Board of Trustees
Jane Garvey, President
Carey Schroer, Treasurer
Kevin Koller, Secretary to the Board
Steve Baggott Ramez Fiani
Flavia Bastos, PhD Laura Leonard
Tysonn Betts Gary Lewandowski, PhD
Dorothy Corbett Larry Lutz
Alex Derkson Robert Zimmerman
Victoria Fresh Steve Zins
jane garvey,
President
Jane is a recent retiree now working on being a better community volunteer, spouse, mother, grandmother, family supporter and friend.
Jane has enjoyed an eclectic career leading the communications function at Cincinnati Children's and Convergys Corporation, global marketing at Chiquita Brands International and marketing positions at Burke Marketing Research, Home Box Office, and Time Warner.
A Breakthrough board member since 2020, Jane is also engaged in mentoring high school students at Oyler School, and serves on the boards of the Community Learning Center Institute, the Cincinnati Museum Center and Cincinnati State.
She has a BA from Williams College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
carey Schroer, TREASURER
Carey joined the BTC board in December, 2019 and became Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee in 2023.
Carey has also served as a member of the Development Committee and the Executive and Strategic Planning Committees. She also participated in the Executive Director Search Committee. As part of her role on the development committee, she coordinated BTC’s efforts through the semi-final and finals phase of our Impact 100 grant application which resulted in an award of approximately $104,000.
In addition to serving on BTC’s board, Carey serves as a volunteer for the Assistance League of Greater Cincinnati and has served on the Board of Directors for Ohio Valley Residential Services for over 20 years (was two term Past President). She was also Past President of the Park Hills Civic Association and served as Past President CFA Society of Cincinnati.
kevin koller, secretary to board
Kevin first served as a Breakthrough (then Summerbridge) Teaching Fellow in the summer of 2001. He returned as a Teaching Fellow in the summer of 2002, before serving as the Dean of Faculty in the summer of 2003. Kevin then served as Program Director from 2003 to 2007 and as Executive Director from 2007 to 2009. He joined the Breakthrough Board in 2018 and works locally as an attorney.
Steve baggott
Chief Operating Officer of Cincinnati-based life science start-up Sus Clinicals
Member and Board Director, Queen City Angels
Chair, Board of Trustees, The Seven Hills School
BTC Board of Trustees since 2015; Chair, Strategy Committee
Parent of former Teaching Fellow, Alex Baggott-Rowe, who is now a Latin teacher at Walnut Hills High School
flávia bastos, phd
Flávia Bastos, Ph.D. is a Distinct Research Professor in the Arts and Humanities at the University of Cincinnati where she also serves as Associate Dean in the Graduate School. Dr. Bastos is a native Brazilian and her scholarship honors educator Paulo Freire. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Art Education from Indiana University.
tysonn betts
Right Brain to the Business- Design Vice President at Procter & Gamble is a creative provocateur, and respected 25+ year veteran to the creative community. Tysonn remains enthusiastically involved in Breakthrough Cincinnati’s board and serves on BTC’s Strategic Planning committee. A proud father of two BTC graduates (Ohio State University and Washington University), one of whom has also served as a summer teaching fellow (2022). Tysonn is a consistent and unapologetic voice for BTC’s role to help introduce more students to careers in the creative and design industries. He joined the board in 2018.
alex derkson
Alex (he/him) is a Director at 17A. He focuses on leading 17A’s legal and compliance function, building 17A’s impact strategy, and developing partnerships with like-minded companies and organizations.
Alex has deep expertise working with federal, state and local governments on complex economic development projects. Prior to joining 17A, Alex worked as a real estate attorney both at Amazon, supporting the development of the company’s distribution network, and at Frost Brown Todd LLC, where he led numerous Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and New Markets Tax Credits projects in economically distressed communities. Alex also led JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s philanthropic work in Ohio and Kentucky, investing the firm’s capital in promising workforce development, affordable housing, financial health and small business projects.
Alex also taught History to sixth, seventh and eighth graders at Breakthrough Cincinnati from 2004-2006.
Alex loves being in the great outdoors – hiking, kayaking, camping, gardening – reading philosophy, learning about the solar system, traveling the globe, and as a Cincinnati native of course loves a good hot dog at a Cincinnati Reds game in the summer.
Victoria Fresh
Development & Marketing Director, American Legacy Theatre
Victoria joined the BTC board in 2021 after serving a year as a pro bono development consultant.
She is an alumni of BTC and enjoys supporting an organization that has been so impactful in her personal and professional life. She hopes to continue to bring awareness (and dollars) to BTC for years to come.
Laura Leonard
Laura is the Dean of Students and History Teacher at the Seven Hills Upper School. Before returning home to Cincinnati, she was a teacher and department chair in Denver Public Schools and Somerville (MA) Public Schools. In addition to teaching, Laura has coached boys and girls tennis for 15 years. One of Laura's formative early experiences in education was as a Breakthrough Teaching Fellow. Laura graduated from Tufts University (BA and MA) and Harvard Graduate School of Education (MA).
gary Lewandowski, PhD
Gary is a Professor of Computer science and Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives at Xavier University. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and PhD in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gary started working with Breakthrough Cincinnati in 2014, assembling student volunteers to help run Saturday events and helping to recruit and fund summer teaching fellows from Xavier University as part of a National Science Foundation grant. He is also the proud parent of former Teaching Fellow Carl Lewandowski (2018, 2019). He joined the Breakthrough board in 2023.
Larry Lutz
As executive vice president at Strada Education Network, Larry Lutz is responsible for directing business investment, M&A and partnering initiatives for this social impact organization dedicated to building better pathways between postsecondary education and careers, particularly for individuals from historically underserved communities. He also serves as executive chairman of Education at Work, a Strada affiliate company, which works with partner universities and commercial clients to develop and deliver professional, part-time employment opportunities, career readiness skills, and post-graduation career entry pathways for students.
Lutz has more than 30 years of experience in the education services industry, serving in executive leadership roles with Wisechoice Brands, First Marblehead Corp., Career College Loan Co., Educaid/First Union and Student Loan Funding Corp.
Lutz joined the Breakthrough Cincinnati board in 2021, and also serves on the boards of Roadtrip Nation, InsideTrack, and Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL.)
Robert zimmerman
Head of School at Cincinnati Country Day School
After 17 years as an attorney at Dinsmore, Rob returned home to his alma mater CCDS in 2021 as Head of School. Rob’s first job in education was as a Breakthrough (then Summerbridge) Teaching Fellow at CCDS in 2000. Rob joined the Breakthrough board in 2022.
Steve Zins
Steve is a Wealth Advisor at Mariner Wealth Advisors where he works with individuals, families, and foundations to provide customized wealth management solutions to help them reach their goals. Steve has over a decade of experience in financial services, starting his career in Chicago at CIBC Bank. While living in Chicago, Steve first got involved as a mentor for high performing, but underprivileged high school students.
Steve graduated from Miami University and is a Cincinnati native. He joined the Breakthrough Cincinnati board in 2023 and also serves on the board for the Southern Ohio chapter of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation where he is the Co-Chair for the foundation’s annual fundraiser.