EDUCATION STRATEGY GROUP - Key Persons
Adam Lowe began collaborating with ESG in 2018, providing policy advising and technical assistance to clients on postsecondary transitions and alignment of K12 and higher education sectors. Over the past two decades working in the education sector, Adam has applied his analytical and stakeholder engagement skills to facilitate institutional change and improvement across all levels of K12 and higher education initiatives at the local, district, state, and national levels.
Adam served as the first Executive Director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) - leading the organization through a period of rapid growth and transition over his 9 year tenure. Adam led NACEP's Board of Directors through three rounds of strategic planning, refining it vision and charting the direction of the organization's work. To amplify the impact of NACEP's strong peer network, he increased NACEP's engagement with state higher education systems and agencies to scale its accreditation and quality improvement work. He regularly advised on legislation and regulatory policy that impacted dual and concurrent enrollment programs at the state and federal level, and worked with four partner organizations to establish the College in High School Alliance to further support the development of policies that address both equity and quality in the field by collectively harnessing the efforts of 70 leading state and national organizations.
Prior to joining NACEP, Adam spent a decade as an education consultant for a variety of universities, nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies in Washington, D.C.; Indiana, and North Carolina. He supported high school innovation and scale-up of the New Tech and Early College models in Indiana, managed statewide stakeholder engagement processes on college transitions and career readiness, and assisted charter school authorizers in developing appropriate quality assurance mechanisms.
Alissa began collaborating with Education Strategy Group in 2016, supporting the organization's college and career readiness strategy. Alissa is currently playing a high impact role providing technical assistance to support the Career Readiness Initiative (CRI) as well as working to increase collaboration between K-12 and higher education through state ESSA implementation planning.
Alissa has worked with state education leaders across sectors and states to close expectation and preparation gaps. In addition to collaborating with ESG, Alissa has been working as an independent consultant, supporting college-and career-ready policy development and implementation, working with organizations including the Aspen Institute, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Annie Phillips joined Education Strategy Group in 2017 to support work that fosters collaboration among K-12, higher education and workforce stakeholders. In this role, Annie has provided technical and strategic assistance on numerous initiatives including efforts to develop a statewide plan to smooth high school/postsecondary transitions in Indiana and to design and execute a collaborative initiative to improve 9-16 IT pathways in the Greater Washington DC Region. Primarily, her focus has been to support states like Rhode Island and North Carolina as they set, plan for and accelerate work to meet ambitious postsecondary attainment goals.
Before ESG, Annie worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for Jobs for the Future's Pathways to Prosperity initiative where she audited career readiness programs and labor market information to inform several reports and landscape analyses. Prior to that, Annie served as a Program Director at CUNY - LaGuardia Community College where she led a grant-funded professional development program aimed at providing soft skills training and work-based learning opportunities to bilingual and multilingual students.
Annie graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Chinese Language from Hamilton College in 2013 following which she taught elementary English and music in central China. In 2017, she earned her master's degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Board Member of the National Skills Coalition
Brenda Dann-Messier worked at ESG from 2015 -2017 as a Senior Advisor and Coach for the NSFY Initiative and has returned to ESG as a Senior Advisor. In 2017 Brenda was appointed Rhode Island's Postsecondary Commissioner and worked as Commissioner until May 2019.
Brenda worked for the Obama administration from 2009-2014 as the Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education and from 2013-2014 was also the Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education. Prior her time at the U.S. Department of Education, Brenda was the President of Dorcas Place Adult and Family Learning Center for a decade and directed two TRIO programs at the Community College of RI.
Brenda is a Board member of the National Skills Coalition, RI's Commerce Corporation, the Re-Entry Campus Program and a Trustee of Johnson and Wales University. She holds an Ed. D from Johnson and Wales University and a M.Ed. and BA from Rhode Island College.
Brett leads ESG's efforts to increase attainment of meaningful credentials after high school that have value in the workplace. In this role, he is focused on developing strategies that increase student success in postsecondary institutions and, ultimately, improving attainment of certificates and degrees.
Brett has over thirty years of experience in promoting student success. Before joining ESG, Brett served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Collaboration and Completion for the Ohio Department of Higher Education. In this role, he developed strategies to help institutions improve completion rates, operate more systemically and implement approaches that lead to more adult students earning credentials.
