Staff

Tami Anderson, Research Assistant
tanderson@nctq.org
Tami recently started with NCTQ, and works across several projects.
Kathleen Bolles, Comptroller
kbolles@nctq.org
Kathleen joined NCTQ in 2005. She has a BS in Business Administration from Towson University and is a Quickbooks ProAdvisor. She handles the organization's Financial and HR functions.
Sarah Brody , Policy Analyst
sbrody@nctq.org
Prior to joining NCTQ, Sarah was a Teach For America corps member and taught high school English in Philadelphia for three years. She holds an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in English and history from Emory University.
Emily Cohen, District Policy Director
ecohen@nctq.org
Emily has worked at NCTQ since 2005 managing the organization's work on collective bargaining. Prior to joining NCTQ she taught in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as a Teach For America corps member. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Susan Douglas, Executive Assistant to Kate Walsh and Office Manager
sdouglas@nctq.org
Susan comes to NCTQ after serving as an Executive Assistant at a non-profit organization and a trade association in Washington, DC for the past 4 years. Prior to that, Susan taught middle school English and study skills for 6 years in Northern Virginia and was also an organizational skills and writing tutor. Susan earned her BA in German Studies and Anthropology from American University.
Graham Drake, Team Leader, National Review
gdrake@nctq.org
Graham joins the NCTQ staff following the completion of a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Kentucky where he concentrated on education policy. He gained experience working in Washington during an internship at the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Graham has previous classroom experience following the attainment of a BA and MA in Secondary Social Studies Education which were also earned at the University of Kentucky.
Marisa Goldstein, Team Leader, National Review
mgoldstein@nctq.org
Marisa joins NCTQ after completing her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. She previously worked for NCTQ as a remote analyst on the national education school review. While completing her degree at Maryland, she interned at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and worked with the Girls Excelling in Math and Science program in Prince George's County Public Schools. She holds a BA in history from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Julie Greenberg, Senior Policy Analyst, Teacher Preparation Studies
jgreenberg@nctq.org
Julie taught secondary math for 13 years in Montgomery County (MD) schools before joining NCTQ. Prior to teaching, she worked as a policy analyst for state government in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and for Yale University's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. She holds a BA (geology, Carleton College), a MS (water resources management, University of Wisconsin), and a MAT (secondary math, American University).
Sandi Jacobs, Vice President
sjacobs@nctq.org
Sandi comes to NCTQ having most recently worked at the U.S. Department of Education as a Senior Education Program Specialist for the Reading First and Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration programs. Prior to that, she taught 4th and 5th grade for nearly a decade at Public School 9 in Brooklyn. Ms. Jacobs was a Presidential Management Intern and a charter corps member of Teach For America. She holds a MA in sociology of education from Columbia University's Teachers College and a BA in history from Columbia College.
Arthur McKee, Managing Director, Teacher Preparations Studies
amckee@nctq.org
Arthur joined NCTQ in January 2011 to head up its national review of education schools. From 2000 to 2010, Arthur worked at CityBridge Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to creating and sustaining great public schools in Washington DC. While there, he oversaw the foundation's Early Years Education Initiative, an $8M, five-year effort to expand high-quality early childhood education services in the nation's capital. Arthur received his AB in history from Princeton, and a Ph.D. in Russian history from U.C. Berkeley.
Katie Moyer, Team Leader, National Review
kmoyer@nctq.org
Before joining NCTQ, Katie taught 4th Grade English Language Development in Arizona for five years. She served as a Mentor Teacher at her school and was a Teach For America Institute staff member. Katie is an alum of Teach For America and a graduate of Beloit College.
Ruth Oyeyemi, Program Assistant, Teacher Preparation Studies
royeyemi@nctq.org
Ruth graduated from James Madison University with a BA in Psychology. Led by an interest in education, she began working with non-profits in 2006. Since May 2011, Ruth has been assisting NCTQ with the national review of education schools.
Laura Pomerance, Policy Analyst, Teacher Preparation Studies
lpomerance@nctq.org
Laura Pomerance taught middle school and high school physics and biology for five years before joining NCTQ. She has also worked in science education policy for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as a legislative assistant in the Maryland State Legislature, and in Congress. She holds a M.Ed in secondary education from the University of Maryland, College Park and a BA in physics and biology from Swarthmore College.
Robert Rickenbrode, Director, Teacher Preparation Studies
rrickenbrode@nctq.org
Robert Rickenbrode served as the Chief Academic Officer and mathematics/computer science teacher for the Cesar Chavez Charter Schools in DC for nine years prior to joining NCTQ. Before that, he worked in the San Juan School District in Utah and for seven years was a member of the 'Ndahoo'aah Summer Program at Monument Valley High School. He is on the board of the Bryant Woods Montessori School in Maryland. He holds a MA in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in economics from the California Institute of Technology.
Priya Varghese, Manager, District Studies
pvarghese@nctq.org
Priya comes to NCTQ after working on teacher evaluation at DC Public Schools. She taught special education in Mercedes, Texas and North Pole, Alaska and is an alumnus of Teach for America. Priya studied Great Books as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, and holds an MPA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Kate Walsh, President
kwalsh@nctq.org
Kate Walsh has served as the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) since 2002. Before coming to NCTQ, she worked for The Abell Foundation in Baltimore, the Baltimore City Public Schools, and the Core Knowledge Foundation. Her work has tackled a broad spectrum of educational issues, with a primary focus on the needs of children who are disadvantaged by poverty and race. Among her accomplishments, she started and ran a boarding school in Kenya, East Africa to educate at-risk boys from Baltimore and also developed one of the nation's premier programs in mathematics and science for middle and secondary public school students, a program that has yielded numerous Intel Talent Search winners. She also started the first alternative certification program for teachers in Maryland, a project which led to her strong interest in teacher quality. Walsh has since authored many papers on teacher quality, with a particular interest in the impact of the policies and practices of institutions, including states, unions, districts and teacher preparation programs, on the teaching profession. A long-time resident of Baltimore, Ms. Walsh also serves on the Maryland State Board of Education.