The position is also a testament to Sanchez’s personal and professional experience, spanning his learning journey as a childhood immigrant from Cuba and English as a Second Language (ESL) student from an underserved community to his professional commitment and lifelong passion for educational opportunity, access and impact at scale in the U.S. and abroad.
Learning Advocate
Sanchez comes to ACT from the National Student Clearinghouse, where he served as vice president of education solutions. The clearinghouse supports research, reporting, and data exchange needs for thousands of postsecondary institutions, K12 schools, organizations and corporations across the United States.
Previously, Sanchez served in senior positions leading education and career success at Pearson Global, Pearson North America and the College Board. His roles included strategy development and execution, establishing global and domestic partnerships, and launching adaptive online assessments, learning intervention and digital learning products.
“Jonell Sanchez has brought transformational assessment and learning technologies to thousands of K12 schools, colleges, universities and corporations,” said ACT CEO Marten Roorda. “As ACT president of learning, Jonell will work to bring integrated, personalized learning technologies to millions more students and adults so they can learn more efficiently and effectively than ever before.”
“ACT has become synonymous with education during its 60 years of service to the education community,” said Sanchez. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to be leading the creation of this new learning group with the talented teams at ACT as it executes a new vision for the future. The constructs of education today and what they will be in the future are drastically different from those in the past. The ability to integrate programs across the ACT Holistic Framework and provide new offerings that converge ACT’s learning assets in support of the student lifecycle positions ACT at the forefront.”
Background
Sanchez began his career in student affairs at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, both in New Jersey. He holds a master’s degree in International Education from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. He has also studied and conducted research in Namibia and South Africa and earned a certificate from the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Sanchez lives in northern Virginia with his wife, Andreina, and their two children. He begins his new position at ACT on January 6.
