The EdStarter Team
The EdStarter team joined together at the Kellogg School of Management after realizing their shared passion for and experience with education and economic justice. With diverse, personal backgrounds in the fields of teaching, higher education, technology, economic justice, financial services and strategic development, our founders have seen firsthand the importance of ensuring opportunities exist for those who have been incarcerated.
Ashley Abraham
Ashley is the VP of Student Development, managing EdStarter's student interactions. Ashley is a former public school teacher, Teach for America alumnus, and Congressional education policy analyst. She brings a broad array of hands-on education expertise, including working with incarcerated students.
Sam Gersten
Sam is the CEO and VP of Strategy, managing the strategy and resources of the organization. Sam previously worked as a strategist to the President of the University of California system and in the Chief Strategy Office at Cisco. He started his career as a management consultant for Fortune 100 financial services companies, at Strategy& PwC.
Kirithigaa Kalaivanan
Kiri is the VP of Partnerships, heading prison and corporate relationships. She previously led reform efforts in education systems through the Central Square Foundation in India and worked as an investment banker for Barclays.
Kunal Pasrija
Kunal is the VP of Product and Engineering. He brings a broad array of Silicon Valley product expertise from his experiences at Uber, LinkedIn and Apple, including launching and scaling Uber Eats in the United States. Kunal also brings post-incarceration hiring experience, as he formed a program at Wonolo for formerly-incarcerated folks to work in gig economy roles.
Josh Nathan
Josh is the VP of Learning Technology, leading skills training for EdStarter. Josh brings learning expertise, having previously worked with Teach for America and Bridge International Academies. Josh also provides important legal acumen as he is currently pursuing a joint JD/MBA degree at Northwestern.
Baba Oladosu
Baba is the VP of Finance and Operations. Baba brings in essential operational and entrepreneurial experience having co-founded an organization that supports students to transition into the workforce in Africa. He also has extensive experience in financial services, having worked at PwC, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft.
Our Advisors
The EdStarter team is lucky to have a group of dedicated advisors with decades of experience in tackling pressing issues across education, incarceration and technology.
Andres Idarraga
Co-Founder & CEO, TTEF
Andres Idarraga is a co-founder and CEO of TTEF, a foundation democratizing access to higher education. Apart from his numerous professional achievements and academic degrees from Brown, Yale and Northwestern, Andres brings an important personal perspective, as he was previously incarcerated for over 6 years.
