Category: Staff

Robin Kallam

Business Officer
Spartan Strategies, Inc.
Phone: 336-315-7428
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Robin Kallam retired from the SERVE Center at UNC Greensboro in 2021 and is now the Business Officer for Spartan Strategies, Inc. She joined the SERVE Center in 1992 and has worked in the Operations area ever since. Until joining Spartan Strategies, Inc., she was a career state employee, having worked for the state of NC since 1979 – first at UNC Chapel Hill and then UNCG.  She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. In her capacity at SERVE, she was responsible for pre-award and post-award contract and grant financial management. She now helps Spartan Strategies, Inc. with its operations management. In her off hours, she enjoys attending UNC football games, going on home tours with girlfriends, learning about historic preservation, and traveling to Charleston, SC as often as possible.

Melissa Williams

Melissa Williams has over 15 years’ experience in the conduct and administration of research and program evaluation. She has worn many hats during her time at SERVE! Melissa’s primary work has included participation and oversight on multiple program evaluations including a federally funded Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant (multi-site), two federally funded Teaching American History Grants and 21st Century Grants, as well as state-level Supplemental Educational Services evaluation for NCDPI for three consecutive years, to name a few. For these and other projects, she designed instruments, conducted interviews and focus groups, managed large datasets, utilized data analysis software (e.g., Excel, SPSS, SAS), and reported results.

Melissa’s experience also includes designing extensive data collection protocols and providing training and ongoing technical assistance to staff on the implementation of those protocols. In addition to her evaluation work, from 2006-2011 Melissa served as the Associate Coordinator for Research Studies for the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL-SE) contract at SERVE Center. In this role she coordinated the efforts of two study teams conducting randomized control trials in the Southeast. Her duties included all aspects of compliance with University IRB and Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) protocols as well as the oversight of the submission of U.S. Department of Education deliverables and providing quality control for all materials related to these deliverables. Other specific activities included presentation of study design and/or dissemination of results at professional conferences, monthly status reporting to funding agencies, creation of data collection protocols/manuals, data collection oversight and quality control, formal reporting of results to clients, and meeting preparation (e.g., preparing agendas, taking and distributing meeting minutes). It was also during this time period that Melissa was recommended to become a member of the UNCG IRB (2010-2012).

On a personal note, Melissa is proud to be a mom to two beautiful children, Owen and Helen, and is a supportive theatre wife to her husband, Marc, a professional Director and faculty member at a state university. In her non-existent free time 😉, Melissa loves to sing, read, and knit, and nothing makes her happier than traveling with her family.

Neely Ward

Program Specialist
NC Homeless Education Program
Phone: 336-315-7782
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Neely Ward joined the SERVE Center as a Program Specialist for NCHEP in September 2020.  She comes to SERVE with 15 years of experience from the Rowan Salisbury School System, working in various positions, including working in a Title I school by providing administrative support to the school and working with students in the classroom. Most recently, Neely served as the local McKinney-Vento and Foster Care Liaison for the district. While in this position, she served as a vital member of the NCHEP leadership team. Neely feels that her prior experience as a licensed foster care parent,  teaching preschool, and serving in early education as a Head Start Center Director guided her through the education sector to prepare her for her next role as a program specialist with NCHEP. She definitely is a passionate advocate for children and youth who are experiencing homelessness. 

Neely received her B.S. in Sociology from Appalachian State University, enjoys cooking, family meals, and being in nature.  She can often be found rejuvenating herself at the beach!

Beth Thrift

Program Specialist
Phone: 336-315-7452
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Laura Rosof

Research Specialist
Phone: 
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Laura Rosof is a Research Specialist at the Early College Research Center. In this capacity, she serves as a project manager and provides research support and technical assistance for projects related to secondary and post-secondary access and success. Previously, she was at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University as a member of the Research and Evaluation team. Her previous experience also includes working with North Carolina schools to implement a literacy program and to support research projects, and managing the volunteer program at an education and arts non-profit serving under-resourced students and schools in Los Angeles, California. She believes in the power of data and research to improve educational outcomes for all students. She earned her masters degree in the Policy, Organizations, and Leadership program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, hiking, going to art museums, and traveling. 

