Pam Hogans
Administrative Specialist
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.
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.
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 leads SREB’s HBCU-MSI Course-Sharing Consortium and serves as director for the SREB region to the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), for which she follows state and federal higher education regulations and policy related to state authorization and program approval. Elisa works with the SREB SARA Regional Steering Committee to inform and clarify policy changes made at the national level.
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.
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.
Lety Jones
Senior Designer and Production Manager
Lety Jones has served as senior designer and production manager for more than 15 years. She joined the Southern Regional Education Board as administrative assistant to the communications director in 1991. She earned a bachelor’s in marketing from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.
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.
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.
Andrea Kiely
Program Specialist, Postsecondary
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.
MJ Kim
Analyst II
MJ Kim is a Data Analyst II 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.
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.
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.
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.