Our Team

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, BerThaddaeus is the 11th child of the late, Reverend, Dr. Bertrand  Maurice Bailey Sr. and Mrs. Juandalyn Joan Bailey. He is the first student to obtain a bachelor’s  degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Public and Business Administration from  The University of Oklahoma (OU), simultaneously.  

During his academic tenure at OU, he was featured on CNN, MSNBC and Good Morning  America as a representative for the student body as the Director of Diversity addressing racial  tensions that followed a tumultuous event on campus. In the aftermath, he was extremely  instrumental in implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives on OU’s campus. Upon  graduation, BerThaddaeus was requested to return to the university to serve as a part-time  adjunct professor, instructing a course on “Cultural Awareness”.  

Professionally, for the past 5 years, BerThaddaeus has served as a Senior policy analyst for the  State of Oklahoma’s health care and child support programs. He has assisted the State in  securing over $100 million in federal funding to support a plethora of Oklahoma’s health care  initiatives.  

BerThaddaeus has been deeply engaged in community work. He is the founder of a 501(c)(3)  nonprofit organization, Speaks 4 You, Inc., where he and other financial experts assists  students from underprivileged backgrounds in achieving scholarships for their college  education. He also founded the Dr. Jerome B. Wade Scholarship (named in memory of his  childhood mentor), which has successfully awarded thousands of dollars in financial support to  graduating seniors in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  

BerThaddaeus is a proud member of the oldest, boldest, and coldest intercollegiate Greek letter fraternity for Black men, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.  

BerThaddaeus’ gift of organizational leadership, speaking, and policy planning and  development has afforded him extraordinary opportunities. In 2015 he served as a  Congressional Intern in Washington, DC with the Congressional Black Caucus for  Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee.  

However, his proudest achievement came in March of 2018, when he married the love of his  life, JaQuitta Danielle Bailey. JaQuitta is one of few Blacks working in meteorology at  Weathernews America. In December of 2020, they welcomed their first daughter and princess,  Amara Bailey.  

When asked about his lifelong aspirations and goals, humbly he responds, “If I can help  somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, then my living will not  be in vain.” 

Avery Bennett serves as a Post-Secondary Support Fellow within the School District Support team. Avery earned a degree in Peace Studies with minors in Spanish and Environmental Studies from Chapman University in 2020, graduating Magna Cum Laude with Departmental and Civic Honors. She also holds a MPA degree from Brown University.

Avery’s professional experience includes serving as a Policy intern for Rural Investment to Protect our Environment (RIPE), a nonprofit organization working to advance a comprehensive climate policy that invests in sustainable farming. She also worked as a Dispute Resolution intern with OC Human Relations, performing weekly mediation services in a Small Claims court.

Most recently, Avery completed a year of service as a City Year AmeriCorps member, helping add capacity in a Tulsa Public Schools classroom as well as coach individual students in support of their academic, attendance, and social-emotional growth. Through the school’s partnership with Tulsa Changemakers, she was also able to provide daily support and mentorship to a group of youth working to create their own collective action projects. She is excited to continue work related to advancing educational equity with ImpactTulsa through the Tulsa Service Year Fellowship.

Jazzy (Jasmine) Bivar-Smith is a vibrant and invigorating leader committed to connection and community growth, especially in her hometown. Since moving back to Tulsa in 2022, Jazzy has been committed to serving her community, largely in North and West Tulsa. Jazzy’s lived experiences include two decades of organizational experience–8 years in corporate talent and organizational development and more than 12 years leading front-line employees in the culinary industry, being unhoused as a teen, a young mom and community organizer.

Jazzy enjoys sharing her ‘mustard seed’ philosophy with folks of all backgrounds and being a sounding board for all humans, including those marginalized, or with societal privilege, social capital etc. Being inclusive to ‘all’ is core to her humanity. Recently married, Jazzy lives in North Tulsa with her husband, Omar and their 3 animal children. Though she is excited to have more, both of her human children are adults.

