Our team is made up of outstanding individuals and leaders. They have built organizations, established proof points, changed public policies, and influenced how people think about American education reform. Individually and collectively, they offer leading-edge ideas, skills, and talents to help build the education reform field in a way no other organization does.
Partners
Becky Crowe is a Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She has spent more than 15 years leading education reform efforts as a social entrepreneur and education policy and philanthropy advisor. Her clients include state Race to the Top winners, America Achieves, and the Carnegie Corporation and Opportunity Equation’s 100Kin10 STEM initiative. Becky served as Executive Director of Partners in School Innovation in San Francisco from 2003-2009. During her tenure as Executive Director, Partners doubled in size and became the key school improvement partner working to increase student achievement in two of the largest urban districts in the Bay Area. At Partners, she also successfully launched the Encore Fellows program in partnership with Civic Ventures and the Packard Foundation to bring top talent from the private sector into the social sector. Prior to joining Partners, Becky was responsible for leadership development of principals and school district leaders from 30 Bay Area school districts at the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative. Becky has additional experience leading school and district program evaluations as a researcher at Stanford University. Becky has degrees in English and Education from Stanford University, and was a 2010 Sloan Fellow, earning a management degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a former NCAA swimming All-American and the proud mother of a first grader in the California public schools.
becky.crowe@bellwethereducation.org
Monisha Lozier is a Co-Founder and Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She leads Bellwether’s talent practice, through which she blends her passion for the education community with over 10 years of executive search and recruitment experience.
Prior to launching Bellwether, Ms. Lozier was the founder of her own small business, Cobbe Place Consulting. In this capacity, she and her team conducted executive-level searches for dozens of reform-oriented organizations in the K-12 education community.
Before starting her own practice, she was a managing consultant in AT Kearney’s education executive search practice where she specialized in senior-level searches for leaders of institutions of higher education, education-related associations and nonprofits, and for-profit education companies. Prior to joining AT Kearney, she was an associate, senior associate, and ultimately the first-ever client partner in Korn/Ferry International’s education practice.
Ms. Lozier holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where she focused on organizational behavior, strategy, and nonprofit management. She earned a B.A. in political science from Connecticut College. She and her husband reside in Chicago with their two daughters.
monisha@bellwethereducation.org
Andrew J. Rotherham is a Co-Founder and Partner at Bellwether Education, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Rotherham leads Bellwether’s thought leadership, idea generation, and policy analysis work. He also writes the weekly “School of Thought” column for TIME as well as the blog Eduwonk.com and is the co-publisher of “Education Insider” a federal policy research tool produced by Whiteboard Advisors. Rotherham previously served at The White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration and is a former member of the Virginia Board of Education. In addition to Bellwether, Rotherham has founded or co-founded two other influential education reform organizations including Education Sector and served on the boards of several other successful education start-ups.
Rotherham is the author or co-author of more than 200 published articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and politics and is the author or editor of four books on educational policy. He serves on advisory boards and committees for a variety of organizations including Education Pioneers, The Broad Foundation, and the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). Rotherham is on the board of directors for the Indianapolis Mind Trust, is Vice Chair of the Curry School of Education Foundation at the University of Virginia, and serves on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Rotherham believes dramatic improvements in America’s education system are integral to ensuring equality of opportunity and building a more equitable and just society.
He lives in Virginia with his wife and two daughters.
Andy Smarick is a Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. He works in Bellwether’s Thought Leadership practice. Andy most recently served as Deputy Commissioner of Education of the State of New Jersey where he helped lead initiatives including the state’s successful ESEA waiver and Race to the Top 3 applications, the launching of new teacher evaluations, and an overhaul of the department’s charter school authorizing. Andy previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education and at the White House Domestic Policy Council, and has worked for Congress and the Maryland state legislature. Other roles include Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Adjunct Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Chief Operating Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Andy helped launch a college-preparatory charter school for under-served boys and girls in Annapolis, and he was a member of the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Quality Education. His book on overhauling the delivery of inner-city public education, The Urban School System of the Future, was released in 2012, and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Education Next, National Affairs, and other outlets. His areas of research include school turnarounds, teacher quality, charter schools, performance pay, district reform, and Catholic schools. Andy is a former White House Fellow, member of the 2010-11 class of Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellows, and founding board member of 50CAN. He earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude and with honors, and a master’s degree in public management from the University of Maryland. Andy lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey with his wife and three kids.
andy.smarick@bellwethereducation.org
Mary K. Wells is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Ms. Wells leads the Strategic Advising practice within Bellwether, which focuses on supporting education reform organizations with growth strategy, assessing partnership opportunities, market assessment, business planning, organizational development, and implementation planning. Recent clients include The Achievement Network, Teach Plus, New Haven Public Schools, and the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education (launched by MATCH).
