Heather facilitates learning experiences for school and district leaders and provides one-on-one coaching to build their capacity in creating systems and structures that help ensure postsecondary success for all students. Heather has more than 18 years of experience and leadership in education. She began her career as an English language arts teacher. From the classroom, she moved into the role of director of her district’s first stand-alone career academy. Heather most recently served in a school administrator role as Academy Coach, where she worked to help implement wall-to-wall career academies that changed the focus and quality of learning experiences for all students at her school and throughout the district. Her passion is to work with district, school, and community members to bring relevance and purpose to learning in an equitable way and to have a long-term impact on student postsecondary success. Heather holds an Ed.S. in Educational Leadership and an M.A. in Secondary English Education from the University of Kentucky. She also holds a B.A. in English from Western Kentucky University and a National Board Teacher Certification.

 

Dr. Kayla Ritter Rickels has been coaching leaders and teams to collective and systemic change in college and career opportunities across, with a primary focus on rural regions. With a set of values rooted in the belief that education is liberation, she has dedicated her career to the creation of enabling conditions for equity in exploration, access, and attainment of a postsecondary credential. She began her career in college admissions and enrollment management and has moved through roles within college access non-profit, K12 school district, and ed tech organization spaces that allowed her to drive impact and system change with a keen focus on equity for historically marginalized and minoritized students. She earned her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Northern Kentucky University, her M.S. in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati, and her B.A. in Mathematics from Thomas More College. She resides in Kentucky with her partner and daughter.

 

Symone Morales is the Executive Director for OneGoal in the Bay Area where she works closely with schools, district leaders and communities to transform postsecondary advising and ensure all students are able to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations. Prior to joining OneGoal, Symone served as the Associate Dean of Students and Director of the First Generation and/or Low-Income Student Success Center (FLISSC) at Stanford University, where she led efforts across the university to enhance the FLI student experience and ensure persistence through graduation. Throughout her career, she has held multiple positions, ranging from K-12 to university level, supporting and advocating for marginalized and underrepresented minority students to have equitable access to education. She has developed and built programs that focus on matriculation and retention and is an expert in supporting low-income and first-generation college students. In 2016, Symone assisted in inaugurating and overseeing the undergraduate first generation college program at UCLA called First To Go. This program laid the framework for many of the first-gen initiatives that developed across all ten UC campuses over the past seven years.  Symone holds a BA in Sociology and African American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree in Student Affairs from UCLA. Symone was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina and has spent the past ten years across the state of California working at various postsecondary institutions leveling the learning landscape for all students.