Uncommon Schools | Newark Leadership Team

Michael Ambriz

Chief Operating Officer

Michael Ambriz joined the North Star family in May of 2008 and serves as the Chief Operating Officer. In this role he is charged with all non-instructional aspects of North Star’s work and supporting its growth to ultimately serve even more Newark students. Immediately prior to joining staff, he served as the Managing Director, National Institute Operations for Teach For America, where he was responsible for overseeing all marketing, admissions, technology, human resources, and finance projects related to corps member training. While at Teach For America, he helped to launch two charter training sites, before then driving operations for all six. Ambriz holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and originally hails from California. He hopes to someday invent a machine that will transport LA weather to the East Coast.

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

Managing Director

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo is the Managing Director of Uncommon Schools Newark, which is composed of seven North Star Academy schools. During Bambrick-Santoyo’s eight years at North Star, the schools have seen dramatic gains in student achievement, reaching 90+% proficient on state assessments in almost every category and grade level. As a result, they were recently recognized with the National Blue Ribbon award. Author of Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction, Bambrick-Santoyo has trained over 2,500 school leaders nationwide in as his work at Uncommon Schools and as the Data-Driven Instruction faculty member for New Leaders for New Schools, a national urban school leadership training program. Prior to joining North Star, he worked for six years in a bilingual school in Mexico City, where he founded the International Baccalaureate program at the middle school level. He earned a B.A. in Social Justice from Duke University (1994) and his M.Ed. in School Administration via New Leaders for New Schools from the City University of New York—Baruch College (2003).

Christian Sparling

Associate Chief Operating Officer

Christian Sparling joined North Star in 2007 as a Director of Operations after working as Director of Special Projects at Uncommon Schools. Mr. Sparling was a 2001 Teach For America corps member in New York City. He taught first grade at PS 65, Mother Hale Academy, and second grade at PS1x, the Courtlandt School, both in the South Bronx. In 2003 he joined the Teach For America recruitment team and later the admissions team as an Applicant Communications Associate. He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Urban Studies, specializing in Sociology.

Julie Jackson

Associate Managing Director

Julie Jackson, former High School Principal and founding Elementary School Principal, has taught mathematics to urban NJ students for 10 years. Jackson moved quickly from full-time teacher to a leadership role at North Star, serving for two years as Dean of Students and then leading the development of the high school program as its principal. In 2002, she was the recipient of a Dodge Leadership Award for principals who have shown strong leadership and initiative. Before coming to North Star, she taught Language Arts and Math at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Paterson for four years, where she co-chaired the school improvement team, coached a competitive girls basketball team, and was honored in 1998 as Teacher of the Year. She earned an M.Ed. in Educational Administration from William Paterson University (2002), a B.A. in Communications from Shippensburg University (1992) and did graduate work in African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin. She began her career as corps member at Teach For America, where she also served as a professional development advisor.