Our Leadership Team

Our leadership team brings deep and diverse experience in education, psychometrics and business to MetaMetrics®.

Brad Baumgartner, CEO

As the new CEO of MetaMetrics, Brad Baumgartner brings an impressive background from the edtech industry. Prior to leading MetaMetrics, Brad recently held the position of CEO and President at BookNook where, under his leadership, the high-impact tutoring company expanded growth and reach to impact more students. He’s driven by a deep-seated belief that every learner has a right to high-quality education and the support they need to be successful. Brad’s entire career has been devoted to the edtech field, including K–12, higher education and corporate learning roles both domestically and internationally. Brad’s long record of success in the education space includes successfully building and scaling of companies from $20M to $130M in revenue and from 90 to 270 employees. Brad’s leadership approach centers on the concept of empowering people and supporting their personal and professional growth. An avid traveler and lifelong learner, he finds peace of mind in the outdoors—particularly on trail runs.

Jillian Balow, Chief Strategy Officer

As the Chief Strategy Officer, Jillian Balow leads the company’s development and execution of strategic initiatives at MetaMetrics. She also forges collaborations between MetaMetrics and key thought leaders in education philanthropy and government.

Jillian has held key leadership positions throughout her career at both the state and national levels. Before joining MetaMetrics she served for over eight years as the Chief State School Officer in Virginia and Wyoming. In each state, she successfully led efforts to modernize educational practices and content, propel career and technical education, and improve literacy assessment and instruction. Jillian has also served as a governor’s policy advisor, a Reading First state director, and a state administrator of public subsidies including SNAP, TANF, and childcare assistance. Jillian spent the first ten years of her career as a public school teacher.

Mike Crepeau, Chief Customer Officer, The Americas

Mike is the Chief Customer Officer of the Americas. He is responsible for sales, business development, and overall customer success for MetaMetrics’ customers in North and South America. Prior to joining MetaMetrics, Mike served as Executive Vice President at Analytic Measures Inc. (AMI), responsible for business development, revenue growth, and strategic partnerships. Mike brings over 20+ years of experience in education, including roles focused on program management, client relations, business development, sales leadership, and general management. He has served in leadership roles with Pearson, Educational Testing Service, and WestEd. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in English Education from New York University (NYU).

Jay Sweda, Chief Financial Officer

As the Chief Financial Officer, Jay Sweda leads MetaMetrics’ Finance and Accounting, Legal and Human Resources teams. Prior to joining MetaMetrics, Jay held senior finance roles in a number of private technology firms, including seven years in education technology. He has helped to lead organizations through M&A transactions and subsequent integrations, equity and debt raises and various transformational efforts.

Jay holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BS in Commerce (Accounting) from the University of Virginia.

Jason Turner, Chief Operating Officer

Over the last ten years, Jason has had a variety of roles with MetaMetrics before becoming the Chief Operating Officer. Jason has worked extensively in the training and implementation of the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks in classrooms across the globe. He has also worked closely with assessment and publishing partners around the world in the implementation and development of reading and math programs. Jason has published extensively on educational topics, including measurement and performance standards, trained thousands of educators and administrators, and has presented at conferences and symposiums around North America and the UK. Prior to joining MetaMetrics, Jason worked across a variety of educational and commercial fields, including as a consultant and professional development trainer.

Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board & Co-founder

Along with A. Jackson Stenner, Malbert co-founded MetaMetrics. Malbert has worked on a number of prestigious research projects with the National Center for Education Statistics, the Gates Foundation and others to study a myriad of issues such as summer reading loss, the effectiveness of the NAEP assessments and English language learning. Malbert has taught graduate seminars at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award. He has also been named a research professor at UNC’s School of Education, focusing on psychological and human development studies. 

Matt Spindler, Senior Vice President, Product Management

Matt leads the strategic vision and development of MetaMetrics’ product portfolio. With 20 years of experience in the assessment industry, he has worked closely with departments of education and labor to create solutions that help learners achieve their goals. Before joining MetaMetrics, Matt was the Senior Director of Product at ACT, where he oversaw WorkKeys and the ACT assessments, driving innovation in workforce and educational assessments. During his tenure, he led initiatives that expanded the WorkKeys assessment portfolio and added new workforce credentials and career readiness opportunities for job seekers. Matt is passionate about leveraging data-driven insights to enhance learning and workforce opportunities for learners, schools, and businesses. He has dedicated his career to developing products that bridge the gap between academic and career readiness while growing and mentoring high-performing product teams.

Mandie Bechard, Vice President, State Partnerships

Mandie oversees MetaMetrics’ State Partnerships, guiding effective implementation of the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks at the state, district, and school levels. With over 25 years of experience in developing and implementing assessment programs and professional services, Mandie has led the delivery of hundreds of large-scale, end-to-end implementations for K-12 districts, state agencies, and professional organizations both domestically and internationally. Mandie began her career as an educator, teaching middle school mathematics and currently serves as Vice President of her local school board of education. Mandie brings a deep, multi-layered understanding of the education system from instructional practice to state policymaking.

Lisa Bickel, Vice President, Customer Success

Lisa supports customer success by helping MetaMetrics partners understand and leverage Lexile and Quantile measures. She communicates with partners to ensure successful implementation of every aspect of MetaMetrics deliverables and offers sales and implementation training for Lexile and Quantile measures and related products. Joining the company in 2013, Lisa has used her extensive background in product development to direct efforts in advancing the Quantile Framework for Mathematics. That work included quantifying the demand of mathematics materials to create a path for college and career readiness. In addition, Lisa worked with mathematics publishers to add Quantile assessments and measures to their products.

Sean Corcoran, Vice President, State Growth

Sean leads new relationships with state and government agencies for MetaMetrics. With a career deeply rooted in education, Sean is passionate about providing resources that drive improved educational outcomes for all learners. Prior to joining MetaMetrics, he began his journey at Mitchell College, where he spent six years as Associate Director of Admissions. He then dedicated over a decade at ACT, helping schools, districts, colleges, and state agencies leverage data and resources to prepare students for college and careers. Following his time at ACT, Sean held roles at Amazon and ClassWallet, focusing on enhancing technology solutions for higher education institutions and state agencies. Sean excels at leveraging relationships, storytelling, and data-driven insights to influence outcomes and drive progress. He thrives on building meaningful connections and fostering collaborations that create impact.

Elizabeth Lattanzio, Vice President, Marketing Communications

Elizabeth Lattanzio joined MetaMetrics in 2007 and oversees our marketing and professional learning efforts. Her team shapes messaging for products and services and assists clients with their communications needs. Her team also delivers professional learning workshops and sales training. Elizabeth holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Duke University.

Sue Ann Towle, Vice President, Product Management

An experienced K-12 education product and marketing professional, Sue Ann leads the activities for both the product and project management teams with responsibility for MetaMetrics’ product portfolio, including the Growth Planner, the Lexile Framework for Reading’s Find a Book and Analyzer tools, as well as, the Quantile Framework for Mathematics resource library. Prior to joining MetaMetrics, Sue Ann was director of channel management at Pearson, responsible for the development, training and implementation of seven K-12 digital assessments. During her nearly 15 years at Pearson, Sue Ann also led the successful launches of the award-winning digital learning tools, WriteToLearn™ and the Pearson Test of English Language Learning (TELL™).