Kelly Cassaro is the Chief Learning Officer at Generation. Kelly has been with Generation since 2016 and currently leads the Curriculum & Instruction team globally. She previously worked for 15-plus years in various educational leadership roles, including as Chief Academic Officer and Managing Director of Instructional Leadership Development for urban charter schools and nonprofit management companies.
Kelly holds a M.Ed. in educational leadership from Bank Street School of Education and a B. Ed. from Ohio Wesleyan University.
Ali Jaffer is the Chief Operating Officer at Generation and has been with the organization since 2015. Prior to Generation, Ali was an Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company, where he worked with public, private, and non-profit clients. Ali has also spent time at global development organizations, including the Aga Khan Development Network and the World Health Organization.
Ali holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, as well as a B. Sc. and a B.S.N from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently lives in Toronto, where he volunteers with several community organizations.
Dr. Mona Mourshed is the founding CEO of Generation.
Mona has decades of experience as a leader in the education and workforce space. She authored widely cited education reports, including Education to Employment: Getting Europe’s Youth Into Work, Education to Employment: Designing a System That Works, How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, and How the World’s Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top.
Mona previously founded and led McKinsey & Company’s global education practice, and led McKinsey’s global social responsibility agenda.
She was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s ’40 under 40’, sits on the boards of Last Mile Health, New America and Teach for All, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur, and previously served on the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organization.
Mona has a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from MIT. She holds dual Egyptian and American citizenship.
Jennifer is the Chief Communications Officer for Generation, leading the global communications and marketing functions. She has more than two decades experience in communications, advocacy, marketing, and strategy roles at a variety of nonprofit and for profit organizations. Beginning her career in consulting, she then moved into communications roles at a series of startups focused on “big data” software and services. From there she made a welcome shift to mission-driven work, working with literacy organization Jumpstart and in a number of different roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also served as a marketing and communications consultant to small businesses.
Jennifer has a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Tuck College of Business at Dartmouth.
Dana Lee is Generation’s Regional Director of Curriculum & Instruction for the Americas.
Dana began her work in education teaching English in the Atlanta Public Schools with Teach For America. After ten years in the classroom, Dana supported new teachers in their certification journeys and designed curriculum for several private companies and non-profit organizations. She also co-founded ExceptionALLY, a Y Combinator backed educational technology start-up that aimed to empower parents of children with learning challenges.
Dana has a B.A. from Albion College and a M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
