Meet the Team

Dan Kimberg - Founder and Executive Director
Daniel Kimberg co-founded Student U in 2006 as a Robertson Scholar at Duke University. After receiving a bachelors degree from Duke in a major he designed, Advocating for Educational Reform in Policy and Practice, he became the inaugural Executive Director of Student U. Throughout his years in college, Dan worked closely with the Durham Public Schools and taught English classes in New Orleans and Israel and math classes in South Africa. Currently, Dan serves on the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors, on the Executive Committee for Bull City Forward, and on the Steering Committee for i4m and the East Durham Children's Initiative.

John Wulsin - Associate Director
John has a passion for educational reform, and he has spent time teaching with Breakthrough Collaborative and recruiting for Teach For America. At UNC, John majored in Economics with a minor in Philosophy, Politics & Economics, writing his thesis on the capitalization of school quality in housing prices in Durham Public Schools. After graduating from UNC in May 2009, John received a Fellowship from the Robertson Scholars Program. He has also served as an associate with 8 Rivers Capital, an investment firm in Durham, NC. John began working with Student U at the beginning of 2008. John grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and Nairobi, Kenya.

Bettina Umstead - Director of Programming
Bettina truly believes that every child can learn. This belief has led her to work in several different positions within the field of education including, with a private school and an education lobbying organization. Bettina graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Middle Grades Education. She has worked with Student U as a 7th grade Global Connect teacher, a Grade Head, and is now currently the Director of Programming. Bettina grew up in Raleigh, NC.

Alexandra Zagbayou - Director of Operations
Alexandra strongly believes that education plays a pivotal role in giving one the opportunity to secure a successful future and is committed to ensuring that all students obtain the best education possible. Her passion for education has led her to work as a mentor, a dance instructor in a leadership camp for homeless students in NYC, and has informed her research while she studied at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she majored in International Studies and Social and Economic Justice. She hopes to pursue a Masters in public policy with a focus on education and a law degree in order to specialize in international educational law. Alexandra is the second oldest of six children. Born to an Ivorian father and Congolese mother, Alexandra was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire.

Allie Hayes - Student Assessment Coordinator
Allie Hayes believes in the power of community to overcome educational inadequacies. Currently, she works to harness this power through program evaluation at Student U. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Allie studies the sociology of education and linguistics. In the future, she hopes to teach middle school ESL or Language Arts in rural North Carolina.