Teresa Jacobs became Chair of the Orange County School Board in November 2018. She previously served two terms as Orange County Mayor (2010-2018) and two terms as an Orange County Commissioner (2000-2008).

A native of South Florida, Jacobs graduated cum laude from Florida State University with a degree in Economics and enjoyed a nine-year career in banking, before entering public office.

She has served on the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Central Florida Expressway Authority, Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission, LYNX Board of Directors and MetroPlan Orlando.

Jacobs and her husband Bruce have four children, all of whom attended Orange County Public Schools and graduated from Olympia High School. A long-time community volunteer, Jacobs was actively involved in PTA and School Advisory Councils at her children's schools. She was also a member of the OCPS Impact Fee Committee and is a member of West Orange Chamber of Commerce, President of Orange County Homeowners Association Alliance and Florida Association of Counties, and member of the East Central Planning Council.

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Angie Gallo was elected in 2018 as School Board Member for District 1. She has served as past Vice- Chair, and is currently President-Elect for the Florida School Boards Association.  Angie has been volunteering in Orange County for over 20 years. She served as PTA president at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and also sat on the Orange County Council of PTA/PTSA board of directors. In addition to PTA, Angie has served as School Advisory Committee (SAC) chair for East Lake Elementary and served on the SAC at Corner Lake Middle and East River High. She is also a graduate of the inaugural class (2010) of the OCPS Leadership Orange program. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Florida PTA as the Educational Pathways Chair and is the Chief Advocate for the Alliance for Public Schools. Angie holds a B.A. in Business Administration from UCF. She owns her own company Capital Marketing Strategies and started a nonprofit company, Parents and Educators Endorsing Public Schools. Angie and her husband Vince have two beautiful daughters. They reside in East Orange County.

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Maria Salamanca was elected the District 2 member of OCPS in 2022, the youngest voice in district history after a student-led grassroot campaign. Salamanca was a student of the district for 12 years in 6 different schools. She attended UC Berkeley where she studied Political Science and Legal Studies with a minor in Public Policy from the top program in the nation, the Goldman School of Public Policy.

Her passion for Public Policy led her to various projects with the Election Administration Center at Berkeley Law, Education Pioneers focused on building the leadership pipeline of U.S school districts. Salamanca was an early team member at FWD.us an immigration lobbying group founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other tech leaders.

The past eight years Salamanca has spent her career investing in entrepreneurs as a venture capitalist. Maria joined Unshackled Ventures in 2015, during her time she was involved in 75+ investments and has evaluated more than 8,000 companies. In 2022, she joined Ulu Ventures in 2022, the largest Latina led venture fund in the U.S.

In 2018, she was first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars.

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Alicia Farrant was elected in 2022 to serve as the School Board Member for District 3. She has grown up in a life of public service and helping those in need. At the age of 13 she moved to Guatemala with her family to engage in full time charity work. After high school she went into the medical field working her way from a CNA to an RN. She is the founder of Wigs of Hope, an outreach that has created over 300 wigs for underprivileged children. She has been married to her husband Jonathan since 2001 and together they have founded a non-profit that is focused on taking care of orphans and those in need.

Alicia is a mother of five children all of whom have been raised within the Orange County Public school system. Her goal has been to raise kind, loving, and courageous kids who grow up to be leaders wherever they go in life and has the same goal for our public school children. By standing up for the youth of Orange County, she hopes to show her community that hard work and dedication can truly make a difference in the world around us. Her desire is to raise the standard of excellence within our public schools by returning to the foundation that made our Nation great.

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Anne Douglas was born in France, where she developed a profound appreciation for education and public service. Her passion for learning, especially in languages like English and Spanish, flourished during her upbringing. This commitment to education and cultural diversity deepened when she met her husband while working as an exchange student at Epcot.

Starting her career with humble beginnings as a maid, Anne transitioned to become a public-school teacher in 1999, specializing in elementary education. Over the years, she has navigated every level of K-12 education and ventured into higher education, amassing a wealth of experience and insight. Anne is known for her dedication to going the extra mile to ensure her students are well-prepared for the challenges of higher education and the workforce.

Happily married with three wonderful children, Anne has been a resident of Orlando, FL, for over 30 years. She holds a master’s degree in education from Nova Southeastern University and has a rich history of 25 years as an educator at OCPS, predominantly in Title I schools. Additionally, Anne served as an Adjunct Professor at Valencia College for four years.

Vicki-Elaine Felder was elected to the School Board representing District 5 in November 2020. She is known as a wordsmith and orator. She paints the power of words and ideas on the minds and canvas of those who hear her; especially her students. She possesses the versatility to reach for hidden potential found in all of her students. This serves as a testimony of her ability and her commitment as a champion for education.

