Our Team

Aimée Eubanks Davis

Aimée Eubanks Davis

  • Founder & CEO
  • Chicago, IL

Aimée is the founder and CEO of Braven which works to ensure underrepresented college students develop the skills, confidence, experiences and networks to get strong first jobs after graduation. She founded Braven based on her deep belief that our next generation of leaders will emerge from everywhere. Aimée spent the majority of her career at Teach For America. She held various senior leadership roles, including leading the organization’s groundbreaking work around its human capital and diversity efforts. Earlier in her career, Aimée taught sixth grade, led the Breakthrough/Summerbridge New Orleans site, and worked for the national organization. She is a recipient of The 1954 Project’s 2021 Luminary Awards, a 2020 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, 2019 Obama Foundation Fellow, Pahara-Aspen fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, a Braddock Scholar, a Draper Richards Foundation Entrepreneur, and a Camelback Ventures Fellow. A graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, Aimée resides in Chicago with her husband and three children.

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Aaron Buchanan

Aaron Buchanan

Director, Data Insights 
Chicago, Illinois

Abdurrahman Ajeigbe

Abdurrahman Ajeigbe

Manager, Professional Mentor Program
Newark, NJ

Abdurrahman manages the planning and implementation for Braven’s Professional Mentor Program.

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Adwoah Adomako

Adwoah Adomako

  • Executive Support & Operations Coordinator
  • Newark, NJ

Alexandra Williams-Fleck

Alexandra Williams-Fleck

Managing Director, Lehman College
New York City, NYC

Alexis Rodriguez

Alexis Rodriguez

Product Support Manager
Chicago, IL

Alexis Rodriguez is a proud first-generation, low-income college graduate from Nashville, TN. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and eating her way through Chicago’s amazing food scene. She is passionate about her family, voting rights, Rhode Island, and cats. An avid explorer, Alexis hopes to visit all the U.S. national parks during her lifetime!

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Ali Khaleel

Ali Khaleel

Manager, Instructional Design
Chicago, IL

Alina Yang

Alina Yang

  • Director, Development
  • Newark, NJ

Alison Minion

Alison Minion

  • External Affairs Manager
  • Newark, New Jersey

Alyssa Baylor

Alyssa Baylor

Manager, Instructional Design
New York City, NY

Amy Cisneros

Amy Cisneros

  • Managing Director, NLU & BravenX
  • Chicago, IL

Amy Cisneros is the Site Director for Braven Chicago and oversees Braven program implementation for BravenX and at National Louis University. She ensures the successful execution of the Accelerator course, recruits, and trains volunteers, and builds and supports partnerships with universities, employer partners, and other stakeholders.

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Anastasia Hardin

Anastasia Hardin

Managing Director
Newark, New Jersey

Anastasia is the Managing Director at Braven Newark and oversees program implementation at Rutgers University Newark. She is a proud first-generation graduate and holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Rutgers University.

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Angie Brice Thomas

Angie Brice Thomas

  • Director, Program Operations and Partnerships
  • New York, NY

Angie is the Director of Fellow Recruitment at Braven, where she sets the vision and strategy for best-in-class recruitment for the Accelerator course, in partnership with regional teams. Prior to Braven, Angie spent a decade at Teach For America, where she led high-performing teams to produce groundbreaking recruitment results across top colleges and universities. Angie’s impact began as a 5th grade Science teacher, where she led her students to achieve historic academic gains, in addition to being tapped for the ESL Teacher of the Year Award.  She earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MA from Columbia University Teachers College.  An avid reader and foodie, Angie resides in New York City with her husband and two kiddos.

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Annie Biggs

Annie Biggs

Director, Program Operations
Newark, NJ

Annie designs, leads, and ensures smooth operations and quality execution of the Accelerator course across regions.

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Ashley Ferraro

Ashley Ferraro

  • Program Manager, Recruitment
  • Newark, NJ
Ashley is responsible for recruiting students to Braven as well as cultivating relationships among the Rutgers-Newark community and increasing Braven’s presence at the university.

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Ayanna Adams

Ayanna Adams

External Affairs Manager
Atlanta, Georgia

Bekka Schaffer

Bekka Schaffer

  • Manager of Development and Stewardship
  • Chicago, IL

Bekka Scaffer is responsible for collaboratively building a deeper understanding of the philanthropic communities in which Braven works, crafting Braven’s story to inspire action within those communities, and creating and managing effective stewardship processes that fuel ongoing commitment among donors.

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Briannah Drew

Briannah Drew

  • Program Manager, Accelerator
  • San José, CA

Briannah oversees the overall student experience of Braven at San José State University. She runs operations and logistics for Learning Labs and Braven events where she supports Fellows, Leadership Coaches, Teacher Assistants, and professors.

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Brisdy Carrillo Vega

Brisdy Carrillo Vega

External Affairs Manager
San José, CA

Brisdy Carrillo Vega is the External Affairs Manager in the Bay Area. She works closely with our employer partners to represent the Braven Bay Area in a positive light while assisting the Executive Director to build meaningful relationships that contribute to an equitable future for our students. She also helps manage internal and external communications, heavily support fundraising and employer partnership efforts as well as raise brand awareness. She keeps certain values like equality, resilience, and family very close to heart which is reflected in her body of work. 