Brett also worked as an independent consultant on a wide variety of education and workforce alignment initiatives with state and national clients. Prior to consulting, Brett was Vice President, College & Career Access at KnowledgeWorks Foundation where he played a key role in developing the Ohio Early College High School Network and the Ohio College Access Network. During Brett's early career, he had a background with youth programming and college access with programs at Wesleyan University, University of Connecticut, and the Greater Washington D.C. College Information Center as well as at the National Council for Education Opportunity Associations in Washington, DC.
Visger earned a Bachelor's degree in history from the University of Connecticut and a Master's degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from George Mason University.
Briana Falduti joined ESG in 2021 to support the postsecondary transitions portfolio. Prior to joining ESG, Briana served as a graduate research assistant in the Office of Policy and Strategy at the Tennessee Board of Regents. Before graduate school, Briana served as the Post-Secondary Success Specialist for Greater Than, an education nonprofit in Portland, Oregon that serves students pre-K through college and career. In this role, Briana oversaw all postsecondary initiatives throughout the spectrum - from educating parents about postsecondary options to helping students design a postsecondary plan and developing support programs to help students transition to and succeed in higher education. Briana also served two terms of AmeriCorps with College Possible where she coached students through the college admission process.
Briana earned a Master of Public Policy in education policy from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Principal of Bruce Vandal Consulting
Bruce Vandal is the principal of Bruce Vandal Consulting (BVC) where he works with states, systems, institutions, and national higher education organizations to implement evidence-based college completion reforms. Bruce provides practical technical assistance and professional advice to organizations, conducts program evaluations and research, and provides strategic planning services. Bruce was Senior VP at Complete College America and was the VP of Development and Outreach as well as the Director of the Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development Institute at ECS.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Lead Consultant
- Project Manager
Calista Smith serves as an advisor on the Education Strategy Group's Noncredit and Credit Alignment Lab.
Calista has served as project manager and lead consultant on change implementation projects including certificate and credential reviews for the Ohio Department of Higher Education, program of study technical assistance for the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, the Degrees When Due degree completion strategy for the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Before starting her consulting firm in 2011, Calista worked in career-tech education, management consulting, and philanthropy.
Smith holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and bachelor's degrees in Communications and the Honors Program from Villanova University. She is also a credentialed project management professional.
She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and daughter.
Job Titles:
- Director
- ESG in 2022 As a Director
Casey Haugner Wrenn joined ESG in 2022 as a Director on the Career Readiness team, where she supports work on aligning high-quality K-12, postsecondary, and industry pathways. Previously, Casey spent over a decade at the Tennessee Department of Education, where she served as Assistant Commissioner. During her tenure at TDOE, Casey oversaw national, consortia, and statewide summative and formative assessments for the state. Prior to her role leading assessment, Casey served as Assistant Commissioner of College, Career, and Technical Education and led much of the state's work reforming career and technical education course standards and alignment to certifications, as well as overseeing postsecondary and career readiness programs, including statewide ACT/SAT testing, FAFSA filing, and school counseling, and advising. In this role, she also served as designee member of the State Workforce Development Board.
Prior to joining the department, Casey was a site manager with TNTP (The New Teacher Project), supporting several Tennessee districts in hiring and training teachers for high need schools and subject areas. She came to education non-traditionally, beginning her career in finance and public sector consulting with Deloitte's federal practice in Washington D.C. after earning her Masters of Business Administration from Tulane University's Freeman School of Business. Casey also holds a Masters of Education from the Broad Residency in Urban Education and a Bachelors of Arts in English from Tulane University. She grew up in rural Arkansas and has two children-Josephine and Randall-with her husband Ryan.
Job Titles:
- President
- Senior Advisor
- Trustee of Excelsior College
Charlene Mickens Dukes is President Emerita of Prince George's Community College (PGCC) and led the college for 13 years as president and 12 years as vice president for Student Services. She also served as Interim President of Montgomery College from August 2021 to February 2022. In 2014, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Colleges and served as chair in 2016. She spent seven years on the Maryland State Board of Education and was elected president from 2012-2015. Her entry to what higher education could provide to families and communities began with her Upward Bound experience at St. Francis University in Loretto, PA.
Charlene spent a portion of her career at the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, PA as a professional in Student Affairs and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in admissions and financial aid. She sits on a number of non-profit boards and focuses her contributions on the educational equity space. She is a mentor with the Aspen Rising Fellows Program, teaches in the doctoral program at North Carolina State University, and consults with the Association of Community College Trustees and the American Association of Community Colleges.
