LEADERSHIP PROFILES

DAVID JOHNSTON, DIRECTOR

DAVID C-H JOHNSTON is a planner, researcher and consultant in the life skills learning and education of challenged youth, now working under the banner of the Center for Higher Education Retention Excellence, dedicated to improving access to and success in higher education for underrepresented, first generation and otherwise challenged students.  CHERE conducts small, interactive conferences on key higher education issues related to this mission – more than 30 events since its founding in 2012.

David retired from Casey Family Services in 2012, after directing the agency’s life skills work throughout New England and in Baltimore.   During his 10 years at Casey (then the Direct Service arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation), David introduced the required use of the Ansell Casey Life Skills Assessment for agency youth in care, wrote its “Life Skills Tool Kit”, planned and helped run four youth conferences for Casey youth, created an “Individual Development Account” program for the agency’s youth, and among other tasks, co-created and staffed for four years, the Connecticut Postsecondary Education Committee, dedicated to helping Connecticut campuses better serve foster youth.   In October, 2011, he turned this Committee over to the Department of Children & Families for continuation.  

In addition to creating CHERE as a subsidiary of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education, David  taught First Year Introduction for five years at Eastern Connecticut State University, a required 3-credit course for all freshmen.  He also worked as the recruiter and counselor for the Intensive College Transition Program in Meriden, Conn. 2013-2019, that helped adult learners and ESL students qualify for credit courses at the nearby community college.  He has also been a substitute teacher for 11 years, mostly in middle schools in his very diverse community.

David lives and works in West Hartford with his wife, Dr. Hera Cohn-Haft, a practicing psychiatrist, and they have four grown children out “saving their little pieces of the world.”  He has a BA in Government from Dartmouth College, an MS in Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA from Columbia University.

ALAN KRAMER, CO-DIRECTOR

Alan Kramer is the Co-Director of CHERE, former Dean of Magnet Schools at Goodwin University and consultant on school improvement and magnet school design at the CT State Department of Education. He is also a playwright/composer with works published and performed in CT and NY and throughout the US on tour. His latest is a dramatic work called Conviction based on the experience of the first person released through DNA evidence by the CT Innocence Project.

Previously, Alan served as Principal of the Waterbury Arts Magnet School; Supervisor of Gifted & Talented and Enrichment Program for Westchester County NY, Acting National Director of the Israel Department for Gifted Children and Alternative High School Principal in Philadelphia PA. He has taught Mathematics at every level from middle school through college and creative writing from pre-school through high school.

He holds an MSEd in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in History with a minor in Mathematics from Trinity College in Hartford.

DONNA THOMPSON, ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT

For the past decade, Donna Thompson has led Thompson and Associates, a team of educational opportunity professionals who have over 34 years of success and experience working with federal and state programs including US Department of Education, State Department of Higher Education and other funding entities.

In this capacity she writes grant proposals, especially for (TRIO)Upward Bound, SSS, McNair and Gear-Up programs, and has secured new funding for numerous programs across the state and throughout the country. She also serves as an evaluator of educational opportunity programs.  Before this, she served as director of the Wesleyan Upward Bound/ConnCAP programs at Wesleyan University program for over two decades and was also the Principal Investigator for the university’s McNair program.  In addition to bringing the McNair program back to Wesleyan, she also secured new funding for its first Upward Bound Math Science program.  She has previously served as president of CAEOP (Connecticut Association of Educational Opportunity Programs), president of the New England Educational Opportunity Association (NEOA), twice over 10 years, and Grants Coordinator for the Middletown Foundation for the Arts. 

Donna has been part of the CHERE leadership team since 2019, and brings a particular interest in increasing student achievement and success in the critical STEM fields. She has assisted institutions in launching new programs and has served as a mentor and local and national advocate for the needs of low income, first-generation, college bound students.

Donna Thompson is a graduate of Wesleyan University, with a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies.

Ariel Robinson

Ariel Robinson served as Program Coordinator of Educational Opportunity Programs at Goodwin University prior to the pandemic. Robinson previously was an Extended Day Treatment Clinician at FOCUS, Case Manager at People Clinical Services, Youth Worker at The Bridge Family Center and Youth Development Professional at Boys & Girls Clubs of America.