As an alum of SJSU in the class of Fall 2020, Bridy joined Braven’s forces as an Administrative Coordinator intern before joining full time. Her tie to Braven dates back to Spring 2019 when she took Braven. As a first generation DACA student, she realized that she wouldn’t have the same opportunities as other students and struggled to really find her place when she started college but Braven provided her with the community and network she didn’t realize she needed. She now hopes to give back to students that come from underrepresented backgrounds in her work with Braven. She hopes for a future where everyone can reach an equitable education. Brisdy’s work with employer partners has also led her to cross paths with impactful entrepreneurs and she hopes to lead a similar effort in her later years.

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Bryanah Wilkins

Bryanah Wilkins

  • Program Operations Coordinator
  • Newark, NJ

Camila Ventura-Martinez

Camila Ventura-Martinez

  • Program Manager, Accelerator
  • Newark, New Jersey

Cao Mac

Cao Mac

  • Director, Information Systems
  • Chicago, Illinois

Carmen Reid

Carmen Reid

Program Manager, Accelerator
Atlanta, Georgia

Catherine Chandler

Catherine Chandler

  • VP, Strategy
  • Chicago, IL

Catherine drives strategic projects related to organizational health, growth, and sustainability in order to maximize the impact of the Braven accelerator. In addition, she supports and serves as a thought partner to the CEO.

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Charity Irby

Charity Irby

Executive Assistant & Operations Coordinator
Atlanta, GA

Charity provides executive support and relationship management support to executive directors and oversees operations at Braven’s Atlanta hub.

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Charlotte Niedzielski

Charlotte Niedzielski

Salesforce Solutions Engineer
Chicago, Illinois

Charlotte provides Salesforce support on programmatic operations as well as collaborates as a thought-partner on continuous improvement and enhancement projects for our overall Salesforce system.

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Che Watkins

Che Watkins

Executive Director – Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia

Che D. Watkins is the Executive Director – Atlanta for Braven. Ms. Watkins served as President & CEO of The Center for Working Families, a nonprofit focused on workforce development to create economic success for hard-working families and their children.

Ms. Watkins has more than 30 years of experience in external affairs, public policy, business development, community engagement and development and finance. Ms. Watkins spent more than four years with the Metro Atlanta Chamber as Vice President of External Affairs where she leveraged her skills to develop relationships with local government officials, metro area Chambers, regional and community nonprofits, corporate leaders and other community voices.  She also managed the Chamber’s Greater Grady Task Force and served as Education and Campaign Manager for the 2012 Metro Atlanta Transportation Referendum that executed a $9 million voter education and advocacy effort to draw 300,000 voters to the polls to pass an $8 billion transportation referendum for the metro Atlanta region.

Ms. Watkins began her career with J.P. Morgan & Co. in Accounting before moving into client interfacing leadership positions at Bank of America and Wachovia.

Ms. Watkins holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Spelman College and her MBA from New York University.

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Chun Ying Wang

Chun Ying Wang

  • VP, Operations & Insights
  • Chicago, IL

Chun Ying oversees program-related data management, analysis, and reporting and overall research and evaluation efforts at Braven.

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Cybil Talley

Cybil Talley

Director of Employer Partnerships
Atlanta, GA

Cybil is responsible for stewarding a portfolio of existing employer partners and cultivating relationships with new prospective partners. Her work centers on supporting Braven’s corporate fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and strong outcomes for Fellows.

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Daniel Alter

Daniel Alter

  • Director of Employer Partnerships
  • Chicago, IL

Daniel is responsible for designing and implementing Braven’s employer partnership strategy. He guides the cultivation of employer partners in each Braven market, develops infrastructure to measure outcomes, and creates engagements that offer shared value to both Braven’s partners as well as our diverse, driven college students.

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Destiny McDonald

Destiny McDonald

Program Manager, Accelerator Online for Northern Illinois University
Chicago, IL

Diana Phuong

Diana Phuong

  • Executive Director, San Jose
  • San Jose, CA

Diana Phuong is the Executive Director of Braven in the Bay Area. She joined Braven at San Josè State University as Site Director in January 2020, and in her first year, adapted the core Accelerator Course to an entirely virtual context, to much success. Prior to Braven, Diana engaged counties, districts, and schools in integrated STEAM education by leveraging hands-on learning as a Partnership Director for a local nonprofit RAFT. She launched a RAFT STEAM Summer Program through joint funding as a 4.0 Schools Tiny Fellow. Prior to that, Diana spent a decade in teaching and high school administration. Her teaching began as a Teach For America Fellow in Memphis, TN, where she taught 3rd-5th grade English as a Second Language. Diana earned her Bachelor’s in English from University of California-Irvine and Masters in Education from Christian Brothers University. She is the first in her family to receive her Bachelor’s and Master’s. Born and raised in the East Bay, she is the daughter of refugees who started over in America in the late 70’s.

