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Our Leadership Team

We’ve spent years inside higher education—sitting in the same endless meetings about making college more skill-based, more responsive to employers, more efficient. But change wasn’t happening fast enough.

So we built it ourselves.

Welcome to the smarter way to college. Radically affordable. Wickedly relevant. 

200K+
Number of learners we've supported
over 90 years
Of experience in education
150
Programs we've built

Our team

Meet the awesome folks who make all of this possible day to day

Sasha Thackaberry-Voinolvich PhD Headshot

Sasha Thackaberry-Voinovich, PhD

President and CEO

Jaime Mordue Headshot

Jaime Mordue, MEd.

Chief Academic Officer

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Sheri J. Thompson, MA

Chief Technology Officer

PVoinovich 9

Peter Voinovich, MBA

Director of Operations

George Voinovich Headshot

George Voinovich, JD

Chief Data & Compliance Officer

Our mission

Newstate University equips college-ready individuals with high-value, future-forward skills that unlock career growth, through fully online certificates and degrees.

Meet our superstar advisory board

Experience in quality. Dedication to students. Commitment to family-sustaining wages.

DEB ADAIR, PhD
CEO of Quality Matters
 
MELANIE BOOTH, EdD 
Principal, Nectary Solutions
 
JEFF BORDEN, EdD
Dean of the School of Leadership Studies, Gonzaga University
 
JILL BUBAN, PhD
Associate Provost, Online Learning, University of Miami, formerly EdAssist & ASU
 
EVANGELINE CUMMINGS, EdD
Executive Director, Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) Strategy and Graduate Programs, Johns Hopkins University
 
CLAYTON DEAN
Co-founder Circa Interactive, VP of Bus Dev
 
RENE EBORN
AVP of Digital Transformation & Enterprise Systems/Security, Utah State University
 
KEVIN GIFFHORN
Cross-Industry Engagement Director, Mindgrub Technologies
 
MARK KRETOVICS, EdD
former faculty & Dean at Kent State University
 
AMELIA MANNING
former COO of Southern New Hampshire University
 
LISA MCINTYRE-HITE, EdD
SVP, Competency-Based Education Network
 
MICHAEL MOORE, PhD
VP for Academic Affairs, University of Arkansas System
 
BURCK SMITH
Founder of Smarthinking and Straighterline
 
JESSICA SCHEIN
Director of Strategic Accounts, Attain Partners
 
J. MICHAEL THOMPSON, PhD 
former president, Northwest State Community College
 
JOCELYN WIDMER, PhD
Dean of Weapons Learning Transformation, Los Alamos National Lab

Join the movement

Believe what we believe? Let's join forces. Get started today, building the skills of the future at a radically affordable cost. No debt. Just opportunity. That's the smarter way to college.