Biographies
Brian K. Smith
CEO / Executive Director / Founder
Brian Smith (EduSerc Founder, Executive Director, and CEO) has been serving as an engineer, community leader, mentor, tutor and scholar for over 25 years. He is an award winning technology subject matter expert and innovation consultant with a broad span of technical work and corporate experience as an electrical engineer, software developer, database administrator, IT consultant, and program manager from companies such as IBM, GE, Motorola, Sybase and the Federal Government. As also an owner of a successful IT and Engineering Firm for over 18 years, he currently serves as the chief architect of all industry-based curriculums with EduSerc, trains corporate professionals on youth-related initiatives and creates several after-school, summer and STEM-based initiatives across the country.
Mr. Smith serves on several boards, including Congressman Steny Hoyer’s United States Service Academy Selection Board which interviews and recommends candidates for the four military service academies (Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, West Point Academy and Merchant Marine Academy). He also serves on The Pathways School board which educates students with learning disabilities and behavioral challenges. In addition, Mr. Smith is an active member and Math committee co-chair of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Program Advisory Committee for Prince George’s County Schools, as well as a Board Member of the Business Management Finance Program Advisory Committee for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Mr. Smith is a graduate of the Leadership Maryland Class of 2013, where 50 accomplished and diverse leaders from around the State of Maryland learn how to enhance their leadership abilities through the engagement of education, business, health care, government, social and technical concerns in the state.
In 2012, Mr. Smith was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for Education to UNESCO Center for Peace (The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) and participated in a Youth Infusion Summit with the First Ladies of several African countries. In this role, Brian has also traveled to India to spearhead efforts to start STEM initiatives with youth around the world.
Mr. Smith holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park.
Yolandis Rogers
Board Director
Yolandis Rogers, EduSerc Board Member, has 20 years of experience in finance including Franchise Development Funding, Asset Valuation, Financial Policies and Credit Analysis. Her experience expands across various industries such as banking/financial services, consumer products and retail.
Previously, Ms. Rogers served as a Senior Finance Manager at Luxottica where she created a franchise-wide funding structure, including the release of $14 million in credit and balanced risk levels with business strategy and profit targets. She has also established a funding pipeline for $2 million of acquisition / expansion funds for franchise owners.
Ms. Rogers has also served as a Finance Group Manager for Procter & Gamble where she provided financial support for marketing operation programs which included the US Olympics and NFL. Her experience has led her to performing strategic analysis that demonstrated $23 billion in a sales opportunity through speed of Expansion.
Ms. Rogers has many years as a Vice President at Bank of America where she collaboratively led initiatives to redevelop business-wide Affinity reporting processes. She also held roles in Citigroup's Commercial Banking Group, where she spent several years in New York City and Tokyo, Japan.
She has been a dedicated member and supporter of EduSerc as one its first board of directors in 1996 and serves as a valued contributor to the organization.
Ms. Rogers holds an M.B.A., Finance from Clark Atlanta University and an B.S., Accounting from Tuskegee University.
Cheryl G. Hofmeister
Board Director
Cheryl Hofmeister, EduSerc Board Member, is a multilingual Supplier Diversity Consultant with 20 years of experience in Corporate Procurement, Material and Operational Logistics, Supply Management and Supplier Program Management from firms such as Continental Airlines, Gate Gourmet and Aetna.
Ms. Hofmeister's Procurement career spans over 10+ years’ experience; currently holding the Supplier Diversity position at Aetna where she works to develop and grow relationships with current diverse vendors in order to identify and act on expanded opportunities. She cultivates relationships with potential diverse suppliers so they are prepared to do business with the corporation.
Previously, Ms. Hofmeister held several procurement positions at Coventry, Gate Gourmet and Continental Airlines. She is a National Corporate member of the following non-profit organizations: NMSDC, WBENC, and NGLCC where she serves on the Certification Committee and Regional corporate membership with the following organizations: GNEMSDC and WPEO NY & DC.
Ms. Hofmeister was born in Cape Town, South Africa and immigrated to the United States in 1996. She is an advocate of strengthening the voices of all individuals, within a company or a community such as West Riding (Ben Franklin Circle), through listening, empowering, and shared leadership.
Passionate for the community, Ms. Hofmeister is devoted to serving the underprivileged and neglected people in society and thrives to help and improve life for her fellow men, women and children.
