Fellows 2019-2020

As the Vice President of Policy & Advocacy for the Campaign for College Opportunity, Sara leads the Campaign’s policy and advocacy agenda to ensure college access and success for California students. In this capacity, she has led efforts to create clearer paths and more equitable outcomes for tens of thousands of community college students across the state. She previously served as a Legislative Aide for four years to Assemblymember Das Williams where she was the higher education liaison for the office including during his chairmanship of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. She is an alumnus of the University of California Center Sacramento policy program and the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Leadership Institute, as well as a graduate of the Leadership Women Pipeline and Rockwood Leadership Institute programs. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a double-major in Communications and English and is currently completing a Women in Leadership certificate program.

As Career Ladders Project’s Southern California regional director and the organization’s statewide lead for dual enrollment, Naomi provides strategic leadership, including: legislative, regulatory, and policy advising; legislative briefings; creation of professional development materials for the field; and advising for the systems office on dual enrollment. She helps create CLP’s research agenda and is a co-author of CLP’s Dual Enrollment Toolkit, used by practitioners across California. Naomi has led support for multiple large-scale California Career Pathways Trust consortia, Strong Workforce Program projects, and capacity-building projects for Guided Pathways implementation statewide. Now an adjunct professor of education at Compton College, Naomi previously served as Career Pathways Director at El Camino College and as a middle and high school teacher and principal. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership, administration and policy from Pepperdine University, and she holds a master’s degree in teaching and teacher education and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Mariane Doyle is the Director of Career Technical and Adult Education for the William S. Hart Union High School District and a lecturer in the educational leadership and policy studies (ELPS) department at California State University, Northridge where she teaches courses in research methodology and ethics to doctoral candidates. She is also an editor for the Journal of School Administration and Research Development and a senior researcher for the Principal Research Center.  Dr. Doyle has been an educator for 19 years and a leader in Career Education for 12 years. Her industry background includes several years in software development as a product analyst working in quality assurance and as a technical writer, as well as a hospitality marketing professional. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Educational Leadership and Higher Education, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in English Literature from California State University, Long Beach.  During her tenure at the Hart District, Dr. Doyle has built over 100 career pathways, obtained over 19 million dollars in grant funding, and expanded how the district serves students by extending career education to junior highs and alternative education settings through career exploration programs. She has worked to change direction in adult education by focusing on preparing adults for the workforce through robust English language, high school diploma, and short-term career technical education programming. Dr. Doyle is an equity advocate whose research is focused on educational programming that provides pathways to college and increased access for disadvantaged and underserved populations.  She is frequently invited to present by businesses and educational leaders to speak on her generational research to support today’s intergenerational working relationships and to guide future educators and leaders towards excellence by understanding the social and emotional needs of students in order for them to access learning and achieve at the highest levels.

Eric R. Felix is an assistant professor of Community College Leadership in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University. He is also a Policy Fellow with the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California. His research examines the role of higher education policy in addressing educational inequities for racially minoritized students. Using Critical Policy Analysis, he explores the ways policymakers craft higher education reform and how institutional leaders implement them. Particularly, he focuses on understanding how the implementation processes may benefit, harm, or render invisible racially minoritized students in the community college context.

Marcell Gilmore is currently an Educational Research Assessment Analyst at Mount San Antonio College. He has spent the last eight years as a community college researcher. Currently his research is focused on Guided Pathways. Prior to that he was working on Student Equity. Before his postsecondary work, he spent several years working for the third-party evaluator of Los Angeles Unified School District and its implementation of Smaller Learning Communities. He is a product of community college, after which he transferred to and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Sociology. He went on to graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles with a MA in African American Studies and he is ABD (all but dissertation) from the University of Utah focused on Psych-Social Aspects of Sport.

Mark Martin is a principal consultant for the State Assembly Budget Committee, focusing on budget issues related to higher education. He works on state funding and policy issues related to the University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges, and the California Student Aid Commission. He has worked for the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review and the Little Hoover Commission, and was previously a journalist, last working as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish from the University of Kansas.

Jennifer Orlick is the Director of Strategy, Accountability and Innovation for the Campbell Union High School District in San Jose. She oversees the Local Control and Accountability Plan, manages student data, analyzes student performance, informs the community about accountability outcomes, and oversees strategic planning for district initiatives. She previously worked at the Los Angeles Unified School District as a Strategic Data Analyst where she managed student surveys, developed school performance report cards, implemented teacher data-based objectives, and worked with arts teachers to create common summative assessments. She started her career in education teaching English with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. Jennifer earned her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Arts degrees in anthropology and environmental studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. You can follow Jennifer on Twitter at @jen_orlick.

Mary Virnoche is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Humboldt State University. Since 2006, she has served on the University Senate, chairing the Academic Policies and Faculty Affairs committees. Mary has led department- and university-wide curricular and programmatic changes addressing retention, graduation, and overall student success of first generation and minoritized college students. She is an early adopter and leader in data informed planning and advising, including the development and coordination of major-based peer mentoring. She collaborates with colleagues in STEM on diversity research and curriculum. In 2018-19, she served as a Faculty Associate in the Office of the Vice Provost coordinating the campus implementation of CSU system-wide changes in Math, English and general education.  Mary was a WREI Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C. working on policy related to gender, work, and housing. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Gender, Race & Class, as well as Qualitative Research Methods. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Elisa Wynne is currently the Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, covering child care, pre-kindergarten through grade 12 education, and adult education. Previously a Principal Consultant, she has been with the committee for 5 years.  Previously, Elisa was the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Project Manager at the State Board of Education during implementation of LCFF accountability in 2013-14.  Elisa started her career in education budget and policy at the Department of Finance in 2006, and became a Principal Program Budget Manager, overseeing Proposition 98 calculations, accountability, county offices of education, curriculum standards, and statewide assessments. Elisa has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from Sacramento State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Global Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.