Charlene is a Trustee of Excelsior College and the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. National Skills. She holds an Ed.D and M.Ed. from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.S.Ed. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Chris joined ESG in 2022 upon his return home to the D.C. area after 20-plus years in New York City. He is responsible for connecting the dots of strategy, finance, technology, marketing and talent to deliver meaningful opportunity and impact for his colleagues, funders, students and educators.
Prior to joining ESG, Chris spent over 15 years as a senior executive within the Omnicom network, where he led strategic growth initiatives for Fortune 50 companies including Salesforce, Oracle, Kimberly Clark, Mastercard, Bank of New York Mellon, and others throughout Europe, Asia, South Africa, and North and South America.
Chris is a proponent and investor in continued education for both seasoned CEOs and COOs as well as graduate students at the beginning of their careers. In his role as Chapter Director of both the Washington D.C. and New York City branches of the Chief Operating Officer Business Forum, Chris leads discussions and workshops on topics including Change Management, Navigating Uncertainty, and Defining Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. As a mentor in the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program, Chris supports students through the study of Design Thinking as it relates to business strategy and creative execution. He is an also frequent speaker on the intersection of technology, operations and the creative practice.
Since the pandemic, Chris has been providing leadership and direction during this time of significant disruption and change. He has built an innovative and practical tool called The Seven Pillars of Wellness as a Business Framework, which positions social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, occupational, intellectual, and physical wellness at the forefront of creating a "better normal." Working with CEO and HR executives, Chris drives the strategic thinking and planning to generate policy, focus, and vision built on healthy employees, clients, and communities with the ultimate goal of delivering profit but also tangible and impactful purpose.
Christine joined Education Strategy Group in 2021 to design, lead, and support efforts focused on increasing the postsecondary attainment of credentials of value. In this role, she advances collaborative, evidence-based postsecondary initiatives toward improving student outcomes and eliminating equity gaps.
Christine has over 20 years of experience creating the programs and strategic partnerships that transform learner paths to the workforce. Prior to joining ESG, Christine served as an accomplished postsecondary leader at Prince George's Community College. During her tenure as Dean of the Division of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), she led key institutional elements of Guided Pathways implementation, credit/non-credit organizational and credential alignment, and student success program development. She helped secure over $30 million in grants for the College and its partners and she led complex, regional partnerships of local school systems, higher education institutions, community organizations, and employer partners. Christine also served as a professor and department chair of biological sciences. She has created programs to increase student engagement, accelerate student progress through dual enrollment and early/middle college, and facilitate teacher professional development. During her early career, Christine served as a molecular genetics research scientist for the National Institutes of Health.
Christine earned her Ph.D. in biology with an emphasis in molecular genetics from Howard University and her Bachelor's degree in biology from Tuskegee University.
Cindy Deitsch joined Education Strategy Group in September 2019 to provide administrative support to the Postsecondary Transition, Career Readiness, and Postsecondary Attainment teams. Before ESG, Cindy worked for the Illinois Board of Higher Education and in the legal sector as an executive assistant. Cindy attended Illinois State University and Lincoln Land Community College. She is one of the many adults with a large number of credit hours but no degree. Her personal interests include her family, flower and vegetable gardening, and baking and cake decorating.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Executive Assistant to the President
Cynthia supports postsecondary transitions, student success, and workforce alignment by conducting thoughtful policy research and by leading systemic and collaborative efforts to improve education and workforce outcomes, especially for traditionally underserved students.
Previously Cynthia was a program officer at the John M. Belk Endowment where she managed $30 million in grant partnerships. Prior to that, she served as Associate Vice President for Policy Research & Special Projects at the North Carolina Community College System Office, where she led comprehensive developmental education redesign and math pathways across 58 community colleges and served as a state policy lead for early guided pathways work supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Cynthia also had an extensive career in policy research and evaluation for Regional Technology Strategies, a national economic and workforce development policy non-profit, and spent her first professional years as a legislative staffer on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Cynthia holds a Bachelor's degree in political science and French from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters of Public Policy from Georgetown University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Founder and Principal of StrategyForward Advisors
Dr. Julie Johnson is the founder and principal of StrategyForward Advisors, a postsecondary policy and strategy consultancy that works at the intersections of education and industry, technology, and justice. Julie is a higher education leader with 20 years of institutional, policy, and entrepreneurial expertise. She oversaw state higher education policy and advocacy for 42 states as Vice President of Strategy for Complete College America. She helped launch and lead a new community college as Deputy CEO of the University of the District of Columbia Community College. While at the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance in the U.S. Department of Education, she conducted policy research on college access, success, and affordability for Congress and the Secretary of Education. She helped develop and launch a new education-to-business venture to close industry skill gaps at Strayer Education and co-founded Faculty Guild, an ed-tech startup, to help college faculty improve their teaching.
