Office of State Strategy and Policy
Lee Posey
Vice President, State Strategy and Policy
Lee Posey is vice president for state strategy and policy. She joined the Southern Regional Education Board in 2017 as director of legislative services. Prior to joining SREB, she worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures for 17 years. Her experience at NCSL included serving as federal affairs counsel with the NCSL standing committee on education. In that role, Lee represented state legislatures before the U.S. Congress and the president’s administration and conducted NCSL lobbying on federal education legislation. At NCSL, she also assisted with information requests on all aspects of education, from preschool to higher education, and staffed NCSL’s Study Group on International Comparisons in Education.
Before her time at NCSL, Lee worked for the Georgia Senate Research Office, staffing the Senate education and higher education committees and interim study committees on education issues, and for the Georgia Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget in the Educational Development Division.
Lee holds a master’s degree in political science from Georgia State University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Davidson College.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.