The TJ PTSA Nominating Committee has presented its report in this post.

The recommended slate of candidates is:

1. President-elect: Harry Jackson
2. 1^st Vice President, Li Yang
3. 2^nd Vice President, Jun Wang
4. Recording Secretary, Julia McCaskill
5. Corresponding Secretary, Hanning Chen
6. Treasurer, Himanshu Verma

Any TJ PTSA member that would like to self-nominate as a candidate for any of the above TJ PTSA Executive Committee Officer positions can fill out this form, and their name and bio will appear on the ballot for that position in the online election in May.

The self-nomination period starts now (April 11) and will end on April 25, 2021, at 5pm ET.

If you have any questions about this process please contact the president or another EC member.

Nominating Committee Report

Thank you to all of the candidates who self-nominated for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. We had top candidates who have a proven track record of service to the community. The winners of the voting, based on a candidate collecting at least three votes and a majority of the nominating committee’s votes, are the following candidates: 

1. President-elect: Harry Jackson
2. 1^st Vice President, Li Yang
3. 2^nd Vice President, Jun Wang
4. Recording Secretary, Julia McCaskill
5. Corresponding Secretary, Hanning Chen
6. Treasurer, Himanshu Verma

Their bios are below, and we support these candidates for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. 

We thank all of the stellar candidates who raised their hands to volunteer their time for our community. We hope that all candidates will continue to volunteer with the TJ PTSA and participate in leadership positions.

In addition to this slate of candidates, TJ PTSA members can self-nominate for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. We will have details coming shortly, so keep an eye on the website and your email.

TJ PTSA Nominating Committee 

Slate of Candidates for the TJ PTSA Executive Committee

President-elect — Harry Jackson

The father of a TJ Class of 2024 student, Mr. Jackson has been a volunteer in his children’s schools for the past decade, volunteering countless hours in athletics, parent groups and school activities. He is committed to leading the TJ PTSA with openness and transparency, and he is committed to supporting diversity and excellence within the TJ community. This year, he served as a member of the TJ PTSA Diversity Committee and established key partnerships and initiatives to improve TJ diversity. In addition to supporting the TJ PTSA’s Diversity Talks, he has collected a database of STEM providers willing to offer free and reduced-fee services to socio-economically disadvantaged children, partnered with the Black Student Fund to provide summer STEM enrichment for children from low-income households, and established a conference to put families in contact with these resources. 

Mr. Jackson has over 15 years of federal government experience in information system security, including risk assessment, information assurance and compliance, security test and evaluations, system security engineering, systems development, test and evaluation and project management. He is currently an IT consultant specializing in support to the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. Mr. Jackson is also a member of the Washington Area Lacrosse Officials Association with 15 years of experience, He is also an assistant professor at National Intelligence University, and an adjunct professor at numerous universities. He has a bachelor’s in general engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MA in strategic intelligence studies from American Military University, an MA in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, an MS in government information systems from National Defense University, and Ph.D. in strategic security from Henley-Putnam University.

1^st Vice President — Li Yang

As the current treasurer of the TJPTSA Executive Committee, Ms. Yang is well positioned to continue to serve the TJ community, as a mentor to the new incoming treasurer and in a role that will allow her to bring her experience to building a strong Executive Committee that serves parents, teachers and students over the coming year. She is a statistician at NIH Clinical Center and received her medical degree in Clinical Medicine, M.S. in epidemiology and biostatistics and Ph.D. in statistics. She has volunteered for school activities and numerous community organizations over the past ten years, including as an adult leader in Boys Scouts of America Troop 55G. She has three children who are TJ students in the Class of 2021, 2022, and 2024. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her family’s energetic goldendoodle, hiking and camping with scouts, watching TV shows and movies, running, reading, and playing Ping-Pong. 

2^nd Vice President — Jun Wang

Born and raised in a rural area of Beijing region, Mr. Wang did farming and construction work through elementary school to college on weekends and summer breaks. Even though he lived in a disadvantaged environment in terms of educational opportunities, he progressed step by step, participating in chemistry and physics competitions, and entering Tsinghua University, one of China’s top colleges, especially in engineering. Humble about his background, he understands deeply the importance of  helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds make progress and succeed in their studies. He has a BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering, with over 20 years’ experience in software engineering and web development with Oracle, SQL Server, Visual Studio.NET, HTML, CSS, Java Script, AJAX and JSON. As a result, he will be able to lead technology needs for the TJ PTSA. Since 2008, he has volunteered regularly at Hope Chinese Schools, leading student registration and the organization of large parties, reaching as many as 800 participants, and serving as an assistant principal and board member. 