Julie is a long-time board member and former board chair for Maya Angelou Schools, serving opportunity and justice-impacted youth and young adults. She is co-founder of Neighbors for Justice, a local organization that strives to be better neighbors to those at the DC Jail and beyond through awareness, advocacy, and support. Julie has also served as a professorial lecturer in education at The George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, a community college adjunct instructor at UDC Community College, and a guest speaker at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland, and George Mason University. She received her Ed.D. in Educational Policy from The George Washington University, Ed.M. in Higher Education from Harvard University, and B.A. in English from Azusa Pacific University.
Dr. Michael Deuser is a seasoned leader dedicated to building educational systems that drive increased postsecondary success and upward economic mobility for young people. Prior to joining ESG, Dr. Deuser served as the Chief of College and Career Success for Chicago Public Schools (CPS), where he oversaw school counseling and postsecondary advising, early college, career and technical education (CTE), work-based learning, community schools and out-of-school time, social-emotional learning, and competency-based education for America's third-largest school district. In a prior stint at CPS, Deuser directed district departments responsible for continuous improvement and student assessment.
In addition to his work at CPS, Dr. Deuser previously served as the Director of Research and Performance Management at the Academy of Urban School Leadership (AUSL), a Chicago-based school management and teacher development organization, where he worked with teachers, principals, and organizational leaders to develop evidence-based products and practices to enhance student success. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at Jobs for the Future (JFF), where helped K-12 districts, colleges, and employers nationwide collaborate to create career-aligned education pathways culminating in postsecondary credentials with labor market value.
Dr. Deuser leads based on core values of learning, evidence, and impact, and he believes deeply in the transformative power of education. He holds a B.A. in English from Stanford University, a master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- ESG As an Associate
Dylan Jacovo joined ESG as an Associate in March 2022 to support the postsecondary transitions portfolio. Prior to joining ESG, Dylan served as an Associate Policy Analyst at The Hunt Institute, a North Carolina-based non-partisan education policy organization. In this role, Dylan supported the Institute's state engagement work and routinely collaborated with elected officials throughout the country on issues that span the full education continuum and worked to support state lawmakers across the political spectrum in their efforts to become equity-minded education policymakers.
Before his time at The Hunt Institute, Dylan was an Irving B. Harris Fellow at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. While in graduate school, Dylan held a variety of research and policy positions; specifically, he worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at the Harris School, where he helped support the design and implementation of the school's first strategic plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion. He also served as a Research Assistant with the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab, and as a Graduate Policy Fellow with MassINC, a non-partisan public policy think tank, where he supported the organization with mixed-methods research and analysis regarding the labor market returns to community college in Massachusetts.
Prior to graduate school, Dylan worked as an AVID tutor and substitute teacher in Tucson, Arizona, where he supported students in several dozen urban public schools, in all grades PK-12. He also spent a summer in student services and recruitment at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona.
An Arizona native, Dylan graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science - Law & Public Policy. He also holds a Master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and a M.A. Certificate in Education & Society with the UChicago Committee on Education.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- in 2021 As an Associate
Eric Cherrie joined Education Strategy Group in 2021 as an Associate to support the organization's work on postsecondary attainment.
Previously, Eric worked as the Manager of Strategy and Impact for the Cowen Institute at Tulane University. His work focused on the design, implementation, and growth of strategic initiatives to improve educational and employment outcomes for young people in New Orleans. In an earlier role there, he coordinated a collaborative focused on reconnecting opportunity youth.
He also served two years with AmeriCorps, working in Austin, TX and Boulder, CO. During that time, he worked on dropout prevention, college access, and career readiness.
Eric holds an MBA from Tulane University and an MPA from the University of Colorado, Denver.
