Aim Hire
2025

Jim Tressel, Ohio’s Lt. Governor since February 2025, is a longtime leader in education and workforce development. He previously served as president of Youngstown State University, where he oversaw major improvements in student success and campus growth. A former executive at the University of Akron and a proud graduate of Baldwin-Wallace and the University of Akron, Tressel brings decades of experience guiding young people toward opportunity—including a distinguished coaching career that included national championships at both Youngstown State and The Ohio State University.

Mike Duffey was appointed by Governor Mike DeWine the eleventh Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) in January 2024. As Chancellor, he oversees the state’s two-year and four-year colleges and universities and Ohio Technical Centers. In addition, the Chancellor provides policy guidance to the Governor and the Ohio General Assembly and carries out state higher education policy.

Prior to being named Chancellor, Mike Duffey served ODHE as Senior Vice Chancellor for five years, collaboratively working on policy proposals for the administration, including tuition guarantees, transcript release, student debt relief, short-term credentials, Ohio’s new merit scholarship, increases to need-based aid, and support for innovation and technology commercialization, among other topics.

Kevin Duff is the Executive Vice President of Ohio Excels, where he leads the organization’s work related to policy, advocacy, research, special projects, and operations. Kevin's career has been guided by a single north star: All students should be prepared for success after they graduate.

Before joining Ohio Excels, Kevin was a consultant and senior analyst with Education First Consulting from 2015 to 2018. In that role, he led project teams conducting research, provided direct support to education policymakers in seven states, and developed high-profile guidance on federal policies and stakeholder engagement.

Before Education First Consulting, Kevin served in the Ohio Department of Education (now called the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce). Starting as an intern in 2008, he rose to the position of senior policy analyst for his final three years. Kevin worked with policymakers to create and implement of a wide range of major policy initiatives, including Ohio’s graduation requirements, academic standards, assessments, report cards and accountability, the third grade reading guarantee, and school improvement efforts.

Kevin earned his Master of Public Administration from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Ohio State University. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Cassandra Palsgrove is the Director of K-12 Education Policy at Ohio Excels. She is dedicated to public policy development, state advocacy, and research efforts at the critical intersection of education and workforce development with the goal of improving educational outcomes for all K-12 Ohio students.

Cassie brings more than 15 years of experience in education, most recently with the Ohio Department of Education where she led the Office of Graduate Success. In this role, she focused on projects that engage stakeholders and partners from higher education, business & industry, workforce and other state agencies to help support school and district leaders to develop and implement systemic K-12 strategies to help students consider their post-high school paths and ensure they are well prepared to pursue them. The Office of Graduate Success team coordinates efforts to support schools in systemic K-12 career advising, graduation requirements, early career & college programming and business-education partnerships.

As a classroom agriculture educator prior to her work at the Ohio Department of Education, she engaged students in meaningful experiential learning and career exploration opportunities. Cassie holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Agriculture and a Masters of Arts in Educational Administration from the Ohio State University.

Senator Kyle Koehler is serving his first term in the Ohio Senate. He serves the people of the 10th Senate District which encompasses Clark, Greene, and Clinton Counties.

Senator Koehler served eight years in the Ohio House of Representatives from 2015 to 2022and served as Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee for four years. During that time, then Representative Koehler worked on and passed numerous laws including the reform of Payday Lending (HB123 of the 132nd GA) and the reform of Occupational Licensing (HB263 of the 133rd GA).

During the 136th General Assembly, Senator Koehler is serving as Chair of the Senate Workforce Development Committee, Vice Chair of both the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee and Sunset Review Committee, as well as a member of the Education, Higher Education, and Local Government committees.

Bride Rose Sweeney is a four-term Democratic member of the Ohio House of Representatives for Western Cuyahoga County, serving as Ranking Member of the Ohio House Finance Committee and the lead Democratic sponsor of the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan that became law on July 1, 2021. When she was elected in November 2018, Bride became the first woman ever to represent her district at the Statehouse and the youngest Democratic member of the 133rd Ohio General Assembly.

For the last seven years, Representative Bride Rose Sweeney has served the working people of the Westside of Cleveland with distinction. Sweeney is committed to finding real solutions to the problems we face, not finding more ways to divide us. She has had success, passing nine bills in six years as Democrat in a Republican supermajority legislature. Some of those bills include legislation to ensure prompt pay of workers, protection for nurses being forced into excessive overtime, and a reform to make it easier for our students to transfer college credits between schools, helping our kids earn a degree and incur less student debt. Representative Sweeney was selected by Cleveland.com as its "Democratic Rising Star" for five consecutive years and was recently named “Most Bipartisan Lawmaker” in 2023. She has also been recognized as one of Ohio’s top lawmakers, receiving awards for her legislative work from a variety of organizations including the Greater Cleveland Council on Small Enterprises, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP), the Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, and the Ohio Election Officials Association.

Representative Sweeney is determined to use her legislative experience to do the real and challenging work of state government. Two different Minority Leaders selected her to lead the powerful Ohio House Finance Committee, which crafts our $90 billion operating budget. She also serves as our fiscal watchdog on the State Controlling Board, overseeing millions in state contracts.

As the lead sponsor of the Fair School Funding Plan, Representative Sweeney built on a five-year bipartisan effort and succeeded in finally overhauling Ohio’s broken and unconstitutional school funding formula. Once it is fully funded, the plan will provide nearly $2 billion for public education and job training. This is a historic step toward putting the needs of our children first and reducing the state’s over-reliance on property taxes that hurts our seniors the most.

From her time at the Statehouse, Representative Sweeney understands that working together is the best way to deliver for working people and families. Serving different parts of the state has given her a unique perspective on the different challenges facing urban, suburban, and rural communities. As a result, she is committed to offering excellent constituent service and to passing innovative, community-driven legislation that creates good-paying jobs and ensures an affordable, quality education for every Ohioan regardless of where they live.

Bride is named after her Irish-American grandmother Bride Ann Sweeney. She attended Saint Joseph Academy and then John Carroll University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts and studied political science, business, and leadership. After college, Bride joined Ohio’s Legislative Service Commission Fellowship, a competitive public service program that prepares the state’s next generation of leaders. Before her election to the Ohio House, she worked in a variety of roles in the Ohio Senate, including as a senior advisor to the Minority Leader and a legislative aide to Senator Lou Gentile, an Appalachian Democrat.