Experience

Charles A. Dana Center

• United States
• Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Managing Director

  • Feb 2023 - Present

  As the Dana Center managing director, Afi oversees the Center’s work, ensuring that our vision and mission continue to be at the heart of all that we do. She establishes long-term strategic goals and priorities in programmatic and partnership development. Afi directs the day-to-day mobilization of the Center’s personnel and programs to achieve the strategic goals. Afi supervises and supports directors who leads teams enacting the portfolio of projects and activities supported by the Center. In addition, Afi leads the Center’s resource development efforts, including overseeing proposal preparation and serving as the primary contact to prospective funders to sustain the Center’s annual operating budget. Show less

• Director of Strategy and Impact

  • Sep 2021 - Feb 2023

  -Serve as a member of the Dana Center Leadership Team to operationalize the Dana Center vision and mission across its portfolio of projects and initiatives.-Lead a diverse team of grant writers, project managers, and researchers that provides oversight and direction for strategic planning processes and associated implementation for all major workstreams across the Center.-Lead the development and implementation of new structures and processes for fundraising, establishing a culture of philanthropy, and connecting impact to a system for internal learning.-Lead processes and activities designed to establish organizational culture that supports learning, collaboration, and collective responsibility to enhance professional relationships, job satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness. Show less

• Director of Evaluation and Research

  • Jul 2017 - Sep 2021

  Afi has almost two decade’s worth of evaluation and research experience at the K12, community college, and university levels. At the Dana Center, she leads the development of comprehensive and coherent strategies for research and evaluation initiatives. Assessing the quality, efficacy, and impact of the Center’s work, Afi implements evaluation and research designs that promote equity. She manages internal and external collaborations to ensure research and evaluation work is completed on time and with quality. Afi is a transformative leader, strategic thought partner, and natural educator. She has effectively enculturated people and organizations to ground decision making, improvements, and actions in appropriate and meaningful data and evidence. She educates through modeling and facilitates with humor, jollity, patience, and collaboration; eagerly sharing and absorbing new learnings. Show less



Texas State University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Research Analyst

  • Nov 2015 - Jul 2017

  research on teacher effectiveness across the state of Texas research on teacher effectiveness across the state of Texas



Austin Independent School District

• United States
• Primary and Secondary Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Evaluation Analyst II

  • Jul 2014 - Nov 2015

  research on postsecondary preparation, enrollment & persistence research on postsecondary preparation, enrollment & persistence