Hank Alexander is a partner with Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP. He is Chair of the Firm’s Tax Practice Group, where he works extensively in the federal income and corporate tax areas. Hank earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Cincinnati, and he has been named a Cincy Leading Lawyer from 2008-2015. An avid trombonist since grade school, Hank enjoys seeing how combining math and music offers kids a chance to work together and create a polished stream of sound. With an extensive background in advising tax-exempt organizations, Hank joined PIE because he “has a keen sense of the good feeling that comes with being part of something larger than himself.”
John Abner is former Executive Director of Cengage Learning, a content design and development organization. John earned both his B.S. and M.A. in History from Indiana State University. For the past 20 years, he has worked to provide both national and global leadership in overseeing higher education product development and new process ideation. He spearheaded metadata standards development in alignment with higher education accreditation guidelines supporting analytics generation and assessment benchmarks. “I love the challenges students experience as they are presented with an open-ended case. There aren’t any easy answers to these PIE cases: it’s a real life scenario that business and community leaders asked out students to solve. This allows students to think, process the quantitative data, develop solutions and present their ideas to executive mentors. We don’t have enough content that drives this “active learning” process pivotal for success in the 21st century workplace. I’m so excited to join an organization that is using this method in the K-12 classroom.”
Dorothy Battle is an Academic Researcher with the University of Cincinnati Kettering Foundation, where her research focuses on local level democracy. Dorothy earned her B.A. and M.Ed. in History and Secondary Educational Administration from Xavier University, and her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Miami University. A former high school principal with Cincinnati Public Schools, Dorothy is an active volunteer board member of High Schools That Work (HSTW) Southwest Ohio. Dorothy was one of the charter board members and became involved in the earliest stages because she saw “PIE as an innovative means for using a combination of resources to create authentic learning opportunities that focus on technology, critical thinking and problem solving.”
The Development Director for Tender Mercies, Jackie Baumgartner specializes in grant-writing, fundraising, and developing annual reports for non-profit organizations. An active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Jackie received her B.S.B.A. from the University of Delaware with a concentration in marketing. She is an active volunteer in the community, including working with St. Mary Church, Healthy Roots Foundation and the Madisonville Education and Assistance Center (MEAC). “I was drawn to PIE because it was an opportunity to further my professional skills, learn something new and be a part of a unique program to help shape the future of education,” Jackie comments.