The Ford PAS and NGLC Advisory Council Team and Ford PAS and NGLC Support Team were formed in 2006 and consist of groups of workforce development and educational experts who support Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) and Ford Next Generation Learning Communities (Ford NGLC) initiatives. The teams also provides strategic guidance and technical assistance to our NGLC partners.
Each team member was selected for his or her background, experience, and knowledge, and for how he or she compliments the missions and visions for Ford PAS and Ford NGLC and our community partners.
To ask a question of a team member, just click on his or her name below to send an e-mail. Please be respectful of team members’ time and ask questions that are specific and that can be handled with no more than 15 minutes of a team member’s time. Please understand that a team member may not be able to answer your question if it falls outside his or her expertise.
For larger, broader, long-term questions, you may want to seek technical assistance. Ford has set aside some funding for team members to make site visits and provide other forms of help. If you wish to request this form of technical assistance, please contact Cheryl Carrier.
Team Leader
Richard K. Delano
President, Social Marketing Services, LLC
Delano splits his work life between two consulting firms. He is marketing director and senior associate of LifeCourse Associates, a company he helped establish in 1997 with best-selling authors William Strauss and Neil Howe. Delano is also president of Social Marketing Services, which draws on commercial marketing strategies to reduce expensive social behaviors like smoking and dropping out of school. Currently, Delano leads the Ford Motor Company Fund’s Advisory Council. Previously, he served 10 years on the board of the National Career Academy Coalition and is a 30-year veteran in the magazine publishing industry.
Ilene Kantrov
Director, Center for Educational Resources and Outreach Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
Kantrov oversees a staff of curriculum, technology, professional development, and research experts whose mission is to improve the quality of resources and information available to students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the public. She has more than 25 years of experience in developing curricula and resources that promote understanding of the issues involved in curriculum and school reform. She is a senior project director for the Ford PAS program. Kantrov holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and M.A. and Ph. D. degrees from Tufts University.
Hans Meeder
President, Meeder Consulting Group, LLC
Hans K. Meeder is President of the Meeder Consulting Group, LLC, a firm offering assistance in education and workforce policy analysis, leadership development, and governmental relations. Meeder has an extensive and varied career in education policy. He has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education, policy and outreach director for the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, senior vice president for workforce and postsecondary education at the National Alliance of Business, and Executive Director of the 21st Century Workforce Commission. His areas of expertise include high school reform, career technical education, community colleges, adult literacy and government management. Meeder earned his B.A. from the University of Maryland College Park and holds an MBA from the University of Maryland University College.
Sandy Mittelsteadt
Vice President, Social Marketing Services, LLC
Mittelsteadt is a member of the Ford Motor Company Fund Ford PAS/NGLC National Advisory Council. She is an expert in all aspects of Career Academies and small learning communities’ development. Mittelsteadt is the co-author of The Career Academy Toolkit book, the most-widely used book on academies. She has also worked as a teacher in an academy, a lead teacher, an academy director, a district School-to-Career coordinator, assistant state supervisor, executive director of the National Career Academy coalition, and education liaison for the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).
Charles Mojkowski
Senior Associate
Big Picture Company
Charles Mojkowski has served as an independent consultant to education and business since 1976. Currently, he is a consulting senior associate at the Big Picture Company and an advisor on the design of alternative schools. Mojkowski is a former teacher and school and state education administrator. He was the executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals and the Rhode Island Educational Leadership Academy. He also was as an associate professor in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at Johnson & Wales University from 1995 through 2005. Mojkowski received his undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in English and Secondary Education from Rhode Island College. His Doctorate is in Educational Research and Evaluation and Secondary Education from Boston University.
Cheryl Carrier
Program Director, 21st Century Education Programs, Ford Motor Company Fund
Cheryl Carrier joined Ford Motor Company in May of 1978 and currently works with the Ford Motor Company Fund as program director for the Ford PAS and Ford NGLC programs. In this capacity, Carrier manages all aspects of Ford PAS and NGLC, which includes program development, dissemination, regional and national partnerships, and customer assistance. Prior to working with the Ford Fund, Carrier held various positions at Ford in engineering, finance, and investor relations. Her most recent assignment prior to managing Ford PAS was working for William Clay Ford, Jr., now Chairman and CEO of the Ford Motor Company. Carrier assisted Mr. Ford from 1989 through 1997, as he held various management positions and was a member of the Ford Motor Company Board of Directors.
