Our Team

Bold, innovative, committed, diverse. The Beyond 12 team is a mighty force that draws on our own experiences and expertise to provide students – and their institutions – with the information and support they need to succeed.

Executive Leadership

Alexandra Bernadotte
Alexandra Bernadotte
Founder & CEO
Alex has more than 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in both...
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Chris Co
Chris Co
CTO & Head of Product
Chris has over 10 years of product management, engineering, security, and team leadership...
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Dr. Eve Shapiro
Dr. Eve Shapiro
Chief Knowledge Officer
Dr. Eve Shapiro Beyond 12’s chief knowledge officer, overseeing the organizational data and insig...
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Heather Craig
Heather Craig
Chief Program Officer
Heather is a program management professional with 15+ years of experience in project management...
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Jan Gilboy
Jan Gilboy
Chief Sales Officer
Jan Gilboy leads Beyond 12’s sales and marketing teams as chief sales officer...
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Katherine Zepeda
Katherine Zepeda
Chief of Staff to CEO, Senior Director
Katherine is chief of staff to the CEO at Beyond 12. In her role, she supports the CEO and Beyond...
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Our Team

Aaron Harvey
Aaron Harvey
College Coach
Born and raised in San Diego, Aaron Harvey is a first-generation college grad earning his bachelo...
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Alysha Robbins
Alysha Robbins
Content Associate
Alysha joined Beyond 12 as a content deployment intern during her second year of undergrad, and h...
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Amber White
Amber White
Director of Program
Prior to her present role, Amber served as the behavior support specialist and multi-tier systems...
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Andrew Jensen
Andrew Jensen
Associate Software Engineer
Andrew Jensen is an associate software engineer with Beyond 12. Previously, he worked as a high...
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Arielle Sanders
Arielle Sanders
Senior Associate Director of Data Insights
Arielle holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Georgetown University and a...
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Ashley Kelly
Ashley Kelly
College Coach
Based in Oakland, CA Ashley has been coaching and mentoring college students since 2017. Before...
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Bavani Kehoe
Bavani Kehoe
Technical Product Manager
Bavani is a Bay Area native who loves working at the intersection of education, equity, and techn...
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Brenda Trujillo
Brenda Trujillo
College Coach
Brenda is a Bay Area native, born and raised in Richmond, CA. After a tough journey through colle...
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Bria Shackleford
Bria Shackleford
College Coach
Bria, an Atlanta native, is a first-generation college graduate, and first year college coach at...
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Catherine Tierney
Catherine Tierney
Director of Content
As Director of Content, Catherine drives the content strategy for Beyond12's student-facing mobil...
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Cesar Ferreyra
Cesar Ferreyra
Account Executive
Prior to joining Beyond 12, Cesar helped scale other mission driven companies like uConnect, SV A...
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Chinasa Mackey
Chinasa Mackey
College Coach
Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Chinasa graduated from Sonoma State University in 2019 with a BA...
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D'Juan Johnson
D'Juan Johnson
Associate Director of Program
DJ, a Houston native, graduated from Texas A&M University in 2016 majoring in sport management &...
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Damneet Kaur
Damneet Kaur
Operations Associate
Damneet was raised in San Diego, CA by way of Punjab. She is the daughter of Sikh immigrants and...
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Dan Kurtz
Dan Kurtz
Lead Software Architect
Dan has worked as a software engineer for over 10 years. Before his commitment to reducing inequa...
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Dana Perez
Dana Perez
Director of Development
Dana has over 12 years of experience in full-cycle fundraising and strategy and philanthropic par...
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DeSiyre Spurgeon
DeSiyre Spurgeon
College Coach
Prior to her present role, DeSiyre served as a college adviser with the Carolina College Advising...
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Deja Jahi
Deja Jahi
College Coach
Deja Jahi currently serves as a first-year college coach for Beyond 12. She graduated from Spelma...
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Donna Arriaga Edmonds
Donna Arriaga Edmonds
Director of Program
Donna Arriaga Edmonds brings almost 10 years of experience within the education sector as a direc...
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Dr. Tianna Sims-Miller
Dr. Tianna Sims-Miller
Director of Data Insights
Tianna Sims-Miller has over ten years of experience with data analysis, data visualization, and r...
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Elioth Gomez
Elioth Gomez
Content Analyst
Elioth found a strong affinity for Beyond 12's mission and has had many roles within the content...
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Emily Gardin
Emily Gardin
College Coach
Raised in Waterbury, CT, Emily Gardin (she/they) attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA, earnin...
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Francis Tompkins
Francis Tompkins
Senior Director of Program
Since 2015, Francis has led coaching skills training for Beyond 12’s coaches and he now leads the...
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Gretchen Karl
Gretchen Karl
Executive Assistant
Gretchen Karl brings over 15 years of managerial office administration to the team. With a backgr...
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Guadalupe Ortiz
Guadalupe Ortiz
College Coach
Guadalupe Ortiz started her college journey at Georgia Highlands College, then transferred to Geo...
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Ian Barrett
Ian Barrett
College Coach
Hailing from Philadelphia, PA, Ian came to Atlanta to attend the prestigious Morehouse College wh...
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James Robinson
James Robinson
College Coach
Before becoming a college coach, James spent a year as a fellow at the non-profit DonorsChoose. D...
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Jasper Jones
Jasper Jones
College Coach
While born and raised in Glendora, CA, Jasper now resides in Portland, OR. Before joining as a co...
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Javier Garcia
Javier Garcia
College Coach
Before joining Beyond 12, Javier worked in his hometown of Delano, California as an agriculture p...
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Jazmin Betancourt
Jazmin Betancourt
Operations Manager
Jazmin has a wide range of experience in direct service, curriculum development, program planning...
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Jeanette Corona
Jeanette Corona
Senior Product Manager
Since 2017, Jeanette has led the end-to-end cycle for consumer/B2C and enterprise/B2B products...
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Jennifer Vargas
Jennifer Vargas
College Coach
Jennifer was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and is currently located in Manhattan, NY...
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Jesenia Chavez
Jesenia Chavez
College Coach
Prior to joining Beyond 12, Jesenia supported high school students as a college adviser fellow fo...
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John Lithio
John Lithio
Data Scientist
John Lithio is a data scientist at Beyond 12. Previously, he worked to improve K-12 student outco...
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Karina Pichardo
Karina Pichardo
Software Engineer
Karina Pichardo is a software engineer with Beyond 12. Through the support of non-profits similar...
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Kevin Brown
Kevin Brown
Associate Director of Program
Kevin Brown returns to Beyond 12 after originally serving as a college coach from 2011-2013. Prio...
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Khadijah Powell
Khadijah Powell
Associate Director of Program
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Khadijah graduated from the University of San Francisco (USF...
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Lara Sidhu
Lara Sidhu
Senior Director of Program
Lara brings both personal and professional experience to her role as senior director of program...
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Mariah Knight
Mariah Knight
Program Manager
Mariah was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a program manager in Beyond 12’s Atlanta o...
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Maxine Dimalanta
Maxine Dimalanta
College Coach
Maxine graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in education & social transformation...
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Meng Vong
Meng Vong
Associate Data Analyst
After graduating with a degree in Statistics and Data Science from UC Santa Barbara, Meng is now...
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Merling Velasquez
Merling Velasquez
College Coach
Merling Velasquez is a college coach originally from Los Angeles, CA. Her passion for increasing...
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Miles Lawrence
Miles Lawrence
College Coach
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Miles has had the opportunity to see all walks of life...
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Payal Patel
Payal Patel
Senior Director of Finance and Operations
Payal has over 15 years of experience in finance, operations and human resources management in bo...
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Peter Devroede
Peter Devroede
Senior Director of Engineering
Peter has extensive experience in software engineering and product development at companies inclu...
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Regan Chagal
Regan Chagal
Senior Director of User Experience
Regan Chagal has over 20 years of experience leading user-focused UX and visual design projects i...
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Shallah Fairbanks
Shallah Fairbanks
Senior Customer Success Manager
Shallah has a wide range of experience in customer success, operations, compliance, and hospitali...
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Stephanie Chang
Stephanie Chang
Senior College Coach
Stephanie graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Global...
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Stephanie Zambrano
Stephanie Zambrano
College Coach
After high school Stephanie attended her local community college where she received an abundance...
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TajeéJackson-Drake
TajeéJackson-Drake
College Coach
Tajeé was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. As a first-generation college student, she is driv...
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Tyra Preston
Tyra Preston
Content Strategy Analyst
Tyra, a Houston native, works as a content strategy analyst in Oakland, CA. She graduated from Te...
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Xinlin Zhao
Xinlin Zhao
Senior Data Analyst
As a first generation college student and an international student, Xinlin recognizes the support...
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Yaniv Brener
Yaniv Brener
Associate Software Engineer
Yaniv made the leap to software after teaching himself to code; previously, he worked as a chemic...
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Board of Directors

