Announcing 2024 Framework Updates

Jeran Culina is the Senior Manager of Business Leaders United (BLU). BLU is a national business network comprised of leaders from small and medium-sized enterprises representing a range of industry sectors who are concerned about our nation’s skills mismatch and promote public investments in skills training and education that prepare America’s workers for jobs in the 21st Century economy. Jeran manages the implementation of engaging and expanding the BLU network.

Before joining National Skills Coalition, Jeran worked as a Senior Policy Associate at Advance CTE, which supports state CTE leaders to advance high-quality and equitable CTE policies, programs, and pathways. In this role, she managed two sites under the JP Morgan Chase New Skills ready network grant which supports sites in developing more equitable high quality career pathways for all learners.

Jeran has also served as the Education and Research Project Manager at Talent 2025, a systems level convener in West Michigan. As the Education Research Project Manager, she led the organization’s work in all the education priorities from early childhood to postsecondary education. Jeran guided the convening of several education working groups that focused their priorities on policy and advocacy that alleviated barriers and increased funding for at risk students throughout their educational journey from cradle to career. Jeran has a Master of Educational Leadership Michigan State University and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary of Social Sciences with an emphasis on early childhood education from SUNY Buffalo.

KC Deane is the Associate Director of Research and Program Evaluation at the Washington Student Achievement Council, Washington State's higher education agency. She completed her doctoral studies as an IES predoctoral fellow in the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. Drawing on techniques and theories employed in the field of urban planning, her dissertation examined local geographic variation in the accessibility of broad-access public colleges. Prior to arriving at Michigan, she worked as a program manager at the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and a research associate at AEI’s Center on Higher Education Reform. She holds a BA in economics from Reed College and a master’s in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Afet Dundar, PhD is Senior Research Director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). She leads IWPR’s research on issues of postsecondary education and student parent success, two-generation economic security strategies, workforce development and work family support. Prior to joining IWPR in Fall 2022, Dr. Dundar had a 12-year tenure at the National Student Clearinghouse. As Director, Equity in Research and Analytics at the National Student Clearinghouse, she was responsible for establishing and driving forward the principles for an equitable, unbiased, and inclusive approach to data collection and analytics. She also led the development and production of the Clearinghouse Research Center’s national reports on student outcomes and annual High School Benchmarks report. Dr. Dundar has contributed to numerous publications on student access and success outcomes. She has a Ph.D. in education policy studies from Indiana University Bloomington.

Godfrey Fuji Noe, PhD, MA is currently the Coordinator of Training and Research at the higher education accreditor SACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges). His professional experience includes statistics, software development, business intelligence, teaching and learning, program evaluation, assessment, data warehousing, information management, and gamification in higher education. Previously, he has served as director of institutional research at Georgia Perimeter College and Bauder College. He has also worked in institutional research and information technology at Morehouse School of Medicine and Fulton County Schools, respectively. Godfrey also has a background in teaching and community service. Dr. Noe currently holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in cultural anthropology, and a doctorate’s degree in medical sociology. His interests are varied and include higher education research, physics, mathematics, philosophy, and video games.

Van-Kim Bui Lin serves as the Program Area Director and Senior Research Scientist for the Early Childhood Development research area, driven by a commitment to equitable access to essential services for young children and their families. With extensive expertise spanning various facets of early childhood development, she collaborates closely with federal, state, and local leaders to inform effective policies and practices. Her comprehensive portfolio includes research, evaluation, and technical assistance on critical topics such as child care subsidies, home visiting, preschool and Head Start programs, early childhood assessments, quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS), and family support services.

Van-Kim is recognized for her leadership in advancing equitable access to child care and early education, leveraging administrative data and systems to shape evidence-based policies.

David Montes de Oca has enjoyed 30+ years in public education. David left his lucrative career as a liquor store stock boy at 19 to become a bilingual teaching assistant in Los Angeles, losing his heart, and sometimes his mind, to the classroom. He went on to teach in all grade spans from elementary, middle, to high school. David was the founding principal of a new District middle school co-created with the National Equity Project in Oakland CA. Subsequently, David went on to lead the New School Incubator for secondary schools in Oakland Unified School District. David then became Director of the Office of Charter Schools overseeing thirty charter schools. David continued in his leadership roles within Oakland Unified School District, serving as an Executive Director, Associate Superintendent, and Deputy Chief focused on supervising and coaching principals, school portfolio management, launching data dashboards and continuous improvement frameworks, as well as facilitating community-led school redesign and new school creation efforts. David was the Founder and Director of the Urban Arts Academy Non-Violence Preparation Program, and a founding Board Member of the Oakland Education Fund and Oakland Leaf Foundation. David is currently the Chief of Improvement for CORE Districts, a collaborative of nine of the largest urban Districts in CA, where for the past seven years, he has been coaching Superintendents and facilitating their senior leadership teams in applying Awareness-based Systems Change with a focus on Holistic Coherence across Self, Team, and Organization. In addition, David has led Networked Improvement Communities applying Improvement Science methods, and designed equity-centered data tools. David is also a father, husband, Chicano, feminist, Aztec dancer, and twin. 

Dr. Zelphine Smith-Dixon, an Orangeburg County Native, is the newly elected Board member of the Council for Exceptional Children. In addition to this prestigious opportunity, the National Center of Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education (ED), recently initiated an effort to develop design options for a new national study of special education spending and costs. Zelphine participated with the Technical Work Group as one of nine individuals in the country to advise on special education funding and finance. Dr. Zelphine Smith-Dixon completed various educational studies: K-12 education in Orangeburg Consolidated School District #3; bachelor’s degree in special education (Columbia College); Master of Education Degree in Elementary Education (South Carolina State University); and a Doctor of Education Degree in Educational Leadership (Nova Southeastern University). She received the following accolades: Tri-County Special Educator of the Year, Vance-Providence Elementary Teacher of the Year and Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three Alternate District Teacher of the Year. In April 2018, Columbia College presented her with the Wil Lou Gray Outstanding Educator Award. 