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Dillen Lewis

Dillen Lewis

Automation Engineering Associate
New York City, NY

Dominique Janvier

Dominique Janvier

  • UChicago Applied Data Fellow
  • Chicago, IL

As a member of the Data Insights team within Product, translates data analysis into actionable insights for Braven’s Accelerator and post-Accelerator programs. Delivers data analysis, reporting, and thought partnership across Braven.

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Ed Herrera

Ed Herrera

Chief Financial and Operations Officer
New York City, NY

Ed Herrera is Braven’s first Chief Financial and Operations Officer. In his role, he sets vision, strategy, and direction of Braven’s finance, compliance, IT, people operations, recruitment, hiring, L&D and culture work. Prior to joining Braven staff, Ed served as the CFO of LGBT Center in NYC. He has a BA from UC San Diego and his MBA from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.

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Edgar Perez

Edgar Perez

Manager, Talent Acquisition
Chicago, IL

Edgar is responsible for building diverse pipelines of talent and directly support hiring managers throughout the hiring process.

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Elena Baurkot

Elena Baurkot

Associate Software Engineer
Newark, NJ

Elena is Braven’s Associate Software Engineer and works with the tech team to help implement features for Braven’s software.

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Eric Morales

Eric Morales

Program Manager, Recruitment and Workforce Strategy
Chicago, IL

Eric oversees all student recruitment for BravenX and National Louis University, as well as managing Post-Accelerator Fellow workforce strategies for the Chicago region.

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Erica Daily

Erica Daily

  • Product Support Manager
  • Atlanta, GA

Guadalupe Emigdio

Guadalupe Emigdio

Program Manager of Recruitment
San José, CA

Guadalupe Emigdio is the Program Manager of Recruitment in the Bay. She joined Braven full-time in March of 2021, a recent graduate for San Jose State University. In her time at SJSU as an undergraduate she participated in the Braven course in Fall 2019. Lupe is a first-generation college student raised by a single mother who immigrated from Mexico in search of a better future. Lupe attributes her personal and professional growth to the experience acquired in connection to Braven. She, like many low-income college students we serve, supported herself financially through higher education. Unable to participate in many career accelerating experiences through the trajectory of her college career UNVS 101, a course offered at SJSU, in partnership with Braven opened a world of opportunities. Lupe interned with Merrill Lynch as a (Client Associate), Katie Couric Media (Media Intern), and Braven (Marketing/Recruitment Intern) through Braven referrals. Lupe’s  internships changed her life. They showed her that someone like her who two years ago was a street vendor has a voice. Braven showed her to own her story because it is her  biggest asset. She is the first to graduate from her family and land a strong job. Lupe is passionate about replicating her results to increase impact for first-generation and low-income nationwide.

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Harry Li

Harry Li

  • Chief Technology Officer
  • New York, NY

Harry Li joined Braven in June 2019. He oversees the user support, engineering, IT, and data departments. Prior to Braven, Harry devoted his energy towards consulting for education organizations such as EdTech startups and charter schools. Harry was the founding engineer for the Summit Learning program and founded their data science team. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Brown University and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He enjoys spending time with his family, pursuing many hobbies, and telling dad jokes.

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Helen Bohorquez

Helen Bohorquez

  • Director, Learning & Culture
  • Greater New York City

Hussein Abdul

Hussein Abdul

Program Manager, Accelerator – Lehman College
New York City, NY

Hussein oversees the overall student experience of Braven at Lehman College. He runs operations and logistics for Learning Labs and Braven events where he supports Fellows, Leadership Coaches, Teacher Assistants, and professors.

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Jasmine Sindico

Jasmine Sindico

  • Program Operations Coordinator
  • Bay Area

Jasmine is the Program Operations Coordinator for Braven in the Bay Area. She supports all efforts related to the Accelerator Course at San José State University. As a first-generation student, Jasmine works to ensure all Braven Fellows are given the opportunity to embrace their own potential within the Accelerator, and beyond. Jasmine Prior to Braven, Jasmine worked as a Case Manager at Santa Clara University, connecting students to crucial resources in the community related to personal wellness. Based on this experience, Jasmine is dedicated to advocating for mental health resources for all, but especially folx that hold marginalized identities. Jasmine holds a BS in Psychology from Saint Mary’s College of California and a MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Connecticut. On her own time, Jasmine loves to bake, travel with loved ones, and read as many books as possible.

Jena Rosenbaum

Jena Rosenbaum

Manager, Technical Projects
Chicago, IL

Jenna Carlson

Jenna Carlson

  • Director, Technical Project Management
  • Chicago, IL

Jenna partners with Braven’s Chief Technology Officer to lead critical elements of the Tech Team’s roadmap, including setting the vision for and managing the Product Support department, setting up and leading Scrum teams to execute initiatives that require a substantial engineering or data component, and serving as the cross-functional coordinator for the Tech team leads. She also served as the initial lead on Braven’s Learning and Development Center of Excellence and continues to contribute her experience in learning and development to this initiative.

