Staff

The fundamental goal of the company is to produce the high quality of work that can lead to fundamental improvements in education — and recognition of the need for universal high-quality education and the elements necessary to create that quality — through conscientious work that adds value to the efforts of our clients. High quality in our own work begins with the talents, interests, and capabilities of the CW staff.

Our staff and consultants include directors of nonprofit organizations; advocates who have led state and national initiatives; award-winning editors, writers, and designers; and media strategists. We also work in close partnership with some of the nation's leading polling, video, marketing, advertising, and policy shops.

Dakarai I. Aarons
Director, Education Outreach and Policy

Dakarai I. Aarons, director of education outreach and policy, manages key projects focused on urban education, school leadership, school improvement and policy change in K-12 education, and on work involving student access and success in postsecondary education. Prior to joining CW, Dakarai worked as a staff writer for Education Week, where he reported on local school districts, as well as education business, leadership and management issues. He covered local and state education at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. before joining Education Week, and his work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Des Moines Register and The Dallas Morning News, among other publications.

An award-winning former journalist, Dakarai serves as a board member of the National Education Writers Association and is a former committee chairman of the National Association of Black Journalists. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in journalism and has received awards for his work from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Tennessee Press Association.

Mary-Mack Callahan
Chief Operating Officer

Mary-Mack Callahan, chief operating officer, oversees all CommunicationWorks operations and manages projects focused on higher education, research, philanthropy, and nonprofit management. Mary is the former managing director of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, where she was an adviser to dozens of foundations and hundreds of private colleges for more than a decade. She has managed foundation grants in community development; faculty roles and rewards; and efforts to encourage colleges to play a stronger role in developing the skills of youth in poor, urban, and rural communities. She has been a participant in Grantmakers for Education and other philanthropic groups. Mary has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Swarthmore College.

Scott Cech
Director of Education Projects

Scott Cech has led a broad array of projects, including coalition management for the Wallace Foundation’s leadership initiative, message development for the Council of the Great City Schools, publication development and outreach for Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Pathways to Prosperity Project. He also oversaw the release of and event for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’s landmark Blue Ribbon Panel report on transforming teacher education. Cech, who has ghostwritten and substantively edited commentary pieces published in Education Week and on the front page of The Huffington Post, joined CommunicationWorks after a decade of editing and reporting K-12 and higher education articles.


At Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week, Cech oversaw content development for high-level conferences and online events about crucial issues in the field, securing such leaders as Joel Klein, Rudy Crew, and others as speakers. He was previously the executive editor of Teacher Magazine when it won an Azbee Award of Excellence Honorable Mention in contention for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Press Editors. The magazine was also honored with a third nomination for a National Magazine Award while he was its managing editor. He served as an associate editor for Education Week, covering higher education and assessment, among other issues, and was the lead reporter for the 2008 edition of Diplomas Count. He was also the editor of Community College Week, the night editor for Hearst Newspapers’ Washington bureau, and a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and other daily newspapers. His work has appeared in The San Francisco Examiner, The Rocky Mountain News, The San Antonio Express-News, and in many other publications. Cech is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and earned a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Shaina Cook
Associate

Shaina Cook, associate, has experience in communications, public relations, marketing, and event management.  Prior to joining CommunicationWorks, she was a public relations and event management intern at Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications in Falls Church, VA.  She also interned in the public relations department at Merlot Marketing in Sacramento, CA.  Throughout her college career, Shaina worked in the administrative dean's office, was a research assistant in the Communication department, and served as a student director for BloodSource blood drives on her college campus.  She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where she earned a B.A. in Communication with minors in English and Political Science.

Kelly Davis
Associate

Kelly Davis, associate, has experience in public relations, event planning, social media, marketing, media training and communications. Prior to joining CommunicationWorks, she was a public relations account coordinator at The Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, Fla., where she planned press trips, garnered media coverage and coordinated promotional opportunities for clients such as Florida Prepaid College Plans, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino, and more. Throughout her college career, Kelly interned with Alpha PRoductions, where her team earned the Florida Public Relations Association Grand Image Award for The Gator Nation Campaign. She also interned at the YMCA of Florida’s First Coast, Shands Healthcare and Gainesville Regional Utilities. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned a B.S. in Public Relations with concentrations in Event Management and Business Management.

Kari Hudnell
Media Manager

Kari Hudnell, media manager, manages staff, projects, and budgets for many of the largest and longest-running clients; develops and implements strategic media, communications, and marketing plans; oversees and conducts national and regional media outreach and monitoring activities; writes, edits, and distributes media materials, including advisories, news releases, op-eds, talking points, backgrounders, electronic postcards, and media reports; and oversees and assists with editing, writing, and designing reports and identity materials.

Hudnell was a crucial leader of the award-winning National Assessment Governing Board media team and has directed media outreach efforts for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the National Staff Development Council, the Delta Cost Project, and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's Measuring Up 2008.

Hudnell serves on the board of directors of Washington Women in Public Relations and brings prior experience with market analysis, campaign development, new media, Web content development, and graphic design to the firm. She received her degree in Public Communications and Political Science from American University.

Janette Kiehn
Administrative Associate

Janette Kiehn, administrative associate, brings a variety of skills to CommunicationWorks after serving more than 15 years as an office manager for a California-based nonprofit accounting firm. She feels at home at CW because of the staff's unrelenting commitment to improving the quality of education, and because it measures up to her previous employers’ commitment to improving the fiscal health of nonprofit organizations. Janette has been a real estate agent, a FedEx specialist, and has worked in various capacities within U.S. Job Corps. She also has participated within the social justice community in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years. Her involvement in the social services arena included juvenile justice, which sparked her interest in quality education, especially for disadvantaged families. Janette graduated from Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. with degrees in social work, adolescent psychology, and history. She is the parent of a son who is studying theater at Seattle University.

Angus Paul
Editor

Angus Paul, editor, has edited numerous national reports for clients on education and civil rights issues. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College, he has taught school, reported for The Chronicle of Higher Education (his beat was the research produced by college and university scholars), and edited George Washington University's alumni magazine.

Sheppard Ranbom
President

Sheppard Ranbom is founder and president of CommunicationWorks, L.L.C. In leading the firm since 1996,  Ranbom has focused on increasing the visibility and power of ideas and institutions through leveraging research, the media, issue-driven campaigns, grassroots advocacy initiatives, and marketing techniques. He has helped launch new nonprofit organizations and revitalize the image of well-established institutions. His clients have included many of the nation’s leading foundations, corporations, education nonprofits, and research institutions, such as Achieve, Inc.; Center for Education Policy; Educational Testing Service; IBM; Intel; Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; National Geographic Society Education Foundation; National Center on Public Policy in Higher Education; President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities; Teachers College, Columbia University; and the U.S. Department of Education.

A former staff writer for Education Week who also edited a weekly education news syndicate for daily newspapers and publications for higher education officials, he has written or edited numerous reports in education issues. An award winning writer and strategist, Ranbom also has written or edited dozens of authoritative reports on education and civil rights issues. He is the author of King Philip’s War (Settlement House, 2008) and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colgate University.

Susan Ruberry
Finance and Administration Director

Susan Ruberry, finance and administration director, joined CommuncationWorks with extensive experience in accounting, financial, and operations management, financial reporting, budgeting, project management, and facilities management. Recently she served as Chief Executive Officer for a promotional marketing trade association, where she was responsible for managing the relationships between several constituent groups including members, supplier partners, and operational vendors. Also, she served as Chief Financial Officer for a privately held promotional marketing company in Richmond, VA. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond and a Certified Public Accountant.