Our Leadership
Sharing a passion for educational equity, New Meridian’s leadership team is leveraging their decades of experience and powerful insights to develop a new way of assessment thinking.
Board of Directors
Our Board Members are committed to expanding opportunities for all students through high-quality education and assessment. The Board helps New Meridian define its vision, mission, and purpose — and helps make sure we live up to those promises through sound organizational and financial planning and management, as well as compliance with relevant laws, bylaws, and policies.
Tom Higgins
DirectorMr. Higgins brings more than 40 years of experience in financial management, process improvement, internal controls, and systems design.
Jeff Livingston
DirectorMr. Livingston spent more than a decade as a senior executive at McGraw-Hill Education. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Education Policy and Strategic Alliances.
Jesse Markow
DirectorFormerly Chief Strategy Officer for the WIDA Consortium, Mr. Markow helped develop standards, curriculum resources, and assessments for a consortium of 37 states in support of English language learners.
Julie Mikuta, Ph.D.
DirectorA Rhodes Scholar and former Teach For America educator, Dr. Mikuta is currently the President of Education at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Her experience also includes NewSchools Venture Fund, the Center for Reform of School Systems (CRSS), and The D.C. Board of Education.
Our Executive Team
The New Meridian executive team has deep experience in education and state and national assessment programs. Working towards the same goal of equity in education, our team of passionate innovators set the vision and foundation for our organization.
Arthur VanderVeen, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer Arthur VanderVeen, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer at New Meridian, responsible for innovation, strategy, and customer engagement at the company he founded in 2016.
Will Bunting
Vice President, Program ManagementWill Bunting leads all aspects of New Meridian’s program management services, including contract execution, schedules, communication and risk management.
Ashley Eden
Chief of StaffAshley Eden is New Meridian’s Chief of Staff, charged with driving company culture, leading strategic planning and ensuring that communication between departments and with our state partners runs smoothly.
Tracy Gardner, Ph.D.
Chief Assessment OfficerTracy Gardner leads New Meridian’s psychometric, test design, and content development efforts, including ongoing development and continuous improvement of all assessment products.
Kristopher John
Vice President, Product StrategyKristopher John leads product strategy for New Meridian. His work includes conceiving and developing high-quality assessment solutions for students across the country.
Tauseef Khan
Chief Information OfficerTauseef Khan is New Meridian’s Chief Information Officer, in charge of architecting, next-generation systems to facilitate the highest quality educational assessments.
Neil Lane
General CounselNeil Lane is New Meridian’s General Counsel, advising the company on all issues related to legal compliance, licensing, contracting, intellectual property management and more.
Matt Lisk
Senior Vice President, SalesMatt Lisk is in charge of sales at New Meridian, in charge of building relationships with states and other partners and helping them solve problems.
Gina Rivera
Chief Operating OfficerGina Rivera oversees New Meridian’s general operations, including contracts, finance, accounting, data security and compliance with federal, state and local regulations.
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