Meet Our Senior Leaders

Gretchen Schoenhaar is the Chief Executive Officer of Step Up For Students.

She was previously an executive at Barclays, a top global investment bank, where her executive roles included leading major technology integrations, spearheading regulatory compliance and fraud prevention efforts, and serving as Head of Payments.

In previous roles, Gretchen has championed global technology initiatives for senior management, led cybersecurity teams, and overseen major data migrations. Additionally, she has set up and run a strategic portfolio office for several financial institutions. She also started, ran and sold three self-financed technology companies.

Gretchen is a member of the inaugural graduating class of Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurial Studies. She is a mentor, speaker and advocate for expanding opportunity. She is the Founder and Lead of GLIC (Global Leadership and Inclusion Community), an all-volunteer mentoring network and talent incubator. At Barclays, she served as the co-chair of the Inspire Americas Employee Resource Group, which supported employees from underrepresented socioeconomic backgrounds.

Throughout her career, Gretchen has been effective in ambiguous white space, leading innovation initiatives and realizing untapped opportunities. She is experienced in crafting and implementing global strategy, leading complex transformations, and working with executive stakeholders on both business and technology teams. She believes in the power of collaboration to launch groundbreaking work. She loves reading, design thinking, a good challenge and an empty whiteboard.

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Alex is a seasoned product and marketing strategist with over 12 years of experience leading global product teams in the technology sector.

His approach is rooted in a product-led and customer-centric philosophy, ensuring that our offerings consistently align with user needs while delivering exceptional value. With a strong emphasis on structured product lifecycle management, Alex continuously optimizes our processes for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

A dedicated lifelong learner, Alex has earned advanced certifications from the Pragmatic Institute and actively contributes to Social Venture Partners - Dallas, where he combines his professional acumen with a commitment to community impact.

He holds degrees in Marketing, Communications, and Organizational Communication from DePaul University.

Doug Tuthill is the Chief Vision Officer and serves as a national thought leader in education choice policies. Doug previously served as President from 2008-2024, and under his leadership, Step Up grew from administering over 9,000 scholarships in 2007-08 to 400,000 in 2023-24.

A former public school teacher and teachers union president, Doug has spent his career promoting policies that provide education opportunities and equity to underserved communities and redefining how education is delivered in modern society. Doug has degrees from the University of Florida.

As Chief Information Officer, Frank Sikernitsky's responsibilities includes overseeing IT operations and strategy, aligning technology with our business goals, enhancing efficiency, driving innovation, and managing cybersecurity.

Over the past 20 years, he has successfully transformed technology and talent to meet new challenges and changing priorities across multiple industries. Frank holds a degree in political science and has authored several books, including a professional self-improvement series. Most recently, he co-authored a book about artificial intelligence and its relevance to brands and businesses.

A fun fact about Frank is that in college, he hosted a morning drive-time FM radio show.

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.

Samantha joins Step Up as our Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). Samantha will be responsible for developing and executing the human resources strategy to support our strategic and operational objectives, specifically in succession planning, talent acquisition, performance management, change management, training and development, HR regulatory compliance, and compensation and benefits. In addition, she will provide strategic leadership by articulating our HR needs and plans to the Senior Leadership Team and the Board of Directors. The Human Resources Department will report to Samantha.

Samantha has over 18 years of HR experience with nonprofit and for-profit organizations, from workforces as small as 200 to as large as 5,000. She specializes in growing organizations looking to expand and enhance their human resources functions. She has previous work experience in the school choice industry and nonprofit youth services serving the entire U.S. Samantha holds a Bachelors degree in business administration and a Masters of business administration from Florida International University. She is also a Senior Certified Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-SCP) and holds a specialty credential in Total Rewards Management. She is also a member of SHRM’s exclusive Executive Network, reserved for CHROs from top U.S. organizations with the aim of shaping the HR landscape in the U.S. and globally. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida and currently resides in Davie, Florida with her husband, daughter and rescued dog.

Shane is essential in managing security risks to protect Step Up’s data, systems, and services. By implementing effective security measures, he ensures that sensitive information remains secure, allowing the organization to focus on its mission of providing educational opportunities for students.

Shane has extensive experience across multiple industries, with half of his career dedicated to the financial and banking sectors. He has held various roles in information technology, information security, and cyber security, providing him with a well-rounded perspective on what it takes to successfully secure an organization.

He holds a degree that combines computer science, business management, software development, mathematics, and physics.

Shane's proudest achievement is that he and his wife raised two remarkable young men, both of whom have served in the U.S. Army, with one still on active duty. A fun fact about them is that they have walked inside a glacier! Shane lives in Valley, Alabama.