Staff

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, Chief Development Officer/State 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.
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, Teacher Preparation Studies
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, Teacher Preparation Studies
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 and Managing Director, State Policy
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.
Laura Johnson, Director of Communications
ljohnson@nctq.org
Laura comes to NCTQ from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she interned. Prior to that she taught math and served as the math department chair at Dunbar High School in DC. She is an alum of the DC Teaching Fellows program. She studied computer engineering and political science as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, College Park and earned an M.Ed from American University.
Sudipti Kumar, Lead Analyst, District Policy Studies
skumar@nctq.org
Prior to joining NCTQ, Sudipti was a fifth grade teacher at the Edward Brooke Charter School in Boston, MA. She also taught high school mathematics at a public school in Brooklyn, NY through the NYC Teaching Fellows program. In addition to her teaching experience, she worked in program management for District 79, alternative schools and programs in NYC and Boston Public Schools/Boston Teacher Residency. Sudipti has an M.P.A. from Columbia University in education policy, an M.S. in education from Brooklyn College, and a B.S. in marketing and finance from NYU's Stern School of Business.
Arthur McKee, Managing Director, Teacher Preparation 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.
Ginger Moored, TR3 Manager
gmoored@nctq.org
Ginger manages NCTQ's online database of school district policies. Before coming to NCTQ she worked as an analyst for the District of Columbia government and taught physics as a Teach For America corps member in D.C. She has a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia and a masters in public policy from Princeton.
Katie Moyer, Associate Director, Teacher Preparation Studies
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.
Hannah Putman, Research Manager, Teacher Preparation Studies
hputman@nctq.org
Hannah comes to NCTQ following four years conducting education research with Westat, a social science research company. Her projects included work on informal science education and teacher incentive programs. Prior to Westat, Hannah taught seventh and ninth grade English for three years in the Bronx, New York, as a Teach For America corps member. Hannah holds B.A.'s in English and Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, an MS in Teaching from Pace University, and an MPP from the George Washington University with a focus on education policy and evaluation.
Maegan Rees, Communications Coordinator
mrees@nctq.org

Maegan is currently pursuing her Master of Public Policy degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining NCTQ, she worked as a behavioral support aid for children with autism. Maegan earned her B.A. in International Relations from Saint Joseph's University.
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.
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. A long-time resident of Baltimore, 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.
Nancy Waymack, Managing Director, District Policy
nwaymack@nctq.org
Nancy comes to NCTQ to manage the organization's work on school districts and teachers unions. From 2002 to 2012 she worked at the San Francisco Unified School District as the district's Executive Director of Policy and Operations. Prior to that, she was the Assistant Budget Director at DC Public Schools. She has worked for the National School Boards Association, the Urban Institute and Education Week. She taught 2nd and 5th grades at Garcia Elementary School in Houston, Texas as a Teacher For America corps member. Nancy has a B.A. in political science from Hendrix College and a masters from Georgetown in public policy.
Stephanie Zoz, Manager of Data Collection, Teacher Preparation Studies
szoz@nctq.org
Stephanie joins NCTQ after first working as a remote analyst for the national review. She previously taught middle school mathematics for Montgomery County Public Schools. Stephanie earned her B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Maryland, College Park.