By Catherine Brown, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy
Reading time: 10 minutes
The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is excited to re-launch its Policy Council with 14 leaders from across the country with demonstrated records of effective advocacy impacting state policy. NCAN created this space to deepen our connection
to the work happening among our members in the field. We’re looking forward to working with the Council to elevate the needs of the students we serve and to identify policy solutions that will put a postsecondary degree within reach for all students.
This group will advise our staff and national board and be an essential part of our success at growing the impact of NCAN as a strong voice on policy, especially as we launch our new three-year strategic plan that puts transformational policy change
- with an emphasis on state policy - front and center.
Sam Aleinikoff Founder & Executive Director College AIM
Sam Aleinikoff began his career in education teaching math at Towers High School (Belvedere Park, GA) in 2011. His students mastered academic content, but too often they graduated from high school without postsecondary plans. In partnership school faculty,
Aleinikoff founded College AIM in 2013 to help his students forge paths to and through college.
College AIM has now grown to support more than 1,000 students each year. As the Executive Director of the organization, Aleinikoff works with community partners to expand College AIM's reach and direct the vision of the organization. Simultaneously,
Aleinikoff leads College AIM's advocacy work and serves as a college advisor for a cohort of students each year.
Aleinikoff holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He was a 2019 Civic Innovation Resident and 2018 Civic Innovation Fellow at the Center for Civic Innovation, was named to the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Atlanta's 30 under 30
in 2018, was a member of the Class of 2016 with New Leaders Council in Atlanta and was named Towers High School Teacher of the Year in 2016.
Anika Van Eaton is Vice President of Policy for uAspire. In this role, she leads uAspire's policy team, providing strategic direction for policy advocacy in California, Massachusetts, and New York, and driving federal policy programs and advocacy goals.
Van Eaton has been with uAspire since 2020, when she started as Massachusetts Policy Director.
Before joining uAspire, Van Eaton was research manager for the Boston Private Industry Council, the city's workforce development board, where she researched and wrote college completion studies, as well as managed and analyzed student data to inform program
design and policy for high school and college completion initiatives. In California, she served as legislative director for California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, and was a California Executive Fellow. She holds a BA from Cornell University and
an MPA from The George Washington University.
Born in Puerto Rico, and a first generation college graduate herself, Shirely Acevedo Buontempo is a passionate advocate of the Latino community and educational equity. She founded Latino U College Access (LUCA) in 2012 to address the inequity first generation
Latino/a students face while pursuing their college dreams. Under her leadership, the organization transformed from a pilot program into a well-recognized leader in college access and success.
Before launching LUCA, Shirley had a successful career in marketing and advertising with a focus on Hispanic audiences. She is a proud double alumna of Pace University (New York, NY) with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and an MPA in Nonprofit Management.
Michael Cheever is the Executive Vice President of College Success Foundation (CSF), a nonprofit inspiring youth that are underserved and from low-income backgrounds to finish high school, graduate from college, and be transformational leaders in society.
Being first in his family to graduate from college, he is passionate about helping to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through education.
CSF has supported over 12,000 students to graduate from college, has a staff of nearly 200 operating across multiple regional sites, and supports students on over 150 college campuses nationwide.
Cheever's entire career has been focused on giving back and serving the community. His career started in the US Navy serving overseas in forward deployed positions. He then transitioned to the nonprofit industry focusing on external affairs. Prior to
joining CSF, Cheever's career was concentrated on healthcare working for Bloodworks Northwest and UW Medicine.
His expertise areas include campaign fundraising; organizational and strategic planning; analytics; and change management. He regularly consults pro bono to nonprofit organizations helping to design and implement improvement and turnaround strategies.
Meredith “Mer” Curry Nuñez is a long-time social justice advocate working at the intersection of operations, college access, and workforce development. She has worked for local and state nonprofits since 2000, is a product of all three of California’s
public higher education institutions, and is passionate about advancing systems change, education equity, and economic mobility. She joined the Northern California College Promise Coalition (NCCPC) in 2020. As the Executive Director, Curry works in
partnership with organizations and leaders that are members of NCCPC, and those around the state, for collective impact to increase outcomes for multiply-marginalized underserved (MMU) students in college access, success, and career launch.
A first-generation college graduate, Curry earned a BA from the University of California Los Angeles, and an MBA from California State University Long Beach. She is an appointed C2C Community Engagement Advisory Board Member through 2024, the inaugural
Board Chair of LEAD Filipino, and a prior Chair and Commissioner for the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women.
Kierstan Dufour is the Director of External Training & Partnerships for Get2College, a program of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation. She has led the Foundation’s FAFSA scaling efforts and created the training/professional development programming
in which thousands of Mississippi educators have participated. Her work on this was recently published in the Foundation Review. She also partnered with the Mississippi Department of Education in creating the curriculum, student workbook
materials, and Master Teacher of CCR course for the graduation required College and Career Readiness high school class. Dufour serves on several state and national task forces to support college and career readiness.
Dufour earned her BSBA in Marketing from the University of Southern Mississippi and MS in Higher Education Administration from Mississippi College. Raised in Kentucky, she came to Mississippi for college and has called it home ever since. Dufour brings
a background in college admissions and FAFSA completion to her work supporting the college access landscape of Mississippi.
Deborah Martin joined the Florida College Access Network (FCAN) in 2021. She analyzes complex education policy in Florida, specifically to inform various stakeholders of the impact legislative actions have on college access and readiness. Her previous
experience working for the Florida Legislature, including her knowledge of the legislative process and the intricacies of public policy, support her current work at FCAN.
