Our Staff
Raisa M. Andrzheychik, senior accountant, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2010, following eight years of work in corporate accounting positions. She earned a master's degree in accounting, analysis and audit from Belorussian State Economic University and a certificate in federal and advanced accounting from the USDA Graduate School. During her spare time, she enjoys travel, painting, books, movies and plays. She lives in Washington.
Bill Baird, director of corporate advertising, came to Inside Higher Ed with more than 20 years of marketing and media sales experience. He is the principal owner of SalesConcepts Associates, an independent media sales organization based in Southern California. He has served the education market most of this time where he managed business-to-business media sales for The Chronicle of Higher Education and Education Week. Prior to that, he spent time in New York handling consumer media sales for The Atlantic Monthly and Esquire. During his spare time, he enjoys working as a private college admissions counselor for high school athletes. Bill graduated from St. Lawrence University, where he received a bachelor's degree in English and economics. He resides in Westlake Village with his wife, Suzanne. His two children are attending the University of Pennsylvania.
Kathlene Collins, publisher, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. Kathlene spent 20 years in the recruitment advertising department of The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she became excited about the evolution of recruitment made possible by the Internet. She developed The Chronicle's recruitment site, winner of several industry awards for excellence. A regular speaker on recruiting issues at higher education and publishing industry conferences, Kathlene is a leading authority on recruiting in higher education. She grew up in suburban Washington, D.C., attended Montgomery College and Catholic University. She continues her higher education in one of Washington's longest-standing book groups (15 years, 150 books, and counting). Kathlene lives in Washington with her husband, David Lowenstein, and their 13-year old son, Jack.
Sarah Craft, marketing assistant, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2008. She recently graduated from Towson University with a degree in mass communications and public relations. Sarah is an Army brat and has lived all over the United States and spent three years in Germany as a child. In her spare time she loves watching college football, playing with her mini-dachshund, Chloe, going to the beach and spending time with her friends and family.
Jason Easley, advertising sales manager, joined Inside Higher Ed in January 2007. He graduated in 2000 from Shepherd University, where he majored in communications and played basketball on a scholarship. He previously worked at Hanley Wood as an account executive. In addition to playing basketball, Jason enjoys spending time with his daughter, Madison, live jazz, reading, and traveling to his home state of West Virginia. He currently resides in the Huntington area of Alexandria, Va.
Jennifer Epstein, reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed in August 2009. She graduated from Princeton University in 2008 with an A.B. in history but spent most of her time there working on The Daily Princetonian, where she was a reporter and, for a year, managing editor. She won several journalism awards during college and her senior thesis, “Slaves and Slavery at Princeton” won the C.O. Joline Prize for American History. Before arriving in Washington and at Inside Higher Ed, she spent a year following the presidential election and the new administration from New York for Time Magazine’s The Page, an around-the-clock political news site. She spent the summers during college reporting for Inside Higher Ed,The New York Times and The Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y.
Serena Golden, copy editor, joined Inside Higher Ed in July 2008. She has a B.A. in English from Reed College, but also attended Humboldt State University, American College Dublin, Houston Community College and College of the Redwoods. Her similarly diverse career background includes stints at a hedge fund, as a nanny, and one ill-fated month as a waitress, as well as an editorial internship at CQ Press. She shares a house in Washington with four friends.
Allie Grasgreen, editorial intern, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2010. She graduated from the University of Oregon in June with a B.S. in journalism and a minor in environmental studies. She covered higher ed for two years at the Oregon Daily Emerald before becoming managing editor and then editor in chief, and she interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2008. Allie enjoys HBO television series and "Mad Men," and wishes she had cable on which to watch them. Instead, she listens to the likes of Radiohead, The Beatles and The Black Keys, ideally on vinyl or while riding her trusty Huffy.
Lori Holtz, advertising associate, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2007. She is a recent graduate of The University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. While not busy exploring her new home, Lori can be found at her local coffee shop or eating burritos.
Scott Jaschik, editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Doug Lederman, he leads the editorial operations of Inside Higher Ed, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Scott is a leading voice on higher education issues, quoted regularly in publications nationwide, and publishing articles on colleges in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Salon, and elsewhere. He has been a judge or screener for the National Magazine Awards, the Online Journalism Awards, the Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, and the Education Writers Association Awards. Scott is a mentor in the community college fellowship program of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. From 1999-2003, Scott was editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Previously at The Chronicle, he held numerous other positions and his reporting work was honored by Investigative Reporters and Editors and The Washington Monthly. Scott grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from Cornell University in 1985. He lives in Washington.
Steve Kolowich, reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed in August 2009. He graduated in 2008 from Bowdoin College, where he earned an A.B. in political philosophy and co-edited the Bowdoin Orient. Shortly after returning from a 15,000-mile post-college road-trip, he interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education, which awarded him the David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists. He served a brief stint at the Global Security Newswire, but couldn't stay away from higher education reporting for long. Steve is a freelance music writer, and plays music in his apartment with his roommate way too loud, way too late. He likes Washington, but would like it better if it were in Maine.
Doug Lederman, editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings around the country, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, the Nieman Foundation Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. Before that, Doug had worked at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles, first as an athletics reporter and editor. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one in 2009 for a series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug lives with his wife, Sandy, and their two children in Bethesda, Md.
