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Founder and PublisherVicki WhitingVicki Whiting taught third grade for nearly ten years with the daily goal of making learning fun. During her years teaching in Sonoma, CA she developed Kid Scoop, a weekly newspaper feature geared to children ages 7 to 12, that appears in over 300 newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 7.5 million. The popularity of Kid Scoop led Whiting to leave the classroom and become a full-time children’s author and curriculum developer. She is also a consultant to newspapers on the topic of developing youth readership and educational partnerships. She has been a consultant or writer for The New York Times, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, The United States Golf Association in addition to numerous educational publishers. Whiting launched the literacy non-profit, Kid Scoop News, to expand low-income students to access to high-interest reading materials. |
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Chief Executive OfficerMichael MulcahyMichael Mulcahy has 40 years of leadership expertise in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. After a successful international career in global apparel, technology and strategy consulting, Michael established the worldwide foundation for the Napa-based Christian Brothers De La Salle Global Education Fund and their worldwide network of 900 educational institutions teaching1,000,000 poverty level students in 87 countries. Over the span of 10 years Michael grew the foundation as a highly successful granting organization educating federal poverty level students nationally and internationally. He generated more than 30 million in annual revenues, confirmed over 20 million dollars in planned gifts and led a 50 million dollar capital campaign. He worked with some of the Forbes 400 Wealthiest Americans to build the fund with a goal of 1 billion dollars. For ten years, he worked with one of the worlds’ leading philanthropy and organizational consultants covering all aspects of best practice fundraising, capital campaign management, program, and board development. More recently Michael served as Executive Director for College Summit and is currently a volunteer directing a 10 million dollar capital campaign for St. Mary’s College. He has been the lead consultant for several other national nonprofits and is a senior consultant for Brakeley Briscoe Inc. specializing in Capital Campaigns, Major Gift programs, Board development, interim Executive Director, Chief Development Officer and Board President Roles. In the for profit sector he has worked globally for Levi Strauss International, Bank of America World Banking, Computerland Intl (Europe/Asia Pacific), Sun Microsystems Australia, Digital Consulting Asia Pacific and Global Business Network/Monitor Consulting, where he sold and delivered more than $2 million in consulting projects and services. As a volunteer Michael serves on the Board of the Sonoma Valley Fund. He is also a member of St Mary’s College Rugby Alumni Board. Michael is a graduate of St Mary’s College of California and the Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Management, MIM/MBA. Michael and his wife live in the wine country. He enjoys travel, reading, hiking, winemaking and serving on local and national boards. |
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TreasurerKaren RocheKaren Roche is CEO of SommSelect and Chairman of the Board at Advanced Brain Monitoring. She has held many senior management positions in her career including President of Streetwise Reports, COO at Winetasting.com, and partner at Sibson & Company. Karen participates on the boards of several nonprofits, including Impact 100/Sonoma and the Sonoma International Film Festival. She graduated from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. She earned high marks in school for her creative writing, which she attributes to early love of reading. |
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SecretaryElena Toscano, M.A.EdAn educator for over 40 years, Elena Toscano served in the public school system as a classroom teacher, principal, high school dean, district coordinator, director and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction in Napa Valley, California. Her experiences as a classroom teacher, site administrator and educational consultant provided a rich background in standards-based teaching and learning, budget management, educational policy and leadership. She has had articles published in educational journals, presented at state conferences and in retirement serves as an educational consultant. As a classroom teacher, Elena was one of the first to pioneer the use of newspapers to supplement curriculum and has been a strong advocate for the use of primary resources in the classroom. “Kid Scoop News engages students in a way that is both instructive and constructive. The activities in weekly lessons support standards-based instruction across multiple grade levels in a way that makes learning powerful and fun. Classroom discipline is never an issue when students center their attention on the news of the day. Kid Scoop News ‘scoops’ kids into the ‘grown up’ world of current events in a way that is relevant and engaging.” Elena is the proud mother of three Kid Scoop graduates and three grandchildren who are up-and coming readers. Elena and her husband, Jim Colyar, live in Sonoma, California. |
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DirectorJim SilvermanSilverman, board secretary, has served Kid Scoop as an informal advisor for more than 20 years. He graduated with the first B.A. in children’s literature in the U.S., is a retired public librarian and currently curates an online California History project described as a digital playground where people can practice being historians and geographers. |
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DirectorEllen CreaneEllen Creane has experienced a lifetime of three education-related careers:
After teaching a few years, she was recruited as a marketing assistant at a small textbook company that had won a K-4 California state social studies textbook adoption. She successfully marketed the K-4 series in teacher workshops around the state and gained for the company widespread district adoption of the grades 5-8 textbooks in the inquiry-based series. As Southern California sales manager for Random House Education Division, she sold a $10K reading lab in multiples (9-15) to major school districts. She was Director of Seminars with Lee Canter and Associates, managing a team of 38 consultants who delivered more than 1,000 teacher workshops in classroom behavior management per year nationally. Ellen was Educational Services Manager for a community daily in southern California, growing annual school circulation from 90,862 copies to 650,000 copies in the hands of students, grades 1-12, plus ESL adult school, over seven years. She moved to The New York Times as Newspaper in Education Manager growing circulation to students from a few thousand copies a year to more than eight million copies annually. Volunteering with Literacy Volunteers, Ellen discovered a passion for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). She taught at the adult education level for six years and eight years at two Connecticut community colleges. Ellen has written several dozen curriculum guides, marketing communication publications, and a history of a group of women Marines during World War II. She wrote and sold freelance features to newspapers from her college years through 2019. Ellen is a graduate of San Francisco State University and earned the University of Cambridge (England) ESOL Breadth and Depth of Knowledge Certificate as well as the State of Connecticut Provisional Educator Certificate—Teaching Non-English-Speaking Adults. |
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DirectorDr. Peter ParentiDr. Parenti is first and foremost an educator, having served as a California credentialed teacher and administrator for twenty-six years in the San Francisco Bay Area; beginning as a middle school teacher, and then serving as elementary and middle school Principal, Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. Dr. Parenti has provided leadership for a variety of PK-12 programs, including Literacy and Mathematics, the integrated approach to STEM curriculum, and Visual & Performing Arts. Dr. Parenti currently serves as Vice President at TRiGroup, Inc., a multi-disciplinary management and consulting firm with an emphasis on connecting high-quality teaching and learning with high-quality leadership, facilities, and infrastructure. Education:
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