Our Team

BOARD

Laurel Runcie, President

Laurel grew up in Upstate New York and attended Dartmouth College.  After graduating in 2006 with a BA in History, she joined Teach For America and taught 4th grade in the Las Vegas Valley.  After her two years in the corps, she remained committed to the fight for educational equity around the world.  She lives with her husband Tom in Crested Butte, Colorado and works for the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.  As president of World Partners in Education during this transitional time, Laurel is looking forward to laying the foundation for many successful years to come.

Catherine Armstrong, Secretary

Catherine received her BA in Economics from Dartmouth College in 2010 with minors in French and Psychology.  During her time at Dartmouth she interned with non-profits in Atlanta, New York, and Johannesburg.  Her senior thesis investigated the relationship between tobacco farming and educational decisions by school-aged children in Malawi.  Her time at Dartmouth helped Catherine develop a passion for international development, specifically in the realms of youth empowerment and education.  After graduation, Catherine served as a consultant for World Partners in Ghana for one year before joining the WPE Board of Directors.

Rebecca Beasley-Cockroft, Advancement Director

Rebecca graduated from Dartmouth College in 2008 with a degree in Mathematics and Latin American Literature and is fluent in Spanish. From a family of educators, Rebecca has been supporting teachers in the classroom from an early age. She has worked since college in the nonprofit sector supporting individuals seeking to further their education in a variety of different contexts. In her work, she has developed strong partnerships between organizations, managed programs and marketing campaigns, conducted grant research, and assessed program efficacy. Rebecca oversees all of World Partners in Education’s fundraising and outreach efforts as the Advancement Director.

Jennifer Bordeau, Treasurer

Jen grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 with a BA in Geography.  In addition, almost a quarter of Jen’s coursework at Dartmouth was in mathematics.  After graduation, Jen moved to Boston and applied her love of numbers and interest in nonprofit health care administration to a position in finance at Partners HealthCare.  Jen joined the WPE board as Treasurer in 2010, where she has been applying her knowledge of nonprofit fiscal management.  Jen is currently pursuing an MBA at Georgetown University.

Katy Briggs, Programming Director

Katy grew up in Pownal, Maine and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2010.  She majored in Psychology and received her elementary teaching certificate through the Dartmouth Teacher Education Program.  Through her coursework and extracurricular activities, Katy became interested in the issues surrounding education.  In particular, she is interested in the process of establishing the foundations for academic success, such as literacy and numeracy.  After graduation, Katy served as a consultant at one of WPE’s partner schools, NAP Academy.  Katy now leads our Programming Committee.

Dana Charles McCoy, Monitoring and Evaluation Director

Dana graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 with a BA in Psychology and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development.  At NYU, Dana’s work focuses on the development and evaluation of classroom-based curricula to promote young children’s emotional, social, and academic success.  She is also interested in studying the multiple influences that children’s cultural contexts, neighborhoods, and families have on their development.  Dana is currently leading WPE’s monitoring and evaluation effort as well as assisting with literacy programming development.

Jamie Hwang, Human Resources Director

Jamie graduated from Dartmouth College in 2010 with a BA in International Relations.  She first became interested in vulnerable populations worldwide while interviewing North Korean refugees for an independent research study in Seoul, South Korea.  Jamie also participated in the Selamata Project, teaching English and a Poetry curriculum to AIDS orphans in Betel, Ethiopia and Dartmouth’s DarDar program, teaching and mentoring HIV/AIDS-infected youth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  Having developed a passion for improving access to quality education, Jamie served as a consultant for World Partners in Ghana for one year after graduation.  She is pursuing a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University’s The Fletcher School.  She plans to specialize in Human Security, Development Economics, and International Education Policy.  Jamie is currently directing WPE’s human resources department.  She enjoys traveling, singing, and dancing.

Benjamin Schwartz, Country Director and Co-Founder

Ben grew up in Columbia, Maryland in a family passionate about education. Ben graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 with a major in international relations and a minor in education policy.  Following graduation he moved to Ghana on a Lombard Fellowship from the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth to better understand education in developing communities.  While there, Ben encouraged other volunteers from Dartmouth and elsewhere to join the effort—together they helped raise funds to start a library and computer lab at Manye Academy with laptops donated by graduating seniors.  Encouraged by these successes and the energy and excitement of the volunteers, Ben started World Partners in Education to serve developing communities by encouraging local investment in innovative educational programs.

STAFF

Andrea Casey, Programme Director

Andrea grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and graduated from the University of Guelph in 2007. She majored in International Development Studies and minored in Sociology. In 2009, Andrea completed a Post Graduate Certificate in International Project Management at Humber College. While working in Swaziland, in partnership with a local Swazi organization as a Monitoring and Evaluation advisor in 2010, Andrea’s views of the importance of education in empowering local were reinforced. She returned to Canada to complete her Master’s of Education at the University of Otawa in order to improve her qualifications in the field of Education. Andrea concluded her Masters in December 2012 and joined the World Partners team in early 2013. She is excited to be taking on the role of Programme Director and continuing to expand the WPE Literacy Intervention Programme for Ghanaian primary school teachers.

Anna Zelinsky, Programme Director

Anna graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 with a BA in Anthropology, minor in Psychology, and Elementary Teaching Certification.  Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Anna lived for five years post-graduation in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a small archipelago in the Central Pacific.  First as a teacher, and then as a director of the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Programme, Anna cultivated a passion for international education development.  Anna joined the World Partners team in early 2012, and is serving as Programme Director, creating and piloting the WPE Literacy Intervention Programme for Ghanaian primary school teachers.

Nelson Owusu Ansah, International Community Center Coordinator

Nelson grew up in Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti Region in Ghana. He is a professional teacher and graduated from Wesley College of Education, an affiliate institution of University of Cape Coast in 2002 with a certificate in Basic Education. After obtaining his professional teacher’s certificate, he taught for five years at the basic level mainly in rural areas within the Ashanti Region before leaving to further his education. In 2011, he graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-Kumasi with a BA in Sociology and Social Work and a minor in Economics. Before Nelson joined World Partners in Education, he worked with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana as a research assistant on an EU Chainsaw project in Ghana and Guyana.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Caitlin Crowe, Co-Founder

Caitlin grew up in York, Maine and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2008 with a geography major and public policy minor focusing on social justice.  She participated in three Dartmouth study abroad programs including a Dickey Center internship in Ghana at Manye Academy.  During her time at Manye, Caitlin saw the difficulties and importance of providing a quality education in underserved areas.  Upon her return, Caitlin became one of the founding members of World Partners in Education.  After graduation, Caitlin moved to Boston and spent two years on the private equity and venture capital lending team at Silicon Valley Bank.  Following her time at SVB, Caitlin spent almost two years as an Investment Banking Analyst at Raymond James.  She currently works on the Sponsor Finance team at RBS Citizens.  Caitlin enjoys freelance photography, traveling, figure skating, running, and social entrepreneurship.

INTERNS

Molly Byman, Intern

Molly grew up in Topsfield, MA and is currently a senior at Boston College.  She will graduate this May 2013 with a BA in International Studies and a Concentration in International Ethics and Social Justice.  Since 2009, she has volunteered in the Boston  Public School system through an organization called African Community Economic Development of New England (ACEDONE) where she tutors Somali refugees in English and math.  In 2011, Molly studied abroad in Arusha, Tanzania where she was struck by the effect of rural poverty on education and opportunity, particularly for girls from tribal communities.  With WPE, Molly is working on data management, fundraising, and grant writing.