Job Titles:
- Accountant
- Accountant for ESG
Eveline Carpenter has served as the Accountant for ESG since its founding. She brings over 30 years experience as an Accountant and Controller in variety of industries, including 11 years as a Senior Accountant at Achieve, where she supported the organization's expansion in partnering with state leaders to improve college and career readiness. Eveline is committed to supporting ESG staff and its partners achieve greater impact.
Heather Justice joined ESG in 2020 to lead and support the work on career readiness and aligning high quality K-12, postsecondary, and industry pathways.
Prior to joining ESG, Heather served as the Division Director for College, Career and Military Preparation within the Texas Education Agency where she oversaw the implementation of the Texas Regional Pathways Network, high-quality Career and Technical Education programs, work-based learning, industry certifications of value, and College and Career Readiness School Models such as Early College High Schools, Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, and Texas STEM Academies. During this time Heather also served as the Secretary and Treasurer on the Board of Advance CTE.
Prior to joining the Texas Education Agency, Heather was the Executive Director of Career and Technical Education for the Tennessee Department of Education. In this role she managed the comprehensive reform of Career and Technical Education programs of study, instituted data sharing agreements to obtain industry certification data, overhauled licensing of CTE educators, and established a statewide professional development model for CTE educators.
Heather taught high school accounting and marketing and served as a public relations and campaign finance consultant. She holds a Master's in education from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor's degree in business administration from the Florida State University.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the University of Chicago 's Harris School of Public Policy
James Jacobs started partnering with ESG in 2022 as a coach for the Non-Credit and Credit Alignment Lab. Jacobs assumed the presidency of Macomb Community College on July 1, 2008. Prior to his appointment, he concurrently served as director for the Center for Workforce Development and Policy at the college, and as associate director, Community College Research Center (CCRC), Teachers College, Columbia University, where he currently serves as a research affiliate.
Jacobs earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and has more than 40 years experience at Macomb. He has taught social science, political science and economics. He specializes in the areas of workforce skills and technology, economic development, worker retraining and community college workforce development, and is widely published in these areas of expertise. In addition, Jacobs has conducted research, developed programs and consulted on workforce development and community college issues at the national, state and local levels.
Jacobs is a past president of the National Council for Workforce Education, a national post-secondary organization of occupational education and workforce development specialists. He was also a member of the Community College Advisory Panel to the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey, and on the board of the Global Corporate College, which provided consistent, just-in-time employee development to support business priorities across multiple time zones, locations and languages through a network of U.S. community colleges and universities.
Jacobs serves on several local boards, including the Center for Automotive Research, Metropolitan Affairs Council, Detroit Institute of Arts, United Way for Southeastern Michigan and Advancing Macomb. He is widely known for the Macomb County Economic Forecast, which he has presented annually for more than 30 years for the coalition of county's chambers of commerce. Currently Dr. Jacobs is a senior advisor to the Ralph Wilson Foundation, and lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Education.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- ESG in 2022 As an Associate
Janice Le joined ESG in 2022 as an Associate to support the postsecondary transitions portfolio. Before joining ESG, Janice was a Rackham Merit Fellow at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. During her time in graduate school, she served as a Policy Intern for The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), where she supported legislative efforts in California to increase quality, transparency, and equity in higher education. In addition, Janice worked as a Research Assistant at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Education Policy Initiative. In this role, she utilized qualitative methods to understand how low-income students respond to financial aid interventions.
Prior to graduate school, Janice was a College Advisor in the Bay Area, where she was committed to increasing access, equitable opportunities, and success for first-generation, low-income, students of color. Moreover, Janice has led successful campaigns to increase economic and educational opportunities for young people most impacted by structural inequities as a former youth, student, and community organizer.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Janice graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Legal Studies and Social Welfare. She also holds a Master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.
Jenna Ahner joined ESG in 2022 to support its Career Readiness portfolio.
Prior to joining ESG, Jenna was the Executive Director of the Delaware State Board of Education. In this role she coordinated the State Board's strategic priorities, provided legislative and regulatory policy analysis, and developed and managed all procedures and communications for the Board. In partnership with the Department of Education, she facilitated committees and coalitions, including the Delaware P-20 Council and the State Board's committee to develop the Perkins Transition Plan and four-year plan.
