Duke University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology

Director, Evoca Learn at Evoca

Assisted Imagination

Principal

Inventing next generation media and the hybrid broadcast and streaming distribution means to more accessibly and equitably connect learners to momentum building educational and work opportunities. Check out the partner reel here and join us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF2NtEyusok

Evoca

Director, Evoca Learn

In our strategy and investment group focused on creating more equitable outcomes through higher education, I identified the need to foresee challenges and opportunities on the horizon. I advocated to fill those gaps and am building our capabilities and infrastructure to stay ahead of, mitigate, and in some cases shape structural changes in the industry.

-Lead foresight efforts to produce actionable views of the future through signals collection, identification of industry forces, and scenario design to improve strategy-making

-Identify knowledge-needs, source partners, and manage a set of multi-method projects including ethnographic observation and practices at the margin, cross-industry comparisons, and quantitative simulations of potential market structures to bring rigor to foresight efforts

-Build team and partner capabilities to more effectively translate insights into early stage products, services, and business models (examples include designing an R&D pipeline structure and measurement framework, a prototype-focused working group of 15 partners to generate ideas)

-Shape and support rapidly growing enterprises by investing against corporate development and capability building roadmaps with a set of ~$1B institutions and their business partners

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Senior Program Officer, US Programs

I took on a short-term rotation position with the foundation’s Risk & Assurance team. We ask our grantees to do tough, uncertain work for which there’s typically limited to no precedent. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be investing in it. Yet, sometimes, as with much of philanthropy, we have unrealistic expectations that our partners should already be set up for and already have the necessary capabilities to deliver on the work.

Building on a directive from our executive leadership team and chief strategy officer, I designed and built the first iteration of an organizational effectiveness point of view and set of services to help program officer/grantee pairings become more aligned on strategic positioning, design for execution, and strengths and gaps in critical capabilities. We went on a process to learn from other foundations, other industries, and to find new expertise to challenge our thinking. Ultimately, we landed on a collaborative and human-centered sense making approach, setting up a series of tests with partners from a diverse set of strategies including malaria, water and sanitation health in Africa, agriculture research, and US education. I then readied the effort for the next phase and helped recruit and prep the next set of leadership to take it over.

(Rotation position) Senior Officer, Partner Organizational Effectiveness

I led the "Institutional Partners" portfolio from concept, through design, to initial implementation of a $60M+ complex, teamed set of investments with a five-year horizon. Building this work required us to think about partner investment differently.

While ‘setting a new and influential performance standard through accelerating the work of high-potential institutions’ sounds nice, it required development of a sophisticated investment thesis and strategy to identify the opportunities for our team. 

We now work with partners to think beyond the status quo and envision the models of institutions a transformed industry should have, aligning investments to get there efficiently. 

Two examples: (1) Work I lead with theUIA.org, a group of 11 of the country’s largest institutions seeking to reinvent what the public research university stands for and doing so at a scale of no other; and, (2) Work I lead with state systems as instigators of change in their geographies, seeking to design and build their own sets of models and services to improve outcomes.

We needed to make larger, longer term investments, but mitigate risks involved. I identified the need for more rigorous and data-driven partner selection. With the support of experts from major consulting firms I tested and socialized a due diligence practice.

Now I’m focused on building our networked approach. In order to influence the field, it's not enough to have shining stars at which to point. We need a standard way to measure excellence, a language to connect with others, and the tools and venues that actually support leaders. We are prototyping in a co-creative manner these new ways of working.

This work is in addition to stewarding, from the efforts of previous colleagues, a $20M+ portfolio in its close out years of entrepreneurs/startups within and outside institutions building “breakthrough delivery models.”

Interim Lead, Senior Program Officer, Sept 14 - March 15
Program Officer, July 13 - May 15

Senior Program Officer, US Program

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia governs a strongly centralized higher education system serving 300,000+ students across (at the time) 35 institutions, including Georgia State University, University of Georgia, and Georgia Institute of Technology. $7B+ annual budget for entire system.

I came in at a time under a leadership change with a new emphasis from the Governor and Chancellor on performance (economic, workforce, and equity outcomes driven by improvement in student completion).

My role was to support the Vice Chancellor for Educational Access & Success and envision, implement, and resource strategic partnerships inside and outside the system to improve performance. 

This included creating a statewide strategy and campaign, hiring and building a team with new skill sets, and strengthening our national presence and partnership support. A few projects for which I was responsible: 
•	Continuous improvement cycle of focused campus reports, analysis, and targeting of resources
•	Two statewide summits and smaller topical symposia
•	Incubator fund and online platform to share innovations
•	Partnership development with foundations, technology companies, new internal consortia, and economic orgs including securing $1M Next Generation Learning Challenges grant and $850K grant focused on Latinx issues.
•	Review and alignment of internal policy to enable innovation and performance improvement through a new formal group 

http://www.usg.edu/educational_access/complete_college_georgia

University System of Georgia

Director of Policy and Partnership Development

Led research and analytical components of projects to improve client performance through improved community engagement. 

NC Dept. of Transportation
Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University
Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh
MDC, Inc.

New Kind

Research Manager

Strategic Planning and Management and Policy/Decision Making Analysis for State Agencies and Technology Companies

Dept. of Juvenile Justice, State of Georgia
Governor's Crime Commission, State of North Carolina
Sage Software
Red Hat, Inc.

The Estis Group

Associate

State, Local, National, International Government Relations and Policy Analysis

Red Hat

Corporate Affairs Intern

Political research and strategy for gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and Rep, and corporate clients.

Art Seavey