Senior Staff

William Goodloe

President & CEO

William is President & CEO of SEO, which has a mission of creating a more equitable society. SEO is widely known for developing and delivering programs that close the opportunity gap for young people who are underrepresented at top colleges and in coveted industries.

Each year, SEO serves 4,000+ high school students, college students, and young professionals nationwide, through a variety of high-impact programs. SEO’s success during William’s tenure has led to a 700% growth in young people served each year, along with SEO’s annual revenues increasing by over $25 million.

William also guided The Campaign for SEO, which fully funded the purchase of a new headquarters.

From 1996 through 2001, William was Executive Director of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, which supports NYC Catholic schools serving children from low-income families. William led dramatic increases in student scholarships, school capital repairs, and funding for schools, with more than $100 million raised in annual and endowment funds.

William began his career in advertising and sales management, including roles with Procter & Gamble and Corning Inc.

William is a trustee of the Altman Foundation and Partnership Schools. He serves on advisory boards for Columbia University and the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. William has received several recognition awards and has been appointed by NYC Mayors to a citywide commission and an education task force.

William is former board President of the NYC Association of Fundraising Professionals and is an active member of Black Agency Executives.

William received his MBA from Columbia Business School and B.S. from American University.

Julian Johnson

Executive Vice President

As Executive Vice President, Julian Johnson oversees all program activities for SEO Scholars, SEO Career, SEO Law, and SEO Alternative Investments, in addition to SEO’s alumni programming. Julian joined SEO in 2002, bringing over twenty years of experience in development and executive leadership to the organization.

Shortly after joining SEO, Julian led the restructuring of all intern recruitment and training activities for SEO Career, resulting in a 40% increase in the rate of full-time job offers made to summer interns. In the early 2000’s, Julian also led the development of a corporate leadership internship track which provided opportunities for underrepresented students to intern at Fortune companies. He restructured the law internship track and the development of an intensive Law Institute to enhance the academic performance of SEO Law Fellows in their first year of law school.

In 2006, Julian assumed oversight of SEO Scholars and led the organization’s effort to re-think how out-of-school time could be used more effectively to close the academic achievement gap for low-income students. This led to the creation of the current SEO Scholars model, which uses the equivalent of a sixth day of school per week to help low-income public high school students gain the needed academic skills for college readiness and success. The new model also provides comprehensive support for Scholars throughout college, until graduation. Since then, SEO Scholars has tripled the number of students served to more than 1,000 in the 2014-15 academic year. The program has also been replicated in San Francisco.

In 2009, Julian oversaw the development of SEO Alternative Investments (AI), which includes a fellowship program and an annual SEO Alternative Investments Conference (AICON).

Previously, Julian was Director of Development and Corporate Partnerships at the Institute of International Education (IIE) where he helped to develop the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund. He has also held senior development and executive positions at Teach for America, Associated Black Charities of New York, A Better Chance and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He holds Master’s Degrees in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and in Non-Profit Management from the New School. Julian presently serves on the board of trustees of the Institute of International Education and on several scholarship and fellowship review committees.

Stephen Sagner

Vice President – Development

Steve joined SEO in January 2020 and is responsible for raising philanthropic capital to support all aspects of SEO’s work, particularly our SEO Scholars program in New York City.

Steve came to SEO from NYU, where he was a major and principal gift fundraiser for almost 15 years, working for its public policy, education, and engineering schools. At NYU, Steve and his teams helped raise over $120M in gifts and grants from individuals, families, foundations, and corporations for scholarships and fellowships, faculty chairs and research, capital projects and equipment, and a range of public programs.

Steve was also chief national fundraiser for six years for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the country’s largest community development investment intermediary; worked for eight years for Good Shepherd Services, a renowned NYC youth development agency, where he ran a state-funded college prep program at John Jay High School in Brooklyn; and built his own consulting practice.

He has a BA in English from Columbia and an MPA in public finance from NYU Wagner, and he is an alumnus of Coro Leadership NY. He lives in White Plains with his wife Jennifer and daughters Denali, a college junior, and Sarah, a high school junior. Steve is from Baltimore and thus is a lifelong Orioles fan – and he has lived in New York for the past 35 years and has learned to love the Mets as well.

Michelle DeFossett

Vice President – Finance, Administration, & Real Estate

Michelle DeFossett is SEO’s Vice President of Finance, Administration, and Real Estate. Michelle was previously a senior finance professional for the following nonprofits: the Center for Reproductive Rights, Habitat for Humanity-New York City, and the Maple Street School. She has led long-term fiscal planning and growth for organizations with annual budgets of up to $23 million and oversaw HR and IT needs for entities with up to 110 professionals. She has also managed various aspects of domestic and international real estate transactions.