Dan Botting joined ImpactTulsa in 2018 as a part of Education Pioneers – a leadership network dedicated to creating equity in education. Prior to joining ImpactTulsa, Dan received masters in both Applied Economics and Public Policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He also served as a policy fellow and consultant at both the Education Trust Midwest and American Institutes for Research where he researched topics such as the Michigan’s teacher shortage and implementation of school score cards for E.S.S.A.; using local data and national comparisons to identify inequities in each and propose best practice policy as a solution.

At ImpactTulsa, Dan is responsible for creating and maintaining public facing data dashboards and serving as a data liaison with the national StriveTogether partnership. He is also the primary analyst supporting the creation and use of the Child Equity Index and predictive attendance models. Finally, he is currently serving on ImpactTulsa’s cross sector partnership to evaluate the effectiveness and equity of summer programming offered in Tulsa to curb the impact of Covid-19 on student learning.

In additional to his professional tenure, Dan serves as a Big Brother in Big Brothers Big Sisters, as an after school tutor I’m his community, and as an alumni supporting new and prospective Ed Pioneers and Ford School students.

Sheena Bradford is a Native Oklahoman who received her Associate’s Degree in Business Administration in 2022 at TCC after working over two decades in the customer relations and administration industry. In her previous roles, she served as an Executive Assistant, a Business Office Manager and an Assistant General Manager.

She believes being organized and reliable with the ability to tackle challenges effectively have been essential qualities for her success. Sheena is a proud mother of 4. She enjoys spending time with family, watching her children play in various sports, decorating, fishing and the outdoors.

Eric is the current 2023 Fellow at ImpactTulsa and a recent graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Spanish.

Prior to ImpactTulsa, Eric worked in various roles encompassing education and community engagement. He is incredibly dedicated to bettering his community and strives to pave a path that will make a great impact in the world of education.

Eric is a first-generation Graduate and strives to surround himself with positive and forward-thinking individuals who also look forward to a brighter and more inclusive future.

In Eric’s free time, he enjoys admiring artwork, attending local farmer’s markets, street fairs, listening to music, and spending time with family.

Courtney Cullison joined Impact Tulsa as the Director of Policy in November of 2022 having worked in nonprofits and higher education for over 15 years. She holds a PhD from the University of Oklahoma where she was a graduate fellow at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center. While researching her dissertation, Courtney was a Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association. 

Courtney most recently served as the Program Director at Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, where she served as coordinator of the mental health fellowship program and provided project management and organizational development for the office. She previously worked as a policy analyst at Oklahoma Policy Institute focusing on economic inequality and opportunity. Prior to her nonprofit career, Courtney held positions as a congressional staffer and a political science professor.

Courtney is a native Oklahoman and cares deeply about the future of her state. She is an active member of the Junior League of Tulsa and an avid reader!

Aubrey serves as ImpactTulsa’s head of Cradle to Career Initiatives. Aubrey is a passionate advocate seeking to facilitate meaningful change for the children, families, and communities of Tulsa. In service to all children and adults, Aubrey is also proud to be an innovator, reimagining the possibilities for public education, public policy, and political engagement.

Aubrey’s professional career has included 10 years as a classroom teacher and instructional mentor. Most recently, Aubrey served as a school leader at Tulsa Public Schools for more than seven years. As a building principal, Aubrey led her school to decrease chronic absenteeism by nearly 10%, increase reading proficiencies to a proud 73%, while also increasing and diversifying the student and teacher population.

Aubrey received her Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, Elementary Education, from Portland State University in 2003. She also received her Master of Education, Administration, Curriculum, and Supervision from the University of Oklahoma in 2017 and is currently working toward a doctorate of Education, Administration, Curriculum, and Supervision from the University of Oklahoma. In April of 2022, Aubrey was honored with the National Milken Educator Award for her efforts to serve the Tulsa community, reimagining learning possibilities amid the global pandemic.

When not working alongside children, educators, families, community leaders, corporate and nonprofit organizations within our community, Aubrey is a partner to her husband and best friend Brad and a mom to their awesome five children Charley, Jake, Ford, Mason and Wyatt.

Dr. Delia Kimbrel holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Delia brings an array of experience in research design, advanced analysis, and program evaluation in economic development, housing, and education policy. For ten years, Delia worked at the Institute on Assets and Social Policy leading multi-year, formative, impact, and cost-benefit evaluations of federal HUD, housing-based, self-sufficiency, economic service, and asset-development initiatives throughout Massachusetts and Maine.

