Pranav Kothari, Board President
Managing Director
Mission Measurement
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Harold Brown, Board Vice President
Executive Director
EdWorks
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Terry L. Muilenburg, Board Treasurer
Senior Vice President
USA Funds
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Gloria Nemerowicz, Ph.D., Board Secretary
Founder & Executive Director
Yes We Must
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Sarita E. Brown
President
Excelencia in Education
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Michelle Asha Cooper
President
Institute for Higher Education Policy
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Ira Goldstein
National Director
Deloitte
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Colette Hadley
Executive Director
Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara
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Willis J. Hulings, III
President & CEO
The Education Resources Institute
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Marlene M. Ibsen
President & CEO
Travelers Foundation
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Kim Mazzuca
President
10,000 Degrees
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Herb Tillery
Executive Director
College Success Foundation – District of Columbia
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Biographies
Pranav Kothari believes a high-quality education provides the greatest opportunity for individuals and families to dramatically improve their lives. As Managing Director of Mission Measurement, Mr. Kothari is an expert on measuring the social impact of organizations and programs. Mr. Kothari advises leading funders, education initiatives and nonprofit organizations on measurement and program strategy. His current and past clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Education Pioneers, Cristo Rey Network and School Leaders Network.
Mr. Kothari has been working in the philanthropic sector for more than 13 years. In addition to his consulting work, he speaks and conducts workshops on measuring social impact, national nonprofit effectiveness and educational philanthropy. Mr. Kothari also serves as a guest lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management Executive Education and MBA programs at Northwestern University.
Prior to joining Mission Measurement, Mr. Kothari served as a program director at the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, a Cincinnati-based education enterprise. There, he worked to ensure that philanthropic dollars were reaching those most in need of support to succeed in postsecondary education. The Ohio College Access Network and the Ohio Appalachian Center have recognized his distinguished work in postsecondary education access.
Mr. Kothari serves on the Board of Directors of the National College Access Network, the Educational Policy Institute, Associated Colleges of Illinois and the Chicago Advisory Board of Education Pioneers. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Organizational Behavior from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
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Terry L. Muilenburg is responsible for representing USA Funds®’ interests to the federal government, including the legislative and executive branches. She also works closely with other student loan organizations and higher education access groups in advancing policies that promote the college preparedness, access and success of students and families.
Prior to becoming USA Funds’ senior vice president, government and industry relations, she served as senior vice president, government affairs, for USA Funds’ former parent company, USA Group, in 2000.
Before joining USA Group in 1994, Ms. Muilenburg directed the Washington, D.C., office of the State of Connecticut for then-Gov. Lowell Weicker. She also has served as a key staff member on two U.S. Senate committees that have jurisdiction over higher education: the
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies of the Appropriations Committee, as well as the panel now known as the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Additionally, Ms. Muilenburg has represented USA Funds on the board of directors of the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs since 2003, and has served on the board of directors of the National College Access Network since 2006. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
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KnowledgeWorks Vice President Harold D. Brown is the founding Executive Director of EdWorks. In this dual role, Mr. Brown oversees the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative (OHSTI), a more than $50 million dollar initiative to transform large, struggling urban high schools into smaller, more successful schools. He also leads the Ohio Early College High School Network (ECHS), part of a national effort to give underserved students the opportunity to gain an Associate's Degree, or 60 hours of college credit upon high school graduation. Harold serves on the board of directors for Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and The Buckeye Ranch in Grove City, Ohio.
Mr. Brown has a long history with KnowledgeWorks Foundation, even working for its predecessor, Student Loan Funding Corporation, Inc., as Corporate Communications & Media Coordinator. Prior to this, Mr. Brown served as Director of Multicultural Enrollment Services for Miami University (Ohio), and as Chief of Staff for the Vice President for Student Affairs, where he honed his considerable public speaking skills writing speeches and presentations for the vice president.
Mr. Brown is frequently quoted in newspapers across Ohio on key education issues including high school reform, higher education, and multicultural access. A native of Oxford, Ohio, Mr. Brown earned his Bachelor's Degree in Government, with honors, from Harvard University.
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Sarita E. Brown is President of Excelencia in Education, a national not for profit organization working to accelerate Latino success in higher education by linking research, policy, and practice to serve Latino students.
She has spent more than two decades at prominent national education institutions and at the highest levels of government. working to implement and effective strategies to raise academic achievement and opportunity for low-income and minority students.
She started her career at the University of Texas at Austin by building a national model promoting minority success in graduate education. Coming to the nation's capitol in 1993 to work for educational associations, Ms. Brown was appointed Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans under President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Ms. Brown later applied her talents and experience to the not-fir-profit sector and in 2004, co-founded Excelencia in Education.
Ms. Brown is active in national educational organizations and currently serves on the board of directors for ACT Inc., the advisory group for the Catch the Next and the board of visitors for Old Dominion University. An outstanding public speaker, Ms. Brown travels throughout the country to advocate for Latino success in higher education. Her writing on the potential for Latino college-going talent includes her chapter, "Making the Next Generation Our Greatest Resource," in Latinos in the Nation's Future (2009) edited by Henry Cisneros and published by Arte Púlico Press.