Prior to her career in the nonprofit sector, Michelle spent over 20 years in financial services. She began her career with a five-year stint at Chase Manhattan Bank, where she held roles of increasing responsibility within the Global Derivatives, Eurocurrency, and Latin American Debt divisions. After business school, Michelle moved into the asset management sector, working at JP Morgan Asset Management, Pareto Partners, and Stanfield Capital Partners. In her various roles, Michelle led teams that were responsible for new product development/distribution, business development, and process re-engineering initiatives for domestic and international products and markets.

Michelle earned a B.A. in Economics from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, where she was awarded the Robert F. Toigo Fellowship. Michelle is a native New Yorker and resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Rene Goldberg

Vice President – Information Technology

Rene has over 20 years of experience transforming global networks, service delivery, and technology strategy for corporate, legal, media, and non-profit organizations with an eye on business solutions for the mission. She most recently worked for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the ACLU, where she spent the last six years managing a large IT organization and driving technology vision. Rene previously worked over a decade for international Am Law 100 law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

Rene grew up around technology in Silicon Valley and learned from a young age that educational opportunities are not equal. She stays focused on mentoring, confidence building, and equity in and out of the workplace, while establishing partnerships with non-profit vendors doing good through technology and education.

She has a B.A. from San Jose State University in Visual Arts and an Executive Master of Science in Technology Management from Columbia University.

Millie Hau

Vice President – SEO Scholars, High School

Millie Hau is Vice President, SEO Scholars, High School. She oversees the first four years of the SEO Scholars program, from ninth-grade student recruitment, through admission to college. Under her leadership, the program has expanded from serving 260 New York City high school students, to serving 1,000 students in New York and 80 students in San Francisco.

Prior to joining SEO in 2009, Millie held consulting and product management positions at educational publishing and software companies including Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt, and Kaplan. She visited hundreds of classrooms around the country, developing new tools for teachers, and supporting their efforts to improve student outcomes. She began her career as a teacher through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, followed by a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Korea. She was also a teacher at Public School 124 in New York City.

Millie holds a B.A. from Bucknell University and an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Catherine Finneran

Vice President – SEO Scholars, College

Catherine Finneran joined SEO in 2019. She is responsible for managing the college support, retention, and success components of SEO Scholars, including all college programming and advising. With a 25-person team of College Persistence professionals, the SEO Scholars, College team works with 1038 students attending more than 195 colleges around the nation and achieves a 90% college completion rate.

Prior to joining SEO, she most recently served as the Program Manager of UBS NextGen Leaders, UBS’s multi-year, $10 million initiative focused on expanding college and career success for students who are the first in their families to go to college. The cornerstone of this initiative is UBS’s partnership with SEO, where Catherine worked with the team in shepherding the 125 UBS NextGen Leaders students toward college graduation over the last four years.

Throughout her 13-year career, Catherine has worked to unlock opportunity for underrepresented students through multiple sectors including corporate philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, and teaching. Prior to taking on her role at UBS, she was the Program Director of The Posse Foundation’s New York office. Catherine began her professional career teaching high school history in the South Bronx through Teach For America. She holds a B.A. from the University of Southern California where she graduated summa cum laude.

Catherine lives in Jersey City with her husband, Stephen, and rescue puppy, Hudson.

Ays Necioglu

Vice President – Clinical Coaching, Training, & Development
– SEO Scholars, College

Ays Necioglu built from the ground up the highly-successful college support, retention, and success components of SEO Scholars, including all college programming and advising. Ays led the college portion of SEO Scholars from the time she joined SEO in 2006 until 2017. Since 2018, she has worked as Vice President – Clinical Coaching, Training, & Development, where Ays oversees the clinical advisory curriculum and training of our College Persistence Advisors (CPAs).

Ays is a New York State Licensed Master Social Worker and a Field Instructor for graduate students from Columbia University School of Social Work and Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. Prior to joining SEO, she spent a year at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) headquarters researching post-crisis development indicators, held a one-year graduate internship at Planned Parenthood, and worked as a program development consultant at LearnServeEthopia.

Ays holds an MS in Social Enterprise Administration from Columbia University, an Advanced Certificate in Clinical Practice with Adolescents from New York University Silver School of Social Work, and a BA from Vassar College. She is a member of National Association of Social Workers, National Network for Social Work Management, and the International Association for Youth Mental Health.

