The National Center is made up of a diverse group of experienced people that work to solve our nation’s most challenging education problems. We attract professionals from many backgrounds including former federal and state government executives, education foundation leaders, researchers, education policy experts, education project managers, district superintendents and school principals.
Board of Trustees
Joyce Elliott, Chair
Senator, Arkansas State Legislature
Peggy Brookins
President and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Robert L. Joss
Philip H. Knight professor and dean emeritus of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business
James W. Pellegrino
Co-Director of Learning Sciences Research Institute
Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor
Distinguished Professor of Education
University of Illinois at Chicago
Betsy Brown Ruzzi
Former NCEE Vice President, Independent Consultant
Lewis Spence
Former Court Administrator,
Massachusetts Trial Court
Vivien Stewart
Senior Adviser for Education, Asia Society
Aaron Thompson
President, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Joanne Weiss
President of Weiss Associates and former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
John White
Co-founder and Board Chairman, Propel America, and former Louisiana State Superintendent of Education.
Leadership
Anthony Mackay, CEO
Anthony Mackay has advised organizations, governments and school systems on every continent and is a leading voice in global education research and development. He is an expert advisor to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (IBE) and council member of Asia Society’s Center for Global Education. Mackay moderates the annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession and the Global Education Industry Summit and facilitates key debates at the events of the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE). He is also the Chair of the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER); Deputy Chancellor of Swinburne University, Melbourne; Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne; and Deputy Chair of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. Before joining NCEE, Mackay was the CEO of the Centre for Strategic Education in Australia. In 2016, Mackay began serving as senior advisor to the NCEE and former president and founder, Marc Tucker. In January of 2019, Tucker and the NCEE Board of Trustees selected Mackay as the second president and CEO of NCEE.
Jason Dougal
Executive Vice-President
Kelli Polon
Chief Financial Officer
Jennifer Beck-Wilson
Director, Continuous Improvement
Eric Jones
Director, Professional Learning
Jackie Kraemer
Director, Policy Analysis and Development
Larry Molinaro, Jr.
Director, Research and Development
Suzie Sullivan
Secretary of the Corporation
Josh Tucker
Director, Communications and Advocacy
Staff
Andrea Anastasio
Manager, Partner Support
Syrenthia Anderson
National Facilitator
Todd Baldwin
Director, Kentucky
Julia Banks
Associate Director, Communications and Advocacy
Francis Barnes
National Facilitator
Doris Battle
Director, Facilitator Development
Ann Borthwick
Learning Systems Architect
Emily Brimsek
Senior Manager, Research and Evaluation
Valerie Carter
Administrator, Systems Development and Support
Janice Case
Director, California
Gretchen Cheney
Senior Policy Analyst
Edward Chevallier II
Executive Facilitator
Jennifer Craw
Data and Graphic Designer
Mike Czerniawski
National Facilitator
John DeAtley
Senior National Facilitator
Christine Denmark
Director, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia
Yvonne DiMattia
Distinguished Facilitator
Nathan Driskell
Associate Director, Policy Analysis and Development
Cindy Fielder
Senior National Facilitator
Jill Fitzsimmons
Director, Human Resources
Mischelle Handley
National Director, Strategic Partnerships
Pam Hedgpeth
Distinguished Facilitator
Claire Hollywood
Associate Director, Research and Development
Donna Hughes
Senior Instructional Systems Designer
Tonya Johnson-Hunter
Senior National Facilitator
Akshay Mehta
Controller and Associate Director, Finance
Amy Morton
Director, Pennsylvania
Annette O’Boyce
Senior National Facilitator
David Osborne
Associate Director, Professional Learning
Heather Porterfield
Manager, Online Learning
Joel Price
Director, Information Technology
Nantana Ritthaworn
Accounting Clerk
Kenneth Rybarczyk
Director, Production and Client Systems
Tim Schneider
Director, Louisiana
Sharisa Sesawaeng
Office Coordinator
Susan Rucker
Director, Mississippi and North Carolina
Greg Thornton
Resident Superintendent
Bryce Walker
James Williams
Senior National Facilitator
Jordan Zaner
Administrator, Technology Development and Support
Emeritus Trustees
David J. Barram
Former Administrator, U.S. General Services Administration
VanBuren N. Hansford, Jr.
Partner, Global Commodities Trade and Finance Ltd.
Robert King
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education.
Ray Marshall
Audre and Bernard Rapoport Centennial Chair in Economics & Public Affairs, L.B.J. School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, TX
Robert Schwartz
Professor Emeritus of Practice in Education Policy and Administration, Harvard University Graduate School of Education