In 2009, Ms. Brown was honored with the Harold G. McGraw Jr. Price in Education and received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from North Carolina State University. She holds a bachelor's of arts in ethnic studies and master's of arts in communication from The University of Texas at Austin.
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Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D., is president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). While leading one of the world’s premier research and policy centers, she oversees the organization’s expansive research portfolio and innovative programmatic access and success, accountability, diversity, finance, and global impact.
Dr. Cooper works with IHEP staff, some of the most respected professionals in the public policy and research fields, to develop new ideas and approaches to help low-income, minority, and other historically underrepresented populations gain access to and achieve success in postsecondary education.
Most recently, Dr. Cooper served as the deputy director for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (Advisory Committee) at the U.S. Department of Education. The Advisory Committee is an independent, nonpartisan committee created by Congress to provide advice and counsel to Congress and the Secretary of Education on higher education and student aid policy. In this position, she interacted with policymakers, oversaw all policy research activities, and managed day-to-day operations.
Before joining the Advisory Committee, Dr. Cooper held various leadership positions at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Council for Independent Colleges, and King’s College. She is also the 2002 recipient of the National Education Association’s Excellence in the Academy New Scholar Award.
A native of Charleston, S.C., Ms. Cooper received her B.A. from the College of Charleston, a M.P.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Ira Goldstein joined Deloitte in August 2003 as national director in the firm’s U.S. Federal Practice. In this role he developed Deloitte’s federal client service capabilities. He currently serves as Deloitte’s federal marketplace leader with specific responsibility for civilian sector growth. Deloitte provides consulting, audit, enterprise risk, financial advisory and tax services to clients worldwide.
Mr. Goldstein joined Deloitte from Unisys Corporation, where he served as vice president/managing partner in the U.S. Federal Government Group. He previously was managing partner of Arthur Andersen’s Office of Government Services in Washington, D.C., and served as Andersen’s worldwide government services industry director.
Before joining Andersen, Mr. Goldstein spent 17 years in federal service; most recently as U.S. assistant comptroller general and chief operating officer at the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO)--now renamed the Government Accountability Office. In this capacity Mr. Goldstein was responsible for GAO operations, including performance management, strategic planning, financial management, quality assurance, workforce development, and information systems. Previously, he served as acting associate commissioner of Social Security for family assistance, with oversight of the $14 billion Aid to Families with Dependent Children (cash welfare) Program. Mr. Goldstein also served as director of the secretary’s policy statement staff at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).
Mr. Goldstein has also been active in the volunteer leadership of several nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C., area, including Arena Stage, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, the Council for Excellence in Government, and the local region of the Anti-Defamation League. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania.
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Colette Hadley has been Executive Director of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara since 2006. She received her B.S. in biological sciences from the University of California-Irvine and has done graduate study in management at California State University-Long Beach. Before joining the Scholarship Foundation in 1993, Colette worked as a student counselor and then marketing director for the University of California. Colette served as the chairman of the Santa Barbara Cal-SOAP (Student Opportunity and Access Program) Consortium and as a board member for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County (CASA). In addition, Colette is an active volunteer with Big Brothers-Big Sisters and Planned Parenthood. She previously served as an NCAN board member during NCAN’s formative years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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Willis Hulings is President and CEO of TERI (The Education Resources Institute) and a member of its Board of Directors.
Mr. Hulings joined TERI in February 2005 with over 25 years of experience in consumer and corporate finance and a deep interest in education. He served most recently as Chief Operating Officer for AmeriFee LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corporation. Prior to AmeriFee, he was a Managing Director at First Union Corporation, where he held several positions including Head of Corporate Finance, Head of Specialized Corporate Lending and Head of Capital Markets E-Commerce. Prior to First Union, he spent over eight years in investment banking at Kidder Peabody & Co. and, prior to that, was a lending officer at the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co.
Mr. Hulings’ interest in education began during college when he worked for the Jersey City Public Schools teaching ESL, GED and Life Skills Curricula in the Adult Education and Vietnamese Refugee Programs.
Mr. Hulings holds a BA degree from Yale University and an MBA degree from the Wharton School. He is a Board Member for World T.E.A.M. Sports and Boston College’s Carroll School of Management.
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Marlene M. Ibsen is chief executive officer and president of Travelers Foundation and vice president, Community Relations, for The Travelers Companies, Inc. In her role, she manages the company’s giving practices, overseeing the distribution of approximately $20 million in charitable and civic support each year. She is also responsible for the company’s community-related employee engagement and development activities. Ms. Ibsen took on her current responsibilities in November 2007 and since then has developed a strategic focus for the company’s charitable giving and community relationships.
Prior to her role in Community Relations, Ms. Ibsen worked as a vice president in Corporate Communications, supervising the communications staff responsible for media relations, corporate issues, and business unit support. She also served as a spokesperson for the company.
