Office of State Strategy and Policy

Profile
Megan Boren

Megan Boren
Project Manager

Megan Boren joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2010. She currently serves as project manager for the postsecondary office and also leads SREB’s work on educator human capital strategies policy research, implementation and state technical assistance. From late 2014 to early 2019, Megan was a member of SREB’s educator effectiveness team, leading the technical assistance state grants, state progress monitoring and community of practice projects. She also worked on college completion and college-readiness policy and research and led the SREB Readiness Courses initiative.

Profile

Creed Dunn
Policy Analyst, State Strategy and Policy

Creed joined the policy analysis team at SREB in 2021. His work focuses on early grades education and dyslexia. Creed has a Master of Public Administration from Georgia State University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mercer University. He has worked as a legislative aide in the Georgia House of Representatives, at the Department of Agriculture Rural Development and for the development team at The Carter Center. 

Profile
Jeff Gagne

Jeff Gagne
Director, Policy Analysis

Jeff Gagne joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2010. He oversees SREB’s policy analysis efforts, including policy briefs, reports, state policy support and SREB’s customized, biennial state progress reports. He brings more than 20 years of experience in education policy issues at the state, federal and regional levels. Prior to SREB, Jeff worked for a governor, a state department of education and the United States Senate. He earned his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

Profile

Jeffrey Grove
Program Specialist, State Strategy and Policy

Jeffrey Grove joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2006 as a research associate to the state services team, where he brings decades of experience working on issues of education policy and practice in the public education sector. He has contributed to numerous editions of SREB’s Legislative Report, addressed inquiries on education policies and legislation from policymakers and their staff in SREB states, and authored reports and briefs on current education issues.

Prior to SREB, Jeffrey served as a policy research professional for the Georgia Student Finance Commission, the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation and the Texas House of Representatives. He holds a bachelor’s in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Profile

Natalee Jones
Policy Analyst, State Strategy and Policy

Natalee Jones joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2021 as a policy analyst working on high school, higher education and the workforce. Natalee comes to SREB bringing experience in diversity and inclusion, congressional affairs, and data strategy through different fellowship and internship opportunities.

Natalee holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Brigham Young University and a master of public policy from Georgia State University.

Profile
MJ Kim

MJ Kim
Senior Analyst

MJ Kim is a Senior Analyst of Postsecondary Data and Analytics in SREB’s Office of Postsecondary Education. MJ earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies with a concentration in Higher Education from the University of Washington-Seattle. She also holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Ewha Womans University. In her current role, MJ is responsible for managing and collecting large-scale data from SREB stats.

Profile

Keaton Markey
Analyst I, Research and Evaluation

Keaton supports educators and coaches with research and data analysis. He has been involved with data analysis projects around college affordability, career and technical education course-taking, survey analysis and labor market data. He has also contributed to research on literacy, student engagement and postsecondary intentions.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science from Case Western Reserve University and is pursuing a master’s degree in analytics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Profile
Kimiya Munni

Kimiya Munni
Analyst II, State Strategy and Policy

Kimiya Munni joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2019 as a research associate to the state services team. In this role, she assists with researching education policies, monitoring and interpreting legislative actions and their effects, writing legislative reports, maintaining CRM database, and responding to stakeholder inquiries.

Her experience includes working with Fulton County Schools and Innovations for Poverty Action. Kimiya holds a master of public policy from Georgia State University and a master of economics from the University of Dhaka.

Profile

Sheniqua Pierce
Analyst II

Sheniqua Pierce joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2023 as an analyst on the teacher workforce team in the Office of Postsecondary Education. She collects and analyzes federal, state and local data about the teacher pipeline and current P-12 educators, and brings nearly a decade of experience as an educator in public schools across Atlanta.

Profile

Joseph Tadlock
Senior Research Associate

Joseph Tadlock joined the Southern Regional Education Board in January 2017 as senior research associate. Prior to SREB, he worked for the South Carolina Department of Education, and as a special education teacher. He has experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, as well as conducting experimental, quasi experimental and correlational research designs.