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Jennings Kuzmier

Jennings Kuzmier

External Affairs Manager
New York City, NY

Jess Greenfield Hillesland

Jess Greenfield Hillesland

Director, People & Operations
Chicago, IL

John Garza

John Garza

  • Operations Coordinator, External Affairs
  • Chicago, IL

Jonathan Chaparro

Jonathan Chaparro

  • Executive Director, Innovation Implementation & Head of Chicago
  • Chicago, IL

Jonathan oversees Braven’s efforts in Chicago and program implementation at National Louis University. Jonathan ensures the successful execution of the Accelerator course, recruits and trains volunteers, and builds and supports partnerships with universities, employer partners, and other stakeholders.

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Jose Torres

Jose Torres

Program Manager, Recruitment & Workforce Strategy Braven Online
Chicago, IL

Justin Wallace

Justin Wallace

Salesforce Administrator
Chicago, IL

Kasia Kalata

Kasia Kalata

  • Director, Communications & Marketing
  • Chicago, IL

In her role as Director of Communications and Marketing, Kasia Kalata combines her experience in marketing and communications to elevate Braven’s brand. With a background in education, Kasia brings her expertise in storytelling, marketing strategy, and connecting with her audience through engaging campaigns.

Kasia graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Public Policy and minor is Slavic Languages and Literature. While her career began at City Year Chicago, her passion has driven her to continue creating positive change in public education.

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Kate Shoemaker

Kate Shoemaker

  • Head of New Sites

Kia Williams

Kia Williams

Managing Director of Relationships, Delaware
Delaware

Kiara Williams

Kiara Williams

Program Manager of Accelerator, CCNY
New York City, NY

Kilsys Payamps-Roure

Kilsys Payamps-Roure

  • Executive Director, New York City
  • New York, NY

Kilsys Payamps-Roure is the founding Executive Director for Braven in New York City where she leads strategy and management; builds and supports university, employer, and key stakeholder partnerships; and is responsible for brand awareness and fundraising. Most recently Kilsys served as Chief of Staff to the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). At NYCHA, she set organizational strategy and helped to lead the day-to- day operations of an agency serving over 600,000 residents with nearly 11,000 employees. Prior to NYCHA, Kilsys was the Operations Manager for Enterprise Community Partners in New York City overseeing administrative, facility, and IT related directives. While at Enterprise, she established a formal internship program that served as a pipeline for underrepresented students. Before that, Kilsys founded an online stationery and invitation company to fill the void for culturally relevant images. Earlier in her career, Kilsys spent 12 years in the financial services industry serving in various finance and accounting roles. Kilsys graduated with a B.B.A  in Accounting from Hofstra University and resides in New York with her husband and two children.

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Kristin Wyckoff Tidwell

Kristin Wyckoff Tidwell

Managing Director, Spelman
Atlanta, GA

Kuba Sokolowski

Kuba Sokolowski

Manager of University Partnerships and New Site Development
Chicago, IL

Kuba develops and implements strategies designed to strengthen Braven’s existing university partnerships while cultivating and launching new university sites and regions. By leveraging research, data, and design, he supports our regions in ensuring the effectiveness of Braven’s project management and strategic communications with universities.

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LaNiesha Cobb Sanders

LaNiesha Cobb Sanders

  • Chief Product Officer
  • Atlanta, GA

LaNiesha joined Braven in July 2022. In her role, she sets vision, strategy, and direction of Braven’s overall product and program experience. She oversees the design, operations, data, insights, and research that informs and improves the program experience and outcomes. Prior to joining Braven staff, LaNiesha spent more than 15 years at Teach For America leading various aspects of teacher training, support, and development. A proud graduate of Florida A&M University, LaNiesha currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and three children.

LaShawn Holloway

LaShawn Holloway

Director of Chicago Partnerships
Chicago, Illinois

LaShawn manages a portfolio of high-stakes, shared-value relationships with local Chicago employer and philanthropic partners, delivering a meaningful return on investment to partners, and continued growth of Braven’s outcomes, growth, sustainability, and brand. Also responsible for grants management for the Chicago region.

Latrel Crawford

Latrel Crawford

  • Program Manager, Accelerator (PMA) – Braven Online at NIU
  • Chicago, IL

Latrel oversees the overall student experience at Northern Illinois University (NIU). He manages the facilitation, operations, and logistics for Learning Labs and Braven events where he supports Fellows, Leadership Coaches, Teaching Assistants (TA’s), and professors.

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Lauren Kee

Lauren Kee

Manager of Instructional Design
Chicago, IL

Lauren is responsible for the instructional design of Braven’s innovation products, including BravenX, Braven Online, and Schwab InternPro. She collaborates with designers, engineers, regional team members, and external stakeholders to deliver and constantly improve the Braven Accelerator for new audiences.

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Lindsay Shouldis

Lindsay Shouldis

Director of Data Operations
Newark, NJ

Lindsay leads a team of Salesforce and data specialists to maintain and continuously improve Braven’s suite of data technology.

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Lisa Ortiz

Lisa Ortiz

Director of Strategic Operations
Chicago, Illinois

As the Director of Strategic Operations, I am responsible for stewarding the annual organization-wide strategy and goal setting processes, working to ensure that efforts of each team align across org-wide, team, and individual goals. This is achieved through fostering strong cross-functional communication and decision making to ensure operational excellence, scalability, and sustainability of Braven’s systems and processes.