Prior to this position, Jenna was a Senior Program Officer at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware and led the organization's college and career policies and initiatives. As a part of this work, she was a part of Delaware cross-sector career pathways team.
In previous roles with the University of Delaware, she worked with the Institute for Public Administration on projects related to broadband adoption, charter schools, and public libraries. She also served as a Legislative Fellow for the Education and Labor Committees of the Delaware House of Representatives.
Jenna earned her B.A. in Public Policy and International Relations and her Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Delaware.
Jen began working with ESG in 2020 to lead its strategic planning process and now stewards the organization's strategy and innovation work. As part of her role, Jen is in charge of designing and launching innovation systems at ESG, including leading pilots and exploration of growth areas and service offerings. She is also responsible for ongoing strategy implementation, with a focus on building enhanced business and impact analytics to guide decision-making and designing internal processes to strengthen business development processes.
Prior to ESG, Jen served as Head of Consulting for Agora Partnerships, where she led an accelerator program for social businesses across the Americas. As part of that role, she designed and led intensive bootcamps for CEOs from social businesses across different sectors to help them develop their strategic growth plans, define their impact strategies, and prepare to raise impact investment, and led a team of consultants to provide personalized consulting to entrepreneurs as part of the accelerator program. She also built out Agora's office in Colombia and led the partnership strategy across the country.
Before that, Jen was a part of the New Designs to Advance Learning team at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she conducted grantmaking to best-in-class organizations leading work to reimagine schools and school systems to provide more student-centered and future-oriented learning experiences. Jen began her career teaching English as a Fulbright scholar in Argentina and as a Teach for America Corps member in New York City.
Jen earned her B.A. in Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University and holds a M.S. in Education - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Fordham University and a M.A. in Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences from Columbia University. She is active in the entrepreneurship and impact investing space across the Americas where she regularly serves as a mentor to social start-ups. She also co-founded and remains on the leadership committee of Mujeres de Impacto, a network designed to foster personal growth and reflection in women working in impact in Colombia.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor With
John Fischer is currently a Senior Advisor with Education Strategy Group and Principal at Education Solutions, LLC providing consulting and technical assistance in education and workforce issues to states, municipalities and organizations. John provides strategic direction and counsel in various pathways to employment initiatives for youth and adults with the goal to increase postsecondary credential attainment in upwardly mobile careers for underserved learners. Recent projects include development of information technology pathways across K12 and higher education, incarcerated and justice-impacted pathways to employment, state level credentials of value framework, philanthropic approaches to early postsecondary pathways, strategic planning for non-profit organizations, community college adult education pathways and non-credit to credit alignment.
Prior to establishing Education Solutions in 2020, John was a senior program officer in Global Policy and Advocacy for U.S. Programs with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this role, he was responsible for national strategies supporting federal and state education and workforce policy, education to employment pathways, economic mobility, state assessments, school improvement and accountability systems.
In addition to his work in philanthropy, John worked at the Vermont Agency of Education where he served as the Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Transformation. Prior to that, John served as Provost/Vice President in the NH Community College System. His career began at Plymouth State University in residential life and student activities. He is a graduate of Plymouth State University where he received his bachelor's degree in social studies education and master's degree in education, guidance and counseling.
Kaleb Clemons joined ESG in 2022 to support the career readiness portfolio. Prior to joining ESG, Kaleb worked as a graduate intern for Educate Texas - Philanthropy Advocates, where he supported philanthropic organizations who were interested in supporting education policy related to early grade success, effective teaching, and pathways to college and careers. Prior to moving into policy work and completing his master's degree, Kaleb gained experience as a classroom teacher in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kaleb earned his Master's degree in education policy and planning from the University of Texas at Austin and his Bachelor's degree in secondary education from the University of Louisville.
Kathleen Mathers has worked with ESG since 2012, leading projects on state implementation capacity, educator effectiveness systems, and college and career readiness. She served as ESG's project manager for the 2014 CCSSO Career Readiness Task Force and is now leading ESG's work with CCSSO to support state implementation of those recommendations.
Prior to joining ESG, Mathers served as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement in Georgia, a P-16 research, policy, and accountability agency. In that role, she led the development of Georgia's Race to the Top proposal as project manager, annually prepared and published the state education report card for preschools through postsecondary institutions, collaborated on new legislation and policy initiatives to improve student achievement and school completion, and directed research efforts to determine the effectiveness of K-12 practices.
