The schoolAbility Leadership Team is comprised of highly-skilled school financial management professionals with expertise in financial management and human resources systems used by most school districts and charter schools in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Texas.
The schoolAbility Leadership Team includes two Certified Public Accountants, one former school auditor, business managers, Finance and HR/Payroll subject matter experts, and ERP software systems architects and developers with a combined experience in excess of 150 years.
Following are the schoolAbility Leadership Team biographies.
Alfredo Diaz, Founder and CEO
Alfredo has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He worked at International Business Machines Corp, for ten years, where he held a number of senior technical positions. While at IBM, Alfredo filed three US patents related to software systems architecture (US5566348, US5450384, and US5440686). He also worked on several large‐scale, mission‐critical software projects for Fortune 500 companies, such as Baxter Healthcare and Philips Semiconductors.
Alfredo founded ALSTEC Systems, Inc., a profitable information technology consulting firm in 1995. Under Alfredo’s leadership, ALSTEC Systems developed a student tracking system for the University of Arizona and a 401(k) investment performance tracking application for PiperJaffray.
Alfredo founded Apta Software, Inc., in 1997 and was deeply involved in the architecture and design of AptaFund, the first Internet-hosted financial management and human resources system for schools. He was instrumental in the sale and implementation of the early adopters of AptaFund including Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona, Alameda Unified School District in Alameda, California, and Springtown Independent School District in Springtown, Texas.
In 2004, Alfredo founded Dirt Ventures, LLC., a Tucson-based land development company. His involvement in high-profile land transactions gave Alfredo insight into the complexities of urban planning, land use policies, zoning restrictions, and the challenges imposed on schools as a result of residential development and changing demographics.
After Apta Software was acquired by Harris School Solutions in 2007, Alfredo formed Aerarium, LLC., to provide independent consulting, implementation, training, and value-added support services to AptaFund customers. In this capacity, Alfredo expanded AptaFund’s market share in California and made AptaFund the de facto standard financial management and human resources system for New Mexico charter schools, attaining a market share in excess of 95%. Shortly thereafter, Aerarium became the fastest-growing provider of premium outsourced business office services for schools in New Mexico.
Alfredo founded schoolAbility, LLC in 2020. In 2022, schoolAbility became the exclusive reseller of Skyward Qmlativ in California, New Mexico, and Texas.
Gary Shaw, Director of Professional Services – Texas
Gary received his undergraduate degree in Composite Science from Texas Wesleyan University and master’s degree in educational administration from Texas Woman’s University.
Gary has been involved in Texas public education for over 25 years. He has served 15 years as the Chief Financial Officer for Springtown Independent School District in Springtown, Texas, overseeing a $34 million annual budget.
Gary oversees the business office operations for schoolAbility clients in Texas. He is responsible for the oversight of all business office functions, including payroll, accounts payable, bank reconciliations, human resources, Federal grant management, audit preparation, the Texas Public Education Information Management Systems, budgeting, and governing board financial reporting.
Previously, Gary has served as a science teacher at the middle school and high school levels and as a district-level technology director. Earlier in his career, Gary owned and operated a utility construction firm.
Jacque Eischens, Director of Professional Services – California
Jacque graduated from Concordia University, St. Paul with a bachelor’s degree in Management of Human Services and holds a Certificate in Management of School Business from University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.
Early in her career, Jacque spent 3.5 years as a Fiscal Specialist and 6 months as interim business manager at Middletown Unified School District in rural Northern California. She trained site users in attendance reporting, purchasing processes, and managing site-based budgets. Jacque also managed the district budgeting process, attendance reporting, and financial reporting.
Subsequently, Jacque spent 7.5 years with Escape Technology providing support to internal and external customers; streamlining processes; managing a team of developers, support specialists, and quality assurance specialists; assisting with project implementations; and providing internal and external trainings on the Escape Online 5 software. Jacque has expertise in California school business accounting, streamlining processes, developing customer support standards and processes, and content development.
Most recently, Jacque spent two years as the CBO for Lakeport Unified School District.
Sonia Taylor, CPA, Payroll Services Manager – California
Sonia is a CPA and is responsible for managing all payroll services engagements. Sonia graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s in business administration with an emphasis in accounting. Over the past 3 years she has worked in the school financial management software industry.
Marisa Mandal, CPA, SME (Finance)
Marisa has been involved with training, development, and support of school financial management software for the past 20 years. Marisa helped design the General Ledger for the AptaFund financial management system and worked closely with school business managers, auditors, and developers to ensure it would meet the requirements of charter schools and school districts across multiple states.
Marisa’s experience as former auditor and chief business offices for school districts enables her to help schools leverage the power of a school’s financial management software to its fullest potential.
Marisa provides CPA-level support for the schoolAbility team and schoolAbility clients.