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Lissete Correa-Serna

Lissete Correa-Serna

  • Managing Director, CCNY
  • Newark, NJ

Lorraine Anderson King

Lorraine Anderson King

  • Chief External Affairs Officer
  • Chicago, IL

Lorraine sets vision and oversees the day to day operations of all development and fundraising endeavors, working closely with the CEO and Board. In addition, she leads national and regional external affairs strategies, including Braven’s communications, marketing and thought leadership.

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Mariela Jasso

Mariela Jasso

  • Program Manager for National Louis University and BravenX
  • Chicago, IL

Mariela Jasso, M.S.Ed. is the Program Manager for National Louis University and BravenX where she gets to work closely with the Braven Accelerator. She runs the facilitation and operations of Learning Labs and Accelerator events where she supports Fellows, Leadership Coaches, Teacher Assistants, and professors.

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Marthe Leach

Marthe Leach

  • Site Director, Braven Online
  • Chicago, IL

Marthe is the founding Director for the Braven Online national pilot. Marthe ensures the successful execution of the Accelerator program, recruits and trains volunteers, and builds and supports partnerships with Braven Online partner organizations, university partners, employer partners, and other stakeholders.

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Matthew Stieglitz

Matthew Stieglitz

General Counsel
Newark, NJ

Matthew is the principal legal officer for Braven, providing advice and counsel on legal, policy, and ethical matters.

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Mau Mwachande

Mau Mwachande

  • Manager of Communications & Marketing
  • Chicago, IL

Meeri Chang

Meeri Chang

Managing Director, Braven Online
San José, CA

Melanie Budhan

Melanie Budhan

Product Support Coordinator

Melanie is a recent graduate from Rutgers Business School and former Teaching Fellow for Braven. She is responsible for assessing the quality of systems and troubleshooting issues as they arise.

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Michele Ybarra

Michele Ybarra

  • Director of Talent Acquisition
  • Chicago, IL

Michele Ybarra leads the strategy, operations and policies for the recruitment and hiring of all Braven staff.

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Michelle Min

Michelle Min

Data Fellow

Michelle joins Braven as a Princeton Project 55 Fellow. She works with the data and research teams to run, maintain, and improve Braven’s evaluation systems and processes.

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Naretha A. Timberlake

Naretha A. Timberlake

  • Program Manager, Employer and Volunteer Operations
  • Atlanta, GA

Naretha oversees the strategy and execution of Braven’s volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and retention programs. She also supports cross-functional execution of employer partnerships and volunteer programs, serving as an implementation coach, thought partner, and problem solver.

Nina Landrum

Nina Landrum

  • Director, Executive Support
  • Chicago, Illinois

Nina provides executive support and constituent relationship management support to the CEO as well as targeted support for Braven’s Development and Operations team. She manages several special projects like salesforce entry for the development pipeline and national donors, social media execution, and retreat logistics.

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Olivia Greenfield

Olivia Greenfield

  • External Affairs Manager, Braven Chicago
  • Chicago, IL

Olivia Greenfield is the External Affairs Manager for the Chicago Region covering National Louis University, BravenX, and Braven Online. She works closely with Braven’s employer partners to build and maintain meaningful relationships that contribute to an equitable future for Fellows. Olivia was raised in Chicago and comes to the Braven team following her experience as a high school teacher.

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Priya Balasubramanian

Priya Balasubramanian

Program Manager, Workforce Development
San José, CA

Priya Balasubramanian is the Program Manager of Workforce Development for Braven in the Bay Area. She manages an ambitious multi-faceted program designed to professionally support over 1600+ Braven Alumni transition from a 4-year university to their first quality opportunity after graduation. As an immigrant and first-generation college student, Priya values the importance of community and building strong relationships in reaching an equitable future. Her work within Braven embodies a lot of her values surrounding economic equity, equal opportunity and widespread cultural education. ​​As a recent alum of San Jose State class of 2020, Priya is extremely grateful for the professional direction Braven provided for her when she took the course in Fall 2019. As a transfer student from Canada and one struggling to find a career that identified with her authentic self, Braven embraced her insecurities and guided her towards her true passion, supporting the growth of initiatives that seek to equalize the playing field for minority populations. 

In her spare time, Priya loves to travel, ambitiously building her itinerary for a post-pandemic future, hit the beaches of LA with her sibling, and read endless thought spiraling fictional philosophy books.

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Quiviya Von Eldridge

Quiviya Von Eldridge

Director, Research and Evaluation
Atlanta, GA

Roechelle Croskey

Roechelle Croskey

Program Manager – Accelerator
Atlanta, GA

Roechelle Croskey is the Program Manager – Accelerator for the Atlanta region.  Roechelle has a Bachelor’s in Human Sciences from Mississippi State University and a Masters in Secondary Education from Jacksonville State University.  Most recently she was a Program Manager with Fulton County Public Schools in Career and Technical Education – Human Services Pathway whose goal is to increase student’s career interest in Human Services post-secondary career plans. As a Program Manager her passion was to empower underrepresented students from low-income families to acquire knowledge, resources, and education to live choice filled lives post-college.

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Shannon Hossinger

Shannon Hossinger

  • Director of Public Policy
  • Washington, D.C.

