Meet Our Leadership Team

Doug Tuthill has been president of Step Up For Students 2008. He is a former high school teacher, college professor, software executive, management consultant, newspaper executive, and teacher union president. Doug has degrees from the University of Florida.

Jill LaRose is the Chief Culture Officer. She is responsible for helping SUFS leaders operationalize our two core cultural values–everyone is an asset, and every event is an improvement opportunity–by promoting stronger cognitive and emotional management skills across the organization.

Jill is a certified Life Coach and for ten years was the founder and president of the Angel Society, a nonprofit, child welfare organization that provided shelter and support for girls who were wards of the state. Jill has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education.

Joe Pfountz leads Step Up For Students’ financial and scholarship operations and its fundraising, human resource, purchasing, compliance and risk management functions and ensures the highest level of fiscal accountability and transparency at Step Up For Students and the programs it administers.

Prior to joining Step Up For Students, Joe spent 29 years in various leadership roles including Chairman of the Board, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Finance for not-for-profit and for-profit enterprises in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. Joe began his career in the assurance group of KPMG as an auditor of manufacturing, healthcare, construction and banking companies. Joe received his bachelor’s degree from Christian Brothers College in Memphis, TN.

For over 20 years, Lesley has provided transformational, executive leadership to large scale nonprofits. At Step Up for Students, Lesley leads the teams that oversee programs, policy, marketing, communications, and customer service. Her experience in aligning boards, donors, employees, and communities to a mission has helped to build strong, outcome-based nonprofits. Additionally, her entrepreneurial vision has helped create social enterprises and diverse funding streams for multiple organizations. Lesley is a veteran in public affairs developing critical relationships with media and elected officials leading to successful policy results. Lesley earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Alabama and a Master of Arts in Public and Private Management from Birmingham Southern College. She is also a John Maxwell certified speaker, trainer, and coach.

As our Chief Information Officer, Shafayet leads Information Technology, Data Strategies, Information Security, as well as digitally-transformative technologies across various platforms and solutions offered by Step Up For Students.

Shafayet brings multi-industry experience successfully implementing technologies for the past 25 years across Banking, Healthcare, and Insurance industries.

Shafayet’s expertise includes SaaS and Cloud-native product innovations, technology rationalization, data and systems architecture, secure digital and cloud transformations, as well as managing/leading global in-house, contracted, and third-party partner teams.

Amy Graham serves as the Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs and manages SUFS’ policy, legislative affairs, advocacy, and strategic communications teams.  She has over 17 years of experience with education policy, school choice options, and the scholarship programs in Florida. A graduate of the Florida State University College of Law, Amy began her career working as a legislative analyst for the Florida Senate and then as an education policy analyst focused on school choice programs for the Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice at the Florida Department of Education before joining Step Up For Students in 2010. She also is an alumnus of Illinois Wesleyan University.

Craig Gonsalves joined Step Up For Students in 2014 and now oversees the Technology Solutions group, who are responsible for implementing IT projects and technology solutions. Craig has worked at Step Up For Students as a Senior Project Manager, Project Portfolio Manager, and Senior Director of Project Management.

Craig has over 28 years of experience in the Information Technology industry, and prior to joining Step Up For Students in 2014, he worked in the Digital Marketing, Insurance, and Lottery industries within the areas of Software Quality Assurance, Software Test Automation, Business Analysis and Project Management.

Dava Hankerson oversees SUFS’ research team and manages the business priorities and delivery of enterprise-level data solutions that meet the demands of both internal and external customers. She is responsible for driving SUFS’ data and research strategy of making key data accessible and accurate for data-informed decision making and student success.

Dava has spent her career in education teaching high school mathematics and serving as Department Chairperson and Academic Coach in Broward County Public School system for over 8 years. She then went on to teach several college education courses at Florida State University and work on numerous research projects for the Department of Education and the Center for Postsecondary Success on educational equity/access and education reform. Dava joined Step Up in 2015 and truly enjoys the fact that her work allows her the ability to continue to impact student lives by helping provide children and families access to additional educational opportunities through Florida’s choice programs.

Dava holds a bachelor’s degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University, a master’s degree in Education from Fort Hays State University, and is a doctoral candidate for a PhD in Education Policy and Evaluation.

With combined passions for education and marketing, Jillian Metz leads the external relations team in its public relations, communications, branding, social media and philanthropic fundraising initatives that support the organization’s mission of empowering parents to pursue and engage in the most appropriate learning options for their children.

Jillian joined Step Up For Students in 2006 and has her bachelor’s degree in public relations with a minor in business from the University of Florida.

Lauren Barlis has been with Step Up For Students since 2013 and serves as Senior Director of the Student Learning and Partner Success (SLPS) department.  Lauren and Paula Nelson co-lead SLPS, a team of educators who support school improvement by connecting schools and families to high quality educational resources and prioritizing relationships with families and schools.   She has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida and has been working in the classroom since 2004. Her dissertation research focused on resilience and how schools can create nurturing environments to support the success of Black students from low-income families.

Paula Nelson has been with Step Up For Students since 2015 and serves as Senior Director of the Student Learning and Partner Success (SLPS) department.  Paula and Lauren Barlis co-lead SLPS, a team of educators who support school improvement by connecting schools and families to high quality educational resources and prioritizing relationships with families and schools.

Paula holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Specific Learning Disabilities K-12 from the University of South Florida, a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, and an Educational Specialist Degree in Teaching, Learning and Assessment from the University of Florida.  She spent 32 years in Pinellas County Schools as an SLD Teacher, Varying Exceptionalities Specialist, Assistant Principal, High School Principal, and Supervisor for the Gulfcoast Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources Systems (FDLRS) for the FLDOE. One highlight during her tenure in Pinellas County, was the opportunity to join a team of educators and leaders to open a middle school that would lead the district in Total Quality Management (TQM) based on the work of W. Edward Deming.  Paula served as a school-based writer for the Florida Governors Sterling Award for Quality, aligned to the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. Paula also served as an Adjunct Professor at National Louis University in the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Graduate program.