Reading Partners CEO and leadership

Susan Slater is an Interim Chief Executive Officer at Reading Partners; Chief Regional Operations Officer at Reading Partners; and Communications Consultant at JONATH & DIMEO, INC and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked as Executive Director, Northeast Region at Jumpstart; Site Manager at Jumpstart; and Chief Program Officer at Jumpstart. Susan attended Tufts University between 2002 and 2004 and McDaniel College Budapest between 1998 and 2002.

Since July 2011, Dean has guided Reading Partners’ curriculum, program development, and evidence-based practices, including the design and oversight of pilot programs as well as internal and external evaluations. He is committed to improving the lives of children in under-resourced neighborhoods, and for the past 21 years has held various roles in nonprofit leadership, program development and evaluation, and K-12 data analysis and policy. He is a Board member of the OMNI Institute in Denver, and has past experience in advisory roles for nonprofit and city-wide data and evaluation boards in Massachusetts. Dean has a joint MA degree from Tufts University in child development and urban & environmental policy and a BA degree in political science from Duke University.

Karen joined Reading Partners in 2015. She served as the senior executive director for the Washington, DC region prior to joining the national team as the chief development officer. She brings over 15 years of experience leading high-performing teams in the nonprofit sector, driven by the desire to create educational equity for students. Early in her career, she was a teacher and served as an AmeriCorps member in Washington, DC with Higher Achievement, an academic enrichment program for middle school students. She stayed with Higher Achievement for five years after her AmeriCorps term as the organization prepared for national expansion. Most notably, she created Higher Achievement’s volunteer management department from the ground up and co-authored the organization’s signature culture policy.

Before joining Reading Partners, Karen served as a program manager at Family Services of Western PA, where she was responsible for leading her teams to exceed statewide service-delivery goals and secured major, multi-year funding for the organization. Additionally, she managed a consulting practice for nonprofit and government entities, working primarily to develop systems for volunteer management, training, and HR management. Karen has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s in business administration from The George Washington University with concentrations in organizational development and nonprofit management. She is a volunteer reading partner and a former advisory board member for Higher Achievement.

Kelli Doss, a talent specialist and a professional coach, has spent her career focused on serving youth, communities, and urban education systems in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Prior to joining Reading Partners, Kelli served as chief talent and equity officer for iMentor. In her role, she developed key organizational strategies focusing on performance management, internal talent recruitment, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and organizational culture building. Kelli leverages her professional experiences to help individuals refine and develop their leadership competencies and management practices and supports teams to improve interpersonal dynamics and build interrelational trust.

Kelli received her undergraduate degree from Howard University and her J.D. from Tulane Law School. Following law school, Kelli worked as a law clerk for two years in Minneapolis, where she focused on tackling critical community issues. She launched her nonprofit career with the Children’s Defense Fund and developed and managed youth programs for the National Black Child Development Institute and the Harlem Community Justice Center. After that, Kelli honed her skills in recruitment and selection, human resources, and partnership development in education organizations including New Leaders for New Schools and the NYC Department of Education. Kelli also worked for Education Pioneers as the managing director of the New York/New Jersey office and subsequently vice president of human assets.

As a senior executive with experience and a positive track record working in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, Phillip M. Robinson, Jr. has always had a passion for service. As the chief impact officer, Phillip is responsible for coaching, supporting, and managing all regional executive directors; overseeing more than 400 site and national operations staff; and building external partnerships and business development opportunities. Prior to his current role, Phillip served as the managing director and chief operating officer for Education Board Partners. In this role, Phillip was responsible for operations, strategy development, and leading the team in developing and delivering programs.

Previously, Phillip served as the senior vice president of regional and site operations at City Year, Inc. In this capacity, Phillip oversaw all aspects of operations for 28 U.S. sites, including five regional vice presidents, more than 700 site staff, 3,000 AmeriCorps members and a total budget of $168 million. Prior to joining the national senior leadership team, Phillip was the executive director and vice president of City Year Cleveland. Under his leadership, City Year Cleveland underwent a complete turnaround, doubling its revenue, growing its operations by more than 20 percent, and winning Best of City Year three years in a row. Early in his career, Phillip served as a legislative aide for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and then as an executive for several Fortune 500 marketing and public affairs firms.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Phillip currently serves as a state representative (House District 6) in the Ohio House of Representatives. In this capacity, Phillip serves as the ranking member on the education committee and sponsored legislation to help create jobs that was signed into law in his first term. Phillip earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from The George Washington University and his Executive MBA from Case Western Reserve University.