Staff

The fundamental goal of the company is to produce the high quality of work that can lead to fundamental improvements in education — and recognition of the need for universal high-quality education and the elements necessary to create that quality — through conscientious work that adds value to the efforts of our clients. High quality in our own work begins with the talents, interests, and capabilities of the CW staff.

Our staff and consultants include directors of nonprofit organizations; advocates who have led state and national initiatives; award-winning editors, writers, and designers; and media strategists. We also work in close partnership with some of the nation's leading polling, video, marketing, advertising, and policy shops.

Dakarai I. Aarons
Director, Education Outreach and Policy

Dakarai I. Aarons is CW's director of education outreach and policy. At CW, his work has included directing award-winning media outreach for the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher and the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools, managing dissemination, outreach and policy development for the Children’s Literacy Initiative and providing strategic advice for Learning Forward’s project to develop a statewide professional development strategy grounded in Common Core State Standards. Aarons also worked with the Sandler Foundation to translate a series of reports by RAND Education into policy briefs to help inform the creation of new federal and state policy related to the anticipated reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Aarons has been regularly called upon to provide media training and give presentations on the effective use of social media and communications strategies for a number of organizations and groups, including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Urban Superintendents Program, the Institute for Educational Leadership, and Education Champions for All. 

Prior to joining CW, Aarons worked as a staff writer for Education Week, where he reported on local school districts, and served as the lead writer for Diplomas Count in 2010 and 2011. He covered local and state education at The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, Tenn. before joining Education Week, and his work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Des Moines Register and The Dallas Morning News, among other publications.  

An award-winning former journalist, Aarons serves as a board member of the National Education Writers Association and is a former committee chairman of the National Association of Black Journalists. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in journalism and has received awards for his work from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Tennessee Press Association.

Mary-Mack Callahan
Chief Operating Officer

Mary-Mack Callahan, chief operating officer, oversees all CommunicationWorks operations and manages projects focused on higher education, research, philanthropy, and nonprofit management. Mary is the former managing director of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, where she was an adviser to dozens of foundations and hundreds of private colleges for more than a decade. She has managed foundation grants in community development; faculty roles and rewards; and efforts to encourage colleges to play a stronger role in developing the skills of youth in poor, urban, and rural communities. She has been a participant in Grantmakers for Education and other philanthropic groups. Mary has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Swarthmore College.

Shaina Cook
Associate

Shaina Cook, associate, has experience in communications, public relations, marketing, and event management.  Prior to joining CommunicationWorks, she was a public relations and event management intern at Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications in Falls Church, VA.  She also interned in the public relations department at Merlot Marketing in Sacramento, CA.  Throughout her college career, Shaina worked in the administrative dean's office, was a research assistant in the Communication department, and served as a student director for BloodSource blood drives on her college campus.  She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where she earned a B.A. in Communication with minors in English and Political Science.

Kelly Davis
Media Manager

Kelly Davis, media manager, has experience in public relations, event planning, social media, marketing, media training and communications. Prior to joining CommunicationWorks, she was a public relations account coordinator at The Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, Fla., where she planned press trips, garnered media coverage and coordinated promotional opportunities for clients such as Florida Prepaid College Plans, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino, and more.

Throughout her college career, Kelly interned with Alpha PRoductions, where her team earned the Florida Public Relations Association Grand Image Award for The Gator Nation Campaign. She also interned at the YMCA of Florida’s First Coast, Shands Healthcare and Gainesville Regional Utilities. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned a B.S. in Public Relations with concentrations in Event Management and Business Management.

Sarah Herring
Associate

Sarah Herring, associate, specializes in communications, public relations, marketing, social media and web and graphic design. Prior to joining CommunicationWorks, Herring was the Marketing and Business Development Associate at Cyfluent, Inc., an electronic healthcare services company in Arlington, Va. At Cyfluent, she was responsible for drafting and distributing press releases, designing original marketing materials, managing preparation for and on-site support at industry conferences, and maintaining content of the company’s website and social networking sites.

In addition, Herring helped design and develop the company's website, wrote original content, and designed graphics and custom layouts for marketing collateral. Throughout her college career, Herring interned in the public relations department at S&A Cherokee Intelligent Communications in Cary, N.C. and worked as an administrative assistant for the education department at Fidelity Bank. She is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where she earned a B.A. in Communications with a public relations concentration and a Journalism minor.

 

Janette Kiehn
Administrative Associate

Janette Kiehn, administrative associate, brings a variety of skills to CommunicationWorks after serving more than 15 years as an office manager for a California-based nonprofit accounting firm. She feels at home at CW because of the staff's unrelenting commitment to improving the quality of education, and because it measures up to her previous employers’ commitment to improving the fiscal health of nonprofit organizations. Janette has been a real estate agent, a FedEx specialist, and has worked in various capacities within U.S. Job Corps. She also has participated within the social justice community in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years. Her involvement in the social services arena included juvenile justice, which sparked her interest in quality education, especially for disadvantaged families. Janette graduated from Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. with degrees in social work, adolescent psychology, and history. She is the parent of a son who is studying theater at Seattle University.

Angus Paul
Editor

Angus Paul, editor, has edited numerous national reports for clients on education and civil rights issues. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College, he has taught school, reported for The Chronicle of Higher Education (his beat was the research produced by college and university scholars), and edited George Washington University's alumni magazine.

Sheppard Ranbom
President

Sheppard Ranbom is founder and president of CommunicationWorks, L.L.C. In leading the firm since 1996,  Ranbom has focused on increasing the visibility and power of ideas and institutions through leveraging research, the media, issue-driven campaigns, grassroots advocacy initiatives, and marketing techniques. He has helped launch new nonprofit organizations and revitalize the image of well-established institutions. His clients have included many of the nation’s leading foundations, corporations, education nonprofits, and research institutions, such as Achieve, Inc.; Center for Education Policy; Educational Testing Service; IBM; Intel; Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; National Geographic Society Education Foundation; National Center on Public Policy in Higher Education; President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities; Teachers College, Columbia University; and the U.S. Department of Education.

A former staff writer for Education Week who also edited a weekly education news syndicate for daily newspapers and publications for higher education officials, he has written or edited numerous reports in education issues. An award winning writer and strategist, Ranbom also has written or edited dozens of authoritative reports on education and civil rights issues. He is the author of King Philip’s War (Settlement House, 2008) and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colgate University.

Susan Ruberry
Finance and Administration Director

Susan Ruberry, finance and administration director, joined CommuncationWorks with extensive experience in accounting, financial, and operations management, financial reporting, budgeting, project management, and facilities management. Recently she served as Chief Executive Officer for a promotional marketing trade association, where she was responsible for managing the relationships between several constituent groups including members, supplier partners, and operational vendors. Also, she served as Chief Financial Officer for a privately held promotional marketing company in Richmond, VA. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond and a Certified Public Accountant.