Board of Education Elects New Officers, Welcomes New Members

Karla Silvestre was selected by her colleagues on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, to serve as president of the Montgomery County Board of Education. Shebra L. Evans was selected vice president. Both officers will serve a one-year term.

“I look forward to working collaboratively with each of you and to being an effective and productive board so that we can do our important job of providing leadership and oversight of Montgomery County Public Schools for the benefit of our students,” Silvestre said during the meeting.

Ms. Silvestre was elected to her first four-year term on Nov. 6, 2018. She has been vice president of the Board; serves as chairperson of the Board of Education’s Strategic Planning Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Special Populations, and the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Committee. In addition, she has served as the Board’s representative to the Maryland Association of Boards of Education’s Resolutions Committee.

Ms. Silvestre graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and received her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. She is married with two children who attend MCPS.

Mrs. Evans was elected to a second four-year term on Nov. 3, 2020. She previously served a second term as president of the Board of Education. She is the chairperson of the Board’s Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Committee and is a member of the Board’s Policy Management Committee.

Mrs. Evans has worked as a financial analyst in the cable and energy industry since 1996. She received a degree in economics and finance from Tennessee State University. She has two children—an MCPS graduate and a junior in MCPS.

From left to right, Ms. Silvestre, Ms. Brenda Wolff, Ms. Rivera-Oven and Ms. Yang are sworn in by the Clerk of Court.

On Dec. 1, along with Ms. Silvestre, three newly elected members of the Board were sworn in to office. They included: Grace Rivera-Oven (District 1), Julie Yang (District 3) and re-elected member Brenda Wolff (District 5).

Ms. Yang succeeds Dr. Scott Joftus, and Ms. Rivera-Oven succeeds Dr. Judith Docca, who did not seek re-election.