Shannon leads Braven’s public policy work, helping to further the organization’s strategic objectives at the federal, state, and local levels. This includes increasing brand recognition, cultivating key relationships, and directing advocacy on the importance of career in the college success equation to help support our university partners and regional teams.

She comes to Braven from Capitol Hill and is an alum of Teach For America and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Sheila Lopez

Sheila Lopez

  • General Counsel
  • New York, New York

Sheila joined Braven in 2013 and has worn several hats since. Currently, she is Braven’s first General Counsel where advises on a range of legal matters including partnership agreements, transactions, data privacy, intellectual property, and risk mitigation. Sheila also supports the CEO with strategic external stakeholder relationships and partnerships. She was on the founding Braven team and the founding Executive Director for Braven at Rutgers University-Newark. 

Prior to Braven, she was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell working in the investment management group. Sheila began her career in education as an Education Policy Analyst for the New York City Council Education Committee Chair Eva Moskowitz and was a member of the founding team of Harlem Success Academy Charter School as Director of Instructional Development. She also worked on Eva Moskowitz’s campaign for Manhattan Borough President. 

Sheila graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University where she majored in History and Literature, and has a JD from Harvard Law School. She serves on the Success Academy Leadership Council and StudentsFirstNY’s nonprofit board, and is a founding member of Level, a diverse professional women’s network addressing the racial wealth gap by investing in Black women entrepreneurs. Sheila is a first-generation college graduate and a daughter of immigrants. Originally from Newark, NJ, she now lives in New York city.

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Sonya Forg

Sonya Forg

  • Chief of Staff, External Affairs
  • Cincinnati, OH

Stephanie Polanco

Stephanie Polanco

Program Manager, Recruitment & Workforce Strategy, CCNY
New York City, NY

Stephanie oversees all student recruitment for The City College of New York (CCNY), as well as managing Post-Accelerator Fellow workforce strategies for the CCNY cohort.

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Takiya Tillman

Takiya Tillman

Program Manager-Workforce Strategy
Atlanta, Georgia

Tess Brustein

Tess Brustein

  • VP, Design
  • Oakland, CA

Tess, Director of Core Product, leads the programmatic and instructional design of the Braven Accelerator course and parts of the Post-Accelerator experience. She is focused on constantly improving the Fellow experience guided by Braven’s key outcomes. She works in tandem with regional teams to ensure smooth execution of designs.

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Thotsaphon (Ben) Janrungrodsakun

Thotsaphon (Ben) Janrungrodsakun

Associate Software Engineer
Newark, NJ

Traci Panizzi

Traci Panizzi

  • Managing Director of Finance & Controller
  • Chicago, IL

Traci leads the Finance team to ensure Braven’s financial health is in order. In this role, Traci oversees a wide range of finance functions from general ledger accounting, reporting, payroll, and audit to budgeting, financial analytics, and treasury. She also works closely with the Development team on grants management and external reporting.

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Trinity Bracey

Trinity Bracey

Manager, Grants & Finance Administration
Chicago, IL

Trinity works with the Director of Finance to ensure the financial health of Braven.

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Our Board of Directors

Aimée Eubanks Davis

Aimée Eubanks Davis

  • Founder & CEO
  • Chicago, IL

Aimée is the founder and CEO of Braven which works to ensure underrepresented college students develop the skills, confidence, experiences and networks to get strong first jobs after graduation. She founded Braven based on her deep belief that our next generation of leaders will emerge from everywhere. Aimée spent the majority of her career at Teach For America. She held various senior leadership roles, including leading the organization’s groundbreaking work around its human capital and diversity efforts. Earlier in her career, Aimée taught sixth grade, led the Breakthrough/Summerbridge New Orleans site, and worked for the national organization. She is a recipient of The 1954 Project’s 2021 Luminary Awards, a 2020 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, 2019 Obama Foundation Fellow, Pahara-Aspen fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, a Braddock Scholar, a Draper Richards Foundation Entrepreneur, and a Camelback Ventures Fellow. A graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, Aimée resides in Chicago with her husband and three children.

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Charlie Wolfson

Charlie Wolfson

Executive Director of Arrow Impact

Charlie Wolfson is Executive Director of Arrow Impact, a foundation that supports initiatives that create pathways to economic prosperity for communities that have been under-resourced. Prior to Arrow Impact Charlie served as Director of Data Strategy at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization in Los Angeles, and before that he worked as a Senior Program Officer at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nonprofit community development financial institution in New York. Charlie holds a BA in economics and political science from Duke University and an MBA and an MA in education from Stanford University. He is a graduate of the Broad Residency in Urban Education and is an Education Pioneers alum. Charlie lives in Oakland, CA and serves on the boards of Tipping Point Community and NewSchools Venture Fund.

David S. Levy

David S. Levy

Founder, Volition LLC

David S. Levy is the founder of Volition LLC which helps mission-driven organizations to make strategic choices with the commitment necessary for action. He also currently serves as a Senior Advisor to New Profit helping support their growth strategy and mentoring social entrepreneurs. David brings more than 30 years of experience across the private, nonprofit and public sectors to his work. His private sector consulting experience, spanning 17 years, includes partner-level positions at the Monitor Group and Booz & Company.Prior to consulting, he was an R&D executive with Herman Miller, Inc. where he co-authored the design criteria for the Aeron™ Chair.