As a Harvard University, Rappaport Public Policy Fellow, she led state-level research and evaluation projects in the Bureau of Rental Assistance at the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Delia also was a doctoral fellow at MDRC, a leading education, and policy research organization based in New York City. At ImpactTulsa, Delia leads the research and policy strategy for the organization’s collaborative action, continuous improvement, cross-sector partner and district support initiatives. Delia leads ImpactTulsa’s Child Equity Index work in partnership with Tulsa Public Schools. For ImpactTulsa’s Covid-19 response, Delia led, in partnership with the City of Tulsa the Internet Access Taskforce. Delia currently serves on the StriveTogether Racial Equity Action Team, where she is helping the national collective impact network develop racial-equity centered data frameworks, for building a rich culture of data use for narrowing disparities across the cradle to career continuum. Delia was named StriveTogether’s 2020 Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion for her leadership in using data and advocacy to create transformational change in Tulsa. Delia brings a trained, critical eye for using research and data to advance equitable policy, to ensure gaps are closing and systems are transforming for all communities in Tulsa.

Dr. Luke Lawson received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology specializing in Research, Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics from Oklahoma State University. Luke has held teaching positions at New York University and Columbia University teaching psychology and advanced statistics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has held research positions in both clinic and lab settings at The University of Texas, Columbia University, New York University, and Oklahoma State University. Luke’s decade of research experience has spanned work in Reinforcement / Category Learning, societal impacts of Family Migration, cognitive impacts of Parkinson’s disease, measurement of Major Depressive Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder, and academic impacts and measurement of student Social Emotional Skills.

Growing up in El Paso, Texas with a teacher for a mother, Luke has always been interested in the ways to engage students from different backgrounds. Luke’s research in studying education from a systems level began three years ago as a Research Analyst for Branching Minds and has continued through ImpactTulsa. At ImpactTulsa, Luke more formally connects his research with policy initiatives and wider frameworks to help students in Tulsa. Thus far, Luke has assisted in data leadership with My Brother’s Keeper, various Tulsa Collaborative Action Networks, and attendance initiatives at both Tulsa Public School and Union. His work investigating the impact of evictions on students at TPS is some of the first of its kind. In his work as Director of Research and Analytics he is excited to continue data leadership across the Tulsa community.

Ashley Harris Philippsen is a systems, culture, and equity coach with over a decade of experience in education, leadership development, civic engagement, coalition building, systems leadership, and school and curriculum design. Ashley uses her experience to partner with students and families, districts, and partner organizations as they navigate, disrupt, and dissolve system complexities. Through her career, with roles including Executive Director at Met Cares, Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Development at Teach For America, and Founding Dean of Students at YES Prep Public Schools, Ashley has developed skills in small and large team management, effective program design and implementation, strategic thinking and planning. As the Deputy Chief of Community Development and Policy at the City of Tulsa, she was responsible for designing and facilitating community engagement and organizing processes for urban planning and development, amongst other City initiatives. As ImpactTulsa’s Deputy Director, Ashley partners with organizations and institutions to drive systems-change and develop programs that create sustainable outcomes for students in the Greater Tulsa area.

Kendall Rimmer is a driven individual who has overcome humble beginnings in intercity Chicago as the middle child of five children to a single mother. He is an advocate for mentorship and system changes that will lead to equitable living experiences. 

Kendall pursued higher education on a band scholarship and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. During his time there, he achieved numerous honors and activities, including graduating ​​Cum Laude, being a recipient of the Dean’s List, participating in the Marching and Concert Ensembles, and becoming a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated.

Equipped with a solid educational foundation, Kendall further developed his skills and professional expertise. He is proficient in various computer applications, including the Microsoft Office suite, Google apps and management systems, and Windows. He has also undergone professional development workshops and web courses, enhancing his abilities in writing, web content creation, and leadership.