He has been a MATHCOUNTS team coach at Greenbriar West ES, Churchill Road ES and Cooper MS. He chaperoned school field trips many times at Churchill Road ES, Longfellow MS, Cooper MS and TJ. He has also volunteered as an AP exam proctor at TJ. He has regularly driven his Toyota Tundra pickup truck to schools to haul food boxes, watermelons, water, ice cream cakes and instruments  for parties, TJ iNite and other events. A business owner, he facilitates helping people with diverse views find common ground. This past year, he has been actively involved in donation drives for personal protective equipment at the New York City Javits Center and local northern Virginia hospitals, COVID test stations, nursing homes and shelters. Mr. Wang has been volunteering with FCPS schools, including TJ, and Hope Chinese School for nearly 15 years. He wants to make more contributions to the TJ community and serve TJ parents, teachers and students, keeping the community united during this period of drastic changes.

Recording Secretary — Julia McCaskill

A former high school teacher from China. Ms. McCaskill  has been volunteering in all of her three children’s schools and classes over the past decade. With her youngest child graduating from elementary school this year, she is positioned to volunteer more of her time to serve the TJ community. She has worked as a recording secretary on a part-time basis early in her career. She describes herself as very systemic and well-equipped to document and share minutes and news and announcements from PTSA activities to the TJ community. 

Hanning Chen — Corresponding Secretary

Born in China, Mr. Chen earned his undergraduate degree in China, before moving to the United States to pursue his doctoral degree in chemistry. As a college professor of chemistry, he has managed a productive research group that has persistently secured financial support from many federal agencies, non-profit organizations and industrial partners over the past decade. Mr. Chen is the parent of TJ student of Class 2023. Since his eldest daughter’s enrollment in Fairfax County Public Schools almost 10 years ago, he has been a parent volunteer for a wide range of school events, including the Fun Fair at Spring Hill Elementary School, International Night at Cooper Middle School and Welcome Greeters at TJ. In addition, has volunteered in numerous sports competitions as a record keeper and officiating staff member. 

Most recently, he was co-organizer of Summit 2021, a two-day conference sponsored by the Chinese American Parents Association-Northern Virginia Chapter (CAPA-NOVA), which drew about 500 parents, students, educators, community leaders and elected officers  from the D.C. metropolitan area to the event for constructive discussions on pressing issues related to education. As co-organizer, he communicated with potential panelists via email, phone call and in-person meetings to enlist them to speak at the summit, coordinated a one-hour virtual panel discussion with ten panelists and hundreds of participants; and summarized the panel discussion in a report shared with panelists and summit organizers. As a member of the TJ PTSA Diversity Committee, he has been trained on how to use the AtoZ platform through which newsletters are currently sent to members to send communications to TJ PTSA members. He is sending out the next “Faces of TJ” feature to TJ PTSA members, and he is getting trained on sending out the newsletter through AtoZ. His commitment to community service and community service makes him an ideal candidate to serve the TJ PTSA as corresponding secretary and amplify messages about the talented students of the nation’s No. 1 high school.

Treasurer — Himanshu Verma

The father of TJ ninth grader, Mr. Verma has a B-tech degree in engineering physics from Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and he has a master’s degree in information systems from the University of Akron in Ohio. His family and he have lived in Fairfax county since 2006, and he specializes in data analytics and artificial intelligence application development. His current interests include developing COVID-19 apps, mental health AI apps and reading about theories of missing dark matter and dark energy. He has also recently started working with the Black Student Fund, a nonprofit that provides advocacy and academic and retention support to academically motivated Black students and other underserved students to facilitate their access, admission and successful matriculation and graduation. He hopes to work with the Black Student Fund to students from underrepresented communities at TJ. He looks forward to being a part of the TJ family over the next few years, and he is happy to volunteer his time to support the TJ PTSA. As the owner of a local data analytics company, he has a good understanding of managing accounts and account automation. He has also been on the board of a housing association for about four years, so he understands the accounting requirements for nonprofits. His goal is to automate as many processes as possible within the TJ PTSA and provide PTSA members data visualizations that will improve the transparency of TJ PTSA accounts.