American Council Of Trustees and Alumni

Anne D. Neal, President

Ms. Neal co-founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and has been president since 2003.

For over 15 years, Ms. Neal has been a prominent national player in higher education reform, publishing widely and appearing frequently on radio and television, including Fox Business News, CNN, Fox News, WGN, and National Public Radio. She has authored or co-authored numerous ACTA studies on historical illiteracy, federal accreditation, governance, intellectual pluralism, and cost, and contributed chapters to Reforming the Politically Correct University (AEI Press, 2009) and Accountability in American Higher Education (Palgrave MacMillan, 2010). She has also convened higher education conferences under the auspices of the Philanthropy Roundtable. In 2007, and again in 2010, Ms. Neal was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity which advises the U.S. Secretary of Education on federal accreditation.

Ms. Neal has provided expert testimony before the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Commission, the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and in many state capitals, and presented at conferences sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the University of Notre Dame, the Foreign Policy Association, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Montana State University, the American Association of University Professors, and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Prior to joining ACTA, Ms. Neal served as General Counsel and Congressional Liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also worked as a First Amendment and communications lawyer for Rogers & Wells and Wiley, Rein & Fielding.

Ms. Neal graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in American history and literature. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School where she was president of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. She has served on the boards of many cultural and civic organizations, and currently is a director of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and Casey Trees.

Michael B. Poliakoff, Vice President of Policy

Dr. Poliakoff became part of the ACTA team in March 2010. He oversees ACTA’s programming and publications and works directly with our constituents on behalf of higher education reform. He previously served as vice president for academic affairs and research at the University of Colorado and in senior roles at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the American Academy for Liberal Education, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

He has taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Hillsdale College, the University ofIllinois at Chicago, and Wellesley College. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and went on to study at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in classical studies. He has been a junior fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, and his research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and the Alexander Von Humboldt Siftung. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles in classical studies and education policy and has received the American Philological Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Distinguished Service to Education Award.

Lauri Kempson, Vice President of Operations

Ms. Kempson has been with ACTA for over a decade and oversees all administrative aspects of our day-to-day operations. She also designs and oversees production of ACTA's publications. Prior to joining the organization, she owned a desktop publishing company in Los Angeles. She has also been involved in K-12 school governance for over 20 years. She served on the governing boards of Ivanhoe Elementary School and All Children Great and Small in L.A., and she currently is active on the Learning and Assessment Committee for a Northern Virginia high school. She has worked with local government and community organizations on issues of neighborhood safety and outreach. She has edited and written technical manuals for Merrill Lynch in New York City, and performed on stage and film in New York, Los Angeles, and London. She has a B.F.A. in Theatre with a concentration in English from Stephens College.

Brianna J. Estrada, Director of Development

Ms. Estrada joined ACTA in 2010 and is responsible for development, fundraising, and assisting the president. She directs ACTA’s foundation grant proposals, donor relations, and direct mail program. Before joining ACTA she participated in the Charles G. Koch Institute’s Associate Program; assisted in donor identification for The Humane Society and The Clapham Group; coached the policy debate team for Patrick Henry College; interned in advocacy and communications at Open Doors USA; and worked as a corporate scheduler at Control Solutions International in her native New Hampshire. Ms. Estrada holds a B.A. in literature and writing from Patrick Henry College where she graduated summa cum laude. She also received national recognition for the top written brief in moot court, sat on the board for the Eden Troupe drama society, and mentored college students at her alma mater.

Daniel Burnett, Press Secretary

Mr. Burnett joins ACTA after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in college, Burnett served as editor-in-chief of the daily student newspaper, represented the Grady College of Journalism as a Grady Ambassador, and was chosen by faculty to be a McGill Fellow. He has been commended by the Atlanta Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. In 2010, he spent time in Israel to take a closer look at journalism practices in Middle Eastern societies and studied the art of communication in-depth during a study abroad in Paris. He also worked as a writer for AOL's Patch.com, where he covered local school boards, city government, and breaking news. In his free time, Burnett enjoys listening to Billy Joel music, studying history, scouring the city for a decent falafel restaurant, and reading every newspaper he can get his ink-stained hands on.

Armand Alacbay, Program Officer

Mr. Alacbay is responsible for trustee and government relations related projects, and participates in the Charles G. Koch Institute’s Associate Program. Prior to joining ACTA, he worked in private practice as a trial attorney and later managed an educational services startup company. Mr. Alacbay received a B.A. in Economics and English from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. He is currently the president of the alumni association for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. His interests include ice hockey and amateur screenwriting.

Tom Bako, Program Officer

Mr. Bako is responsible for research and the upkeep of our college-guide website, WhatWillTheyLearn.com, and coordinates our internship and summer fellowship programs. Prior to joining ACTA, he served as a research intern at the Heritage Foundation and as a student academic adviser at Towson University, from which he graduated cum laude in 2009 with a B.S. in political science. He and his wife Victoria live in Alexandria, Virginia, and they are getting ready to welcome their first child into the world.

Jasmine Wolfe, Office Manager

Ms. Wolfe joins the ACTA team from Washington State. She graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Hispanic Studies. During her last quarter of undergraduate studies, Jasmine interned for the Washington State legislature in the senate. After graduating, she managed a political campaign for a local state race and worked as a legislative aide for the senate during the 2011 session. She will be attending The George Washington University in the fall for the International Affairs M.A. program. Jasmine enjoys playing the harp and running.

William Gonch, Program Associate

Mr. Gonch works on ACTA’s college-guide website, WhatWillTheyLearn.com; he also contributes to ACTA's quarterly newsletter, Inside Academe, and performs additional research and writing at the direction of the policy director and the president. Before joining ACTA, he taught Creative Writing at Temple University in Philadelphia. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from Temple. When he is not researching higher-education policy, he volunteers for his church, writes fiction, and dances the jitterbug.

Michael Kennedy, Program Associate

Mr. Kennedy hails from beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada and is responsible for tracking and analyzing philanthropic trends, financial data, and donation records for ACTA. He graduated in May 2011 with a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Dalhousie University. During his undergraduate career, Michael worked as a research associate with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-founded too many student organizations to mention, the Dalhousie University Liberty Society being his proudest. He currently participates in the Charles G. Koch Institute’s Associate Program. In his spare time he enjoys camping, theatre and history. Michael hopes to do more travelling after having spent 6 months studying French in Dakar, Senegal, on the West African coast.