Kendall’s passion for mentorship extends beyond his personal growth. He actively engages in volunteer work, serving as a Big Brother for Big Brother Big Sisters in Tulsa, where he provides guidance and support to young individuals. He has also volunteered with organizations like Reading Partners and Lighthouse Charter Schools, dedicating his time to helping others improve their reading skills and establishing positive communities. In addition, Kendall discovered a passion for basketball through officiating. It has been a joy of his to officiate students’ games from the elementary level through the NCAA Division 2 level.

In terms of professional experience, Kendall recently worked as a Data Application Partner at Tulsa Public Schools. In this role, he trains school staff on effective processes within major district applications and provides customized support to schools in areas such as data analysis and technology strategy. Previously, he served as a Website Administrator, managing multiple school-level websites and collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure accurate information and improve user experiences. Additionally, he worked as a Service Desk Analyst, providing technical support and facilitating technology meetings/training for school and district employees.

Kendall’s diverse background, combining his journey from Chicago, basketball officiating experience, and passion for mentorship, has shaped him into a dedicated and resourceful individual. With his strong work ethic, leadership skills, and commitment to helping others succeed, he is well-equipped to take on challenging careers that allow him to utilize his creativity and interpersonal abilities.

Andrea Stacy is the Director of School District Support. Andrea graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Northeastern State University in 2006.

Prior to joining the ImpactTulsa team, Andrea worked for nine years as a teacher in Tulsa Public Schools. During this time, she spent three years teaching middle school math at Gilcrease Middle School and six years teaching 3rd-5th grade at Marshall Elementary. Andrea received the honor of the 2014-2015 Teacher of the Year award at Marshall Elementary.

Through her teaching career, Andrea gained experience in administration and student intervention programs. As the teacher in charge, she served as the facilitator of school reform initiatives and focused on driving schoolwide improvement. Andrea has a background in academic and behavioral intervention programs due to her roles as an Internal Behavior Coach and member of the Child Study Team. In these positions, Andrea played a vital role in analyzing student academic, behavioral, social, and emotional processes. These experiences, in addition to her certification in Courageous Conversations as a facilitator of racial equity, make Andrea an excellent resource for overall school district and student support.

In addition to her teaching background, Andrea brings two years of non-profit experience through Reading Partners as a Program Manager and Deputy Program Director. In this position, she worked closely with 24 Tulsa Public Schools and nearly 1400 community volunteers to serve 1500 students with individualized one-on-one reading instruction.

Andrea is the proud mother of her son who attends Jenks Public Schools. In her free time, you can find her at a variety of sporting events cheering him on.

Angel Webb joined Impact Tulsa as the Training and Evaluation Specialist in December of 2022 after working in nonprofit and education in Tulsa for the last 5 years. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Studies Education from the University of Oklahoma and she is completing a Master’s Degree in Human Relations at OU Tulsa..

Angel most recently worked as a pre-K teacher at B’nai Emunah Preschool, where she and her team emphasized social emotional learning, early literacy and social justice. She previously served two years as a Regional Site Coordinator with Reading Partners Tulsa where she supported her fellow AmeriCorps members and community volunteers in reading centers throughout Tulsa.

Tiffany Wyse is an operations professional with a background in the development of teams, organizational systems, processes, and strategies. Servant leadership is Tiffany’s cornerstone and a value that has been a constant in her life and heritage. Tiffany has worked in the for-profit, most recently in the aerostructures manufacturing sector, and an early-stage startup. Additionally, Tiffany recently launched her own business, That’s Wyse, LLC which currently focuses on individual, family, and small business tax preparation.
A graduate of Friends University (Wichita, KS), Tiffany completed her undergraduate studies in business administration with an emphasis on accounting and marketing. Tiffany obtained her MBA from Newman University (Wichita, KS) with a focus on supply chain management.

Tiffany’s first love and passion is volleyball. After competing in college, Tiffany spent eight years as a collegiate volleyball official with the Kansas Association of Volleyball Officials. She also coached volleyball for 20 years, including starting and operating her own club, Game On! Volleyball Club. Tiffany has been a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. since May 1998 and is currently active with the Tulsa chapter, serving at the state and regional levels. In 2020, Tiffany joined the Poetic Justice Tulsa board of directors as the Board Treasurer.

Tiffany has one daughter, Dominique, who lives and works in Chicago, IL, and a rambunctious dog, Deuce.