Laura McFarland, vice president of sales, came to Inside Higher Ed with more than 20 years experience in publishing and advertising. Most recently she was the business director for The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she managed the sales and marketing activities for recruitment advertising. Prior to that she spent 10 years handling advertising at Legal Times, an award-winning weekly owned by American Lawyer Media. She began her professional career by working in a number of advertising and marketing positions at obscure associations around the Washington area. Laura graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles and received her master's degree in marketing from the University of Maryland University College. She lives in Arlington, Va. with her husband, Dennis, and their two children, Annemarie and Timmy.
Scott McLemee, Essayist at Large, writes the Intellectual Affairs column. In 2004, the National Book Critics Circle honored Scott with its annual Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, for his work appearing in Bookforum, The Common Review, Newsday, and The Washington Post. He writes frequently for The American Prospect and The New York Times Book Review. From 2001-5, Scott wrote for the The Chronicle of Higher Education, covering developments in the humanities. His work included long features on scholarly trends and profiles of important figures. Previously he was a contributing editor for Lingua Franca. In 2000, the editors named "Invisible, Inc." (his article on Thomas Pynchon scholarship) one of the top 10 articles it had published over the previous 10 years. A broad selection of his work is available at his personal Web site. In 2008, he was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle. He lives in Washington with his wife, Rita Tehan, and their two cats.
David Moltz, reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed in June 2008 after graduating from the University of Virginia with a double major in English and music. At the university, he was editor of the arts & entertainment section and senior associate editor of the investigative reporting section at The Cavalier Daily. He was honored by the Virginia Press Association in 2005 for his music criticism and was named the paper’s “most outstanding writer” in 2008. In Charlottesville, he was a news intern and contributor for C-Ville Weekly. He also produced a live daily newscast and hosted a weekly rock-and-roll show for 91.1 WTJU-FM, a public radio station. He currently resides in Washington.
Rick Plotkin, senior account manager, joined Inside Higher Ed after a six-year stint at The Chronicle of Higher Education as an account manager in recruitment advertising. He comes to Inside Higher Ed as a former insider in higher education with eight years of experience in college admissions at George Washington University (M.A. '95, human resource development) and four years at Vanderbilt University (B.A. '86, economics). Rick has presented many sessions at a myriad of CUPA-HR regional conferences, as well as national conferences. Rick grew up in Silver Spring, Md. and now lives in Old Town Alexandria with his spouse, Marguerite Rippy, associate professor of English at Marymount University, his son, Merrill O'Neill and their dog, Hobi.
Juan Pablo Risso joined the tech team at Inside Higher Ed in June 2010. Juan’s love of computers, programming, and everything technology began as a child and blossomed into his career. In Argentina, he worked for several fast-paced Web developers. In 2009, he abandoned it all after meeting his wife-to-be. They traveled around South America before making their way to the Northern Hemisphere, where they got married. Juan has made D.C. his new home -- with his wife, Angie, and their new infant, Sebastian. When not programming or playing with his son, Juan enjoys beer, tech magazines, and rooting for Argentina’s soccer team.
Samantha Smith, advertising associate, joined Inside Higher Ed in 2008. She graduated from George Washington University in 2005 with a B.A. in English. While at George Washington, she spent a semester abroad in London, and continues to indulge her Anglophilia by reading Oscar Wilde and watching bad British sitcoms. Sam has previously worked in print advertising and public relations. She enjoys traveling, going to the zoo, dining al fresco, and political scandals. Sam is originally from Baltimore, and currently resides in Cleveland Park.
Jack Stripling, reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed after covering two sports-crazed universities in the Southeast. As a reporter for The Gainesville Sun and the Opelika-Auburn News, he wrote about the University of Florida and Auburn University, respectively. Jack's stories about the resignation of Auburn's president, and an ongoing governance battle at the university, made him a finalist for the Education Writers Association's top honor, the Fred M. Hechinger Prize. Jack holds a bachelor's degree in English from Florida State University and a master's in literature from Auburn. He digs Raymond Carver stories, Miles Davis, Wilco, The Beatles and Steely Dan. He hates beets.
Todd Thompson, recruiting account manager - Western sales, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2010. He spent the previous nine years in a variety of sales and business development positions, most recently in the staffing/recruiting field, working with a number of colleges and universities. Todd was raised in Orlando and graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in education. He enjoys boating on the Potomac, producing music and watching Gator football. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia.
Bill Trombley, community college account manager, joined Inside Higher Ed in September 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a communications, marketing and sales professional. He began his career in broadcasting, producing television programs for PBS and syndicating radio programs nationally for the Broadcast Equities Group. He spent the better part of his career in San Francisco, where he had a hand in launching two high tech public relations agencies, a heavy metal record label, and a publishing company specializing in fund raising for local communities. In 2005 he followed his lifelong passion for education and joined the admissions department for Gibbs College. Bill's interest in community colleges comes from experience. He credits Macomb Community College and Oakland Community College, both in Michigan, with teaching him the culinary arts and the classics, and the difference between a roux and shrew, respectively. Ohlone College, in California, set him on the path to the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, where he spent the next few years specializing in Asian Studies and the Chinese language. Bill grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich. and now lives in Bethesda, Md., where he is endlessly learning about being a dad to his four children and husband to his wife, Dara.
Mark Yucha, vice president of finance, came to Inside Higher Ed in 2005, with over 14 years of accounting and finance experience. He started his career in Philadelphia with KPMG Peat Marwick and moved to Inside Higher Ed after nearly nine years with NVR, a large national homebuilder and mortgage company, where he served in various financial capacities, most recently as a financial analyst specializing in business planning and technology issues. He graduated from the Pennsylvania State University, and lives in Washington.
