Our Founder

Franca Campopiano Foster is a lifelong educator whose exceptional abilities as a teacher, curriculum designer, and school administrator have been recognized through multiple awards and by positions of responsibility in a range of institutions of public, charter, and private education in California.

​

Ms. Foster earned her Masters of Education and multiple subject teaching credential from Claremont Graduate School of Education in the early 1990s, then in rapid succession served as an elementary teacher, lead teacher, mentor teacher, and teacher supervisor in the Pasadena school system (and simultaneously as Adjunct Professor of Teacher Education at Claremont), Executive Director of the highly respected Odyssey Charter School, Head of School of New Village Leadership Academy, and Founder and President of Education Management Agency.

​

Over this same period of time, her professional experiences included Language Development Specialist Training, the Math Leadership Cohort, Harvard University’s Project Zero, the Charter Schools Accountability Project, and the Charter School Leadership Institute.

​

Throughout her career, Piano has been a passionate and resourceful advocate for approaches to teaching, curriculum design, and school programs that recognize and value each child’s individuality. She truly believes that every student is gifted and that it is the responsibility of teachers, mentors, and parents to help children discover and develop their gifts through thoughtfully designed learning experiences that are at the same time supportive and challenging.

 

As a language development expert who herself speaks three languages, as well as a mathematics instructional expert, Piano recognizes that the growth of language and mathematical skills should form the core of every student’s educational experience from preschool through high school. But as a curriculum designer, she also knows that literacy, numeracy, and other academic abilities aren’t sufficient for 21st-century success—students must learn to think critically and creatively, to collaborate effectively and to communicate powerfully.

​

Having spent over two decades exploring the range of school-based solutions to the problem of education, Piano decided that it was time to provide a new kind of service for students and families, and thus Education Management Agency was born. With the motto “Because no child is ordinary, every child’s education should be extraordinary”, EMA offers a uniquely personalized approach to education through programs that are designed around the goals, interests, and talents of the individual.