Dr. Lillian Norris-Holmes
Board Advisor
Dr. Lillian Norris-Holmes, EduSerc Board Advisor has over 30 years experience as a professional educator and holds the Advanced Professional Certificate in Administration and Supervision from the Maryland State Department of Education. In 2008, she began serving as Supervisor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for Enrichment and Specialty Program for the Prince George’s County Public Schools.
From 1997 to 2007 she served in the Department of Federal Grants as an Integrated Learning Teacher and Instructional Specialist for the school system. As an Instructional Specialist she facilitated and provided technical assistance that supported individual schools as they developed and implemented school improvement plans. She documented findings, identified schools strengths and needs while recommended ways school programs might be improved. These experiences include presentations at numerous workshops and in-services, training pre-service and experienced teachers, modeling effective instructional strategies, collecting and analyzing data, and lecturer of curriculum and instruction courses. She has served as coordinator for numerous committees that focused on advocating services for at-risk-children and educational reform.
Additionally, Lillian’s experiences include service as a Senior Lecture at Morgan State University from 1990 -1997. Her responsibility included lecturing and supervising student teachers in course work such as: Introductions to Teaching, Child Development and Learning, Children’s Literature, Methods of Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary Schools, Methods of Teaching Science in the Elementary Schools, Methods of Teaching Math in the Elementary Schools. Lillian is currently serving her eighth year as Home School Instructional Coordinator for the Department of Student Services Prince George’s County Public Schools.
Lillian has worked with EduSerc on field trips for students of Prince George’s County Public and currently supports EduSerc in various other capacities. Lillian earned her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership and an Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Administration Supervision from Hampton University.
Stacey Wolf
Board Advisor
Stacey Wolf is a multimedia production manager with experience in developing creative solutions to support business communications needs. During her career with Gannett and TEGNA, she worked quietly and efficiently behind the scenes to make sure corporate messages are communicated effectively and creatively via video, photo, and multimedia projects.
As Director of Visual Communications, Stacey lead design teams in the production of companywide events and managed presentations, videos and other visual communications materials. She oversaw the design of multimedia, print and digital projects such as website design, corporate brand conversion, annual report, photography, presentations and video collateral.
Wolf, who has a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s in film and video production, rose through the ranks within Gannett and TEGNA to ultimately lead the department in transition after the GANNETT/TEGNA separation.
Stacey resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and two sons
Kofi Bawuah
Board Advisor
Kofi Bawuah, EduSerc Board Advisor, has over 18 years experience in software engineering, technology and education sales from various global engineering and technology corporations.
Since 2008, he's served with Microsoft as an Education Platform Specialist of US Education (East Region) and Sr. Sales Excellence Manager (US Public Sector). He's been responsible for maintaining relationships with all major OEM partners, channel resellers, and system integrators focused on education markets. Kofi has exceptionally coached public sector vertical sales leaders and has served as a key leader in evangelizing the adoption of Windows 10 devices throughout the northeast region in education. During his time at Microsoft, he also served as an Incubation Solution Sales Specialist and Technology Solutions Specialist.
In 2005, Kofi has served as a Senior Technical Analyst and Lead Engineer with Marriott International leading strategic initiatives in Information Technology and maintained and supported global PC management server environments of 50K + PCs worldwide. Previously, Kofi has served in technical and consultant positions with Tek Systems and Verizon Communications serving as a project manager and lead technical engineer for a 20K+ PCs environment.
Kofi serves as a valued team member and strong long-term supporter of STEM initiatives, not only for EduSerc, but nationally through his network of nonprofit organizations he supports on a continued basis.
Lahesha Williams
Chicago Affiliate Director
Lahesha Williams, a graduate of DeVry University, has over 20 years’ experience as a business owner, IT professional, community activist, and mother, with corporate experience in program development, finance, youth program leadership, and teaching.
In addition to her corporate experiences, Lahesha takes great pride in her involvement in the communities that she is involved with. She is an active mentor to young adults and regarded as a change agent in her activities involving community development and IT awareness. Prior to returning to college to obtain her degree, Lahesha served as the coordinator for designing and implementing a Community Technology Lab on the West Side of Chicago (Austin Community) that served an elementary school (K-6th grade) and a community organization she founded, Students Empowered, Inc.
Lahesha attributes her life and career experiences to her faith in God. As she shares her testimony of being a H.S. drop-out, teenage single mother and coming from a family that had generations of physical and drug abuse, Lahesha compels others to look beyond their current state of living and to actively pursue success to defy the chance of failure. She models this testimony by being the first in her family to graduate from college and by being a leader and change agent in her family and community.
Lahesha enjoys learning new technologies, reading, collaborating with others, and spending time with her two grandchildren.