Lisa Phillips

Lisa Phillips has been the State Coordinator for the NCDPI Homeless Education Program for over 10 years where she has provided training and support to school districts, educational partners, community organizations and state agencies.  Mrs. Phillips prepares regularly best practice materials for homeless liaisons to utilize in their practice, monitors the school districts and charter schools, provides training at the state and national level as well as oversees the Mentor Program for new State Coordinators for the US Department of Education. She has extensive experience in the public-school setting providing leadership to the school community as a school social worker as well as in the position of a principal. She owned and operated a small business for many years and holds degrees in Small Business Entrepreneurship, Bachelor of Science, School Social Work, and Master of Arts in Liberal Studies and School Administration. In her spare time, she enjoys being with her family, her adorable pups, cooking and spending time at the beach. 

Megan Orleans

Project Specialist
Phone:
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Megan Orleans currently serves as a Project Specialist for SERVE at UNC Greensboro where she leads statewide capacity-building initiatives and supports large-scale project development for SEAs, LEAs, and community-based organization across the region and country. Her expertise spans project management, grant development, and program implementation in formal and informal education settings, including over 10 years of experience in designing, operating, and monitoring 21st CCLC programs at the local and state levels. Her approach to working with clients and colleagues focuses on high-impact, human-centered design methods that drive systemic change and enhance educational outcomes. 

Kathleen Mooney

Kathleen Mooney has experience as an evaluator with the SERVE Center since 2001 developing and implementing evaluation plans that facilitate the use of data to ensure continuous program improvement. She has worked on multiple state- and federally-funded evaluations for programs including the Regional Educational Laboratory, Race to the Top, 21st Century Learning Centers, School Improvement Grants, North Carolina’s Extended Learning and Integrated Student Supports, and several university-based National Science Foundation grants. Program evaluation services she often provides include: developing scopes of work, evaluation plans, and logic models; ensuring Institutional Review Board (IRB) compliance; conducting literature reviews; identifying relevant data collection and analysis methods; providing technical assistance to enhance program-level evaluation capacity; and reporting findings to funding agencies.

On a personal note, Kathleen is a proud mom of two beautiful and energetic children, Eloise and Sammy. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband and children swimming, urban hiking, reading, and watching their crazy pet chickens in the backyard.

Wendy McColskey, Ph.D.

Wendy McColskey joined the SERVE Center at UNCG when it first established itself in 1991 after receiving funding from the USED to operate the Regional Educational Laboratory for the Southeast with a mission of supporting educators in six southeastern states with research, evaluation, policy analysis, and professional development. With her Ph.D. in educational research and evaluation, she was very excited to find herself on the ground floor at SERVE in its early days, providing leadership for R &D projects and working collaboratively with school district partners. Her almost 30 years of leading Research and Evaluation projects resulted in over 40 SERVE publications and products (most recently Measuring Student Engagement in Upper Elementary through High School: A Description of 21 Instruments).  Supporting school efforts to improve student engagement and motivation is a particular interest and passion of hers. From 2000-2011 at SERVE, she worked at the forefront of supporting educators in the use of data and research (evidence-based interventions). Currently, she is semi-retired and serves as a Program Director for Evaluation Services. She is an experienced program evaluator, having evaluated a wide range of projects ranging from curriculum reforms to low performing school interventions and most recently, statewide 21^st Community Learning Centers and Integrated Student Support programs. In her non-SERVE time, she enjoys competing in national senior tennis tournaments, playing on US teams that have competed in France, Finland, and Croatia.

Priscilla Maynor

Co-Director
Region 6 Comprehensive Center
Phone: 919-215-5809
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Priscilla J. Maynor, Ed.D joined the SERVE Center in October 2019 as Co-Director for the Region 6 Comprehensive Center. Priscilla’s experience spans across the K-12 public education sector – including classroom, school, local district, regional, and state. She has extensive experience nationally working with school districts, government agencies, Tribes, foundations, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations. Priscilla is the founder and lead principal of imaginED Partners LLC, an education management practice specializing in leadership development and organization transformation. Prior to imaginED Partners, she was the executive vice president of leadership development for a national consulting firm, the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology. Her work in education also includes leadership roles at the Department of Public Instruction in North Carolina that involved several statewide initiatives in early childhood, district and school transformation, curriculum, data management, and organizational process improvement.

Priscilla enjoys traveling and attending sports events with her family.