Simone Pollard is a dynamic leader who leverages her lively personality, critical thinking  and business acumen to make an impact. Ms. Pollard is the founder of The Pollard  Collective, a firm that provides strategy consulting, advisory services and wellness  offerings, to corporate, association, and individual clients in numerous industries  including assessment/testing, EdTech, government, healthcare, and secondary and  higher education. The wellness offering, The Stretch Room® has been featured in  national, industry and membership conferences and events alongside recognized  scholars and celebrities and leverages Ms. Pollard’s experience and extensive training as  a life-long dancer and wellness enthusiast. 

As the Senior Strategy Director for the AI Labs at Educational Testing Service (ETS), Ms.  Pollard developed strategies to support the intersection of innovation and business unit  priorities to create, scale, and commercialize next generation, digital learning solutions  powered by AI capabilities. She was a member of senior leadership team governing a  120-employee, start-up innovation center and the sponsor of Responsible AI initiatives. 

Prior to these roles, Ms. Pollard was the Executive Director of Recruitment at City  Teaching Alliance. Here she was responsible for developing and implementing data  driven national and regional recruitment strategies to identify and enroll high caliber  participants in City Teaching Alliance’s four-year teacher residency program offered in  partnership with Johns Hopkins University. Prior, Ms. Pollard was the Senior Director of  Business Development within the Global Education Division at Educational Testing  Service (ETS), where she led business development initiatives for the GRE business and  managed teams in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Ms. Pollard has a keen  interest in applying strategy to drive results and, in turn, has established herself as a  change agent in higher education where she was the Assistant Dean of Graduate  Business Programs at the Villanova School of Business and, under her leadership, boosted applications, attracted higher quality candidates and secured a #11 national  ranking by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Ms. Pollard also served as the Associate Director  of MBA Programs at the Eller College of Management where she redesigned the  admissions, marketing, and corporate outreach efforts for the offices of Admissions and  Career Development.  

Complementing these leadership roles, Ms. Pollard has experience as a management  consultant and led engagements in various industries. She has worked internationally  and lived in Ghana and South Africa where she led consulting activities. She began her  career as a production engineer with Monsanto Company/Solutia Inc. and uses her  analytical thinking and process orientation in all that she does.  

Ms. Pollard earned an MBA degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of  Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.