Kathleen has held a range of other positions in K-12 education. She worked for the Georgia Department of Education as the state director of the Math Science Partnership Program and as a professional learning specialist to prepare district administrators and school leaders across Georgia for the transition to rigorous performance standards. She led programming and professional development efforts at a non-profit children's science center, and she taught at the elementary level for eight years in Atlanta.
Kathleen earned a Master's Degree from Georgia State University and a Bachelor's degree in Education and Math from St Mary's College.
Kelly Van Beveren joined ESG in January 2020 to lead its communications efforts. She is responsible for raising the organization's national profile by communicating about ESG's initiatives, priorities, and projects through traditional and new media.
Prior to joining ESG, Kelly spent nearly six years leading communications and outreach efforts for Achieve. In that capacity, she developed the organization's communications strategy and executed national and targeted campaigns to promote Achieve's work around raising academic standards and graduation requirements, improving assessment systems, and strengthening accountability. Before Achieve, Kelly worked on the Communications and Outreach team at the U.S Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), where she was involved in internal communications campaigns, FSA's rebranding effort, and the organization's annual conference for Financial Aid Administrators.
Kelly holds a B.A. in English and Government from Georgetown University and an M.P.A. from Cornell University, where she concentrated in Social Policy and worked with D.C. Public Schools and the Ithaca City School District on strategic communications plans for a variety of district initiatives.
Lauren Norton joined ESG in 2019 to support the postsecondary transitions portfolio. As an Associate Director, she provides technical assistance to states on aligning policies across their K-12 and higher education systems to ensure that all students have the academic and navigational supports they need to be successful.
Prior to joining ESG, Lauren served as an Innovation Strategist at the District of Columbia Public Schools. From evaluating the district's school-based professional development program to designing community-driven approaches to school transformation, she supported numerous initiatives that leveraged cross-sector partnerships to reimagine the school experience. Lauren has also conducted research on collective impact models for the Harvard EdRedesign Lab, led by former Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville, and taught English for four years at an international high school.
Lauren earned a master's degree in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri.
Job Titles:
- Accounting Manager
- ESG As the Accounting Manager
Luz Strange joined ESG as the Accounting Manager in 2022 and is responsible for managing the organization's fiscal functions, including general accounting, grant and project financial management, budgeting, and reporting. She brings over 25 years of experience in the accounting and finance fields at both non-profit and for profit organizations.
Luz holds a Master of Science degree in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Maryland Global Campus and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Auditing from the Universidad Technologica Metropolitana in Santiago de Chile.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Independent Consultant
Marie O'Hara is currently an independent consultant with nearly 20 years of experience in education policy and research. Most recently, Marie was the Director of Research at Achieve, where she was a recognized national expert with breadth and depth of knowledge of states' K-12 and higher education policies, implementation efforts, and student outcomes around academic standards, graduation requirements, data, accountability and assessment systems. Marie is committed to getting the right information and evidence at the right time to students, families, schools, and education leaders to better inform key decisions. Marie earned a B.A. in Political Science from Wake Forest University and an M.P.P. from Georgetown University with a concentration in Education Policy.
Nassim joined Education Strategy Group in December 2021 as a Coach helping to advance ESG's work with higher education systems and institutions.
She is passionate about student learning, teaching, and ensuring that community colleges produce a highly-qualified, productive, 21st-century workforce by supporting a diverse student body. She assists community colleges across the country in developing and systematizing sustainable course-, program-, and institutional-level learning outcomes assessment processes, in addition to providing comprehensive system and process improvement, true scalability, and accreditation support. Dr. Ebrahimi shares her experiences and expertise with others through journal articles, book chapters, and conference and keynote presentations.
She has led teams in learning outcomes assessment; strategic planning; institutional research; communications and marketing; resource development; and project management at Prince George's, Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, and Howard Community Colleges in Maryland. Dr. Ebrahimi has also taught courses in psychology and facilitated workshops for a myriad of 2- and 4-year pubic and private colleges and universities.
Dr. Ebrahimi earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Developmental Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. She received two B.S. degrees (Neurobiology and Physiology and Psychology) from the University of Maryland, College Park. She currently lives in Maryland with her family.
Nicole Osborne joined ESG in 2020 to shape the growth of both internal and external data strategy and analytics.
