Mitch Flax

Mitch Flax

Jackson Heights, NY

School founder, systems builder, teacher, and analyst seeking to add value solving problems as a software engineer or data scientist.

Experience

Valence College Preparatory Charter School

Queens, NY

Executive Coach & Consultant part-time

Aug 2024 – Present
  • Coach and advise the school's incoming Executive Director and COO in topics of organizational leadership, compliance, risk, talent management, and strategy.

Founder & Executive Director

Sep 2018 – Aug 2024
  • Led the school's founding and operations from public application through planning, startup, and 5 years of operation.
  • Led instructional team to consistently outperform city, state, and district scores in NYS ELA and Math exams, including 83% proficiency in ELA (vs. 52% statewide) and 88% in Math (vs. 57% statewide) for 8th graders in 2024.
  • Managed $14MM annual budget to healthy spending ratio and surplus; earned clean audit opinions in each fiscal year.
  • Earned a full 5-year renewal term from the SUNY Charter Schools Institute and SUNY Trustees.
  • Led all staff in the execution of the school's vision — including startup systems, 440 scholars and families, 2,000+ interviews hiring 70 staff, and development of two incubation facilities and the permanent facility; liaised with Trustees, SUNY, NYC DOE, and NYSED.
  • Created and iterated multiple distance learning and hybrid models during COVID-19 to provide continuity of strong academics and social support while continuing school growth on schedule.

Building Excellent Schools

Queens, NY

Fellow

Aug 2017 – Aug 2018
  • Led the design and founding of Valence College Prep, including a campaign to gather support of hundreds of families and community organizations — including a vote and letter of support from Queens Community Board 4.

Leadership Public Schools – Richmond

Richmond, CA

Biology & Computer Science Teacher · Grade Level, Department & Content Lead

Aug 2014 – Aug 2017
  • Led grade level, Science department, Biology network team, staff culture team, and advised both the GSA and Robotics club.
  • Launched the first computer science course at LPS Richmond, teaching computational thinking and object-oriented design.

Google

Mountain View, CA

People Analyst

Jun 2011 – Aug 2014
  • Managed large-scale research projects, including a study of the characteristics of effective technical teams.
  • Managed reporting on the annual survey for 200+ HR business partners across every line of business.
  • Conducted analyses of HR data (attrition, promotion, performance, job & manager satisfaction) and developed prediction and reporting tools to support HRBPs and business leaders in making data-informed people decisions.
  • Created technical training (SQL, R, Excel) and tools to increase team efficiency and capability with people data.

Teach for America / Skyline High School, Oakland Unified School District

Oakland, CA

Algebra I & Geometry Instructor

Jun 2009 – Jun 2011
  • Led 120 students to a 25% increase in proficient or advanced proficient on the California Standards Test (CST).

Columbia University, Department of Computer Science

New York, NY

Teaching Assistant — COMS W1007: Object-Oriented Design & Patterns in Java

Spring 2009
  • Led grading and office hours for ~100 students in a course covering software design patterns.

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA

MS in Computer Science — Specialization in Computing Systems

GPA: 4.0 · Expected May 2027

Coursework: Graduate Intro to Operating Systems · High Performance Computer Architecture · Software Analysis & Testing · Machine Learning for Trading · Computer Networks · Intro to Information Security

Columbia College, Columbia University

New York, NY

BA in Economics / Mathematics

GPA: 3.74 · May 2009

Skills

Languages
Python, C, C++, Java, x86 & MIPS assembly, LLVM IR, JavaScript, AppsScript, Perl, VBA, R, SPSS, SQL, CSS
Libraries & Tools
Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, matplotlib, gRPC, MySQL, Oracle DB, GDB, Git, Django, Swagger, Postman, Excel, Sheets
Human Languages
Fluent in spoken French, proficient in reading; intermediate Spanish
Other
Music performance (voice, guitar, trumpet); studied classical voice at Manhattan School of Music under Spiro Malas