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Pam Hogans
Administrative Specialist

Pam Hogans

Pam Hogans joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2010 with more than 20 years of administrative experience in the field of education. Pam serves as an administrative assistant for the Division of Research and Accountability in the Office of School Improvement, where she coordinates and supports research and evaluation projects for SREB’s diverse client base.  

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Rebecca Holt
Research Associate

Rebecca Holt works with SREB program directors and coaches to manage data collection for school improvement initiatives. She joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2010. Rebecca has experience in program development, coordination, writing, editing, researching, reporting and database management with nonprofit agencies, including Habitat for Humanity, the Marcus Institute and Partnership Against Domestic Violence. Rebecca holds a master’s in sociology from Georgia Southern University.

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Elisa Jaden
Program Specialist, Student Access and Success

Elisa Jaden leads SREB’s regional tuition reciprocity programs: the Academic Common Market and the Regional Contract Program. She also serves as director for the SREB region to the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). In this role she follows state and federal higher education regulations and policy related to state authorization and program approval. Elisa works with the S-SARA Regional Steering Committee to inform and clarify policy changes made at the national level.

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Veronica Johnson
Program Coordinator, Doctoral Scholars Program

Veronica Johnson provides program and communications support for the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program and Institute on Teaching and Mentoring. Veronica joined SREB in 2014 and has worked with the Learning-Centered Leadership Program and Office of the Communications as well. Prior to SREB, she was a newsroom information specialist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a freelance writer. Veronica holds a bachelor’s in mass media arts with a concentration in journalism from Clark Atlanta University.

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George Johnson
School Improvement Leadership Coach

George Johnson is a school improvement leadership coach for the Southern Regional Educational Board and its High Schools That Work program, where he brings 37 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in New Jersey public schools. George has worked in numerous states as a trainer for the Learning Design Collaborative. He is the lead editor for the SREB Literacy Ready transitional readiness course, and he is the lead literacy expert for the writing of the eighth and ninth grade version of High School Ready.

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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.

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Melissa Juarez
Analyst I

Melissa Juarez joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2023 as an Analyst under the Postsecondary Office of Student Success and Access. In her role, she supports programs such as the HBCU-MSI Consortium and the Academic Common Market through data analysis and research. Prior to joining SREB, she worked under the legal analytics team of the American Civil Liberties Union, using quantitative analysis to support criminal justice and immigration reform projects. She also volunteered for four years with the metro Atlanta nonprofit Hispanic Organization Promoting Education, as education information systems coordinator and graduation coach, to identify and report on patterns in achievement among HoPe’s student cohorts.

Melissa holds a bachelor’s in mathematics-statistics with a special concentration in educational studies from Columbia University.

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Andrea Kiely
Program Specialist, Postsecondary

Andrea Kiely

Andrea Kiely is a member of the Postsecondary team for the Southern Regional Education Board. She works as program specialist for the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program where she researches and advocates for faculty diversity in higher education. Andrea earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Alabama and her Master of Education in higher education administration from the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia.

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Donn Kirkwood
Senior School Improvement Leadership Coach

Donn Kirkwood joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2014 as a literacy coach for the Literacy Design Collaborative program, through which he helped teachers and leaders in seven states use LDC practices and backward design techniques to develop exemplary curricula, improve instruction and increase student outcomes.

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Debra LaMothe
School Improvement Leadership Coach

Debra LaMothe is a school improvement coach for SREB, where she works with career and technical education teachers and school administrators across the country to improve college and career readiness. She brings many years of CTE education experience as a teacher, administrator and consultant. In her former role as a district CTE Supervisor, Debra supported teachers and administrators with curriculum, work-based learning, instructional technology, and postsecondary alignment and credentialing.

Debra received her doctorate from Oakland University in Michigan.

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Rodriquez Leonard
School Improvement Instructional Coach

Rodriquez Leonard joined SREB in 2021, bringing 16 years of experience in public education. He was an English language arts teacher with the Birmingham City Schools district.  He also worked as a master teacher, school improvement grant coordinator, and freshman academy coordinator.  

Rodriquez holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montevallo and a Master of Arts in English language arts – secondary education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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Connie Lester
School Improvement Instructional Coach

Connie Lester joined SREB’s office of School Improvement as a leadership coach in April 2012. Prior to SREB, she spent 27 years as an English language arts teacher, department chair and high school writing portfolio cluster leader in Kentucky schools. After leaving the classroom, Connie became a member of Kentucky’s Highly Skilled Educator Program, where she provided schoolwide instructional and leadership support to struggling schools.