Board of Directors
Kelly Kohls
Dr. Kelly Kohls is an involved activist for freedom, an educator, and a businesswoman.
With her extensive background in the fields of health care and education, Dr. Kohls has seen politics and public education change in ways that many citizens do not fully understand. She has committed herself to alerting parents and citizens of those changes and empowers them to maintain an active involvement in public and school matters. She advocates for community members taking personal responsibility for their own lives, and children’s education needs.
As a leader of the National School Boards Leadership Council, Dr. Kohls travels the state of Ohio at her own expense, educating the public on “Why Education Is Failing Our Students and Why Common Core Is Not the Answer.” She presents not only the problems, but solutions and recommendations cultivated from her years of experience as an educator, school board member, and parent.
School board members have been the victims of an organization offering them membership (paid for by district funds) that trains them how to simply be cheerleaders for their district. This organization does not teach school board members how to bring the education system accountability. Instead, Dr. Kohls started the National School Boards Leadership Council to train school board members how to bring real accountability to our public education system. School board members are elected to represent the community and the children, and the NSBLC takes that mission seriously by empowering members to tackle the issues that districts face today. Dr. Kohls herself has experienced the tactics that render school board members ineffective and has proven methods to help others combat these tactics. Under her leadership, the NSBLC strives to strengthen school boards with the ability to improve education, accountability, and fiscal responsibility.
Laura Zorc
Laura Zorc is the Director of Education Reform for FreedomWorks. Under Laura’s leadership in January of 2021 FreedomWorks launched Building Education for Students Together (BEST). BEST’s mission is to ignite a national parent-led movement by building, educating, and mobilizing the largest network of parent activists in the country to advocate for their children’s education through the election of school board members and the passage of policies that align with our vision of expanding education freedom.
Zorc’s expertise in the subject of education reform and her unparalleled devotion for putting power back in the hands of parents and families is the driving force behind BEST. In the last eighteen months Laura has crisscrossed the country training and empowering thousands of parents, school board members, and candidates.
Laura is the mom of three Florida public school students. Prior to joining FreedomWorks, Laura served as a parent mentor and spokesperson in the multiple positions, which included the PTA board of her children’s school, where she was elected twice as president of her county’s PTA, and the co-founder of Florida Parents Against Common Core (FPACC), one of the largest parent-led advocacy groups in the state with nearly 22,000 activists. Additionally, she served on former Governor Rick Scott’s Keep Florida Learning Education Committee before being elected to the Indian River County School Board in 2016 where she served as the board chairman in 2018-2020.
Rachel R. Citak
Rachel provides PR and legal representation to clients in Education Law and Employment Law. Her advocacy and public relations work has included appearances on radio and televised news media, testimony at the Ohio Statehouse, and penning high profile op-eds. She has extensive experience working as a registered lobbyist, in-house counsel, and private practitioner—serving parents, students, teachers, and school board members across the state of Ohio.
Melvin Adams
Melvin has been in education since 1982 when he first started teaching. He has 25 years of intercultural leadership experience in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the US. He was the Founding President Kiev Wesley Bible College (Ukraine) and RENEWANATION (US).
He has served as a Sr. Advisor on Education to two U.S. governor candidates and on the 2016 Presidential Transition Team. Melvin presently services as the Founder and President of Noah Webster Educational Foundation, a Virginia based organization with the vision to reclaim education and culture through foundational principles and sound policy. He has been married to Sandy for 41 years. They enjoy six married children and 21 grandchildren with another one coming soon.
KCarl Smith
A retired U.S. Army officer, and former member of President Trump’s Presidential Campaign Coalition Advisory Board, KCarl is a nationally recognized author, speaker and creator of the Frederick Douglass Republican Engagement Strategy™, a powerful and proven persuasive messaging approach, developed through 12 years of real-world successes. He is the foremost expert on diversity engagement, and has empowered thousands of grassroots Conservatives, candidates, Republican Party precinct leaders, and county and state leaders, with his proprietary, game-changing diversity outreach approach. During his nationwide travels, he has addressed over 600 Conservative, Tea Party, faith-based and Republican groups.
KCarl is an untiring Conservative advocate of government school system reform and an outspoken voice against the anti-liberty and anti-God agenda currently being forced upon our children.
To get your copy of his new book, “Telling Conservatives the Truth,” please visit his website at: https://kcarlinc.com/
Julie Pickren
"Every Student. Every Day" • Republican For State Board of Education • District 7
As a native Texan, wife, and mother of two, small business owner, community advocate, and a former Alvin ISD Trustee, my heart belongs to the children as they are the Future!
It's true, everything in Texas is bigger and none more so than District 7 which spans 10,000 square miles with 13 Counties | 146 Cities, and 69 School Districts that represent approximately 1.8 Million Students.
The State Board of Education (SBOE) is responsible for setting policies and standards for Texas Public Schools and you want someone who will genuinely have your Voice! Protecting the individual needs of Texas children including Home School | Private | Charter and Pubic Education. It is a parent's responsibility and right to choose the educational system that works best for their child and I will have Your Voice!
A long-standing educational leader with Conservative Values and Experience in a multitude of arenas including former Board Member of Heritage Christian Academy, Board member of Fresh Impact Christian Academy, and Alvin ISD Trustee from 2015-2021, and a Conservative Voice in Austin on educational issues that impact the students of Texas. Every child is unique and thus, their educational needs need to be individualized as there is no one formula that fits all.
My active involvement in Texas Education as a Parent, Trustee and Advocate has enabled me to energetically and enthusiastically support Students, Parents, and Educators. As a Conservative Republican and Voice, I am humbled to have been recognized and honored with many awards and successes. A strong, successful background as a small business owner enabled me to bring my business acumen to my role as an Alvin ISD Board Trustee including the building of nine new schools and lowered property tax rate, and an M&O budget with 83% directly tied to the classroom.
Together, we can ensure that each child's education prepares them to Achieve The American Dream with Texas Values! KEY ISSUES Include:
1) Ban Critical Race Theory
2) Follow the Texas Constitution
3) Create Opportunity Audits
4) Financial Responsibility
Anthony Vander Horst
Anthony Vander Horst was born in Colorado of an immigrant mother. He earned an M.A. from the University of Colorado in 2004 and a PhD in Education Policy and Leadership from the Ohio State University in 2012. Anthony is a practitioner of education reform focusing on parental rights.