Ramya serves as the Director of Strategy for Assessment for Good. She has over ten years of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors spanning roles in product development, research, policy, and organizational strategy.
Prior to joining the Assessment For Good team, she was the Managing Director of Product at PowerMyLearning where she rebuilt a culturally responsive K-2 math tool called Family Playlists that leveraged the power of learning by teaching. Ramya also served as the Director of the MAF Lab, an R&D team within the nonprofit Mission Asset Fund (MAF) where she launched digital products to financially empower families. Ramya brings deep expertise in community-centered design that focuses on co-creating products with communities instead of for them.
Ramya holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and English Literature from Swarthmore College.
Ira is the Associate Director of Implementation for Assessment for Good based in Oak Park, IL. As a former teacher, he is grateful for the opportunity to work with schools and communities to help them find ways to better serve their students. Prior to joining AFG, he was a Partners Success Director with Ellevation, a company that built software to serve English Learners throughout the country. He also co-led an elementary school as the Director of Operations at North Star Academy in Newark, NJ. He taught for eight years, most recently as a founding teacher at Ocean Hill Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, NY, part of the Uncommon Schools network. He was a 2004 Teach for America Corps Member in the Bronx, and also worked for TFA training and developing new teachers as a curriculum specialist at TFA’s Summer Institute. Ira speaks Haitian Creole and received his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor.
Aamer is a Senior Product Manager, Data & Assessment who is responsible for driving the use of data, assessments, and testing to deliver features, processes, and optimizations that help innovate literacy solutions for learners from underserved demographics. His objective is to build the best possible learning experience overall by turning reading assessments into games that kids love and allow us to uncover insights about both the product and learner.
Prior to joining AERDF, Aamer worked in the education technology space at Pearson and 2U Inc., where he specialized in experimentation, experience design, and conversion optimization. Over the past five years, his work revolved around improving enrollment in online education programs by applying insights derived from qualitative user behavior and iterative A/B testing.
Aamer holds an M.S in Information Management from the University of Washington and a B.S. in Political science from the City University of New York – Baruch College. He is a native New Yorker who currently resides in Seattle, WA.
Natalia Rodriguez is the Associate Director of Product for Reading Reimagined. Prior to joining the team, Natalia was Senior Product Manager for the Wikimedia Foundation building products for the global Community Wishlist Survey. Natalia has worked in product and curriculum at Codecademy, built science visualizations at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and has over 8 years of ed-tech experience building with a focus on knowledge and skill equity. Before working in tech. Natalia holds an M.A in Computer Science from Southwestern University and lives in New York City.
Ian Natzmer is a seasoned technical leader with a passion for revolutionizing the EdTech industry. As the Director of Engineering at Reading Reimagined, Ian plays a pivotal role in our mission to eradicate illiteracy among children. With extensive experience in building high-performance teams using Agile methodologies, he drives the development of innovative, impactful educational products that empower children to become confident and skilled readers.
Ian’s expertise spans a wide range of technologies, including Unity, Unreal Engine, web services, and game development. His background in the EdTech sector includes leading the creation of Unity-based game platforms and authoring tools, as well as developing AR and VR solutions for enhanced learning experiences.
Ian holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from DePaul University and a Bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication from Lawrence Technological University. A respected thought leader in the EdTech community, he has shared his insights at various conferences and contributed to publications on immersive learning.
At Reading Reimagined, we are honored to have Ian on our team, guiding the engineering efforts to develop transformative educational solutions that will change the lives of children and build a brighter future through literacy.
Claire Galdun is the Senior Manager of Learning Design for Reading Reimagined. Prior to joining Reading Reimagined, Claire was the Senior Curriculum Manager at Osmo by Byju’s, where she worked on cross functional teams to design reading and STEM games for children aged 3-12. Claire’s first job was as a kindergarten teacher. After teaching in Baltimore City for 6 years, she moved to San Jose California where she began her role as an Assistant Principal with Rocketship Public Schools. When not working on Ed tech products, Claire enjoys going on outdoor adventures with her 4- and 1-year old sons.
Dr. Elly Zimmer is the Associate Director of Foundational Literacy for Reading Reimagined. Prior to joining Reading Reimagined, she was the Director of Curriculum Research and Development for a national network of over 30 charter schools. She has led teams in the development and assessment of new curriculum for grades K-12. Before that, she taught 3rd-grade reading, writing, and social studies. She received a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Arizona where she studied child language and reading development. She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her family.
Dr. Dina Kapengut is the Director of Research & Development for Assessment for Good. She is a researcher, strategist, and developmental psychologist with experience influencing R&D for equity-oriented interventions and assessments, as well as for new digital media, software and consumer products, and EdTech in the academic, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors. Dina’s research career originated from her commitment to social justice, education equity, and positive identity development for students experiencing poverty — a commitment which has taken her from psychoeducational fieldwork in rural classrooms in India and refugee camps in Europe to the evaluation, building, and implementation of academic assessment tools and interventions at research labs at NYU, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. Her interest in proactively intervening in students’ learning trajectories, especially those labeled “at-risk,” led to her research of socioeconomic disparities in child language and neurodevelopment and the ways in which measurement and assessment of the modifiable environmental differences that account for these disparities can inform the design of innovative, responsive interventions for marginalized populations. Dina earned her undergraduate degree from Brandeis University and her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Destiny McLurkin is the Manager of Foundational Literacy for Reading Reimagined. Prior to joining the Reading Reimagined team, she served in schools and education nonprofit organizations as a teacher, program manager, and instructional consultant. She brings fifteen years of experience in inclusive education, curriculum design, teacher professional development, and cultural and linguistic competency programming. She has a deep knowledge of a wide array of instructional tools and methodologies spanning all components of elementary literacy, and is guided by a strong commitment to supporting the learning of marginalized students.
Lauren Uyeshiro is the Director of Product for Reading Reimagined. Prior to joining the team, Lauren was Head of Product for Epic Books for Kids, a digital reading app used by millions of children in 95% of U.S. elementary schools. Lauren has worked in product management for nearly a decade with a focus on content, mobile search and discovery, and kids and families in consumer and school contexts. Before working in tech, Lauren was a high school English teacher in Santa Clara, CA. Lauren holds an M.A in Secondary English Education from Stanford University; an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management; and a JD from Northwestern Law. She lives in Palo Alto, CA.