She was the State Director for the Division for Special Education at the Georgia Department of Education. Zelphine served as the Board President for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). In addition to this past role, she currently serves as a key stakeholder and/or cadre advisor for the National IDEA Data Center, National Technical Assistance Center on Transition, Gates Foundation K-12 Education to Work Foundation, and the National Center on Intensive Intervention.

In March 2021, she published an article in the Case in Point edition in the Journal of Special Education Leadership (JSEL). The State of Special Education: The Shift from Available to Appropriate! In 2021, Dr. Smith-Dixon received the NASDSE Gavel Award, the Dr. Glenn I. Latham Annual Excellence Award, and the Friend of G-CASE Award. Later in September 2022, she received the Dr. Melody Musgrove Heritage Award. Currently, Dr. Smith-Dixon works for Rockdale County Public Schools as the Chief Student Support Officer and enjoys the opportunity to keep students first.

Dr. Jess Stahl is the Vice President, Data Science & Analytics for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and Director of the Data Equity Fellowship. She leads national policy efforts and pilot projects on AI governance in postsecondary education. She also serves on several national working groups and task forces, including the U.S. AI Safety Institute (NIST, U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium), as an expert in AI governance and privacy-enhancing technologies (PET). She is a member of the UN PET Task Team & UN PET Lab of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) and is an author and editor of the UN PET Guide. 

As a senior policy director, Claus works with his Education Commission of the States colleagues to promote timely and relevant education policy and research. He has held senior positions in education organizations for more than 20 years and has spent much of that time helping diverse stakeholders find consensus on important education issues. Claus is dedicated to ensuring that state leaders have the information and guidance they need to make the best possible decisions affecting young people.

Dr. Keith White is currently the Vice President of Research and Effectiveness at the Public Education Foundation (PEF) in Chattanooga. This year marks his 12th anniversary at PEF and 20th year in the education field. His career includes positions at Kentucky’s Legislative Research Commission and Tufts University School of Medicine. Keith's expertise lies in integrating strategic thinking with human learning and development theories to achieve effective and measurable solutions in actions, evaluations, partnerships, and business products. He is proficient in various research methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method), program evaluation, grant writing, survey design, and implementation, as well as in project management. Keith excels in data visualization and presentation, and is skilled in programming languages like SAS, R, and SPSS, which he utilizes for data management in diverse projects to achieve organizational and program objectives.

He serves on the board of the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies and is a member of the fifth cohort of the Complete Tennessee Leadership Institute and is on the 2024 National College Attainment Network Advisory Task Force. Keith earned his Ph.D. in Education, with a focus on educational psychology (human learning and development), from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. He is a strong advocate for the transformative power of public education. Currently, his favorite educational acronyms are IPEDS, NSC, and ELSI.

Dr. White lives with his wife and three children in Sale Creek, TN, and will talk about vintage vinyl, guitars, and music with you for as long as you would like and often longer.

I am passionate about using data, research, and evidence to improve people's wellbeing - and in particular to improve opportunities and outcomes for those most vulnerable. My entry point to this work was through education, as I joined Teach For America after college and was a high school teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools. From there I went to public policy graduate school and became a human services researcher at Mathematica. In my current role as the Senior Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, I lead data-related projects and commissioned studies, and I bring an evidence lens to our grantmaking and convenings across our focus areas of Education, Health, and the Vitality of Indianapolis. I hold a B.S. in Business from Indiana University, an M.A. in teaching from Marian University, and Ph.D. in Public Administration from New York University.

Naihobe Gonzalez is a senior researcher at Mathematica with over a decade of experience collaborating with education leaders to promote data-driven decision making. Dr. Gonzalez led the development of the Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework and has led several evaluations of education initiatives. For example, she is a principal investigator on a large-scale evaluation of an initiative that supports schools across the country in using continuous improvement to advance outcomes for low-income students and students of color. Before joining Mathematica, she was a strategic data consultant with the Oakland Unified School District, where she helped the district develop a school performance and data reporting framework. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.

Brianna Moore Trieu, Ph D. is a Senior Program Officer, USP Data at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to this role she worked as a Program Lead at the University of California, Office of the President, where she led initiatives to measure the value of a college degree and enhance diversity of transfer students. As a Fellow for the WASC Senior College and University Commission, she developed a framework for practitioners on using racial equity gaps data to drive institutional change. ​Over the last 15 years, she has worked to improve data systems in both higher education and K-12 systems and held positions including Director of Policy Research for the New York City Department of Education and Director of Institutional Research at California College of the Arts. She has served as President of the California Association for Institutional Research (CAIR), on the Board of Trustees for Westcliff University. She holds a Ph D. in Measurement, Evaluation, & Statistics from Columbia University, an M.A. in Ed. Psychology and B.A. in Sociology from NYU.

Adrian N. Neely serves as a Research & Evaluation Consultant at Mirror Group, LLC. She received her BS in Biology and MEd in Science Education from the University of Georgia and her Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning from Georgia State University. As a health policy research scholar, Dr. Neely developed a conceptual framework for school connectedness drawing on ecological models of social determinants of health. Dr. Neely uses qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to examine racial health and education disparities. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experiences from various administrative roles, professional learning communities, and research and evaluation teams. Dr. Neely is passionate about improving children’s educational experiences by developing equitable measures and approaches to program and policy evaluation.