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Who are the 18 new candidates Kenney will consider for school board seats?

Here are short bios of the latest round of candidates for the new Philadelphia school board.

The Philadelphia School District Building.
The Philadelphia School District Building.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff

Dawn Ang is a writer, development consultant, disabilities advocate, and former journalist. She has worked with the Philadelphia Joint Board, Catholic Housing and Community Services, and prior to that served as development director for Hope Partnership for Education. She is a parent of a son with special needs. Ang, an immigrant from Singapore, graduated from Western Kentucky University.

Catherine Blunt spent 35 years in the Philadelphia School District, working as a teacher and later as principal of Parkway Center City High School. She also serves on the mayor's Universal Pre-K commission. She was a member of the People's School Board slate advanced by Our City Our Schools. As part of her platform, Blunt said, "Social justice materials should be infused throughout the curriculum, ongoing opportunities for civic engagement must be provided, and college-career readiness from elementary through high school needs to be a planned feature of every school. She is a product of the School District, holds degrees from Temple and Antioch Universities, and earned her certificate in secondary education at Cheyney University. She has children and grandchildren who have graduated from Philadelphia public schools.

Jenny Bogoni is executive director of the city's Read by 4th campaign, a citywide coalition of nonprofits managed by the Free Library of Philadelphia working in concert with the school system. It aims to tackle the city's literacy problem. Bogoni has also been executive director of Spark, a national nonprofit that matches students with apprenticeships, and held leadership positions at the After School Activities Partners and the Philadelphia Youth Network, where she worked on Project U-Turn, an effort to reduce the dropout rate. She is a parent and a former Peace Corps member. She is a graduate of Haverford College.

Alison Cohen is an entrepreneur who builds bicycle share systems. She is CEO of Bicycle Transit Systems, which manages Indego, the city's bike share program, and other programs around the country. Cohen also worked as an investment banker. She is a parent and holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Deborah Diamond taught political philosophy at Columbia University and Bryn Mawr College before joining Visit Philadelphia as director of research and strategy. She now works as president of Campus Philly, the nonprofit that encourages college students to embrace the region. She is a parent of children in Philadelphia public schools. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr and the University of Chicago.

Supreme Dow is founder and executive director of the Black Writers' Museum, which showcases exhibits of classic and contemporary black literature and seeks to cultivate the next generation of African American writers. He is a parent. He studied at Chestnut Hill College, La Salle University. and Lincoln University.

Cheryl Harper is the student-teacher site director for Drexel University's department of education. She has worked for the Philadelphia School District as director of employment services, Head Start instructional facilitator, and school assistance team case manager. She has also worked as executive director of human resources in the Camden School District. Harper has an education degree from Cheyney and a master's degree and superintendent's letter of eligibility from Arcadia.

Will Jordan is an associate professor of education at Temple. Jordan's research focuses on urban education; he has studied high school reform, at-risk students, and resiliency among teenagers of color. He previously served on the board of the now-closed Arise Charter School. He earned degrees from Stony Brook University and Columbia University.

Reed Lyons is vice president for Navy Yard development of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. Lyons, who has also worked as a lawyer at Blank Rome, is a parent of two children and the son of two public school teachers. He earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the George Washington University Law School.

William Peebles has worked as the program director for the Philadelphia School District's Education Leading to Careers and Training program, which helps teen parents complete their high school education. He has also worked as a contracting officer overseeing career training for 1,300 at-risk youth. He is a member of the Philadelphia Workforce Board and the University of Pennsylvania Economic Inclusion Committee.

Anna Perng is an advocate and parent of two children with disabilities. She cofounded the Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Initiative at Temple, a program to provide linguistic and cultural translation, education, and strategies for bringing classroom and health interventions into homes.

Brenda Rivera serves on the board of Project HOME, a Philadelphia nonprofit targeting poverty and homelessness, and has worked as a program manager at Horizon House, which provides programs and services for adults with behavioral health needs, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the homeless. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from Temple, and her children have attended Philadelphia public schools.

Michael Smith has 11 years of high-school teaching experience and has also taught for 30 years at the post-secondary level. He oversees a program at Frankford High School that prepares 11th and 12th graders for college reading and writing.

Andrew Stober is the vice president of planning and economic development for the University City District, a community revitalization organization. He previously spent six years working for the city, including serving as chief of staff for the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities. He ran for an at-large seat on the Philadelphia City Council in 2015 as an independent. Stober has a master's degree from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. His son will be starting kindergarten in September at the Jackson School.

Katherine Stratos is director of analytics at Comcast Cable. She served as a senior researcher and project manager for a research partnership between the Philadelphia School District and Penn's Graduate School of Education, co-creating a series of district-wide surveys for students, parents, teachers and principals to provide feedback on schools, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has a master's degree from Penn and a bachelor's degree from James Madison University.

Fernando Trevino is the founder of Trevino Strategic Consulting, which has counted the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton and Josh Shapiro campaigns among its clients. Trevino, a Mexico native, previously served as deputy executive director of Philadelphia's Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs under Mayor Michael Nutter, and oversaw an Obama reelection campaign operation to mobilize voters in Pennsylvania. He has two children who attend the Andrew Jackson School in Philadelphia.

Wayne Walker is president of Walker Nell Partners, an international business consulting firm. Prior to founding his company, Walker served as senior counsel at the DuPont Co. and in business reorganization for a consulting and accountancy firm. He has served on many boards, including those of Habitat for Humanity International, the National Philanthropic Trust, and the Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia. He holds degrees from Loyola University (New Orleans) and Catholic University of America.

Christina Wong is vice president of ESM Productions, a production and corporate-events company. She helped produce events around Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia and the Democratic National Convention. Wong is a board member of Philadelphia Works Inc., the city's workforce development board, as well as the Young Professionals Council of Philadelphia. She volunteers at public schools in her neighborhood.