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Jacqueline Elliot and Dr. Ref Rodriguez, the founders and
co-CEO's of Partnerships To Uplift Communities, have been working in collaboration with each other for the
past eight years. They met in 1998 when each of them independently authored charter school planning grants
that were funded by the California Department Of Education. Ms. Elliot was committed to increasing the high
school and college graduation rate among students who lived in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, where she
had served as an educator for thirteen years. Dr. Rodriguez had the same vision for the students residing
in Northeast Los Angeles, where Ref had grown up, attended school and worked. The two visionaries were
introduced to each other by the late Sue Bragato, the founder and Executive Director of the California
Network of Educational Charter Schools (CANEC), following the announcement of the grant awards.
 During their first conversation, Jacqueline and Ref were amazed to
discover that their visions were identical in a number of ways including class size, overall school size,
calendar, schedule, school culture, college and community partnerships, parent engagement, curriculum, and
much more. Until that time, nobody had started a charter middle school in Los Angeles. However, at the same
time and independent of each other, both Ref and Jacqueline had developed an identical vision of an ideal
middle school for students who lived in communities within LAUSD, where students were failing and dropping
out of school. They immediately realized that their skill sets were a match to make their visions become
realities. Jacqueline had an extensive background working in LAUSD and in the field of education. Ref had an
extensive business background and had also worked in the field of education in private Catholic
schools.
From April 1998 though August 1999, Ref worked closely with
Jacqueline to develop and open Community Charter Middle School. Together, they met challenges, overcame
obstacles and convinced LAUSD to allow them to open the first charter middle school in Los Angeles. They
fought and won battles too numerous to mention. Following the successful opening of Community Charter Middle
School, Ref focused intently on opening the middle school in Northeast Los Angeles. With Jacqueline's
support and lessons learned from the founding of the first school, Ref triumphantly opened the doors to the
California Academy for Liberal Studies Middle School (CALS), in fall 2000.
As soon as the first two middle schools opened, they were
inundated with requests for seats from parents in the two respective communities. Extensive waiting lists
were developed by the sixth month of operation in both schools. In response to those community requests
Jacqueline and Ref developed and opened a high school for the CALS graduates and a second middle school for
the Northeast San Fernando Valley, maintaining the same level of collaboration that had begun in
1998.
Two years ago, the two charter school founders realized that to
have significant impact in a community, a cluster of charter schools needed to be created within the
community, rather than just one or two. They also realized that formalizing their professional partnership
to create a charter school development and management corporation would result in a multitude of benefits
for all the schools, their stakeholders and the communities they chose to serve.
Following these realizations Jacqueline and Ref developed and
founded Partnerships To Uplift Communities (PUC). A total of seven schools have now been developed and
founded by PUC. Jacqueline and Ref serve as co-CEO's of the organization and also serve on the Board of
Trustees. In addition, the two have become very active in the charter school movement on a state and
national level. CALS Early College High School has become a national model for the early college initiative,
Ms. Elliot serves as an elected member on the California Charter School Association's Membership Council and
Dr. Rodriguez serves on the Association's Board of Trustees. They continue to work passionately towards the
achievement of their vison; the revitalization of communities through the creation of high quality charter
schools whose students will graduate from high school prepared for college success.
Jacqueline Elliot
Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
status. Dedicated to creating high quality charter schools for the
students in Pacoima, she founded Community Charter Middle School (CCMS) in 1999. The school was the first
charter middle school to serve students in Los Angeles and was so successful and well received by the
community, that Ms. Elliot subsequently founded two more schools to serve the same geographic area. Ms.
Elliot began collaborating with Dr. Ref Rodriguez in 1998. Together they have collaborated and supported
each other's efforts while co-founding and operating Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) and a total of
seven schools. Ms. Elliot currently serves as an elected representative to the California Charter Schools
Association Membership Council.
 Ref Rodriguez
Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
family to graduate from college.
Ref is the Vice Chair of the Board of the California Charter
Schools Association and serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Los Angeles and the Small School
Alliance. In 2005, he was appointed, by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, as a City Commissioner in the
area of affordable housing.
Ref holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the Fielding
Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He recently began studies on a second doctoral degree as a
student in the inaugural class of the Executive Work-Based Learning Program offered jointly by the Wharton
School of Business and Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. His research
interests include teacher leadership and charter schools that are closing the achievement gap for Latino
students.
Ref is a native Angelino.
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