Leadership Team
Through their diverse experiences, the leadership team contributes a vast understanding of education, psychometrics and business at MetaMetrics®.
Please meet:
Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., CEO, President & Co-founder
Timothy J. Klasson, Chief Operating Officer
Alistair Van Moere, Ph.D., Chief Product Officer
Todd Sandvik, Chief Financial Officer
Trilby Berger, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
Eleanor E. Sanford-Moore, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research & Development
Anne Schiano, Senior Vice President, Government Relations
Jason Turner, Senior Vice President, International Sales
Ryan Leathers, Vice President, Software Engineering
Elizabeth Lattanzio, Vice President, Marketing Communications
John Williams, Vice President, Finance
Lisa Bickel, Vice President, Customer Success
Sue Ann Towle, Vice President, Product Management
Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., CEO, President & 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. To learn more about Malbert, click here.
Timothy J. Klasson, Chief Operating Officer
Tim Klasson joined MetaMetrics in 2002 and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations. Formerly vice president of learning services at Tech Resource Group in Raleigh, N.C., Tim brought more than 22 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development and executive management to the company. He is a former president of a medical education firm; vice president of corporate development for InfoSource, a corporate e-learning firm; product marketing manager for both Ryder Logistics and Cordis, now a division of Johnson & Johnson; and consulting manager with Deloitte & Touche. He holds an undergraduate degree in professional management from Nova Southeastern University, and a master’s in business administration from the University of Miami.
Alistair Van Moere, Ph.D., Chief Product Officer
Alistair is chief product officer at MetaMetrics where he drives innovation in assessments, and helps organizations make sense of measurement and test scores. Before joining MetaMetrics in 2017, Alistair was President of Pearson’s Knowledge Technologies group, where he managed artificial intelligence scoring services for speaking and writing. He also oversaw development and delivery of standardized assessments for tens of millions of learners. Alistair has worked as a teacher, examiner, director of studies, university lecturer, and test developer, in the US, UK, Japan, and Thailand. He has an MA in English Language Teaching, Ph.D. in Language Testing, and an MBA. He is frequently an invited speaker at conferences and has authored over 20 research publications with a focus on educational technology and language assessments.
Todd Sandvik, Chief Financial Officer
Todd Sandvik is the Chief Financial Officer for MetaMetrics. Since joining MetaMetrics in 2002, Todd has served also as director of operations and vice president of corporate development. In 2010, as executive director of global services, he architected the Engaging English reading service, which attracted online subscribers from more than 160 countries upon release. Todd holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Montana and a master’s degree in business administration from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Jason Turner, Senior Vice President, International Sales
Over the last ten years, Jason has had a variety of roles with MetaMetrics before becoming Senior Vice President of International Sales. 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.
Trilby Berger, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
As senior vice president, Strategic Partnerships, Trilby oversees all domestic business development for MetaMetrics. In her most recent position as SVP, Strategic Partnerships, Trilby led MetaMetrics’ sales and partnership opportunities both domestically and internationally. Trilby launched our global effort including expansion into Korea and Japan where learning the English language are national priorities. Her work at MetaMetrics has included managing Professional Development, directing Marketing and inking many partnerships ranging from product development, licensing, publisher signings and highly visible marketing partnerships with the likes of Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Prior to joining the organization in 2003, Trilby served as Marketing and Communications Manager for All Kinds of Minds from 1998 to 2003.
Eleanor E. Sanford-Moore, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research & Development
Ellie Sanford-Moore oversees MetaMetrics’ research and development projects, including The Quantile® Framework for Mathematics, linking studies and other external consulting and development engagements. Prior to joining the company in 1998, she was senior testing consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Ellie was responsible for developing the North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests of reading and mathematics for grades three through eight, and the North Carolina End-of-Course Tests for 10 high school subjects. She has served on various national committees related to large-scale assessment. Ellie earned her undergraduate degree in statistics from North Carolina State University, a teaching certificate in mathematics and general sciences from Montana State University, and both her master’s and doctorate of philosophy in psychology from North Carolina State University.
Anne Schiano, Senior Vice President, Government Relations
Anne Schiano joined MetaMetrics in 2011 after serving many years as a senior manager responsible for policy development at the New York State Education Department. Most recently, Anne led the Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Instructional Technology. During her tenure at NYSED, Schiano established and directed the New York State Academy for Teaching and Learning. These experiences have informed her work at MetaMetrics where she has focused on strengthening a national system of support in practical application of Lexile® and Quantile® measures. Anne has been the recipient of several honors and awards including NYS Technology Education Association’s Appreciation Award, the NYS School Library Association’s Advocate Recognition, the NYS Reading Association’s Advocate of the Year and Georgetown Washington University’s Elliot Fellow Award: Governing in the Global Age.
Ryan Leathers, Vice President of Software Engineering
Ryan has held a number of high tech senior management positions in Research Triangle Park over the past twenty years. While at MetaMetrics, he led the transition to a Cloud-Based/Software-as-a-Serv
Elizabeth Lattanzio, Vice President of 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.
John Williams, Vice President of Finance
John is responsible for the company’s finance and accounting operations. Before joining MetaMetrics, John worked in Deloitte’s audit practice and served in senior-level finance positions at various companies. John is a licensed CPA and holds a master’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
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.
Sue Ann Towle, Vice President of 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 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 development, training and implementation for 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™).