Our Team

Rahim Rajan leads the Gates Foundation’s team responsible for developing and delivering high-impact, evidence-based solutions that can help transform postsecondary institutions so that many more low-income, students of color achieve greater momentum and success in their undergraduate education, to help achieve strategy goals to close attainment gaps in order to increase social mobility and to prepare the modern workforce.

Rebecca Hartzler is a Program Officer for Postsecondary Success in the U.S. Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this role, she leads the work that is the responsible for developing and delivering reforms to developmental education programs, practices and policies, with particular attention to eliminating equity gaps for Black, Latinx and Indigenous students and students experiencing poverty. This includes the scaling of new structures in curriculum and placement that maximize the probability that students will finish their gateway courses in mathematics and English within their first year of enrollment in college. Prior to the foundation, Rebecca served as the Manager for Advocacy and Professional Learning for The Charles A. Dana Center. In her Advocacy role she worked with national mathematics associations to scale the implementation of best practices in equitable mathematics education across the U.S. through workshops, publications and presentations. Rebecca was also on the founding team for the Carnegie Math Pathways first instantiation of Statway and Quantway. She served as the Dean for Science and Mathematics at Seattle Central College. She served as a tenured faculty member in physics, engineering, and mathematics for over two decades at Washington state community colleges. Rebecca holds a BS and MS in Physics from Kansas State University.

Amy Kerwin is Ascendium’s Vice President of Education Philanthropy. She is responsible for leading the Education Philanthropy team in the implementation of Ascendium’s philanthropic strategy to elevate opportunities and outcomes for learners from low-income backgrounds so they can better achieve the postsecondary education and career goals that matter most to them.

Edward Smith is a program officer with The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program. He helps advance the team’s goals and functions by inviting and reviewing funding requests and making recommendations for investments in ongoing or emerging innovations. He also manages a portfolio of grants focused on promoting college opportunity and degree completion for marginalized student groups.

William (Bill) F. L. Moses serves as managing director for The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program, which supports postsecondary access and success for low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students. The key architect of Kresge’s education programming, Bill leads the team’s continuum of domestic and international grant activities from developing program strategy, reviewing preliminary ideas, and helping grantees develop proposals or initiatives, to awarding funding and monitoring existing grants. Since arriving at Kresge, Bill has served as a program officer and senior program officer, was instrumental in developing Kresge’s Green Building Initiative, and has spearheaded the foundation’s grantmaking in South Africa. He serves on the Governing or Advisory Boards of College Promise, APIA Scholars and Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group.