Our Team

Laura leads the development of best-in-class products to advance college and career readiness across the state of Texas. Prior to joining the UT Austin team, Laura completed her masters in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her research focused on access and success in higher education for traditionally underserved students and educational pathways for undocumented youth. Prior to this, Laura worked at KIPP Austin Public Schools designing and implementing programming to support students to and through college. Laura's parents told her she was allergic to chocolate until she was in seventh grade, when she ate a Hershey’s bar and nothing happened.

Laurence responds to support tickets, inquiries, and feedback from our users. He works with the product team to deliver the highest quality of support to all who utilize Texas OnCourse.
Laurence received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. After working with the Health and Human Services Commission, he began his career at University of Texas at Austin nearly five years ago. His first office was at the top of the UT Tower.

Jessica manages, supports, and executes the implementation of internal and external projects for Texas OnCourse. Jessica has 15+ years of extensive industry experience, predominantly in the educational learning industry. She is also actively involved in public service and community engagement in the city where she lives. Jessica enjoys world travel, fine wine, and a good workout.

Whitney works to ensure that all the digital products at Texas OnCourse are supporting the needs of students, counselors, and advisers in the pursuit of college and career readiness. Education has always been a big part of Whitney’s career, beginning with her time as a biology teacher. She later transitioned into online education tools. Helping build digital tools that can be shared with every school and every student is her passion. When she’s not playing with the Texas OnCourse tools, she’s outside playing with her goats and chickens.

Bill devises and implements a plan for growth and sustainability while overseeing the technology operations. After completing a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Park University, Bill started his career in the semiconductor industry working on leveraging high-performance computing to support the design and testing of processors. Later Bill got his master’s from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, allowing him to become more strategically focused on how to leverage technology to scale and sustain a business. Thanks to his kids, Bill has learned an impressive amount of Disney trivia.

Matt leads the research and evaluation efforts for Texas OnCourse. He earned his master’s degree in educational policy, organization, and leadership studies from Stanford University and his PhD in education policy and planning at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on ameliorating socioeconomic and racial disparities in students’ P–20 pathways and employment outcomes and has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Educational Policy. Matt is thankful he received good advising to stop pursuing a professional rap career, because he wasn’t as good as he thought. As a member of the Bahá’í Faith, he is guided by the belief that all members of the human family can contribute to the advancement of society if provided the opportunity to develop their latent capacities.

Willem manages research and development on all Texas OnCourse student-focused products. Willem completed his bachelor’s degree in marketing at Texas State University and earned his master of science in marketing from Texas A&M. He has worked in industries ranging from music to advertising but now finds joy helping students achieve their secondary and postsecondary goals. Willem loves designing and creating products that are both fun and educational. You can find him playing fetch with his dogs at the park or playing D&D at his local game shop.

Samantha helps maintain and consistently deliver best-in-class content. She primarily works with the Texas OnCourse Academy, editing content and keeping it up-to-date. After completing her bachelor’s degree in political science at Texas A&M University, Samantha interned for the Center for American Progress, where she published several articles for Generation Progress. Samantha followed the internship with nonprofit work in Houston for Advise TX and CollegeCommunityCareer, where she coached high school students through the college admission process and mentored them for success during college. She also holds master’s degree in public administration from the University of Texas at Arlington. Samantha believes that with Texas OnCourse, any student can be prepared for any opportunity. Following family tradition, she was named for a witch – in her case, the star of the seventies sitcom Bewitched.

Jaslyn manages a team of instructional designers, editors, and subject-matter experts to support our content development and curation process. She’s probably the only person you’ll ever meet who can precisely recall any set of numbers: bank cards, driver licenses, package tracking codes, etc.Prior to her work with Texas OnCourse, she served as the lead college/career coordinator for Richardson Independent School District, where she specialized in college access and helping students in 9th through 12th grade find a best-fit postsecondary option. Since graduating from Texas A&M University in College Station, where she earned her bachelor of science degree in finance, Jaslyn has worked with several school districts and higher education institutions. Through organizations like the National College Advising Corps and now with the University of Texas at Austin, she enjoys providing postsecondary training resources that will ultimately impact families throughout the state of Texas.

