Board of Directors
CARRIE BESNETTE HAUSER (Director) is President and CEO, Kauffman Scholars, Inc., Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, in Kansas CIty, Missouri. Prior to joining Kaufman Scholars in 2011, Dr. Besnette Hauser served as Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Metropolitan State College of Denver. As chief advancement officer and executive director of its foundation, Besnette Hauser oversaw the development, communications, and alumni departments of the College and was responsible for external and public relations, strategic marketing, and building community and campus partnerships. Before joining Metro State, Dr. Besnette Hauser served for nearly seven years as Vice President and one of the original senior officers of the Daniels Fund, the $1B charitable legacy of Bill Daniels. She was responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the largest single component of the foundation. She also created the Daniels Opportunity Awards, resulting in the distribution of $6M in grants to colleges across the Fund's four-state region to support non-traditional students. From 1997-2000, Dr. Besnette Hauser was Assistant Director of State Relations at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Prior to moving to Colorado, she was based in Los Angeles as the Regional Director of Admissions and Alumni Affairs for the University of Arizona, her undergraduate alma mater. During this period (1990-97), she also completed graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) at UCLA.
BETSY BRAND (Director; Treasurer) has served as Director of the American Youth Policy Forum since 2004, after joining the organization as Co-Director in 1998. Ms. Brand’s education policy career started when she served as a Legislative Associate for the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor from 1977 to 1983. She subsequently served with Senator Dan Quayle as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee from 1983 to 1989, where she handled all federal education and training legislation. In 1989, Ms. Brand was appointed Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education, under President George H.W. Bush. From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Brand operated a consulting firm, Workforce Futures, Inc., focusing on policy and best practices affecting education and workforce preparation. Ms Brand graduated with a B.A. from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Child Labor Committee and the Training and Development Corporation.
JAY GOFF (Director) is Vice President for enrollment and retention management at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to joining SLU in 2011, Mr. Goff served as Dean of enrollment management at Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla, Missouri. While at Missouri SP&T, the institution achieved record enrollments, retention, and graduation rates. Mr. Goff has written articles and presented workshops at many regional and national programs, mostly focusing the values of team building and training, quality student-service systems and data-driven planning. He serves on the ACT national education advisory board and is AACRAO’ strategic enrollment management conference coordinator for four-year colleges and universities. Goff completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in communication studies with a focus on organizational communication from Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Kansas, respectively. His doctoral work focuses on leadership development in higher education.
TINA MILANO (Director) is an education consultant and former Executive Director of the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) and the National College Access Network (NCAN). During Milano’s tenure at CSP, the organization’s annual operating budget grew in size from $60,000 to $5,000,000, including the creation of a $10 million endowment. Ms. Milano co-founded the National College Access Network (NCAN) and was appointed its executive director in 2001. Since then, its membership has grown from 28 to more than 350 member organizations that serve a nearly one million college students each year. From 2001 to 2004, in addition to serving as the Executive Director of NCAN, she helped form and acted as CEO of the nation’s first statewide college access organization, the Ohio College Access Network (OCAN). She has authored guidebooks on developing college access programs and statewide networks and has worked with community leaders from Maine to Alaska to help them create and sustain local access programs. Ms. Milano is a graduate of Lehman College in New York City with a degree in accounting.
PRANAV KOTHARI (Director) is the Managing Director of Mission Measurement, a Chicago-based strategic planning firm. Mr. Kothari believes a high-quality education provides the greatest opportunity for individuals and families to dramatically improve their lives. Pranav advises leading funders, education initiatives and nonprofit organizations on measurement and program strategy. His clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Education Pioneers, Cristo Rey Network and School Leaders Network. In addition to his consulting work, he speaks and conducts workshops on measuring social impact, national nonprofit effectiveness and educational philanthropy. Prior to joining Mission Measurement, Pranav served as a Program Director at the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, a Cincinnati-based education enterprise, where he worked to ensure that philanthropic dollars were reaching those most in need of support to succeed in postsecondary education. Pranav serves on the Board of Directors of the National College Access Network and the Chicago Advisory Board of Education Pioneers. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Organizational Behavior from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
DANIEL DOMENECH (Director) is Executive Director at the American Association of School Administrators. Prior to joining AASA, Dr. Domenech was the senior vice president and head of Urban Advisory Resource for McGraw-Hill Education, the premier provider of teaching and learning materials for the pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, higher education and professional markets. Dr. Domenech has over 26 years of experience in public education. He has also served as the superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, the twelfth largest school system in America with 168,000 students. A native of Cuba who moved to the United States at the age of nine, Dr. Domenech began his teaching career in New York City, where he taught sixth grade in a predominantly Black and Hispanic community in South Jamaica, Queens. Dr. Domenech has been active professionally and was elected president of the 16,000-member American Association of School Administrators, serving in that capacity from July 1998 to June 1999. He served on the U.S. Department of Education National Assessment Governing Board, on the Advisory Board for the Department of Defense schools, and on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of International Education. He also serves on the executive committee for the National Urban Alliance.
Dr. Domenech earned his Ph.D. from Hofstra University in Uniondale, New York.
WATSON SCOTT SWAIL (Chairman; Secretary) is the President and CEO of the Educational Policy Institute. Widely respected in the area of college opportunity research, Dr. Swail has published extensively in national journals and publications. Prior to establishing EPI, Dr. Swail served as the Founding Director of The Pell Institute and Vice President of the Council for Opportunity in Education in Washington, DC. He previously served as senior policy analyst with SRI International and associate director for policy analysis with the College Board. He is a former public school technology teacher in the United States and in his native Canada.
Dr. Swail received his Ed.D in Educational Policy from The George Washington University.