Vicki-Elaine Felder is a lifelong resident who lives in the beautiful Washington Shores community in Orlando, Florida. She is a masterful teacher who has committed 39 impactful years in the classroom for Orange County Public Schools. Her unwavering service as an educator, includes teaching in the subject areas of Drama, Film Study as a Narrative, American Literature, British Literature and African American Literature respectively. Her teaching assignments included Dr. Phillips High School, Maynard Evans High, Edgewater High and Valencia College Summer Academic Program for accelerated students from Jones High. Additionally, she has served as an English tutor for students from Edgewater High for the Rollins College Upward Bound Program.

Ms. Felder attended Eccleston and Washington Shores elementary schools, Carver Middle and the historic Jones High. In addition, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College, and a Master of Arts degree in Speech and Theatre from Kansas State University. She completed post-graduate work in English from the University of Central Florida and completed work in Cinema and Film Study as a Narrative from the TISCH School of the Arts at New York University. In the summer of 2020, she will receive a Master of Arts degree in Christian Ministry from the Bethune-Cookman University School of Religion.

Stephanie Vanos is a mom to three girls in Orange County Public Schools and a volunteer public education advocate. She was elected as the School Board Member for District 6 in 2024. A graduate of K12 public schools, Stephanie graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University and earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors.

Stephanie began her involvement with public education advocacy when her oldest daughter started kindergarten. She actively volunteered at her daughters’ schools and served on multiple School Advisory Councils. She graduated with the 2017 class of the OCPS Leadership Orange program. Stephanie is a member of the Education Committee of the League of Women Voters Orange County, serving as the co-chair for two years. In 2021, she joined a statewide public education caucus and ultimately became the Vice President. In that role, she advocated for pro-public education bills and issues in the state legislature and helped to build a grassroots pro-public education coalition across the state. Stephanie has also advocated at the national level with the Network for Public Education and was invited to discuss a series of papers under development by the National Academy of Education.

Stephanie has been active in the community since she moved to Orlando in 2003, serving on the Board of Directors for the Pace Center for Girls Orange and Girls on the Run Central Florida, where she also served as the Board Chair. She is currently a Trustee for the Track Shack Youth Foundation and also served on the OCPS Reapportionment Advisory Committee in 2021.

Melissa Byrd was elected to represent District 7 on the Orange County School Board in 2018, was re-elected in 2020 and most recently re-elected again in 2024. From an early age, Melissa Byrd had a passion for education, deciding she wanted to be a teacher when she was in elementary school while growing up in Altamonte Springs.

Her passion led her to the University of Central Florida, where she received her degree in elementary education in 1997 and started her career at Forest City Elementary, the school she attended as a child.

At Forest City Elementary, Melissa assumed leadership positions in addition to teaching first grade. She spent two years as a Title I reading resource teacher working with struggling readers in all grades. She implemented and supervised a groundbreaking program at the school whereby she trained older students in specific reading strategies to work with and remediate below-level readers in younger grades. She was also the staff trainer for the Reading Recovery and Four Blocks literacy program.

From there, Melissa moved to Pace Brantley Hall School in Longwood, where she specialized in working with children with learning differences in first through fourth grade. While at Pace Brantley, she worked extensively on brain-based research training and completed a clinical supervision course through UCF, as well as graduate level educational leadership courses.

Melissa later left the classroom to raise her daughters, Abigail and Madeline. Throughout their schooling, Melissa has been actively involved in her daughters' education. She served as the PTSA vice president and chair of the School Advisory Council at Piedmont Lakes Middle. At Clay Springs Elementary, she volunteered at multiple PTA events and was a regular classroom volunteer.

She served as a substitute teacher for Orange County Public Schools, working in elementary, middle and high schools in northwest Orange County.

Melissa moved from Altamonte Springs to the Apopka area in 1998 after marrying Alan Byrd, owner of Alan Byrd & Associates, a public relations and marketing firm.

Melissa is a graduate of Orlando Business Force's Central Florida Political Leadership Institute as well as Leadership Apopka.

Melissa serves on the Community Action Board for Orange County Government, the Apopka Community Advisory Council for Advent Health Apopka, the Wekiva Culinary Program Advisory Council, the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the HOPE Community Center Board of Directors, the Orlando Science Center Board of Trustees and the Florida School Boards Association Board of Directors. 

In 2019, Melissa was named an Emerging Leader from the Florida School Boards Association and in 2020, she earned the distinction of Certified Board Member