Lara works with districts across the state of Texas to implement Texas OnCourse resources at the secondary level.  She has a passion for supporting students, families, and educators develop effective college and career programs. Lara worked as a central office coordinator in Austin Independent School District and has been a high school counselor for over 10 years in Central Texas schools.  She has a master’s degree in education and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Ohio University. She is also a busy mom of one and can sometimes be found at an outdoor yoga class in Austin.

Jeff focuses on designing innovative and effective learning experiences. He completed a master’s degree from the University of Utah in educational psychology with an emphasis in instructional design and educational technology. During his time at Valor Hall Academy, Señor Jeff taught Spanish to students in grades 1–8 and learned the importance of helping them prepare for high school and beyond. Jeff spends a lot of his time explaining what instructional designers do, but he also enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and working on various DIY projects.

Alhaji leads the design, development, and administration of data warehouse and ETL processes related to the Texas OnCourse and OnRamps projects in the Office of Strategy and Policy. As part of the research and evaluation team, he helps to make data and reports easily accessible to end-users and stakeholders.

Alhaji holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in computer information systems from American College of Commerce and Technology, where he graduated as valedictorian. He is a Microsoft certified professional and a solution-oriented leader with demonstrated experience in research and data analytics. He is passionate about working with large amounts of data for universities and multilevel organizations. Alhaji’s a polyglot and a globetrotter who has traveled and lived around the world.

Shruti conducts quantitative research for the Office of Strategy and Policy. After completing a BA in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, Shruti joined the Office of Strategy and Policy as a project manager. Here, she was involved in communication and project management related to research projects. Shruti loves that she is involved in a program that works toward equal opportunities for all. In her free time, Shruti enjoys dancing and catching some Zzzs.

Allison leads marketing and communications efforts for Texas OnCourse, guiding strategy and execution of public relations, outreach, digital content, marketing collateral, and organizational messaging and branding, together with the marketing and communications staff.

With an approach rooted in community and audience engagement, Allison has over a decade of experience conceptualizing, developing, and implementing communications and marketing strategies. Prior to joining Texas OnCourse, Allison served as director of communications with Public Agenda, a  public policy research and stakeholder engagement organization. A former teacher and firm advocate for educator voice in policy, she is the coauthor of Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Teacher Evaluation Reform. Allison has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and anthropology from Tufts University. Allison has jumped out of a plane, but refuses to ride roller coasters.

Sandra reviews printed and online materials for Texas OnCourse, focusing on keeping them correct and consistent while expressing diverse voices. She also loves to talk writing and editing. Sandra earned a master of fine arts in writing from the University of Texas at Austin's Michener Center for Writers and went on to complete an editorial fellowship at University of Texas Press. She’s been writing and editing professionally since 2003, so her nose can usually be found in a book – often one she’s editing or indexing. A dog person and one-and-done Ironman, Sandra would give the Sorting Hat trouble deciding between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

Katie manages our web, email, and social media content. After completing a bachelor’s degree in political science at Tulane University, Katie sought a career in education nonprofits. While serving as a college access coach with College Forward, she taught an after-school program for high school students who would be the first in their families to attend college. Katie loves our financial aid training modules, because she feels it’s the exact information she would have loved in the classroom. You can catch her most weekends performing improv comedy.

Kathy manages the Texas OnCourse Leader Fellows program, a network of experienced counselors and advisers supporting the implementation of our college and career advising resources. Kathy earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Baylor University before serving as a team leader in the AmeriCorps program City Year San Antonio. Kathy then attended St. Mary’s University, where she earned her master’s degree in public administration and her juris doctor degree. Before joining Texas OnCourse, Kathy managed a college readiness program with Austin Partners in Education and served as a program specialist in developmental education for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. As a first-generation college graduate, Kathy loves being part of initiative to empower students, parents, and educators with information on postsecondary preparedness. In her off time, Kathy leads youth creative writing workshops with Austin Bat Cave.