Our
Team
Our collective experience is vast and varied: we've led local government agencies, grown nonprofit organizations, kick-started successful startups, and managed significant federal projects. Our expertise spans across education, healthcare, housing, and workforce development. But above all, our greatest commitment is to the well-being and future of children.
Andrew Buher
Founder & Managing Director
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Aside from his working leading Opportunity Labs, Andrew is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. Andrew was appointed by President Obama to serve as a White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to his work at HUD, Andrew was the Chief Operating Officer of the New York City Department of Education and formerly Chief of Staff to Chancellor Dennis Walcott. Andrew is a White House Fellow, Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, French American Foundation Young Leader, Atlantic Council Millennium Fellow, and an Education Pioneer. He received an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from Rider University. His writing has been featured in The Hill, CNN, Politico, and the NY Daily News.</p>
Dr. Mario Ramirez, M.D.
Managing Director
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Mario graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his training and fellowship in Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University. He then joined the United States Air Force and served as an Emergency Medicine Physician and Flight Surgeon. After his service, Mario was a White House Fellow and concurrently served as the Acting Director for the Office of Pandemic and Emerging Threats, directly advising the Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs and Immediate Office of the Secretary on international issues of emerging concern including Ebola and MERS-CoV, antimicrobial resistance, pandemic influenza, dual use research of concern/synthetic biology, and biosecurity/biosafety. Additionally, Mario was an attending clinical physician in the emergency department at Sibley Memorial Hospital (John's Hopkins University) and has since held roles as both Medical Director and Medical Advisor for several healthcare companies. He is a Senior Fellow at FutureEd, a nonpartisan thinktank at Georgetown University. He is frequent contributor to television news inclunding This Week Today, Andrea Mitchell Reports, The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, and New Day.
Ché Bolden
Dr. Caroline Burns
President and CEO, The Charles F. Bolden Group. Former Marine Colonel.
Physical Therapist, Inner Dynamics Physical Therapy.
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Ché is the President and CEO of The Charles F. Bolden Group, and executive leadership firm established for the global advancement of science and security. The Bolden Group transforms and cultivates leadership across the four focus areas of National Security; Space and Aerospace Exploration; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math plus the Arts and Design (STEM+AD) education, and Health Initiatives. A 26 year Marine Corps veteran, Ché has extensive expertise in aerospace, political-military and international affairs, critical infrastructure, and HUMAN+machine collaboration. Ché was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution where he was immersed in cutting edge policy discussions around ethical AI, digital transformation, and HUMAN+machine collaboration. He concluded his active duty service directing and leading enterprise modernization efforts to evolve critical infrastructure through the integration of AI/ML tools, autonomous systems and Data Analytics.Ché received a B.S., History from the United States Naval Academy, a Global Master of Arts, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a M.A., Strategic Studies from the Marine Corps War College. He lives in McLean, Virginia.
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Caroline is a physical therapist at Atlas Physical Therapy. Her practice focuses on the health and wellness of women and girls, specializing in manual therapy for orthopedic injuries in adolescents to post-partum challenges for new mothers. She spent the last decade practicing in New York City and Washington D.C. Caroline received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and her B.S., in Health and Exercise Science from The College of New Jersey where she was a member of the rowing team.
Juliette “Cricket” Heinze
Senior Director
Dr. Venkat Ramaprasad
Board Member
Former Executive Director of Knowledge Sharing, The New York City Department of Education
English Language Art Teacher at West Windsor - Plainsboro Regional School District
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Juliette “Cricket” Heinze has been working in education for 25 years, with extensive experience both within public school systems and nationally in research and evaluation. Most recently, she was the Executive Director of Knowledge Sharing for the New York City Department of Education where she oversaw the development of WeTeachNYC, the district’s online learning platform for its 80,000 teachers. Before joining the NYCDOE, she spent over a decade as a researcher working for organizations including Education Development Center, Scholastic, New Leaders for New Schools, and Amplify, and her writing has been published in academic journals, books, and digital publications. Cricket began her career in education as an English teacher in a public school near San José, Costa Rica, and went on to become a Spanish bilingual teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She holds a Master’s degree in Education and Sociology from Teachers College Columbia University and a B.A. from Pomona College.
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Venkat earned his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in Curriculum and Instruction. He teaches English by day and the social and political contexts of education at his local college by night. He focuses on helping students locate themselves in the world by developing critical lenses to engage how histories, politics, and economics underpin institutional life, access to opportunities, and shape identities.