In the nonprofit sector, David has consulted with leading organizations such as MLT (Management Leaders for Tomorrow), New Profit, Project Evident and Teach for America. He currently serves on the boards of Acelero Learning, Braven, Enlearn and LEAP Innovations.

David graduated with distinction from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Architecture, received his M.S. from Cornell and Doctor of Architecture from The University of Michigan, where he also was an Assistant Professor of Architecture.

Liz Thompson

Liz Thompson

President, Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education

As President of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (The CAFÉ), Liz is deeply engaged in the nonprofit community and passionate about youth development and education.

She began working with nonprofits in 1993 as founding Executive Director of City Year Chicago, a national service organization that was the template for the AmeriCorps Program. Then in 1995, Liz served as Executive Director of a Montessori school in Denver, where she led a $5 million expansion. In 1998, she became active with boards in the San Diego area, which further fueled her interest in philanthropy and education.

Prior to her work with nonprofits, Liz had a ten-year career with Ameritech Corporation, culminating in her role as special assistant to the CEO of Ameritech Illinois and director of a three-state region for Network Field Operations.

Liz serves as a Trustee for the University of Chicago, is Chairman of the University of Chicago Charter School Board, and serves on the Steering Committee of the University of Chicago Women’s Board. She is a director for the Museum of Science and Industry and serves as Vice Chair of the Partnership for College Completion. She is an alumnus of the Non-Profit Leadership Program of Denver and of the Leadership Greater Chicago Program where she currently also serves as a Director. Liz loves spending time with her family and friends, and cherishes her title of ‘Queen of Useless Facts’.

Roger G. Arrieux, Jr.

Roger G. Arrieux, Jr.

New York Managing Partner
Deloitte LLP

As managing partner of Deloitte’s New York City offices, Deloitte’s US headquarters and largest office, Roger helps to drive client and business growth and build relationships with community organizations and business and civic leaders. This includes facilitating a mulit-displinary approach towards serving clients, leading corporate citizenship strategy, and creating and modeling a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture.

Roger is a transformational leader who is widely recognized for his strategic impact, technical savvy, and passion for the community. Roger leads by example in advocating for his teams, social fairness, and equal opportunity, and is committed to developing industry practitioners, next-generation leaders, and seasoned executives.

Roger previously served as a Deloitte LLP USA Board Council member, having served as a member of the Finance and Audit Committee and a member of the Global Committee. In these roles, he provided oversight of Deloitte US financial and accounting processes and provided oversight of global issues and member firm activity impacting Deloitte US, respectively.

As a Senior Partner with more than three decades of professional services experience, Roger specializes in providing professional services to alternative investment vehicles across a diverse client base including large, complex investment advisers, partnerships, private equity funds, hedge funds, mortgage REITs, commodity pools, and funds of funds. Roger teams across service lines and sectors to provide solutions to clients and assists them in understanding the various regulatory, structural, and operational frameworks for the industry. Roger has had the pleasure to speak at numerous industry conferences and has been quoted in alternative investment management industry publications.

Roger has been making an impact on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in both his internal and external roles throughout his career. Roger is a long-standing supporter of various nonprofit organizations that focus on academic acceleration. Roger currently serves as the Chair of the Harlem YMCA Board of Directors, Chair of the Black Achievers in Industry Steering Committee, Chair of the Braven New York Board and he also serves on the National Board of Directors of the A Better Chance and Braven charitable organizations.

In addition, Roger participates in leadership activities with various other civic, charitable, and professional organizations, including, the Accountant’s Coalition, Baruch College Fenwick Dean’s Advisory Council, the NYS Business Council, and the Deloitte Professional Practice Network Advisory Council. Lastly, Roger is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Black Accountants, and the Economic Club of New York.

Roger received a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Baruch College.

Shellye Archambeau

Shellye Archambeau

Former CEO, MetricStream, Inc.

Shellye Archambeau is the former Chief Executive Officer of MetricStream, Inc., a leading provider of governance, risk, compliance and quality management solutions to corporations across diverse industries. She served in this role from the time she joined MetricStream in 2002 until 2018. Prior to that, Ms. Archambeau served as Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales for Loudcloud, Inc., Chief Marketing Officer of NorthPoint Communications, and President of Blockbuster Inc.’s e-commerce division. Before she joined Blockbuster, she held domestic and international executive positions during a 15-year career at IBM. Ms. Archambeau has served as a director of Roper Technologies, Inc. since April 2018 and Nordstrom, Inc. since 2015. She also served as a director of Arbitron, Inc. from 2006 to 2013.

Richard Barth

Richard Barth

CEO, KIPP Foundation

As CEO of the KIPP Foundation, Richard leads the growth of the KIPP network, which has grown from 45 to 242 schools, from 8,000 to over 100,000 students, and from 400 to 28,000 alumni since 2005. Under Richard’s leadership, KIPP dramatically expanded KIPP’s leadership development programs, advocated for high performing charter schools on Capitol Hill, and secured partnerships with 97 colleges and universities.

