Staff

Kim Cook, Executive Director

Kim Cook, NCAN's executive director since 2008, has worked in the higher education and college access field for her entire professional career, including experience in undergraduate admissions and financial aid, administration of a last-dollar scholarship program, and a succession of responsibilities at NCAN including Director of Government Relations, Assistant Director and Executive Vice President. Ms. Cook also served as the Interim Executive Director of the Ohio College Access Network.

She serves on the College Board's College Planning Advisory Board, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Training for Counselors and Mentors advisory panel and the National Education Working Group on Foster Care and Education. She is often consulted to speak on federal policy issues and building college access networks and community-based college access programs.

Prior to joining NCAN in 1999, she was a Senior Program Associate at Plan for Social Excellence, Inc., a foundation supporting innovative projects in education, and served as its Grants Manager and Scholars Program Manager. Previously, she was as a college admission counselor at Pace University in New York. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from Pace University and a Bachelors degree in Communications, Law, Economics and Government from The American University (Washington, DC). She has completed continuing professional development through courses in Georgetown University’s Certificate in Non-Profit Management and Harvard University’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management institute.

Sara Melnick, Deputy Director

Sara Melnick, Deputy Director of the National College Access Network, has nearly 20 years of experience helping schools and communities work together to enhance outcomes for K-12 students. As Deputy Director, Ms. Melnick oversees projects focused on college access and success, manages the organization’s annual conference and provides technical assistance on the development of statewide college access networks.

Prior to joining NCAN, she spent seven years as the Associate Director, K-16 Initiatives with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) where she worked with college access programs across the country, including the federally funded GEAR UP grantees. In that role, Ms. Melnick managed projects, provided technical assistance to communities and co-authored training curricula on developing partnerships to support early college awareness initiatives.

Ms. Melnick has also worked with America’s Promise, the National Association of Partners in Education and as a public school teacher in New York City. She has written publications on the intersection of service-learning and school-to-work, integrating telecommunications technology into education, developing school-to-career initiatives and after-school programs and creating safe learning environments, and has served on the Community and Civic Organization Steering Committee of the United States Department of Education's Partnership for Family Involvement in Education and the board of the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education.

Ms. Melnick holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Vassar College and a Master of Business Administration degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Baruch College. She lives in Maryland with her husband and three children.

Elizabeth Morgan, Director of External Relations

Elizabeth Morgan is Director of External Relations for the National College Access Network, where she is responsible for new member development, fundraising, and other partnerships that help NCAN fulfill its mission.

Previously, Ms. Morgan was director of youth programs at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, where she oversaw the development and management of up to $7.5 million annually in grants to other nonprofit organizations as well as operation of the Foundation's scholarship program helping low-income students attend highly selective colleges and universities. Through the foundation’s grants, Elizabeth helped to launch or grow several NCAN member programs, including the University of Virginia College Guide Program, the National College Advising Corps, CollegeTracks, SoMD CAN, and the Rappahannock Career and College Access Program. She has significant expertise in college access and success issues, nonprofit management and evaluation, out-of-school-time programs for youth, education reform, and communications.

Before joining the foundation, Ms. Morgan was a grant officer for the Michigan State Bar Foundation, which awards more than $8 million annually to provide civil legal assistance to the poor. Ms. Morgan has also worked as a journalist and editor for the Bureau of National Affairs, the World Bank, and the alumni magazine of the Washington College of Law.

She served as a member of the NCAN board of directors from 2008 to 2010 and is presently the board chair of the Duke Student Publishing Company, the nonprofit owner of Duke University's daily student newspaper. She holds a J.D. from the Washington College of Law at American University and an A.B. in history from Duke University.

MorraLee (Holzapfel) Keller, Director of Technical Assistance

Ms. MorraLee Keller serves as Director of Technical Assistance and provides professional development to both direct service providers and managers to help ensure the success and sustainability of new and existing college access programs. She offers consultation services with advice on governance issues, programming, data collection, research and best practices and also develops comprehensive training materials.

Mrs. Keller has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in higher education administration, both from The Ohio State University. A former financial aid coordinator at OSU, Mrs. Keller has extensive experience in student financial aid. In her time at the Columbus, Ohio-based NCAN member program, I KNOW I CAN, Mrs. Keller developed a program with K-12 early college awareness programming and developed a comprehensive college advising program and last dollar grant program. Mrs. Keller is the past president of NCAN and served as the treasurer of the Board of Directors of NCAN.

Carrie Warick, Director of Partnerships and Policy

Ms. Carrie Warick is the Director of Partnerships and Policy for the National College Access Network. She coordinates NCAN’s policy and advocacy work to promote policies that support low-income, first-generation, and minority students access to and success in higher education. Ms. Warick also collaborates NCAN’s relationships with statewide and regional college access networks and other NCAN partners.

Joining NCAN in May 2008, Ms. Warick began as a Program Associate and then became the Director of Member Services beginning in September 2008. In this position, she developed and disseminated resources and training to NCAN members as well as managing membership events, communications, recruitment, and renewal.

Ms. Warick holds a Masters of Public Policy, with a concentration in education policy, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and History, both from The George Washington University. While pursuing her Masters, Ms. Warick was a Presidential Administrative Fellow and worked in various areas of communication within GW. She is a resident of Washington, DC, and the advisor to the GW Chapter of the Buzzing 4 Change Foundation.

Amina Anderson Pringle, Member Services Manager

Amina Anderson Pringle joined NCAN in 2012 as Member Services Manager after four years as a college retention advisor at the District of Columbia College Access Program (DC-CAP), one of NCAN’s largest members. Her responsibilities include coordinating and evaluating NCAN membership recruitment and retention, delivering quality services to members, and developing member-related events. She is NCAN’s primary liaison to its membership and works to ensure that members receive the training, professional development, and resources they need to grow and serve students well.

Mrs. Pringle is also an alumna of the DC-CAP program, which helped her enter Lincoln University in 2001. She completed two bachelors’ degrees (social work and criminal justice) at Lincoln University and an MBA at Trinity University. At DC-CAP, she managed a caseload of more than 3,000 college students in 13 states. Her responsibilities included providing orientation to college life, monitoring students’ academic progress, helping students access support services on campus and advocating on their behalf, and ensuring annual completion of financial aid and scholarship forms.

Brenda Finkel, Database and Event Coordinator.

Ms. Brenda Finkel brings many years of experience to her position as NCAN’s Database and Event Coordinator. Previously, Brenda worked in administrative roles with for-profit and nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C., including Bell South and Paralyzed Veterans of America. Her responsibilities have included support of membership departments, meeting planning, and vendor relations.

She attended Luther College in Teaneck, N.J., and Harrisburg Area Community College.