In her 15 years at Travelers, she has worked in a variety of communications management roles, including supervising internal communications and design and production of print, audio, video, and multi-media communications. Previously, Ms. Ibsen worked as a television writer/producer and public relations consultant. In addition she has experience working in communications and fundraising for nonprofit organizations.
She has received recognition for her work from a variety of organizations, including a Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, a regional Award of Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators, and a National Education Association Award for the Advancement of Learning through Broadcasting. Ms. Ibsen holds a B.S. in communications from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, and an M.S. in communications management from Syracuse University.
Ms. Ibsen has served as a director for a number of nonprofit organizations in Connecticut, including The Governor’s Prevention Partnership, Youth Continuum, and The Connecticut Forum. She also served as chair of the board of directors for Junior Achievement of Southwest New England.
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Kim Mazzuca is President and CEO of 10,000 Degrees in San Rafael, CA. Almost immediately upon taking the helm in 1999, Ms. Mazzuca led the Board of Directors and staff in a major strategic planning effort, resulting in its first-ever strategic plan, a mission shift from a technical scholarship processing center to a premier college access organization serving students who have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education. Ms. Mazzuca founded the organization’s flagship program, the College Summer Institute in 1999. With the inaugural class in 2000 and a 100% college-going rate, the program has been recognized as a national model by the Lumina Education Foundation and is currently preparing for growth and expansion. The organization’s college access and success model now delivers a full-service college readiness program and yields a 90% college graduation rate. Under her leadership, scholarship output has more than doubled and annual fundraising has grown by 300%, while net assets increased by 400%.
A Bay Area native and first generation college graduate, Ms. Mazzuca brings more than two decades of executive nonprofit management and philanthropic leadership in the areas of human services, workforce development and education. She obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Francisco State University and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Business School, Executive Nonprofit Leadership Program, where she was named a fellow in 2001. Ms. Mazzuca has served on numerous community boards and is currently on the Board of Directors of the School-to-Career Partnership. She also serves as Chair of Marin County’s Educational Equity Steering Committee and is on the adjunct faculty of Dominican University of California, where she teaches Nonprofit Business Management. Outside of her professional life, Ms. Mazzuca enjoys her family and cycling through Northern California.
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Gloria Nemerowicz is founder and executive director of Yes We Must, a coalition of 33 U.S. nonprofit, independent colleges and universities with strong commitments to enrolling and graduating significant numbers of low-income and first-generation college students. Goals of the coalition include increasing degree attainment for low-income students, disseminating information about how colleges can effectively serve them, and developing valid measures for demonstrating their success.
From 1996 to 2011, Dr. Nemerowicz served as the ninth president of Pine Manor College, a four-year college for women. Under her leadership, Pine Manor adopted a framework of inclusive leadership and social responsibility to craft educational experiences and campus decision-making. This distinctive approach, coupled with a 34 percent reduction in tuition and extensive community partnerships, produced a 70 percent growth in the enrollment over ten years. In addition, Pine Manor significantly increased the diversity of its students and was recognized many times by U.S. News & World Report as one of the most diverse colleges in the country. For her leadership in accomplishing this diversity, Dr. Nemerowicz received the Arnold Z. Rosoff Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in 2005 from the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Ad Club. She was also inducted into the YWCA-Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers, Class of 2005.
Dr. Nemerowicz came to Pine Manor College from Wells College, where she served as the founding executive director of the Women’s Leadership Institute. Previously, Dr. Nemerowicz served as vice provost and dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Monmouth University, where she was also a tenured member of the sociology department. She received widespread recognition and grant awards for the philosophy and design of “Education for Leadership and Social Responsibility” — a comprehensive, college-wide educational plan of curriculum, co-curriculum, faculty development, and community programs to explore inclusive models of leadership.
An active scholar, writer, and speaker, Dr. Nemerowicz is the author of Children’s Perceptions of Gender and Work Roles (1979) and co-author, with JoAnn Gora, of Professionalism in Unpaid Work (1989) and, with Eugene Rosi, of Education for Leadership and Social Responsibility (1997). Her op-ed pieces have appeared in national newspapers. She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Rutgers University.
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Herb Tillery has been the Executive Director of the College Success Foundation – District of Columbia (CSF-DC) since 2006. Prior to coming to CSF-DC, he was the District of Columbia deputy mayor for operations. He has also been the executive director of The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Municipal Management and chief of staff for the District of Columbia Public Schools. Previously, Mr. Tillery served his country with distinction for over 26 years and retired with the rank of Colonel, U.S. Army. His community service includes board service for the Greater Washington Urban League; the Center for Leadership and Management, Graduate School, USDA; the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership; the George Washington University School of Public Policy & Public Administration; Leadership Greater Washington; and the DC Chamber of Commerce. He received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from North Carolina A&T State University. While on active duty, he earned a master’s of public administration from Jacksonville State University.
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