Ms. Wells has worked as a private sector consultant, an investor, and a nonprofit executive. From 2005 to 2007, she designed, launched, and managed the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (T-STEM) Initiative for the Texas High School Project. T-STEM is a $71 million initiative to improve the quality of math and science education in Texas and to expand the pipeline of highly skilled employees qualified for careers in the economy of the 21st century. She also managed the New Schools portfolio for the Texas High School Project, which included investments in high-performing charter schools and school developers.
Ms. Wells brings extensive experience from the private sector. She was a manager and consultant with Bain & Company, where she worked primarily with Fortune 500 companies on growth strategy, new business development, and post-merger integration issues. She was with Bain & Company for over seven years. During that time, she advised Boston Public Schools on the creation and implementation of small learning communities within their comprehensive high schools on a pro bono basis. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Team
Chad Aldeman is a Senior Policy Analyst at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. He works on the Thought Leadership team at Bellwether. Previously, Aldeman was a Policy Advisor in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, where he worked on teacher policy and secondary schools. Among other projects, he worked on ESEA flexibility, teacher preparation, and the Teacher Incentive Fund. Prior to joining the Department, Aldeman was a policy analyst with Education Sector, where he focused on K–12 and higher education accountability. He has published reports on state higher education accountability systems, the potential of improving high school accountability by incorporating outcomes data, the school choice process in New York City and Boston, teacher salary schedules, teacher pensions, and teacher preparation. His work has been featured in the New York Times, InsideHigherEd, Newsday, and the Des Moines Register. Aldeman holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and a master’s of public policy degree from the College of William and Mary.
chad.aldeman@bellwethereducation.org
Lina Bankert is a Principal with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising. Prior to joining Bellwether, Lina was a principal at Bain & Company, where she worked with executive teams across a broad range of industries in both the private and public sectors. Her client engagements included growth strategy, portfolio evaluation, performance improvement, due diligence, and merger integration. Lina was also a core member of Bain’ Education practice, with focus on K-12 education. For three years, she led Bain Chicago’s involvement with Rowe Elementary School, a Bain-sponsored charter school in the West Town community, and continues to act as an adviser to the school. She has also worked with school districts, CMOs, and political and student advocacy organizations on a variety of strategic and operational issues.
Prior to Bain, Lina spent several years as an investment banker, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and equity placements in the Education and Knowledge Services sectors. Her clients were primarily for-profit charter operators, post-secondary institutions, and K-12 publishers and content providers. Lina holds a BA in Economics with a concentration in Political Economy and a Certificate in Finance from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
Offiong Bassey is an Analyst with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising at Bellwether. Prior to joining the team, Offiong was a senior associate consultant with Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. While at Bain, she worked on a range of projects – from traditional growth strategy to supply chain and operational efficiency. Her client portfolio consisted of multibillion dollar companies in retail, pharmaceuticals, media, and IT software, as well as the non-profit sector. She is excited to bring her corporate strategy expertise to bear in the service of students in need.
Offiong’s passion for youth is manifest in many different contexts. She has worked as a home school teacher to 8th grade twins and has done curriculum development and instruction in academic enrichment programs (such as The Ulysses S Grant Foundation and The Steppingstone Foundation, of which she is an alum). She gives motivational speeches and offers artist residencies in schools, encouraging students of all backgrounds to embrace their potential to contribute to the world around them. Offiong has also been the director of young adult programs in various cultural, faith based, and community organizations. She is a singer, songwriter, and poet. Offiong is a graduate of Yale University where she double majored in Political Science and African American Studies.
offiong@bellwethereducation.org
Rachael Brown is an Associate with Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She works primarily in Thought Leadership with Bellwether. Before joining Bellwether, Rachael was an associate editor with The Atlantic, and coordinated digital strategy for Strong American Schools’ ED in ’08 campaign. She previously taught high school English with the District of Columbia Public Schools as a Teach for America corps member, receiving the Symantec Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2007. From 2007-2008 she was a Leadership for Educational Equity School Board Fellow.