Mike Schmidt
Director of Education and Community Development, Ford Motor Company Fund
Mike Schmidt has worked on education and workforce development issues in both the public and private sectors. Schmidt joined Ford Motor Company in July of 1996, and he currently serves as the Director of Education and Community Development for the Ford Motor Company Fund. In this capacity, he oversees Ford’s major national partnerships with public K–12 education—including the Henry Ford Academy and Ford PAS and Ford NGLC—as well as the company’s relationships with colleges and universities. Before coming to the Ford Fund, Schmidt worked on a number of educational initiatives for the company, including managing the design and launch of the Henry Ford Academy, serving as the chair of the National Employer Leadership Council, and working as a member of the joint UAW/Ford team that designed the UAW/Ford Family Service and Learning Center initiative. Before joining Ford, Schmidt worked on national education and workforce development issues as a Senior Policy Analyst in President Clinton’s Domestic Policy Council in Washington, DC from 1993 to 1996. In this capacity, he participated in the creation and implementation of a number of initiatives, including Goals 2000, School to Work, and the Technology Learning Challenge program. He also worked on federal training and development policy for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and served as a staff member for the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) at the U.S. Department of Labor. Schmidt earned a B.A. from The University of Michigan and a Masters of Public Management from the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs.
Pedro "Pete" R. Bermúdez
Professional Development Support Specialist, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Veteran Social Studies Teacher
Pete Bermúdez is a twenty-year veteran social studies teacher who is currently a professional development support specialist in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Bermúdez designs, facilitates, and coordinates professional development in elementary schools that are part of the Ready Schools Miami PK-3 Initiative, a partnership between the Lastinger Center for Learning of the University of Florida, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, the Children’s Trust, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Bermúdez is a National Facilitator of the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), a professional development initiative that focuses on developing collegial relationships, encouraging reflective practice, and rethinking leadership in restructuring schools—all in support of increased student achievement. Bermúdez has served as a consultant for a variety of educational organizations including not only the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS), but also the Early College Program for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a private, non-profit organization that improves life opportunities for Hispanic Americans.
Bermúdez has also worked with a variety of school districts across the nation. He is a reviewer of the Florida Department of Education Professional Development System Evaluation Protocol and has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer for Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Florida International University. In 1993, Bermúdez was a founding member of William H. Turner Technical Arts High School, recognized as one of America's top 10 New American High Schools and identified as one of five urban high schools on the cutting edge of education reform. Additionally, Bermúdez has numerous publication credits.
Kati Anderson
Vice President, Media Relations, Comunicad
Kati Anderson has made a career of providing strategic communications counsel to variety of organizations and individuals, including not-for-profit and state and national political campaigns. At Comunicad, a multicultural marketing communications firm, she designs and implements national public education campaigns. Anderson was the Deputy Communications Director for Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy group in Washington, where she served as the Spanish spokesperson for the organization and built and implemented strategic national and local media campaigns. Anderson has broad political and campaign experience from working on both national and state political campaigns. As a native of Mexico, she is fluent in Spanish.
Randall Duckett
President, A3 Creative Group LLC
Randall Duckett is one of the most experienced education communications program developers and project managers in the nation. At A3 he works with Steven Friedlander, CEO, as the chief creative director for all clients, including Project Lead The Way, the National Action Council for Minorities in Education, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, AchieveTexas, and Ford PAS and Ford NGLC. During his career he has crafted comprehensive communications campaigns for state Career and Technical Education (CTE), School-to-Work (STW), career cluster and pathway/programs of study, and workforce development systems for South Carolina, Illinois, Alabama, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Georgia, and Louisiana, and for PLTW. In addition, he oversaw the production of career cluster guides for the states of South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, and North Carolina. Working with Whittle Communications through the ’80s and ’90s, Duckett designed and launched a wide range of targeted publications, TV productions, and alternative media projects. His experience includes four years as one of the first members of the Edison Project. In the mid-’90s, Duckett founded and served as president of Media Development Group. MDG completed a variety of local and national projects including editing for Learn and Live, a sourcebook of educational best practices published by the George Lucas Education Foundation as a companion to the video of the same name. Duckett is a summa cum laude graduate of the Boston University College of Communications.
Eliza Fabillar
Senior Research Associate and Project Director of Professional Development, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
Eliza Fabillar is currently working with a team to develop a professional development program for the Ford PAS curriculum, including summer institute, online professional development courses, and a training of trainers component. Fabillar also engages in education research and writing on various topics including effective pedagogy and professional development. In addition, she works closely with an advisory committee on the nationwide implementation of ford PAS and cultivates partnerships between high schools, universities, and businesses in various states. Previously, Fabillar was education co-director at the Center for Media and Learning/American social history project of the City University of New York.
Mike Neubig
President, Capture Educational Consulting Services
Mike Neubig is the leading SLC/Career Academy Master Scheduling Consultant in the United States. He has assisted hundreds of schools who seek the implementation of Smaller Learning Community/Career Academy initiatives as a reform model. The focus of Neubig’s work is around practice that meets the parameters for research based successful SLCs/Career Academies. Neubig conducts large scale workshops for administrators, counselors, and others involved in the scheduling process. He focuses on the schedule as a tool to improve student achievement through structures that provide equal access to high level curriculum, effective intervention, and cohesive teacher teams for a relevant student learning experience.