ED2WORK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Senior Director of the Center for Effective Teaching and Learning
Catherine Haras is the senior director of the Center for Effective Teaching and Learning (CETL) at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), where she is responsible for promoting faculty educational development through evidence-based teaching practice. She is a tenured member of the university's library faculty.
Catherine served as an ACE distinguished teaching and learning adviser from 2016-2018, providing guidance and leadership on effective teaching projects. including an ACE faculty development cross-campus impact study involving 120 faculty and 24 faculty development professionals across six colleges and universities in the California State University and City University of New York systems. She currently serves as a strategic advisor and lead consultant on teaching and learning innovation at ED2WORK.
A former public relations executive, Catherine earned her bachelor's in journalism and American history from Boston University, and a master's in library and information science from the University of Washington. She teaches courses in public relations and information management at Cal State LA.
Deb serves as a Managing Consultant at ED2WORK. She brings nearly 20 years of higher education and program development experience to the role. She was most recently the Managing Director of the Capital CoLAB, the skills and talent division of the Greater Washington Partnership, where she led post-secondary partner engagement, supported implementation of the Digital Tech Credential at 20 regional universities, and oversaw student engagement efforts. In previous roles with Excelsior College and SUNY Empire State College, she helped to research, design, and implement programs centered around non-traditional learners. As CIO at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, Deb led the Transformation Initiative aimed at creating accessible and scalable online learning resources for boards of directors. She is passionate about the accessibility, persistence, and retention of all learners.
Deb has a Master's in Higher Education Administration and a BA in Sociology both from The State University of New York at Albany.
Marie is currently the provost and chief academic officer at University of the People, the first non-profit, American-accredited, tuition-free online university. Marie also serves as a strategic adviser at ED2WORK and has served in chief strategy officer and acting chief executive officer roles since joining in 2020. An accomplished senior executive in higher education and nonprofit associations, her career spans more than 25 years including extensive experience as a leader in organizations serving working learners.
Most recently, Marie served as president of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). Marie also serves on the Board of Directors at Bryant & Stratton College. She is also a strategic advisor for Packback, a solution to help faculty lead online discussions more effectively and efficiently using AI. She served on the board of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) where she was chair of the board for two years.
Previously, she served as provost and senior vice president at the University of Maryland University College (now University of Maryland Global Campus). Marie has also administered programs for adults at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and held increasingly responsible positions at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey, and at City University of Seattle in Washington.
Marie is committed to helping colleges, universities, employers and workforce agencies find points of collaboration and connection. She believes that a robust 21st-century economy depends on the lifelong ability of adults to learn new skills that connect them to evolving career opportunities. Through her work, Marie advocates for a shift in perspective that places adult learners directly at the core of new learn-and-earn efforts.
Marie earned her doctoral (Ph.D.) and master's degrees in social psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and holds a master's degree in counselor education from the Pennsylvania State University. Marie was inducted into the International Adult Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2016.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Principal
- Senior Fellow
Steven is currently a senior fellow on postsecondary education at Stand Together, a philanthropic community focused on removing barriers in education, business, communities, and government so every person can rise to their full potential. At Stand Together, he provides thought leadership in developing and executing the team's vision and strategy on postsecondary education, driving external policy partnerships, and building issue-focused coalitions to advance the team's postsecondary education goals.
In 2019, Steven founded ED2WORK to help postsecondary institutions and employers address the critical needs of adult and working learners. He also held affiliated roles as senior adviser on upskilling at Greater Washington Partnership, and managing consultant of the National Task Force on the Transfer and Award of Credit at the American Council on Education (ACE).
Prior to ED2WORK, Steven led national academic innovation initiatives at ACE, which included oversight of ACE CREDIT® and developing and leading ACE's teaching and learning innovation body of work. He was the principal investigator on three major postsecondary education practice and research grants to advance teaching effectiveness, competency- and work-based learning, and build flexible credentialing pathways. Steven teaches and develops courses on organizational development, training and development, and experiential learning at Wilmington University (DE).
Steven is a first-generation college student and Pell Grant recipient who began his postsecondary education journey at Mt. San Jacinto College in southern California, where he earned two associate of arts degrees prior to transferring to Texas A&M University, Commerce where he graduated with a bachelor's in health education and political science and masters in training and development. More than a decade later, Steven earned his doctorate in business administration (D.B.A.) from Wilmington University in Delaware, where his research focused on employee motivation and engagement in performance improvement efforts.
A southern California native, Steven has been in the Washington, DC region since 2009. He and his husband, Luke, and their 10-year-old Ridgeback-Vizsla mix, Princess, split their time between Washington, DC and the mountains in Lost River, West Virginia. One of the ways he gives back to his community is by serving as president of the Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College Foundation Board of Trustees.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- in 2019 As a Senior Consultant
Sarah Godsey joined ED2WORK in 2019 as a senior consultant. Sarah brings more than a decade of experience leading academic and student success efforts to smooth transitions for adult learners to earn a college degree.
Most recently, Sarah was director of ACE CREDIT® and paved the way to transform how ACE recognizes non-college learning and increase the currency of ACE credit recommendations to academic and workplace settings. Sarah was Co-Principal Investigator on the $1.56 million Lumina Foundation grant to create a competency-based credit recommendation process and dual academic and workforce-ready transcript.
Before ACE, Sarah was a regional director at the University of Phoenix and led a team of academic and student success advisers to achieve improved student retention and persistence towards degree completion. At the start of her career, Sarah taught English language and culture for K-12 students and business executives in Colombia.
Sarah is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and earned a master of arts in Education with a specialization in adult education and training,