Rachael has written about education and other subjects for The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The New York Times, among other outlets. She served as the education editor of DCist.com from 2007 to 2010, and has fact-checked numerous books, including most recently, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, by Chrystia Freeland, and Where the Smart Kids Are: How Other Countries Taught Their Kids to Think, by Amanda Ripley. Rachael holds an MAT from American University and a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.
rachael@bellwethereducation.org
Moire Carmody is the Operations Manager with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She serves as the center of office operations and the Assistant to Mary Wells. Before joining Bellwether, Moire was the Director of Operations at the Lee Family Office and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, where for nearly 9 years she oversaw all human resource and office management functions, as well as managed Barbara Lee’s properties and art collection. Moire has a passion for non-profit organizations and spent nine years in The Public Interest Network working with MASSPIRG, the Fund for Public Interest Research, and the National Association of State PIRGs. Her experience includes directing door-to-door canvasses for environmental and consumer organizations, working on ballot initiatives, recruiting and hiring talented individuals to join the Public Interest Network, in addition to office management. Moire holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in Sociology, with a concentration in Peace Studies. She lives outside Boston with her husband and two sons.
moire.carmody@bellwethereducation.org
Sarah Srivastava Cryder is a Consultant with Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising at Bellwether. Before joining Bellwether, Sarah was a manager with Deloitte and Touche LLP, where she spent over six years working with the Valuation and Analytics division to increase the effectiveness of domestic federal programs, and performed data and statistical analytics. Sarah has also consulted the D.C. Public Schools to implement evidence-based mental health intervention pilot programs, research successful national pilot interventions, and evaluate program outcomes through data-driven metrics. In 2011, Sarah consulted for the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education as an Education Pioneers Fellow. Sarah holds a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Boston College, where she double-majored in Economics and Psychology.
sarah.cryder@bellwethereducation.org
Traci Dove is a Senior Associate with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on executive search in Bellwether’s Talent Services service area. A seasoned search professional, Traci brings more than 10 years of executive search experience in the higher education, non-profit, and K-12 sectors. Prior to joining Bellwether, Traci served as an Associate for Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, and a Consultant for A.T. Kearney Executive Search. In these roles, she participated in numerous searches for senior executives for institutions of higher education and not-profit clients. Before entering the executive search industry, Traci worked in the Regulatory Advisory Practice of KPMG Peat Marwick and for WCI, Inc., an information technology consulting firm.
Rebecca Gifford Goldberg is a Principal with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising at Bellwether. Before joining Bellwether, Rebecca was a consultant with McKinsey and Company, where she managed engagements with leading global institutions on growth strategy, sales and marketing, and operational efficiency. She began her career at the SEED Foundation, where she helped launch the SEED School of Maryland and supported the ongoing operations of the SEED School of Washington, D.C. Rebecca directed the Maryland Leadership Workshops’ senior high program for three years, working with students with diverse backgrounds from across the Mid-Atlantic. As a high school student, she served as the voting student member of the Maryland State Board of Education. Rebecca holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
rebecca@bellwethereducation.org
Jessica Jonovski is an Analyst and Education Pioneers Fellow with Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising. Before joining Bellwether, Jessica was an operations manager and financial analyst at Procter & Gamble, a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. At Procter & Gamble, Jessica supported international business teams in their operational, sales, marketing, and investment decisions. Jessica has volunteered with various organizations in the U.S. education sector, worked on international economic development and research projects, and is committed to shaping a society where all children have equal access to a quality education. Jessica is a graduate of Villanova University and holds a BS in Economics and International Business Administration with minors in finance and Spanish.
jessica.jonovski@bellwethereducation.org
Sara Mead is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. In this role, she writes and conducts policy analysis on issues related to early childhood education and K-12 education reform and provides strategic advising support to clients serving high-need students. She has written extensively on education issues including federal and states education policy, charter schools, teacher effectiveness, and early childhood education. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today, and she has appeared on CBS and ABC News and on NPR. Before joining Bellwether, she directed the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative. She has also worked for Education Sector, the Progressive Policy Institute, and the U.S. Department of Education. She serves on the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, which authorizes charter schools in the District of Columbia and holds them accountable for results, and on the board of Democrats for Education Reform. The daughter, granddaughter, and sister of public school educators, she holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Vanderbilt University.