Alexandra Bernadotte
Alexandra Bernadotte
Founder & CEO, Beyond 12
Alex has more than 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in both...
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Ethan Beard
Ethan Beard
Co-Founder, Yoz Labs; Angel Investor; former Director of Platform Partnerships, Facebook
Ethan Beard is the co-founder of Yoz Labs. A longtime tech executive and entrepreneur, Ethan has...
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Angela Jackson, Vice Chair
Angela Jackson, Vice Chair
Angela Jackson (Vice Chair)
Angela’s career started in the private sector leading business development for organizations like...
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Renuka Kher, Chair
Renuka Kher, Chair
Former Chief Operating Officer, Tipping Point Community; Founder and former Managing Director, T Lab
Renuka Kher has supported entrepreneurial efforts in under-resourced communities for her entire care
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Deborah McGriff
Deborah McGriff
Former Managing Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund
Deborah has been committed to transforming the lives of underserved urban school students for mor...
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Tulaine Montgomery
Tulaine Montgomery
CO-CEO, New Profit
Tulaine Montgomery is an entrepreneur, educator, writer and organizer. She has played leadership...
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Scott Morgan, Secretary
Scott Morgan, Secretary
Head of Talent, Springboard; Founder & former CEO, Education Pioneers
Scott is an entrepreneur and builder who is passionate about empowering purpose-driven leaders, o...
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Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes
Television producer, film writer, and author; creator, head writer, and Executive Producer of Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal
Shonda is an award-winning writer, director, and producer who created the hit ABC series Grey's A...
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Natalie A. Walrond, Treasurer
Natalie A. Walrond, Treasurer
Director, Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety, WestEd
Natalie Walrond brings to her work twenty-five years of experience in K- 12 education, finance...
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