Leadership

Richard Marquez, President
		Richard Marquez began what is now a well-rounded career in education in 1975 as a middle school teacher. Over the past thirty years, he has worked in every possible area of the education business. As a creative and innovative leader, he has initiated many changes that are now considered educational norms.  (Read More)

 
Richard Marquez, President & CEO
Yolanda Cruz, Vice President of Education
Lew Blackburn, Vice President Business Services Tony Swafford is a native of Ponder, Texas, graduating from Ponder High School in 1971. He holds a BS in Physical Education and Biology (1974) and an M.Ed. in Public School Administration (1980) from the University of North Texas. Swafford has held many positions in Texas public schools, from custodian, maintenance, bus driver, teacher, coach, assistant principal, middle school and high school principal, director, executive director and assistant superintendent. He retired from Denton ISD in 2005 to pursue consulting opportunities, travelling across the country assisting with workshops for teachers and administrators with Dr. Ruby Payne’s Aha! Process, Inc. He has also been a teacher and administrator mentor with the I Teach Texas alternative certification program and presented SAT Prep Seminars for Test Prep Seminars of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Mr. Swafford has been with Texans Can! Since October, 2008, serving as Assistant Principal for School Improvement at Fort Worth Can! Academy – Campus Drive. With his assistance, Campus Drive met the Adequate Yearly Progress indicators of the No Child Left Behind act for the second consecutive year and will move out of the School Improvement Program in the 2009-10 school year. He was appointed principal at River Oaks on June 15, 2009.

Swafford and his lovely wife, Charla have been married 34 years and have two grown children, Shelly, a middle school choir director, and Jay, a high school teacher and coach. They both enjoy spending quality time with family, especially 5 year old granddaughter Mackenzie.

Mr. Swafford is deeply committed to the students of Fort Worth Can! Academy and their success in pursuing their high school diploma and improving their lives. He views his responsibilities this way; “I look forward to the challenge of increasing enrollment, retention, and graduation rates by providing the students of Fort Worth Can! Academy at River Oaks with an inviting, welcoming and safe environment where every student feels at home and is successful.”
Ku-Masi Lewis has lived in Fort Worth, Texas since the age of 11. Mrs. Lewis is a high school graduate from Oscar Dean Wyatt High school which is located directly across the street from Fort Worth Can! Academy. She earned her BS in Psychology from Texas Wesleyan University in 1999 and attained her Masters in Educational Administration from Prairie View A&M University in May 2009.

Mrs. Lewis has been a faithful servant of the Fort Worth Can! Academy Campus Drive since she was first awarded a teaching position in the special education department in 2002. She became the Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction in 2005, and recently was appointed the head principal's position in April of 2009. She has been happily married to her husband Richard for 10 years and is the proud of mother of 3 children (Ashley, Kaleb, and Jordan).