Martin holds two bachelor's degrees from the University of South Florida - International Studies and Public Health. She is a proud first-generation college graduate, dedicated to assisting others in achieving that same goal through her role at FCAN. Martin
will be starting her journey to a master’s of Public Administration in fall 2023.
Taneya Garcia is from Santa Ana and Acoma Pueblo (both NM). She received her undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies from Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) in 2022. She is the 2022-2023 New Mexico Fellow for the Institute for Policy
Studies and is completing her fellowship rotation with College Horizons in New Mexico.
Vincent Rossmeier's work focuses on the areas of post-secondary education, workforce development, and economic development. He most recently worked as chief of staff to District “C” Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer of the New Orleans (LA) City Council.
Prior to his work with the city, Rossmeier worked for the Bureau of Government Research and Partnership for Youth Development. He holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from New York University and has worked both at the New Yorker and Salon.com.
As Deputy Director of OneGoal Massachusetts, Adam Seidel is responsible for growth, strategy, and operations in the Massachusetts region. This includes expanding OneGoal's impact through our partnerships with schools, districts, and coalitions across
the state. Prior to this role, Seidel led all aspects of OneGoal’s program impact in Massachusetts. During this time, OneGoal grew from two districts to 16 and saw OneGoal Fellows enroll in postsecondary at a rate higher than the state average.
Before joining OneGoal, Seidel had nearly two decades of programmatic and operational experience. He served as the Director of Operations at Roxbury (MA) Preparatory High School as well as the Director of Operations and Head of School at Roxbury (MA)
Prep Lucy Stone, a five through eight middle school. Seidel previously worked at Common Cents in New York for nine years, where he served in a variety of roles, including National Program Director.
Chandra C. Scott is the Executive Director of Alabama Possible, a non-profit organization headquartered in Birmingham, AL, whose mission since 1993 is to break
down barriers to prosperity in Alabama through advocacy, education, and collaboration.
Under her leadership, Alabama Possible convenes statewide and regional networks and leads campaigns as a strategy to increase FAFSA completion and postsecondary enrollment. Alabama Possible also couples advocacy at the Federal and State level with community-level
civic engagement to impact policy and practice. In 2021, Alabama Possible was a critical partner in launching the nation’s and Alabama’s first Predominately Black and Historically Black Community College Network along with making applying to over
60 Historically Black Colleges and Universities free for all high school seniors in Alabama.
Prior to joining Alabama Possible, Scott served as the Director of Strategic Outcomes for the Mobile (AL) Area Education Foundation. Chandra received her certification in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Michigan State University, and a bachelor’s
in Chemistry from Xavier University (New Orleans, LA). She completed America’s Promise Alliance’s Data Leadership at Tuft’s University (Boston, MA).
Korynn Schooley Vice President, College Access Achieve Atlanta
Korynn Schooley is responsible for overall strategy and operations of the College Access and Affordability programs. Prior to Achieve Atlanta, Schooley served as Director of School Governance and Flexibility with Fulton County (GA) Schools. In this role,
she was responsible for the district’s implementation of the charter system framework. As a Strategic Data Fellow, she worked with school and district leaders on understanding postsecondary metrics and supporting student transitions from high school
to college. In that role, she also co-developed a widely recognized summer college-going assistance program.
Schooley brings significant education policy and advocacy experience, having served as the Georgia Afterschool Investment Council’s first Policy and Advocacy Manager and as Chief of Staff for Massachusetts State Representative Alice K. Wolf. Schooley
graduated from Duke University (Durham, NC) with BAs in Public Policy and Women’s Studies and earned her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
As a critical member of College Now Greater Cleveland’s executive team, Kittie Warshawsky plays critical role in guiding efforts to increase and further all levels of postsecondary educational attainment to further grow talent pipeline, resulting in exponential growth of organization’s annual budget from $5 million to over $35 million in 11 years. She leads a team working
closely with CEO, CFO, and CIO to ensure highest standards of financial stewardship, transparency, and excellent governance resulting in organization’s earning coveted four-star rating from Charity Navigator for last eight years years.
Warshawsky's portfolio of responsibilities has increasingly expanded beyond pure fundraising to include working directly with the 55-person board and staffing three College Now committees: advocacy, executive, and governance.
She has worked closely and successfully with colleagues to lead funding efforts for new, online mentoring program, which now pairs 1,700 scholarship recipients with 1,700 volunteers, significantly expand an adult learner program, establish multiple scholarship funds, and create new funding streams across all service lines.
Warshawsky received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center.
Shareea Woods is the Director of the Texas College Access Network (TxCAN). TxCAN convenes Local College Access Networks to facilitate the rapid adoption of promising practices. It also serves as a data hub for college access programs by providing interactive
FAFSA dashboards and other benchmarking tools.
Prior to joining the Educate Texas team in 2018, Woods directed the After the Bell Alliance for Dallas Afterschool, advocating for funding and support for expanded, affordable after-school
programs. Prior to that, she served as the chief program officer for the Young Women's Preparatory Network, where she helped establish and support public all-girls schools across Texas.
Woods holds a bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School.
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Sam Aleinikoff
Anika Van Eaton
Shirley Acevedo Buontempo
Michael Cheever
Meredith Curry
Kierstan Dufour
Deborah Martin
Taneya Garcia
Vincent Rossmeier
Adam Seidel
Chandra Scott
Korynn Schooley
Kittie Warshawsky
Shareea Woods