Prior to joining ESG, Nicole was a Data Analyst at Syracuse University's Division of Advancement and External Affairs. There, she supported prospect research, annual fund, and major gift fundraising teams to design systems and execute reporting for the University's $1.5 billion campaign strategy. Previously, she worked in customer success for Crescerance, a mobile app and website development company. There, she was responsible for managing community engagement products for independent, charter, and public school districts across the country. Nicole also worked at KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools where she conducted accountability reporting to the Georgia Department of Education and the KIPP Foundation and implemented online data and assessment products across the district.
Nicole is currently pursuing a Masters in Information Management at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and majored in Policy Studies.
In the community, Nicole serves on the board of the Hiscock Legal Aid Society and Syracuse University's young alumni council. She is also chair of the board of directors for Inkululeko, a nonprofit organization serving learners in Makhanda, South Africa.
Ryan leads ESG's efforts to build bridges between K-12 and higher education to promote seamless postsecondary transitions for students, especially those from traditionally underserved populations. He also supports states in developing and implementing accountability systems that meaningfully measure students' college and career readiness.
Prior to joining ESG, Ryan served as Director of the Office of Accountability and Data Management at the Delaware Department of Education. In that role, he led the state's efforts to develop a new multi-measure accountability system, centralize the data reporting and analysis functions within the Department, develop its ESEA Flexibility Waiver renewal application, and annually report on Pre-K through higher education outcomes.
Prior to his time in Delaware, Ryan served as a Program Director in the Education Division at the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center). At the NGA Center, Ryan led the division's support of governors' offices on numerous issues, including college and career ready standards, assessment, accountability, and transitions into postsecondary education and training. He also previously held Senior Policy Analyst and Policy Analyst positions at the NGA Center and worked as a Research Associate at the Data Quality Campaign.
Ryan earned a Masters of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a Bachelor's degree in American Politics from the University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- ESG in 2021 As an Associate Director
Samantha Perez joined ESG in 2021 as an Associate Director, and supports a diverse portfolio of initiatives aimed at ensuring that K-12 and postsecondary students complete their education equipped with the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to be successful in the labor market.
Samantha comes to ESG from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, where she was the Vice President of Education Initiatives. In her role, she led the organization's work in P-12 education and ensured the business community's active and ongoing engagement in public education. Representing employer partners, Samantha served on the strategic leadership team for the Academies of Nashville, Nashville's nationally-recognized career academy model. In close collaboration with Academies leadership, she worked to develop the district's first youth pre-apprenticeship program. She was also the project manager and site lead for the New Skills Ready grant, a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment from JP Morgan Chase into the Nashville community to design, build, and transform career pathways.
Samantha has served on a number of advisory boards and committees, including on the P-12 Policy Council for the Education Trust in Tennessee and the College, Career, and Technical Education (CCTE) Leadership Council for the Tennessee Department of Education.
Samantha is a Sociology triple threat with a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her Master's and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.
Sara joined Education Strategy Group in 2022 to assist with cross-portfolio administrative and logistical tasks. Sara has over 11 years of experience with administrative support. Prior to joining ESG, Sara served as an office assistant for a mental health facility in central North Carolina, a Managing Editor for a peer-review management company in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, and an administrator for a beach vacations realty company in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her personal interests include spending time with family, carting her children to their many extracurricular activities, cooking, reading, and going to the gym. Sara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Women's Studies from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Susana Contreras-Mendez joined ESG in 2022 to support its Postsecondary Attainment portfolio. Prior to joining ESG, Susana was an Associate Learning and Impact Officer at Ascendium Education, where she worked in partnership with the philanthropic team to measure its performance and to support collective learning about its strategy and operations. Previously, she was a researcher at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C. She conducted research on strategies to increase upward mobility for families, with a particular focus on the postsecondary experiences of student parents.
Other professional experiences include interning at Lumina Foundation and directly supporting low-income families through nonprofit and government programs. Outside of ESG, Susana serves on the board of Alimentando al Pueblo, a non-profit working to promote healing through comunidad, comida, and celebración (community, food, and celebration).
As a former Head Start child, first-generation college graduate, and TRiO Alum, Susana has firsthand knowledge of education's transformational benefits. Susana holds a Master of Higher Education degree with a concentration in Diversity and Social Justice from the University of Michigan and a dual bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in Sociology and American Ethnic Studies with a minor in Education, Learning, and Society.