Meet Impact Fellows.

Shelley has over 20 years of experience as a writer, researcher and policy expert on a wide range of issues affecting the lives of children and families. Blending her expertise in strategy, research, policy and communications, she advises leading philanthropies across the country, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Lumina Foundation.

With a passion for collaboration and integrative design thinking, Shelley works to bridge people, ideas and actions to leverage diverse expertise in creating positive change for families. She is a national expert on two-generation approaches to alleviating poverty for low-income families, working with philanthropy, state governments and nonprofits to help them better align family services. She is also a key advisor on creating bipartisan strategies—finding common ground and creating momentum on policy action. Additionally, she leads a funder collaborative with philanthropic leaders from multiple sectors to invest in cross-cutting strategies aimed at improving the lives of youth and young adults.

Through past positions at the Urban Institute and the New America Foundation, she has published extensively on a wide range of issues concerning children, work and family. Time spent at leading advocacy organizations, including the Children’s Defense Fund and Parents Action for Children, provided experience managing policy and communications campaigns, running coalitions and crafting new policy ideas.

Shelley has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Furman University in South Carolina and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. She is married to Mike and is mom to her adored children: Carlin and Owen.

Alice retired after four decades of enabling mission-driven organizations to create and maintain integrity, excellence and effectiveness. She applied her skills in the fields of education, civil rights, arts, childcare and public policy, focusing largely on the interests of children from low-income families and communities of color.

Currently, Alice co-convenes the Black Alumni of Occidental College, and is a Trustee Emerita of Occidental College.

Alice retired as managing director of Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute, a 501(c)(4) and a 501(c)(3) organization. She directed the organizing, policy, research and administrative functions of the organization. Under her leadership Bread made significant progress pushing the United States to use its resources to end hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. Bread engaged in lobbying and electoral campaign activities.

Alice was the program executive for The Atlantic Philanthropies’ Children & Youth Program responsible for Elev8. The initiative extends student learning opportunities in under-resourced schools beyond the classroom and traditional school year, provides high-quality school-based health services to children and their families, and offers community resources on school campuses. The initiative also helps students, families and partners become advocates for improving education and expanding access to critical resources in their communities.

In 1980 she co-founded and subsequently became president of Crystal Stairs, Inc., a nonprofit agency in California that improves the lives of families through childcare and development research, service and advocacy. Initially serving South Central Los Angeles, Crystal Stairs grew to be the 17th largest nonprofit in the United States founded after 1969. Crystal Stairs has the distinction of three female staff being elected to the California State Legislature.

Alice has served on numerous boards and committees that protect and expand children’s services: Crystal Stairs, Inc., the Alliance for Early Success, the California First Five Commission and the National Center for the Child Care Work Force. She was an inaugural member of the Los Angeles County Children and Family First – Proposition 10 Commission and the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. She led the local affiliates of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and the National Black Child Development Institute.

Alice has received several prestigious honors, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Martin Luther King Legacy Association Rosa Parks Award, the Los Angeles County Commission for Women’s 16th Annual Women of the Year Award – 2nd District, and the 2003 Inspiration of the Year Award, National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles, Chapter. She was also named the 1995 Hunger Fighter of the Year by the California Hunger Action Coalition. In 2002 she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Occidental College. She received the 2004 Guardian Award from the National Black Child Development Institute.

Alice has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Occidental College; a master’s degree in sociology of education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and Ph.D. in urban planning: social development policy, School of Architecture and Urban Planning from UCLA. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Alice comes from a long-line of social activists. She is married to a retired civil rights attorney, Joseph H. Duff. They have two adult daughters, two sons-in-law, and seven adored grandchildren.

Lisa is the president and CEO of Impact Fellows Action Fund (IF), a new organization providing state advocates with the missing tool in the advocacy box. She also sits on the Impact Fellows Board in addition to her role as President and CEO of the organization. IF picks up where traditional advocacy leaves off by adding crucial funding and technical assistance supports for political action that’s necessary to achieve the big and sustained impacts that can transform the lives of generations of young children and their families.

Before founding IF, Lisa served as the first executive director of the Alliance for Early Success, a pooled fund for state advocacy aimed at improving health, education and family outcomes for young children from birth through age 8. She helped create the Alliance as an independent organization and over 11 years was responsible for oversight of the vision, mission and operations. She grew the Alliance into a 50-state network of state advocacy and national expert organizations supported by a pooled fund of $11 million.

Lisa brings 10 years of philanthropic experience to IF, having served the Kauffman Foundation as the manager of research and evaluation and then as vice president of early education grantmaking. Her policy experience includes serving as director of early childhood at the Kansas Health Institute, where she helped educate and inform the governor and state legislature on early childhood policy, and as principal of Hestia Advising, an independent consulting firm focused on improving programs and policies for young children and families.

