Staff
Allison Braley
Associate, Early Matters Dallas, Commit
Allison is a Texas native and has spent a good chunk of her life driving I-35 between her hometown of San Antonio and childhood stomping ground of DFW. During her time at UTSA, she found her passion for civic engagement and data-driven solutions while acting as a policy advisor for the Mayor’s Youth Council to address the school-to-prison pipeline in San Antonio school districts and across the state. From teaching Pre-K and kindergarten, to working with special populations, to supporting research and advocacy efforts across the state, Allison comes to Commit with several years of experience working in and with communities to identify problems, communicate data, and design and implement creative and effective solutions. Immediately before starting at Commit, Allison spent a year volunteering with the AmeriCorps VISTA program at Children at Risk, where she supported programmatic and legislative efforts to improve education, health, and quality of life for children across Texas. Outside of work, Allison has passions for her wife and family, their adorably scrappy dog Einstein, classical piano, reading, cooking, glitter, and Manchester United.
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Heather Bryant
Dean of Early Childhood Education and Early Learning, Dallas College
Heather Bryant brings over 30 years of experience in the field of early childhood education to her role as Dean of Early Childhood Education & Early Learning at Dallas College. Prior to Dallas College, Heather was the Director of Innovation and Impact at Momentous Institute, a non-profit organization in Dallas offering mental health and educational programming for marginalized children and families. Heather graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, and later earned her Masters of Education in Early Childhood Education from The University of North Texas. Heather is passionate about supporting the early childhood workforce as they seek to pursue higher education by removing barriers that have previously made degree attainment challenging.
Kate Greer
Managing Director, Policy & State Coalition, Commit
Kate grew up in Flower Mound, TX and is a proud product of the Lewisville Independent School District. After graduating from Flower Mound High School, Kate moved to Oklahoma to pursue her undergraduate degree. Prior to joining Commit, Kate reported on criminal justice and incarceration in Oklahoma for the local NPR affiliate, where her stories aired nationally on a regular basis. She also has extensive experience working in communications for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During her time at the state Capitol, Kate was frequently challenged to deeply understand any given policy’s implications at a grassroots’ level. After reporting on important legislative decisions as a journalist and working with lawmakers and stakeholders at the state level, Kate was empowered to move back home and do more to affect positive change for Texas children. She is guided by a strong conviction that access to quality education is key to successful and productive lives. She further believes excellent education is a right for all children, not a privilege for the lucky few. Kate received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
Kate Hoffman
Associate, Policy and Statewide Coalition, Commit
A Dallas native, Kate Hoffman is committed to developing policies and practices that support the creation of safe, resilience-promoting, and equitable spaces in education for children, families, and educators. This dedication stems from a variety of lived experiences in the education space during high school and college: working with children in emergency settings in Thailand, developing human rights curricula in rural Myanmar, running an after school program in Boston, and conducting original research on the perspectives of early childhood educators in California. As Kate reflects on all of her different international and domestic experiences, what unites them is her belief that education is the most fundamental human right. She deeply recognizes how education can be empowering, and, when carried out in a compassionate, caring, and responsible way, can positively change the trajectory of individuals' and families’ lives forever. Prior to Commit, Kate earned her teaching license through the Capital Teacher Residency program and taught in a Pre-Kindergarten classroom at a charter elementary school in Washington, D.C. Kate has also completed several internships and consulting projects in the education policy field and has volunteered as a policy team member for both a congressional (2018) and presidential (2020) campaign. Currently, she serves as Co-Chair for the Associate Board of UPchieve, an education-tech nonprofit seeking to democratize academic support. Kate graduated from Harvard University, earning her BA in Social Studies with a focus in International Development and Human Rights in Southeast Asia. She received her MA in International Education Policy Analysis from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
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Chelsea Jeffery
Managing Director, Early Matters Dallas, Commit
Chelsea is a native to Dallas County, growing up in Coppell, TX and graduating from Coppell High School. Chelsea chose to stay in Dallas and attend Southern Methodist University after being named a President’s Scholar and receiving a full-tuition merit-based scholarship. At SMU, Chelsea became passionate about education while completing research on Texas education policies her sophomore year. In 2012 she joined Teach for America as part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Corps where she taught Algebra, Geometry, and Math Models for two years at Dallas Can Academy, an alternative high school. Since leaving the classroom, Chelsea has been with Commit, where she’s worked on a variety of initiatives including data analysis, college access and success, 4th grade math and 3rd grade literacy learning networks, and now she currently works to increase access to high-quality Pre-K and child care across the DFW metroplex. Chelsea focuses on bringing together the birth to age 5 community around common strategies, leading the DFW Regional Pre-K Campaign, and supporting the child care community with innovative business models. Chelsea strongly believes that if we can set a strong academic, social, and emotional foundation in a child’s early years, many of the learning gaps that she saw as a high school teacher would be closed. Chelsea graduated from Southern Methodist University Magna Cum Laude with a B.B.A in Accounting. She is also a board member of The Community School of Park Cities, a non-profit child care center.
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Nicholy Johnson
Manager, Early Matters Dallas, Commit
Nicholy grew up in Baton Rouge, LA where her passion for education was sparked by her parents, both of whom were educators. Both came from very poor towns in North Louisiana, and education was the tool that paved the way for a better life. Nicholy’s parents instilled in her the value of an education and since that time, Nicholy has been passionate about ensuring that all young children, regardless of race or socio-economic status, have access to a quality education. Prior to joining the Commit Partnership, Nicholy worked as a PreK-2 Lead Instructional Specialist at DISD in the Early Learning Department where she helped PreK-2nd grade teachers in urban schools improve their instructional practices to increase child outcomes. She also worked at the Louisiana Department of Education for seventeen years where she helped to manage a statewide Pre-K program, worked with Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, served on a committee that was responsible for developing Louisiana’s first set of Birth-5 Standards, and worked on multiple initiatives that were centered around improving and increasing access to quality childcare programs. In addition, Nicholy taught kindergarten for seven years in East Baton Rouge Parish, so she will always be an early childhood educator at heart! Nicholy graduated from Southern University A&M College with a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and a M.Ed. in Elementary Education.
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Libby McCabe
Senior Policy Advisor, Commit
Libby McCabe has extensive experience as both an entrepreneur and an attorney. She was on the founding team of Axiom Law, a legal services company based in New York City serving primarily Fortune 500 clients. Prior to Axiom, she co-founded Vivre, a luxury catalog and online retailer. Before joining the Commit Partnership, Libby had a legal and consulting practice in New York City serving small and mid-sized companies. She began her legal career as a corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney at Baker Botts in New York. Libby is a director of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and was a member of the 2013 class of Leadership ISD. She is also a board member and chairs the governance committee of the GO Project, a New York City non-profit offering social and academic services to disadvantaged children struggling in school. She is a member of the Texas and New York bars. Libby graduated magna cum laude from both Duke University and Harvard Law School.
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