Senior Leadership

J.B. Schramm
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

J.B. founded College Summit in 1993 while directing a teen center in the basement of a low-income housing project in Washington, D.C. This year, the organization will work with 180 high schools and 35,000 students, in 12 states. In recognition of the organization's impact, in 2010, President Obama awarded College Summit a portion of his Nobel Prize Award, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce honored College Summit with their annual award for the nation's finest corporate-nonprofit partnership.

J.B. is the recipient of Honorary Doctorates of Public Service from Regis University and the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and the first-ever recipient of the 2012 Yale-Jefferson Service Award. He serves as an Aspen Institute - New Schools Education Fellow, and a faculty member of the Kennedy School of Government's Executive Session on Transforming Cities through Civic Entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Denver Public Schools, Yale University and Harvard Divinity School; and lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Lauren, and three children.

Jo Smith
Co-President and Chief Operating Officer

Jo has a long and broad background in technology, including support, development, business analysis and management roles at telecommunications providers, including MCI, Ionica PLC and UUNET. She led major programs using technology as a tool to automate processes, increase efficiency and rapidly deliver scalable solutions that reduce cost and increase speed of delivery.  Jo’s introduction to College Summit was as a volunteer consultant in spring 2005, assessing the ability of its existing technology to support the organization’s rapid growth.

Jo is an Honors Graduate of Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. She has a Post Graduate Certificate in Technology Management from The Open University, UK.

Michelle Tafel
Chief Innovation Officer

As Chief Innovation Officer, Michelle creates and manages break-through improvements to the College Summit program and brings those innovations to new communities across the country. Before she was CIO, she served as Chief of Staff at College Summit for four years where she worked with the president, CEO, executive team, and board of directors to drive the achievement of College Summit’s mission. Michelle has held a variety of roles since joining the College Summit team in 2004 related to development, board relations, and special projects. Over her tenure at the organization, she has served as a volunteer writing coach at nine workshops.

Prior to joining College Summit, Michelle worked for a DC-based youth leadership organization as a mentor, tutor, teacher, and founder of their young women’s program. She is a graduate of American University (B.A.) and is currently pursuing her M.B.A. at Kellogg School of Management.

Allen Goldberg
Chief Marketing Officer

Allen Goldberg is a marketing and communications professional with 25 years of experience working with multinational corporations, major trade associations and charitable organizations based in Washington, DC. Until 2012, Allen was the Vice President of Communications for Neustar, Inc. a data and analytic solutions company. Prior to that position, he was Chief Marketing Officer of FKF Applied Research, a next generation business intelligence firm selling functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and was Director of Branding and Communications at XM Satellite Radio, Inc.

Allen is a graduate of the University of Maryland and lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Laurie Strongin, and two sons. Along with Laurie, he co-founded the Hope for Henry Foundation which improves the quality of life for children hospitalized with serious illnesses.

Donna Fleming
Vice President of Regional Operations

Donna is vice president of regional operations and leadership development, coordinating operations in all of College Summit's 11 regions. She first came to College Summit as the Executive Director of the National Capital Region in 2006, where she was responsible for the financial, program, and administrative management of its programs in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia. Once a high school drop-out and teenage mom, she is now a first generation college graduate who knows first-hand the critical need for college and career preparation for all high school students.

Donna holds a M.S.A in Organizational Development, with a concentration in Nonprofit Management, from Trinity University in Washington, DC. She has also completed graduate courses in Business Administration at Frostburg State University, and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Trinity College.

 

Associated Leadership

Don Cheadle
Spokesperson

Don Cheadle is a longtime support of College Summit and advocate for college access.

A 1982 graduate from East High School in Denver, Colorado, Don attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Bachelor¹s Degree in Fine Arts. The acclaimed actor and Oscar nominee has been a College Summit Writing Coach and has served on its Board of Directors.

Derek Canty
Co-Founder

Derek, a graduate of Columbia University, has trained and empowered over 20,000 youth, teachers, social workers, mentors, probation officers and youth workers across the country. As the Co-Founder of College Summit, Derek co-developed in-school youth development tools and created the ‘Rap’ component of the organization’s summer workshop. He also created the ‘Rap Training’ program that has served 150 people seeking to motivate and coach peer leaders at the summer workshops and in their respective schools. 

Through his Las Vegas based company Winning Edge, Inc., he provides facilitation, training, and coaching solutions to help individuals, high schools, colleges and nonprofit organizations achieve maximum personal and organizational effectiveness. 

Keith Frome
Co-Founder

Keith Frome, Ed. D., is the Headmaster of the King Center Charter School in Buffalo, NY.

In 1993, Keith W. Frome designed and implemented the writing process for the first College Summit workshop with J.B. Schramm. He has been involved with College Summit ever since as an advisor, curriculum designer, trainer, and writing coach coordinator. In 2007, he became College Summit’s first Chief Academic Officer and created the College Summit Education Department. Keith currently works on next generation product development for College Summit.

The recipient of many teaching and youth service awards, Dr. FromeKeith holds a doctorate in philosophy and education from Columbia University Teachers College and received his Masters in Theology and Education and permanent teaching certification in English from Harvard Divinity School.