Lisa’s real, on-the-ground experience in what children and families need to be successful was formed from 10 years of direct clinical service work. She was the director of the partial hospital program at Crittenton Children’s Center and a staff psychologist providing mental and behavioral health services at Marillac Center for Children.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in California, a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in psychology from the University of Kansas, a doctorate degree in psychology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a one-year postdoctorate fellowship in child development and family systems from the Menninger Institute. Her lifelong mate is Jim; she is the proud mom of Samantha and Jessica and mom-in-law to Mike, and grandmother to Paxton.

Brian has served the public interest for over three decades working for grassroots movement organizations and in senior U.S. Congressional staff positions.

Brian most recently served for six years as president and executive director of Every Child Matters, a nonprofit organization engaged in education and advocacy campaigns to make policies that invest in kids a national priority, including during election campaigns. During his tenure, Every Child Matters directly and publicly engaged officeholders and candidates, such as presidential hopefuls of both major parties through candidate selection processes in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states. As a coordinating intermediary, Every Child Matters collaborated with national and state-based children’s-advocacy groups and coalitions to reach millions of Americans digitally to elevate kids’ issues.

Brian previously served for more than 20 years as a Congressional staffer, including as legislative director to U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, staff director for a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions subcommittee, staff director for a House Small Business subcommittee and just under 10 years as chief of staff to U.S. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

For two years Brian represented nonprofit clients at the federal level in the housing, transportation, community infrastructure and economic development fields. Earlier he directed communications for grassroots organizations in the consumer/environmental and family-farm/fair-trade advocacy sectors.
Brian lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Jodi, and sons Anders and Lukas.

Scott’s background and experience includes more than 30 years in legislative advocacy, public relations, political campaigns, public policy development, coalition building and grassroots mobilization. Through sound strategy and trusted relationships with key legislative leadership and administration staff, he has achieved numerous legislative and regulatory victories.

Prior to becoming a legislative advocate, he served simultaneously as Chief of Staff for Senator Bruce McPherson – Santa Cruz and as Director of the CA State Senate Republican Caucus where he augmented the legislative, political and communication operations for all 15 Republican State Senators. Scott has also been a successful political consultant for dozens of campaigns in California and Washington, DC, ranging from local city council races to Bush for President in 2000. He also served as Director of Government Affairs for Reliant Energy, where he was responsible for state legislative and regulatory policies in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

In 2015, he founded Sadler Consulting after eleven years as a partner at Lehman Levi Pappas & Sadler, the last eight as managing partner. His advocacy practice has focused on energy, international trade, health care, information technology and environmental policies.

Scott’s understanding of both the public and private sector brings a unique perspective and understanding to Impact Fellows political strategies.

Ben is a creative professional with 20 years of advertising and marketing expertise, and is currently the founder and creative director of his own agency, Lighterknot Media, LLC, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Over the course of his career, Ben has migrated from his start with a BFA in graphic design from Mississippi State University to a fully featured marketing consultant with the capability to plan, concept and execute entire campaigns across multiple media. This well-rounded expertise has been utilized extensively by various national nonprofits, including the American Heart Association (AHA), the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALS Association), Youth Villages, and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, as well as to produce award-winning work for well-known national brands such as the Memphis Grizzlies, Elvis Presley Enterprises, HGTV, smith&nephew and FedEx.

Over the course of our partnership, Ben has brought a passion for clear, succinct language and hardworking aesthetics to the Impact Fellows team, and finds fulfillment in furthering the cause of early childhood development in service of our organization’s goals.
 

As General Manager, Shakera oversees operations for grants, strategic initiatives, communications, and administration at Impact Fellows. Prior to joining us, she was a Communications Consultant for the Rita Allen Foundation where she created and edited content for a variety of audiences, which advanced some of the Foundation’s key objectives. Prior to that role, she worked in fundraising and higher education, working with grants and funders, for nearly six years. She earned an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA in Cultural Studies from SUNY Empire State College.

Shakera is passionate about Impact Fellows’ mission to address the needs of young children and their families. Her ability to create efficient operational systems, as well as to leverage relevant and meaningful content, allows Impact Fellows to further advance the efforts of early childhood development advocates.

Amanda Brown Lierman is the Senior Director for Policy and Engagement at GoFundMe, a community-powered fundraising platform committed to making it safe and easy for anyone to give and get help.

Her previous position was Executive Director of Supermajority, an organization aimed at training and organizing women across age, race and background to push for women’s equity. At the helm, Amanda has leveraged her experience as an organizer to build a coalition of women who harness their collective power for lasting change.

