Our Team

TDS Staff

Our organization is a learning organization that values collaboration. We work to co-create systems and protocols that dismantle systemic, institutional, and historical barriers based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities with our clients. Our staff’s deep and varied expertise paired with collaborative organizational structure leads to our ability to deliver high quality, customized support for our clients. Our staff members have deep expertise in instruction, assessment, school redesign, facilitation, coaching, mental health, research and evidence-based practices and organizational change. Each TDS staff member has worked in schools serving students living in areas of concentrated poverty and engaged in high school redesign. Our staff draws on those experiences as we listen, learn and design with those we serve. These experiences allow us to connect with our clients, demonstrate credibility and help them increase their capacity. Our team has engaged in professional learning to become effective facilitators of professional learning, convenings and meetings. We also model and share these skills with those we serve. Our organization and model was created at Johns Hopkins University over 20 years ago and we continue to be steeped in research and evidence based practices. TDS is the only organization licensed to provide technical assistance on the research, tools and resources developed at JHU.

Tara Madden

Tara serves on the GRAD Partnership leadership team while leading the TDS team of experts as they provide high quality technical assistance and resources to schools engaged in Student Success System Coordinator certification from Johns Hopkins University. With over 25 years in public education, Tara Madden has served as secondary school teacher, athletic and instructional coach, school leader, facilitator, and Chief Program Officer. Ms. Madden contributed to tools, research, and resources to support continuously improving student success systems with a focus on addressing chronic absenteeism. She is passionate about designing structures for representative student voice and leadership.

Raphael Curtis

Raphael manages partnerships with schools, partners, and researchers at Johns Hopkins University. He brings over two decades of education policy, nonprofit and instructional experience to TDS. After being recognized as a Master Teacher and serving as a Geaux Teach Mentor for the University of Louisiana, Raphael successfully advocated for equitable access to AP programs in Louisiana as the Director of State and District Partnerships with the College Board. At the Louisiana Department of Education Raphael led school improvement and high school redesign. Raphael earned his B.S. in Secondary Education and M.S. in Mathematics from Southern University A&M in Baton Rouge.

Sonia Urban

Sonia serves to develop strategic partnerships with intermediary organizations and districts with the GRAD Partnership, facilitating design thinking experiences and integration of implementation and improvement strategies within the Talent Development Secondary portfolio of resources. She values curiosity and is passionate about customizing and co-creating opportunities to learn from and empower students, families, and systems, specifically in representative student voice and leadership and systems change.  Her experience spans over two decades in the public school system. Sonia is a licensed clinical social worker and holds a Masters in Social Work and Master of Divinity degrees. She also earned an Implementation Support Specialist, level 1 certification through The Center for Implementation. 

Advisory Board

Robert Balfanz, Ph.D.,
Advisory Board Chair

Robert Balfanz is a senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, where he is Director of the Everyone Graduates Center and Co-Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS). He served as a leading pioneer of the Talent Development Secondary model at CSOS, and then positioned Talent Development Secondary as a lead partner when co-founding Diplomas Now, the proven strategy for turning around some of America’s most challenging secondary schools and winner of a prestigious $30 million federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. He has published widely on secondary school reform, high school dropouts, early warning systems and instructional interventions in high-poverty schools. He is also a frequent speaker on dropout prevention and early warning indicators as a strategy to help students most at risk of failing. Through his research, advocacy and practice he has established himself as the nation’s trusted broker of evidence and information when dealing with the nation’s most challenged schools and vulnerable students. He is often referred to as a national expert on dropout prevention and has built his reputation on translating research findings into effective school improvement strategies and models.