Aaron Lemon-Strauss Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

17 million students a year complete the FAFSA to access federal, state, and institutional aid. When it works well, it's an easy experience that gets you quick access to the funds you need to achieve a college education. When it doesn't work well, it can discourage attending college at all. Our country needs the FAFSA to work well for everyone.The scale of the FAFSA means that a 0.1% improvement in the completion rate translates to over 10,000 additional students who can access the financial aid they may need to enroll in college. We know the data on the impact of a college degree for reaching the middle class and gaining security for your family. We can achieve that 0.1% improvement (or greater!) with big moves like overhauling the contributor flow or small adjustments like adding some help text to a question with tricky wording. The opportunity is enormous.

Washington, Dc, Us

Joined a small group of outside folks to support the Department of Education on the release of the 2025-26 FAFSA form.

Herndon, Virginia, Us

Stride's Portfolio Companies are a group of independently operating businesses within Stride that focus on leveraging the scale and resources of Stride's core business to build innovative products that support districts, teachers, parents, and students. We do that with offerings we build ourselves (Learning Hub, Stride Tutoring, Stride Professional Development Center) and through acquisitions and strategic investments in companies like Tallo, TechElevator, MedCerts, Galvanize, and more.I spent the final six months of this time on leave while working at the Department of Education on FAFSA as a consultant

After seven great years at College Board I left to gain a little more schedule flexibility with my family and think about the best way to have the biggest impact. I'm currently consulting for mission-focused product organizations to help them think about product strategy and development. Current clients include a state education agency with big digital ambitions for college access, a national non-profit thinking through the right way to have a unique impact, and an EdTech startup exploring a new product space.

New York, Ny, Us

Students are graduating from high school and enrolling in college at record levels, an impressive accomplishment for our country. We still struggle with what comes next, though: while 82% of students in the top income quintile immediately enroll in college, only 58% from the bottom income quintile do so. College completion rates also reflect systemic patterns of injustice: by age 29 only 26% of Latinxs and 31% of African-Americans have completed at least an Associates degree compared to 54% of whites.My role in the College and Career Access division was to lead the development of products that help students change their trajectories by propelling them to take the necessary steps towards graduation from a college fit for them. I had direct management responsibility for the product management (8 FTEs) and product partnerships (3 FTEs) teams, and indirect responsibility for the engineering (~30 FTEs) and design (~10 FTEs) functions that are dedicated to these products. The portfolio of products include internal assets such as BigFuture, Student Search Service, and Accuplacer, and development work with key partners such as Khan Academy and Roadtrip Nation. The team is making tremendous progress on the systemic challenge of ensuring that all students have an opportunity to attend and complete a quality post-secondary program. After seven rewarding years with CB it feels like the right time to take a step back, let the team flourish, and look for the next challenge.

New York, Ny, Us

Responsible for building out world class resources, together with Khan Academy, Roadtrip Nation, and other key partners, to narrow the educational achievement gap. The extremely complicated college going process has a disparate impact on certain groups of students and we have a duty to support them.I joined the College Board to lead the development of Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy. It's the best way to prepare for the SAT, and it just happens to be free.

New York, Ny, Us

Held a number of different roles that gave me a wide view of the student experience of applying to college, succeeding in college, and moving into a career. In my time with Kaplan I:* Ran a product organization to build student-focused resources for Kaplan's industry-leading MCAT programs* Led a field sales group to the top performance of any large market in the company* Managed Kaplan's Faculty group of over 2,000 PT teachers, 100 FT teachers, and 75 managers* Learned web application development (MySQL/PHP/Java) and built nimble business reporting tools (this was a while ago, and I wasn't that great as an actual engineer)I left Kaplan with an appreciation for the potential of technology to deliver personalization, and a deep respect for the talented educators required to turn that potential into results for students.

In charge of the business of this Obie Award winning non-profit company. Produced all company productions, including several Off-Broadway transfers. The clear winner in my career for the answer to the cocktail party "What do you do?" question.