Amy Albaugh MSIDT is a Curriculum designer for Hillsborough Community College in the Online Learning Department. She has worked as an academic technology coordinator and Media specialist. She works with open-source software and OER to create resources for both students and faculty. 

Dr. Natalie Allen holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership from Northcentral University, a Masters of Marketing Communication from Roosevelt University and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Wayne State University. Prior to joining OpenStax, Dr. Allen provided supplementary educational programs and services designed to assist students and their families in negotiating college costs and preparing for student success at Lone Star College, Harmony Public Schools and Grace Productions Academy.

Dr. Joseph Casey Cosgriff is an esteemed educator and researcher specializing in teacher preparation, inclusive special education, and AI-enhanced collaborative learning. With extensive experience as a special educator and as a teacher educator at Lincoln Memorial University and Morehead State University, Dr. Cosgriff is dedicated to advancing educational practices that empower future educators to be inclusive advocates. His research explores innovative approaches to developing preservice teachers' competencies in inclusive teaching, advocacy, and leveraging GenAI for professional growth.

Dr. Ramona Curtis, Director of Workforce Programming at Tulsa Community College and Human Relations Consultant, brings extensive leadership in workforce development and education. She oversees strategic initiatives at TCC, fostering collaboration with industry, education, and community partners to meet workforce needs. Dr. Curtis directs the Prison Education Program and serves as an adjunct professor, leveraging her background as a former criminal justice professional to create impactful, culturally specific programs aimed at reducing disparities in the justice system.  

Dr. Dytisha Davis brings over 11 years of dedicated service to Langston University, where she has excelled in various roles across higher education. Currently serving as Assistant Vice President for Student Success, she also holds positions as Executive Director for the LU-Tulsa Campus, Associate Professor in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, and undergraduate advisor for the Rehabilitation Services program. Dr. Davis's expertise spans teaching, research, and administration, and she is a Research Associate Professor at the Langston University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, focusing on capacity building for minority entities. Her commitment to advancing education and empowering students underscores her leadership in academia.  

Liliana Diaz Solodukhin, policy analyst with WICHE, works on a diverse range of activities including conducting and communicating policy research on a wide array of higher education-related topics, developing and sustaining relationships with external stakeholders, and conceptualizing and executing short- and long-term collaborative projects with states. Diaz received her B.S. in journalism and mass communication, B.A. in film studies, and a certificate in Technology, Arts, and Media from the University of Colorado at Boulder, earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Denver.

At ACHE, Dr. Dolan collaborates with the agency’s different sectors to optimize planning and policy implementations of initiatives and administrative processes in support of Alabama’s higher education. She earned a B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics (Mississippi State University) and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration (University of Mississippi). Dr. Dolan, a Mississippi native, has many years of experience at the secondary and postsecondary levels while serving in various leadership roles, such as Institutional Research and Effectiveness Director, Title IX Coordinator, OCR Compliance Officer, QEP Director, and Faculty Department Chair, as well as being a member of many SACSCOC Review Committees. 

Allie is an Education Policy Analyst at the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC); she manages the Academic Common Market, a tuition reciprocity program for SREB states and applies and interprets state policy to review new degree programs from institutions in Maryland. Prior to working at MHEC, Allie served as an academic advisor to undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University; previously, she worked with pre-health students at the University of California Santa Barbara, assisting them in applying to health professions schools. Allie is from New Jersey originally, but now lives in Baltimore.

J. Indigo Eriksen is the Director of Faculty Professional Development (interim), professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, QEP Coordinator of Professional Development, and doctoral candidate at GMU. She received a 2024 DEI Innovation Grant to support The NOVA Outdoors Project. Her creative work has appeared in The Northern Virginia Review,  Scratching Against the Fabric, Endlessly Rocking, TYCA-SE Journal, District Fray, and Texas Review.  Indigo was a 2024 AACC Faculty Member of the Year Finalist; 2024 VCCS Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence nominee; and 2024 SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Nominee. 