Amanda draws from her personal experiences in her commitment to building a multiracial coalition of women that can enact major political change. As a young woman, she understands the importance of bringing in the next generation of voters. As a Black woman, she grasps the power of intersectional allyship in the fight for both racial justice and gender equity. As a mother to three young girls, she knows what it means to be a working mom during the pandemic. With this unique perspective, Amanda is able to lift up many of the experiences and issues of young, black women and mothers across the country, from paid leave to the Black maternal health crisis.

Before her time at Supermajority, Amanda was the National Political Director for Rock the Vote, Executive Director of the White House’s National Women’s Business Council, Campaign Director at For Our Future, and Organizing Director for the Democratic National Committee during the 2018 midterms. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and lives in Maryland with her husband, Kyle, and their three daughters.

Dane is a Vice President for the Business Roundtable, overseeing the Education & Workforce Committee, and advancing the BRT’s positions on education reform, U.S. innovation capacity and workforce preparedness. He is also the lead staff member for the Immigration Committee, promoting an approach to immigration reform that will help drive U.S. economic growth and keep the American workforce globally competitive.

Dane joined the BRT most recently from The College Board, where he served as Executive Director of state policy. Prior to The College Board, he served as Director of the Educational Policy Division of the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices. During his 16 years in this role, Dane represented governors’ education policy issues at the federal level and to state and local associations. He also co-led the development of the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by 46 states. Dane has led national efforts to ensure more students are college- and career-ready and worked on issues related to STEM, early childhood, Perkins and the Workforce Investment Act, and high school redesign.

Before joining the NGA, Dane worked for 14 years in the education system as Coordinator of the Office of Special Education Programs for the West Virginia Department of Education, Principal of Guyan Valley Elementary School in West Virginia, and teacher and later the Assistant Principal at Matheny Grade School also in West Virginia.

Dane is a Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and holds a Master’s degree in Education Administration from West Virginia Graduate College and Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Special Education from Cabrini College.

Eric Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Alliance to End Hunger. He leads the Alliance’s strategic direction, including expanding and mobilizing its network of companies, nonprofit organizations, universities, foundations, and individuals. Eric is actively building the Alliance’s advocacy capacity on Capitol Hill and in local communities, with the goal of enhancing the coalition’s impact around building the public and political will to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.

Prior to his role with the Alliance, Eric served as Director of Government Relations for Adtalem Global Education, where he advanced the company’s relationships with local government officials, business partners, and civic organizations in the Caribbean. He also served for six years as the Director of Government Relations at Bread for the World, where he led their advocacy agenda to protect and bolster critical food assistance and development programs in the United States and abroad. Earlier in his career, Eric was the first African American, as well as the youngest, Vice President of Government Relations at Russ Reid, one of the nation’s largest marketing and communications firms serving nonprofit organizations.
Eric began his political career on Capitol Hill, serving as Policy Advisor to civil rights icon, U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), and Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA).

In 2014, Eric was included in The Root 100 most influential African Americans under the age of 40. He was also recognized as a “Top Lobbyist” from 2014-2019 by The Hill newspaper. A native of Tampa, FL, Eric is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC and currently resides in Maryland.

Stephanie is the president and founder of The Wrenwood Group, LLC, a Washington, D.C. government relations firm. An attorney with decades of legislative and executive branch experience, Stephanie served as assistant secretary of education from 2005 until 2009. In that position, she was the secretary of education’s primary adviser on civil rights issues and responsible for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), a 600-person division in the U.S. Department of Education with 12 offices located across the United States.

Prior to serving in the executive branch, Stephanie ended her distinguished 25-year career on Capitol Hill. A veteran political strategist, Monroe served as chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions under the chairmanship of Senator Judd Gregg. For more than a decade, she also served as chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families under the chairmanship of Senator Dan Coats.

With a particular emphasis on domestic policy issues involving health, education, child welfare, individual empowerment and community services, Stephanie has helped develop and navigate dozens of bills from policy inception to law. Examples of legislation she has contributed to include the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the Head Start Act, No Child Left Behind, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, the Higher Education Act, the Workforce Development and Workforce Investment Act, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Temporary Assistance for Needy Family Act, Charitable Choice, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act, Individual Development Accounts, the Community Services Block Grant and the Low Income Housing and Energy Assistance Act.

A native of Baltimore, Stephanie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Baltimore.

Jessie’s entire professional career has focused on improving outcomes for children, families and adults, especially vulnerable populations such as people with disabilities and families of low income. Upon graduation from the University of Nebraska, Jessie began her professional career as a preschool teacher in an Omaha Head Start program serving low income children with disabilities. She spent the next twenty plus years working in a variety of cultural settings serving young children. Parallel to her work experiences, she was actively engaged in advocating for policy changes that would improve the safety and quality of early care and education programs as well as policy changes that would promote the integration and valorization of people with disabilities.

