Michael Whisman, CPA
Michael’s first charter school client was one of the first schools chartered by the Philadelphia School District in 1997. Prior to founding a charter school service firm in 2004, Michael managed the local charter school audit practice of the 13th largest US public accounting firm. Charter Choices continues to provide consulting services to many of Michael’s previous audit clients, including that first charter school that started it all in 1997. Since the inception of the charter school law, Act 22 of 1997, Michael has been an active member in the charter school community. Michael has often testified in Harrisburg at House of Representative Education Committee hearings on the topic of charter school funding. As an advocate for school choice, Michael has dedicated his career to charter schools and to finding new ways to educate Pennsylvania’s students. In that regard he is proud of his work in the conceptualization and realization of the Aspira Bi-lingual Cyber Charter School, one of the first bi-lingual cyber charters schools in the nation.
Ryan Schumm
Ryan holds a degree in Education and enjoyed three years of teaching middle school math and science at a North Carolina charter school. He was a part of the charter’s management team, which ultimately led him to explore administrative and consulting avenues. Outside of the classroom, Ryan has worked with charter school boards and administrators as a financial consultant for the past eight years. Ryan is committed to using his experience to assist school leaders in creating great schools of choice.
Justin Wheeler
Prior to joining our team, Justin served as the Managing Director of Finance for KIPP Philadelphia Schools, where he oversaw financial operations for a growing network of four public charter schools and served as a member of KIPP Philadelphia’s Regional Leadership Team. As regional leadership, Justin participated in KIPP Foundation initiatives to improve the quality, accessibility, and usefulness of financial and other data across the KIPP network of more than 90 high-quality charter schools. Justin also brings to our clients an understanding of federal programs derived from his work as an analyst at Mathematica Policy Research, an organization providing program evaluation services to federal agencies, state and local governments, and foundations.
Justin received a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University in 2006, focusing his studies on public finance and education reform. He has published articles in the Journal of Public Policy Analysis and Management, the North Carolina Law Review, and the Journal of Public and International Affairs.