Lindsey Gwozdz joined the Community College of Rhode Island in 2024 as the Assistant Dean of the Library, having spent 11 years prior as an Associate Professor and the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Roger Williams University. She also serves as the Fellow for Open Education at the New England Board of Higher Education, leading its open education initiatives and helping to expand the awareness of Open Educational Resources from a cost-savings tool to be more inclusive of pedagogies that create systemic changes for more representative and equitable information creation, evaluation, and access.  

Lindsey has co-authored articles and book chapters that center social justice and pedagogical innovation with respect to open education, most recently a new framework for open education research that centers social justice: SCOPE of Open Education: A New Framework. 

Josh Hill M.Ed., is an Accessibility Specialist for Hillsborough Community College. He is an Open Educational Resources (OER) practitioner and advocate. He has been involved in open textbook publication, course design, and research. He has worked on OER grants, published open journal articles, and presented at conferences across the nation focused on Instructional Design, OER, and Accessibility.

Jamila S. Lyn is a strong advocate for student support and success in the Historically Black College and University landscape. For the past seventeen years, she has served HBCU campuses in faculty, advisory, and administrative roles with institutions such as Morehouse College, Florida Memorial University, and Benedict College. In her role as Chief Student Success Strategist for Bottom Up Thinking, a student success consulting firm, she advises institutions on leveraging course sharing to bridge gaps in delivering quality academic courses and programs; tracks and eliminates roadblocks to student progress; develops additional guidelines specific to how to best serve students from low-resourced institutions; and develops instructive collateral pieces to guide Acadeum partnerships and support. 

Jessie Lynn Nichols is finalizing her Ph.D. candidacy at Auburn University in Career and Technical Education and serves an ACHE Research Fellow. She has a B.S. in Agriculture Communications and a M.S. in Agri-Science Education. Jessie Lynn, known as “America’s Singing Cowgirl”, reigned as 2022 Miss Rodeo USA and has been recognized as an ACM, CMA, and Grammy Recording Artist. She coaches and mentors young equestrians and serves as the host, producer, and creator of Be A Dreamcatcher podcast. Jessie Lynn aims to work in higher education to promote, invest, and encourage students to achieve all of their life’s goals.  

Stephanie Norris is a senior research analyst and associate director of the Community College Initiative at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. 

Prior to joining the Bank in 2020, Norris was the health economist for the Virginia Department of Health. She has extensive training in applied microeconomics and econometrics and has produced policy research, economic impact analysis, and business and industry consulting for public and private sector stakeholders. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Davidson College and a master's degree in applied economics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Dr. Sonya Okoli is an accomplished scholar-practitioner with over a decade of expertise in Higher Education Policy and Social Justice; Currently a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Clark Atlanta University. 

Dr. Okoli's research focuses on the intersection of sociocultural dynamics and education, with a particular emphasis on addressing societal inequities within the Black community. Her primary inquiry examines the role of educational leadership in advancing the social mobility of African American families. Central to her work is building P20 Research-Practice Partnerships that foster collaboration between the community and schools. As a first-generation college graduate who attended underfunded and low-performing K-12 schools, Dr. Okoli's personal experiences fuel her passion for education economics. Currently, she serves as Principal Investigator on a $1 million research grant aimed at establishing a future Center for Higher Education Equity and Social Justice. This initiative is designed to support Black youth in the Atlanta Public School System empowering black scholars to not only succeed academically but also thrive in high school, college, and beyond. 

Kirstin Pantazis, Ed.D., has a diverse background in higher education and leadership roles, serving as an Associate for Academic Affairs at the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Prior to this, Pantazis served as a Transfer Coach at John Tyler Community College and an Academic Advisor at J Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Old Dominion University and a master's degree in sociology from the Arizona State University. She earned her doctorate of Education Leadership and Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.

As ACHE’s Executive Director since April 2017 in addition to his tenure at Arkansas, Louisiana, and Rhode Island, Dr. Purcell is the nation’s longest serving active SHEEO. He earned a B.S. in Public Administration (Auburn University), a M.Ed. in Counseling (University of Montevallo), and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration (University of Alabama). Dr. Purcell, an Alabama native, has also served as chief higher education planning and research officer at public, private two- and four-year institutions. He is committed to providing everyone accessible, affordable, high-quality educational opportunities and strongly advocates planning, the fidelity of implementation of strategic initiatives, and ongoing assessment. 

