Donald L. Hense
CEO & Chairman

Donald L. Hense is the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Friendship Public Charter School in Washington, which is considered one of the largest and most successful public charter school networks in the country. He is also Chairman and CEO of the Center for Youth and Family Investment and the former President and CEO of Friendship House in Washington, DC.

Hense previously served as Director of Development of the Children’s Defense Fund; National Vice President for Development of the National Urban League in New York; Vice President for Development of Prairie View A&M University of the Texas A&M University System; and Director of Governmental Relations at Dartmouth College, Boston University, and Howard University. Hense is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, and attended graduate school at Stanford University. He was a Rockefeller Intern in Economics at Cornell University, Merrill Scholar at the University of Ghana, Ford Foundation Fellow at Stanford, and Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

Hense is the co-founder of the Bridges to Friendship Initiative, which was highlighted by Vice President Gore at the White House Summit on Community Empowerment as a model initiative. He is Treasurer of the 21st Century Foundation in New York and is on the Board of Directors of the Center for Education Reform and the DC Art and Humanities Education Collaborative. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.

Floretta Dukes McKenzie
Vice Chair

Dr. McKenzie is Senior Advisor to the American Institute for Research.

McKenzie has a distinguished record of more than forty years of service to education as both a school administrator and educational consultant. McKenzie earned a bachelor's degree from DC Teachers College in 1956 and a master's in education from Howard University in 1957 before beginning her career as a teacher in Maryland. McKenzie later rose through the Washington, DC school system and became Deputy Superintendent in 1973. In 1974, she returned to Maryland and was hired as Area Assistant Superintendent for Montgomery County Public Schools. McKenzie worked for the US Department of Education as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of School Improvement, managing fifteen federal education discretionary programs and initiatives. She also served as the U.S. delegate to the UNESCO General Conference in Yugoslavia.

In 1981, McKenzie returned to DC Public Schools as the Superintendent of Schools and chief state school officer. In this capacity, she oversaw the country's twenty-first-largest school system, managing 89,000 students, 13,000 employees and a $400 million budget. Under her leadership, the District established several public and private partnerships to improve instructional programs and District management. McKenzie also oversaw the implementation of the Five-Year Computer Literacy Plan, one of the country's first long-range programs for integrating technology into the public school curriculum.

McKenzie left her position in 1988 to form her own company, The McKenzie Group, an educational consulting firm that specializes in educational management and planning. She served as its first president until 1997, when she became the company's chairperson, a position she held until 2004.

In addition to serving as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Friendship Public Charter School, McKenzie serves as Chairwoman of the Howard University Board of Trustees, and also serves on the boards of directors of the National Geographic Society, Marriott International, and the White House Historical Association.