Omar Wandera

Executive Director – SEO Scholars, San Francisco

Omar Wandera joined our #SEOFamily in September 2020 ready to embark on the challenge of changing the lives of thousands as the Executive Director of SEO Scholars San Francisco! Omar was born and raised in Oakland, CA, and is the product of college access programs that forever changed the course of his life. He grew up in a single-parent household, strapped with traditional inner-city struggles, but made it to Norfolk State University because of the love, support, and guidance given by programs much like SEO. Omar’s life’s journey through education was cemented by the idea that he had to give back all that was given to him. He has spent the last 20+ years doing just that.

Prior to joining SEO, Omar taught middle and high school students for Norfolk Public Schools, was an Academic Coordinator at the Holy Names Upward Bound Program, supervisor of a clinical mentoring program in the Mission, administrator at KIPP SF Bay Academy, and spent 15 years as the founder of Leadership Public Schools Hayward. At LPS, he scaled a school with no students, no parents, no culture, and no identity, into one of the top-performing high schools in the state of California and recognized as one of the best high schools in the country by US News and World Reports. In addition, the school sent over 80% of its students to four-year colleges and universities, had multiple Gates Millennium scholars, and became the premier destination for families of low-income, first-generation students that wanted to pave the way for generations to come.

Omar has also served as the Director of African American Student Achievement for West Contra Costa Unified School District and Director of the National Summer School Initiative for the Oakland REACH.

Mindy Davis

Managing Director – SEO Career

Mindy Davis serves as the Managing Director of SEO Career. Mindy is a senior leader with extensive experience in marketing and client services. She has built and mentored large teams at early-stage and traditional consumer companies. Mindy has held senior-level marketing positions at Kraft, Bertelsmann Music Group, and TimeWarner, where she developed strategic marketing programs and drove new product development efforts.

In the past nine years, Mindy has held senior-level client services roles at marketing technology start-ups. Most recently, she was the Senior Vice President of Professional Services at Crowdtap where she was recruited to build and significantly scale the team/service model for the business. She overhauled and standardized critical client program deliverables and project processes to drive renewal rates. She led all strategic relationships with client partners including Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, and Pepperidge Farm.

Mindy holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Nicole McRae

Vice President – SEO Career

Nicole oversees the Investment Banking, Asset Management, Sales & Trading, and Investment Research programs. In this capacity, she is responsible for intern selection, matching, training, and mentoring, as well as partner communication, planning, and strategy. Nicole also manages SEO Edge, SEO Career’s talent development program. In addition, Nicole is responsible for data management, internal operations, and provides strategic direction on a number of projects.

Her relationship with SEO began as an intern in the summer of 2000. After an internship in Equity Research at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ), she joined Merrill Lynch. She spent five years at Merrill where she worked in Equity Capital Markets and as an associate in Equity Research. She joined the SEO staff in May 2006 and serves on the executive leadership team. She seeks to share her professional experience and business acumen with other students seeking careers in corporate America and in public service.

Nicole graduated from Emory University in 2001 with a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish. She received her M.B.A. (Executive Program) from Columbia University in 2013.

Van Ann Bui

Director – SEO Law

Van Ann Bui is the Director of SEO Law, with responsibility for overseeing the SEO Law Fellowship program implementation in order to strengthen Fellows’ preparation and success in law school, expand law firm partner relationships, increase contact and communications with underrepresented students interested in attending law school, and support current SEO Law alumni in their academic and professional endeavors.

Van Ann is a former corporate attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she specialized in leveraged finance. During her time at Proskauer, Van Ann also served as a prior Chair of the Asian Lawyers Affinity Group and a member of Proskauer’s Diverse Lawyers Network. In those capacities, she was actively involved with Proskauer’s diversity recruiting, mentoring, and professional development initiatives. Van Ann also serves as the Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiatives Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

Van Ann has a JD from Columbia Law School and a BBA from Southern Methodist University.

Raina Singh

Vice President – SEO Alternative Investments

Raina Singh is the Director of SEO’s Alternative Investments (Alt. Invests) program.  Her responsibilities include managing the highly competitive Alternative Investments Fellowship Program (AIFP), the annual Alternatives Investment Conference (AICON), and various other programming, with the goal of increasing the success of underrepresented populations in the alternative investments space.

Prior to the role on the Alternative Investments team, Raina was part of the SEO Scholars, College team, where she was critical in helping streamline tasks and address the challenges brought on by the rapidly increasing number of college students served. Before SEO, she worked in a number of other education nonprofits, with a focus on using technology to bridge the learning gap. Raina also has over five years of consulting experience at both Accenture Consulting and Monitor Group. She has worked extensively not just in the US, but also in India, and has had exposure to working in Africa through her consulting engagements.