Laura Robert-Rivera is the Senior Project Manager of Policy and Research for the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE). In this role, Robert-Rivera is working to grow NEBHE's Open Education initiative and support the regional and open community at large. She has over half a decade of experience working with nonprofits, foundations, and philanthropic initiatives. The Governor, State Legislature, the Department of Education of Puerto Rico, and several news outlets have recognized Robert-Rivera for her national child abuse awareness campaign, Stand Up Say No to Child Abuse. She is a Vital Voices Initiative Visionary Leader, HERlead Fellow, Ambassador, and Grantee, and a 2014 Girl Scouts National Women of Distinction. Robert-Rivera continues to be an active member of Girl Scouts and represented the organization internationally in Curacao and at the United Nations. In 2021, Laura graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and human rights from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Daniel Rossman is a senior researcher on Ithaka S+R’s Educational Transformation team, where he employs mixed research methods to evaluate strategies and services aimed at increasing access and success of underserved students. He has extensive experience designing evaluation plans, implementing data collection processes, and conducting analyses of institution- and student-level data for projects of various scales to inform institutional programs and practices.

Relinda Ruth is the Director of Educational Resources and OER Specialist at the University of Arkansas-Cossatot Community College. She was instrumental in building the state’s first two-year-college internal textbook rental and OER program in 2015. Relinda serves as the Title III Director for a SIP grant awarded in 2020. She leads the college’s OER Team and chairs the OER Taskforce Committee, a component of the Arkansas Library Consortium (ARKLink). From 2019-21, Relinda served a two-year term on the steering committee for the Open Education Network (formerly the Open Textbook Network). She leads the state’s SREB OER Action Team, serves as a member of the Educational Technology Cooperative, and teaches classes part-time at UA Cossatot. Relinda holds an MA in English and a BS in English and Mass Communications from Texas A&M University-Texarkana and certification for specialization in open licensing through Creative Commons. She is currently enrolled in a professional program in Open Education through Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia.  

Edward L. Spears, II is the Associate Vice President for Partner Success Special Projects at Acadeum and leads their work with HBCU and other affinity groups like the Texas A&M System partnership. In his role as AVP at Acadeum, he works closely with his partner schools to strategically collaborate with them to maximize their use of the Acadeum platform toward the shared mission of student success. Professionally, Ed Spears is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Manager in Program Improvement (CMPI) with over 20 years of strategic managerial experience and over 15 years of academic experience developing, delivering, and managing training in corporate, governmental, K-12, and post-secondary environments. 

Acknowledged as a strategist, connector, visionary, influencer, and implementer, Dr. Michael Torrence, a front-runner in higher education across Tennessee and the nation, is the seventh seated President of Motlow State Community College. Since arriving in May 2018, Dr. Torrence has transformed Motlow State into an award-winning, cutting-edge, innovative college year after year. He has masterfully blended the rural with the urban all the while touching students and transforming communities one at a time. His leadership and vision have placed the College on platforms and before audiences that were unknown to Motlow before his arrival.  

Dr. Torrence serves on local, state, national, and international boards that influence and shape the future of higher education. Recently, he was named a Distinguished Alumni by South Dakota State University, where he earned both the undergraduate and graduate degrees. Dr. Torrence is an Air Force veteran. He earned a Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning (Literacy) from Tennessee Technological University.  

Jennifer Zinth, a national expert on state dual and concurrent enrollment policy, has assisted many states in enhancing statute, regulation and other policies to improve equitable student access to high-quality dual enrollment offerings. As a consultant and previously in a leadership role at Education Commission of the States, she has worked with numerous state leaders, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropies to develop a wide range of policy supports on the topic, including the creation of and several updates to Education Commission of the States' 50-state comparison on dual and concurrent enrollment; state policy gap analyses; research and analysis reports; presentations and legislative testimony; and in-state and cross-state convenings. 

After some 20 years at Education Commission of the States, Jennifer established Zinth Consulting, LLC in 2019 to support states and the private sector alike in making impactful improvements to state policies on dual and concurrent enrollment and other postsecondary transition issues.