Jessie’s interest in promoting policy changes benefiting children and families led her to new professional roles. She served as State Senator in the Nebraska Legislature, successfully passing critical legislation that improved systems serving children who are victims of abuse, established state funded early childhood education for children at risk, created first state grants for early childhood education for children at risk, birth to five, and enhanced services to people with disabilities and mental health issues. Following her tenure as Senator, she continued her efforts to change government systems to be accountable for results and to effectively serve children, families and adults through her positions as state human services director in Nebraska and Iowa. Some of the special initiatives that she administered during this time included statewide implementation of welfare reform, behavioral health redesign, long term care redesign, community-state partnerships, state childcare plan, and expanded health care for children.

For the past several years, Jessie returned to the private community, applying her combined experience as a direct provider, elected official and state administrator, to consult others in improving human service systems. She has also applied her “middle child” life experience by serving as a facilitator of multiple projects, helping to bring people together to develop common goals and programs that effectively promote positive outcomes for people of all ages and needs.

In September of 2006, Jessie took a position with the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation as their Early Childhood Education Policy Director, promoting quality early life experiences for all children in Nebraska. While at the Foundation, she successfully led a legislative initiative to establish a $60 million public-private partnership that funds and supports high quality infant and toddler services for children at risk through the Nebraska Early Childhood Endowment.

In 2007, Jessie became the Vice President of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, a private philanthropy dedicated to leveling the playing field for children, birth to five, who are at risk due to environmental factors such as poverty. In June 2011, she became the President of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund where she continues to manage philanthropic investments in early care and education practice, policy and knowledge.

Sue directs Merage Foundations, a consortium of eight foundations and nonprofits representing three generations of the David and Laura Merage family in Denver, Colorado. With a focus on venture philanthropy, Sue provides strategic oversight for Equitas, a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to disentangle mental health from the criminal justice system; Black Cube, an experimental art museum that advances artists’ self-sufficiency; and Early Learning Ventures, a nonprofit whose mission is to provide tools and resources that allow childcare providers to streamline their business operations, resulting in more time and money to care for and educate our youngest learners.

Sue plays an integral role in Merage Foundations’ advocacy surrounding early childhood policy, including the advancement of access to affordable, high-quality childcare. Sue is a member of Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s Education Policy Council and the Colorado Early Childhood Leadership Commission.

Additionally, Sue is a founding board member of Executives Partnering to Invest in Children, a business leaders membership organization dedicated to early childhood education advocacy, and is a director of Bright by Three, the developers of the national parent education platform Bright by Text. She is a member of the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, and an advisor to the Bi-Partisan Policy Center’s Early Childhood Initiative.

Prior to joining the Merage Foundation in 2006, Sue was the executive director of Early Childhood Connections and previously worked as a senior program manager with the Colorado Office of Resource and Referral Agencies.

Sue received her Bachelor of Science degree in human development from California Polytechnic University and her master’s degree in child and family development from Colorado State University.

Jason is the founder of Frontera Strategy, an Austin-based public affairs firm providing nonprofits and philanthropists with grassroots advocacy, media outreach and legislative support. The firm recognizes that nonprofits and foundations are under pressure to prove results. Frontera helps clients reach public policy goals on their terms and at their speed by implementing advocacy plans, communicating with policymakers and the public, and supporting effective grantmaking.

Jason works as a political strategist, philanthropy advisor and coalition builder in multiple states.

He focuses his work on public health, education, human services, and foundation and nonprofit issues. Jason specializes in helping organizations and philanthropists develop advocacy strategies for challenging fiscal and political circumstances.

Prior to launching Frontera, Jason worked on local, state and federal policy issues for 20 years as a policy analyst and lobbyist. Jason has developed and implemented complex multiyear advocacy efforts that have resulted in changes to law and policy impacting millions of children and families. His work also involves assisting foundations and other philanthropists to most strategically invest their dollars to achieve policy change. Jason has received numerous awards for his advocacy and public interest lobbying.

Jason lives in Austin, Texas, and received a master’s degree in history from Indiana University.

Linda is the director of early childhood policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that promotes bipartisanship and actively works to find consensus and common ground on key challenges facing the nation. Ms. Smith is the former deputy assistant secretary of early childhood development for the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). In this role she led policy efforts and coordination of agency priorities for children from birth to 5 years old, including Head Start, Early Head Start and childcare, and served as the liaison to other federal agencies, including the Department of Education, DoD and USDA.

Linda’s previous positions included serving as executive director for the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (now Child Care Aware of America), supporting community-based agencies concerned with the care of children in their earliest years. Before joining NACCRRA, she served as a professional staffer on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee under the chairmanship of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Prior to this work, Linda was the director of the Office of Family Policy for the Secretary of Defense, where she was one of the primary architects of the military’s childcare program. Additionally, Linda held positions with both the United States Army and United States Air Force.

Linda began her career in early childhood education on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in her native state of Montana. She is a graduate of the University of Montana.