.

Lisa brings a decade of leadership experience in education to our team. Before joining Prospect Schools, she served as the Managing Director of Operations at Harlem Village Academies, a progressive PreK-12 charter network. In this role, Lisa led the management and development of the network operations team, student enrollment team, and the Directors of Operations at all six school campuses, serving over 1,600 students. 

Prior to HVA, Lisa served as a Director of Operations Manager with Uncommon Schools, where she trained the Directors of Operations and Operations Fellows at three Uncommon middle schools to ensure operational excellence. She began her journey in education when she joined Teach For America in New York City and was placed in a traditional public school in the Bronx as a sixth grade ELA and history teacher. She also taught middle school at Achievement First and was an Assistant Principal at Success Academy.

Lisa received a B.A. from Cornell College with a triple major in politics, international relations, and women’s studies. She went on to complete her Master of Arts in Teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education.

During her free time, Lisa is an avid traveler, foodie, and recently ran her first New York City marathon!