Leslie Nair is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on executive search in Bellwether’s Talent Services service area and has worked in the talent acquisition space for over 20 years, developing strong, diverse candidate pools and finding executives who “fit.” She has conducted all phases of national-level, retained executive search research and recruiting, completing hundreds of senior level searches in wide variety of fields including healthcare, finance, medical device manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial services and non-profit. Before joining Bellwether in 2010, Leslie worked for several boutique firms before launching her own practice in 2004. Leslie holds a BA in French and International Relations from Bradley University.
leslie@bellwethereducation.org
Kelly Robson is a Research Assistant with Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She works primarily in Thought Leadership. Before joining Bellwether, Kelly taught middle school English and history in Westerville City Schools in Westerville, Ohio and in the District of Columbia Public Schools. While with DCPS she worked on a number of district curriculum initiatives, including partnering with the Center for Inspired Teaching to create and pilot US History modules aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Kelly recently co-authored and presented a paper at the 2013 Educational Symposium for Research and Innovation, where she won the Dean’s Emerging Scholar Award. Kelly holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education from The Ohio State University. She is currently working on her doctorate in education policy at The George Washington University.
kelly.robson@bellwethereducation.org
Jeff Schulz is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. He focuses primarily on strategic advising at Bellwether. Before joining Bellwether, Jeff was a manager in Deloitte’s Strategy practice, with a focus on helping Fortune 500 clients identify opportunities to generate recurring growth and improve profitability, especially through the application of advanced analytic techniques. He is also a proud Teach For America alum, former advocacy lead for a group of high-performing, nationally acclaimed Texas charter schools, and education analyst for the central Texas-based E3 Alliance. Jeff holds an MPA from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of Michigan.
jeff.schulz@bellwethereducation.org
Veenay Singla is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Most recently, Veenay was an independent consultant focused extensively in the education reform sector. Her consulting portfolio included Bellwether Education Partners, Chicago Public Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, Washington University in St. Louis/St. Louis Public Schools, The National Association of Charter School Authorizers, UChicago Impact, and The Achievement Network. She previously worked for the Chicago Public Education Fund, a Chicago-based venture philanthropy, where she managed the organization’s teacher quality portfolio, and Chicago Public Schools, where she assisted with various teacher quality initiatives. Veenay also supported initiatives with Boston Public Schools to establish Boston’s first alternative certification program and an urban principal preparation program. She taught fourth grade as a Teach For America corps member in Houston, Texas. Veenay earned her M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and an Ed.M from Harvard University. She graduated with her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
veenay@bellwethereducation.org
Gunjan Sud is an Analyst with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising. Prior to joining Bellwether, Gunjan was a senior associate consultant with Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. At Bain, she worked on a variety of projects in industries spanning consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, private equity, and the education sector.
In addition to traditional casework in education, Gunjan spent a summer interning at a charter school in Chicago during its launch, helping design tools to track individual student progress and teacher effectiveness. She also volunteered at Minds Matter for two years, working with students from low income households to help them prepare for college. Gunjan holds a B.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.
gunjan.sud@bellwethereducation.org
Dhivya Venkataraman is a Consultant and Education Pioneers Graduate Fellow with Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Before joining Bellwether, Dhivya worked for four years as a consultant with IBM Global Business Solutions, in its public sector division. Dhivya advised federal clients, such as the Department of Navy, U.S. Postal Service, and Environmental Protection Agency, in improving their core operations and financial management systems. In addition, Dhivya has worked at international development organizations to assist governments and corporations with initiatives in economic development, health care, labor, and education. Dhivya recently received her M.P.P. and MBA from Georgetown University. She also holds a bachelors degree from The George Washington University.
dhivya@bellwethereducation.org
Stephanie Wilson is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. She focuses primarily on strategic advising at Bellwether. Prior to Bellwether, Stephanie was the Chief of Staff at Aspire Public Schools, one of the highest performing charter management organizations in the country. At Aspire she also held the role of Director of Growth and Strategy, where she led the development of new schools and facilities. Previously, Stephanie worked at Education for Change, a charter management organization focused on school turnarounds. A former Broad Resident and Education Pioneer, Stephanie has also worked as a consultant for Bain & Company and the Bridgespan Group in Boston, San Francisco, and Sydney. Stephanie earned her M. Ed. and MBA at Stanford University and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.