Who will Mayor Parker choose to run the Philadelphia School District? Here is the list of finalists.

Who will be on Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s school board?

The city’s Educational Nominating Panel divulged the names of the 27 finalists for the nine school board seats, culled from 121 applications from city residents, Thursday night.

The all-volunteer board is responsible for running one of the country’s largest school systems, a district with a $4.5 billion budget. It’s expected to be seated May 1, and its term runs concurrent with the mayor’s.

Parker has the prerogative to assemble a board comprising entirely new members, or she can include members of the current board. Two current school board members had already publicly stated they weren’t candidates to continue — vice president Mallory Fix-Lopez announced last week she withdrew her name from consideration for Parker’s school board, citing the time demands of the job.

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Julia Danzy, another original member of the school board, had indicated she did not want to serve another term.

All current seven sitting board members who wanted to be considered for new terms made it through to the next round. They are: Sarah-Ashley Andrews, a therapist and nonprofit founder; Leticia Egea-Hinton, a social worker and former city employee who is also a former board vice-president and the leader of the search process that brought Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. to Philadelphia; Chau Wing Lam, a nonprofit leader who has experience in the charter sector; Lisa Salley, who has experience as an engineer and in the business sector; Reginald Streater, the current board president, a lawyer; Cecelia Thompson, who has been active in parent and special-needs groups for years; and Joyce Wilkerson, who’s now retired but who worked in higher education and as former Mayor John Street’s chief of staff.

The other 20 are:

Nakia Carr, district office manager for state Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Phila.) and a member of the Police Department Advisory Council for the 17th District, a mother, grandmother and former president of the Prep Charter parent and community advisory council.

Timothy Crowther, political and legislative director for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 21. Crowther, a former glazier, has also worked as fund administrator and business agent of that union.

Crystal Cubbage, a Philadelphia School District graduate who worked as an electronics engineer at NASA Glenn Research Center, a Peace Corps volunteer, and teacher at public and private high schools. She also started her own nonprofit and worked on teams opening new schools with Drexel University and the district. She’s now the executive director for the Philadelphia Learning Collaborative.

Cindy Farlino, a former Philadelphia teacher, administrator and principal of Meredith Elementary School who now manages a project involving arts education for the nonprofit Children First.

Mark Gittelman, a recently retired lawyer for PNC Bank who sits on the board of the Support Center for Child Advocates and the Philadelphia Bar Foundation who continues to take on pro bono work.

Cheryl Harper, a district graduate and former district teacher, administrator and director of human resources under former Superintendent Constance Clayton. Harper also worked as human resources director in the Camden school system and for the Pennsylvania Department of Education assisting schools with meeting state educational goals. Harper is currently a Cheyney University trustee.

Keola Harrington, a district graduate who worked as an AmeriCorps member teaching first grade at Comegys Elementary and algebra at West Philadelphia High, is now the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s chief financial officer. She has also worked in senior management for the city’s Commerce Department and was the assistant city treasurer.

Michael Henderson, an entrepreneur, has held leadership positions in various corporate settings. He holds law and neuropharmacology degrees.

Jameika Id-Deen, a district graduate, is a member of the district’s Parent and Community Advisory Council and a parent of seven, including a neurodiverse daughter. She has a coaching certification in Individualized Education Program document drafting and consultations.

David Irizarry, currently Delaware County’s Superintendent of Juvenile Justice Services, is the former deputy director of Philadelphia’s Office of Violence Prevention and with Philadelphia’s Youth Violence Reduction Partnership.

Dominique Johnson, the special events and training coordinator at Achieve Reunification Center, a Philadelphia Department of Human Services program designed to help parents with dependency cases. Johnson founded Horizon Youth Experience, a community youth program aimed at creating positive life experiences for underserved youth.

Whitney Jones, chief financial officer at the nonprofit Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, who previously worked in finance for the KIPP charter school networks in San Antonio and Philadelphia. Jones also monitored charter schools’ financial stability with the DC Public Charter School Board.

Letisha Laws, a doctoral candidate at Drexel University focusing her research on the lived experience of Black principals in high-poverty schools, worked as a teacher and administrator at charter schools. Laws is senior program officer at Elevate 215, a nonprofit that raises funds for city public, charter and private schools.

Maddie Luebbert, who is a current Philadelphia teacher and advocate for LGBTQIA students. Luebbert has said they will leave their teaching job at the end of the school year.

Colleen McCauley, a nurse and public health professional and parent of a recent district graduate, was recently health policy director at Children First.

Cheryl Mobley-Stimpson, a district graduate who holds advanced degrees in law and education, is a former district teacher with experience in community outreach and leadership development. She has also served as an adjunct professor.

Wanda Novales, executive pastor of the City Reach Church, is the former CEO and principal of Pan American Charter School who also has experience teaching in district and charter schools. She’s a board member of the Tacony Civic Association and the Philadelphia Gospel Movement.

Michelle Palmer, executive director of Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, a program that helps underserved students get to “top choice high schools,” is a former teacher and administrator at Germantown Friends School.

Marisa Shaaban, the parent of three children in district schools, is the director of constituent affairs for Rep. Ben Waxman (D., Phila.) and the former director of government relations for the Delaware Valley Health Council, where she advocated for uninsured and underinsured people in the Philadelphia region. Shaaban is a former member of the school board’s Parent and Community Advisory Council.

Joan Stern, a public finance attorney who has drafted debt and finance legislation enacted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Stern has also served as special counsel and bound counsel to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the city, and the district.

Parker has 10 days to ask the nominating panel for more names if she believes the list of 27 is lacking.

The city charter spells out who should sit on the school board: “persons who are nominated or appointed to the Board of Education should reflect the diversity of backgrounds, experience and training that is representative of the City, including but not limited to: being the parent(s) of a current or former public school student(s); having training or experience in the areas of business, finance, education, public housing, or community affairs; or, having any other such training or expertise relevant and beneficial to the operations and management of the public school system.”

If she doesn’t ask for more candidates, the mayor is expected to name her school board within 10 days.

Once Parker makes her choices, then City Council weighs in with public hearings.

Two former school board members who offered public testimony at Tuesday’s meeting thanked those who had raised their hands to serve — and warned them.

“I will not sugarcoat that it was long hours, momentous decisions, lots of reading,” said Lee Huang, a district parent and business leader who served on the board from 2018 to 2021. “And you’ll get yelled at, and most of the time it’s because you should be yelled at. People don’t like that, but it’s part of the job.”

Of the members of the public who signed up to address the nominating panel, many advocated for charter schools and board members who support them.

And a few members of the public lobbed criticism of the process at the nominating panel.

Lisa Haver, a former district teacher and co-founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, said the school board selection process is happening “in the most secretive way possible.”

Otis Bullock Jr., chair of the nominating panel, defended the process, which is spelled out by the city charter.

Bullock said he was excited by the group of finalists, people who fit the bill of having “serious gravitas,” and diversity — not just in ethnicity, but in life experiences.

“I think we presented [Parker] with 27 very strong candidates,” Bullock said.