Staff Bios

Alec L. Lee, Jr., Executive Director

An accomplished educator, Alec Lee co-founded Aim High in 1986 and serves as full-time Executive Director. Alec has a Masters in Education from Harvard University, and received a Klingenstein Fellowship from Columbia teachers College. He taught history at Lick-Wilmerding High School, a college preparatory high school in San Francisco, for 17 years. As the Executive Director, Alec works closely with the Aim High staff, principals, teachers, and organizational partners.

Matt Reno, Director of Operations

Matt Reno is an experienced educator and administrator. Matt was a teacher and site director at Aim High for 15 years, prior to joining the full-time staff in 2004. Before joining Aim High, he was the Dean at St. Joseph’s of the Sacred Heart, in Atherton, CA, for nine years. Matt has a Masters degree in Education from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from San Francisco State. As Director of Operations, Matt has primary responsibility for the day-to-day management of the program’s finances, manages the data collection and evaluation efforts of the program, leads the development of the winter phase activities, and provides summer program oversight to site directors.

Laura Foulke, Director of Development

Laura Foulke joined the full-time staff of Aim High in 2005 with more than 15 years of experience in education and nonprofit management. Prior to Aim High, she served as Dean of Student Support Services at a K-8 charter school in Boston, was the Director of Early College Awareness and managed a GEAR UP partnership between Harvard University and a middle school in Boston focused on helping middle school students prepare for and pursue post-secondary education, and was a Program Officer at a small foundation in San Francisco. Laura has a Masters in Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Bowdoin College. As Director of Development, Laura has primary responsibility for fundraising and external relations for Aim High.

Michelle Burns, Director of Student Center / Office Manager

Michelle Burns was a teacher at Aim High for two summers at the campus at Visitacion Valley Middle School.  Michelle worked in San Francisco public middle schools for three years teaching health education and supporting administration, faculty and staff in creating a learning environments that support student growth both academically and socially.  Michelle coordinated a Parent and Community Center and coordinated the after-school tutorial program, recruiting and supporting community volunteers.  She has a BS in Health Science from San Francisco State University, and a teaching credential in Health Education for secondary school.   Michelle joined the Aim High staff in August of 2006 as the organization’s first Director of the Student Center, and as such is responsible for overseeing a range of new services  for Aim High students and graduates.

Sandra Korison Lee, Director of Special Projects

Sandra began her career in education teaching students with learning disabilities in Phoenix, Arizona as a Teach for America corps member.  Before becoming a founding teacher at Aim High Academy in San Francisco, she worked with students in Oakland as a resource specialist.  When she joined Aim High Academy, she taught math and science before she served as the Principal during her final year at the school.  Sandra studied Cultural Anthropology and received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.  While in Arizona for Teach for America, she earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from Arizona State University.  She was selected to be a Behring Fellow at UC Berkeley and earned a Masters in Education upon completing the Principals Leadership Institute (PLI) program.  Sandra joined the Aim High staff in the fall of 2006 as the Director of Special Projects, and her main project is to strengthen Aim High's teaching and learning model. 

Richard Lautze, Director for Headlands Environmental Home Program

Richard Lautze, a veteran teacher at The Urban School in San Francisco, has worked part-time at Aim High for more than 15 years and served as the Director for the Headlands Program since 1997. Richard supervises both the headlands Environmental Home program during the summer and the Winter Phase work performed by Aim High students during the academic year. Richard also works with the Site Stewardship Program of the Golden Gate National Parks Association, and works closely with lead teachers from the four collaborating middle schools that are involved in the program during the academic year.

Dana L. Hernandez, Development & Technology Assistant

Dana L. Hernandez has a Masters degree in Educational Technology from Columbia University Teachers College and an Sc.B. in Educational Psychology from Brown University. She was the Director of Technology at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, California for four years before she moved into private consulting designing data management systems. Dana worked as a computer teacher with Aim High in the summers of 1995 and 1996 before becoming a site director for 6 years. Dana acted as the Interim Executive director of Aim High when Alec Lee took a 6 month sabbatical, and then she became the Associate director for 2 years. Currently Dana works part-time with Aim High as the Development & Technology Assistant and continues to work as an educational technology consultant with schools, nonprofit organizations and small businesses specializing in database design and network planning.