Our Team

Ruthanne Buck is an education expert, organizational leader and strategic operative with extensive experience in the political and non-profit sectors. Ruthanne formed SquadBuck in 2017 and since has been fortunate to work alongside this brilliant and joyful team. From 2012 through 2016, Ruthanne served as a Senior Adviser to the U.S. Secretaries of Education John King and Arne Duncan, appointed by President Barack Obama. Prior to joining the Department, Ruthanne was Assistant to the President for Special Projects and National Field Director at the American Federation of Teachers. In 2021, Ruthanne served as an education advisor on President Joe Biden’s transition team, and in 2022 co-founded the Campaign for Our Shared Future. 

Ruthanne began her career in 2001 at the Democratic National Committee working on women's and LGBTQIA+ issues. She has led major field and political operations on behalf of progressive issues, agencies and candidates, with a particular focus on education. Ruthanne is passionate about the rights of all humans to live free, safe and proud. She was raised in Alexandria, Louisiana; educated at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts; and lives in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Emily Davis is an outreach and engagement expert who specializes in strategic partnerships and education advocacy efforts. She joined SquadBuck in 2017 to continue to directly serve individuals and organizations who are making a real difference in their communities. She served as a Special Assistant for teacher leadership to U.S. Secretaries of Education John King and Arne Duncan. In this capacity, she led national educator outreach efforts, teacher leadership initiatives, digital campaigns and partnerships with national education organizations. 

Emily began her career as a public school teacher and taught English as a Second Language and Spanish for 10 years. She grew up in Elmira, New York, received a bachelor's degree from LeMoyne College and holds a Master in Educational Leadership from Pepperdine University. She currently resides in St. Augustine, Florida.

Lori Kolb has been working in education and non-profits for more than 15 years, with experience in communications, development, and project management. Before joining SquadBuck, Lori worked in New York as a generalist at a teacher voice advocacy non-profit, was general manager and curriculum writer in London, UK, and worked in the Head of School’s Office at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. 

Lori’s first jobs were in the hospitality industry and she continues to approach all jobs as service jobs and all work as people work. Lori studied writing at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and has a Master of Science in International Education from the University of Oxford. She currently lives in Philadelphia.

April has a lengthy background in finance and management and is currently studying Health Information Management. April joined SquadBuck in May of 2017 as our administrative scheduler. As a mother, and a student herself, April believes in the power of quality education and feels privileged to work with a team that strives to improve the system for teachers. Her primary role is to maintain the schedule for SquadBuck, keeping the team and their clients connected. 

Ebony Chisholm has spent the last decade committed to telling the stories of the people who feel voiceless and the organizations who support them. Ebony began her career as a reporter for the New Haven Register in New Haven, Connecticut. While there, she covered the municipalities of Guilford, Madison, Hamden and North Haven. It was while she was working as a reporter that Ebony realized she was passionate about telling the stories of the underdog, those who felt like their voice did not matter, as well as shedding light on non-profit organizations supporting their communities.  

Over the last eight years, Ebony has worked in non-profit education reform for a number of organizations supporting them in their Communications work. Ebony lives in Connecticut with her husband, two year old son, and their adopted, one-paw missing dog, Lady.

Rebecca E. Heiser loves to design solutions to complex problems through creativity and data analysis. She is a doctoral student at Athabasca University, North America's first open university, studying quality dimensions and output indicators supporting internationalization efforts in open, online and distance education. 

Rebecca serves as the Interviews Editor for The American Journal of Distance Education, participates in the learning analytics research cohort with Oregon State University's Campus Research Unit, and acts as an OER Fellow with the Open Education Group. Drawing from over 15 years of experience in eLearning, learning design and professional development, she has worked across contexts including K12, non-profit, corporate, higher education and governmental agencies to support lifelong learning through online and blended learning modalities. Rebecca earned her master's degree in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University and utilizes research and evaluation approaches to support continuous improvement efforts to inform policy, practice and research.

Juan Pablo joined SquadBuck in 2022 and is deeply passionate about educational innovation, equity and accesss. He has been in education for the last ten years with experience in K-12, HigherEd, adult learning, AR/VR Ed-tech, immigration and early childhood education. Juan Pablo served as an elementary and middle school teacher in inner city Los Angeles for several years and taught high school near Barcelona, Spain. 

Prior to earning his Masters degree in Leadership, Organizations and Entreprenuership from Harvard in 2022, he helped develop a program to stop recidivism of incarcerated fathers and their families with the Boston Celtics, served as a board member for the UCLA Transfer Student Alumni Association and mentored undocumented foster home youth in Downtown Los Angeles. Juan Pablo transferred from community college and was also a student-athlete for UCLA and Harvard Mens Rugby Teams. He graduated with a BA in Spanish and BA in Spanish Community and Culture from UCLA in 2015.