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Marisa recently completed a seven-year tenure as Head of The Baldwin School, one of the top private schools in the country. Under her leadership, Baldwin transformed its programs and modernized its operations, had the most prolific fundraising period in its 135-year history, and successfully navigated the pandemic. Prior career highlights include service as a White House Fellow and senior advisor for technology policy in the White House National Economic Council, as a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Council on Foreign Relations, and on active duty flying jets off aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy. Marisa earned her AB from Harvard, her MSc from the London School of Economics, and her PhD from King’s College London. As a thought leader on non-profit leadership, gender and education, she consults, speaks and writes for a wide variety of audiences. Marisa’s book, “What Girls Need: How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Women”, was released by Viking Press in 2020.
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Briana is a passionate advocate for supporting underserved and first-generation college students. She has worked in the education sector for over 15 years with experience in project management, assessment and evaluation, and higher education access. Before coming to Opportunity Labs, she served as a Public Health Program Specialist Team Lead with the State Department of Health. Briana has worked for several state agencies throughout her career, including the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning as the Youth Advisory Council State Coordinator and Mississippi's only academic health science center as an Assessment Specialist. In addition, she works as a peer reviewer for various federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. Briana earned her B.A. from Jackson State University.
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Meghan is a pediatric psychologist in the Division of Behavioral Health and Legislative and Policy Advisor for Delaware Valley External Affairs, at AI duPont Hospital for Children. She provides clinical services within integrated primary care at Nemours’ Jessup Street clinic. Dr. Walls completed her doctorate degree in clinical psychology at LaSalle University, residency at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and fellowship at Nemours. In 2019, she was selected for the Nemours Physician Excellence in Community Service Award as well as the award for 2019 NAMI Delaware Healthcare Professional of the Year. She is the State Advocacy Chair on the Executive Committee of the Delaware Psychological Association and the co-chair of the Data and Policy Committee for the Lt. Governor’s Behavioral Health Consortium. She is involved in a number of other mental health efforts in the state including serving on the ACCEL grants (Accelerated Clinical and Translational Research) Community Advisory Committee, and the Take Care Delaware steering committee. Dr. Walls also holds an appointment to the Board of Directors of the Society of Pediatric Psychology as Electronics Communication Editor. Locally, Dr. Walls volunteers with organizations dedicated to violence prevention and serves on the Red Clay School District Parent Advisory Committee.
Dr. Marisa Porges
Senior Advisor
Former Head of School, The Baldwin School. Former White House senior advisor.
Anne Eidelman
Zoe Schlesinger
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Anne is CEO of Blue Engine, a non-profit organization that empowers schools to create or support multi-adult classrooms to accelerate learning for all students affected by educational inequity. Before joining Blue Engine, Anne led the Finance and HR teams at Uncommon Schools, a charter management organization undergoing rapid scaling (1,400 employees, $200M across 42 schools). In 2015, Anne joined Blue Engine as COO, and she became CEO in 2017. Now, she is leading Blue Engine’s efforts to scale impact across multiple-adult classrooms and, ultimately, of playing a role in the broader, collective work to create a more inclusive and just educational system.Anne is a fourth-generation teacher who spent the first eight years of her career working with students and teachers in a variety of contexts. Anne was originally trained as a chemist; she has a Master’s degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St Louis. She also earned her MBA from Columbia Business School. Most importantly, Anne is the proud mother of her curly-haired, chatty 10-year-old son.
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Zoe has 15+ years of experience in education, management consulting, and product management. Most recently, she oversaw the custom build and launch of WeTeachNYC, the NYC Department of Education’s professional learning space serving 80,000 educators with a rigorous commitment to research-based and sustainable design. Zoe began her career consulting across healthcare, universities, and foundations with the Center for Applied Research and subsequently as a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Zoe earned an MPA from NYU Wagner and a BA from Bryn Mawr College. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Jacob and two children, Ted and Walter.
Board Member
Board Member
Dr. Meghan Walls
Briana Thompson
Board Member
Program Manager
Pediatric Psychologist in the Division of Behavioral Health and Legislative and Policy Advisor for Delaware Valley External Affairs
Former Mississippi Department of Public Health and Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning
Director
Board Member
Former Head of Product for WeTeachNYC, the NYC Department of Education’s professional learning space
CEO of Blue Engine. Former Finance and HR team led at Uncommon Schools