Richard came to KIPP from Edison Schools, where he served as President of District Partnerships. Prior to joining Edison, Barth was one of the founding staff members of Teach For America.

Richard earned a B.A. in American History from Harvard University, and is an Aspen Institute-New Schools Fellow. He currently sits on the board of directors of Braven and the KIPP Foundation. Barth was named a 2014 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and Harvard University’s Chief Marshal for 2014. Richard lives in New York with his wife and children.

Dr. Phillip Clay

Dr. Phillip Clay

Former chancellor and Current Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Phillip L. Clay, PhD served as the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ​ (MIT)​ from 2001 until 2011. ​He also held other leadership positions at MIT and was Department Head at ​the Department of Urban Studies & Planning where he has been a faculty member since 1976.

Professor Clay is widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy and urban development. His current interests include organizational capacity in community-based nonprofits as well as the role of anchor institutions. Growing out of his work on MIT international strategies, he is also interested in the increasing role higher education can play in national development strategies in less developed and emerging nations.

Professor Clay is Chair of the Board of The Community Builders, Inc., one of the nation’s largest nonprofit developers of affordable housing. He is a member on several foundation and nonprofit boards, including The Kresge Foundation. Professor Clay also has experience in public higher education as a member of the board of the University of North Carolina. He is a member of the board of the Aga Khan University.

He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a doctorate from MIT. Professor Clay lives in Boston.

Susan Dunn

Susan Dunn

Semi-Retired Teacher, Community Volunteer

Susan has been working for educational equity in Newark, NJ since 2004. She has been a long term volunteer with K-8 students in the KIPP schools. She serves Braven on the National and Newark boards. Susan is a member of the Spelman College Board of Trustees. In NYC, where she now lives, Susan is a member of the board of the Soho Rep. Theater. Susan’s other commitments include Teach For America – NJ and the New Jersey Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.  She received a Bachelor’s in Sociology from the University of Chicago and a Master’s in Elementary Education from Bank Street College. 

Shalinee Sharma

Shalinee Sharma

CEO & Co-Founder, Zearn

Shalinee Sharma is CEO and co-founder of Zearn, a nonprofit educational organization behind the top-rated math learning platform used by 1 in 4 elementary-school and 1 million middle-school students nationwide. At Zearn, Sharma and her team are committed to helping all kids believe that they are math kids. In addition to her role at Zearn, she serves on the Braven Board of Directors, is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and serves as co-chair of the Brown University Advisory Council for the College.

Before founding Zearn in 2012, Sharma spent more than a decade at Bain & Co. leading work for clients in various sectors including technology and education. She has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. A child of refugees, Sharma is passionate about universal access to an excellent education.

Vicki Walia

Vicki Walia

Chief Talent and Capability Officer at Prudential

Vicki A. Walia is Chief Talent and Capability Officer at Prudential, where she is responsible for leading a COE that integrates work on talent management and organizational capability.

Prior to joining Prudential,Vicki was Head of People at Moody’s Analytics where she created the Human Capital strategy and oversaw the global HRBP team supporting nearly 6,000employees. She joined Moody’s from AllianceBernstein (AB) where she held firm leadership roles in marketing, leading the Human Resources function on an interim basis, Talent, Diversity& Inclusion and a business partner role. In partnership with the firm’s senior leadership, she led the effort to develop and ensure execution of the people agenda. Her final role at AB was the Head of Digital Strategy and Innovation, leading a firm-wide initiative to develop business strategies that harnessed trends in technology, regulation, and the delivery of investment services to enhance and differentiate existing service offerings.

She joined AB in 2007 from Development Dimensions International (DDI), where she worked with clients on projects related to assessment, selection and leadership/executive development.

Vicki has made a number of professional and scientific presentations at the annual meetings of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Academy of Management and Global Business Forum. She has been an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, where she taught courses on organizational behavior, and research methodology. Walia holds a BFA in music from York University and an MS and PhD in industrial and organizational psychology from Alliant International University.

Richard S. Braddock | Emeritus

Richard S. Braddock | Emeritus

Former CEO, Priceline and FreshDirect

Braddock began his business career in 1965 spending a number of years in product management at General Foods. He joined Citicorp in 1973, was elected to the board of directors in 1985, and was elected president and chief operating officer of Citicorp and its principal subsidiary, Citibank, N.A. in January 1990. Mr. Braddock resigned from Citicorp in November 1992, and subsequently served as chief executive officer of Medco Containment Services, Inc. until its acquisition by Merck & Co., Inc., and then spent a year as a principal at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc. He served as Chairman (non-executive) of True North Communications Inc. from December 1997 to January of 1999. He served as Chairman and CEO of priceline.com from August of 1998 to April 2004. Mr. Braddock served as Chairman of MidOcean Partners from April of 2003 until December 2007, and also became Chairman of FreshDirect in 2005. He served as Chairman and CEO of FreshDirect from March of 2008 until his departure from the company in early 2011.

Mr. Braddock is currently Chairman of three early stage companies and is involved in several not for profit activities in education. Mr. Braddock serves on the board of directors of The Aspen Institute, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Cristo Rey Network, and several private companies. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.